Food Processing - February 2008 - (Page 7)

E D I T O R ’ S P L AT E FEbRuARy 2008 • Volume 69, No. 02 www.foodprocessing.com 555 W. Pierce Road, Ste. 301, Itasca, IL 60143 Phone: (630) 467-1300 • Fax: (630) 467-1179 The food industry should fund a forum to assess the advisability of clones in the food supply. EDITORIAL EDITOR IN ChIEF MANAgINg EDITOR NEWS & TRENDS MANAgINg EDITOR-DIgITAL DAVE FuSARO dfusaro@putman.net DAVID FEDER, RD dfeder@putman.net DIANE TOOPS dtoops@putman.net MIChAEL ERMITAgE mermitage@putman.net Just say no to clones TEChNICAL EDITOR MARk ANThONy, Ph.D. PLANT OPERATIONS EDITOR MIkE PEhANICh PACkAgINg EDITOR kATE bERTRAND CONNOLLy DAVID JOy hOLLIS AShMAN, JACquELINE bECkLEy REPRINTS MARkETINg CLAuDIA STAChOWIAk MANAgER FOSTER REPRINTS 4295 Ohio Street, Michigan City, IN 46360 866-879-9144, Fax: 219-561-2019 claudia@fostereprints.com REguLAR CONTRIbuTORS REguLATORy CONSuMER uNDERSTANDINg P eople paint with broad brushes. When the Twin Towers came down, Muslims all over became suspect. If a couple of baseball record-setters have used steroids, probably all star players have. When two ingredient suppliers spiked their wheat gluten with melamine, the whole Chinese food industry got a black eye. So when the subject of cloned animals in the food supply comes up, the bad rap won’t fall on genetic researchers in Scotland, the nascent cloning “industry” or even near-sighted scientists at the FDA. It will be the food industry at large. The same food industry that makes children obese, that allowed several lapses in food safety last year, that starred in the movie “Super Size Me.” Even after a fair amount of reading about the issue of cloned animals in the food supply, I don’t know what conclusion to come to. But I do know this: Now is not the time to even hypothesize about cloned animals as food. That is, unless you’re on the organic side of the food industry. In that case, you’re being handed the greatest marketing opportunity of your career. This has nothing to do with science or risk assessment. We’ve just gone through one of the worst years for food safety. Consumer confidence in the American food supply is low, according to numerous surveys, so we don’t need to take it any lower. By coincidence, our cover story this month is about the safety of foreign-sourced ingredients. Out of maybe half a million food or ingredient suppliers in China, it only took two unscrupulous ones to blackball the entire Chinese food industry. The American pet food industry got a shiner, too. If that wheat gluten had made its way into human food, don’t you think the U.S. food industry would have suffered? So I don’t think the responsibility for cloned foods is one you want to bear. At least not for a long time, and not without better preparing the public for it. So I offer two suggestions. Some mouthpiece for the food industry needs to officially denounce clones in the food supply, much the way the Organic Trade Assn. did. If you must, acknowledge that all the good science in the world cannot force consumers to embrace the subject – but let consumers know you’re on their side. Maybe this is a task for the Grocery Manufacturers Assn. Second, if you really think clones are inevitable, the food industry should establish its own body to research and facilitate dialogue on the subject. You can’t look at just the science in the absence of human emotion, because food is not a subject that can be detached from emotion. Actually, such a group just passed out of existence. The Pew Initiative on Food and Biotechnology for six years provided such a forum for the contentious debate on agricultural biotech products. Its funding ended in mid-2007, but the need for such an independent forum did not. When it comes to food, it’s not about the science. Every food company marketer strives for the emotional connection people make with food. It’s time the industry’s leaders and policy makers did, too. DESIGN & PRODUCTION gROuP ART DIRECTOR ART DIRECTOR PRODuCTION MANAgER STEPhEN C. hERNER sherner@putman.net JASON VARgAS jvargas@putman.net ANNA MARIE McCANN amccann@putman.net PUBLISHING PubLIShER kAy ROSS-bAkER kross-baker@putman.net ADMINISTRATIVE STAFF PRESIDENT AND CEO JOhN CAPPELLETTI VICE PRESIDENT JuLIE CAPPELLETTI-LANgE VICE PRESIDENT OF CONTENT kEITh LARSON VICE PRESIDENT CIRCuLATION JERRy CLARk CIRCuLATION MANAgER PATRICIA DONATIu EDITORIAL ADVISORy BOARD gERRy gOMOLkA Vice President-Process Engineering The Stellar group Analyst, Ag Edwards & Sons Inc. Vice President-Engineering Sara Lee Foods National Food & beverage Industry Leader, grant Thornton LLP ChRISTOPhER gROWE DAVE kRAMER DEXTER MANNINg WILLIAM MCCAbE Vice President-Ice Cream, Smith Dairy DON NugENT JAMES RICE DARyL ThOMAS ELAINE WEDRAL, Ph.D. President/CEO, graceland Fruit Inc. VP & general Mgr.-China Operations, Tyson Foods Inc. Vice President-Marketing, herr Foods Inc. President (retired), Nestle R&D Cente Dave Fusaro, Editor in Chief E-mail: dfusaro@putman.net February 2008 Food ProCessIng • http://www.foodprocessing.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Food Processing - February 2008

Food Processing - February 2008 Contents Editor’s Plate NewsBites Regulatory Issues The Trends Rollout Food Biz Kids Product Spotlight Ingredients From Where? Product Development RCA Show Review Plant Operations Packaging New Supplier Products Toops Scoops

Food Processing - February 2008

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