Na een groei van 3 maanden zijn de bananen klaar om geoogst te worden en kunnen ze verzonden worden naar het verpakkingsstation. Vanuit daar gaan ze in speciale Dole dozen op transport.
The Truth About Dole
The truth about Dole: known as one of the most influential and long standing healthy food companies, Dole maintains their GMO stand. This doesn't mean they are not consistently looking for more innovative ways to develop safe food production systems, because they are, it just means they are doing it in a natural, non-GMO way.
Charlotte Wheatley
Tuesday, 18 June 2013
In 1899, James Dole arrived in Hawaii with $1000 in his pocket, a Harvard degree in business and horticulture and a love of farming; this was the beginning of what is now known as Dole Food. It is the world's largest producer and marketer of high-quality fresh fruit and vegetables. The DOLE brand means the finest, high-quality products in the world and Dole will continue to meet customers' expectations by consistently providing products that meet the highest standard, often referred to as the Dole Standard.
With growing consumer demand for organic and healthy products, Dole consistently strives to operate with conventional agricultural production methods. Since the 1980s, Dole’s pest management (IPM) natural controls have been integrated with cultural methods to reduce the use of chemical products and some of the IPM techniques have eliminated use of some chemicals altogether!
GMO: The Good and The Bad
Most importantly, however, Dole is strictly non-GMO: they do not grow or supply genetically modified organisms (food crops or animals). Genetic Modification of food involves the laboratory process of artificially altering or inserting genes into the DNA of food crops; it is even possible to insert genes from a fish into a plant! There are many reasons companies choose to “go GMO”, including improving the nutritional content in foods and making them more resistant to herbicides. However a large motivation behind GMO is to enable crops to grow in climates all year around; essentially they are less affected by the environment, increasing their yield so they are able to provide the World’s continuously growing population with food.
Although the intentions behind GM food may seem honorable, the process is banned in more than 60 different countries for a reason: they carry many harmful properties for both humans and the environment. Humans consuming GM food are at risk of unidentified toxins, allergic reactions and there’s the obvious fact that this food is simply not natural! The effect GM food has on the environment is also something to consider and it is undoubtedly irreversible. First of all the GM food, or animal for that matter, could be introduced into wild populations; pesticide-resistant insects could develop which would be detrimental to both plant life and wild life.
Dole Responds for Their Consumers
One major issue concerning GMO products is the labeling, or lack thereof. This has led to public trust issues regarding food safety – understandably people want to know what they are eating and where their food comes from. Dole is aware of consumers’ doubts especially in the US where labeling is few and far between. Consequently in 1996, Dole launched a website www.doleorganic.com, under their new division Fresh Fruit International, Ltd. to combat any food anxieties and to assure trusting consumers that they never use GMO’s or syrups, which is often made from GMO seeds.
This new website houses several interactive tools aimed at bringing consumers closer to its organic banana operations. In response to increasing demand from consumers who want access to specific information related to Doles’ farms, they have labeled their bananas with a unique code that corresponds to the farm from which the banana was sourced. Dole has enabled their consumers to electronically view the farm where the bananas were purchased or grown, the neighboring areas and all information about the farms, soil and products.
There are several methods and indicators which can help you determine whether your food is safe. Some companies will label their products and spell it out to you with “GMO free” labels, which we would say is definitely something to boast about! Otherwise there is a labeling system that if you know how it works, in no time you’ll be an expert in determining which food is best for you.
Priceless Indicators for Food Safety
If the produce you are looking at has a label with 4 digits this means it has been conventionally grown and contains chemicals, if the number has 5 digits and begins with a 9 this means the produce has the green light and is organically grown, lastly if the number on the label begins with 8, this means the produce is genetically modified. However, in some countries for example the US, labeling is not a legal requirement; for a company to label their food as GMO….they may as well be putting a toxic skull as the label. It’s safe to say you don’t see many of these around.
As a general rule, if you want to avoid GMOs, buy organic. If you can’t find organic, avoid all processed foods made with corn, soy, canola or their derivatives, as mentioned earlier they are often made with GMO seeds.
The Good Guys
FIELDS recognizes the good in Dole, not only for their work ethics and practices but also their delicious products. This is why in China, FIELDS is the only on-line supplier of Dole’s fresh products, which includes red bananas, yellow bananas, pineapples and papayas; red flesh in a papaya is a sign that it is GM free, so if there are any doubts you can see for yourself the truth about Dole’s GM free products.
The Dole food company is completely transparent with their consumers, they are experts in what they do and they take great care to see that it is done well. Dole's dedication to nutrition is a commitment solidly backed by comprehensive programs for food safety, crop protection and stringent quality control.
For decades Dole has acted as a leader in the agricultural industry: continuously inventing innovative solutions to consumer demands, developing healthier production methods and promoting healthy eating among communities to name a few. Though remaining GMO free in a bid to always provide healthy and safe food is a lasting winner for us!
Geen opmerkingen:
Een reactie posten