The December Edition of Consumer Reports, already out, is bringing BPA, a controversial chemical, back to the headlines. The non-profit publisher, Consumers Union, tested various canned foods for BPA and found alarmingly high values in daily staples such as tuna, beans and soups. You can read more about it here.

This is a good opportunity to get reacquainted with a chemical we  all consume in some form, whether we know it, like it, or not.

What you need to know:
1. Bisphenol-A  is a chemical compound used as a building block of several polymers and polycarbonates that in turn are found in plastic bottles and cans. Which means all of us are exposed to tiny amounts, whether drinking canned juice, milk from a baby-bottle, or any other product sold in a plastic container or a can.

2. The chemical has been sold since the 1940’s and starting in the 1960’s has been lining the insides of cans in order to extend shelf life.

3. 7 billion pounds of BPA are produced annually, for use in food packaging, PVC water pipes, electronics, and more.

4. In 2008, more than 22 billion cans for food and more than 100 billion cans for beer and soft drinks were produced with BPA.

5. BPA behaves like the hormone estrogen once it enters the body and disturbs the normal working of certain genes. Estrogen mimicking chemicals like BPA are potentially harmful even at very low doses, such as those found in plastic bottles and cans.

6. Toxicity questions have been around for decades, raising safety issue, especially for babies who ingest a proportionally larger amount due to their small size. Potential problems include hyperactivity, learning disabilities, brain damage, and immune deficiencies.

7. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) calculated that people consume 50 micrograms of BPA per kilogram of body weight every day over the course of a lifetime. Over 40 studies have found adverse health effects in rats given less than one hundredth of that amount!

8. Over 200 animal studies that have linked BPA consumption in tiny amounts to a host of reproductive problems, brain damage, immune deficiencies, metabolic abnormalities, and behavioral oddities like hyperactivity, learning deficits and reduced maternal willingness to nurse offspring.

9. In 2008, Canada added BPA to its list of toxic substances and plans are to ban BPA from all baby bottles.

10. The FDA has zigzagged on BPA safety. In August 2008 it deemed BPA safe. However, in December 2008, the FDA’s own advisory board accused the FDA of weighing 2 industry-backed studies much more heavily than the hundreds of other independent studies. The FDA’s excuse: all the other studies did not meet the FDA’s guidelines for determining safety for human consumption, did not provide raw data, and a host of other “reasons”.

11. In March 2009, six manufacturers announced that they would voluntarily stop manufacturing bottles with BPA. Playtex Products, Gerber, Evenflo, Avent America, Dr. Brown and Disney First Years decided to so in order to preempt legal action being considered at the time by several state attorney generals.

12. In May 2009, Chicago became the first city to ban sales of baby bottles and sippy cups with BPA. Denmark became the first European country to do the same.

13. Many other European countries conducted reviews in the past 2 years but decided to maintain BPA’s safe status for now.

14. If you think you’re safe, 93% of the population has BPA in their bodies, according to urine sampling conducted by the Center for Disease Control, CDC.

15. There’s hope – Many Japanese manufacturers voluntarily stopped using BPA in 1997. In a 2003 study, BPA levels in people’s urine had dropped by 50%.

What to do at the supermarket:
Here are some tips on how to reduce your family’s  BPA intake:
1. if you have a baby or toddler, purchase BPA free plastic bottles.
2. If microwaving formula, do so in a glass bottle.
3. Opt for fresh or frozen products less than canned.
4. Drink tap water instead of bottled water

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Thank you Fooducate reader Mark G. and family for testing out 4 flavors of Crofter’s Superfruit Spreads over the past few weeks.

Crofter’s is a small Canadian company focusing on jams, jellies, preserves and spread. Everything is organic.

Earlier this spring they introduced a new line of supefruit spreads, riding on the antioxidant halo associated with these fruits. There are 4 flavors to choose from: Europe, North America, South American, and Asia. Each comes with a different fruit blend.

Here’s what Mark had to say:

My wife, my two grade-school sons, and I tested these jams out on toast, waffles, in plain yogurt, and (of course) PB&J’s.

While I can’t say I’ve been on the lookout for a “fun, new way to get my daily antioxidants,” I did appreciate that Crofter’s new Organic Superfruit Spreads contain no artificial anything. And I had to google a couple of those so-called “superfruits” (and here I thought yumberry was a Capt’n Crunch flavor), but apparently they do all really exist!

The PB&J sandwiches was the least successful use of the jams. Their flavor was just too subtle to stand up to the domineering peanut butter. You just could not taste them, and at $4.99 a jar, you want to be able to taste them!

The other applications – especially the toast – allowed the jams’ flavors (and textures) to come out much more. It was surprising just how much flavor they had when they had the spotlight to themselves.

All four jams were tasty enough – definitely worthy of the extra cost for a Sunday morning breakfast treat. But they all suffered from a sameness between them. Despite not having any evil additives, all four jams have cherries, the cherry tartness overwhelms most of what the other fruits might offer.  Out of all those “superfruits,” I would say that the blueberries and black currents held their ground the best. The black currents (paired up in the “European Blend” with the uber-trendy pomegranate) also benefited from it’s unique texture.

These are tasty sour-cherry flavored jams, but I would have liked some of the more exotic superfruits to shine a little more (unless yumberries taste exactly like cherries? maybe? who knows?). I’m always on the lookout for natural jams and jellies for me and my family, but these are a little to subtle (and too expensive) for my sons’ lunchbags. That just means more for me and the Missus to put on our toast and in our yogurt.

What you need to know:
Here’s the ingredient list for the South America blend:
Organic Fruit (Organic morello cherry, organic red grape concentrate, organic passionfruit puree, organic maqui concentrate), organic fair trade cane sugar, natural fruit pectin, ascorbic acid, citric acid.

