Soap Box Blog: Food policy takes us back to the future

So. We’ve all got to buy local food and sniff our milk to make sure it’s not gone off.

At least that’s what environment secretary Hilary Benn seems to want us to do. Because that’s what they did in the good ol’ days when Britannia ruled the waves, everyone understood the imperial system and you only had one TV channel.

On Monday, the government called for the great British public’s view on the future of food security. Producing as much food as we can in the UK, and reducing imports, seems set to be part of that.

Which is all well and good, but there’s a bit of a problem.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for buying local (read British) food. And, you only have to look at the huge success of farmers’ markets up and down the country to see that I’m not alone in this.

But I also like feta cheese, chorizo, mangoes and the odd bottle of Australian pinot grigio.

And this is what people seem to forget when they talk about locally-sourced food (and, for that matter, excess packaging). Our diet is vastly different to what it was even 20 years ago, and we are no longer content to have an all-British diet.

To be honest, it would be boring. Even those chefs who harp on about using British ingredients all seem to use olive oil – I’m guessing dripping would be bad for the cholesterol levels.

There are products that simply do not grow here that we have to import. (Well, at least until global warming kicks in and we have a tropical climate.) And it’s only the fact that we have good packaging that we can do that. Being able to control the atmosphere products are shipped in is vital to getting it onto the dining table in good condition.

And then there are schemes like importing wine in bulk. Apart from the environmental benefits of recycling cullet, it also makes it easier to respond to a sudden surge in purchases of South African chardonnay.

Another part of the strategy will likely be trying to get a handle on food waste. But, for my money, getting rid of sell-by or best-before dates is not the answer. What we need is a more accurate label that shows when not to eat the product.

Here again, packaging firms are working to develop systems, such as the Timestrip label, that ensure consumers know if they should eat a product. Although, admittedly, the smell of sour milk should be a giveaway.

Packaging will continue to find new ways to make sure consumers can buy and consume the food they want, and hopefully throw less away.

As far as developing a food strategy goes, surely we need to think about the future rather than the past.

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