Organic, GMO, conventional food, is it an either/or question?

August 15, 2008 By 4 Comments

vegetables There is so much research going on and we are bombarded with healthy eating advice left, right and centre; it’s difficult to know you are making the right decision about what you eat.

Prince Charles is warning of the potential ‘disaster’ of GM farming, but GM foods may be the saviour of the third world. Researchers say organic food has no extra health benefits but it clearly takes less chemicals to produce it. Conventional food production methods offer cheaper choices but may be full of pesticides and chemicals. What on earth are you supposed to choose?

Knowledge is power and you need to know the facts in order to make an educated decision. People have all sorts of ideas as to what is best and why. This video from the International Food Information Council, takes a humorous look at consumer opinion (in the US) about food production methods.

whatsforlunchv
Click here to watch the "What’s for Lunch?" video

Benefits of all methods are apparent (although I will not eat any GM until there’s about 30 years worth of research!), so it may not be a question of either/or, it’s more like a question of how is it produced and is there research to prove it’s harmless to me and the environment?

Filed Under: Health, Organic

Tesco cuts organic prices

August 8, 2008 By Leave a Comment

Source: Tesco cuts organic prices

Tesco Tesco said the cost of popular organic vegetable and salad lines were now at levels last seen almost a decade ago. Organic potatoes, asparagus, avocados and peppers are selling for not much more than the price of their standard equivalents, the retailer said.

A two pack of organic mixed peppers is £1.42 compared to the standard version at £1.36, two organic avocados cost £1.58 compared to the standard £1.44 and a 1.5kg packet of organic new potatoes is now selling for £1.24 compared to 75p for the standard version. The retailer has cut organic lines by an average of 15% to 20%, it said.

Tesco said much of the price fall was due to an increase in British produce. Last year most organic produce was imported from Europe and America after widespread flooding affected the local yield.

Tesco organic produce buyer Jonathan Corbett said: “Shoppers have told us that they want organic produce but want to pay prices closer to the standard equivalent and this is what we have done.

“On top of shoppers’ tighter budgets, most UK retailers have increased the price of organic produce as a result of last year’s poor harvest caused by flooding across the country. “In fact last year’s organic harvest was the poorest in British farming history and many farmers are still counting the cost of a much lower yield.”

Demand for organic produce across all retailers has fallen by 8.1% over the last three months, according to retail analysts TNS. Britain’s organic produce market is valued at £283 million a year.

In the last 12 weeks demand for organic fruit had fallen by 18%, while organic salad had dropped by 3% and vegetables were down 1%.

This is a tricky one…yay for Tesco reducing organic prices, making organic produce more affordable to customers. But are they passing on this reduction and paying farmers less for their produce? Or are they absorbing the cost into their vast profits? I wonder!

Filed Under: Organic

Organic sales – up or down?

August 7, 2008 By Leave a Comment

WholeFoodsMarket During my daily peruse through the news I noticed an article about the Whole Foods Market in Kensington, London, reporting losses of £9.9 million in it’s first year of trading! I have never been there but it’s somewhere I have wanted to visit since they opened, kind of like a pilgrimage I must make one day!

I thought to myself, well, there’s the credit crunch and food price increases, it’s hardly surprising that all sectors of the food and drink industries are suffering. But then I saw another article, a rebuttal from the Soil Association, stating a slow down in the growth of the organic market, but a rise none the less. Although also suffering from the credit crunch, organic farmers are in fact better off than their commercial counterparts who have to pay more for artificial feeds, fertilisers and pesticides.

So I re-read the first article – if the organic market is still on the increase, there must be another reason why the Whole foods market in Kensington is in such trouble. Apparently more than 500 people are employed in the Kensington store, while the company is shelling out for three floors of retail space in what is probably the most expensive part of London. With such high costs, they’re going to need huge sales to turn a profit and stay afloat!

Regardless of healthy predictions for the organic market, people are still tightening their belts and I think any price increases at all will easily turn people away right now. Well, would it? If you saw your absolute favourite brand increase in price, what would you do? Has it already happened? Let me know how you’re finding these food price increases.

Sources
Whole lot of pain for Whole Foods
Organic market not hit by credit crunch, Soil Association says

Filed Under: Organic

Plum baby food

July 30, 2008 By 1 Comment

Plum Plum is one of my food heroes; I love their recipes, everything the company stands for and the founder Susie Willis gave us some wonderful insights when I interviewed her a few months back.

Now, Plum is back on the Eating Britain menu with a great range suitable for seven months plus. The varieties have been created to keep up with the insatiable appetite of the nation’s babies who are asking for more (confirmed by parents at a series of consumer research panels!).

