Northwest helps drive local, organic food movements

With recent moves by Subway and Kraft to remove artificial and somewhat confusing ingredients from their foods there are grander implications for the food industry as a whole.

Last week Subway said it would remove Azodiacarbonamide from its bread. That’s an ingredient an activist food blogger, Vani Hari, who researched Subway’s bread and found that the tongue-twister ingredient is also used to make yoga mats and shoes.

Subway used it to make its bread pliable and soft.

According to a World Health Organization study, Azodiacarbonamide induces asthma in humans.

Hari is also behind the petition to remove yellow dyes from some of Kraft’s macaroni and cheese and Kraft last week said it would remove sorbic acid, an artificial mold inhibitor, from some of its cheese singles.

These big-name companies don’t have to do this because they’re still selling enough of their products – but they are doing it anyway.

According to Mike Thelin, a food and industry expert in Portland, and co-founder of food festival “Feast Portland,” people are driving this movement.

“People are just getting back to demanding more high quality, natural ingredients. You’re seeing that with the growth of natural food chains – like Whole Foods. You’re seeing companies like Chipotle serves grass-fed, natural beef. You’re seeing it more coming into some of the mainstream fast food like Subway,” said Thelin. “People are demanding that and I think companies are responding to it.”

Case in point: visit a Safeway, Fred Meyer or a WalMart to find a growing organic brand section in those stores.

Even smaller stores are responding to the demand for natural and local foods.

“Ten years ago, Burgerville, a regional fast food chain in southwest Washington and Oregon, they surprised everyone by committing to regional ingredients, like Walla Walla onions, seasonality, things like sweet potato fries at certain times of the year and Oregon country natural beef,” said Thelin. “These are ingredients that are high quality, organic, natural, they come at high premiums so it certainly effects the price point.”

So these stores and companies are profiting from our new awareness that natural and local is better for us.

They win – by making more money.

And we win, said Thelin, because organic is better for our health.

“Regardless of what your beliefs are in terms of nutrition, how much meat you should eat, how much dairy you should consume, there is one thing that is absolutely true, that no doctor and no nutrition expert would disagree with: preservatives, artificial coloring, that’s bad for you. There is no one that would tell you that’s food for you,” said Thelin. “Our grandparents ate pretty well. Our grandparents era did not have the obesity that we have. So I think there is a lot to be learned from old world knowledge.”

We have some bragging to do in the Northwest. Thelin said our region is driving the organic and local trend nationwide.

“You look at the products that we produce in the Pacific Northwest the market is going into place where it happens to be in line with the types of products that we introduce. So it’s really good for our region.”

While Subway has pledged to remove Azodiacarbonamide from its bread it has not given a clear timeline as to when it’ll be removed.