Caballero B. (ed.) Encyclopaedia of Food Science, Food Technology and Nutrition. Ten-Volume Set

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0029 The integrity of cans and jars is measured by

detecting the deflection of lids due to the internal

vacuum. The vacuum is created when hot-filled con-

tents cool or by steam-flushing of the head space. The

deflection can be measured physically or by tapping

to create a distinctive tone; ‘duds’ are rejected as

likely to have leaked.

0030 Vision systems are complex combinations of op-

tical devices and computers to observe, quantify, and

report on shapes. Such systems are becoming less

expensive and more useful as the cost of computing

power continues to decline. A vision system can check

pizzas for the proper count and placement of garnish,

such as pepperoni slices; it can look for and discard

‘doubles’ in a candy bar process; and it can detect

the presence and proper placement of labels on con-

tainers. Special devices can read bar codes on cases

and report data to an inventory management system.

0031 Vision systems will become more complex and

useful with time and will assume many duties now

performed by humans, such as sorting, grading,

trimming, and assembling.

Integration of Processes

0032 Integration of processes means the linking of data from

various sources to maintain smooth operation and the

use of such data to improve operations. At a primitive

level, such techniques as signaling downstream or up-

stream operations about stoppages can avoid waste

and prevent damage to equipment. On a more sophis-

ticated level would be recording data about stoppages

forlater analysis. A computer can beused tocoordinate

thesignaling andtodo the analysis.It canevenwrite the

report, recommending process improvements!

0033 CIM encompasses both levels cited plus more. The

basic idea is to avoid ever having to reenter data or

information once it exists in a computer. For example,

direct process data, such as case counts or batch

weights, are available in a process control computer.

It should not be necessary to obtain a report and reenter

that data in another computer in order to calculate

daily, weekly, or monthly production results. Nor

should it be necessary to correlate data from two or

more different sources to identify production problems

and detect improvements. In a CIM environment, all

data are available on a common data base shared

among various computers linked electronically.

0034 Computers included in such a network range from

mainframes and minicomputers through desktop or

microcomputers to factory-floor devices such as pro-

grammable logic controllers. The power found in each

of these devices is increasing as the cost decreases, so

the capabilities available to those running food plants

are constantly improving. Current practice in modern

food plants is to control nearly all equipment (pumps,

conveyors, ovens, sterilizers, feeders, etc.) through op-

erator-interface terminals, which have color graphic

displays and keyboards, keypads, or touch screens.

0035The displays, of which there may be several dozen,

usually show flow diagrams of the process and status

of the equipment (on or off, temperature, etc.). Time

histories of any measured parameter can be plotted

on command, deviations from desired ranges flagged,

and correlations tested among measured parameters.

0036Standard reports are generated, and data can be

summarized for use at the next level of management.

For example, on the operational level, the instantan-

eous rate of production is a concern (cans per minute,

kilograms per hour, etc.); at the next level, the interest

might be cases or pallets per day (calculated by sum-

ming all the actual cans, kilograms, cases, or pallets

counted); at the plant and corporate levels, totals for

weeks, months, quarters, and years are the only con-

cern. If all the results, at whatever level, are calculated

from the same basic data, with little human interven-

tion, they will be consistent and available quickly, and

people will be relieved of tedious and unnecessary

time-consuming labor.

0037Barriers to this ideal situation have included incom-

patibilities among computers, languages, programs,

and communications media. Additional barriers have

been low computer literacy among workers involved

and institutional resistance to sharing of information.

Evolution and cooperation among vendors have led to

the emergence of common protocols for exchanging

informationelectronically,sothatmanyoftheprevious

technical barriers have fallen. Training and the use of

computersinearly school gradesis reducingtheliteracy

problem. The institutional resistance may be the most

difficult, but as the significant benefits of computer

integration are appreciated, this too will disappear.

Conclusion

0038The overwhelming importance of computers in pro-

cess control and business systems, which are increas-

ingly linked together, has a significant impact on food

plant design. The need to have data compatible with

computers influences the selection of instruments and

measurement techniques. Instruments are being made

‘smarter’ by incorporating computing power in them

with microprocessors, leaving only simple connec-

tions to control computers. Such smart instruments

calibrate themselves, control drift, correct for chang-

ing conditions, and are inexpensive to install. The

ability of fewer people to manage and control large

processes reduces the labor requirements while rais-

ing the education and training requirements of the

employees.

