Food News February 2021

February Food News

Dear ,

This month I have been reading lots of articles about the future of the food system. One thing I have noticed is that “food tech” has a different definition to “food technology” which is defined by the Institute of Food Technologists (I guess they would know, right?):

“Food technology is the application of food science to the selection, preservation, processing, packaging, distribution, and use of safe food.” IFT 2019

What I am seeing more and more is food tech as the application of computer technology to food as The Digital Food Lab explains:

“FoodTech is an ecosystem made of all the agrifood entrepreneurs and startups (from production to distribution) innovating on the products, distribution, marketing or business model.” Digital Food Lab 2021

What is fascinating about this definition and organization, is that food science, along with ag tech, and others is listed as a subset of food tech rather than an equal partner, which it is under the food technology paradigm. Now I have to separate food tech from food technology and remember NOT to use food tech as shorthand when I mean the latter.

Both food tech and food technology influence food safety, as do food policy and many other food system factors. In Food Safety News, there is a editorial about the fact that the US needs a single independent agency to manage food safety. Rather than having the current system of USDA inspecting meat and poultry and FDA inspecting pretty much everything else. (Please don’t ask about eggs!!) This came to the attention of FSN at Secretary Vilsack confirmation hearing when NO ONE asked about food safety. This is despite the fact that USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) has nearly 10,000 meat and poultry inspection personnel and probably, as the article says, the reason why the position of USDA’s Under Secretary for Food Safety seat has been vacant for more than half of the last 25 years.

Is the solution, as suggested in the article, to have the Senate Ag Committee establish a subcommittee on Food Safety? If so, where does that leave the FDA, which is an agency in the Department of Health and Human Services not in Agriculture? What is the best way to change the American food regulatory system so that it benefits all of us, especially consumers?

One of the other articles discussed the need to explain the role of food science to consumers better, which I totally agree. However, the article continued with an emphasis on food tech and other gene-altering technologies and lab-grown meat. I find this problematic, as many of the so-called solutions aren’t solving a problem we have. They seem to be more in it for the “wow”-factor than considering the long term implications, whether those are nutritional or environmental.

I am happy to see vegetarian and vegan diets becoming popular even though I find, as someone who has been a vegetarian for decades, that the new “plant-based” diet isn’t aimed at me. It is frustrating when people insistently tell me that a plant-centered diet centered around artificial meat is better for my health and for the climate with little evidence.

One thing I find particularly troubling is the suggestion that we need to alter fruit and vegetables to make them more appetizing. Apparently eating cherries with a pit is just too annoying and we need apples that don’t brown after being sliced. Forgive my eye rolling. I would like to see some humility from the scientists and start ups. However, I am probably asking too much. Perhaps instead we should start a war on food and nutrition?

Sorry - more eye rolling here. I do agree that we need stronger public health action on nutrition than we currently have. Part of taking food safety into one agency, should also include moving the Dietary Guidelines from the USDA too. The latest version of which were released, to little fanfare, at the end of 2020. The response of from nutritional professionals is…unimpressed.

Alicia Kennedy writes more eloquently on topics that I am getting my thoughts around. In her newsletter she wrote about the future of food and raises the issue of the emphasis on food tech rather than social justice. We don’t need ovens that we can operate from our cell phones; we need nutrition education in elementary schools and we need to end food apartheid instead.

What are your thoughts about the future of our food system? Do we need more gadgets or more social justice? I would love to chat about food, so please book a call and share your thoughts.

Wish you a successful March! Please reach out if you have any questions about anything food.

All the best,

Cathy

Visit Food Safety Mid Atlantic for more information