Issue #20 2022-01-10
In praise of plastic, plus mass deaths from food fraud
Photo by Jasmin Sessler Food fraud causes mass deaths in Turkey
In praise of plastic
Food waste good news story
New rules for food and food trade
Food fraud incidents and horizon scanning updates from the Trello board
Hi,
Welcome to a new year of The Rotten Apple. At Issue #20, we have 430 subscribers, and that number is growing steadily. Thank you for your support, it’s great to have you here.
This week I share some controversial ideas about plastic packaging and discuss the recent mass alcohol poisoning event in Turkey from the perspective of economic effects. Also this week: a brief catchup on new food rules that came into effect on 1st Jan, plus a good news story about repurposing food waste.
As always, this issue ends with a list of food fraud incidents and food fraud horizon scanning news.
Coming soon: In the next few months I’ll be adding audio to this newsletter so you can catch up on your food integrity news by listening. Your job probably involves too much reading already, so I’m gonna give your eyeballs a break! If you’re a text lover - or compulsive skimmer - don’t despair, a full text format will always be part of The Rotten Apple.
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Thanks for reading!
Food Fraud
What’s going on with alcohol in Turkey?
Last month more than 50 people died from drinking illicit alcoholic beverages in Turkey. Sadly, the same thing happened the previous year, with more than 80 people dying in the same (horrible) way.
They consumed drinks containing methanol, which is toxic. Methanol can be added deliberately by food fraudsters because it has some of the same properties as ‘proper’ alcohol (ethanol). It can also be present in drinks due to poorly controlled fermentation processes.
Methanol poisoning deaths are unfortunately not uncommon, but it’s unusual to have so many happen in such a short space of time.
Why Turkey and why now? In recent times there have been large increases in the taxes levied on alcoholic beverages in Turkey. There’s also a major currency and inflation crisis underway, which has led to steeply rising prices for all food and drink, with imported goods the worst affected.
Reports of the deaths don’t say whether the victims consumed the dangerous drinks in bars, or purchased bottles of bootleg liquor to consume at home. Or both. But because 11 of the dead were foreigners, I suspect that drinks purchased from tourist bars might be the source of some of the poisonings.
With high prices for brand name alcoholic drinks, you can see why bar owners in Turkey might be tempted to buy booze from unofficial sources, like door-to-door salespeople or grey market outlets. The bar owners almost certainly weren’t aware of the risks but wanted to keep their businesses profitable by offering their patrons drinks at reasonable prices. I am speculating, of course: however, I want to share how price increases and currency problems can increase the likelihood of food fraud, with all its deadly consequences.
In short: 🍏 More than 50 locals and foreigners died in Turkey from drinking fraudulent beverages containing methanol in December 🍏 Price pressures from both heavy taxes on alcohol and the economic sitauation in Turkey have contributed to the food fraud vulnerabilities 🍏
Source:
Sustainable Supply Chains
In praise of plastic
A nationwide ban on plastic packaging for fruit and vegetables came into effect in France last week. The country has committed to phase out single use plastics by 2040 and the fruit and veg ban is believed to be able to prevent a billion items of single use plastic being used this year. Spain will follow with a similar ban in 2023. Chopped and processed fruits are exempt from the ban.
There are a lot of things wrong with our (over)use of plastic. Pollution from discarded plastic is a major concern. As we all know, both large pieces of plastic and microplastic particles can have nasty environmental effects. The other big problem with plastic is that it is mostly made from fossil fuels; carbon-rich materials that we should be leaving in the ground.
But today I am writing in praise of plastic.
There’s a reason we started using plastic to pack food last century: it is very good at protecting food during transport, storage and display. It protects food from spoilage, from damage and from contamination. Plastic packaging makes it easier for manufacturers, retailers and consumers to transport, store and display and buy food. Compared to non-plastic alternatives, plastic packaging is lighter, cheaper, more impact-resistant and – in some cases – more appealing to consumers.
Products like mass-produced bread rely on plastic packaging to retain moisture so they stay fresher for longer. Without plastic, many staple foods like mass-produced bread, which feeds millions of people every day, would be much more difficult to transport and display in our stores. And they would suffer from much shorter shelf lives as well.
I have three big reasons for loving plastic. My number one reason is its ability to keep food fresher for longer, which reduces food waste.
Secondly, plastic is also effective at retaining nutrients in food. Compared to other packaging materials like glass and metal cans, plastic packaging needs less energy to make and transport, but can be equally effective at retaining nutrients. Frozen vegetables: I’m looking at you.
