I talk to BBC about Ireland and the end of milk quota

The end of milk quota has come and gone. Irish farmers are finally able to sell every litre of milk they produce instead of hiding it in barrels or stuffing it into calves which was what was going on aplenty until Tuesday night last week. 

And it's not just Ireland that's celebrating. The entire dairy farming community of the EU has now entered an unfettered period of milking cows without restrictions. Farms from Slovenia to Sligo are scaling up and anticipating increasing markets for milk. But as we know, success isn't an upwards-only journey. 

In 2009, during the early stages of global markets opening up to Irish milk, prices fell heavily. Many Irish farmers were burned, forced to sell milk below the cost of production. In the UK there are only 10,000 dairy farms left against the 18000 here with a fraction of the population. The dairy sector there has been decimated, with family farms loading their herds into lorries for the factory as cull cows who they've bred on the same land for generations. 

The next few years are going to be interesting to say the least and price volatility is certainly going to be central to this quota-free era.  

Here's an appraisal of this huge shift in farming which I contributed to for BBC news.  

[I do love the BBC form of "Ms. Campbell". At least it's not Mrs. Philip Boucher-Hayes which I get all the time..]

BBC news talk Europe, Ireland and the end of milk quota

Ireland's dairy export boom, is it without consequence?

Enda Kenny feeding a baby milk formula at Glanbia launch

If a picture tells a thousand words what does this one say? It's enraged people. Mostly women, and mostly those women interested in how feeding formula milk is considered "normal" while breastfeeding is seen as "unnormal".

Today was the first day in 31 years that Irish and European farmers were able to produce milk without limit. As part of a series of features by Irish writers on the social and economic impacts of the end of milk quota, I wrote the following piece about baby formula for the Irish Independent.

Baby formula is a huge part of our dairy export boom but is it a product without consequence? Some people think not...

Earlier this week on a farm in Carlow I watched milk splashing into jars as 80 doe-eyed Holstein Freisan ladies took their turn in the milking parlour. The farm, in beautiful well-drained Carlow land had been farmed by its 69 year old farmer and his father before him. This was the perfect place to talk about Irish milk and a brighter, quota-free era.

“Quota was a kind of madness” said the farmer as we shared bread, butter and marmalade in his kitchen after morning milking finished. His college-going daughter, wearing her local GAA team shirt, placed a hot pot of tea and a 2 litre plastic carton of milk on the table.

I’ve sat in many such kitchens of dairy farms in Ireland. Despite the oft-heard view of the dairy farmer swimming in money, few of these farmers want to be rich. All want to educate their children, and work hard at a relentless 365 day a year job. As I poured milk into my tea I wondered if I should ask this man if he felt what he did for a living was putting families in other parts of the world at risk.

Increasingly questions are being asked about the nature of our dairy miracle and its big dependence on milk powder. Is this hugely successful industry which has helped bring Ireland out of recession selling a product to those who have the least money to spend on it - baby formula.

This is relevant both to developing countries and in Ireland where the ESRI named us in a report produced in January as having the lowest breast feeding rate in the world (yes you read that correctly).

Ireland makes 10% of the infant formula fed to babies around the globe. Our food and farming industry presents this as a green, healthy foodstuff and in many ways it is. Ireland is the only country where all our dairy farms are monitored for green credentials and where waste, energy, animal feed and every last input is measured and accounted for.

Yet both the World Health Organisation and HSE policy is for mothers to breastfeed rather than use formula milk in the early months, or in the case of the WHO up to two years of age.

“I was enraged when I saw this picture” says Krisia Lynch from AIMS – the Association for Improvement in Maternity Services talking about the Enda Kenny, Phil Hogan and Jim Bergin from Glanbia feeding three babies infant formula at the launch of Glanbia’s new infant formula plant in Belview earlier this month. “It was outrageous. On one hand you have the department of health saying breast feeding babies is policy then here’s the department of agriculture encouraging and selling this baby formula message. We can guess which of the two is the stronger lobby group.”

Glanbia’s infant formula is fed by parents in West Africa, the Middle East, Asia and central America. Their new factory is the largest single infrastructure investment in Ireland by an Irish company since the construction of Ardnacrusha in 1929. When I contacted the Taoiseach’s office on the above photo their comment was that the plant is expected to contribute an estimated €400m a year to the Irish economy and provide around 1,600 jobs as a result of the extra dairy activity. 

