Health experts have sounded an alarm over the nation’s reliance on imported fruits and vegetables, warning that ultra-processing and genetic modification are stripping food of its nutritional value and threatening public health.
They called for urgent action to shift eating habits back to locally grown, seasonal produce, as concerns mount over the impact of trade policy on the island’s food security.
Speaking at a Heart & Stroke Foundation of Barbados workshop at the Courtyard by Marriott Hotel on Thursday, clinical nutritionist Nicole Elliott, co-chair of the Barbados Childhood Obesity Prevention Coalition, warned that imported produce — particularly apples and corn — may be undergoing ultra-processing or genetic modification that alters their natural characteristics while still appearing deceptively fresh.
“We had an experiment running at school — how long we could keep apples out of the fridge before they went bad — and you can try this out when you get home,” Elliott revealed. “Normal red apples, the ones we used to call ‘50 cent apples’ (gala apples), I guarantee you that if you keep them in the refrigerator, they will last you a year and they will not go rubbery, they will not turn brown. And even if you leave them outside, the same thing will happen. For some reason, those innocent apples that we are accustomed to purchasing now are being subjected to ultra-processing, and they still look like they’re in their natural form.”
She explained that modern food technology and genetic engineering were driving changes that many consumers were unaware of.
“We’ve been seeing product modification and food technology at play for a long time. Depending on where our products come from — and who the importer is — we get foods from countries that do genetic modification, especially with corn, apples, and other items that are in high demand and require large-scale production,” she said.
“So, you’ll find that some apples spoil the way you’d expect — they go through the normal food spoilage process. But others? You leave them out, and nothing happens. They just sit there. Sometimes, you’ll look at an apple and say, ‘This looks too shiny, too perfect,’ almost like the one from the Snow White story. And when you pour hot water on it, the wax coating comes off. That’s because wax is added to make it look more appealing. And that works — we’ve all been conditioned from childhood to think that’s what a ‘good’ apple should look like.”
Elliott cautioned that while not all imported apples or fruits are problematic, Barbadians must begin to think critically about food sources and push for minimal processing.
“Eat the apple — don’t eat the Apple Jacks [cereal]. That’s what I’m saying. We can’t stop eating, but we have to start choosing the lesser of the two evils. A good place to start is eating as close to the farm as possible, as close to the source as possible. Because if that apple already has something added to it at the fresh stage, imagine what’s happening when you start dehydrating it, packaging it in a special kid snack, or mixing it into granola.
“The apple is just an example — not all apples behave the same — but the point is, the more we process it, the further it gets from being an actual apple. By the time you get that so-called ‘apple’, you might as well have been eating dirt. There’s no value left in it — no nutrition, no substance, no flavour — just a name.”
Her comments were echoed by Dr Maddy Murphy, senior lecturer at the George Alleyne Chronic Disease Research Centre, part of the University of the West Indies Cave Hill campus. Murphy said the dominance of imported produce in the region’s food systems was driven largely by trade policy — not public health.
“This is one of the biggest issues we have with parents — what are the options? Because the fruits and vegetables are going in a certain direction,” she said. “For most countries in the Caribbean, most of our fruits and veg are imported. [There’s] a whole range of reasons, and it’s not related to health. A lot of this is about the Ministry of Economics and Trade, and those kinds of things. It’s about the World Trade Organisation and being able to bring certain things in.”
Dr Murphy added: “Some of those farms are bigger than some of our islands, so the price that they’re able to send down their fruit and veg — our local products can’t compete a lot of times when it comes to price. That’s something we really need to change in terms of our food and nutrition security.”
She said regional food systems must move towards greater self-sufficiency and cohesion, highlighting the need to increase the availability and appeal of local, seasonal produce.
“We’ve spoken to parents, and they’ll tell you: their kids don’t know what dunks and ackees are any more. They’re just not exposed. When you talk to farmers, they’ll say there’s so much construction and development that a lot of those indigenous fruits and vegetables are being removed and not replaced.”
Both Elliott and Dr Murphy called for renewed efforts to educate Barbadian families — especially children — about local fruits and vegetables, food preparation, and the risks of over-reliance on cheap, imported goods.
“It’s all nice and shiny to have blueberries and strawberries and everything else. But you have a lot of foreigners who come down here — tourists come here and they want to eat our local produce. They see the benefits and talk about breadfruit as a superfood.
“I think what we need to do is education and appreciation for what we have, and really to start getting people to eat local. The food preparation is important. You don’t want to add too many things, but it’s closer to home, it’s less of the pesticides, it’s less of the storage, the waxes and all those things.”
(SZB)
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