CANADA: Know What You Eat

OTTAWA (Ottawa Citizen), June 13, 2008: When McDonald's restaurants in the United States stopped putting tomato slices on their Crispy Chicken Clubs and other sandwiches this week after an outbreak of salmonella there, it sent an interesting message about food and risk. Customers who purchased and ate those sandwiches were spared the slim risk of contracting salmonella from a tomato slice. The illness is serious -- it causes symptoms including fever, diarrhea, nausea, vomiting and abdominal pain, and can be deadly for infants, the elderly and those with weakened immune systems. But, since April, about 220,200 people in 23 U.S. states have fallen ill after eating foods with tomatoes in them. And, although the source has not been identified, the Federal Drug Administration has cleared tomatoes now being harvested in Florida (they weren't ripe when the outbreak occurred) and all tomatoes from California, meaning risk can be minimized. But acute illness from food scares people. And that is not surprising. Even the slim possibility that what we eat could be contaminated changes behaviour almost instantly. The consumer backlash to the salmonella outbreak has been so swift that tomato producers in the U.S. and Mexico fear their industry could collapse. But while people are quick to react to reports of food contamination, they are slow to react to other, more pervasive, food dangers. Crispy Chicken Club Sandwiches, for example, contain 630 calories -- 250 of them from fat, that's 28 grams of fat, the kind that contributes to obesity and cardiovascular disease. In addition, the sandwich contains 1,420 milligrams of salt, which is more than what the U.S. Institute of Medicine considers an adequate daily intake for adults. Excess salt intake, Canadian researchers said this week, causes more than 16,000 cases a year of stroke, heart attack and heart failure in Canada. One of the most commonly recommended ways for people to lower their consumption of fats and salt is to eat fewer processed foods and consume more fruits and vegetables. So the tomato scare has the possibility to drive some people away from good food and toward more of the kinds of food that are making North Americans sick. The real food risk is that many consumers understand so little about what they eat. Many consumers are so disconnected from their food that they are unaware of when it grows or where it comes from. In Canada, where much of our produce is imported, that is a problem. It is not tomato season anywhere in Canada right now, for example, and yet the stores are full of them - they either come from warmer climates or from greenhouses. Because consumers demand fresh produce year-round, tomatoes and other produce are grown globally and shipped around the world. Which means an outbreak of salmonella, rather than a localized issue, can affect markets and consumers worldwide. The salmonella outbreak should be a reminder that the more we know about our food, the better. And the best way to do that is to buy it from local farmers and markets. It will likely be more nutritious than food that has been stored and shipped. It will be easier on the environment. And it will certainly taste better. © The Ottawa Citizen 2008