Chick-Fil-A, Subway, Kraft, Cheerios: Changes Made at Public Demand

More good news that public opinion is working to force mega-corporations to make their highly processed food products healthier. 

Last month, I reported that public sentiment recently pressured manufacturers and retailers to begin taking bold steps to label or halt using GMO ingredients and foods. 

• Target quietly introduced its "Simply Balanced" brand of USDA-certified organic products.
• General Mills altered original Cheerios to include only non-GMO ingredients
• Whole Foods will no longer sell Chobani yogurt because of "the yogurt maker’s use of milk from cows whose feed is derived from genetically engineered crops."

Now comes terrific news of dozens more changes to highly processed foods... changes to remove ingredients that never belonged in healthy foods.  Among these welcome changes...

Kraft Singles, manufactured since 1949 by Kraft Foods. will shed artificial preservative sorbic acid, to be replaced by natamycin, which Kraft dubs as "natural." The European Union, which has notoriously higher food standards than the USDA, has approved natamycin for use in cheeses.  

"Consumers are looking for those less artificial cues and messages. Those messages are more meaningful to consumers than they have been in the past." observed Gavin Schmidt, manager of cheese research and development at Kraft.

Eliminating artificial preservatives won't make Kraft Singles devoid of chemicals or a real, rather than fake, food. But it's a definite step in the right direction for Americans' health. 

Subway, the world's largest fast food restaurant, is removing a chemical, azodicarbonamide, from its breads, in response to public outcry started by one astute blogger's petition. The chemical is used as a dough conditioner, but is  also found in yoga mats, shoe rubber, and synthetic leathers.  

Azodicarbonamide is banned from foods in Europe and Australia, but classified as "safe" by the USDA. Per the World Health Organization:

"Case reports and epidemiological studies in humans have produced abundant evidence that azodicarbonamide can induce asthma, other respiratory symptoms, and skin sensitization in exposed workers."    

Center for Science in Public Interest studies show that when the chemical is baked in bread it creates the carcinogen urethane and "leads to slightly increased levels of urethane in bread that pose a small risk to humans."

Removing one chemical from the many dozens hidden in Subway sandwiches doesn't make its fare much healthier.  But removal does make their bread less of a risk for health-sensitive consumers.  (Read Subway's Chemical-Laced Sandwiches: Fooled by the Look, Taste of Freshness.)

Chick-Fil-A announced that within five years, they will serve only chickens raised without antibiotics. This commitment will command extraordinary effort since more than 90% of all chickens destined for U.S. consumption are grown in factory farms heavily dependent on antibiotics. Chick-Fil-A sales topped $5 billion in 2013.  Enthused management:

"When the people who matter most to you ask you to do something important --- you listen. So when our customers started asking us about antibiotics in chicken, we began exploring our options....

"This is why we are collaborating with national and regional poultry suppliers to build a supply chain based on chickens raised with no antibiotics. We are asking suppliers to work with the USDA to verify that antibiotics are never administered from the hatchery to the processing plant...Changes like these take time, but we believe this is the next step in honoring our heritage and our continued commitment to service and quality."

Change Dictated by People, Not Political Leaders

Federal and state political leaders have failed to keep the U.S. food supply clean of chemicals, additives, emulsifiers, stabilizers, and artificial flavors and colors deemed unsafe and unfit for eating in much of the world, and certainly in all other developed, democratic countries.

But business market forces, fueled by public buying decisions, are exerting massive pressure on industrial fake-food mega-corporations to change their highly processed ways.    

McDonalds, for instance, rang-up surprisingly sluggish sales for the fourth quarter of 2013, amid reports that it's "losing customers, as the world's largest hamburger chain struggles to attract diners with its higher-priced sandwiches and new offerings like Mighty Wings." 

Cited as the reason for falling sales at McDonald's? "A shift in eating habits toward foods people feel are fresher or healthier," per AP. "We've lost some of our relevance" lamented McDonald's CEO Don Thompson. 

So far, healthy changes have been minuscule to the U.S. food supply by major corporations. A mere French fry on a mountain of McDonald's finest fried GMO spuds. 

But the trend is good news! And made all the more good and powerful because, we, the people, are in charge. 

