Snippets from the New Foods Guide

Only 10 years ago

• organic was a niche market, just beginning to appear in a very few supermarkets.
• GM technology in the food industry had only been used in new tests for food contamination.
• And functional foods had just started appearing in Japan.

Low chemical cotton
The American company Monsanto claims that, thanks to its genetically modified cotton, there has been an 80 per cent reduction in the pesticides needed to protect cotton grown in Alabama. Cotton is a crop that has traditionally required particularly heavy doses of chemical insecticide.

Escaped fish
In Norway, it is reported that escaped fish (from fish farms) already outnumber wild fish in rivers by an extraordinary five-to-one.

Functional definition
Functional foods - or nutraceuticals, a term often used in the USA - refers to foods especially designed or formulated to improve our health or boost our performance in some specific way. A working definition might run along the following lines: foods that have been changed - either by the addition or removal of (a) particular ingredient(s) - in order to confer an extra health benefit.

Organic demand
Demand for organic food is outstripping supply. If current growth trends continue, it is predicted that 10-20 per cent of agricultural land will be farmed organically by 2010. In Denmark, they plan to be 50 per cent organic within ten years.

Organic sperm counts
A Danish study revealed that the sperm counts of organic farmers and growers were 50 per cent higher than average. More research needs to be done before these findings can be taken as conclusive evidence of a link.

Organic additives
Some 500 food processing aids are permitted by the EU. Around 50 of these (such as vitamin C) are acceptable to organic specialists, whereas others (among them stabilisers and emulsifiers) are not.

Only 1 red allowed
Colourings - ironically, even most natural ones - are not permitted in organic foods, with the exception of 'annatto', a natural extract that is permitted in Red Leicester and Double Gloucester cheese to give them their traditional red colouring.

2 culprits
Before food manufacturers and supermarkets introduced ‘GM-free’ policies, it was estimated that something like 70 per cent of UK processed foods could contain GM ingredients. Surprisingly, all these ingredients stem from only two crops: soya and maize.

Unclassified flavourings
Around 2,000 of the 3,000 additives used in our food are flavourings or flavour enhancers, not all of which have been tested for safety, partly because they are used in such minute quantities. An EU-approved list of flavourings will not be introduced until 2004, which is why they do not yet have E numbers.

No MSG for babies
Baby-food manufacturers have been forced to stop adding mono sodium glutamate it to their products because of its potential dangers - and, if the truth be known, because they were adding it mainly to make food taste better for parents!

Cinnamon powers
Cinnamon has been found to be effective in controlling E. coli bacteria, and research in the USA has shown that food bacteria can be killed not only by cinnamon, but also by cloves and garlic.

More fat
It is thought that our ancestors' diet probably included around 6 per cent fat, in contrast with modern intake levels – which can exceed 35 per cent. The unwelcome results include expanding waistlines, heart disease, diabetes, arthritis and breast cancer.

Fish oils are good
Fish oils are recommended for a large number of conditions, including arthritis, brain development in infancy, pregnancy, breast cancer, depression, male infertility, migraines, blood clots, bone mass, and pre-menstrual syndrome.

High IQ
Studies carried out in Australia showed that breast-fed babies whose mothers have enough DHA (fish oil) in their diet may have a 10-point IQ advantage in later childhood. A white bread with added DHA has been developed for people who are unable to afford fish.

How low is 'low fat'?
Low fat crisps may have reduced their fat content from 35%-40% to 25%-30% in contrast to whole fat milk, which only has a fat content of 4%.

British sweet tooth
Some food manufacturers apparently increase the sweetness of products specifically for the UK market!

Antioxidant benefits
Our understanding of the benefits of antioxidants is growing rapidly, with some scientists arguing that they may help slow down the ageing process, boost the immune system, limit the damage done by cholesterol LDLs and even reduce the likelihood of cancers, strokes and cataracts.

In organic
Research suggests that non-organic vegetables now have a lower mineral content than in the 1940s, when use of artificial fertilisers and pesticides was less common. Iron levels in non-organic basic vegetables have decreased by over a third in the last 60 years and magnesium levels have halved.

Eating elephants
At any one time our stomachs and intestines contain about 2 lbs (1 kg) of bacteria (that's around 100,000,000,000,000 individual bacteria), most of them busily working to break down the food we eat. During an average lifetime the gut will handle something like 65 tonnes of food - roughly equivalent to the weight of a dozen full-grown elephants!

Blue green algae
Blue-green algae, or Spirulina, has become a superstars in the field of 'smart foods'. Used as medicines by ancient Chinese herbalists, and harvested by the Aztecs and the Incas, they are packed with nutrients, and easy to absorb. It is said they contain more vegetable protein than any other food on earth.

