Rose Prince - The Savvy Shopper

All chains, large and small, should sell UK-grown green broccoli and purple sprouting in season. If there is no indication on the price tag, look at the side of the packing cases (if it is not in those green plastic ones) for evidence of country of origin. If no UK-grown broccoli is available during the season, don’t be afraid to ask a manager or customer services; your demands will be noted. Organic broccoli is available in some supermarkets.

Fresh, locally sourced broccoli can usually be bought at farmers’ markets and farm shops. To find the ones nearest to you, check www.farmersmarkets.net(tel: 0845 458 8420), or www.lfm.org.uk(tel: 020 7833 0338) for London. For details of farm shops, look at www.farma.org.ukor www.bigbarn.co.uk.

Box schemes can deliver both green and purple sprouting broccoli to your door. They are listed in the directory on the Soil Association website ( www.soilassociation.org) or your nearest local scheme can be found on the local food network (www.localfoodworks.org).

The following retailers specialise in organic vegetables:

Abel & Cole, 8-15 MGI Estate, Milkwood Road, London SE24 OJFTel: 0845 262 6262www.abel-cole.co.uk

Home delivery nationwide.

Farmaround Organic, Office BI43, New Covent Garden Market,Nine Elms Lane, London SW8 5PATel: 020 7627 8066 (home delivery in London)Tel: 01748 821 I 16 (home delivery in the north of England)www.farmaround.co.uk

Fresh Food Company, The Orchard, 50 Wormholt Road,London W12 OLSTel: 020 8749 8778www.freshfood.co.uk

Home delivery nationwide.

Growing Communities, The Old Fire Station, 61 Leswin Road,London N16 7NYTel: 020 7502 7588www.growingcommunities.org

Collection only, reducing the price for London customers. There are three collection points, including this one; call to find the nearest.

Organic Connections, Riverdale, Town Street, Upwell, Wisbech,Cambridgeshire PEI4 9AFTel: 01945 773374www.organic-connections.co.uk

Home delivery nationwide.

Riverford Organic Vegetables Ltd, Wash Barn, Buckfastleigh,Devon TQ11 OLDTel: 0845 600 2311www.riverford.co.uk

Home delivery in London, Midlands and the Southwest.

Solstice Home, Unit 851-2, New Covent Garden Market,London SW8 5EETel: 020 7498 7700www.solstice.co.uk

Home delivery nationwide.

Sunnyfields Organic, Jacobs Gutter Lane, Totton,Southampton SO40 9FXTel: 02380 861266www.sunnyfields.co.uk

Home delivery in Hampshire, Dorset, Surrey and Central London.

Burgers are almost synonymous with the BSE cattle disease scandal, yet there’s no denting our passion for them. A rough estimate reports that we consume nearly a million tonnes of burgers a year, yet in spite of new labelling laws that tell us more about the burger in the shop than ever, many commercial burgers are only partially beef (or other meat) and in some types of burger, only part of that need actually be muscle. The rest? Well, well, try fat, gristle and mechanically recovered meat…

No! Frequently the price of lean minced beef is below that of ready-made burgers, which may contain added ingredients.

UK regulations governing the labelling of burgers divides them into three types:

• Burgers– must contain at least 80 per cent of the meat or food named in the title, e.g. beef or chicken. Some 65 per cent of the meat must be lean.

• Economy burgers– must contain at least 60 per cent of the meat or food named in the title. Some 65 per cent of the meat must be lean.

• Hamburgers—the meat used must be pork, beef or a mixture and the burger must contain at least 80 per cent meat, with 65 per cent of that being lean meat.

Fat can be added, and you will know it is there because much will run, or render, during cooking, leaving a very thin burger. If offal is added, it must be itemised on the label, but you are unlikely to find it in shop-bought burgers. Mechanically recovered meat (MRM) may be present. This is a deeply unpleasant paste made up of meat scraps recovered by suction from the carcasses of beef, lamb and pork. However, public revulsion for products like MRM makes it a more likely ingredient in caterers’ burgers. Until 1996 MRM could contain beef spinal cord but since BSE any material that could pose a risk to humans is removed.

Most burgers are made from beef, although lamb, venison and pork burgers are also available, often from specialist butchers. The beef in commercial burgers is likely to be from the 50 per cent consumed in the UK that is derived from the dairy industry. Male calves, clearly unwanted at dairy farms, are reared for beef, although they will never match the specialist beef breeds in quality. They will often be reared indoors or in yards, and grow quickly on a diet containing high levels of concentrated feeds and silage. They are finished (fattened up) as quickly as possible. Transport to slaughter may well involve long journeys in close confinement, increasing stress and the risk of infectious diseases such as pneumonia.

It is nothing like as important as it is with beef that is reared to be the Sunday roast, because the beef is minced, doing away with the need to take steps to ensure tenderness, a good ‘marbling’ of fat or good-sized roasting joints. It has been proven, however, that poor standards of welfare and increased stress levels in livestock alter the PH balance in the meat, which affects both flavour and tenderness.

Beef labelled ‘naturally reared’, ‘free range’, ‘grass fed’ or ‘organic’ should hail from welfare-friendly systems. If no information of this kind is given on labels (or on posters and leaflets in butcher’s shops) you can surmise by their omission that the burger you are buying has come from an intensive bull-beef system. All shops need to provide more information at the point where beef is sold. The Soil Association logo is a guarantee of good welfare but conventional farms can have excellent systems, too.

It is good to know that it usually is, because intensive systems in exporting countries fall short of our standards. Beef labelling laws insist that the country of origin is marked on packs—but watch out for some clever marketing. Some exporting countries are rearing British breeds such as Aberdeen Angus and mark this on labels to make the burgers look British. Turn the pack over and you will see the words ‘Britain, Ireland and South America’ in the country of origin box on the official label, indicating that the Aberdeen Angus breed was reared abroad.

We import about a third of the beef we eat, including beef from Ireland, which most UK consumers feel is British. But we also import from other European countries, especially Holland. Outside the EU, the main exporting countries are Brazil and Argentina, plus some African countries. They have to pay a levy to export, so the economics do not always work well for them, and supply is erratic.