Public Forces Food Industry to Sell Non-GMO Products, Ingredients

The good news in 2014 is that market forces are alive, well, and working quite effectively to label GMO foods, or to remove them entirely from grocers' shelves.  And instead, to pressure retailers to offer non-GMO foods for sale. 

The political process may have failed, thus far, to label or halt GMO foods, but public sentiment is firmly forcing manufacturers and retailers to begin taking bold steps.  

Per Forbes this week:

"... public opinion is reaching critical mass. Ninety-percent of Americans believe that GMOs are unsafe, 93 percent of Americans favor stringent federal GMO labeling regulations, and 57 percent say they would be less likely to buy products labeled as genetically modified." 

Retailers and manufacturers respond when the public demands. Among big-deal changes in 2014 are...

Target has quietly introduced its Simply Balanced  "wellness" brand of foods to its grocery shelves, including the USDA-certified organic blue corn tortilla chips pictured above.  The USDA-certified organic label means that all ingredients are non-GMO, as well as dozens other attributes. 

(I bought two bag of these chips this past weekend for family football-watching munchies. The chips are delicious! Target got the requisite taste right.)

The Target website exudes:

"The products include wholesome ingredients, and more than 40 percent of the assortment is organic. There are no products with hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated oils, high-fructose corn syrup, synthetic colors, artificial preservatives, artificial flavors or artificial sweeteners.

"The good news doesn’t stop there: The majority of Simply Balanced items are made without genetically modified organisms (GMOs), and Target will eliminate all GMO ingredients from the line by the end of 2014. Target is also setting a goal to increase organic food offerings by 25 percent by end of fiscal year 2017."

Cheerios, original only, have been altered to include only non-GMO ingredients.  General Mills spokesman Mike Siemienas commented, "We switched from what we were using to non-GMO corn and non-GMO pure sugar cane... We do value our Cheerios fans and we do listen to their thoughts and suggestions." Siemienas noted that "did not change the formula and has never used genetically modified oats."

Whole Foods recently announced that starting in 2014, Chobani Greek Yogurt will no longer be sold in its 370 stores because of "the yogurt maker’s use of milk from cows whose feed is derived from genetically engineered crops," per The New York Times. Chobani yogurt sales topped $1 billion in 2013.  

Replacement of Chobani with other, non-GMO Greek yogurts is part of Whole Foods' larger, ambitious goal of removing or clearly labeling all GMO products from its shelves by 2018. Boasts the Whole Foods website:

"We now have thousands of products within our stores verified as certified organic and/or Non-GMO Project Verified. In fact, we sell 4,800 Non-GMO Project verified products, more than any other retailer in North America."

Yes, the American political process has, so far, failed to allow the law to reflect public will on GMO foods.   Industrial food corporations outspent California grassroots voters $55 million to $9 million to defeat Prop 37 in 2012, yet won by a paltry margin of 51 percent to 49 percent, and spent $22 million in Washington state for another razor-thin victory. 

But political prospects for GMO foods labeling are brighter in 2014 in state legislatures than ever before. 

"As many as 26  state legislatures could consider similar bills for labeling genetically engineered foods during the 2014 legislative season. Two Northeastern states, Connecticut and Maine, have passed bills requiring labeling of genetically engineered foods, but both of those laws are contingent on other states in the region taking the same action." (Source - Food Safety News, January 7, 2014)

Indeed, market forces are alive, well, and working quite effectively to label GMO foods, or to remove them entirely from grocers' shelves.  

These positive changes by major corporations newly offering non-GMO products and clearly labeling or dumping GMO foods are potent reminders of the power wielded by the purse of the American people. Power to the people! 

U.S. Pork, Beef Laced with Drug Banned in Europe, China, Russia

American beef, pork, and turkeys are now considered sub-standard in more than 100 countries because the U.S. government allows meat processors to add ractopamine, a growth-hormone drug, into feed for cattle, pigs, and turkeys bound for food sales. 

Last week, Russia joined the ranks of countries greatly restricting (or entirely banning) U.S. beef and pork imports as too tainted with drugs for human health.

Just imagine... the home-grown meat we eat in the United States is thought too dangerous for Russian consumption. Russia warned the USDA two months ago, but drug-laced U.S. meat continued.  Sergei Dankvert, Russian chief of food safety, then announced and informed the USDA that...