This baby formula boom is hugely valuable in the multiplier effect of income spread in rural areas. To suggest to these workers that what they are making is wrong is incorrect. But are we asking all the questions around to whom and how our infant formula is being sold.

“Our tiny little country manages to feed 10% of  the children of the world with artificial milk” says Krisia Lynch. “While on the other hand professionally here the message on breast milk is being re-written. It’s not now “breast is best” but “normal”. So your baby has a normal response to immuniolgical diseases, gestational diabetes, chrones disease etc... with the underlying message is that if baby is not fed human milk it will have a sub optimal response.”

In the 1970s infant formula companies began to see their first backlash as they began selling product in developing countries. To make up a baby’s bottle you must have a clean bottle, and a clean water supply. Many companies came in for abuse and scrutiny on how health workers and doctors were incentivised to sell baby powder to mothers where breastfeeding was clearly the safest option.

Children died and legislation was changed. In 1981 the UN World Health Assembly ruled that baby formula companies are not allowed influence health professionals on advising mothers.

Unfortunately this doesn't always work. A recent report by Save the Children accused Nestlé in Pakistan, of handing out branded items to health workers and free samples of formula and bottles to maternity facilities.

Ireland gives around 600 million euros to the developing world annually. We aid rural farmers and increasingly women to form micro-businesses that will earn them surplus cash to spend on health or sending their children to school. Some buy baby formula with his cash, thinking it is a better choice for their infant.  Is this a double standard? Is Ireland both playing poacher and gamekeeper?

“The debate on breastfeeding versus infant formula will continue but there is always needs to be choice” says Cormac Healy of the Irish Dairy Industries Association. “We also have to remember that in the scale of things we produce less than 1% of the world’s milk so single handedly we’re not going to change the consumption patterns of any marketplace.”

20% of the milk produced on Ireland’s 18000 dairy farms goes into baby formula. Irish factories produce from milk to finished product in packaged tins but we also export base milk powder for blending in other countries. We are not in control of how this product is sold to third parties or mothers.

“Were not a one trick pony here, infant formula is an important sector but it’s not all we do” says Cormac Healy. “It’s also produced under very strict regimes and has a very valid place in the nutrition area. In terms of the breastfeeding debate, there is the factor of choice and a lot of the time this is about information and support to mothers.”

Closer to home global food giant Danone has plants manufacturing infant formula in Macroom and Wexford, with Macroom producing over 125,000 tonnes of infant formula annually. Danone sponsors the Irish “First 1000 days” baby and toddler nutrition campaign. SMA owned by Pfizer, sponsors Ireland’s Pregnancy and 

Baby Fair in the RDS Dublin and Cork City Hall this April.

In Irish maternity wards, understaffing and the nice lady with trolley of made-up baby formula bottles are also pretty good at undermining the breast is best (or breast is normal) message.

Hospitals pay for the formula and new mums get it for free once they’re admitted to the maternity ward. Like most new mothers I planned on breastfeeding my first baby. Generally it went well but within two months I was back working and baby was wholly bottle-fed from then on.

With my second child I ended up back in hospital having surgery for a C-section complication. I pumped breast milk every four hours even straight after surgery like a demented person but eventually folded and bottle fed. And the brand I chose to continue feeding to my baby once I was discharged was the brand supplied in the hospital, in this case Aptamil. Most mothers do the same thing – if they baby feeds well on what the hospital supplied why fix something if it isn’t broken? 

Women who’ve just given birth, especially with their first baby are exhausted, and if the baby doesn’t latch on and feed they will often take the option of the handily available and free formula milk. Maternity staff are over-stretched and there are not enough bodies on the wards to literally sit with women, help them and motivate them to start or to stay breastfeeding. 

Some women desperately need infant formula, I needed it myself. But the WHO’s position and on wards in Ireland the reality is that most women don’t.

I put the question to twitter -  How do we feel about #babyformula in Irish hospitals? As a mother or parent was it manna from heaven or expensive road to ruin? #nutrition

Siobhan @Smdoyle76 ·  @campbellsuz I think it’s a necessary evil - very little support to establish breastfeeding in hospital and the first few days at home.

  elizabeth macdonnell @yummymummyby4  @campbellsuz it's pushed as the easy option when in fact the opposite is true, the pressure to 'give a bottle/top up' begins in hospital

ShinyPrettyWant @fingalfoodie @campbellsuz if they didn't give it to me my child would have suffered. I can't produce sufficient breast milk due to a hormonal condition.

