Swallow This (29 page)

Yet the pace of food engineering innovation means that newer, more complex creations with ever more opaque modes of production are streaming onto the market every day. As I put the finishing touches to this book, a dossier for a new line of dairy proteins drops into my mailbox. Alongside a photo of a rustic-looking, golden pan loaf, the explanation reads:

Many bakers are now turning to permeates, a rather new ingredient in the food ingredients market. Permeate is a co-product of the production of whey protein concentrate (WPC), whey protein isolate (WPI), ultrafiltered milk, milk protein concentrate (MPC), or milk protein isolate (MPI).

Permeate, apparently, ‘contributes to the browning of baked goods’ and produces bread that ‘retains its softness for a longer period of time and extends shelf life’. How clever. But I for one would prefer that my bread was browned solely from the application of heat. I’m prepared to accept that it will stale over a natural course of time, rather than eat something that owes its existence to ingredients and technologies I am not privy to, cannot interrogate, and so can never truly understand. Am I about to hand over all control of bread, or anything else I eat, to the chemical industry’s food engineers? Not without a fight.

For most of the world’s history, populations around the globe have shared a common vision and understanding of food, despite their diverse cultures and geographies. From the Ancient Greeks to the Victorians, civilisations down the ages would be able to identify every ingredient in van Dijck’s
Still Life with Cheese
, and the food so beautifully depicted in this painting still speaks clearly to me. But if we laid out a more contemporary artwork, let’s call it
Still Life with Processed Food
, none of us, past or present, would really be any the wiser. Manufactured food relies on words to identify itself. Real food needs no explanation. It is instantly accessible to everyone, everywhere, any time.

Notes

Introduction

‘You will still find it hard to avoid the 6,000 food additives’: W. Kamuf
et al
., ‘Overview of caramel colours’, http://www.ddwcolor.com/Caramel-Overview.pdf

‘Norfolk turkey king, Bernard Matthews, abruptly terminated a face-to-face interview’: Bernard Matthews obituary,
Guardian
, 26 November 2010: http://www.theguardian.com/business/2010/nov/26/bernard-matthews-obituary

‘In food manufacturing, no one seems to blink at stumping up £1,999 for a conference pass, or paying £399 upwards for a workshop’: Fi Global Summit 2014, https://registration.n200.com/survey/0agc7rw9lg3q9

Food Flavours & Flavour Enhancers: Market, Technical & Regulatory Insights, Leatherhead Food Research: http://www.leatherheadfood.com/food-flavours

George Orwell:
The Road to Wigan Pier
, Penguin Modern Classics, pages 91–92

‘This industry is just so damn profitable.’ Food and drink manufacturing is a great British success story: FDF: Ingredients For Success, https://www.fdf.org.uk/publicgeneral/Ingredients-for-success.pdf

The UK Department of Health’s ‘eatwell plate’: http://tna.europarchive.org/20100929190231/http://www.food.gov.uk/images/pagefurniture/ewplatelargefeb10.jpg

The ‘Don’t Cook, Just Eat!’ campaign: http://www.just-eat.co.uk/dontcook

‘I feel more affinity with the message of the mysterious graffiti artist in Cologne’: Graffiti Artist Defaces Fast-Food Billboards with Healthy Recipes: Delish.com, 14 November 2013: http://www.delish.com/food/recalls-reviews/graffiti-artist-defaces-fast-food-billboards-with-recipes

Chapter 1

Vesta chicken curry: www.cookdandbombd.co.uk: http://img831.imageshack.us/img831/5894/vestac.jpg

Sir Gulam Noon, ‘High Noon for the ready meals industry’,
Financial Times
, 8 February 2013

‘Lasagne and chicken tikka are now the two best sellers’: author factory visit

‘By 2013, UK-based food companies were manufacturing over 12,000 different chilled food recipes’: Greencore careers leaflet, http://www.greencore.com/assets/docs/CFA_Careers_Leaflet.pdf

‘This is a big business – over £10 billion a year’: Defra tweet c. 1 August 2013

‘Which represents some 13% of the UK’s total retail food market’: CFA Media+Chilled bites, http://www.chilledfood.org/MEDIA/CHILLED+BITES

‘Within this grand total, ready meals are by far the largest sales category’: UK Chilled Food Market Report 1999–2005 (CFA)