Herbal yoghurts
A range of herbal yoghurts were launched in New Zealand in 1998. There were three different types: one with Echinacea, one with Gingko biloba and one with ginseng.

GM soya less nutritious?
GM soya may be less effective in fighting disease and promoting health. Recent research suggests that GM soya contains between 12 per cent and 14 per cent less phytoestrogens than non-GM soya.

Spraying apples
Up to 50 different chemical pesticides are used on apples alone. In the growing season, non-organic apples and pears are sprayed up to 3 times a week.

Pipless oranges
Biologists developing the pipless fruit, in Australia and Japan, have identified a particular gene that causes plants to destroy the seeds in their own fruit. Among the difficulties they face in getting citrus fruits to go pipless is that if the gene switches into action too soon the fruit might not even form - or it might fall off the tree before fully ripened.

GM in dried fruit
The vegetable oil used to coat all non-organic dried fruit to stop it sticking together is made by a US company and may come from GM sources.

Anti cancer garlic
Research in China, Italy and the USA suggests that eating a clove of garlic every day reduces the chance of developing colon cancer by 30% and stomach cancer by 50%.

Big potatoes
German genetic engineers accidentally created the world's largest potato, weighing in at 3.2 (just over 7 lbs). They managed this feat by putting a yeast gene into the potato plants.

Chinese tomatoes
Chinese scientists have developed a tomato plant reminiscent of Jack & the Bean Stalk. It grows to 10 metres - and fruits as early as February! They have also apparently produced tomatoes smaller than ping-pong balls that can be kept on the shelf ten times longer than ordinary tomatoes.

GM animals
A succession of animals have been genetically engineered, so far almost exclusively for use in laboratories. In the UK, more than a million animals were produced between 1995 and 1999, most of them mice and rats destined for use in medical research. But government statistics also show that during this period scientists in the UK produced 1,485 GM pigs, 1,472 GM sheep, 200 GM fish, 119 GM chickens and an unknown number of GM cows.

GM animal feed
As yet it is impossible to determine the source of imported feed, which accounts for 20 per cent of what animals eat in the UK.

Routine antibiotics
It has been estimated that antibiotics from our food supply account for 50 per cent of our intake. Nearly half of all cattle industrially farmed are routinely given antibiotics. Some 80 per cent of all industrially farmed pigs are routinely given antibiotics, some as growth promoters. And about 99 per cent of all industrially farmed chickens have routinely been given antibiotics.
 

Super salmon
Examples of GM work in progress include Scottish salmon which have been injected with a growth hormone from another kind of fish - making them capable of growing up to five times as large as a normal one-year-old fish.

Tinned fish
Much of the beneficial fatty acids found in high levels in tuna and sardines are destroyed in the canning process.

BST review
BST milk is already mixed in with the milk supply in the USA and its final introduction into Europe (after a ban through most of the 1990s) is up for review in mid-2000.

Changed fat
In Spain, the biggest dairy company, Puleva, launched a milk where they had replaced the saturated fat content with fatty acids such as Omega-3. This has been so successful that it now represents 60 per cent of their milk sales.

GM rennet
Before long, it may be difficult to find hard cheese that is not made with GM rennet.

Air in ice-cream
High quality ice-creams use cream, full-cream milk and egg yolks, while, at the other end of the spectrum, cheap ice-creams contain vegetable fats, whey solids and reconstituted milk - and air, the cheapest ingredient of all. Some may contain as much as 120% added air, because ice-cream is sold by volume rather than weight. Good quality ice-creams will weigh considerably more than the cheaper varieties.

Yellow yolks
All non-organic chicken feed contains yellow colouring, either astaxanthin or castaxanthin to enrich the colour of the yolk.

Egg battles
In the organic egg world there are signs of a battle looming. Whilst the Soil Association certify 70 per cent of UK organic food production, they are not the major certifying body for organic eggs. The Organic Farmers & Growers and the Organic Food Federation, certify 80 per cent of UK Organic eggs. Both organisations are registered with UKROFS and operate to their standards. The problem is that in the case of poultry these standards are brief, almost to the point of non-existence.

Olive oil
What early promoters or olive oil didn't know was that olive oil is not only cholesterol-free but positively stacked with monounsaturated fats, which may actively lower blood cholesterol levels.

Sensitive children
Children's bodies, it turns out, are much more sensitive than adults’. Babies eat relatively large quantities of a smaller range of foods (children aged between 1 and 5 eat around three times more per unit of body weight than the average adult in the UK), yet their organs - their blood, kidneys and liver - are not yet fully able to cope with and excrete complex toxins.