I found spending 15 euro on a box of formula really expensive and I’m living in a rich country. Imagine how expensive this is in real income terms in Africa or even China? But hang on – if we don’t sell this stuff to them somebody else will. Black market baby formula contaminated with melamine not only killed babies in China but has been found in milk powder sold as baby formula in East Africa. Surely Irish baby formula is the safest option. But is breast milk not the safest option?

Should we be finding other routes for high-quality Irish milk rather than baby-formula? It’s lucrative and valuable to the rural economy but it’s also controversial. The quality of this product is a world beater but Ireland could find itself the future focus of international criticism from NGO’s who work in the fields of infant and mother care.

Could we be reaching Peak Craft Beer?

In a food and drink area experiencing extreme heat, I recently investigated whether we're reaching the peak of a trend, or are in fact nowhere near the top. 

Long championed among Ireland's craft beer makers is the 10% of the US beer market that small craft labels have captured. Personally I love craft beer. But many Irish drinkers express a "done with that" attitude to the trend. So how is it really progressing and can it be ever upwards?

Recently I went along to a beer tasting seminar hosted by Liquid Curiosity in Dublin to meet brewers, taste beers and gauge the energy of new entrants to craft beer.

So what is a beer seminar?

Firstly there were about 25 people there – from the hospitality industry, brewers already in business, people wanting to set up a craft beer company and amateur enthusiasts. Tutor Jacqueline Steadman from Australia gave a basic introduction to different types of beers – pale ales, pilsners, stouts and what they are made from - hops, malt barley etc.

We sampled Irish beers and ciders in the main like Galway Hooker and Cockagee Cider from Slane but also more unusual products like cherry beers and a French Geuze formed with lots of lactic acid which tasted a bit like old socks. This was so deliciously on the verge of both disgusting and incredibly good that the only reason I pushed it to one side was it's incredibly high alcohol level at 8% APV.
 

The participants tasted the beers and discussed their characteristics. On each tasting sheet provided, beers were marked on colour, taste, the head, alcohol level, integration etc. Everyone really enjoyed tasting, commenting and getting to know new beers. There was lots of craic, plus a delicious lunch by Mourne Seafood where the seminar was held.


And there's not just energy and enthusiasm in the sector. The hard figures show huge growth.
From a handful of companies brewing before 2010 there are now over 80 Irish craft beer brands. Here's the question – how many more breweries can Ireland support? Craft beer here occupies between 1 and 2 percent of the beer market. In the United States their 10 percent hold has the big guns directly blaming craft beer for declining market share.

Budweiser volumes have fallen in the U.S. from nearly 50-million-barrel peak sales in 1988 to 16 million barrels last year. Light beers and craft beers have been the biggest factor in this decline, with younger people in the US staying away from what seem like old fashioned brands A recent study published by WSJ found that 44% of drinkers aged between 21 and 27 have never tried Budweiser. Sorry Clydesdales. You may be cute but you're also ageing.


So on paper there is still huge space for growth in Ireland – in other words to take Budweiser, Heineken and Guinness drinkers away from those brands onto craft beer brands. However it’s not as simple as that. Many Guinness drinkers simply like Guinness. Some craft beer drinkers are occasional beer drinkers who may not switch wholesale to one brand but try many and not be loyal to any.
Another remaining problem is that many bars particularly outside cities or foodie areas still do not stock craft beers. In some of the best hotels in Ireland I've asked for a craft beer and been looked at askance.

We also know that most of the Irish companies are very small and perhaps much of the appeal of their product is in their own local area or county. How many are going to be listed with the big supermarkets for example? Denise Murphy who manages the alcohol sector for Bord Bia points out that they are now directing craft beer companies more towards export. At so small a portion of the beer market here companies are going to have to look abroad to grow their output. It's not essential for survival but essential for growth.


Some drinkers are frankly sick to death of craft beer. And it's true that some products have been talked up. At the tasting seminar tutor Jacqueline Steadman who is an Australian wine maker opened a beer and pointed out a lot of what was wrong with it. There was plenty. We must remember that just because a beer says craft in front of it does not mean it’s excellent in every way. The term Craft Beer is also under fire in some territories where massive breweries make "craft" products and it’s been put forward by some publications that the term such be ditched.


