Do you know where your coffee comes from? The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the importance of knowing about our supply chains. Here, a woman carries harvested coffee beans in a coffee plantation in Mount Gorongosa, Mozambique, in August 2019.
(AP Photo/Tsvangirayi Mukwazhi)
The COVID-19 crisis highlights the importance of supply chains. But even with the increased recent attention, most supply chains remain murky. Consumers can play a key role in lifting that cloud.
A seafood counter is shown at a store in Toronto in 2018. A study that year found 61 per cent of seafood products tested at Montréal grocery stores and restaurants were mislabelled. Fish is a common victim of food fraud.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Nathan Denette
Trust in our global food supply chains remains a concern. For the foreseeable future, much of Canada’s food fraud remains hidden in plain sight, sitting right there on our grocery store shelves.
When a manufacturer lists a serving size on their food label, it's based on their expectations of what you'll eat, not what the dietary guidelines recommend.
Botany defines milk as a kind of juice or sap, usually white in colour, found in certain plants. Plant-based liquids have been called milk for centuries.
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Margarine makers once had to colour their product pink. Calls to restrict the use of the word milk are similarly protectionist.
A government-commissioned report estimated that South Australia’s ban on genetically modified crops cost canola growers A$33 million since 2004.
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South Australia has lifted its moratorium on GM crops, while Tasmania has extended its ban. But the question should no longer be a simple binary of being "for" or "against" GM technology.
Most consumers are unaware that the Health Star Rating system is compensatory, and that one negative nutritional attribute, such as high sugar, can be cancelled out by a positive attribute like fibre.
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Jessica C Lai, Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of Wellington; Alana Harrison, Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of Wellington; Hongzhi Gao, Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of Wellington, and Samuel Becher, Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of Wellington
A food heath labelling system Australia and New Zealand introduced five years ago is under review and needs a significant overhaul to make it useful for consumers looking for healthy options.
Will food laws change as more GM foods are created?
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With Gottlieb's departure from the FDA imminent, what should we expect from the FDA? How is it likely to regulate the still controversial genetically engineered foods?
What is in these products? And if additives don’t affect your health, would you care?
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Sunanda Creagh, The Conversation; Jordan Fermanis, The Conversation; Justin Bergman, The Conversation, and Dilpreet Kaur, The Conversation
Food fraud, the centuries-old problem that won’t go away.
The Conversation55.8 MB(download)
Dairy farmers used to put sheep brains and chalk in skim milk to make it look frothier and whiter. Coffee, honey and wine have also been past targets of food fraudsters. Can the law ever keep up?
Interested in a juicy burger grown in the lab?
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Cultured meat comes from cells in a lab, not muscles in an animal. While regulatory and technological aspects are being worked out, less is known about whether people are up for eating this stuff.
It may come as a shock to discover that businesses are allowed to pay local authorities for advice on environmental health standards and food labelling.
Vermont has had food labels that indicate food has been ‘partially produced with genetic engineering.’
Sally McCay, UVM Photo
Can you call it meat if it's been artificially produced? That's the question cattlemen in the US are asking, and something food regulators will have to grapple with soon when it coms to labelling.
‘May contain traces of nuts’ labels aren’t always present in foods that could be cross contaminated.
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Katie Allen, Murdoch Children's Research Institute
A new study has found some foods may contain allergens even if there's no warning.
In a supermarket candy and cookie aisle. October 31, France adopted the NutriScore, a labelling system designed to inform consumers about the nutritional value of food choices.
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France recently adopted NutriScore, a series of simple colour codes that will allow consumers to easily identify the healthiest foods. But some of the biggest food conglomerates are fighting back.
When the United States was settled, nearly everyone was a farmer. Today only 2 percent of Americans live on farms, and many of us are illiterate about where food comes from or what kinds are healthy.
With the right skills, scientists can draw journalists like bees to honey.
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