Though the trend of ‘eating healthy’ has caught on for many and is increasingly pervasive among households and individuals considering the rising rate of chronic illness and disease, still, people just aren’t chopping fresh vegetables… As reported by NPR, “two-thirds of Americans say they want to eat more vegetables,” but most who do might actually be turning to the frozen aisle for their ingredients and prepared veggie meals.

According to the latest RBC Capital Markets report, volume growth for the frozen category has turned positive for the first time in five years. Market Watch reports that the biggest portion of the frozen category is meals and appetizers, making up 35% of the group including a sales growth of 3%. Apparently, this type of growth “new and modest, but is accelerating as consumers begin to see freezing as a way to preserve food with fewer negatives,” concludes a report from RBC Capital Markets.

Though I favor cooking my meals fresh and that works for me, ultimately, frozen produce has several factors going for it: “its affordability and its convenience,” says Phil Lempert, editor of Supermarketguru.com. And given that the typical American family tosses out $1,500 worth of food yearly — normally after it goes bad in the fridge — frozen foods, which have a much longer shelf life, could help cut back on waste.

Climate Change is Shifting Habitats for Fish and Marine Life

Climate change is warming the temperatures of our oceans, thus heating up coastal habitats around the world. According to the ecologist, Malin Pinsky of Rutgers University of New Jersey, that means fish and other marine animals here in North America are no longer comfortable; that is, “their habitat is shifting further north quite rapidly.”

Pinsky studied 686 marine species ranging from bass and flounder, to crab and lobster. He projected how much warmer oceans would get over the next 80 years, using various scenarios for emissions of greenhouse gases and the rate of global warming. Then he projected how fish species would probably react to that, based on what they’ve been doing already. “And [with] about 450 of those,” he says, “we have high certainty in terms of how far they are going to shift in the future.”

USDA Proposes Draft Labels for Bioengineered Foods: Submit Your Comments by July 3rd

In 2016, Congress famously passed a bill requiring labels on foods containing Genetically Modified organisms, which nobody was really happy about. Though certainly a step in the right direction, so began the USDA’s long process of collecting feedback from consumers, farmers and manufacturers regarding specifics about GMOs and the impact on public health. Now, the USDA recently released their proposed labeling guidelines, which would ultimately establish a national mandatory bioengineered (BE) food disclosure standard for foods packaged and sold in stores. Unfortunately, even though the USDA did receive 112,000 responses, the results are not looking too good…”There are a few options, and they look kind of like the labels you’d see on health food. They’re brightly colored, with greens and blues and yellows. They feature the letters B-E. Below that, some of them have a curved line.” In my opinion, the label should say GMO, not BE, since that is what the public knows, and there should not be a curved line representing a smiling face! Read more from NPR here.

The proposed rule is open for comment for 60 days. The deadline for comments is July 3, 2018. Due to the Congressionally mandated timeline for this rule making, the comment period will not be extended, so it is important that anyone interested file comments in a timely manner. Visit the Center for Food Safety, for more information here.

Organic Coating Created by Grad Student Helps to Reduce Food Waste and Carbon Footprint

Photo taken from Civil Eats. “Not only will Apeel double the shelf life of a ripe avocado by slowing water loss and oxidation, it also will help prevent interior browning, which is caused by a fungus called anthracnose that extends something like a straw through tiny cracks in the skin of the fruit and extracts sugars, leaving behind an ugly footprint.”

Remember Apeel Sciences? The startup company founded in 2012 by a graduate student who created this all-natural, virtually invisible coating which can double the shelf life of a cassava root, keep mangoes from going bad, and much more. In recent years, the company has found ways to coat a wide variety of fruits and vegetables to delay ripening and prevent spoilage caused by various pests.

Apeel coatings are edible, approved for use on organic products, and deemed “generally recognized as safe” by the Food and Drug Administration. This summer, you will find it covering on avocados in partnership with several major grocery chains. “The coatings are imperceptible and non-toxic, making them ideal not only for farms in the developing world, but to major produce companies in the United States, Europe, and Latin America.” Read more from Civil Eats here.