"Since the violations continue and we are finding ractopamine in meat shipments from the U.S., we plan starting February 11 to impose restrictions on the import of this product."  

What Is Ractopamine?  
Ractopamine is/was....

A drug fed in the final weeks before slaughter to "improve the rate at which the animals convert feed to lean muscle" rather than fat. Since industrial factory-farmed animals are usually excessively fat due to lack of exercise, ractopamine is used to generate more lean meat.

Manufactured by a division of Eli Lilly and Company, Elanco. Lilly is a massive, U.S.-based pharmaceutical corporation with 2011 global sales of $24.3 billion. Other Eli Lilly products include Prozac, Methadone, and Cialis.  (Since 2000, the Eli Lilly PAC has given more than $10 million to U.S. politicians: about 60% to Republicans, 40% to Democrats.)

Classified as harmful to human health by the European Union, China, Russia, Taiwan, and 97 other countries.  As a result, ractopamine use is banned in these countries and regions. (Click here for list of Adverse effects of ractopamine.)

Approved in 1999 by the USDA "based solely on research data provided by Elanco, the drug's manufacturer."  Further, 

"...a detailed evaluation of the study by European food safety officials in 2009 revealed that 'Only one human study was used in the safety assessment by Elanco, and among the six healthy young men who participated, one was removed because his heart began racing and pounding abnormally.'" (Sources -  Huffington Post article by Andrew Gunther, and NBC Business News article, Dispute over drug in feed limiting US meat exports)

Claimed by the USDA to be "safe" for human consumption when ractopamine residue remaining in meat is below certain limits set by the USDA, a level considered unacceptably high by the EU, China, Russia, and the United Nations body for global food-safety.

However,  Food Safety News reports, "The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service does very limited testing for the drug..." 

In 2010, the U.S. tested for ractopamine residue in none of the 22 billion pounds of pork produced.  Only 712 samples were tested from 26 billion pounds of beef produced in 2010. Per NBC News, results of these tests were not publicly released. 

Harmful to the health of pigs and other animals. NBC News reported in early 2012:

"Although few Americans outside of the livestock industry have ever heard of ractopamine, the feed additive is controversial. Fed to an estimated 60 to 80 percent of pigs in the United States, it has resulted in more reports of sickened or dead pigs than any other livestock drug on the market, an investigation of Food and Drug Administration records shows...

"Ractopamine leaves animals' bodies quickly, with pig studies showing about 85 percent excreted within a day. But low levels of residues can still be detected in animals more than a week after they've consumed the drug... 

"When Elanco studied the drug in pigs for its effectiveness, it reported that 'no adverse effects were observed for any treatments.' But within a few years of... approval, the company received hundreds of reports of sickened pigs from farmers and veterinarians..." 

NBC News noted that Elanco received a 2002 warning letter from the FDA (part of U.S. Health and Human Services, unlike the USDA):

Frozen Waffles: Folly, Fun and Fake Food Ingredients

I get it. I get why health-conscious Americans sometimes serve fake food at home. I get it, because I did it.

I confess: I served frozen generic toaster waffles to our two young grandchildren for breakfast last weekend slathered, ironically,  with trans-fat free yogurt-based spread and USDA-certified organic maple agave syrup blend. 
An industrial-manufactured fake food of the first order doused in pretentious products of smug Whole Foods purists.

Frozen waffles doused and drenched but not disguised. Our seven-year-old pronounced them  "Awesome. Really awesome!"

My excuse? I was in a hurry at the market, and besides, I knew the kids couldn't wait the time it takes to properly mix and make waffles from scratch. They have fun things to do, favorite places to go, and they'd be hungry. 

At the market, I hid the frozen waffle box, fearing disapproval of fellow shoppers. What if I ran into friends or neighbors? What would they think?  That I feed fake industrial-made foods to my family? That I secretly binge on fake foods? They know I blog to expose the worst of modern industrial fake foods. Will they brand me a health hypocrite? 

Embarrassed, I slid the bright gold box under a sheath of red-leaf romaine lettuce, heirloom tomatoes, organic apricot-plum hybrids, and a loaf of cracked wheat sunflower-seed dill bread in an artisan-baker bag made of crinkly recycled paper.  I made it home, my food crime undetected.