PLANT DESIGN/Process Control and Automation 4605

See also: Canning: Principles; Chromatography: Gas

Chromatography; Colorants (Colourants): Properties

and Determination of Natural Pigments; Properties and

Determinants of Synthetic Pigments; Mass

Spectrometry: Principles and Instrumentation; Mercury:

Toxicology; Pasteurization: Principles; pH – Principles

and Measurement; Protein: Determination and

Characterization; Spectroscopy: Near-infrared;

Sterilization of Foods; Water Activity: Principles and

Measurement

Further Reading

Bernard JW (1989) CIM in the Process Industries. Research

Triangle Park, NC: Instrument Society of America.

Food and Process Engineering Institute (1990) Food Pro-

cessing Automation Conference Proceedings. St. Joseph,

MI: American Society of Agricultural Engineers.

Schwartzberg H and Rao MA (1990) Biotechnology and

Food Process Engineering. New York: Marcel Dekker.

Plantains See Bananas and Plantains

PLUMS AND RELATED FRUITS

C F Hansmann and J C Combrink, ARC Infruitec-

Nietvoorbij, Stellenbosch, South Africa

Background

0001 The European plum (Prunus domestica) probably

originated in eastern Europe or western Asia around

the Caucasus and the Caspian Sea. It has been known

in Europe for more than 2000 years. Prunes are the

most important subgroup. Others are the greengage,

yellow egg, imperatrice, and lombard groups. The

Japanese plum (P. salicina) originated in China and

was domesticated in Japan. An American fruit bre-

eder, Luther Burbank, developed many commercial

cultivars from it after its introduction into the USA

around 1870. Native plum species occur in

some countries, such as North America (e.g.,

P. americana, P. hortulana, P. subcordata) and the

UK (P. spinosa, blackthorn sloe; P. institia, damson

or bullace), but these are not extensively grown com-

mercially. Some are used in breeding programs with

Japanese plums. Other plum types, used as rootstocks

or in plum breeding programs, or occurring in home

orchards, are P. cerasifera (myrobalan, cherry plum),

P. simoni (apricot plum), and P. institia.

0002 Plums are cultivated over a wide range of climatic

conditions. In 2000, world production of plums was

estimated at 8 830 000 tonnes (Table 1), representing

about 8.5% of the world production of deciduous

fruit. Fifteen countries produced more than 100 000

tonnes each, or more than 85% of the total produc-

tion. The ratio of Japanese plum to European plum is

approximately 99:1 for Japan, 60:40 for South Africa

and Israel, 40:60 for Canada (Ontario) and Italy, and

0:100 for Yugoslavia (Montenegro, Serbia).

Anatomy and Morphology of the Fruit

0003The plum is a succulent fruit, called a drupe, and is

formed by thickening of the ovary wall following

fertilization. The floral remnants become senescent

and drop off. The skin (epicarp) consists of a layer

of elongated living cells (epidermis) covered by a thin

film of cutin (cuticle). It protects the underlying tissue

and permits exchange of metabolites or gases with the

external environment through openings (lenticels).

Wax deposited on the cuticle forms a light gray

bloom that gives the skin a dull appearance and

makes it impermeable to water. The thick, fleshy,

edible portion (mesocarp) consists of parenchyma

cells that have an active protoplast where all meta-

bolic reactions occur. The protoplast is enclosed by a

pectinaceous cell wall. Middle lamellae, which occur

between adjacent cell walls, have a high calcium con-

tent and play a vital role in maintaining cohesion

between cells, thus providing structural rigidity.

The single seed is enclosed by a hard stone (endo-

carp) consisting of isodiametric cells with thick,

lignified cell walls (sclerenchyma). The mesocarp

usually clings to the endocarp, although some

cultivars are freestone (i.e., the mesocarp is free

from the endocarp).

0004Japanese plums are large and attractive, round or

heart-shaped, with or without a prominent apex. The

surface of some cultivars is covered by a heavy bloom.

The flesh and skin color of ripe fruit may vary from

4606 PLUMS AND RELATED FRUITS

yellow to blood red. The skin of the red-colored

cultivars changes during ripening from green to red,

usually starting at the apex. Fruit texture varies from

firm and nonmelting to soft and melting. European

plums are usually oval, with bulging of the central

side, and compressed bilaterally. Their skin color is

blue or purple, and they have a thick, meaty, freestone

flesh. Fruit texture is usually firm and semimelting.

Physiology of Plum Fruit

0005Cultivar, climatic, environmental, and cultural

factors significantly affect physiology. Cell division,

multiplication, and differentiation of tissue occur

during the first few weeks after fertilization. Cell

enlargement and maturation follow. Numerous bio-

chemical changes occur in plum fruits during the last

few weeks prior to harvest, whilst the fruits are still

attached to the tree. Many of these physiological

changes are consistent and predictable, and can be

used as indices for determining harvesting maturity.

