Last year Torfaen County Borough Council brought a prosecution against Douglas Willis Limited for a number of offences, all similar in nature, contrary to regulation 44(1)(d) of the Food Labelling Regulations 1996. This is the regulation that makes it an offence where any person “sells any food after the date shown in a ‘use by’ date relating to it”. Torfaen alleged that Willis had sold frozen pigs’ tongues after their ‘use by’ date.
On the morning of my visit to Pextenement Farm I came, by chance, upon an article in the US Farmers Weekly headed ‘Cheese producers urged to focus on breed for carbon reduction’. Not all cows, it seems, are the same. The lighter weight Jersey versus the Holstein uses significantly less land and water resulting in a 10% reduction in carbon emissions when the milk is used in cheese. The reasons are several but fat content is a big factor, Jersey milk has 4.8% fat as against the Holstein’s 3.8% which means more milk solids for cheese. I was curious how Pextenement would fare here.
A few weeks back I wrote a piece posing the question: How do we know when fish is sustainable and responsibly sourced? I looked at two then both recent reports, one from the Pew Environment Group and the other from the Marine Conservation Society, apparently at odds with each other on the question whether Marks & Spencer offer sustainable fish. In brief, the disparity boiled down to the fact that compliance with a sustainable fish standard not up to the job does not deliver sustainable fish.
The Food Standards Agency (FSA) released details of its regular survey of public concerns about food related issues earlier this month. The survey is based on research involving a representative sample of 2,076 adults carried out in November 2011.
The regulation of fruit juices and similar products is governed by EC Directive 2001/112 which in England is implemented by the Fruit Juice and Fruit Nectars (England) Regulations 2003 (similar provision exists for Scotland, Wales and Ireland) but on 14 December 2011 the European Parliament approved a proposed directive amending Directive 2001/112. The Council need only rubber stamp this proposal for it to become law when published in the Official Journal.
The other day the Cambridge News carried a piece headed: ‘The 30-mile diet: eating local, eating green’. One of the latest of a number of similar events that have taken place around the country in recent times. Whilst I admire such initiatives I trouble a little that we should not lose sight of the true value and meaning of ‘local food’.
Investigative food journalist Barry Estabrook exposes the “human and environmental cost of the $5 billion fresh tomato industry” in this compelling account. I picked up Tomatoland thinking it to be simply a book about the industrialisation of a favourite food, but it is much, much more and provides a graphic account of the politics of production and the exploitation, oppression and, yes, slavery of ordinary workers involved in putting Florida tomatoes on supermarket shelves.
Foods claiming to be either ‘gluten free’ or ‘very low gluten’ are governed by new compositional and labelling standards set out in Commission Regulation (EC) No. 41/2009 and covered in The Foodstuffs Suitable for People Intolerant to Gluten (England) Regulations 2010, with parallel provision for Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, that came into effect on 1 January 2012 and covers all foods whether pre-packed, sold loose or offered on a restaurant menu.