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Science Forum Index » Agriculture Forum » Reality check for organics industry
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| David Kendra |
 Posted: Thu Nov 06, 2003 6:18 pm |
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Reality check for organics industry
November 5, 2003
Tech Central Station
High levels of a cancer-causing natural toxin have been found in every
single organic cornmeal product tested by the UK's food safety watchdog, the
Food Standards Agency, Alex Avery writes.
That's a 100 percent failure rate, folks! The FSA instituted a UK-wide
recall of the contaminated organic cornmeals.
This is a huge, though belated reality check for consumers who think they're
getting something safer when they pay exorbitant prices for organic foods.
But don't expect much media coverage of this hugely embarrassing organic
incident. Nor any retreat by organic food partisans in the ongoing fight for
the hearts and minds of consumers.
The organic cornmeal products were found to contain high levels of
fumonisin, a cancer-causing fungal toxin produced by a natural mold that can
grow on corn in the field. Recently, the European Commission established a
new safety limit for fumonisin in foods of 500 parts per billion (ppb).
All six recalled organic cornmeals not only failed the new safety standard,
but failed miserably. The organic cornmeals were contaminated at an average
of nearly 20 times the EC safety limit (9,000 ppb), with two brands having
more than 30 times the safety limit (16,300+ ppb)! The lowest fumonisin
level found in organic cornmeal was still more than 7 times too high. In
comparison, twenty non-organic cornmeal products tested by the FSA averaged
only 130 ppb fumonisin.
The new EC food safety standard for fumonisin isn't another case of
over-regulation, either. Recent tests reveal that fumonisins cause cancer in
rodents at levels only moderately higher than those found in the
contaminated organic products. At lower levels, fumonisins may contribute to
liver and kidney disease. Fumonisins are suspected to be a cause of liver
and esophageal cancer in developing countries, where organic farming methods
are the norm -- for lack of access to modern farm inputs like low-risk
fungicides.
Yet five of the six recalled organic corn meals were grown and processed in
the UK and Denmark, not a distant Third World country. Another of the
recalled cornmeal products, while not officially organic, was grown and
processed in France under the brand name "Nature's Harvest." (They didn't
lie: Fumonisins are natural!) For comparison, non-organic cornmeal from
Nigeria was found by the FSA to contain only 11 ppb fumonisin.
While organic foods comprise less than 5 percent of the total food market in
the UK, the organic corn meal products accounted for 60 percent of recalled
corn meals.
What would the reaction have been among the organic farming/anti-biotech
activist crowd if it were GM foods that had totally failed a serious food
safety standard by such a huge margin, instead of organic products?
It would have been front-page news in all the UK newspapers. Organic
activists and their fellow agitators in the environmental lobbies would have
demanded an immediate recall of all biotech foods (not just those that were
contaminated) and a complete halt to the growing of biotech crops until and
unless these farming methods could be proven completely safe. Ironically,
these groups have already made exactly such demands, despite a complete
absence of food safety or environmental problems with GM crops and foods.
Even more ironic, GM insect resistant corn has been shown to have 30-40 fold
lower fumonisin levels than conventional corn, let alone in comparison to
the higher fumonisin levels found in organic corn. The difference in
fumonisin levels between GM and organic corn would be enormous.
For years organic activists have claimed without evidence that "organic"
methods were better for the environment and produced safer, healthier food.
In fact, the Soil Association buried its own research from the 1960s that
failed to show any nutrition or health superiority of organic, akin to the
tobacco companies burying their own research linking smoking with lung
cancer.
As long as organic comprised only a small share of the food system, it
remained "under the radar" of food safety watchdogs. But now -- precisely
because organic industry lies were not forcefully challenged -- organic is
big enough business to deserve scrutiny. What we're increasingly finding is
that not only aren't organic foods any better, they may be worse for our
health.
Alex Avery is a plant physiologist and Director of Research at the Hudson
Institute's Center for Global Food Issues in Churchville, Virginia, USA. |
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| D G Couper |
| Posted: Thu Nov 06, 2003 7:00 pm |
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On Thu, 06 Nov 2003 23:18:39 GMT, "David Kendra"
<dkendra@DELETETHISinsightbb.com> wrote:
Quote: Reality check for organics industry
November 5, 2003
Tech Central Station
High levels of a cancer-causing natural toxin have been found in every
single organic cornmeal product tested by the UK's food safety watchdog, the
Food Standards Agency, Alex Avery writes.
snip
The organic cornmeal products were found to contain high levels of
fumonisin, a cancer-causing fungal toxin produced by a natural mold that can
grow on corn in the field.
snip
Can't find any recall on the FSA website nor reference to fumonisin
except for the Codex and rice contamination in 2002.
Where did they publish it? Or is the another pro-organic, Krebs
inspired, FSA hush-up?
David Couper |
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| Torsten Brinch |
| Posted: Sun Nov 09, 2003 9:53 am |
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| David Kendra |
| Posted: Sun Nov 09, 2003 8:54 pm |
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"Torsten Brinch" <iaotb@inet.uni2.dk> wrote in message
news:12lsqv4qtfps6r0ou1n7shsp49q0q04pqd@4ax.com...
Interesting bit of logic...the article claims that the levels of fumonisin
found in the samples are above the EC proposed daily limit of 500 micrograms
per kilogram for all maize-based foods, but then claim that "there is
unlikely to be any significant risk to health if these products are
consumed". The article also failed to mention that fumonisin has been
linked to cancer in humans and is also speculated to enhance cancer
initiation by other carcinogens, such as aflatoxin. Has the EU done any
short term feeding studies to prove if their hypothesis is correct? I
wonder why the EU recommended such a low level (500 micrograms per kilogram
in all maize-based foods) since it sounds like they probably will not
enforce it? At least the retailers and importers of the affected products
voluntarily withdrew the items from sale once they became away of the
problem. I wonder if such an artificially low value is being considered by
the EU more to keep imports out than to protect it's citizens? What do you
think?
Dave
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| Torsten Brinch |
| Posted: Mon Nov 10, 2003 4:54 am |
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On Mon, 10 Nov 2003 01:54:08 GMT, "David Kendra"
<snip>
Quote: wonder why the EU recommended such a low level
(500 micrograms per kilogram in all maize-based foods)
snip
Afaik, the proposed EU limit of 500 microgram fumonisin/kg maize
product is based on the JECFA determined NOEL of 200 microgram/kg bw
(bodyweight), which -- with a safety factor of 100 -- translates into
a TDI (Tolerable Daily Intake) at 2 mikrogram/kg bw. And, if we look
at the upper 5 percentile of maize consumers in EU, they would consume
more than 70 grammes per day.
Now, our regulatory limits of contaminant in food target, if possible,
protection of even high risk groups. Take an example, a child at 25
kg bw should at most consume 50 mikrogram fumonisin per day, and if
the child has a daily consumption of 100 grammes of maize product,
that product ought at most be contaminated at 500 mikrogramme/kg. |
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