Skip to content
Join our Newsletter

My "Big Four" food let-downs

Just when you thought our food supply might be getting better...
food_glenda1

I've been tracking issues in our food supply system for years. Sometimes I feel optimistic, like when Canada became the first country to declare bisphenol A (BPA) a toxic substance and banned it in plastic water bottles and baby food containers.

And sometimes I don't, like when they didn't ban BPA in the lining of cans used for food with the same stroke of the pen.

It seems to me these issues track like climate change. They make headlines, people say, oh gosh, that's awful. Then, when it comes to the hard lifting, such as effecting policy or other real change, we burrow back into our little lives and the latest celebrity meltdown.

In lieu of something somewhere having eternal mercy on our souls, which only further encourages procrastination and avoidance of meaningful action, I give you these, my Big Four let-downs regarding our food supply, starting with the BPA dropoff.

1. BPA is still kicking around

According to Toxic Free Canada (formerly the Labour Environmental Alliance Society, which brought us the eternally useful CancerSmart Consumer Guide), bisphenol A mimics the female hormone estrogen, and causes defective cell division during development even at extremely low doses.

A growing number of studies have also linked BPA to other kinds of reproductive and developmental damage, as well as breast and prostate cancer, and to the possibility it may play a role developing Alzheimer's disease and even diabetes because of its effect in causing insulin resistance.

The Canadian Cancer Society points out that BPA is still used in making certain plastics and the resin that lines food cans. Some sources, mostly in the U.S., also say it's used to line soda pop cans.

The U.S.-based Work Group for Safe Markets' released a report, called No Silver Lining, An Investigation into Bisphenol A in Canned Foods, which summarizes results from testing canned foods from the States and Ontario for BPA.

It was found in 92 per cent of the samples. The highest level of BPA — 1,140 parts per billion, which, to the group's knowledge was the highest level ever found in the U.S. — was detected in Del Monte French Style Green Beans. Other high scorers included Wal-Mart's Great Value Green Peas and Healthy Choice Old Fashioned Chicken Noodle Soup.

BPA has also been restricted in many European and Middle Eastern countries.

Given the above, why on Earth, when our federal government banned BPA in certain products in 2010, did it not include a ban for all food and drink applications?

Sigh.

Yes, all of us should eat fresh or frozen. But let's face it, most of us still use canned goods to some degree. Until manufacturers move to wonderful, inert, but heavy-to-ship glass, thank goodness one supplier is proudly BPA-free.

With the exception of its tomato products, Eden is your source for BPA-free canned food. Find Eden in organic/health food stores or specialty departments of conventional grocery stores, and look around for other BPA-free brands.

You can find the occasional product from Europe, but then there's that big carbon footprint from shipping. Double sigh...

2. EDTA lies under the radar

Since we're in the canned goods zone, I wonder when Canadian policy makers are going to get onto EDTA, or ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (see why we use the acronym?).

EDTA is a persistent organic pollutant — defined by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency as a toxic chemical that adversely affects human health and the environment.

Think about it: despite more than 900 environmental treaties coming into force over the past 40 years around the world, human-induced environmental degradation is reaching unprecedented levels.

EDTA is right in there because it has a number of properties that render it useful in various manufacturing processes for food and other items, including cosmetics and soaps. You find EDTA most commonly in canned goods, especially beans, so they don't get that horrid metallic taste, as well as in fatty foods like margarine and mayonnaise so they don't go rancid, and in soft drinks and beer.

One form, calcium disodium EDTA, is used for chelation therapy, albeit with accompanying red flags, which is a different matter.

Other than that, there isn't much of a cautionary profile for EDTA here in North America — yet.

But it is on the radar for Europeans, with some brands, such as La Molisana out of Italy, manufacturing their canned goods with no EDTA. Some Western European countries have also banned EDTA in detergents.

3. GE regs in deep space

If EDTA is under the radar, genetically engineered (GE) regulations requiring labelling so consumers can choose — or an altogether ban on more questionable practices, such as allowing GE experimental foods into our food supply — remain out there in deep space.

Given Health Canada's stance that genetically modified foods are as safe as any other foods, and the fact that about 60 to 70 per cent of food we eat contains some kind of genetically engineered ingredient, I don't see much chance of change soon, even though one Decima poll showed 88 per cent of Canadians want genetically modified labelling.

Some groups, like Greenpeace and Council for Canadians, have been lobbying for years for transparent labelling so people don't have to shop the aisles with an ever-changing list of Monsanto-owned brands to avoid.

More than 40 countries around the world — even China — have regs on GE labelling, so for Pete's sake, why don't we?

4. Nobody bit on a bag ban

Takes a bunch of feisty Irish men and women to lead the way. After breaking ground with the 15-cent plastic bag tax in Ireland in 2002, Northern Ireland has now popped up with a 10-cent charge that will kick in in 2013.

Meanwhile, back in Canuck country, we applauded our progressive friends, then whined and debated and whined again about a bag tax here, or an outright ban there, and still not one single jurisdiction, not even the great visionary councils at Whistler, had the cojones to bring in a tax if not an outright ban.

All hail the American Plastic Manufacturing Association!

And bring your own bag next time. You'd surely not forget it if there weren't any at the checkout.

Glenda Bartosh is an award-winning freelance writer who wonders about the attention span of the average modern human.