My third reason for loving plastic is a little controversial. This sounds crazy, but it’s got to do with the global greenhouse effect. Plastic is an excellent store for carbon. The very same attribute that makes plastic such a long-lived pollutant makes it an effective means of keeping carbon out of the atmosphere. Plastic is mostly carbon, and it (mostly) doesn’t biodegrade, which means it isn’t converted back into carbon dioxide when it becomes waste.
Plastic is made almost exclusively from fossil fuels, either from crude oil or natural gas. More specifically, the building blocks of plastics are produced from the naphtha fraction when crude oil is refined, or from the ethane and propane components of natural gas.
As a result, when we make plastic, we are using carbon from fossil fuels, carbon that – from a greenhouse effect perspective – should have been left underground.
Of course, humans don’t extract fossil fuels just to make plastic. The part of fossil fuels used for olefin plastics – which are by far the most common type of plastic - are different to the components (“fractions”) we use for other purposes, such as diesel fuel, town gas, heating oil and bitumen. So, for as long as we are extracting fossil carbon for those purposes, we have access to a cheap and easy supply of components for plastics.
Much of the fossil carbon we extract from the ground gets released into the atmosphere when we burn it for fuel; think gasoline, aviation fuel, heating oil and cooking gas. If we are going to extract oil and gas, we may as well turn some of it into stuff that doesn’t get burnt, like plastic.
Not all plastic ends up in our oceans. While single use plastics create litter and pollution, we also make plastic items that can last a lifetime. Plastic is used in building construction, pipes, cars (16% of an average European car is plastic, by one estimate), carpets and clothing. The longer a piece of plastic remains intact, unburnt, and not bio-degraded, the longer the carbon it contains is locked up and not contributing to the greenhouse effect. In these forms, it is an excellent, stable store of carbon.
An even better way to store carbon in plastic is to use atmospheric carbon dioxide to manufacture it. We already have the technology to create plastic from atmospheric carbon dioxide. This can be done using biological processes like plants or algae, where photosynthesis is used to extract the carbon dioxide from the air, or by using synthetic processes powered by renewable electricity.
Right now, these methods are not economically feasible, but that will change when demand for fossil fuels decreases. Less than ten percent of global oil production is used for making plastic, so we should expect higher prices for the plastic-producing fractions of crude oil as oil extraction diminishes. The changing economics of fossil fuel production is going to have a significant impact on the traditional plastic industry.
Plastic is a major pollutant, but it’s also an overlooked carbon storage solution. We need to capture food packaging plastics before they pollute our oceans or break-down into microplastics. We can capture and bury them in properly designed landfill (not ideal but better than most other options) or recycle them into new items. It’s my fervent hope that in the future virgin plastics will be made using renewable-energy-powered carbon-capture processes.
In the meantime, lets recognise plastics as an effective, long-term method for storing carbon.
In short: 🍏 Plastic makes a great carbon store and helps keep fossil carbon from ending up in our atmosphere: crazy but true! 🍏 Also, France banned single use plastic packaging for fruit and veg 🍏
Sources:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-59843697
https://theconversation.com/the-world-of-plastics-in-numbers-100291
Food Waste
A winter winner for food waste
This is probably old news for those of you who live in cold places (I don’t!), but I was super-excited to hear that food waste is being used to replace road salt in the US.
Salt has traditionally been put onto winter roads to prevent ice formation and help cars maintain traction in cold conditions. However, salt is a problem for nearby waterways and ecosystems, plus it corrodes equipment and infrastructure.
In the 1990s, a Hungarian scientist realised that (sugar) beet juices make a great addition to road salt. The carbohydrates in the juice help to lower the freezing point of water, providing easier ice control, with less environmental damage than salt alone. Bonus: the beet brine is stickier than salt and stays on the road for longer.
Michigan (USA) and Manitoba (Canada) are two places that use beet juice on their roads in winter.
Other food and food waste products used for ice control include cheese brine and beet molasses.
In short: 🍏 Food manufacturing by-products can be added to road salt for better performance with less environmental impacts 🍏 Sugar beet juices, beet molasses and cheese brine have been used 🍏
Sources:
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-12-15/to-beat-winter-cities-fight-back-with-beets
Food Rules
New rules for food and food trade
New rules for food trade between the United Kingdom and Europe came into effect on 1st Jan. Experts say these new rules result in more paperwork and can slow down food movements across borders, resulting in higher costs. Businesses that import or export frequent, small consignments between UK and Europe are expected to be worst hit.
