The Savvy Shopper. Rose Prince
and buying additive-free food means shopping more frequently – although I make good use of a small chest freezer for bread, sausages and baked things.
Additives are listed on labels, either in code as E numbers, with their industry name, or – if permitted – a common name. This can be confusing. For example, a label can show monosodium glutamate, flavour enhancer or E621 – these are all the same additive.
Manufacturers use different names for additives such as monosodium glutamate because they are controversial. Flavour enhancer sounds so great, don’t you think? The flavour of your food has been enhanced. Terrific, you think, just what it needs. But it doesn’t – or it wouldn’t if the manufacturers used ingredients with real flavour. A ready-meal maker’s greatest ambition is to put as much water and other cheap ingredients such as modified maize starch as possible into a recipe, and they get away with it by tipping in salt, flavourings, colour, gelling agents, stabilisers, emulsifiers, in fact anything that will hide the fact that these bulk ingredients have no texture or flavour.
The organic sector uses some additives, although nothing like as many as conventional manufacturers. Under the Soil Association’s standard, organic producers can use 30 additives (the EU permits 35) including gum fillers, emulsifiers, preservatives and one colour (annatto).
There is a gaping discrepancy between parents’ anecdotes about the effect of additives on their children and the constant reassurance from the industry that these additives are non-toxic. But the point is missed. The kind of reactions seen in children to certain colours, flavourings, sweeteners and preservatives are allergic reactions, and food additives are tested only for toxicity. In 2002 a government-sponsored study monitored 277 three-year-olds from the Isle of Wight for the effects of additives, which were given in orange juice along with placebos. Many parents of children given additives reported significant changes in mood and behaviour. The additives tested included the artificial food colourings tartrazine (E102), sunset yellow (E110), carmoisine (E122), and ponceau 4R (E124), plus the preservative sodium benzoate (E211). Test doses were well below the levels permitted in children’s foods and drinks yet still the allergic reaction certain children showed was significant. But while the authorities commissioned another report, insisting this one was inconclusive, it is noticeable that manufacturers have mostly removed the ‘Filthy Five’ from children’s food.
Not all E-numbered additives are bad. Some, such as ascorbic acid (E300), are simply vitamin C. E-numbers are additives approved by the EU and their effects on our bodies vary.
With the exception of the glutamate family (E621–633), flavourings do not need ‘E’ approval. With natural flavouring, this is fine but flavourings fall into three interesting categories:
• Artificial – chemical imitations of real flavours.
• Nature identical – nice euphemism, where the actual chemicals present in real flavours are extracted to make flavourings.
• Natural – real essences and dried flavours.
When shopping, bear the following in mind as you read labels: if a manufacturer has added flavourings and colourings, the other ingredients are substandard. Avoid such foods if you can.
Labels and logos
Read the labels of everything you buy. They tell you nothing and they tell you a lot. When they say little, that says a great deal; missing information is an indication of poor production standards or dubious origins. Ingredients must be listed on labels by law, in descending order of quantity, and most labels also include nutritional information – the place to spot the presence of salt, saturated fat, sugar and sometimes hydrogenated fat.
Logos say something about the food. Watch for the five British organic logos (the Soil Association one is the best known). The Demeter logo indicates biodynamic food – delightful stuff that has been grown in accordance with lunar cycles but which is basically organic. The red Lion Quality mark stamped on eggs means they came from hens that have been vaccinated against salmonella. The Fairtrade logo tells you the producer received a fair price, and the fishy-patterned Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) mark is a sign of fish from a certified sustainable source.
Other logos are more ambiguous in what they say about the food in the pack. The Red Tractor covers a wide range of production assurance but allows for intensive production. The same can be said for ‘Farm Assured’ and the British Quality marks for beef, pork and lamb. LEAF allows pesticide use (though under stricter controls, but I have visited LEAF farms and been impressed with successful schemes boosting wildlife). The RSPCA’s Freedom Food logo indicates a vast improvement in animal welfare in intensive farming, but it does not come anywhere near the Soil Association standard of animal welfare.
I hate logos, but we need them. I would prefer to read an epistle on a label that tells me all there is to know about the food in a pack, linked through to websites with contact details. But none of this would be necessary if shops employed knowledgeable staff and trained them to talk to you about the food they sell.
Retailers
There are four main supermarket chains in the UK: Tesco, Asda, Sainsbury and Morrisons. Then there are smaller chains, such as The Co-op, Waitrose, Budgens and Booths. Much has been said about the buying power of the big chains. This book focuses on how shoppers’ habits can make demands on the retailers, who have no choice but to respond to them.
I sent a detailed questionnaire to the supermarkets, asking how they source or produce most of the foods mentioned in this book. They were given a four-week period in which to reply. Of the Big Four, Morrisons declined to answer shortly after receiving the questionnaire, while Asda did not meet the deadline, pleading time poverty (they were given one month, then a further two months in all). Tesco sent only part of the questionnaire back to me, just inside the extended deadline of three months, again pleading lack of time. That these big retailers cannot put their hands on an up-to-date database in the computer age is an embarrassment on their part. The information should be available, so it appears they chose not to give it. They do have customer service lines (see below), where you can obtain lists of ingredients and sometimes information on the country of origin, but details are hard to obtain from these sources.
The results of the questionnaire are included in most sections and I have tried where possible to mention ethical options sold by supermarkets (e.g. Fairtrade bananas, organic chicken, cod from a sustainable source…). If information from supermarkets who did respond to the questionnaire is missing, it may be because they did not answer clearly or didn’t answer at all.
For up-to-date information about products, the supermarkets can be contacted on the following numbers:
Asda: 0500 100055
Booths: 01772 251701
Budgens: 0870 526002
Co-op: 0800 0686 727
Morrisons: 01924 870 000
Safeway: 01622 712 987
Sainsbury: 0800 636262
Somerfield: 0117 935 9359
Tesco: 0800 5055 5555
Waitrose: 0800 188884
But however many pounds in every ten we spend at Tesco, small shops still exist. Great butcher’s shops, cheese shops, specialist food shops, bakeries, fishmonger’s and even a few greengrocer’s cling on in the high streets – please seek them out. They actually have shop assistants who can talk knowledgeably to you, and may even help carry bags and give cooking advice. Yep, pinch yourself, you’re having a pleasant shopping experience.
Farm