Substances synthesized in the leaves through photo-

synthesis are translocated to the fruit and trans-

formed into products, which eventually determine

the quality and nutritional value of the fruit.

0006The sugar and total soluble solids content increase

throughout the period of growth. Organic acids accu-

mulate in the fruit during the early stages of growth

and then gradually decrease. The phenolic content of

the fruit is high during the early stages, decreases, and

then remains contant until harvest. Volatiles, which

determine the flavor or aroma, are produced. Wax

develops on the skin of the fruit. The fruit attains its

full size and optimum maturity, although it is still

unripe. (See Phenolic Compounds; Sensory Evalu-

ation: Aroma; Taste.)

0007During ripening, pectic substances in the cell walls

change from an insoluble to a soluble form, resulting

in softening of the fruit. The chlorophyl (green

pigments) content of the skin decreases, and the

carotenoid (yellow pigments) and anthocyanin (red

pigments) content increases. Based on its respiration

pattern, the plum is a climacteric fruit. The respiration

rate is high during and immediately after cell division.

As maturity approaches, it decreases to the preclimac-

teric minimum and then increases irreversibly to a

maximum (climacterium) during ripening. At the cli-

macterium, the fruit are soft and sweet, with a charac-

teristic flavor, and are ideal for eating. Subsequently,

senescence sets in, whereupon the respiration rate de-

creases, and the fruits become overripe and decayed.

(See Ripening of Fruit; Phenolic Compounds.)

Chemical Composition and Nutritional

Value

0008Food composition tables generally do not specify the

cultivar analyzed, nor whether a sample was fresh or

cold-stored before analysis. Nevertheless, they are

useful guides to the composition and nutritional

value of fruit. A typical composition table for plums

and related fruits is given in Table 2. The anthocyanins

present in plums are 3-glucosides and rutinosides of

cyanidin and peonidin. Refer to individual nutrients.

tbl00 01 Table 1 Worldproductionofplumsduring2000

CountryProduction(10

tonnes)

Countriesproducingmorethan20000tonnes

Africa

Algeria26

Egypt21

Libya33

Morocco39

SouthAfrica55

Asia

China4192

India74

Iran130

Iraq27

Israel23

Georgia49

Japan119

Korea52

Lebanon41

Pakistan81

Russia120

Syria26

Turkey190

Uzbekistan76

Europe

Austria 57

Belarus 43

Bosnia and Herzegovina 90

Bulgaria 62

Croatia 40

France 214

Germany 316

Hungary 91

Italy 188

Moldova 27

Poland 107

Romania 345

Spain 156

Ukraine 85

Yugoslavia (Montenegro, Serbia) 370

North and Central America

Mexico 61

USA 668

Oceania

Australia 24

South America

Argentina 69

Chile 158

Countries producing less

than 20 000 tonnes

250

To t a l 8830

Data from Food and Agriculture Organization (2002) FA O S TAT A g r i c ul t u r a l

Database(http://apps.fao.org/).Rome:UnitedNations.

PLUMS AND RELATED FRUITS 4607

0009 Taste is largely determined by a balance between

the sugar and acid contents. Low acid and high sugar

contents result in a bland taste, and high acid and low

sugar contents in a sour taste. The contents of indi-

vidual sugars and acids vary between cultivars, but

citric acid as well as malic acid are present in the fruit.

For example, in Australia, the cultivar Santa Rosa

contains approximately twice as much malic acid as

Mariposa, but has a lower soluble solids content. (See

Acids: Natural Acids and Acidulants.)

Harvesting, Handling, and Storage

0010 Plums are harvested in summer, from about Decem-

ber to February in the southern hemisphere and from

about July to October in the northern hemisphere. It

is important to harvest at the correct stage of matur-

ity. If plums are harvested while still immature, the

characteristic flavor will not develop, and fruit qual-

ity will be inferior. Plums harvested too ripe are very

susceptible to injuries and fungal infection during

harvest and postharvest handling, and their storage

life will be short.

Dessert Plums

0011Dessert plums are harvested when they are physio-

logically mature but unripe. Ripening to a stage at

which the fruit has a pleasant taste and aroma occurs

during and, mostly, after storage. Plums that are to be

sold soon after harvest must be picked at a riper stage

than usual, or cold-stored for a few days to promote

proper ripening. They require extra care during hand-

ling.

0012Total soluble solids content, estimated by means of

a refractometer, and mesocarp firmness, measured

by means of a probe (penetrometer) forced into the

flesh, are good indicators of maturity. However, these

tests are destructive, and pickers use skin color, in

combination with these tests, as a maturity index.

