PLASTIC PACKAGING CAUSE FOR OBESITY AND DIABETES?

It is unimaginable as to why hundreds of chemicals are allowed for use by the food industry for one reason or the other. While pharmaceutical industry is shackled, forcing it to be more careful and cautious in using different ingredients in medicine formulations, food industry is allowed to get away, mostly under the so called GRAS provision under which proof of safety is not insisted on!  The result is that many of the food ingredients had to be withdrawn after consumers were exposed to their dangers unnecessarily. Latest to join the list of monster chemicals are phthalates and Bisphenol A. Though indications about their suspect safety credentials were known earlier, they were allowed to be used for technical reasons ignoring the harm they could bring upon the consumers. The dangers posed by the above chemicals have been highlighted succinctly in a recent report which has some credibility. 

"Children exposed to two chemicals commonly used in food packaging are more likely to be obese or show signs of diabetes precursors than those with lower exposure, new research suggests. Researchers found urine levels of one type of phthalate, used to soften plastic, were tied to a higher risk of insulin resistance among teenagers. Based on data from the same large nutrition survey, another study group linked bisphenol A, or BPA - used to line aluminum cans - to obesity and larger waists in youth. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, about one in six U.S. children and teenagers is now obese. "Clearly unhealthy diet and lack of physical activity are the drivers of this epidemic … but increasingly environmental chemicals are being identified as possible contributors," Dr. Leonardo Trasande, a pediatrician from New York University, said. He and his colleagues analyzed data from a nationally-representative health and nutrition survey conducted in 2003 to 2008, which included urine and blood tests for 766 adolescents aged 12 to 19. They found urinary levels of one particular type of phthalate, known as Di-2-ethylhexylphthalate (DEHP), were closely tied to a teenager's chance of having insulin resistance, a precursor to diabetes. Just under 15 percent of study participants with the lowest one-third of DEHP levels were insulin resistant, compared to almost 22 percent of those with the highest levels. DEHP, Trasande said, is often used to soften plastic bottles. It's used in plastic that is printed with the number 3 for recycling. The researchers said their findings don't prove that eating food packaged with phthalates causes insulin resistance. For example, it's possible children who are already insulin-resistant have unhealthier eating habits and eat and drink more packaged products - thus the higher phthalate levels in their urine. But Trasande told Reuters Health the chemical may influence how the body secretes insulin in response to sugar. Because of that, he tells parents to avoid buying plastics made with DEHP. "I advise them not to wash plastic containers in the dishwasher," he said. And, "When the plastic is clearly etched or damaged, it's time to throw it away." For a separate study published concurrently in Pediatrics, Dr. Joyce Lee from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor and her colleagues used nutrition survey data through 2010 to compare BPA levels in the urine of six- to 18-year-olds with other health measures. In their analysis of 3,370 kids, BPA - an industrial chemical that may mimic estrogen in the body - was not linked to insulin resistance or blood sugar. But children with higher BPA levels were more likely to be obese, and tended to have a higher waist circumference-to-height ratio, than those with the lowest levels."

The particular variety of Phthalate-DEHP is implicated in developing insulin resistance leading to diabetic conditions, especially among children. Similarly BPA is now being confirmed as an obesogenic chemical causing early obesity among children. On the face of the fact that almost 20% of American kids are obese and the consumption of processed foods is very high in that country, there is a definite cause for alarm. It is high time that safety authorities wake up to this shocking reality and revisit the issue of safety of all food ingredient currently allowed for use by the industry before further damage is caused to the innocent public.

V.H.POTTY
http://vhpotty.blogspot.com/
http://foodtechupdates.blogspot.com

CO-EXISTENCE OF OVER NUTRITION AND UNDER NUTRITION-IRONY OF TO DAY'S WORLD!

Wonder as to how many people have heard of the "Bellagio Declaration" which became a rallying point for awakening all the countries in the world to fight against the money and muscle power of the giant and brutal multinational food companies against health safety policies of the national governments? International Congress of Nutrition held at Granada in Spain recently focused on the health problems created by the wrong products churned out by the food industry causing uncontrolled obesity among the population, young and old alike. The Bellagio Declaration was made at Bellagio in Italy earlier exhorting developing countries to be on the guard against the steam rolling tactics and strategies of food giants in sabotaging good and useful government policies intended to safeguard the health of their citizens. A look at the declaration contained in the following commentary will reveal the dangers posed by the industry created obesity epidemic while rampant under nutrition is widely prevalent in these countries.

