Where Did That Food Come From? Your Guess is as Good as the Label

The apple-blackberry sauce sold widely in Seattle supermarkets, with the U.S. Department of Agriculture organic seal on the label, says it comes from Chino, Calif. It also says "Product of Canada."

Dried banana chips are labeled as being from Sumner. But banana trees don't grow in Sumner. Peanut butter from Canada? There are no peanut farms in that country.

Congress passed a law in 2002 saying that consumers were to be told where the food they buy comes from. But five years later, shoppers who try to determine the origin of meat, poultry, fruit, vegetables and frozen or canned food in most of America's grocery stores often enter an Oz-like land of obfuscations, omission or outright lies.

Without knowing where the food came from, consumers can't be certain it is safe, experts say.

"This labeling becomes vital in ensuring that products are of high quality," said Caroline Smith DeWaal, director of food safety for the Center for Science in the Public Interest. "If people know they're going to get caught for shoddy practices, they're much less likely to engage in them."

The Agriculture Department, bowing to pressure from the meat lobby, the grocery industry and a Republican-dominated Capitol Hill, postponed the launching to 2004, then 2006 and finally to 2008, with the exception of seafood, which has been labeled since 2005. But the litany of recent reports on tainted food -- E. coli in spinach, salmonella in peanut butter, botulism in chili and the still-growing list of tainted Chinese products -- has prompted action.

Last month, the House Agriculture Committee updated the labeling law and the full House included it as part of a complex and long farm bill.

But don't expect labels to immediately sprout throughout grocery stores. The Senate still has to weigh in, and then the Department of Agriculture has to write rules telling everyone in the food supply chain what the law actually demands. Also, President Bush has threatened a veto of the entire farm package because of its tax and farm-subsidy implications.

However, the White House is "well aware" that more than 92 percent of consumers polled this spring said they want to know the origin of the food they buy, said Patty Lovera, assistant director of the public interest group Food and Water Watch.

The updated law would require that beef, pork, lamb, goat, fresh and frozen fruits and vegetables carry a label with the origin of the food. The no-man's-land of labeling would be the grocery store aisles of processed food in cans, jars and pouches. Labeling country-of-origin for processed food is voluntary and the new law would not change that.

A few groceries, especially high-end chains, already do extensive labeling of fresh produce.

"Because some stores are already labeling some of their produce, it will grow harder for other companies and interest groups to argue it cannot be done," said Chuck Benbrook, chief scientist with the Organic Center, a nationwide, non-profit, food research organization.

However, Benbrook and other food scientists say the inconsistencies even within chains trying to do it right can be enormous and food hazards can exist even if the origin is properly labeled.

"The globalization of the food system is occurring faster than government's ability to even understand the sources of new risks, let alone prevent them," said Benbrook, whose 28 years of experience includes leading congressional investigations and National Academy of Science studies into food safety issues.

There are a dozen different federal agencies in charge of the food supply, which DeWaal calls "chaotic and inefficient."

Because cargo enters the United States through more than 300 ports and the government has inspectors at a small fraction of the entry ports, how do stores ensure the quality of what they're importing to sell?

Produce managers in several chain stores serving the Pacific Northwest and buyers or sales staff at some Pike Place Market stalls all said the same thing: They rely on the integrity of the companies from which they purchase.

Perceived integrity may not be enough, especially with fresh fruits and vegetables that may not be cooked before consumption, said Barb Bruemmer, a senior lecturer at the University of Washington's Nutritional Sciences program.

"These products may be contaminated in the field or during handling," she said. "It can be an issue with produce from the U.S. as well as from other countries, but the more lax the regulatory system, the higher the risk."

Contamination may occur from many hazards, including tainted groundwater in the field, lack of safe water to rinse and clean produce, and the absence of the sanitation such as restrooms and hand-washing facilities, Bruemmer added.

"It's not uncommon for dangerous food to be imported because manufacturers often work through brokers who don't go to the growing fields or processing plants," said Mary Mulry, who heads FoodWise Inc., a technical and scientific consulting firm to the natural and organic food industry.

Without direct, on-site inspections by either the broker or a reliable agent, the U.S. distributors would never know if the foreign manufacturer or grower substituted ingredients or mislabeled products or committed outright fraud, Mulry said. In some large chains, more than 80 percent of all produce is imported.

