Why you need to know what you eat

Kavita Mukhi

Even as last month’s column on the sugars in our life went into print, I chanced upon a comment piece written by celebrity editor and television anchor Vir Sanghvi in Brunch (October 31), a supplement of the Hindustan Times. Entitled ‘The great vegetarian scam’ it highlighted a number of unmentionable animal ingredients of vegetarian products and processes.

The number of gravies passed off as vegetarian in restaurants apart, Sanghvi details how the stock of vegetarian soup is usually of animal bones and fish sauce, de rigueur in Chinese and Thai dishes is passed off as vegetarian. Moreover egg is added to umpteen number of veg preparations without restaurateurs bothering to let customers know –– in desserts, baked products including biscuits, and sometimes even in naan and ice-cream.

Besides very few restaurants utilise segregated cookware for veg and non-veg cuisine. Often the same pan is used to cook veg food after a non-veg dish has been done and despatched. True this may enhance the flavour of vegetarian fare, but this minor matter is unlikely to impress vegans!

And within a society in which education — and therefore hygiene — standards are abysmal and food adulteration is one of the largest industries, dining out is a high risk proposition every time. Therefore most people shut their minds to atrocities that are possible in a kitchen. I do, or I wouldn’t make it through any restaurant meal. Staff not washing their hands to produce not being washed well to dirty cutlery, crockery, pots and pans and filthy dishcloths employed in rat and roach infested kitchens are the hazards we risk when we venture to lunch or dine out.

As usual I digressed. Prior to sounding off about the hazards of eating out which requires acceptance of obliviousness, I was discussing packaged products listing ingredients which few people understand. Worse, there are other ingredients not listed which find their way into a product because of loopholes and laxity of our laws.

In his comment piece under reference, Sanghvi lists a string of items present in our foods without us being informed. For example gelatine is omnipresent in a host of vegetarian packaged products. Though vegetarian gelatine is available, the standard practice of manufacturers is to use the cheaper animal gelatine (made from animal bones). And still cheaper varieties containing skin, fat and tissue extract of pigs and bovines are also available. Moreover please note that jelly is not the only product that contains gelatine. Several ice-creams and natural fruit yogurts also carry it as do many desserts in restaurants.

Comments Sanghvi: "Worse still, it (gelatine) is used to remove sediment from fruit juices. But because it is part of the process rather than an actual ingredient, food manufacturers are not legally obliged to mention this on the packaging. If you like pre-packaged sweets, you are probably eating beef by default as well. The British Food Standards Agency has found animal gelatine in Bassett’s liquorice allsorts, in Rowntree’s fruit pastilles, and in many other packaged foods including Kellogg’s cherry tarts. Nor are British bottled drinks safer. Fanta orange includes fish gelatine and Guinness is clarified with animal gelatine. These are just a handful of British examples. There are hundreds more and I haven’t even started on American products yet."

In this connection it’s pertinent to note that although packaged fruit juices are touted as ‘fresh’ and ‘natural’, they can’t be so if sugar isn’t added as a preservative. Moreover the truth is that fruit juice in tetra packs has to be pasteurised, thereby destroying a major percentage of nutrients. Whether other chemicals and flavours used are mentioned is the discretion of manufacturers, at whose mercy we are. Therefore they are no substitutes for fresh fruit or juice.

A revelation unknown to me even though I have been in the natural foods business for several decades and outed by Sanghvi is the widespread use of cochineal which adds the eye-pleasing red colour found in pasta, sweet drinks, fruit drinks, cake icing, strawberry-flavoured drinks like Nesquik, strawberry jam, etc. It is made — brace yourself — by crushing beetles to extract the red dye. According to Sanghvi, cochineal is widely used in India and most food manufacturers, chefs and nutritionists are unaware of its antecedents.

The rationale of short-changers in the rapid growth food industry who indulge in these malpractices is cost-cutting and affordable retail prices. But it’s erroneous to believe this is what consumers expect of food manufacturers. I have always believed — and continue to believe — that if consumers are given full disclosure, they would be more than happy to pay higher prices.

One obvious example overlooked by Sanghvi is of capsules which house everything from simple vitamins to life-saving drugs. They are derived from animal parts. Vegetarian capsules have been produced in other parts of the world for sometime now, but being more expensive, there is resistance to their use. And since most consumers are ignorant of the ingredients of capsules because the law does not mandate full disclosure, there is no pressure on drugs and vitamin manufacturers to switch to the vegetarian version.

In short, the trendy green dot now used to identify vegetarian foods is just another way of duping people and for government officials to exploit (i.e demand bribes). Gelatine, wine, strawberry products, cheese happily sport the green dot.

Therefore the need for caveat emptor (buyer beware). If you are aware of what gelatine contains, the moment it’s listed you will know. Of course it’s annoying to have to suspect everything you eat. But, with a stream of animal derivatives and chemicals being infused into our food, we have to be alert and aware.

(Kavita Mukhi is a Mumbai-based eco-nutritionist and director of Conscious Food)