spud bashing

A lot of coverage in the press recently over a piece of academic research carried out by academics here in the college: Clare Gilsenan, Dr Roisin Burke and Catherine Barry-Ryan. I'm glad to see that the Sunday Times had the helpful title "Organic spuds taste no better" because i certainly wouldn't have gathered that from the title of the original piece. "A study of the physicochemical and sensory properties of organic and conventional potatoes (Solanum tuberosum) before and after baking". That full article appeared in the March 2010 issue of International Journal of Food Science and Technology which we do of course take in the library but unfortunately we only have access to the e-version from issues more than 12 months old. However if you need to see the full article please get in touch. Not the first time that organic food has featured here and not always in the best of light. See posts from 30th Sept. Organic food fraud and 30th July. Organic food is BAD for you. Nothing like sensationalist headlines to sell a few papers.

Organic food fraud

The Barbour index i've mentioned before (see post from 5th Aug) as being one of the best full text resources available through the library web site. Organic food has also appeared before (last post 30th July). The latest weekly Barbour Briefing Food Safety, which i receive by old fashioned email contains a report on a company director who was jailed in the UK for a £1million organic food scam. Over a 5 year period the company was suppling its customers with conventionally grown foods falsely posing as organic. I would suggest that this is not an uncommon industry practice The other Directors received suspended sentences and 150 hours of community work. The scam was uncovered by the Food Standards Agency who must i presume have a Food Fraud Flying Squad.

I once knew a hairdresser working in London who had a salesman offering her aerosols of hair spray or somesuch product. When she enguired whether they were environmentally sound the guy assured her " we can always put these "eco friendly" stickers on them if you want"

Organic food is BAD for you

Well not quite true but it's a good headline. A report was published yesterday for the Food Standards Agency by the very impressive sounding 'Nutrition and Public Health Intervention Unit, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine', comparing organical Versus "conventionally" produced foods. In terms of nutritional value they found no added health benefits from consuming organic rather than any other type of produced food. However that said the reason many people choose organic food is to do with other factors. (this is my own research now) My basis for buying organic would be to do with supporting farming in a traditional manner, to support a method which tries to avoid polluting the environment with pesticides etc. Come to think of it i'd never given any thought to the nutrition value or properties of an organic rather than a "conventionally" grown potato