"In June, a meeting on the progress of obesity prevention efforts in low and middle income countries was held in Bellagio, Italy. The Bellagio Declaration was released yesterday at the International Congress of Nutrition in Granada, Spain, calling for greater efforts from organisations and governments to protect healthy food policies from the lobbying efforts of large food corporations, or 'Big Food and Big Soda.' Professor Barry Popkin from the University of North Carolina said, "Governments see the rising tsunami of obesity flooding over their countries, but as soon as they put up serious policies to create healthier food environments they get hammered by the food industry." The policies which provoke this response are regulations to reduce the marketing of unhealthy foods to children, front-of-pack labelling systems to help consumers readily assess the healthiness of the food, and taxes on unhealthy foods like sugar-sweetened beverages, said Professor Carlos Monteiro, University of Sao Paulo, a co-convener and one of Brazil's leading public nutrition researchers. Different countries' experiences were published this week in Obesity Reviews, and showed that the obesity epidemic is rising very fast in many developing countries, rapidly catching up or overtaking undernutrition as the dominant nutrition problem. "This is creating a double burden of co-existent overnutrition and undernutrition within many populations or even within households," reads a statement from the International Association for the Study of Obesity. The director general of the World Health Organisation (WHO), Dr Margaret Chan, has recently called the lobby forces of 'Big Food and Big Soda' one of the biggest challenge that countries face as they try to reduce obesity and diet-related chronic diseases. She outlined some of the tactics the food industry has been using such as lobby groups, promises of self-regulation, lawsuits, and industry-funded research. The Bellagio Declaration calls on WHO to develop norms for government engagement with the private sector so that partnerships are not detrimental to nutrition goals. "The first priority for food policies is to improve nutritional outcomes for the population, not the bottom lines of multi-national corporations," said Professor Boyd Swinburn, co-chair of the International Obesity Task Force. Earlier this week Oxfam updated its Behind the Brands scorecard ranks, and found that leading food brands are being very sluggish in improving their social and environmental policies. No company performed better overall than the 'fair' category, with companies including Nestle, Unilever, Coca-Cola, Danone and General Mills experiencing slight increases in their scores. Associated British Foods, General Mills and Kellogg's are at the bottom of the scorecard with few signs of progress".

It is understandable that in a rich country like the US, the government is influenced overwhelmingly by the powerful food industry due to election politics. But what is shocking is the unimaginable influence the same industry through its multinational food giants is exerting in many under developed and developing countries like India where malnutrition and under nutrition are widely prevalent, in deciding about food safety policies! Also true is the scant disregard these food companies have for the life and welfare of the citizens in these countries where they operate. One must remember the Union Carbide caused Bhopal gas tragedy where thousands perished and a few more thousands were crippled but the multinational got away with barely a rap on their knuckles! History is being repeated when MNCs are again trying to influence these governments to allow GMO food crop cultivation with no control over the long term consequences of these crops on the health of the population. It is the responsibility of the governments in these less fortunate countries to stand up against the machinations of the industry which is more concerned with its bottom line than the well being of the citizens who consume their products!  

V.H.POTTY
http://vhpotty.blogspot.com/
http://foodtechupdates.blogspot.com

TEARS FROM AND FOR ONIONS-WHO IS RESPONSIBLE?

Is onion an important food for Indians? Obviously it appears so as reflected by the political significance attached to shooting prices that rule the onion markets across the country. It is not easy to forget what happened in Delhi State two decades ago when spiraling onion prices resulted in collapse of the then government. Present situation is reminiscent of what prevailed then and it appears Onion and Petrol are competing with each other to see which will breach the Rs 100 mark first! What is incongruous is the effect of this price escalation of onion on the national economy and the muddied thinking of the present day government in tackling the same. Here is a take on this "tear some" issue as is being experienced by the Indian citizen every day!

"The uptick of wholesale prices to a six month high of 6.1% in August, largely fuelled by a 244.6% increase in onion prices, is bad news for the economy. Not only does it set back hopes of a rate cut to boost investments in the monetary policy review by the RBI at the end of the week, it also highlights the government's continuing inability to manage the food economy and rein in volatility of food prices. Blaming bad weather doesn't cut much ice. The rising prices of essential food items like rice despite good monsoons are mainly due to the large stocks accumulated to meet the needs of the food security Act. The continuous increase in minimum support prices for rice and wheat by the government has also proved counterproductive as it has discouraged a shift in cropping patterns to vegetables or the diversification of production to livestock, fish and poultry. Consequently, prices of vegetables and high protein foods like milk, eggs, fish and meat have shot up, making them unaffordable to the poor. Inadequate storage facilities and the failure to modernise the food supply chain have also added to the problem. Curbing volatility in food prices and improving supply would require strong measures by both state and Union governments. States have to reform the Agriculture Produce Marketing Committee Act to allow for contract farming, direct marketing and setting up markets in the private sector. Adequate credit has to be ensured for setting up cold storage chains. The bias against large organised retailers, including foreign chains, has to be dropped. Given their global supply chains, they would have cooled domestic prices by realigning their procurement orders. The government should also shift to direct cash transfers from food subsidies, thus reducing the need to build huge stocks".