Budget-conscious consumers aren't the only ones likely to buy mislabeled food. Shopping at the most expensive stores, even for the most costly items, is not a guarantee of quality and safety. Two extreme examples are exorbitantly priced fresh Italian white truffles and Russian beluga caviar. Some specialty stores have discovered that some suppliers selling them had mislabeled white truffles from China as Italian and purported Russian caviar actually was made from soy meal.

But even dealing with domestic products at the best stores, consumers still can get misleading information.

For example, food retailers long ago determined that consumers are attracted to products labeled "locally produced."

Cooks think local means fresher. Environmentalists see eating local as energy saving, with lower fuel consumption for transportation. And most people, when they think of it, say they like helping the local farmer.

At one large Seattle supermarket, baskets of fresh mangos sit under signs that read "Washington Pride. Grown right in your own backyard." Some mangos near the bottom of the pile still bore the label "Product of Mexico."

"Even the term local is not defined and may mean Western Washington or western U.S.," Bruemmer said.

"It is a poorly controlled marketing device that's sometimes used to make products called local more attractive to the consumer," Benbrook said.

Some stories do try to offer definitions. Whole Foods' Web site says only produce that has traveled less than seven hours from the farm to its facility can be labeled "locally grown."

Another generally lucrative concept is to label foods produced in the United States as homegrown.

In the thousands of pages of public comments submitted over the years to Agriculture and congressional committees, corporate lawyers for gigantic agribusinesses as well as individuals working tiny family farms urge the mandatory use of "Made in USA" on food grown or processed in this country. Many openly discuss the increased profitability from the domestic label.

"Many farmers believe consumers will preferentially choose those products because they are made in USA, and consumers may believe that domestically produced food is safer," DeWaal said.

Does the "Made in the USA" label mean the food was grown domestically, or does it just mean the jars, cans and pouches were packed in the U.S.?

Tour the aisles in almost every grocery store and thousands of products can be found that say "Packaged by ..." or "Distributed by ..." or "Shipped from ..." with no mention of the where the food came from.

That can lead to such puzzlements as the dried banana chips from Sumner, powdered mango from Seattle or guava filling from McMinnville, Ore.

There are some justifiable reasons why it is more complicated to do country-of-origin labels in a multi-ingredient food product.

"A single portion of chicken Kiev can have ingredients from 20 different countries," DeWaal said. "Another reason that the traceability becomes a great deal more difficult is that supplier may be using salmon from Alaska one week and salmon from Chile the next."

While the "Made in the USA" label may be comforting to most shoppers, marketing specialists agree that "Product of Canada" is not far behind in the warm and friendly category. Hundreds of products from north of the border can be found on grocery shelves throughout the Northwest.

But "Product of Canada" can be just as misleading as "Made in the USA." "There is already this bizarre discrepancy in labeling rules," said Stephanie Wells, the Canadian liaison to the Organic Trade Association. "For instance, I can buy peanut butter that says "Product of Canada," but I know we don't grow peanuts.

"The country of origin thing is a bit of a sticky wicket," she said. "We don't know if we can ask for a more, shall we say, honest system. It is misleading and in many cases, not at all honest to falsify the origin of a product.

"And of course, consumers aren't happy about it either. If they want to buy Canadian, they really want something that is Canadian, not that just the final processing was done here."

For 30 years, Paddy Doherty has been raising organic vegetables and sheep on his 500- acre farm in central British Columbia. He also is the chairman of the International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movement Accreditation Committee.

"Consumers don't like the idea of labels that say 'Made in Canada,' when in fact, it was only packaged or labeled here. I don't like it either, nor do most of the most other farmers I know," he said.

"It's a question of integrity, national pride and safety," he said. "If food is coming from China, I don't want it sold here -- or shipped to the states -- with a Canadian label on it.

"It is bizarre to see coffee labeled 'Made in Canada' when I don't believe there are any coffee plantations up here."

A new in-store computer system is being instituted that enables consumers to track the origin of the ingredients from the harvest to the neighborhood market.

