| 1 | 1 | | Can an industry with a turnover of £ 35 billion be expected to be objective about |
| 2 | | its activities? I'm only asking because I've been leafing through a pamphlet issued by the |
| 3 | | Food & Drink Federation, whose members do have such a turnover. It has a pastoral |
| 4 | | cover showing cows grazing in a field gazing benignly at a tablecloth laid in the grass, on |
| 5 | | which perch a representative sample of the British diet - canned peaches and baked |
| 6 | | beans, a bottle of lemon squash, half a wholemeal loaf, a carton of yogurt, some biscuits |
| 7 | | and a packet of frozen peas. |
| 2 | 8 | | The pamphlet, Common Sense About Food, is supposed to be a commentary on the |
| 9 | | current debate about the nation's diet. It is as soothing as a cough mixture, as comforting |
| 10 | | as a cup of cocoa. A skilful piece of writing designed to tranquillize those who might be |
| 11 | | alarmed by suggestions that the food they are eating is rubbish. |
| 3 | 12 | | The main theme of the pamphlet is that ordinary folk are capable of deciding for |
| 13 | | themselves what they are going to eat; they don't want to be 'dictated to by the |
| 14 | | authorities or by food freaks'. A vision is conjured up of petty Hitlers reintroducing food |
| 15 | | rationing, and bearded visionaries forcing us all to eat raw carrots and nuts. 'Some |
| 16 | | critics,' says the federation, 'praise the diet we had during the last war and would like to |
| 17 | | see the authorities control what people eat ... they seem to forget how deadly dull this |
| 18 | | wartime diet was.' |
| 4 | 19 | | The federation points to the 50,000 food and drinks products now available to all, |
| 20 | | and the dozens of new products that are tried out each week, as a proof that |
| 21 | | 'manufacturers are constantly studying what people want'. There is, of course, quite a bit |
| 22 | | about processed food. Tea, says the pamphlet, is a processed food, and so is butter, milk |
| 23 | | and bread. So what's wrong with processed food? |
| 5 | 24 | | And what's wrong with additives? They've all been approved by the government as |
| 25 | | safe. What the pamphlet doesn't suggest is that a large part of the processed food which |
| 26 | | the industry markets is nowhere near as nutritious as bread and butter and milk, and |
| 27 | | when it comes to additives the government has a very permissive attitude to what is safe. |
| 6 | 28 | | According to the London Food Commission, of the 3,500 additives in use in the |
| 29 | | UK only 277 are regulated, and only 149 additives permitted in Britain also have EEC |
| 30 | | approval. Of the 17 artificial colours permitted by the UK government, five are banned |
| 31 | | by the rest of the EEC, ten are not permitted in the USA, and Norway has banned all 17. |
| 7 | 32 | | But then, says the federation, these additives are only used 'to produce products |
| 33 | | with the characteristics that people want. If consumers' attitudes change, the food |
| 34 | | industry will always adapt accordingly.' But how likely is it that attitudes will change |
| 35 | | when the pressures to consume foods with high levels of fat and sugar are so intense? |
| 36 | | The only reference in the pamphlet to sugar is that it's 'a traditional method of preserving |
| 37 | | used in making jams and in confectionery'. No suggestion that mega-tons of sugar are |
| 38 | | added needlessly to processed foods to render them more acceptable and toothsome. |
| 8 | 39 | | 'Some commentators assert that the food industry puts its profits before the |
| 40 | | nation's health,' says the federation, adding indignantly, 'this is outrageous and untrue.' |
| 41 | | But is it? On the back of the pamphlet the federation prints the recommendations of |
| 42 | | COMA, the government's committee on the medical aspects of food policy. COMA has |
| 43 | | recommended that we cut down on our total fat intake and eat more bread, cereals, fruit |
| 44 | | and vegetables. And yet, of the 325 million spent on food advertising in 1985, only about |
| 45 | | one penny in the pound went on promoting fruit and vegetables. |
| 9 | 46 | | The federation's pamphlet does promise some hope for the future. 'Where there is |
| 47 | | authoritative advice on diet and health,' it says, 'with well-established scientific backing |
| 48 | | the food industry will always respond with decisive support.' Perhaps, in view of |
| 49 | | COMA's recommendations, the federation could persuade its 47 trade association |
| 50 | | members to rethink their advertising budgets for 1987. |
| | | |
| | | Derek Cooper in 'The Listener', January 1, 1987 |
