'Organic', 'natural' and 'genetically modified' foods. You've likely seen it labelled or advertised in the grocery store, and featured on the news, but do you know what they mean?
It's estimated that as many as 55% of people may choose organic products. When a food is labelled organic this basically means a food is grown or processed without the use of genetic engineering, and has zero synthetic or artificial fertilizers, pesticides, antibiotics, growth regulators, preservatives or dyes. It's certainly quite a long list and is a wake up call for some to read over that these ingredients could be in some of our regular ol' food. This is some public speculation around this term and people probably wonder, if something is labelled organic can I be rest assured that the product is indeed what it states, i.e. organic? The answer is yes. The reason being is the term is tightly regulated. For the past two years now should a food be labelled organic or bear an organic label, it must be of at least 95% organic ingredients. Foods with 70-95% organic ingredients will state exactly so, and anything less than 70% will state the organic contents in the ingredient list.
In contrast to organic, when it comes to foods marked 'natural' I wouldn't give this term as much confidence in the grocery aisle. The terms 'natural', 'nature', 'mother nature' and 'nature's way' are often misused on labels and advertisements. To illustrate this point, some food additives, vitamins and mineral nutrients may be derived from natural sources and therefore can regarded as natural ingredients. Often people may consider foods described as natural of greater value than foods not mentioning this term, which isn't always the case. 'Schneider's Country Naturals' brand of (glorified) processed meats or 'Del Monte Fruit Twists' with all natural ingredients (basically solidified juice) are some good everyday examples.Gnetically modified foods, also known as GM foods, genetically engineered foods or biotechnology- derived foods are recently coming to a lot of people's attention. GM foods are often created with the purpose to resist disease and eliminate the need for pesticides. A hardier texture or seed, better nutritional value or faster growth are often chosen traits to produce a kind of 'super food'. Canada is a leading international producer of genetically modified food and common ingredients like GM corn, canola, soy and sugar beets grown here can end up anywhere from cornflakes and corn chips, to sweeteners, eggs, milk, meat, canola oil, tofu and sugar. Currently we don't have GM produce, however GM cottonseed oil, papaya and squash imported from the US can also end up on our grocery shelves in the form of vegetable oil in varying products. Since there are no mandatory labelling rules it is hard to truly know the percentage of processed foods containing GM ingredients on our shelves.GM foods have made big headlines in the past few weeks as we, or Canada have rejected to have voluntary labelling of GM food in our country. This is in contrast to a host of countries, including Brazil, Chile, China, Colombia, India, Saudi Arabia and Japan, as well as the European Union, who appear to be moving forward with the voluntary labelling being made available for consumers. Health Canada has taken the stance that due to the lack of evidence suggesting GM foods are of worry or harm there is no currently benefit for voluntary labelling at this time.
If you are interested in eating more organically there are several places in and around town to obtain organic food. Just a few well known places would be the Lien and Organic Farms, the Farmers Market, Rabbittown Community Garden, Rocket Bakery, Food for Thought, Belbins Grocery, and well as natural food sections of Dominion and Sobeys. There are also restaurants that serve seasonally available organic produce, especially in the downtown area.
As seen in The Telegram July 25, 2011
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