If government sources are to be believed this phenomenon is unlikely to last for long and the prices would come down in a "few days" time! According to records onion prices have been ruling abnormally high during the last few months and it is far fetched to expect the prices to come down soon. Announcing imports is just a play of words meaning nothing as not even a kilogram of foreign onion has landed in the country yet! It is a pity that consequences of policies announced like the Food Security Act are not thought of and how the country will suffer because of these follies. It is believed that farmers may increasingly switch over to cereals in the coming years because of high procurement prices offered to them, further endangering the nutritional security of the population. One can only hope that a more cohesive and visionary government after the coming general election will address these issues and reverse the present disastrous policies ruining the country. 

V.H.POTTY
http://vhpotty.blogspot.com/
http://foodtechupdates.blogspot.com

AN UNHOLY ALLIANCE AGAINST CONSUMERS!- CAN IT BE TRUE?

Where will the consumer go if the scientific community works in connivance with the industry in supporting health claims that are not substantiated or proved? The latest controversy in the US regarding the alleged role of the American Heart Association (AHA) in giving certificate to processed food products as heart healthy when they were really unhealthy products if critically scrutinized, refuses to fade away soon. The bitter legal fight, recently reported from New York concerns the healthiness of a famous brand of soup which has been given the "Heart Check" certification by the Association in spite of it containing high levels of Sodium supposed to be a villain in diseases like blood pressure, kidney disease, heart attack and stroke. Since the Association is collecting a hefty fee for awarding such certificates, many consumer right activists feel that it is unethical and illegal. Here is a take on this issue which can be expected to be fought bitterly in the coming days. 

"At the center of the federal lawsuit is the "Heart-Check" certification by the American Heart Association,  and whether it rightfully conveys that a product carries particular health benefits. The lawsuit says the nonprofit group lets Campbell and other companies use the "Heart-Check" label on products that run counter to its stated mission, in exchange for fees. The American Heart Association says its goal is to fight cardiovascular diseases and stroke. To earn its "Heart-Check" certification, the group's website states that products must have no more than 480 milligrams of sodium per serving. But the website also notes elsewhere that "low sodium" is defined as having 140 milligrams or less per serving, the lawsuit notes. "The AHA, for a fee, abandons its general, non-commercial dietary and nutritional guidelines," the lawsuit states. A can of Campbell's "Healthy Request" condensed Chicken Noodle Soup, which bears the certification mark in question, is listed as having 410 milligrams of sodium per half-cup serving. The lawsuit notes that there are two or more servings per can, meaning there would be at least 820 milligrams of sodium in a can. A representative for the American Heart Association, Amit Chitre, said in an email that the group doesn't make recommendations on what qualifies as an appropriate level of sodium for an individual serving. The group simply states on its website that people should aim to eat 1,500 mg of sodium or less per day. The lawsuit states that the AHA's seal of approval misleads people into thinking in that products made by Campbell "possess some cardiovascular benefit not enjoyed by products that have not been certified by the AHA." It states the only difference is that Campbell pays money for the certification."

It is just not correct to call a soup healthy if its one serving provides almost 30% of the daily intake of sodium recommended by many health pundits and international nutrition agencies. Imagine the effect of a single can of this soup being consumed in a day which can soak the consumer with more than 50% of the daily allowed sodium in the diet! A low sodium food product containing no more than 10% of the RDA for sodium is considered as healthy and AHA should have looked into the sodium content as one of the parameters for certifying products as heart healthy. As rightly said in the legal suit, other products containing same amount of sodium manufactured by others without the Heart Check certification will have a disadvantage in the market because of their unwillingness to pay for AHA certification. It will be interesting to wait for the decision of the court as and when it is pronounced. One can only consider such controversies unhealthy especially when scientific bodies indulge in selling their seal of approval in such arbitrary fashion!  

V.H.POTTY
http://vhpotty.blogspot.com/
http://foodtechupdates.blogspot.com

ANOTHER FOOD FRAUD FROM CHINA!-WHAT A SHAME!

