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Not on the Label
by Felicity Lawrence
Reviewed by Pat Wilson
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“Supermarkets have been attacked for selling “fresh” pork
which has been injected with water to bulk is out. Tiny print on
the back of the package is the only way to tell…”
Daily Mail 17/07/04
“Industry Insiders have disclosed to The Sunday Times that
food manufacturers are using fat to bulk up and extend the
shelf-life of common foods.”
The Sunday Times 18/07/04
Recent headlines in our newspapers are revealing some
shocking facts about what can and does happen to our food before
it hits our plates. We are trying to adopt healthier eating
habits but are buying products without really knowing the truth
behind what is actually involved in getting them to our plates
on time and at the right price.
Most of us will think that these
headlines are one-offs and the resulting publicity will have
meant changes and the problem will have gone away…
Not so according to Felicity Lawrence, award-winning
journalist who is The Guardian’s Consumer Affairs Correspondent.
In her book ‘Not on the Label’ Lawrence shows these headlines
are just the tip of the iceberg.
In an undercover investigation
Lawrence follows the trail of some of our most popular, basic
foods as they journey from farms and factories, packhouses and
lorry depots across the world. The results show the
consequences, often dire, of our global industrialised system of
21st Century food production.
Increasingly under corporate control, this mass food
production industry seems to have very negative health
consequences for the buying public.
Lawrence shows how antibiotics are frequently over-used in
factory farming which aims to provide mass quantities of food to
the supermarkets cheaply and at a minute’s notice.
The freshly
prepared bagged salads which look appealing and healthy tell
another story. The normal levels of oxygen and carbon dioxide in
the pillows of plastic used for packaging have been altered.
Reducing the oxygen and increasing CO2 levels slows any visible
deterioration or discolouring of the salad leaves keeping the
package looking fresher for longer. Research has suggested that
this new process to prolong the shelf life of products and give
us convenience foods can actually destroy many of the vital
nutrients we would expect to be gaining from eating salad.
Bread, a large part of our staple diet is regularly filled with
chemical additives, so called ‘improvers’, to put air, water and fat into
the loaves keeping them looking fresher for longer; the labels
reveal little to the unsuspecting buyer.
Lawrence goes on to look at beans, bread, fruit, coffee and
ready meals exposing a range of practises and additives that are regularly
used in the mass production of food which can be detrimental to
our health.
Reading ‘Not on the Label’ will make your hair stand on end
but, it is compulsive reading. We all, as consumers, have a right,
and want, to know about the food we are feeding our families.
Reading this book means you cannot help but make changes to your
shopping list; do you want to be feeding food tampered with and
robbed of essential nutrients to your children?
The current food production system clearly needs reform and we can, as
individuals feel helpless and feel we have to accept the
practises used.
Lawrence drives home the point that clear
messages from consumers can and do have an impact; changing the
way we shop as individuals means that as a group, we can drive
home a powerful message to force changes.
A compulsive read for all.
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