Joanna Blythman - Swallow This - Serving Up the Food Industry’s Darkest Secrets

Contents Cover Title page Copyright Dedication Introduction PART ONE: How the processed food system works 1 Why it all tastes the same 2 On the factory floor 3 Clean label 4 At the food makers’ market 5 Fresh in store PART TWO: The defining characteristics of processed food 6 Sweet 7 Oily 8 Flavoured 9 Coloured 10 Watery 11 Starchy 12 Tricky 13 Old 14 Packed Postscript Notes Index Acknowledgements By the same author About the publisher

First published in Great Britain by Fourth Estate 2015

An imprint of HarperCollins Publishers

1 London Bridge Street

London SE1 9GF

www.4thestate.co.uk

FIRST EDITION

Text © Joanna Blythman 2015

Joanna Blythman asserts the moral right to

be identified as the author of this work

A catalogue record for this book is

available from the British Library

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.

Find out about HarperCollins and the environment at

www.harpercollins.co.uk/green

Source ISBN: 9780007548330

Ebook Edition © JANUARY 2015 ISBN: 9780008157845

Version: 2015-06-23

In memory of Derek Cooper,

a fellow foot soldier in the food wars.

Cover

Title page Contents Cover Title page Copyright Dedication Introduction PART ONE: How the processed food system works 1 Why it all tastes the same 2 On the factory floor 3 Clean label 4 At the food makers’ market 5 Fresh in store PART TWO: The defining characteristics of processed food 6 Sweet 7 Oily 8 Flavoured 9 Coloured 10 Watery 11 Starchy 12 Tricky 13 Old 14 Packed Postscript Notes Index Acknowledgements By the same author About the publisher

Copyright Copyright Contents Cover Title page Copyright Dedication Introduction PART ONE: How the processed food system works 1 Why it all tastes the same 2 On the factory floor 3 Clean label 4 At the food makers’ market 5 Fresh in store PART TWO: The defining characteristics of processed food 6 Sweet 7 Oily 8 Flavoured 9 Coloured 10 Watery 11 Starchy 12 Tricky 13 Old 14 Packed Postscript Notes Index Acknowledgements By the same author About the publisher First published in Great Britain by Fourth Estate 2015 An imprint of HarperCollins Publishers 1 London Bridge Street London SE1 9GF www.4thestate.co.uk FIRST EDITION Text © Joanna Blythman 2015 Joanna Blythman asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books. Find out about HarperCollins and the environment at www.harpercollins.co.uk/green Source ISBN: 9780007548330 Ebook Edition © JANUARY 2015 ISBN: 9780008157845 Version: 2015-06-23

Dedication Dedication Contents Cover Title page Copyright Dedication Introduction PART ONE: How the processed food system works 1 Why it all tastes the same 2 On the factory floor 3 Clean label 4 At the food makers’ market 5 Fresh in store PART TWO: The defining characteristics of processed food 6 Sweet 7 Oily 8 Flavoured 9 Coloured 10 Watery 11 Starchy 12 Tricky 13 Old 14 Packed Postscript Notes Index Acknowledgements By the same author About the publisher In memory of Derek Cooper, a fellow foot soldier in the food wars.

Introduction

PART ONE: How the processed food system works

1 Why it all tastes the same

2 On the factory floor

3 Clean label

4 At the food makers’ market

5 Fresh in store

PART TWO: The defining characteristics of processed food

6 Sweet

7 Oily

8 Flavoured

9 Coloured

10 Watery

11 Starchy

12 Tricky

13 Old

14 Packed

Postscript

Notes

Index

Acknowledgements

By the same author

About the publisher

Journalists don’t like to be palmed off with half the story, but even though I had 25 years of food chain investigations under my belt, six books to my name, and a collection of awards and gongs on my trophy shelf, I had a sneaking suspicion that this was exactly what was happening. Unanswered, or only partially answered, questions about the food we consume each day nagged away at the back of my mind. How ‘natural’ is the process for making a ‘natural’ flavouring? What, exactly, is modified starch, and why is this ingredient in so many foods? What is done to pitta bread to make it stay ‘fresh’ for six months? Why, when I eat a supermarket salad, does the taste linger in my mouth for several hours after? Slowly but surely, I realised just how little information about food production methods is in the public realm, despite the best efforts of those of us who interrogate the inner workings of the industry.

Now this assessment might seem counterintuitive, after all, you would be right in thinking that food exposés are a staple ingredient in news headlines. The media attention lavished on food fraud in particular is not inconsiderable. Thanks to such revelations, we know, for example, that crooks have illegally fed a stream of horsemeat into some of our most popular processed meats. We suspect, with some justification, that such incidents are only the tip of an iceberg.

But my frustration, my sense of not quite getting to the bottom of the story, was more fundamental. Forget illegal activities in the food chain, what about the perfectly legal activities that go on every day behind the scenes? What do we know about them? I’m not talking about primary food producers, farmers and growers; what happens down on the farm and out in the fields. This link in our food chain is passably well policed and transparent. Nor am I talking about the abattoir where, once again, there are regular inspections, even the occasional undercover reporter from a vigilant animal welfare group, armed with a video camera. No, my growing preoccupation was just how pathetically little we really knew about processed food, the food that sits on supermarket shelves in boxes, cartons and bottles, everything that comes wrapped or packed in some way, food that has had something done to it to make it more convenient and ready-to-eat.