Do we need to produce more food when we throw so much away?

February 2013

Discarded food salvaged from a skip in the United States
Photo by gabriel amadeus on Flickr

British families throw away 7 million tonnes of food, worth more than £10 billion, in a year.

On a global scale, a recent report estimated that between 30 and 50 percent of food produced annually (that's 1.2-2 billion tonnes each year) never reaches a human mouth. It's wasted in the field, wasted in transit, wasted in storage, wasted in the shop, or wasted in the home.

This means that, in a world where one in eight people goes to bed hungry every night, we're actually already producing enough food to feed them two to four times over.

Managing risk

February 2013

'Risk management' used to mean a systematic and regularly updated identification of any and all risks, followed by implementation of measures to minimise them. As the appalling tragedy of the Fukushima nuclear power-plant explosions has revealed, the 'risks' assessed are no longer those related to human safety, but to commercial interests and political success.

More than 18 months after the accident, the owners f the Fukushima reactors finally admitted their risk assessment had been lax: best-practice back-up equipment was never installed and staff-training in coping with emergencies was minimal. The excuse they offered was that implementing accident measures “would exacerbate ... public anxiety and add momentum to anti-nuclear movements”. As the Institute of Science in Society pointed out:

“risk management is coming more and more to mean reassuring the public that something is safe rather than making sure it actually is”.

Awakening the American lion

June 2011

GMO protest. Photo from Flickr

Guerrilla theatre, aimed at educating shoppers about the GM nature of what's being sold to them, is in progress in major cities across the USA. Activists, covered head-to-toe in white HAZMAT suits, have been dramatically busy: they buy well-known health-food brand items with GM-suspect ingredients, put a GM-warning label on them, and ceremoniously dump them in a biohazard bin where people can see them.

The 'GMO Food Dump' campaign has started by targeting one of the main sources of consumer confusion: the large whole-food retailers. Its aim is to stop the shops from misleading their customers by selling GM foods without any label.

Imported food from the United States

February 2011

Very few GM offerings have appeared in the shops, but ingredients can change so be on the alert.

Experience suggests that processed foods imported from America or made by American food companies are the ones to keep an eye on. In the past, the following have been spotted in various locations in the UK:

• Schwartz GM soya ‘Bacon Flavoured Salad Topping’ – designed to “add a little change a lot” (Schwartz is owned by US food company, McCormicks)
• Betty Crocker ‘BacOs’ bacon flavoured GM soya chips - “made with the goodness of soya” and “makes every bite better!”. (Betty Crocker is part of US food company General Mills; other products from this company include Cheerios (in partnership with Nestlé), Old El Paso, Yoplait, and Green Giant)
• Orville Redenbacher's GM ‘Popcorn Cakes’ - “a tasty guilt-free snack”, “perfect for active health-conscious people”. (Orville Redenbacher is part of US food company ConAgra Foods)
• Supercook spray-on food colouring with added GM oil. (Supercook is part of the Dr Oetker range; the company is European but the GM Supercook spray was made in the US)

Hershey's various CANDY BARS have their own story.

Hershey's candy bars

... be very careful of any Hershey or Reese's candy bar. Here's why.

Hershey, maker of America's only home-spun chocolate, has been giving very mixed message on its use of GM ingredients.

In 2007, just when GM sugar-beet was heading towards US fields for the 2008 harvest, Hershey was urging farmers not to plant it. The indications were that the Company had noted consumer resistance and had announced it would not use GM sugar in its products.

Hershey has not traditionally been a big exporter to Europe. However, in 2009, Hershey's 'Nutrageous' and other peanut candy bars started to appear on most supermarket shelves.

Most of these were true American candy bars complete with GM ingredients. However, non-GM versions of Nutrageous were available in some outlets. The Company had, clearly, retained the capacity to produce non-GM candy. Why it chose to flood a GM-unfriendly market with GM candy isn't known, but the testing of the water in cahoots with UK supermarkets seems the most likely explanation.

Another question raised by the GM candy is why Hershey was expressing so much early concern about GM sugar. Nutrageous contains nine ingredients derived from GM plants: three of these are sugar; four are artificial sugars; one is lecithin; and one is an oil derivative. Is it reasonable to worry about the sugar when there's so much GM corn and soya in there anyway?

Perhaps Hershey already had its sights on the European market back in 2008, and realised the GM-jitters there warranted a dose of PR to brand itself as 'the good guy'. Indeed in 2010, the Company established a new European subsidiary in London.

The story has just taken an interesting new twist.

ASDA has struck an “exclusive” deal with Hershey to sell its products from February 2011. The deal is dependent on the products being reformulated to use non-GM ingredients, while items which can't be reformulated will be excluded. Twenty-one lines, from solid bars to Reese's and Hershey Kisses will be stocked.

Besides the reformulation, the transportation and storage of the ingredients have been confirmed GM-free or are cleaned before use with non-GM products.

The reason given by ASDA for demanding non-GM candy is that customers in the UK do not currently wish to see GM ingredients in these products.

If this is true, it suggests the Nutrageous bars on just about every supermarket sweet shelf aren't selling too well.

Alternatively, it could be just the PR stunt ASDA needs at the moment.

Be aware that, in May 2010, in a Hershey-style shift of position on GM, ASDA very quietly dropped its non-GM animal feed policy on poultry and eggs. Such a sudden, hush-hush change in policy could happen again at any time.