Maqui berry is a “superfruit” from Patagonia (the chilly southern part of Argentina). Some claim it is much more potent than the revered acai berry from an antioxidant perspective.

While there are 4 fruits mentioned in the list, only the cherries come in their natural form. The other 3 are purees and concentrates, which means they’ve lost many of their health benefits by oxidation (exposure to air).

Ascorbic acid is just vitamin C.

Citric acid is a natural preservative that is used to add an acidic, sour taste to foods and beverages. Although it is naturally found in citrus fruit (oranges, lemons), industry has a found a cheaper way to manufacture it, using molds.

Nutrition label:
A serving is one tablespoon. it contains 30 calories, no fat, and 7 grams of sugar. The addition of ascorbic acid bumps up the vitamin C to 50% of the daily requirements. Unlike the fruits in their original form, these jams do not contain fiber.

What to do at the supermarket:

If you’re going to buy a jam, Crofter’s is about as nutritious as it gets. Not that jams are a major source of nutrition. But at least there are no artificial anythings. Enjoy on whole wheat toast of course.

Disclosure: Ah, the perks of food blogging…Crofter’s PR firm contacted us and offered to send  evaluation samples. We had them sent to a family of volunteer testers. We did not pay for the samples. We were not paid to post this blog nor were we instructed in any which way regarding its content. In fact, we forewarned the manufacturer that we are skeptical and scathing of most processed products available at the supermarket.

If you would like to have something new and possibly tasty sent to your house, why not become a Fooducate Product Tester? Just comment below or shoot us an email: blog [at] fooducate [dot] com.

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Unilever, one of the largest food conglomerates in the world, has recently announced it is adopting a holistic approach to sodium reduction in its global food portfolio.

The European based corporation is the owner of famous US brands such as Colman’s (mustard), Hellmann’s / Best Foods (mayonnaise), Knorr (sauces, stock cubes, ready-meals, meal kits, ready-soups, frozen foods), Lipton, Mazola, Ragú (pasta sauces), Skippy  (peanut butter), Slim Fast (diet products), and Wish-Bone (salad dressing). Unilever is also the world’s largest ice cream manufacturer, owning Ben & Jerry’s, Breyers, Good Humor, and Klondike in the states.

What you need to know:

Salt is composed of sodium and chloride. 1000 mg of salt contain 400mg of sodium. Our bodies need salt but over consumption leads to high blood pressure, hypertension, and other nasty diseases. And boy do we over consume.

Around 75% of the sodium we use is from processed foods. And since most of the food we eat nowadays is processed,  there is no escape.

The modern consumer, pressed for time and looking for convenience, is ingesting almost twice the recommended allowance of sodium per day (2400mg of sodium  is the recommended value).

If manufacturers of processed foods substantially reduce the amount of sodium in their products, it will have an immediate effect on most of the Western world.

Problem is that food tastes better when salty. And since companies don’t want to lose market share by selling unbecoming foods, we have been drowned in salt for decades. No company would like to take the first risky step of sodium reduction, right?

Wrong, Unilever has stepped up.

Though some may say Unilever is taking a foolhardy approach that will hurt its revenues, this is actually a smart move.

Unilever is taking preemptive measures before EU food authorities mandate it. The UK’s Food Standards Authority has already notified manufacturers that by next year (2010) guidelines will be in effect for several food categories. And stricter regulation may follow suite in coming years.

Basically, Unilever is doing something it would have had to do in any case. But by creating a media buzz around it, they gain credibility as a responsible food purveyor and a leader in nutrition.

As an aside, Unilever is also very active in promoting front of package food labeling called “Choices” in Europe. A similar plan, dubbed “Smart Choices”  has been introduced in the US. The idea is to enable consumers to know in a quick glance if a certain food passes a certain nutrition benchmark.

What to do at the supermarket:

The best way to drastically reduce sodium consumption is simply by preparing food at home. If you don’t have time, and do buy canned soups or frozen dinners, opt for the low sodium options. You can always sprinkle a bit more salt on top at home if it is not salty enough for you.

Soup mixes such as Knorr’s can be brutal in terms of sodium content, so watch out. Also, look for salt in strange places like cookies, cereals, and breads. You’d be surprised.

Products with more than 600-800 mg of sodium per serving are to be avoided as much as possible.

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flickr photo: Jason Riedy

From the New York Times:

Misshapen fruit and vegetables won a reprieve on Wednesday from the European Union as it scrapped rules banning overly curved, extra knobbly or oddly shaped produce from supermarket shelves.

“It makes no sense to throw perfectly good products away, just because they are the ‘wrong’ shape.”

Read the article…

Remember the old adage “don’t judge the book by its cover”?  Similarly, people judge food with their eyes. Marketers and retailers get it. That’s why, at any given supermarket produce section, fruits and vegetables seem like soldiers standing at attention. They are stacked neatly one on top of the other, uniformly shaped, big, bright, and shiny. Perfect. Except, that is, for their flavor. This is because supermarket produce is bred for transportability, long shelf life, and of course, the eye-candy factor.

What to do at the supermarket:

For exceptional flavor, some people bypass the supermarket and head to the farmers market, where deformed, usually small fruit and vegetables await. Not always sightly, but one bite into an heirloom tomato is enough to convince folks that tomatoes were meant to taste like this.

For those of us who do prefer the convenience of the supermarket, check out the organic section. Although the produce may not appear as sexy, in many cases it packs a flavorful punch.

Lastly, choose produce in season. Tomatoes do not grow year round near your home. When you buy them in winter, they have been picked green and traveled many miles and many days to get to your plate.  Apples may have been picked months ago and chill stored until their time came to dress the shelf at your local A&P.

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