‘The UK ate its way through 3 billion of them in 2012’: ITV
Tonight
Food Facts and Fiction, 16 August 2013

‘Now, according to Greencore’: Greencore careers leaflet, http://www.greencore.com/assets/docs/CFA_Careers_Leaflet.pdf

‘As one government food safety manual puts it’: A Guide to Calculating the Shelf Life of Foods, New Zealand Food Safety Authority, http://www.foodsafety.govt.nz/elibrary/industry/guide_calculating-contains_background.pdf

‘The Chilled Food Association presents its industry’s products as “local”’: CFA Media+Chilled bites, http://www.chilledfood.org/MEDIA/CHILLED+BITES

‘Food should be simple, well cooked and flavoursome’: CFA website: A chef’s life, http://www.chilledfood.org/MEDIA/A+chefs+life

‘When on ITV
Tonight
investigation’: ‘Food Facts and Fiction’, ITV
Tonight
, 12 August 2013

‘When the Food Safety Authority of Ireland analysed the components of one particular pizza brand’: National Audit Office Food Safety and Authenticity report 2013, http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2451619/Food-safety-inspectors-pizza-ingredients-60-countries.html

‘Around 40 per cent of the chicken we eat in the UK is imported’:
ibid

‘Pre-fried or grilled aubergines, peppers and courgettes’: Dujardin product list

‘Eggs are supplied to food manufacturers … in powders, with added sugar’: Sanovo Egg Group: whole egg powders, http://www.sanovo.com/Whole-Egg-Powders.3266.aspx

‘For manufacturing products like Scotch eggs and egg mayonnaise’: British Lion egginfo website, Ready Egg Products, http://www.egginfo.co.uk/egg-products

‘Extended shelf life’ (one month):
ibid

‘They may be liquid, concentrated, dried, crystallised, frozen, quick frozen or coagulated’: CFA, Best practice guidelines for production of chilled foods

‘Hardboiled, tubular eggs’: Eurovo, professional product range brochure

‘Egg replacers’: Egg replacers’ million-pound benefits, http://www.foodmanufacture.co.uk/NPD/Egg-replacers-million-pound-benefits,
Food Manufacture
, 31 October 2012

‘Everything from “predust” and “adhesion”’: Newlywed Foods, http://www.nwfap.com/products

‘As one supplier of batters explains’: http://www.newlywedsfoods.co.uk/index.php/products/batters

‘Rather than making potato gnocchi from freshly boiled potatoes, flour and egg’: Emflake 3890; Emsland-Stärke GmbH

‘Barbecue glazes’: MRC The Flava People website, http://www.mrcflava.co.uk/our-products/

‘Manufacturers can achieve that just marinated look in minutes’: ITV
Tonight
; ‘Food Facts and Fiction’, 16 August 2013

‘Providing complete, tailored solutions for a wide range of applications’: Synergy seasonings, http://uk.synergytaste.com/index.asp?PageID=153

‘As the marketing blurb for one such company expresses it’:
ibid

‘A touch of liquid ham and cheese flavouring’: Unique food processing solutions, http://www.uniqueingredients.com/liquid_flavour_systems.html

‘A machine that sprays on caramel’: Unique food processing solutions; spray preparations, http://www.uniqueingredients.com/spraying.html

Chinese glaze ingredients: http://www.tesco.com/groceries/Product/Details/?id=271799371

Butter extract: FLAVEX Naturextrakte GmbH

Butter powder: EPI butter powder

Cream powder: EPI cream powder

Freeze-dried apricots: A&S Biotec

‘Only short-term agreements’: CFA Climate Change Agreement; Chilled Food Sector Progress and Barriers

Chapter 2

25 major chilled food companies: http://www.chillededucation.org/industry-info/

Defra tweet 30 July 2013: The UK’s chilled prepared food industry employs 60000 inc 1000 scientists at 100+ UK sites @bisgovuk @DefraGovUK

‘Although 95% of the chilled prepared foods Britain eats is sold under a retailer’s brand’: Chilled Food Association website, Chilled Bites, http://www.chilledfood.org/MEDIA/POSITION+STATEMENTS/Chilled+Prepared+Meals

‘Sauces are cooked by the ton then spewed out onto other food components that are cooked on a conveyor belt’: ITV
Tonight
, ‘Food Facts and Fiction’, 16 August 2013