P.S. Don't swallow the scaremongerers who are trying to tell you GM feed is running out and that going GM-free will cause food prices to escalate. In 2011, the world's biggest multiple retailer, Carrefour of France, found GM-free feed to be in sufficient supply for it to label its animal products 'raised with GM'. Higher costs of GM feed arise at present largely because the cost of segration falls, ironically, on the non-GM supply chain: even with this extra burden, the prices differential is not huge (at worst, a couple of pence on a dozen eggs).

SOURCES:

• Sean Poulter, Supermarkets urged to follow in the French footsteps and label food that isn't GM, Daily Mail, 12.11.10
• Jonathan Birchall, Hershey targets UK and Europe, Financial Times, 7.12.10
• Urgent action: keep our poultry GM-feed-free, GM Freeze Release 3.01.11
• Asda Hershey deal to supply non-GMO products, message from Peter Melchett and the Soil Association, 22.12.10
• LOOKING FORWARD TO 2008 – GM-free Scotland News, December 2007
• BEAT THE BEET – GM-free Scotland News, March 2009
• OUTRAGEOUS NUTRAGEOUS – GM-free Scotland News, March 2009
• ASDA DROPS GM-FREE FEED POLICY - GM-free Scotland News, May 2010

Bulk GM vegetable oil

As at February 2011...


Go into any any cash-and-carry and you'll see huge drums of 'vegetable oil' for sale. The cheapest ones will probably be 'KTC' brand, and, if you turn them around, you'll find “*produced from genetically modified oilseeds” in very small print on the back label.

WARNING:

Bulk GM 'vegetable oil' is also on sale in larger supermarkets, probably in direct competition with local cash-and-carries. For example, 15 litre metal drums of KTC GM cooking oil have been seen in Tesco, and 5 litre plastic bottles have been spotted in Somerfield.

Any caterer using this oil is required by law to inform his customers at the point of sale. Failure to do so carries a penalty of up to a £5,000 fine or 6 months in jail.

Clearly, caterers are using GM oil or the cash-and-carries wouldn't stock it and the supermarkets certainly wouldn't be competing with them to sell it, but have you ever seen a notice saying “contains GM ingredients” on any menu, menu board, or counter display?

Trading Standards surveys in various regions in England revealed that 25 – 42 % of caterers were using GM oil without declaring it. Take note that all of the outlets decided to change to a non-GM brand rather than put up information signs about GM use on the premises.

TAKE ACTION

You don't need to accept GM oil in any food you buy from a catering outlet:

1. Ask the catering establishment you frequent to confirm it doesn't use GM oil. Since it may well not realise it's using a GM make, ask what brand it's using and ask to see the container. If you suspect a cover-up, your local Trading Standards Office will be pleased to check it out (see Note below).
2. Keep an eye on the catering refuse left out in the street for uplift: the appearance of GM oil drums outside in the absence of GM notices inside should be reported to your local Trading Standards Office which will be happy to investigate (see Note below).
3. Ask catering outlets you use to display a “No GM ingredients” or “No GM cooking oil” window sign (available from www.gmfreeze.org/page.asp?ID=453)

Above all, remember that you, the customer, always holds the winning hand because caterers can't survive without your trust.

Note. Don't worry about unfairly harming a local small business: an offending caterer will not be subject to any penalty providing he or she immediately complies with Trading Standards Office advice.

EU label laws

Will the label tell me if the food is GM?

Any intentional use of GM ingredients at any level must be labelled.

“In the EU, if a food contains or consists of genetically modified organisms (GMOs), or contains ingredients produced from GMOs, this must be indicated on the label. For GM products sold 'loose', information must be displayed immediately next to the food to indicate that it is GM.” (Food Standards Agency)

EU regulation 1830/2003 which came into force in April 2004 requires that ANY GM content in food and feed carry a GM label. This is regardless of whether the ingredients have been processed to eliminate GM protein or DNA, such as in the case of oil, lecithin, sugar syrups or starch.

Exceptions to this are:

• products produced with GM processing aids, such as cheese made with enzymes from GM microbes, do not have to be labelled
• products such as milk, meat and eggs from animals fed on GM animal feed do not have to be labelled
• accidental presence of GM at a level of less than 0.9% of an approved GM ingredient need not be labelled.

So, up to 0.9% of accidental GM is routinely present and unlabelled in my food?

No.

The intentional use of GM ingredients at any level must be labelled.

Manufacturers can't just dilute an ingredient down to below 0.9% to avoid labelling, nor can they decide not to label just because there's not much GM there. They are required to demonstrate due diligence using a clear paper trail, to show that they know what is in the ingredients they are using, have proof of what is in the ingredients they are using, and tell their customers.

Products may be exempt from labelling requirements only IF the supplier can demonstrate by means of analysis and paper records that the GM presence is below 0.9% AND that the presence is adventitious or technically unavoidable.

The conditions under which a product whose GM content is under 0.9% can be legally exempted from labelling are rarely likely to be fulfilled.

There is zero tolerance for any GM variety that has not been approved, and these cannot be imported into the EU.

(Note. EU labelling rules on GM are routinely misrepresented by the media, by politicians and by industry. The impression given is that the EU has a threshold of 0.9% below which GM content need not be labelled. This has lead to a belief that the law allows GM to circulate freely at low levels.)

SOURCES:

• GM Freeze, December 2009
• GM food and feed, and traceability and labelling of GMOs: Guidance notes on the regulations, Food Standards Agency, 2.08.07, www.food.gov.uk
• Will the label tell me if the food is GM? www.eatwell.gov.uk