In last week’s Food For Thought I talked about the need for transparency in our food system. As I was researching I came across an excellent video by True Food TV about artificial fruit wax.

They do a fantastic job breaking down the different ingredients used in artificial food waxes. One disturbing fact they talk about has to do with a common emulsifier that is used called morpholine. In the EU it's a banned substance because there is evidence that it causes cancer. But in the Us and Canada it's allowed. So what’s the deal? Should we be concerned? Who do we believe? The EU scientists or the US and Canadian scientists? One side says the risk is so great that they banned it completely. The other says that the amounts used are so small that their effects would be irrelevant.

There is a simple solution to this problem. Why don’t we clearly label all of the fruits and vegetables that have an artificial wax coating, list the ingredients of those waxes on the produce and let us decide? An idea like this would be very hard to push through though, because our industrialized food system is vehemently against transparency of any kind.

The best solution is of course to eat locally grown food from farmers who you know and trust. That way you never have to wonder if your food has been laced with a potential carcinogen.