Before the last budget in Ireland if you produced under 20,000 hectolitres annually beer companies got a tax rebate but that was then extended to 30,000 hectolitres. This was directly to benefit small craft beer companies very often situated in rural areas to grow, which is a very good thing. However it doesn’t stop companies calling themselves craft beer producers who produce far above this level.


There has been controversy in particularly the US where craft beer producers are often massive companies the size of Diageo. And even some craft producers say it’s better not to have a classification at all.


Having observed craft beer grow from so little in Ireland it's been an exciting and interesting journey to report on. I've interviewed and featured beer producers from Galway, Dublin, Donegal, Cork, Leitrim and Monaghan. I would characterise the sector at this point as being in its second phase. The stage where a community regroups, reflects upon itself and competition usually gets tougher as the marketplace gets more crowded.


Bright futures aren't a given for all these companies and it's worth noting that breathlessly championing every single product is a mistake. Ultimately craft beer offers the consumer more choice as the big international brands have had a stranglehold on the beer market for decades. That's a good thing, but perhaps is also viewing craft beer as no longer the food and drink baby needing kisses and love but a juvenile with a bright future, and challenges yet to take on. 

@campbellsuz on twitter

"Natural", "Artisan"? - nonsense? Get involved in the discussion on use of food marketing terms in Ireland

This is something that constantly amazes me; I pick up a pack of Danish sausages in the supermarket (often distributed by big Irish brands) who neither state the country of origin or make ridiculous claims of it being a cutsey farm product rather than mass-produced factory food using the lowest acceptable standards, sold at the lowest possible prices. 

The Food Safety Authority of Ireland have announced a public consultation on the use of food marketing terms in Ireland. Words like "natural" "traditional" and "farmhouse" are used liberally on food labels but carry no meaning or no protection in the case where food is actually produced by hand in small quantities. Consumers are confused and many believe that like "organic" these terms carry a defined meaning.

 

As this has been an issue for many years Food and Drink Industry Ireland, (IBEC), the Artisan Forum and Consumers Association of Ireland have now developed the draft code of practice aimed at protecting the integrity of certain marketing terms on food and the interests of consumer and the small food industry.

This Code of Practice outlines the general legal requirements but in addition will provide an agreed set of rules for the food industry concerning the use of the following marketing terms to describe foods placed on the Irish market:

• Artisan/Artisanal
• Farmhouse
• Traditional
• Natural

I know that many people in both the food and consumer sector are concerned with this so now is the chance to have your say.

 

The consultation will run for 8 weeks and the closing date for responses is 14 May 2014. All feedback and comments will be considered in advance of the FSAI publishing a final industry Code of Practice later in the year. To let your opinion be known please check out the following link:

 

http://www.fsai.ie/news_centre/press_releases/National_Consultation_on_the_Use_of_Food_Marketing_Terms_Opens_19032014.html

Pls share and let people know in the small food sector #Irishfood

Lovely Lamb

In my food column this month for The Gloss magazine I write about Spring lamb and a time for learning.

New born lambs are appearing in the fields around our house. This happens just as my friends and neighbours bear the weary eyes of long nights in sheds with bawling ewes, or bottle feeding the unwanted or third in a triplet set in the kitchen.

The valley I live in is mountainy marginal land and has very few cattle anymore. Most of the sheep farms have consolidated into a remaining ten to twenty farmers with their own home farm and sheds, who rent extra land from families that have left farming. Close to us the Hogans, McKees and Keegan's of @waterfallfarm shop are in the thick of the lambing season. In a fickle marketplace it's a business with price rises and crashes like everything else. Sheep are also notoriously tricky to rear and I've witnessed myself the old adage - the first indication of illness in a sheep is mortality. Yet the farmers still stay up all night, both men and women, to lamb ewes, to get the newborn started on feeding and nurse the ones not thriving.

Lambing season here is something both myself and my children delight in. The squeals of delight in response to newly born lambs bucking and skipping on their first day out on grass say it all. It's a pity that as a foodstuff in Ireland we are eating less lamb and it's now purchased by mainly older consumers. I love lamb. I buy half a lamb from the farm across the lane every year and for me it tastes like home.

