Just What is 'Natural' Food?

www.latimes.com - November 30th, 2012

The word is included on many products despite meaning almost nothing.

Until a couple of years ago, Ben & Jerry's ice cream was labeled as natural. Then the company came under pressure from the Center for Science in the Public Interest because the ice cream contained, among other things, partially hydrogenated soybean oil. Unlike genetically engineered foods, for which there is little if any evidence of harm to human health, partially hydrogenated oil has been implicated as an artery-clogging ingredient to be avoided. And you can bet the soybean oil didn't hydrogenate itself. The company agreed to drop the "natural" label in 2010.

The real issue here isn't whether GMO Inside believes that different methods of human tinkering make some foods less natural than others, but that the reassuring word "natural" is included on many a product's label while meaning almost nothing. A 2009 study found that shoppers thought "natural" indicated a purer, more regulated substance than "organic." It's the other way around. But the whole point of rules for labeling is to allow people to make informed decisions about their food.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has considered defining the term a couple of times, and most recently gave up the effort in 2008. (Perhaps it should have started by trying to figure out what consumers consider natural to mean.) As the examples above show, attempts to regulate use of the word would be complicated, fraught with politics and would almost certainly involve multiple lawsuits by the food industry. (The U.S. Department of Agriculture, which oversees the less-complicated arena of meat and poultry, defines natural as "minimally processed," but that doesn't mean the animals were raised without antibiotics or hormones.)

The only times the FDA generally objects to the word "natural" is when it's used to describe products containing artificial coloring, flavoring or "synthetic substances." Could bioengineered DNA be considered a synthetic substance? Possibly.

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Gluten Free Mini Sage Passionfruit Bundt Cakes

Bundt:

1 1/2 cups all purpose gluten free almond flour blend 

1 1/2 teaspoons guar gum

2 teaspoons fresh sage, chopped very fine.

2 teaspoons gluten free baking powder

1 teaspoon sea salt

1 cup coconut sugar

1 cup room temperature butter

3 large room temperature eggs

2 tablespoons pure passionfruit pulp

1 cup milk

Preheat oven to 350 F

Grease a 12-cup mini bundt pan with butter and dust with flour. Dip out all the excess flour. Whisk all the dry ingredients including sage to combine. Cream butter and sugar on high speed until light and fluffy (about 6 minutes). Add eggs one at a time beating well between each addition (about a minute each). Add passionfruit pulp. On low speed, beat in 60% of the flour mixture followed by all the milk. Beat in the last of the flour mixture to combine.

Scoop into the pan making sure it's 3/4 full.

Bake for 20 to 30 minutes or until a stick inserted into the center comes out clean. Remove from the oven to cool completely before you remove them.

Passionfruit Buttercream:

1/2 cup butter

1 cup powdered sugar

1 tablespoon passionfruit pulp

Whisk all the ingredients until fluffy and light.  Whisk in more powdered sugar if it's too soft.

Store leftover buttercream in an airtight container in the refrigerator for future use.

Fill the cavity of the mini bundt cakes with the butter cream and drizzle a generous amount of caramel sauce over the top.

Salted Caramel:

1 packed cup brown sugar

1/2 cup butter, cut into cubes

1/2 cup cream

Sea salt to taste

Melt sugar in a large stainless pot on medium heat until it melts, stirring occasionally. Add butter whisking constantly to melt and combine. Remove from the heat for a few minutes and add cream, whisking constantly to combine. Return to the heat and continue whisking until the caramel is smooth and creamy (if you prefer a thinner consistency, whisk in more cream). Season to your taste with sea salt and store in a sterilized glass jar with a lid.

Peru Bans Genetically Modified Foods As US Lags

www.stumbleupon.com - November 29th, 2012

Anybody planning to sneak genetically modified seeds into Peru should think twice – the country has just launched a historic ban on GMOs. Following a long struggle by the last administration’s environment minister Antonio Brack and several activist groups, current President Ollanta Humala signed a law last year that prohibits the import, production or use of GMO foods for the next ten years. The law went into effect last week, and would-be violators face huge fines. 

As large corporate groups like Monsanto continue to push their GMOs on countries around the world, many activists and lawmakers are pushing back. Including Peru, which initially supported GMO imports following pressure from the private sector keen to boost biofuel production. But for the next ten years, the country is relatively safe thanks to President Humala, whose law decrees fines as high as USD14 million and foods could be seized and destroyed.

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Gluten Free Banana Crumble Cake

Cake:

2 cups gluten free flour blend

1 1/2 teaspoons gluten free baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon sea salt

1 cup coconut sugar

1 cup milk

1/2 cup melted butter

1/2 cup Greek yogurt

3 large eggs, room temperature

2 teaspoons vanilla essence

3 large ripe mashed bananas

Preheat oven to 350 F

Whisk all the dry ingredients. Combine all the wet ingredients including mashed bananas and add to the dry.

Pour into a greased round 9" cake pan. 

Crumble:

1/4 cup gluten free all purpose flour blend

1/4 cup coconut sugar

1/4 cup cold, diced butter

Cut butter into the flour and sugar until it resembles crumbs. Scatter over the top of the cake.

Bake for 50 to 60 minutes or until a stick inserted into the middle comes out clean.