Es Are Bad: Daily Mail Campaigns Against Food Additives
A CAMPAIGN in the campaigning Daily Mail.
“NOW BAN THE FOOD ADDITIVES,” thunders the paper’s placard.
Readers may like to take up their sewing scissors and trim around the letters. They should then embroider the message on a cushion cover, pelmet or tea-towel and join the chorus.
The Mail says demand for an “outright ban” on potentially harmful food additives “were growing last night”. Indeed, the Mail’s offices and night desk was abuzz with little else.
Only, the campaign may not be enough. It turns out that we need the European Union to facilitate a ban.
Gordon Brown wants to spare the little ‘uns from a life-time of Es but the decision rests with the shadowy European Food Safety Authority.
Gordon cannot take on the might of Brussels alone. He needs the Mail. “This newspaper is now launching a campaign to have the chemicals banned completely in Britain,” we learn.
Some additives have been linked to hyperactivity in children. Parents of hyperactive children may care to read the ingredients and not buy stuff containing E999.
But Gordon Brown wants a top down approach to the issue. He wants Britain’s own Food Standards Agency to act. As a source tells the Mail: “He [Brown] believes parents are entitled to expect that the food they buy their kids is safe and that’s the job of the FSA.”
It might also be the job of parents to read the labels, as we have noted.
But the Mail says this is not possible. It asks via a “COMMENT”: “How are parents supposed to check on what their children eat and drink at school when so many foods are awash with additives?” Er… Answer: “It is impossible.”
Perhaps we could stop sending them to school, or stop feeding them school dinners, Jamie Oliver’s or otherwise, and allow the kids to bring to school untainted food, like chips.
“One mother” tells the Mail: “We ban smoking yet allow our children to be poisoned.”
These additives must be banned. The alternative to banning these additives is too dreadful, a collective punishment of loud, animated and impulsive children.
Of course, if fed only on E110 (Sunset yellow) and E129 (Allura Red) the nippers could solve Britain’s energy crisis as they glow in the dark and are hooked up to dynamos.
But that is for another campaign…
Posted: 7th, September 2007 | In: Tabloids Comments (5) | Follow the Comments on our RSS feed: RSS 2.0 | TrackBack | Permalink
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October 25th, 2008 at 8:57 am
We can all just stop eating then. that seems to be the intelligent solution..
September 24th, 2007 at 11:45 am
i think that food is bad all the time cause we make it nthat way
September 8th, 2007 at 6:07 pm
I bought some Haribo a few months ago and they had no artificial colours in. WHy don’t the press check their facts otherwise I won’t believe them.
Cheers
September 8th, 2007 at 12:13 am
well …well …well you know if you want good and pure food you must grow it yourself. a geodesic greenhouse with a small aquaculture fish pond some chicken and duck a pig and a goat….. otherwise shut up and eat what you get.
If you wont grow it or choose to live in a dirty city full of rats thats your choice but if you let other people grow your food and slaughter it for you don’t complain your lucky to be alive because you are not self sufficient and will likely die when the food chain breaks down..
MrSofty dot com
September 7th, 2007 at 2:56 pm
Ah another delightful example of media hysteria feeds the nanny state and vice versa!
Strange that so many people have forgotten what life before E-numbers was like. Those were the days when ‘Sunset Yellow’ and ‘Allura Red’ were lumped together under “colourings”, along with “preservatives”, “emulsifiers”, etc. and you were always welcome to try your luck by asking the manufacturer what they, in fact, were.
E-numbers were a very successful attempt to force manufacturers to stipulate ingredients exactly and allow consumers to find out what they are.
One would suppose that the Mail, and presumably the government, would like our food to be 100% pure. And of course it can be pure. Only don’t expect it to last very long. Be prepared to do without a lot of convenience foods (difficult in Britain where convenience foods still feed half the population). And don’t throw a wobbler when your beautiful ‘garden’ peas are a muddy green colour (bright green peas are still favoured by the British, even though the French have always thrown up their hands in horror).
It may come as a shock to some, but organically produced vegetables are far more labour-intensive than so-called factory-farmed produce. This is reflected in the price on the shelf. Which is why ‘organic’ food is almost exclusively a middle-class preoccupation - the working class can’t afford to be so fussy!
And what would the British do without their sweets?
Finally, although undoubtedly some children and adults too are allergic to certain additives, I’m afraid that’s their just tough luck. Personally I’m allergic to mosquito bites, and I don’t live in the best of countries for that. Perhaps we should ban Norway.