It deeply saddens me to bring my audience the fact that California has filed suit against Whole Foods, Trader Joe’s, an other food retailers and manufacturers. Unfortunately in this day and age, it happens whether just or not. It is part of the job of the government to insure the safety of the population and the rights of the people, and this affects everything we do, and eat for that matter. As for the details on the reason I am sad…
I couldn’t care less about Whole Foods and the other food companies. What I do care about, however, is Trader Joe’s. Ever since I can remember my mom was always going to Trader Joe’s when we came to California. I didn’t even know what this supposedly awesome store gave to their customers that my relatives we’re so fanatic about. I mean I knew they sold wine.
The big attraction, specifically is the ginger candies. When one put’s those solid, sweet candies into your mouth, you get a rapid array of ginger moving throughout the creases of your tongue. Before you place them in your mouth it already starts to water! I could eat ten of these candies in a single day. And in fact, my mom and me probably did a number of different times.
So if you haven’t figured it out yet, there is something wrong with these candies, or at least so the California government says. “Under Proposition 65, a product that contains even small amounts of lead or other chemicals identified by the state as harmful to the human health must carry a label warning to consumers.” (Democrat Press) And in the government’s tests, this candy contains lead. They ran a series of tests, filed suit, and have since verified lead is contained in the ginger candies as well as a number of others.
As far as the candy goes, I don’t believe we will see them for a while. As far as Trader Joe’s goes, they will be fine, though will probably have to pay a large fine. “If found to be at fault by a judge, the candy makers and retailers could be fined up to $2500 per day for each violation.” (Press Democrat) This adds up very fast when I think about how long I have been consuming these candies.
Who would have thought that these candies would be banned before anything else? After all, the famous contributor to lead isn’t candy, but paint.
Because I have been biased, I will talk about Whole Foods as well. “At Whole Foods, the suit named the market’s “bulk ginger” and The Ginger People Baker’s Cut Crystallized Ginger Chips as not complying with the law. The suit did not identify which company manufactured each specific product sold at each store” (Press Democrat).
This current food event relates to a larger issue than crystallized ginger candy. Do you think all products containing trace amounts of lead should be labeled in every state, as they are required to be in California? Or should GMO’s be labeled on all foods sold in the grocery stores? Some would argue that California or the United States have too many laws requiring labels for different ingredients. Others would say that we don’t have nearly enough of these labels. Just recently, Proposition 37 was widely being debated in California over whether or not food manufacturers should be required to Label GMO foods. While this didn’t pass, it is only the beginning stages of a long fight over GMOs and their alleged harmful effects on human health.
Even people on my Instagram feed get involved with issues like these. Kelly Slater posted a picture checking yes for Prop. 37 along with “Why would Monsanto and other chemical companies spend $41 million to defeat a food labeling bill? What is there to hide in food? Plenty. “ Check out his Instagram to see all the fun comments, and the issues we will see debated widely in the future.
Food for the Soul 