Posted on 06/23/2007 8:07:55 PM PDT by JACKRUSSELL
Labels on food packaging don't provide important information that consumers need to make safe decisions at the supermarket, said state Sen. Abel Maldonado, R-Santa Maria, on Friday in Salinas.
Maldonado, chairman of the Senate Agriculture Committee, made his comments while holding an informational meeting about produce labeling. He questioned industry leaders about whether imported food should be labeled by country and whether all crops must be clearly labeled as grown either organically or conventionally - or whether there's a better way than labels to keep customers informed.
"Today, there is no truth in what (consumers) are buying," he said. During the three-hour meeting, Maldonado asked industry representatives and government officials about how imported food is labeled after it's mixed with domestically produced food and how organic food is sometimes labeled as conventionally grown.
Last fall's outbreak of E. coli was linked to conventionally grown Dole Baby spinach, some of which was grown organically but not yet certified. The grower, Otto Kramm, chief operations officer for Mission Organics, was only partly through a three-year transition to become certified organic.
Food can only be labeled organic if the grower or company's production practices have been certified organic by a licensed certifier, such as the California Certified Organic Farmers.
Maldonado took specific issue with how there's no law saying whether organically grown food can be packed and sold as conventionally grown food. Moreover, there's no label for produce grown on a transitioning organic farm that lacks certification, he pointed out.
"The consumer has a right to know what's in the bag," said Dennis Caprara, owner of Gonzales-based RC Farms, which grows organic and conventional leafy greens and other vegetables.
Imported food products have become a high-profile national issue in recent months. A non-food ingredient from China was used in pet food and implicated in the illness and deaths of possibly thousands of pets nationwide.
The product, melamine, is an industrial chemical not approved for human or animal consumption in the United States, according to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
Last month, the FDA announced a voluntary recall by two U.S. companies of melamine-containing ingredients used in feed for livestock and fish and shrimp meant for human consumption.
Daren Gee, a Santa Maria-based strawberry grower, said Chinese-grown strawberries are being blended with domestic berries. A food-borne outbreak linked to such blended products could devastate the domestic market, Gee said, because no labeling is available to indicate which part of the product comes from China.
Not all business representatives who commented during the meeting were in favor of new labeling rules, saying they could confuse consumers. An organic label, many said, is not a guarantee of food safety but merely a marketing device to show how the food was produced.
Julie Morris, a spokeswoman for Earthbound Farms, said her company is against such labels. The company is an owner of Natural Selection Foods, which processed the spinach linked to last fall's outbreak.
Whether produce is grown organically or conventionally doesn't make a difference in food safety, Morris said.
"We don't believe (last fall's outbreak) had anything to do with farming practices," she said.
Maldonado said he will take the information gathered at the hearing back to the full agriculture committee for consideration and that legislation may not be the solution the state needs to make its food supply safer.
But if the food is grown in China, it makes a very big difference in food safety to me.
I would say the same thing about crops grown in just about any country except, New Zealand and Australia.
(2) How safe is the water in Chinese canned food products?
A lot of their snack packs of fruit comes from china.
If anyone believes that I have this bridge to sell you!
What this does mean is china will flood the food market with crap labeled “organic” and consumers will have no way to know and the US will have no right under WTO to go in and see if it meets US standards to carry that label.
We need country of origin on every product we buy and on contents. Nothing not inspected by the USA should be labeled organic.
Right now that is my only protection and I do not want to give that up
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