Monday headline roundup - Nov. 3

The fresh produce industry must hammer the value message in the months ahead. We are already seeing headlines about how the recession may result in more obesity, not less, as consumers trade down to less nutritious foods. Here are a few f/v related headlines snatched from the Web this morning:

School snack plan introduces students to fruits and vegetables - From Florida

Extra nutritious bioengineered foods still years away - Washington Post

The creators of the purple tomato, a team led by Cathie Martin, tested their fruit in cancer-susceptible mice and found that the animals on a diet of 10 percent powdered purple tomatoes in their pellets lived significantly longer than those eating powdered normal red tomatoes. Her findings were published in the journal Nature Biotechnology.

This advance does not mean that extra-healthful purple tomatoes will be on the market anytime soon -- that would require much more testing in animals and humans and, perhaps a bigger hurdle, finding a company that wants to develop, market and sell them.

But Martin said the tomatoes are important because they are a promising example of a genetically modified food "that offers a potential benefit for all consumers." That's because the anthocyanins -- which are also found in many berries and in red cabbage -- would be delivered at high levels in a product that is widely and frequently consumed.

Store vows to fight EU ban on "ugly fruit" - From the UK and The Observer

A leading supermarket has been forced to ditch a healthy eating campaign at the eleventh hour after discovering its staff could be individually prosecuted under EU regulations.

Sainsbury's planned to launch Halloween 'zombie brains' cauliflowers, 'witches fingers' carrots and 'ogres toenails' cucumbers using under-sized and misshapen vegetables that are currently banned from sale.

'Because Halloween is focused on sweets and snacks for children, we thought we would add a healthy message and use the surplus vegetables,' said a spokesman. 'We knew it was illegal but we were happy to take that risk as a company and say: "Bring it on, EU."'

'But last week we discovered it wouldn't actually be us as a company that would be prosecuted. It would be individual store managers. And, obviously we could not ask our staff to risk a criminal record for the good of the company.'

The supermarket chain has now launched a 'Save Our British Fruit and Veg' campaign, in a bid to force the EU to relax its strict specifications on selling cheaper 'imperfect' fresh produce.

Lean times may make you fat - From MSNBC

Rising unemployment, higher food prices and dwindling savings may exacerbate the nation’s obesity problem, sending already high rates ballooning as consumers turn to cheaper, less healthful choices ranging from boxed mac ‘n’ cheese to fast-food dollar menus.

“All evidence suggests that obesity is the toxic consequence of a failing economic environment,” said Adam Drewnowski, a professor of epidemiology at the University of Washington in Seattle.

As households struggle with falling incomes and with food prices expected to jump 6 percent this year, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, families are scrimping on groceries. Nearly six in 10 Americans said they’ve cut back on the quality or quantity of the food they buy, according to an annual hunger survey released this week by Hormel Foods Corp.

Later...

Financially stressed shoppers are likely to trade pricey whole grains, fresh fruits and vegetables for low-cost but high-fat alternatives, said Lauren A. Haldeman, an associate professor in the Department of Nutrition at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, who studies poverty and obesity.

That's partly because fruits and vegetables cost more for less energy than processed foods, said Dr. Judith Wylie-Rosett, a professor of epidemiology and population health at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York.

"If you follow the five-to-nine suggestion [for daily fruit and vegetable servings], the diet is an almost threefold increase in price," she said.

Purple GMO tomato inferior to nature's offerings - From Nature News

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