Does food industry really deserve the trust and confidence it enjoys from the innocent consumers who buy their products day in and day out thinking they are safe and good? This question becomes all the more crucial in a country like the US where almost 80% of the food consumed daily by an average family comes from the processed food industry! In contrast in countries like China and India hardly 20% of the daily foods comes from the commercially processed segment. One may argue that the damage potential from the industry due to sub-quality and fraudulent foods may not be much! But this is a specious argument not worthy of any consideration because the two countries together account for about 2.5 billion plus people, almost one third of the world population. It should be borne in mind that an important sector like food processing industry cannot be allowed to injure the health of even a single individual by its fraudulent action. The shocking news that in China almost 5% of the package food industry turn over is accounted for by recycled foods made from date expired market returns should disturb the conscience of the world. Here is a take on this unfortunate situation obtaining in China vis-a-vis recycling of foods rejected by the retail market.   

"Snacks made from expired animal proteins sold in vacuum-sealed packaging are collected from underground companies by food processors in Wenzhou China and sold to people nationwide as fresh food. Such recycled junk accounts for as much as 5% of the Chinese packaged food business, reported Jiangnan Times on Friday. Wenzhou police uncovered 10 underground mills in Zhejiang's Cangnan County in June, including large quantities of chemical additives and food coloring agents to give the expired goods a fresh look. Officers said millions of tons of expired packaged food is recycled in Pingyang County each year and sold to the public. Companies dumping the expired food products include market names like Xiangbalao, a famous Wenzhou brand, according to the newspaper. The expired foods are unwrapped and then bleached with cleaning powders. Then they are sold to food processors who use chemical additives to improve the appearance, repack them and sell them to grocery and package stores nationwide".

While the report which surfaced due to the efforts of some investigative journalists may reflect on the effectiveness of food security regime presently in place, a country like India cannot gloat over it as the situation there is no better. With unreliable data and reporting system and an ineffective safety vigilance apparatus in place, there must be millions of food frauds taking place across the country, unnoticed and unreported. Poor citizens are left to suffer silently with recourse to justice either from the executive branch or the elephantine judicial system! Isolated cases like the recent Bihar school lunch tragedy claiming 23 innocent lives briefly receives attention to be forgotten promptly within a few days! With precious national resources being wasted on non-productive and non-asset building programs, the federal government has neither the money nor the commitment to protect the health of the citizen through effective implementation of its own food safety regulations promulgated 2-3 years ago!

V.H.POTTY
http://vhpotty.blogspot.com/
http://foodtechupdates.blogspot.com

BUTTER VIA NON-ANIMAL PLANT ROUTE-NEW DEVELOPMENTS

Butter derived from animal milk is a standard feature of food in many cultures and especially in the US consumers cannot imagine a diet without butter used practically in every preparation. The process of butter making involves extraction of milk and removing the cream by centrifugation to be converted into butter sticks and slabs. Concern about the cholesterol content in butter, consumers welcomed alternative options like margarine prepared from vegetable oils and the latter has been slowly gnawing at the butter market during the last 3-4 decades. The technology for making margarine is now so sophisticated that it is very difficult for a lay consumer to distinguish between natural butter and high quality margarine in terms of appearance, flavor, texture, taste and functionality. But cheap vegetable oils like Palm oil which are used by the margarine industry as a raw material, are increasingly coming under attack from the consumers because of its cascading effect on denudation of rain forests in countries like Malaysia and Indonesia and consequent global warming. Against this background path breaking biotechnological processes are providing a viable alternative to vegetable oils via Algae. Algal oil can be processed to get a variety of products with different sensory characteristics and functional features and butter is no exception. The rapid rise of biotech companies capable of producing Algal oil on commercial scale from sugars using the fermentation route is an amazing feat with dramatic impact in the coming years. Here is a take on this "Cow to plant to Algae" story! 

"Consider for a moment that the average California cow produces just enough cream per year to produce 838 pounds of butter, or 3,352 sticks of butter per year. This is based on the assumption that it takes 11 quarts of milk to make 1 pound of butter and that the average cow produces 2,305 gallons of milk per year. On the other hand, there is 1/2 cup of vegetable oil in 1 stick of margarine and each cup of vegetable oil conservatively equates to 8 ounces. According to Solazyme's Form S-1, there are approximately 290 gallons in a metric ton [MT] of Solazyme's oil. This suggests that 1 MT of oil is capable of generating roughly 9,280 sticks of margarine. Therefore, we see that the 100,000 MT facility now under construction for the joint venture between Solazyme and Bunge (BG) could roughly support the production of 928,000,000 sticks of margarine in a given year. Assuming sticks of butter are equal replacements to sticks of margarine, we see that this one facility could theoretically displace over 275,000 cows and their related costs. That's quite impressive when one considers that there are roughly 60,000 dairy farms in the United States with the typical dairy herd averaging 135 cows per farm according to Purdue University. While this example may be a bit of a peculiar comparison, the point illustrates the efficiencies of utilizing Solazyme's technology in relation to the current food system". 