Fruit size is an additional criterion used to determine

optimum maturity stage. Fruits are picked by hand

into picking bags and carefully transferred to contain-

ers with a capacity of about 500 kg. Plums bruise

easily and must be handled carefully during and

after harvest. Filled containers are transported to a

packhouse. Bruised, cut, or decayed fruit and culls are

removed. The plums are sorted according to size and

either hand- or mechanically packed into cardboard

or wooden containers. These usually have a capacity

ranging from about 5 to 20 kg. Trays or padding

material immobilize the fruit in the container to pre-

vent transit injuries. Packed containers are unitized

(palletized) to facilitate handling and protect the fruit.

0013To extend the storage life of the fruit, its tempera-

ture must be lowered as soon after harvest as possible.

Precooling, which removes field heat from the fruit,

commences immediately after packing and palletiz-

ing. Cold air is distributed through the pallets in such

a way that it comes into contact with all fruit. The

ideal storage conditions for plums are a temperature

of 0.6 to 0



C and a relative humidity of 85–90%.

The storage period depends on the cultivar. Most cul-

tivars cannot be stored for longer than 3–4 weeks, but

others can be stored for up to 3 months. The fruit of

some cultivars are susceptible to chilling injury. To

prevent chilling injury, the temperature is raised from

0.6



C to about 7



C after 7–10 days, and this tem-

perature is maintained for the rest of the storage

period. This is called dual-temperature storage. Con-

trolled- or modified-atmosphere storage increases

the storage life of some cultivars. (See Controlled-

atmosphere Storage: Effects on Fruit and Vegetables;

Storage Stability: Mechanisms of Degradation.)

Prunes

0014Prunes are harvested when fully ripe and in an ideal

condition for fresh consumption. Overmature fruit

tbl0002 Table 2 Nutrient and mineral content of fresh plums, damsons,

and prunes

Nutrient Content (per100 g edible portion)

Plum

Damson

Prune

Moisture (%) 85.2 69.7 32.4

Energy value (kJ) 230.0 146 1000.0

Carbohydrate (g) 11.0 8.6 55.5

Dietary fiber (g) 2.0 1.6 7.2

Protein (g) 0.8 0.5 2.6

Total fat (g) 0.6 Trace 0.5

Nicotinic acid (mg) 0.5 0.3 2.0

Pantothenic acid (mg) 0.18 0.24 0.46

Riboflavin (mg) 0.10 0.03 0.16

Thiamin (mg) 0.04 0.09 0.08

Folic acid (mg) 2.0 3.0 4.0

Carotene (mg) 295

265 140

Vitamin B

(mg) 0.08 0.05 0.26

Vitamin C (mg) 10.0 5 3.0

Vitamin E (mg) 0.65 0.60

Sodium (mg) 0 2.0 4.0

Potassium (mg) 172 260 745

Calcium (mg) 4.0 22 51.0

Magnesium (mg) 7.0 10 45.0

Phosphorus (mg) 10.0 14 79.0

Iron (mg) 0.1 0.4 2.5

Copper (mg) 0.04 0.07 0.43

Zinc (mg) 0.10 0.10 0.53

Data from Langenhoven ML, Kruger M, Gouws E and Faber M (1991) MRC

Food Composition Tables, 3rd edn. Parow, South Africa: South African

Medical Research Council.

Data from Holland B, Welch AA, Unwin ID, Buss DH, Paul AA and

Southgate DAT (1991) McCance and Widdowson’s -The Composition of Foods,

5th edn. Cambridge: Royal Society of Chemistry and Ministry of

Agriculture Fisheries and Food.

No data available.

4608 PLUMS AND RELATED FRUITS

discolor and break down during drying. The fruit of

some cultivars drop from the trees naturally and must

be gathered promptly to prevent losses. Soluble solids

content and flesh firmness are important maturity

indices. As in the case of fresh plums, these indices

are related to skin color.

0015 Most prunes are dried rather than sold fresh. Fresh

prunes can be cold-stored, but their storage life is

shorter than that of dessert plums. Sorted prunes are

dipped into a hot caustic solution (generally 0.5%

sodium hydroxide at boiling point) for sufficient

time to remove the wax layer and cause minute cracks

in the skin. This facilitates moisture loss and speeds

up drying. The prunes are then packed on to trays

and dried in the sun. Prunes can also be dried in

mechanical dehydrators, usually tunnel dehydrators.

The fruits are washed and placed on trays in the

dehydrator without application of a lye treatment.

