On Sept. 7, CBS News posted on its digital media and Youtube a documentary on ultra-processed foods – “Ultra Processed: How Food Tech Consumed the American Diet” – which included footage and interviews from this year's IFT FIRST event.
It’s fairly balanced reporting. IFT (the Institute of Food Technologists), while defending the food industry, noted the documentary “spotlighted the confusion, cultural debate, scientific gaps and need for additional research in ultra-processed foods, showing a broad perspective on a controversial and complicated subject.”
The video starts with the accusatory, “Ultra-processed foods – high in fat, starches, sugar and additives – now make up 73% of the U.S. food supply.” But the very next statement was “Ultra-processed foods provide American families on a budget with convenient, affordable groceries.”
Seconds later, “But some have been linked to growing rates of disease ... As food technologies develop at lightning speed, Americans have to make choices that may risk their health.”
Interviewees include FDA Commissioner Robert Califf, Senator Bernie Sanders, Kevin Hall of the National Institutes of Health, Vijaya Surampudi of UCLA Health, Bill Aimutis of North Carolina Food Innovation Lab and Emily Broad Leib of Harvard Food Law and Policy Clinic – as well as a mother of four children and a high school student who was diagnosed with pre-diabetes because of a poor diet.
CBS interviewer Adam Yamaguchi asks Califf, “How is it that some chemicals that are in our foods have long been banned elsewhere?” The FDA commissioner explains, “America is a country that likes individual choice and access, and I think our laws reflect that national sentiment.”
Later, Yamaguchi notes the FDA is working on updating its process for approving food ingredients, especially the Generally Recognized As Safe (GRAS) system – which receives quite a bit of scrutiny in the report.
The documentary acknowledges the “growing chorus that’s asking for more protections for consumers.” And Yamaguchi observes from the floor of the IFT show, “A reminder that what we consume today is just as much a product of technology as it is actual food.”
In its statement after the airing of the documentary, IFT noted, “The path to healthier food starts with multi-disciplinary collaboration, including research and events such as IFT FIRST where the brightest minds in the food industry connect every year to address our biggest challenges like ultra-processed foods. From scientists to policy makers and from industry to consumers, IFT stands with all who seek to understand how processed foods impact lives around the world."
The documentary is 21 minutes long, definitely worth viewing. See it at www.youtube.com/watch?v=r03hB_xk5xs or on cbsnews.com/reports and Paramount+.