 

This Edible Life  March 2014

One of my Spring pleasures - holding a new born lamb is unfortunately contraindicated to eating one. Not only are they too cute with their little velvet muzzles, early lamb can have a jelly-like texture and is much better killed at about five months old. While the garden eases into Spring I´m still cooking plenty of dark cabbage and have successfully converted all cabbage sceptics with my fabulous Gnocci with Savoy cabbage and Wicklow Blue or fried off with chorizo and garlic for an easy soup with vegetable stock and cream.

Around Dublin I´ve fallen in love with The Green Bench cafe on Montague Street (as if those pesky Dublin 8-ers aren´t served with enough great spots for a quick lunch). The serve lovingly-made take out for at your desk or if you´re like me - on the run from one venue to the next.  Super moreish is their wrap of citrus marinated feta with avocado, olive tapenade and hummus.

Not far away on Stephen´s Street, P. macs is a more comfy version of the cocktail zinc bars populating the South William street area. There´s lampshades straight from your grandmothers, patchwork armchairs and if you don´t feel like wearing towering heels it’s cosy for a quiet drink in the snug and some decent pizza. Another dress-down hide out for early evening is open downstairs on Dawson street. FAATBAAT serves a multitrip of cuisines – everything from Japanese ramen dishes to Malaysian “Drunken Prawns”. Their Go Go Bar is what this place is all about though with great tunes and decent cocktails.

Always a hot social ticket, the best food producers in the country compete on the 12^th March for a gong from my own parish – the Irish Food Writers Guild. The awards will be hosted by Derry and Sally-Ann Clarke in the wonderful L´Ecrivain. We have some stunning food and drink entries, all Irish artisan-produced but I am sworn to secrecy. Follow the winners and recommendations from the day at twitter @foodguild.

 

No better time than Spring to sharpen cookery skills. To mark her new book The Extra Virgin Cookbook, Susan Jane White is hosting an evening of cooking and tasting at Fallon and Byrne on the 12^th. Countrywide, it´s great to see many people I admire in food offering their expertise. JP McMahon, Michelin-starred chef and owner of Aniar in Galway has day workshops this month in “Nose to Tail Eating” and “The Whole Hen”. Down in Thomastown the inspiring Mag Kirwan is holding classes in smoking at her Goatsbridge Trout Farm.

Close to the beautiful beach at Termonfeckin in County Louth, the Tasty Tart Tara Walker has classes in cooking fresh fish landed at nearby Clogherhead and Foods of the Middle East, timely with the huge popularity of Ottolenghi. If you have a few bob ditch Ottolenghi and go to Beirut, one of my favorite cities for food - figs, hummus fatteh, baba ghanoui… Or closer to home check out Silvena Rowe´s cooking in at Quince in London´s Mayfair Hotel and her gorgeous book Purple Citrus and Sweet Perfume: Cuisine of the Eastern Mediterranean

Ah just throw it in the bin

Foodwaste! God how it bugs us all but yet we keep throwing out food.
We don´t mean to waste money. We don´t mean to ignore food in the fridge. We don´t mean to be wasteful, We don´t mean to overshop but we do.



To varying extents, all of us waste food. I am a complete scrooge but at some stage during the week I will still throw something into the bin that should not be there. Most of the time I think I´m great on the food waste issue but actually I´m not. I´m pretty medium rate. I make the "it goes to the dogs" excuse. We have two dogs which are very good at eating anything that falls on the floor, let alone scraps from plates. Unfortunately remembering to cut the Labrador´s food after half a bowl of scraps doesn´t always occur. So we´ve one fat dog and one anorexic terrier which is pretty much the way terriers are.

Some vegetables can go to my two rescue horses but as they are in work and as one is pretty fussy carrots are about the height of it. One thing I am very good at is shopping strategically and planning meals. I just make too much each time. Yes I freeze and make large batches to have later but often serve portions which are too large, particularly to my two children. Watching them say they are full when their plates are still laden with food, it´s tempting to make them suffer it out and eat the lot. But as we now know, this method employed by our parents is a dietary no no. (oh how I suffered at the table with gerbil cheeks full of spinach) so it´s back to the dog´s bowl it goes or into the bin.