Dark bread
If you eat dark breads, whole grain cereals or other whole grain products, American research suggests that you are 15 per cent to 25 per cent less likely to die from diseases such as cardiovascular disease and cancer.

Non fattening sugar
Genetic engineers in Holland say they have created a non-fattening sugar, and, also in Holland, they are working on GM sugar beet with extra sweetness.

Long life chocolate
One of the odder recent claims about chocolate is that it can help you live longer! Moderate amounts of chocolate apparently can help you live up to a year longer, according to Harvard University scientists. After factors like smoking habits were taken into account, men eating chocolate several times a month turned out to have a 36 per cent lower risk of death than non-chocolate eaters.

Happy crisps
'Happy' tortilla crisps are already on sale in the USA and are due to go on sale in the UK shortly. They contain St John's Wort, a herb with anti-depressant properties.

Drinking sugar
Children under five have doubled their consumption of soft drinks in the past fifteen years and in the USA they now account for 27 per cent of everything drunk (including water)!

Sports drinks
The scientific evidence suggests that for most people (the average person, children, and those exercising for less than 30 minutes at a time) these drinks are no more useful than drinking water.

Whisky or wine?
Whisky drinkers will be pleased to hear that Scotch whisky raises the body's levels of health-promoting antioxidants. Recent research indicates that Whisky is even more beneficial in this respect than red wine.

Wine tasting problems
Longer term, genetic engineers may be able to create so-called 'flavour triggers' to produce particular styles of wine in a wider range of climates and on different soils. So, for example, it might eventually be possible to mimic the unique tastes of Sancerre, Hunter Valley Sémillon or claret almost anywhere in the world.

Anti-aging
Anti-ageing foods and drinks, both real and imaginary, are already on offer; products with extra calcium, for example, to help prevent or delay osteoporosis, or snack bars with blue-green algae, an ingredient originally used by the Aztecs as a possible cure for ageing.

Cancer diets
In Asia breast cancer strikes one in 40 women, compared with one in 12 British women. Genes presumably play some role, but increasingly, scientists are thinking that diet is crucial too. The links between diet and cancer are increasingly highlighted. In fact, if present trends continue, literally every food and drink product will be suspected of cancer at some point in the 21st century.

Migraine triggers
It is not fully understood how particular foods start migraines or headaches, but trials have shown that as many as 70 per cent of migraines in adults are caused by food.

Menopause 'gold rush'
It seems likely that we will see something of a gold rush in manufacturers racing to design functional foods that tackle the symptoms of menopause. Products with added antioxidants, blue-green algae, added calcium, new dietary fibres, fatty acids like Omega-3, probiotics and vitamin E are already beginning to hit the shelves.

Eat and be thin
There are a growing numbers of products designed to allow you to eat more without getting fat.

Cutting costs means cutting corners
The pressure to make food ever cheaper is forcing every part of the food chain to cut its costs, a process massively reinforced by the buying power of the supermarkets. Unfortunately, cutting costs can often also mean cutting corners and therefore standards, and all sorts of environmental, social and ethical problems have surfaced around the world as a result.

What's natural?
There are no laws about the definition of the word ‘natural’ on products. And in the wider context it doesn’t mean ‘safe’, either. The natural world is full of perfectly natural toxins designed to protect plants against pests or animals against predators. When Arctic explorers gorged on perfectly natural polar bear livers, many died.

Long-haul yoghurt
German researchers have shown that the various ingredients in one kind of strawberry yoghurt had travelled thousands of miles before the finished product landed on the table. Nor is that unusual. Refrigerated container ships and jet aircraft now crisscross the globe. Freight lorries speed from one end of the continent to the other. Even within the UK, food now travels 50 per cent further than it did just 15 years ago.

Quick dish
Just before the last world war, for example, most Americans spent over two hours a day preparing meals. That figure has now dropped to as little as 15 minutes!

Internet transparency
The Internet is ideally suited for providing greater transparency. How long will it be before supermarkets go the way of the online booksellers Amazon.com and offer consumers detailed on-demand information about their foods and how they have been produced?

Immune pests
Nearly 1,000 agricultural pests - including insects, plant diseases and weeds - are now more or less immune to commonly used crop protection chemicals.

GM here to stay
If you visit hospitals and clinics around the developed world, you will find patients are readily accepting GM drugs, if they offer an effective treatment or cure for AIDS, cancer or some other, otherwise incurable, disease. In the early years of the 21st century, GM healthcare innovations will grow at unbelievable rates and will increasingly extend into food. As people begin to see real benefits to themselves, they will begin to accept the technology.

GM in Spain
In Spain there has been extensive planting of GM crops, with almost no opposition - at the time of writing, 5 per cent of the Spanish maize crop was expected to be GM by the end of 1999.

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