Supermarket Guru tackles COOL

Guest blogger Lance Jungmeyer chiming in ...

As the debate on Country of Origin Labeling ensues, the mainstream media is getting in the act.

Here, Phil Lempert, the self-proclaimed Supermarket Guru, is taken on a tour with a USA Today reporter. The article points out that Lempert finds four items with dubious COOL attributes within just the first five feet of stepping into a produce department.

Lempert talks to some consumers who seem fed up with the effort it takes to determine the origin of food, be it processed or fresh.

"If I can afford to, I buy organic. If not, then I try to buy American. It's my second line of defense against questionable agricultural practices," says Grace Clark, a homemaker in San Francisco.

Then, Lempert offers his own view: "We do still have the best food inspections on those foods that are produced here," Lempert says. "Imports have two problems. First is we don't know and can't verify the food safety inspections at foreign facilities, and second is that the inspections here on imported products are very limited."

Now, I've been to many foreign fruit and vegetable packing plants. I can assure you that in most cases there are stricter food safety protocol in place than what I see in the U.S.

There's always the chance that the shipper is putting on a show for me, but I kind of doubt it. They have to be ready for a spot-check at any time. It is becoming more commonplace for buyers to visit unannounced, or with very little notice.

All the same, I have to say that consumers have a right to know the origin of their food.

Food is one of the most sacred aspects of our daily lives. What we eat defines who we are. It defines our waist size. It defines our socio-economic standing. In many cases, it defines our personal politics. Taste is important, but consumers want assurances that their food is grown and processed in accordance with their beliefs.

This is bad news for exporters of Chinese product. More and more food safety scares are turning people away from imported foods and toward local foods. Local produce, however, is a mostly spring and summer phenomenon.

At some point, even the most stringent consumers will have to eat imported food. And they will want to know it's origin.