Sometimes I get it really wrong - an untouched iceberg lettuce weeping in its wrapping at the back of the fridge and even today - some pork belly I bought which I was really looking forward to roasting tonight with Roosters and beets is somehow three days past the date. How did that happen? Why didn´t I put it in the freezer?



So we know it´s a problem but why do we keep doing it? Perhaps we don´t know Exactly how much it costs. Well now em, we do.

For the past six months by other half, journalist and co-author of the original  Basketcase Philip Boucher-Hayes has been filming a documentary for RTE on food waste in Ireland and examining strategies to curb it. When you tot up the figures it seems that in this country that of every three bags of groceries we bring into the house, one goes in the bin. Yep, throw it in, just like that. The other shocking figure is that according to the EPA - half a billion euros, yes, half a billion, could be saved if we got control of the problem.



As it´s such a large issue spanning everything from hospital food to high end restaurants one of the challenges in making the series was how to reach into our - the viewer´s own shopping and eating behaviour. So the series picked one town - Killorglin in County Kerry to focus on and take case studies of families in terms of what is coming into their house and what is going into the bin.

Here´s the promo for the documentary. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RT00WR5hk9k

It´s interesting frankly to see your own behaviour reflected back at you. Everyone has issues with food waste and it goes on in every kitchen. In a country where one in ten people suffer from food poverty its an uncomfortable situation. Philip´s documentary - Waste Watchers is on RTE 1 television is on this 

Sunday at 6.30. 

Basketcase on trial - what I really feed my family

This piece appeared in The Irish Independent last week. The editor and I felt it was important in the wake of the horsemeat crisis to talk about the ins and outs of buying meat products and a quick guide from the horses mouth so to speak (bahahaha) on what's healthy and risky in terms of processed food is what consumers want right now. 

I feel that telling people only to buy organic or local food is not where its at, or something that most peoples income allows for. My grocery shop for my family of four is a mixture of the two - buying both local and supermarket products, and cooking really simple dishes that don't break the bank. All of us have been rattled by the horsemeat story and are shopping more carefully. A Which? survey in the UK shows substantial loss of confidence in the safety of processed meats. While 9 out of 10 customers felt supermarket food was very safe to eat before the crisis, the number has now dropped to 7 out of 10.Have a look and let me know if your food strategy has changed in the wake of the horsemeat crisis.    

Irish Independent 9th March 2013

Food Writer Suzanne Campbell - "What I really feed my family"

“Are chicken goujons safe to give the kids?” These are the sort of questions mothers ask me, especially since the horsemeat crisis began in January. As a food writer the story didn’t take me by surprise. I live in the countryside and keep horses; one which was destined for a meat plant before I gave it a home.

Over the past weeks I’ve done countless interviews for Irish and European media on the issue and in a bizarre twist, conducted a live radio piece on horse burgers while exercising my own horse. For me, horsemeat was the perfect storm; the under-regulated horse trade exploding into a Pandora’s Box of horrors for consumers. In 2009 I had spelled out these fears in the book “Basketcase: what’s happening to Irish food?” co-authored with my husband – journalist Philip Boucher-Hayes. Then as now, our warnings about the real cost of cheap food fell on deaf ears.

I’m a journalist and the mother of two young children so I also put a family meal on the table every day. Living in the Wicklow hills may be the foodie dream and I go to a lot of swanky food events but our home menu is far from Masterchef. I don’t spend a lot of money on food, I just keep things simple. When people ask me is something safe to eat, I’m honest. There are some foods I just wouldn’t eat and some surprises that I would. 

Spuds, lamb, summer salad, wild garlic pesto. Fairly uncomplicated

You will never see a ready meal in my kitchen. One spaghetti bolognese I examined recently contains just 16% meat. Food “extenders” and “fillers” often make up the rest, adding volume and taste to sausages, burgers, ready meals and any amount of things in our trolleys. The reason? They reduce food manufacturing costs by 10-30%.

I understand why many consumers buy ready meals. As a working mum I often finish my day with cooking the last thing on my mind. I get round this by always having meals in the freezer. When I cook a chilli beef, ratatouille, curry, Irish stew etc I make twice the amount and freeze a complete meal. This is the key to avoiding take-away on the way home from work or dropping into the supermarket in a flap and coming out with a huge bill and still nothing for dinner.

Goujons - do they have a texture like jelly?