Shoppers can trace the history of the vegetables for extensive information including the day of harvest, when and where they were packed and how they were shipped. Some producers display a photo of the farmer involved "to bring a sense of proximity as additional reassurance to the consumer," the newsletter of Japan's Food Safety Commission Secretariat reported earlier this year.

Opportunity is ripe for a national grocer to create a new market: “All food products are sourced in North America.” I’d shop there tomorrow and gladly pay a premium.

What this article is pointing out is that it doesn’t matter where it is packaged, it matters where the ingredients/contents come from.

This article is so very timely. Yesterday I was grocery shopping at the local big grocery store. I had thought about driving out to the ‘farm market,’ but was pressed for time.

As I walked through the produce section there was a stack of tomatoes whose sign said “Homegrown” and label was “Locally Grown.” I was tempted, so very tempted to ask the produce manager what the heck they meant. But, my busy schedule precluded me from being that picky. I bought the locally grown tomatoes and moved on to finish my shopping.

Went to Wal Mart last night looking for something for dinner, I rang the bell for the meat mgr. and proceeded to ask him the source of the beef. He looked as if I’d lost it, but after he heard me out he said he would ask his mgr. The two of us then asked the produce mgr where the veggies had come from and his answer was Mexico. I left and did the same at another grocery store. The man proudly told me that the beef had been packaged in Utah which of course means nothing. Congress has got to come through and make this labeling happen, just like they did for product labeling of calories, etc.

I don’t know who can access it outside of court but I would think that using the lot codes on any given container, one can eventually get all that information. Standard manufacturing procedures (FDA rules) demand in house records of lot numbers given to all raw materials brought in and those lot numbers recorded into each manufactured batch of product records resulting in a record chain that is traceable.

It sure seems like with the technology today they could get the labels with country of origin on our foods, but so many big companies that lobby congress have companies in China.
Write congress and tell them this is what we want.

Purchase products that are 100% MADE IN THE USA!

Continue to take a stand and be a voice for our pets and our loved ones! Do everything you can to boycott goods made by China and this includes ingredients made in China, Chinese plant processing and Chinese exporting!

Our animals couldn’t speak for themselves.
Were they the canaries of the food chain?

We have to protect our families now.
BOYCOTT CHINA!!!!!!

Here is a list of a few items made in USA.

Made in USA
ussstuff.com

madeinusa.com

stillmadeinusa.com

http://www.coopamerica.org/programs/rs/profile.cfm?id=246
http://travel.discovery.com/Ratzenberger-America_Goods_Goods.shtml

http://howtobuyamerican.com/

http://www.allbusiness.com/north-america/united-states-utah/444718-1.html

The updated law would require that beef, pork, lamb, goat, fresh and frozen fruits and vegetables carry a label with the origin of the food.

But not poultry.

Big fat honking screaming deliberate omission there. Yeah, make sure to cover that huge goat meat market, boys. America's clamoring for more info on the dizzying array of shrink-wrapped goat parts. But not the most consumed meat in the US.

The no-man's-land of labeling would be the grocery store aisles of processed food in cans, jars and pouches.Labeling country-of-origin for processed food is voluntary and the new law would not change that.

Americans will just have to read their labels like they do the New York Times, Washington Post, or anything off the AP wires, i.e. any wrongdoing by a politician whose party affiliation is not mentioned is Democrat. Any food packaging that does not plainly state country of origin for foodstuffs and processing is from China and contains melamine, antifreeze, salmonella, chicken feces, lead, banned pesticides and antibiotics, and/or none of the actual purported food pictured on the label.

Bottom line, if the country of origin were a marketing plus, they'd be damn sure it was on the label. It wouldn't be an inconvenience or burdensome expense: it would cheap and effective advertising.

I have been thinking about learning to ‘can’ foods. I have never done it, but with everything that is happening with our foods, poor labels, and the cost associated with organics...it might be worth the effort to take several weekends and ‘put up for the winter.’

Canning is not hard. Get the 'Ball' canning book and follow the directions. Freezing is even easier than canning...so you might want to give it a try as well.

I posted this previously, but a repost is in order. Take a look at the label below and tell me where you think these mushrooms are grown:

Now read the bottom line of the label below.

We took that case of mushrooms back to Costco and demanded our money back.

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