Re: Protesters swarm Calif. biotech meeting

From: Alfio Puglisi (puglisi@arcetri.astro.it)
Date: Mon Jun 23 2003 - 11:40:04 MDT

  • Next message: Alfio Puglisi: "Re: Protesters swarm Calif. biotech meeting"

    On Mon, 23 Jun 2003, Brian Atkins wrote:

    >Alfio Puglisi wrote:
    >>
    >> Now, the EU is trying to bring the different food standards in a common
    >> one. For chocolate, they ruled that up to 5% of the total weight can be
    >> replaced with filler additives with different taste. Something that no one
    >> here wants to eat.
    >>
    >> What's the problem, you'll ask? Just don't buy them. But, the problem is
    >> that, up to the 5% limit, the producer is not required to write it on the
    >> label, and the consumer has NO way to know.
    >>
    >
    >If, as you claim, people in Italy care that much about about sub-5%
    >filler in their chocolate,

    That sub-5% can be very evident...

    >why don't they simply organize together to
    >pay some lab a rather paltry fee to test various brands of chocolate to
    >see which ones are filler-free? It would cost each person practically
    >nothing if you got any decent amount of people together, and with the
    >age of the Internet you would think it would be simple to post the
    >results nationwide.

    This would solve the problem, but from the wrong angle. Why should we set
    up a lab and analyze each and every different brand, when this is basic
    information that should be released from the start? It's a zero cost for
    the producer, that already knows those values.

    I don't know about the US, but here many brands of biscuits, breakfast
    cereals and so on print on the side of the box a breakdown of nutritional
    values - e.g. how many grams of proteins, fats and carbs, how many Kcal
    for 100 grams, all kinds of useful information. I saw this as a big step
    in the right direction. The provision to put 5% of something else without
    telling anyone just doesn't sound right to me.

    Ciao,
    Alfio



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