The aforementioned chicken goujons I simply don’t buy or eat. I peeled open a chicken goujon last week that looked like MRM (Mechanically Recovered Meat). MRM has a texture like sponge. It is not allowed at present in European food manufacturing but businesses get around the law by using the “Bader process” to make virtually the same thing – meat recovered from sinews and scraps from carcasses.

The safety issue for me is what’s used to congeal these bits of meat back into a palatable foodstuff. I don’t eat anything “re-constituted” that doesn’t have muscle texture, including turkeys or chickens at carvery counters that look like footballs.

After our RTE documentary “What’s Ireland Eating” aired many people approached myself and Philip with fears about ham. We showed a process where ham joints were boosted to a huge size by hundreds of needles pushing water and nitrates into the flesh. Processed meats, including hams and salamis have been linked to colonic cancer. Imported rashers and ham has higher nitrite levels (up to 20%) than are allowed in Ireland so I always buy ham with Bord Bia quality assured label.

Billy Roll - I don't go near it

Look for ham (even packed slices of ham) cut from the bone where you can see muscle grain. Likewise, jelly-textured cubed chicken found in sandwich bars, and deli counters. Even if it’s covered in a heavy “Cajun” or “Tikka” dressing; most of this chicken comes already processed from Thailand or Brazil and rarely made from fresh Irish chicken.

Ireland imports 2.5 million chicken breasts a week. Many of these have been found by the FSAI to be gas-flushed with CO2 to preserve them, on sale with incorrect use-by dates and could be up to ten days old from as far away as the Ukraine. Butchers are my first choice for buying beef but I don’t buy chicken in some butchers as many imported chicken fillets are sold loose on their counters. At the very least this chicken is stale. I only buy chicken fillets if they are Bord Bia certified (in supermarkets), free-range or if I’m flush, organic. 

This carrot and parsley soup takes about 20 mins to make

In our house meat is not a central part in every meal. I make a soup (curried carrot and parsnip, leek and potato) about twice a week, and yes, I add cream. This could be a dinner in my house. As is also scrambled eggs with tomato and basil, simple spaghetti with Irish mushrooms and pesto, cous cous or quinoa salad with mixed leaves, chopped peppers, cumin, olives and salami.

We’ve one child who is a great eater, the other one is more tricky. I adopt the French approach with children; mealtime choice is - menu A or menu A. Research show some foods like lettuce have to be offered up to 21 times before they are eaten; I put it in lunchtime sandwiches, it gets picked out. Then one day it isn’t picked out and eaten from then on. So don’t give up.

For my food shop I buy meat and vegetables from shops in my local village, spending about thirty euro a week in each. I buy store cupboard foods in one big shop about every three weeks in either Superquinn or Aldi. I know many Irish farmers who produce own brand product for Aldi. I also buy a lot of their imported foods like kidney beans, tinned tomatoes, chick peas, chillies, herbs and spices. Choose what has the least added ingredients and cooks well.

Remember, the more players involved in a single food product, the more likely it is to go wrong. Yearly I buy half a lamb from my neighbour butchered into joints ready to cook or freeze. At the weekend I buy sourdough bread, Kilbeggan porridge oats, Ed Hick’s rashers and eggs from the local farm shop.

My family food spend is under 150 euro a week, not counting wine or craft beer which I splurge on now and again. If I wasn’t partial to French wines and Irish cheese I would probably be the most healthy person on the planet.

So what can we do to eat safely and not pay out a fortune? Keep your food chain short and keep things simple. It takes work but shouldn’t break the bank. I dislike patronising advice to consumers to only buy organic or local. Find a place on the food and cooking scale you are comfortable with. Ditch Masterchef, take the pressure off yourself and cook with freshness to get taste.

Six foods I wouldn’t eat

Chicken goujons

Billy roll or any ham with a clowns face on it

Huge glossy chicken fillets in independent retailers or butchers often sold at discount

Chicken in a restaurant or sandwich bar – unless stated on the menu it is imported

Breaded fish including salmon, I stay away from farmed salmon and buy wild smoked salmon as an occasional treat

Brightly coloured snacks or crisps. McDonnell’s and Keoghs are pretty additive free.