New food labelling rules for genetically modified foods are being enforced from 1st Jan in USA. The new rules provide a national standard for dealing with genetically modified foods in place of the various state-by-state rules. Critics of the new rules have complained that the new prescribed term, “Bioengineered” is not well understood and that the rules leave most foods that contain genetically modified ingredients unlabelled as such. According to the Washington Post the new rules will be enforced by the USDA only in response to complaints.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2022/01/01/usda-bioengineered-food-rules/
The USDA has created an interactive decision tree quiz/tool to help food businesses know whether their foods need to be labelled as Bioengineered.: https://www.ams.usda.gov/rules-regulations/be/zingtree
There are new rules for food imports in China: from 1st January, food producers have to register with Chinese authorities for the food to be allowed access to Chinese markets.
Food Fraud Incidents and Horizon Scanning
Food fraud incidents added to Food Fraud Risk Information Database in the past 3 weeks
Illicit alcoholic beverages have killed 50 people within two weeks – Turkey
Authorities have seized cheese and dried cheeses such as jameed that are alleged to have been adulterated with wall-painting paste from a factory - Egypt
https://middleeast.in-24.com/News/512201.html
A government survey of packaged and bulk cooking oils found 13% (n = 4,461) to have labelling problems, including 'misbranding' and inaccurate claims about vitamin fortification. Less than 3% had food safety issues but 24% were non-compliant with quality parameters such as acid values and refractive index - India
https://www.livemint.com/news/india/24-edible-oil-samples-adulterated-fssai-11640775486648.html
Authorities have seized and destroyed unsafe food and 2,440 L of chemicals used to "freshen the fruits and vegetables at the markets" – Cambodia
https://www.khmertimeskh.com/50998022/over-200-tonnes-of-unsafe-food-and-goods-destroyed/
Thieves have been stealing used cooking oil from restaurants. The oil is allegedly "taken south to be processed" according to police - Scotland
A survey of beef, goat, camel, pig and chicken meat purchased from wholesale markets and butcheries found 10% (n = 107) had been misrepresented with respect to species. Goat meat was the worst affected: beef and mutton were substituted for goat, which is more expensive – Kenya 13/12/2021
https://doi.org/10.3390/foods10123090
Authorities have shut down factories making ketchup and pickles with non-food grade colourants and packed in non-food grade plastic containers - Pakistan
https://www.bolnews.com/pakistan/2022/01/pfa-seals-food-unit-on-account-of-adulteration/
Food fraud horizon scanning (other updates to the Food Fraud Risk Information Database in the past three weeks)
Complex foods
Accidental (?) food law breaches are occurring in foods imported to the United Kingdom from USA. The breaches are mostly from the presence of un-authorised food additives, excess levels of additives and labelling problems. Affected foods comply with USA food laws but don’t meet the UK requirements. Examples include foods containing colour additives that are not permitted in those particular food categories in the UK – United Kingdom 20/12/2021
https://www.foodsafetynews.com/2021/12/uk-finds-rise-in-non-compliant-products-from-the-u-s/
Fishing methods
Interpol’s Director of Organized and Emerging Crime has reported that illegal fishers are using explosives for catching fish more frequently. The reason is said to be that vessels need to maintain catch rates in the face of depleting global fish stocks. A five-month-long Interpol operation that spanned 34 countries and investigated marine security and environmental issues uncovered illicit goods including protected fish, drugs and explosives. Bomb makers with terrorist links are said to be providing explosives to the fishing industry. 20/12/2021
Bamboo serving-ware
Authorities in Malta have issued a warning to consumers about bamboo-plastic serving-ware includes plates, cups and cutlery. They say that some such products wrongly claim to be 'eco-friendly' or 'natural' and that some also have too-high levels of melamine and formaldehyde - Malta 30/12/2021
Champagne Wine
The champagne shortage worsens. Weather problems in the Champagne region, including unseasonal heat events, frost and torrential rains resulted in a very small harvest for 2021. This is expected to impact availability of Champagne wines for many years. Supply chain disruptions and unusual patterns of demand from the COVID-19 pandemic have also resulted in shortages in key markets including the US. 15/12/2021
https://www.winemag.com/2021/12/15/champagne-shortage-why/
Hazelnuts
Hazelnut farmers in Turkey - which grows 70% of the world's hazelnuts - say their production costs have skyrocketed, which is reducing production. This is expected to have effects on the international hazelnut supply chain. 20/12/2021
See you next week!