‘Ten tons of chicken tikka a day’: Noon Foods; ITV
Tonight
, ‘Food Facts and Fiction’, 16 August 2013

‘A high staff turnover and rates of sickness absence are par for the course’: letter to
Guardian
from Dave Prentis, Unison, 24 July 2014, http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jul/24/scandal-profits-come-before-food-safety

‘Many major plants are consistently understaffed and rely on agencies to fill the gaps’:
ibid

‘The use of temporary agency labour is commonplace’: Hovis workers begin strike at Premier Foods factory in Wigan,
The Grocer
, 28 August 2013, http://www.thegrocer.co.uk/companies/suppliers/premier-foods/hovis-workers-begin-strike-at-premier-foods-factory-in-wigan/348863.article

‘A ready meals factory can be churning out 250,000 individual servings a day, made up of 60 or 70 different products, using ten different assembly lines’: author factory visit

‘One leading ready meals manufacturer … boasts’: Noon Foods; ITV
Tonight
, ‘Food Facts and Fiction’, 16 August 2013

‘More than 55 per cent of all registered UK food establishments did not receive a local authority health inspection’: Restore inspection across the food industry, Unite press release, 25 July 2014, http://www.politicshome.com/uk/article/102288/unite_restore_inspection_across_the_food_industry.html, http://multimedia.food.gov.uk/multimedia/pdfs/board/board-papers-2013/lafoodlaw-annual-report-1213.pdf

Julia Long, Unite:
ibid

‘Using a system known as HACCP’: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hazard_analysis_and_critical_control_points

Product recalls on 25 February 2014: Sainsbury’s recalls its Frozen Sticky Toffee Sponge Pudding, M&S Lightly Dusted Salt and Pepper British Chicken Fillets withdrawn, Sainsbury’s Taste the Difference Roasted Chestnut, Toasted Hazelnut & Thyme Stuffing withdrawn

FSA research on nut allergy labelling: http://multimedia.food.gov.uk/multimedia/pdfs/nutallergyresearch.pdf

Tesco mouldy rice: FSA recall, http://www.food.gov.uk/news-updates/recalls-news/2013/aug/ambient#.Uw4tXP2MNSU

‘2,000 portions of rice at a time’: ITV
Tonight
, ‘Food Facts and Fiction’, 16 August 2013

Chapter 3

‘E numbers have a very high “label-polluting” effect’: Dr Jan van Loo of Beneo Group in ‘Ingredients Insight, Natural selection: clean label and natural ingredients’, 1 November 2013

‘One of the problems we face is people’s confidence in chemicals’: Phil Hood, Consumer Engagement Centre Lead – Europe, Unilever, http://www.foodanddrinkeurope.com/Products-Marketing/Celebrity-chefs-needed-to-sell-food-science-to-consumers/?utm_source=newsletter_weekly&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Newsletter%2BWeekly&c=lQa1YdAlY054tSsMPhMPBM2ahiIIgSyR, http://www.ingredients-insight.com/features/featurehealthy-trends-clean-label-and-natural-ingredients/

‘With well over 2,300 additives currently approved for use’: http://www.foodadditives.org/pdf/Food_Additives_Booklet.pdf

‘As this industry spokesman explains’: Dr Walter Lopez, Limagrain Céréales Ingrédients, http://www.lci.limagrain.com/lci/rm_10_08_11.html

Whole Foods Market ‘Unacceptable Ingredients for Food’: http://www.wholefoodsmarket.com/about-our-products/quality-standards/unacceptable-ingredients-food

‘Many [product] formulators do turn to the list of unacceptable ingredients’: Clarifying clean label,
Food Product Design
, Vol. 21 No. 5, May 2011, http://www.foodproductdesign.com/lib/download/asset-clarifying-clean-labels.ashx?item_id=4af15034-17b8-4bd4-8ea6-64a1d4dd974f

‘As the director of one food market research company put it’: Luisa Robertson, MMR, quoted in
Food Manufacture
, ‘Clean Dream’, 30 September 2013

‘The clean label concept’: IFi industry definition by National Starch Food Innovation 2012, http://www.cleanlabelinsights.com/Documents/IFI%20Article%20CLEAN%20LABEL%20DEFINITION%202010.pdf

Carrageenan and cancer:
Daily Mail
, 5 November 2013, Additive in everyday products ‘could cause cancer’, http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-80857/Additive-everyday-products-cause-cancer.html