My unexpected favourites –

Aldi’s Duneen natural yoghurt; I use it with everything; blitz with fruit for summer smoothies

Burgers – cook your own from mince or buy Aldi’s Aberdeen Angus 100% Irish beef; red meat is the best way to get iron into your system

Beans (without sugar) – unglamorous but a nutritious two minute meal heated on crusty bread

Smoked mackerel or herring costs about three euro a pack. Smashed up with crème fraiche and rocket makes a gorgeous topping on toast. Goatsbridge trout is so good eat it on its own.

Sodastream – invest in one. I drink two litres of sparkling water a day. Saved me a huge amount of cash and recycling of water bottles.

My food and drink picks for March - try Brad and Angelina's wine, La Rouge and Mount Juliet for starters

La Rouge in Cabinteely

This week is all about horses for me with the Irish dominating so much of the running over at Cheltenham. 

But in the food world, seasons roll on and new restaurants open. We have seen some great Dublin and Galway restaurants close in recent months but happily other food businesses also open, become firm favourites with the public and new trends begin. Here is my This Edible Life column for March from The Gloss magazine - my monthly pick of food news from producers and restaurants. If I had to recommend one outstanding thing from this month its Sam Neill's Two Paddocks pinto noir - so gorgeous you'll want to take a bath in it.


This Edible Life 

As reviewers in New York wrestle to describe “New American” as opposed to “American” cooking, one of the restaurateurs behind “new Irish cooking” is finding great success with her Cabinteely venture La Rouge. Anne Marie Nohl of the well-loved Expresso Bar on St.Mary’s Road in Ballsbridge (dressed down celebs) joins a gathering of places slowly making the village a foodie nook.

Ed Hick's Bacon Jam

Alongside Urban café, South African influenced Pielow’s restaurant and the Spanish Las Tapas, La Rouge is easy-going but relevant with plenty of Irish dishes. As with Expresso Bar, Sunday brunch is a big attraction featuring Eggs Florentine, seared kidneys and brioche. The “La Rouge Big Breakfast” boasts sausages by Proper Butcher and food obsessive Ed Hick. For more Man Food, try Ed’s Bacon Jam made with honey, coffee and baco  from Hick’s Butchers in Dun Laoghaire and many delis. My husband is obsessed.

Mount Juliet estate

Talking of butchers good and bad, amid covering #horseburger I grabbed a few days at Mount Juliet in Thomastown (doing two radio interviews in the car en route). Binning the phones, the thick Georgian walls give rest and quiet like no other, and the food at The Lady Helen gets better and better. These are stunning plates with great sourcing; I’m sure I saw the pheasant I ate giving me a wink earlier on the avenue.

In the wine world actress Drew Barrymore tells us she is so in love with Pinot Grigio she’s decided to produce her own, Whether it will beat Brad and Angelina’s Chateaux Miramar Cotes des Provence is yet to be seen. Unlike most Pinot Grigios, I found  Brangelina’s white Cote des Provence had a surprisingly full-bodied spank, and a good story for the dining table.

Drew Barrymore

Their wine is stocked by Garry Gubbins at Red Nose Wine in Clonmel, who supplies the horsey set with finds from hobnobbing around fancy-pants estates. He also sells the actor Sam Neill’s gorgeous Two Paddocks pinot noir. Another independent wine treasure is The Parting Glass in Enniskerry owned by the lovely Dom Price, with sweets and goodies on the counter (he knows my type). Others are Gabriel Cooney’s On the Grapevine in Dalkey, Curious Wines in Cork and Cases in Galway.

If you’d like to know more on food and wine pairings, Mary Gaynor in Thomastown Kilkenny runs a lovely wine course open to trade and the public http://www.wineacademy.ie.  In Dublin, Ely’s Big Tasting is on the 22^nd of this month with wine, Irish beers and ciders, Sheridan’s cheeses and organic beef from the Ely farm (yes there is such a thing). Basically, if you don’t want to drink you can just eat.

Kilruddery House

For a Spring shot of the outdoors, Kilruddery Farm Markets start again on 31^st March and every Saturday thereafter; foods for the larder, fresh coffees and great for letting children let off steam. It was here I first began buying Corleggy Cheese from Cavan. Despite being one of the earliest cheesemakers in the country, Silke Cropp’s cheeses from the edge of Lough Erne were new to me. Crackers, chutney, grapes, Corleggy, Two Paddocks… nothing better

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