Wednesday, August 29, 2007
News: Scientists Hope Food Films Make Food Safer
The New York Times has an article today about food films - thin coatings designed to prolong food life and improve food safety:
But I wonder whether all this is wise in the long run. The problem we face in food safety is mishandling, driven by the demand for food to be cheap. That results in cutting corners and things ultimately going wrong. It may be that we've always had these problems, but as the food chain gets more complex and more production gets centralized by economic forces, we're at increased risk that when something goes wrong, it does so in a big way. Look at this paragraph for a moment:
Films based on organic material are, themselves, subject to food problems. Perhaps there is some processing that make them absolutely safe, but my notion of safety has changed over the years. I don't trust that something is safe because some agency or corporation claims it is, as I've seen too many cases of fabrication of information.
Trying to find high tech ways of working around problems is only treating the symptom. We might be better off demanding that things change - not by complaining, but by investing our dollars elsewhere. Buy locally produced food by people you can chase down if you need to. When products don't need to ship and sit for weeks, they need less processing, and less processing should mean some price containment. When you don't optimize for distribution, farmers can focus on other aspects of food, like nutrition and taste. And we can all pay less attention to safety and more to living.
If their work pans out, thin films woven with a thyme derivative that can kill E. coli could line bags of fresh spinach. The same material in powder form might be sprinkled on packages of chicken to stop salmonella.There doesn't seem to be anything wrong with this on the surface, pardon the pun. We seen many food safety problems over the last few months, and food distributors have been spraying edible wax on fruits for years to keep them fresher, or at least looking so.
Strawberries could be dipped in a soup made from egg proteins and shrimp shells. The resulting film — invisible, edible and, ideally, flavorless — would fight mold, kill pathogens and keep the fruit ripe longer.
But I wonder whether all this is wise in the long run. The problem we face in food safety is mishandling, driven by the demand for food to be cheap. That results in cutting corners and things ultimately going wrong. It may be that we've always had these problems, but as the food chain gets more complex and more production gets centralized by economic forces, we're at increased risk that when something goes wrong, it does so in a big way. Look at this paragraph for a moment:
Most coatings are made from gluten, cellulose, starch and various proteins approved by the Food and Drug Administration as safe for consumption. They line ice cream cones and coat battered frozen food. A layer of film in some frozen pizzas keeps moisture from the sauce from seeping into the crust. Fresh sliced apples and other produce get coatings of ascorbic acid to keep them from turning brown.Gluten? From wheat, perhaps? You might remember stories about the pet food problems with wheat gluten from China. Ascorbic acid? What nation has pretty much priced everyone else out of manufacturing that substance? China.
Films based on organic material are, themselves, subject to food problems. Perhaps there is some processing that make them absolutely safe, but my notion of safety has changed over the years. I don't trust that something is safe because some agency or corporation claims it is, as I've seen too many cases of fabrication of information.
Trying to find high tech ways of working around problems is only treating the symptom. We might be better off demanding that things change - not by complaining, but by investing our dollars elsewhere. Buy locally produced food by people you can chase down if you need to. When products don't need to ship and sit for weeks, they need less processing, and less processing should mean some price containment. When you don't optimize for distribution, farmers can focus on other aspects of food, like nutrition and taste. And we can all pay less attention to safety and more to living.
Labels: China, films, food safety, local
