navy4100's Blog

Food labels were designed to earn our trust. Since 1990, the Food and Drug Administration has required manufacturers to list the ingredients of their products, and more recently, "Nutrition Facts" boxes appear on everything from cereal to chewing gum.

But as more Americans attempt to make healthy choices about what they put in their bodies, it's becoming increasingly more difficult to discern how our food was grown, processed and treated-thanks to our collective support of a food industry that wields its heft and political clout to create labeling laws that make a mockery of disclosure.

This is a story about a regulatory system increasingly friendly to the notion that consumers aren't smart enough or sufficiently informed to make the "right" choices-an idea the food industry uses to justify the argument that obfuscating the information on food labels serves some undefined public good. It's also about what happens to our food when industry attempts to achieve economies of scale to meet our expectations that a bag of organic lettuce mix should cost the same as a Yoo-hoo and carry almost as long a shelf life-not to mention our willingness to believe that everything edible constitutes food.

It's also a story about nomenclature. At some undetectable moment in recent history, modern food parlance parted ways with common standards of forthrightness and left us in an up-is-down world where food manufacturers may soon be able to subject food to ionizing radiation and call it "cold pasteurization," where "chocolate" may not have to actually contain cocoa and almonds labeled "raw" must be sprayed with a suspected human carcinogen.

In this world, makers of an artificial bovine hormone to increase milk production have used their leverage with regulators to bully dairies that don't use the hormone into cowering away from disclosing on their labels why consumers might want to avoid it. In this world, it is easier and more cost effective to unleash a mix of genetically modified viruses on lunchmeat for children's sandwiches rather than clean up filthy slaughterhouses. In this world, it is increasingly challenging for consumers desiring to make healthier choices to know which way to turn. (See "What you can do" boxes for some guidance.)

"Raw" almonds aren't, really

The U.S. Department of Agriculture recently required that all almonds produced in the United States be pasteurized, including nuts labeled "raw." The rule went into effect Sept. 1, despite protests from health-conscious consumers who prefer unprocessed nuts and small-scale growers who can't afford the equipment, which costs between $500,000 and $2.5 million.

The move follows two Salmonella outbreaks attributed to raw almonds in 2001 and 2004. Critics of the rule point out that both incidents were the result of faulty practices at large-scale commercial farms. Small-scale and sustainable practices-including mowing and mulching to control weeds, instead of using chemical herbicides-naturally prevent the spread of harmful bacteria more effectively than post-harvest treatment, they say.


The Cornucopia Institute, a Wisconsin-based farm policy research group leading a campaign to convince the USDA to overturn the pasteurization rule, contends that labeling treated almonds as "raw" is deceptive. More than that, the group argues that it epitomizes the industrialization of our food supply.

"This is just the opening salvo of corporate agribusiness wanting to sanitize all of our food," says Mark Kastel, co-founder of the Cornucopia Institute. The impetus, Kastel says, is the economics of large-scale production. In many cases, such operations utilize growing and cultivation methods that provide much greater opportunity for contamination.

To comply with the regulation, almond producers can either steam the nuts or fumigate them with propylene oxide (PPO), the almond board's preferred process. PPO is recognized as a possible human carcinogen by the International Agency for Research on Cancer. It is banned in the European Union, Canada, Mexico-and much of the rest of the world.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration does not require labeling of foods treated with the fumigant, and while packages of almonds may contain the disclaimer "pasteurized," there isn't likely to be any indication by which process the nuts were treated.

The only way consumers will be able to distinguish how their "raw" almonds were pasteurized is by the organic label. Regulations mandate that foods bearing the "organic" seal cannot be treated with PPO. The forces against organic: profit and politics

Examples of the regulated controlling the regulators-like almond producers writing their own rules-are rampant up and down the American food chain.

The USDA recently announced that 38 non-organic ingredients will be allowed in "organic" food. Reading the labels, consumers will be none the wiser. But the new rule is actually an improvement over previous ambiguity, as now manufacturers will be limited to using the ingredients that NOP has determined are "commercially unavailable."

Since the inception of the federal labeling program, foods labeled "USDA Organic" have been able to contain up to 5 percent non-organic ingredients. That 5 percent comprises ingredients not available in an organic form. The recent action was an effort to codify exactly which ingredients can be substituted with conventional versions in products that bear the seal, and the result will likely be fewer non-organic ingredients in "organic" food. Please whatever you do read everything front and back as though your life depends on it!

As one of the busiest of all times for food professionals, the holiday season will make us work hard to put our best spatula forward.

And to keep our competitive edge, we depend on the freshest and healthiest ingredients available to keep our guests coming back for seconds.

But the U.S. National Organic Standards Board recently convened in Washington to consider amending U.S. organic standards to include farmed fish such as salmon and cod. And this proposal, driven by special interests, is not only hard for us to stomach but it's also leaving a bad taste in the mouths of many of our fellow food professionals around America as well.

When the board makes its final decision, perhaps within a couple of months, it should consider the view from within the kitchen.

Wearing the right hat doesn't make you a chef. It takes years of training and education to master the skills and meet the standards expected at a major restaurant today. In the same way, just changing the rules so that farmed salmon and other carnivorous finfish can be labeled organic won't make that fish any healthier for you or better for the environment.

The word "organic" often evokes images of a food that is natural, healthy, wholesome and clean -- a product that is good for you, your family and the environment. Yet, the process of industrial salmon aquaculture, is in reality, anything but.

Unlike their wild cousins, farmed salmon spend most of their adult life in floating net pens with thousands of other fish. In the same waters year round, these large aquaculture facilities upset the delicate balance of nature.