What am I eating?

November 8, 2007 9:41 AM

What's in my food? can I trust labels?

With the stories and paranoia over tainted food, and specifically Chinese imported additives of questionable origin (like the "wheat gluten"/melamine in pet food), how do I find out what's in my food or if the information on the label is correct short of using a bomb calorimeter and gas chromatograph? Is there a lab I can send stuff to and get an analysis for a reasonable fee? And how detailed or reliable is it? Google has led to places like Bodycotetesting.com and Microbac.com, but I have no idea how reliable, affordable, or accessible to non-commercial types they are.

posted by Challahtronix to Food & Drink (16 answers total)

Stop buying processed goods. Buy more produce. Buy local. Buy fresh.

You have the power to have complete control over what you put into your body.
posted by spec80 at 9:45 AM on November 8, 2007 [4 favorites]

You could buy locally grown fresh produce and cook your own meals with it. Although really you should learn to forget this idea because stuff like this is a slippery slope towards Unabomberism. Are you seriously intending to pay someone to analyse your food before you eat it? Incidents involving rogue ingredients are very, very rare.
posted by fire&wings at 9:49 AM on November 8, 2007

I think he's more concerned over industrial chemicals that are used in food production to cut corners.
posted by chef_boyardee at 9:51 AM on November 8, 2007

I think he's more concerned over industrial chemicals that are used in food production to cut corners.
posted by chef_boyardee

Eponysterical.
And - yeah, learn to cook, it's the onyl way to be 100% sure.
posted by backseatpilot at 10:06 AM on November 8, 2007

Challahtronix: Are you wealthy/paranoid enough to send everything you plan to eat analyzed by a lab? If so I can't be of much help.

If you're not super wealthy, then follow the two suggestions above and subscribe to a local CSA for veggies. For other stuff, find an alternative grocery store (like Whole Foods but cheaper). Where I live I have a food coop and nearly all of the food is local and organic. I don't buy much processed food but when I do, I go for the one with the fewest ingredients on the label. Also learn to homestead. Can everything you get when in season, make your own jams and jellies, your own chicken stock, bread etc. That's the only way to be really sure.
posted by special-k at 10:09 AM on November 8, 2007

to have everything you eat....
posted by special-k at 10:10 AM on November 8, 2007

another thing. Do you have a local farmers market? If so, shop there. Not only will you find great produce but you can also get a bunch of other stuff like meat, olive oil, butter, bread, cheese, yogurt, peanut/almond/cashew butter, nuts and so on. All of this will be local and minimally processed.
posted by special-k at 10:35 AM on November 8, 2007

Response by poster: I already buy a lot of locally grown produce (and meats) and try to avoid processed foods. I'm not talking about doing this with everything I eat, just a few items that I may have suspicions or doubts about, nor would I do it each time. But I'd like to know if there's any funny business like industrial chemicals or unlisted ingredients inside that aren't on the label. I've cut down on a lot of canned/processed foods, but I'm not to the point where I'm saying "I'M NOT EATING THAT BECAUSE I DON'T KNOW WHAT'S IN IT!"

Think along the lines of the Seinfeld where they get the "fat free" yogurt tested. Are my choices to either make everything myself or blindly trust the labels? Is there any sort of independent verification?
posted by Challahtronix at 10:42 AM on November 8, 2007

One piece of the puzzle: "Natural flavor" means that some chemical was used and that chemical, at a minimum, has been found in trace amounts in some natural food product. It doesn't mean it was produced by anything you'd call a "natural process" or that it's particularly "natural" to be eating it.
posted by TheOnlyCoolTim at 11:03 AM on November 8, 2007

Food labels are covered by Title 21 of the Federal Code of Regulations. You can read it here.

Basically, your question is too broad for an answer. There are allowable off-label limits for all kinds of contaminants and debris, how much depends on how hazardous the contaminant. As a general rule, the label is what is in the package, but mistakes and fuckups occur as they do with any other process. The world is like that, and there is nobody that can guarantee you perfection.

If you wanted/needed to send food samples to a lab, there are dozens of independent labs that commercial producers send samples to everywhere. For the home user, I'm not sure it's practical. But if you have a specific product, you could contact the company and ask to see more detailed information.
posted by kuujjuarapik at 11:26 AM on November 8, 2007

Via CBC's Marketplace, I recently learned that "Product of Canada" refers to the production process, not the food itself. So, if 51% of the production costs were borne in Canada, the food is a product of Canada. This applies even if the food comes from Vietnam. Marketing and shipping count as production costs. I don't know where you are, but you may face similar issues in your country. I suppose the answer is to question companies about the content of the food they supply and to buy local whole foods.
posted by acoutu at 12:53 PM on November 8, 2007

You have the power to have complete control over what you put into your body.

This statement presumes the body in question has achieved (or was born into) a certain level of financial affluence.

As for the original question, can you trust nutrition labels, in the US, anyway, I believe the FDA's requirements for the info on these labels are pretty trustworthy. (Still, they're an agency of The Man, and some people trust no one.)
posted by Rash at 1:30 PM on November 8, 2007

You have the power to have complete control over what you put into your body.

This is a fool's game, even if you buy local and organic. You do not know what was in the air and water every moment of every day during your food's growth and harvesting. Wash your food before you eat it, no matter how it was raised. Good luck.
posted by Xoder at 4:14 PM on November 8, 2007

Data point: we buy "farm assured" food here. When I purchase pork chops, the name and location of the farmer who raised the pigs is on the packet. Same for dairy products - traceable back to the farm. I get a warm fuzzy feeling from that, although I have no idea what the conditions for "farm assured" actually are. But it does actually give me a much more concrete feeling of knowing where what we eat comes from.
posted by DarlingBri at 4:44 PM on November 8, 2007

Rash: I think "Product of USA" is similar to the "Product of Canada" label. I know I was stunned when Oregon-manufactured "Veggie Booty", a "product of USA", had to do a recall because of the salmonella in the spices imported from China.
posted by acoutu at 10:21 PM on November 8, 2007

The labels on food products aren't only validated by in-house testing. Here's the FDA's Food Protection Plan, as of 11/6/2007.
posted by Mr. Gunn at 8:43 PM on November 14, 2007