Let them eat c**p - Conservative food policy?

[maria1665]

After sniping at Jamie Oliver and his ambitions to improve school meals, then pulling back from restricting use of killer ingredients in food production, including trans fats, the government is now seeking to abolish the Food Standards Agency. This is the body that was brought it after the deregulation of the Food Industry led to BSE entering the food chain, which in turn led to a crisis of confidence in the food we eat.

Isn't it great to know that the market principles which led to the collapse of the banks, BP oil disaster (not to mention scandals in the past such as lying over the effects of tobacco, Thalidamide etc) are now going to apply, once again to the food we eat.

The problem is teh food industry is so enormously powerful and as profit hungry as any other sector.

EnglandAllenPoe - the FSA was created because these separate bodies were not able to protect food standards.

Each of the other bodies and specific remits - and none of theme were exclusively concerned with food safety. Problems arose which did not fit into any of their remits, or were simply too big for them to see - such as the problems with animal feed leading to BSE.

The importance of the FSA was that it was an independent body exclusively concerned with all aspects of food safety. Plus they were the power to commission research - and to that extent be proactive.

yes margarine is off my menu, only eat real butter

It's interesting, I thought transfats were hydrogenated fats that had then been heated or something. Hold on I think that margarine is OK as a spread, but not a good idea to cook with it at high tempteratures as then it denatures into something rather nasty (I guess transfats). Does that sound right

I agree with the thing about the "wheel" being a bad idea as the cheese industry has an excellent point on that.

I don't know what the answer is. Well teh answer is to buy only whole ingredients and then cook all of your own food from scratch, but really that is not feasible for the vast majority of people. And before everyone starts jumping up and down and shouting "why not the lazy bastards" I really don't think you can be saying that people must bake all their own bread (grind their own flour?), cure their own hams, smoke their own fish, churn their own butter and produce their own cheese.

I steer well clear of margarine and have now for many many years since I first became aware of it.
www.youniquenutrition.com/site/node/596

Belle - perhaps you are also in the fresh produce industry but in my experience the amount of products that can be used is ever decreasing. Regulations are constantly tightening on all areas of production, all supermarket standards (and general standards) encourage this.

I wonder if the FSA says anything about margarine? I doubt it, they probably prefer to talk about 5-a-day

thanks for the link claig, I didn't know any of that!!

You can't rely on environmental health to police food producers. There are far too few of them and 25% cuts will probably see more job losses. And EHOs certainly can't respond strategically to the power of the massive food industry.

I once spent a day shadowing environmental health officers and was horrified by what they let go - because they don't have the time and resources to pursue any but the very worst restaurants and shops.

Worst thing is you could eat at a pub quite happily without knowing the food comes from the disgusting kitchens of the restaurant over the road where the owners appear not to know or care about refrigeration or keeping cooked and raw meat separate. EHOs had been 'working with' the restauranteur to improve his standards. I'd have shut him down immediately.

Btw, the problem with trans fats is that they don't have to be labelled. The food industry created a product that does not exist in nature (turning liquid oils into solids by bubbling hydrogen through them) and that is far, far worse for your health than normal saturated fat. The food industry knows this, the research has been done, yet they are happy to carry on using trans fats without telling us because it's cheaper.

You can't blame consumers for not knowing about all this skulduggery. You should blame the food manufacturers for lying to us. The FSA has been trying to limit the ability of the food industry to lie to us, but multi-million pound businesses use those millions of pounds very effectively to lobby MEPS and Brussels bureaucrats.

you're welcome, there'll be much more about it all over the internet. It's so many years ago that I stopped using it, that I can no longer remember all the facts about it. By the way www.youtube.com is a fantastic source for information on health. There are many individuals who really care and take the time and effort to spread their knowledge. You have to sort the wheat from the chaff, but you will find things there that official bodies won't mention, because they stick to the 5-a-day mantra.

Of course, natural selection would be the perfect solution to many of our woes and unfortunately, things like the NHS and Welfare State get in the way of events taking their natural course.

HippyGalore's point is valid to an extent - the underclass is actually doing very well indeed thanks very much, thanks to the benefits it hoovers up.

