You Are What You Eat

High-tech tomatoes. Mysterious milk. Supersquash.
Are we supposed to eat this stuff? Or is it going to eat us?
Annita Manning

I work in the food industry and encounter the ignorance and misconception from the average person every day regarding the production, processing and distribution of our food.

Food is usually at the bottom of the priority list in an average person's life. Surely we have to eat to survive, therefore we need food but what we are eating is in many cases only a minor importance. And I am not talking about the content of our diet in the sense of what are the "components" but rather where that food is coming from.

We are what we eat… so it is better to know WHAT we are eating!!!

Most people assume that any products that "make the shelves" of the supermarkets are safe. I was so disgusted once when I asked someone from an Eastern country if they were interested in organic produce. His answer was that for his company the only important thing when it came to food safety was that the person who consumes the product wouldn’t die immediately from poisoning so they couldn’t be sued… It might have been a joke though it sounded quite “sincere”. Well most of the retailers are using food safety as either a marketing tool or to avoid possible law suits and still most of them would procure products from ANYWHERE to fill their shelves. And when it comes to processed food only "God knows" what are certain products really contain and how it was made. Labels are not much of help as they can be misleading easily.

South Africa made the news recently about GMO labelling whether it is necessary or not as well as what impact it would have on food prices.

http://www.fin24.co.za/articles/default/display_article.aspx?Nav=ns&ArticleID=1518-1786_2156552

http://www.freshplaza.com/news_detail.asp?id=5462

The reality is that food production is getting more and more expensive. Theoretically suppliers have to comply with strict standards and regulations to ensure healthier, safer and better quality food. In reality there are loads of "short cuts" that offer cheaper "alternatives" to match with the requirements. Apart from the fact that it is not fair to suppliers that are committed to supply the best possible products it is "cheating" on the consumer. There is no way that everyone every time can be "caught" when they do or not do something that they should in terms of supplying the safest food. Of course we have the third party auditing systems to make sure that food safety measures are in place but it is meaningless if it is not maintained.

Once I have been asked to do an assessment on food safety standards at a bakery that supplies many supermarkets as well as fast food outlets with their products. They had some kind of paperwork in place regarding their procedures (i.e. what and how should have been done in the factory) but nothing was implemented... no disciplines were introduced, no training to the staff has been done... no wonder that when I entered to the place I have found workers without protective clothing and one even had a cigarette in a "quiet corner". The place was filthy and untidy... needless to say that I stopped buying any products from this factory. And yet when it was the day of the audit everything run smoothly, paperwork was "up-to-date", food safety measures were in place... Luckily it was not me who had to handle the audit because I possibly couldn't have made peace with my conscience.

I am not writing this article to "threaten" anyone but rather to raise awareness. Food prices are on the "hike" as all other things in our lives become more expensive. We have the right to know what we spend on money on and when it comes to food we have to know if it is the best we can get and it is what we want to get.

Getting back to the GMO labelling issue. It is a very contraversial and highly debated topic. One side is so devoted to the new possibilities and opportunities that this technology promises that they say it is not necessary to label GMO because it is just as safe as any other conventional food with possible addititional benefits like higher nutrition value etc. The other side claims that apart from the possible negative impact on the environment it can also promote health risks as we do not have enough information to discard this option.

The truth is that most (even if labelled “independent”) studies and researches are funded by someone that want to make sure that their money spent “wisely”, other words the results most often reflect or interpret the mandator’s interest. And it is especially true for government and company financed researches… Bottom line is that we do not have adequate evidence on the safety of GMO food. Through the history of scientific research there are many examples that something was “proven” as safe for us and a decade or two later it turned out exactly the opposite. Many chemicals we used in agriculture turned out to be very harmful not only for the environment but for humans too. Same applies to many medicines that were proven to be rather a health risk then benefit.

To whom you belive it is your personal choice... and CHOICE is the key word. By proper labelling and legitimate information we would be able to make informed decisions when we buy our food... it still seems to be far away... in the meantime if more and more of us inquire more and more information about the food we buy we put more and more pressure on the supermarkets to make sure that our food is as healthy indeed as they claim.

For those who would like to know more about GMO there is a video that is an eye-opener. The link below contains many other food industry related information too which might be for your benefit.

Genetically Modified Food - Panacea or poison (Video): A very interesting documentary on genetically engineer food or GE, GMO. GE food raises serious concern about its safety… http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?t=8zxp6acab.0.cpup6acab.iqnuv6bab.37930&ts=S0254&p=http%3A%2F%2Ftinyurl.com%2F2eesxo