Mankind will be ever obliged to the biotechnology companies for investing billions of dollars on basic research to evolve strains of Algae with high fat accumulating traits and developing the large scale fermentors or bioreactors which can be set up vertically needing very little land unlike the conventional agriculture or pasture land based live stocks. Though sugar is the basic substrate from which fat is produced by the Algal cells, the versatility of the technology is such that any low grade sugars derived from non-edible cellulosic materials also can be gainfully utilized. What is not clear is whether the new potent Algal strains have been developed using genetic engineering and if so one can expect severe and adverse reaction from many consumers who are apprehensive about the safety of GMO foods in general. If Algal oil technology really takes off the whole agricultural landscape all over the world may change with potential for reduction of green house gases from the live stock animals and restoration of rain forests that protect the environment.   

V.H.POTTY
http://vhpotty.blogspot.com/
http://foodtechupdates.blogspot.com

THE FRANKENSTEIN E.COLI!-A UNIQUE PATHOGEN!

Man's fight again pathogenic bugs seems to be never ending as the latter invariably outsmarthumans in outliving the traps laid for them! The increasing class of microbes that cock a snook at all antibiotics known to day provides a scary scenario than can spoil the peace of mankind in the coming years unless a more effective strategy is drawn up now to deal with this emerging danger. Who would have imagined 2-3 decades ago that an innocuous bacteria like Escherichia coli, so common in the human guts, would become deadly, capable killing people one day. This happened when the dangerous version of this microbe E.coli O157:H7 was implicated in many food poisoning cases a few years ago. Now comes the news about the emergence of another deadly strain of this species christened E.coli O104:H4 which created havoc in Europe in the year 2011 and about which more information is available now after its isolation, from fenugreek sprouts reported to have been imported from Egypt and its genetic mapping. Here is a take on this monster bacteria which is being suggested as the most dangerous future pathogen with potential for causing devastating consequences.     

As it turned out, E. coli O104:H4 evolved from a type of E. coli known to be harmless enteroaggregative E. coli and had acquired the genes to produce Shiga toxin from more virulent strains known as enterohemorrhagic E. coli. When the outbreak struck in May 2011, medical professionals only knew to screen for enterohemorrhagic strains of E. coli, adding another layer of confusion to the initial response. Like other enteroaggregative E. coli strains, O104:H4 groups together in defensive brick patterns within a host's intestines, inducing mucus production that both shields and feeds it. Combine that with the ability to produce Shiga toxin, and O104: H4 possesses the right cocktail of genes to become especially harmful in an outbreak.
That combination of traits could also explain why the German outbreak saw such a high proportion of HUS cases. Nearly 1,000 of the 4,000 ill – or one in four – developed HUS as part of their infection. Outbreaks of other E. coli strains typically result in about one in 10 patients developing HUS, predominantly children. What's more, the O104:H4 outbreak caused HUS in adults at the same rate it did in children. Rasko and other researchers suspect that the HUS cases were exacerbated by the early prescription of antibiotics to patients when doctors did not realize they were dealing with an E. coli outbreak. The use of antibiotics against Shiga toxin-producing E. coli has a well-established link with higher rates of HUS due to bacteria releasing additional toxin when killed. In July 2012, research from the University of New Mexico Children's Hospital found that treating children's E. coli infections with antibiotics tripled their risk of developing HUS.

Interestingly this microbe, in stead of responding to antibiotics, becomes more deadly after antibiotic treatment because the dying cells produce more shiga toxin in the GI tract leading to the so called Hemolytic Uremic Syndrome or HUS as it is better known damaging the kidney. The mechanism by which it resists efforts to destroy them has been recently uncovered and there is hope than pathologists will come out with ways and means of fighting this menace soon. The danger is all the more conspicuous for consumers who eat cold foods without heating such as salads. It is not known whether O104:H4 is capable of surviving irradiation treatment and if so what could be the optimum dosage needed. If pathogens like this keep emerging, mankind has to be ready with fast response before they can cause significant damage and mortality.

V.H.POTTY
http://vhpotty.blogspot.com/
http://foodtechupdates.blogspot.com