All the recipes have been created by Susie Willis, using carefully selected organic ingredients, celebrated for their nutrient rich content, to create simple, wholesome, delicious recipes. They are perfectly balanced to satisfy a growing baby’s protein and energy requirements and have a unique ‘fork mash’ texture that can encourage babies to chew and make the step towards self-feeding.

There are three varieties which I asked a few of my yummy mummy friends (and their babies!) to review for Eating Britain.

Red Cabbage with Apple and Chicken

Organically reared chicken is combined with juicy apples and red cabbage to deliver a wonderful blend of sweet and savoury flavours. Parents who lacked time or confidence to prepare food using these ingredients requested this recipe.

Spinach with Salmon and Parsnip

Salmon is a firm favourite with parents who view it as a key superfood, rich in essential fatty acids and omega 3. There is currently only a limited choice for mums looking for fish dishes and this innovative recipe combines fish with a wonderful root vegetable and nutrient dense green leaf for a taste and texture sensation that will satisfy growing appetites.

Parsnip, Carrot and Cheddar Mash

Cheddar mash with superfood root vegetables offers an exciting vegetarian meal with a true homemade flavour and texture that appeals to babies and toddlers alike.

Available as convenient, ready-to-eat, re-sealable pots from Tesco, Waitrose, Ocado, and Boots. RRP £2.29 / £2.49 in twin packs of 2 x 100g.

PlumBaby

I asked my friends to consider the following when feeding their babies with the Plum Baby foods:

  • Packaging and portability
  • Taste, colour and texture
  • The organic nature of the ingredients
  • Price

One of my friend’s babies refuses to eat anything that isn’t home made, causing a lot of extra pressure on his mum, who understandably was far from enthusiastic about trying these Plum dishes. But she said she’d give it a try, so I gave her some samples and a few days later she asked “Where can I buy more?!”. Her baby absolutely loved them!

The yummy mummies really liked the clear information on the packaging and found the pots very easy to take anywhere. In particular, they felt the lids meant a lot less mess.

All the babies loved the flavours and their mums thought they tasted good too! They were particularly impressed with the ‘adult’ nature of the dishes which contain herbs and spices, and are not bland at all – “very refreshing to see”. The babies and mums really liked the texture as it wasn’t too smooth.

The organic ingredients were extremely important to some mums, as they are trying to feed their babies with only organic foods. But one mum in particular was just happy that her baby ate them, whether they were organic or not was not the most important issue to her.

All the mums said that they applauded the whole ethos behind producing a really fantastic baby food of extremely high quality, but they just wished the price was a little more reasonable. That said, they also said the foods were fairly priced considering the quality of the ingredients and the thought that had gone into producing a completely nutritionally balanced meal.

Overall, these Plum Baby foods were a roaring success with all the little plums that tasted them.

For more information about Plum Baby, take a look at their wonderful website.

Thank you very much to all the yummy mummies and their little plums for taking part in this review.

Filed Under: Featured, Kids, Organic

Nutrition in a nutshell

July 14, 2008 By Leave a Comment

CocojacksI am a great believer in the benefits of coconut oil; not only is it a great skin moisturiser and deep conditioner, it is very healthy to eat and cook with.

Coconut oil’s thermogenic properties increase the body’s metabolism, thereby increasing energy levels and weight loss. It also contains fewer calories than many other oils and fats.

A study of the south pacific islands near New Zealand in the 1960s – before the islands were exposed to refined food – showed that the inhabitants were healthy with ideal weight to height ratios. Digestive problems were rare; constipation almost unknown. The people ate only natural foods – and coconut was a staple food. Compared with those of us in rich Western countries who consume 40% of our calories as fats, the indigenous islanders consumed 60% of their diet as fats – almost entirely from coconuts.

Oats are also a natural form of energy and contain soluable fibre, as well as iron and B vitamins.

The health and energy giving benefits of certified virgin coconut oil and oats can now be enjoyed in a nutritious flapjack.
Coco-jacks, from the importers of CoconoilTM, have just launched a natural wholegrain oat flapjack made with organic virgin coconut oil. Containing no hydrogenated fats and no trans fats, they are high in fibre and give a slow release of energy.

They are a convenient way to introduce the healthy properties of oats and CoconoilTM to the whole family. Coco-jacks are ideal for school packed lunches, as an energy-boosting snack, as a breakfast bar, as part of a healthy lunch or picnic and make great party treats.
CoconoilTM is a pure organic virgin coconut oil from Sri Lanka. It contains no pesticides or GMO ingredients and is not hydrogenated, bleached, refined or deodorised.

For more information about Coco-jacks and CoconoilTM, visit www.coconoil.co.uk

Filed Under: Health, Organic, Sweets & Desserts
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