Wayne and Waynetta Slob-types don't pay attention to food labelling, alas and those of us literate enough to actually read and understand the labels don't need the Food Standards Agency to tell us what is good for us.

So good riddance to such hectoring/nannying quangos and hopefully we can shave a little bit more off the deficit!

So Barmy Army, to summarise:-

There are essentially two lots of people - nice people, who are clever enough and rich enough to look after themselves. (And if they are clever enough, they must be rich enough and vice versa).

Then there are the other people who are just plain stupid, and as a consequence are poor and really not very nice. And it is just not fair that the nice clever people should have to look out for the not very nice stupid people.

And from this basic premise, all present Conservative policy flows.

Have you ever seen Clinton and Bush riding around on their golf buggies, swigging their canned drinks? They haven't got a clue. It's got nothing to do with being rich, poor or educated. The advertising affects everyone, and the so-called Guardian reading intelligentsia are just as much at risk as the Sun readers.

Maria1665 - no, there are just people. It's the Left that loves splitting them up into groups and labelling them.

I just believe that if you let people crack on, under their own steam, they will generally end up with the lot in life that they deserve.

If you interfere, you get all sorts of problems.

Poor people aren't necessarily thick, nor rich people necessarily very bright, FWIW.

but they made laws about asbestos because of the risks to all people, rich and poor alike.
There are some things that people are not aware of and need protecting from.

Claig - so what? Ban the drinks? Spend some taxpayers' money on warning against them? And then what? Clinton and Bush ignore the advice - why shouldn't we all?

I read in the papers the other day that latest research showed that saturated fats weren't actually any worse than other sorts of fats re heart attacks etc.

it's like eggs & cholesterol - for years cholesterol = bad, limit your eggs, now they know eggs are super good for you, cholesterol in more complicated than they thought, and we should all be having as many eggs as we fancy.

The problem with all teh conflicting advice is that people start to lose the plot with what's what, then it all starts to go wrong.

they won't ban the drinks. It's big business, they'll make some TV programmes with Jamie Oliver instead. Just because a bigwig puts their hand in the mouth of a lion, doesn't mean we should all copy them.

Firstly - in order to read the food labels, they have to be there in the first place. Thank the soon to be defunct Food Standards Agency.

Secondly - you have to be able to read and understand them. Hence the traffic light system, pioneered by the Food Standards Agency.

Thirdly - the information in the labels has to be accurate, hence the arguments from Claig et al listed above. This is very much work in progress, because of the stance taken by the Food Industry.

Finally, in order to get things wrong, and need help in this area, you don't have to be a 'Wayne/Waynetta type'.

Just where do you draw the line at 'leaving people to their own devices.'

animal fats and saturated fats and eggs are good for you, as part of a balanced diet. Stick to natural foods like your grandparents had, like the poor peasants eat, like the French country folk eat and you won't go far wrong.

There was a thread on here the other day to let people know that aspartame has changed its name.

So a chemical which is banned in some countries, gets notorious, people start avoiding it. What is the reaction of the industry? carry on using it and change its name so people don't know what it is any more.

it's that sort of shite that has to stop.

hidden ingredients, unexpected ingredients, misleading labels etc etc etc.

It also annoys me that things which don't have nutritional value don't have to show the calories etc. When buying eg ice cream I'd still like to be able to compare - the "posh" ones are often less sugary etc than the cheaper ones and i tihnk people should be given that information.

Maria1665 - it isn't difficult, 5 fruit and veg a day and everything in moderation.

Where's the cost/problem with that??

As for leaving people to their own devices, I suspect I would probably trust them a mite further than you...

We are constantly told about sugar, fat and salt but many more serious risks are not on the radar. Most people are not aware of some of these issues
biology.clc.uc.edu/fankhauser/Society/GMO/GM_foods_ice_cream.htm

People haven't got time to research everything. That's why people are employed to make sure that furniture is not easily flammable and that toys do not contain toxic chemicals. In the same way, with industry wishing to provide GM frankenfoods, we are now more than ever in need of an effective independent food standards agency.

Barmy Army - what's the problem?

BSE, hidden salt and sugars, trans fats, additives and fillers, poor nutritional standards in schools, to name but a few.

People I trust. Big business I don't, and that's who is calling the shots on this issue right now.