Regulating food

I’ve been thinking about the differences between restaurant producers and drug manufacturers. Really, you would not expect their liabilities to be that different.

This entry begins with a suggestion on how we should get the government involved in testing food safety with respect to healthiness. It’s kind of fun, so read the complete entry!

I would never start a drug company (for many obvious reasons) but particularly because I would be paranoid about opening myself to liability if my drugs wound up hurting people. (Also I would feel bad for hurting them, but this argument doesn’t require that fact.)

Because most people (even doctors, and to a lesser extent pharmacists) aren’t capable of analysing drugs to determine their safety, the government steps in to (supposedly) analyze the drugs for safety. Drug companies still have some liability, but the consumer is supposed to gain some assurances that the work has been done properly. Some food additives (e.g. preservatives and sweeteners) get this kind of testing too.

Think of foods high in nasty things like trans fats (see also here). Do people have the skills and knowledge to evaluate their safety? I think not. Perhaps we should be subjecting the food at McDonald’s to government testing to determine whether it is harmful to the public. For example, do the fries have to be fried in shortening, or could we force these companies to use a different process?

Let’s broaden this to advertised food and meals that cause obesity. (Yes, Virginia… causation.)

Perhaps the rule would be something like: If sales of an item in your chain/franchise network (e.g. Big Mac or Twinkies) exceed one million dollars per year, and if the preparation of that item is substantially the same at all outlets, then that item requires government approval. Approval would require:

• no artificially hydrogenated fats or other harmful ingredients to be used
• an energuide-like rating comparing the fat and calorie content per gram to other foods in the same category
• requirements for advertising/menu/packaging disclaimers/photos (like cigarette advertising) if the food calorie and/or fat content exceeds a reasonable allocation of fat/calories.

I think the latter requirement could actually be the best. Let me give you an example. If you need, say, 2000 calories per day, then let’s allocate, say 500 each to breakfast and lunch, and 1000 to dinner. A very generous 60 gram fat allocation would be spread 15 for breakfast, 15 for lunch, and 30 for dinner. Under this part of my approval system, we would compare these requirements to, say, a 585 calorie Big Mac that is advertised as a “value meal” with a 215 calorie medium Coke and a 344 calorie medium fries. This 1144 calorie meal would require a warning since it exceeds dinner’s caloric intake of 1000 calories.

Actually, the Big Mac is a problem even on its own since it contains 32 grams of fat. It would require a warning even on its own for exceeding a meal’s worth of fat. The combined fat for the medium value meal quoted here is actually 49 grams of fat… Almost a whole day’s worth at the very generous 60 grams per day amount we’re assuming.

Note that we’re being generous by assuming that McDonald’s markets their products as dinner products. In fact, they claim they are lunch/dinner sandwiches. The numbers are even more ghastly if you compare with our 500 calorie, 15 fat gram lunch allocation.

(FYI- a big mac with a large Coke and large fries contains 1457 calories — lunch and dinner combined — and 59 grams of fat. Prefer a large strawberry shake to your Coke? The meal becomes 2244 calories and 87 grams of fat — your whole day’s worth of calories, and almost 2 days worth of fat.)

I’ll sign this entry off with a quote from McDonald’s Canada’s website:

At McDonald’s, we’ve always believed in the basics: beef, potatoes, fish, poultry, eggs, bread, vegetables and dairy products - the same wholesome foods our customers use at home. We are proud of the food we serve and we take very seriously the responsibility we have to our customers to deliver hot, safe, freshly prepared and tasty food - every time.

Also:

McDonald’s meets or exceeds the strict standards set by all appropriate government and regulatory bodies. For example, our beef is purchased only from government inspected and approved facilities.

… so shouldn’t we increase the standards set by appropriate government and regulatory bodies to make this food safe?

p.s. for noSdiet content: Yes, I agree with the noSdiet (recently referred to on Keltie’s blog as the no shit diet — which I liked) saying that complex tables of nutritional requirements turn people off. This entry is vulnerable to that criticism. However, this is all the more reason for the kind of math I propose here to boil down to a required warning like contains more calories than recommended at dinner on packages menus and advertising. Perhaps this would move us towards “enjoy responsibly” advertising.

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