you want biggie fries with that?

[Guest guest]

What's really in your favourite fast food combo?

Updated Sat. Nov. 15 2008 7:14 AM ET

 

Rebecca Ruiz, Forbes.com

 

You may want to reconsider getting that double cheeseburger with

fries.

 

A study released earlier this month in the Proceedings of the National

Academy of Sciences contains controversial claims about menu items

served at McDonald's, Wendy's and Burger King.

 

Using a technique that identifies carbon and nitrogen isotopes in

meat, co-authors A. Hope Jahren and Rebecca Kraft tried to determine

the animals' diets and in what conditions they were raised. Based on

the high levels of carbon and nitrogen isotopes found in the meat

products, the authors claim that the cattle and poultry were

predominantly fed corn, which makes them as fat as possible in as

short a time as possible, and were raised in extreme confinement.

 

 

In an interview, Jahren, who is a geobiologist and professor at the

University of Hawaii, even suggested that the nitrogen isotopic

signatures found in meat products were so high that they were

consistent with environments where animals had consumed their own

waste.

 

Burger King declined to comment on the study. A spokesman for Wendy's

said the company has " very strict procedures in place " to protect

animal welfare. A spokeswoman for McDonald's declined to comment and

instead referred to a statement issues by the American Meat Institute,

a trade association.

 

Janet M. Riley, senior vice president of public affairs for AMI, said

that carbon and nitrogen isotopes are naturally occurring and are

expected to be found in the environment and humans. She also said that

while the study's authors had called for greater transparency

regarding information about livestock feeding and production

practices, consumers " appear satisfied " with the amount of information

currently available.

 

Where's the beef?

 

Over a two-year period, the authors purchased 480 servings of

hamburgers, chicken sandwiches and french fries at multiple chains in

six cities across the country and tested them for carbon 13 and

nitrogen 15 isotopes, both of which have been used by scientists for

decades to reveal clues about eating habits in both humans and

animals.

 

Farmers use nitrogen-enriched fertilizer to rapidly maximize their

output. This is particularly true of corn crops; in 1940 a farmer

could expect 70 to 80 bushels of corn per acre. Today, that number has

reached 200 bushels. This corn, in turn, has been used to feed

livestock and poultry for quick and efficient growth. In 2007, the

U.S. produced 48.7 billion pounds of commercial red meat, 90.6 billion

eggs, and 8.1 billion chickens, according to the USDA.

 

Based on the carbon isotopic signatures found in the sample meat, the

study's authors argue that the cattle had been strictly confined and

fed predominantly corn. Samples from Burger King showed the greatest

variability, indicating that some cattle may have eaten natural

vegetation or other feeds instead. The nitrogen isotopic ratios were

much higher than ones found in grass-fed and free-range beef, and the

authors attributed these findings to feed produced with nitrogen

fertilizer and severe containment conditions.

 

The authors also found widespread homogeneity of chicken samples

across chains. The chickens used were predominantly corn-fed. While

the chicken samples had lower nitrogen levels than beef, the authors

argue that they remained high enough to demonstrate that the poultry

had been raised in extreme confinement.

 

Samples of french fries revealed that the restaurant chains are using

one frying oil or a combination of oils despite claims stating

otherwise. Wendy's, for example, claims their fries may contain one or

more of canola, soy, cottonseed or corn oil. In fact, the study's

findings pointed to a nationwide " corn-oil based protocol " for fries.

 

Marion Nestle, a professor in the department of nutrition, food

studies and public health at New York University, says the study

highlights what we already know about industrial food production: Most

livestock and poultry live in cramped conditions and subsist on a

fattening corn diet. There are a host of problems with industrial

farming, including environmental pollution, says Nestle, but eating

animals raised on corn diets is not one of them.

 

" It would be too bad if this adds to public fears about corn, " she

says.

 

Dr. Frank Monahan, a scientist at University College Dublin, has used

the same technique to compare the eating habits of grass-fed and

conventionally raised beef in Ireland. While he called Jahren's

approach scientifically sound, he questioned the conclusiveness of the

study's findings.

 

The levels of nitrogen, he says, may not be directly linked to

confinement practices. Instead, they may reflect the fact that most

conventionally raised beef and poultry are given feed that was grown

with nitrogen-enriched fertilizer. And while the high levels of carbon

13 indicate a diet abundant with corn, Monahan says their values could

have been much higher, which would provide convincing evidence that

the animals had an exclusive corn diet.

 

This technique has been increasingly used in the past decade to

analyze the eating patterns of animals that become consumer meat.

 

" Because the food chain has become so long now, and it's a global

industry, we want to know the origin of our food as consumers, " says

Monahan. " Consumers nowadays want to know the story of their food. "

 

Bob Goldin, executive vice president of the food industry consulting

firm Technomic, says that's probably not the case with fast food

customers.

 

" For the very vast majority of consumers, it's of little or no

interest, " he says. But, he argues, that should not justify overly

protective disclosure policies. " I don't know why, frankly, this whole

supply chain should be a mystery. If it's anything that doesn't

involve a trade secret, why wouldn't you be willing to? "

 

Jahren and Kraft, a doctoral student in at Johns Hopkins University,

conducted the research unpaid. Jahren says she is trying to shed light

on a dearth of information about how a cow becomes a McDonald's

quarter-pounder, for example.

 

" The information gap is really fascinating, " says Jahren, who tried

for two years without success to obtain information from Burger King,

Wendy's and McDonald's about their suppliers and food production

practices. McDonald's does not disclose its suppliers and Wendy's

declines to do so, citing " competitive reasons. "

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For in a Republic, who is “the country� Is it the Government which is for

the moment in the saddle? Why, the Government is merely a servant—merely a

temporary servant; it cannot be its prerogative to determine what is right and

what is wrong, and decide who is a patriot and who isn’t. Its function is to

obey orders, not originate them.

Mark Twain