Hot air circulates through the trays, and drying

takes place within 24 h. Dehydrators used for drying

prunes are frequently operated in the parallel-flow

mode (concurrent movement of fruit and heated air

through the drying section), with the fruit entering the

dehydrator at air temperatures of up to 90



C. Prunes

are gathered when dry but still pliable, with a mois-

ture content of about 20%. Considerable degradation

of the red pigments present in the fresh fruit occurs

during drying. (See Drying: Drying Using Natural

Radiation; Theory of Air-drying.)

Market Disorders and Diseases of Plum

Fruit

Disorders

0016 Disorders are transit- or storage-related. Transit-

related disorders include bruising as a result of

rough handling, freezing injury owing to tempera-

tures below the freezing point of plums, and shrivel-

ing owing to moisture loss caused by low relative

humidities in the storage atmosphere. These disorders

can be controlled by effective postharvest manage-

ment.

0017 Storage-related disorders are similar to transit-

related disorders but include internal breakdown or

internal browning. When a fruit is cut open, internal

browning can be seen as a reddish brown discolor-

ation, which is more intense around or near the endo-

carp. It is responsible for extensive losses during cold

storage. It usually occurs at low temperatures and can

be prevented by storing fruit at slightly elevated tem-

peratures. Some cultivars are more susceptible than

others. Dual-temperature storage is used where plums

have to be shipped over long distances.

Diseases

0018Fungi cause market diseases. The most important

postharvest diseases of plums and prunes are brown

rot (Monilinia laxa, M. fructicola), blue mold rot

(Penicilliun expansum), gray rot (Botrytis cinerea),

mucor rot (Mucor piriformis), and rhizopus rot (Rhi-

zopus spp.). These fungi cause decay in a wide range

of commodities, and their occurrence is not limited to

plums. Fungal spores present in the orchard on plant

debris or in the air are dispersed to fruit by wind or

insects. The spores of B. cinerea and Monilinia spp.

can infect uninjured fruit in the orchard, especially

during the 1–2 weeks prior to harvest, when the

susceptibility of fruit to infection increases. However,

disease symptoms are only expressed during cold

storage. The other fungi are wound pathogens that

penetrate fruit through skin breaks caused by rough

handling or insects. Decay symptoms are related

to the fungus involved. Mucor and rhizopus rots

develop rapidly, and affected plums become soft

and watery, and are covered by black spore

masses. Brown rot starts as a small, water-soaked

spot, which enlarges rapidly and becomes brown or

black. The skin becomes leathery but remains intact.

Fruit infected by B. cinerea are firm, spongy, and only

slightly moist. The skin covering lesions readily slips

away when slight pressure is applied. Decay develop-

ment is slower, and, in advanced stages of decay, gray

spores cover the affected areas. Blue mold rot lesions

are wet and soft and covered with blue–green mold

growth. (See Spoilage: Molds in Spoilage.)

0019Control of postharvest decay involves the integra-

tion of preharvest factors (soil preparation, spray pro-

grams, orchard hygiene, etc.) with sound postharvest

crop management. Fruit produced under optimal con-

ditions possess a high natural resistance to infection.

Proper sanitation in the orchard and packshed keeps

the number of spores to a minimum and is an import-

ant precautionary measure. All fungi causing posthar-

vest decay, except Rhizopus spp., can grow at 0



and cold storage does not prevent decay development.

Chemicals can be used to control decay, but only a few

are registered for postharvest use. (See Fungicides.)

Industrial Uses

0020Plums have a wide variety of industrial uses. Japanese

plums are mostly eaten fresh, although a small per-

centage are dried. European plums are mostly dried

(prunes), cooked (greengages), canned (greengages,

yellow egg, damsons, other European plums), or

used in jams (plums, greengages, damsons) or jellies

(American plums). Prune juice is used as a laxative

and plum pure

e as a baby food. Some plums are used

PLUMS AND RELATED FRUITS 4609

as rootstocks (e.g., marianna, myrobalan) or in breed-

ing programs (P. simoni) and are planted as ornamen-

tals in home gardens. In some parts of Europe, plums

are fermented and distilled into a ‘brandy.’ In

Romania, Hungary, and Yugoslavia (Montenegro,

Serbia) it is called slivovitz, and in other parts

of Europe the name depends on the cultivar used

(e.g. Quetsch or Mirabelle).

See also: Acids: Natural Acids and Acidulants;

Controlled-atmosphere Storage: Effects on Fruit and

Vegetables; Drying: Theory of Air-drying; Drying Using

Natural Radiation; Fungicides; Phenolic Compounds;

Ripening of Fruit; Sensory Evaluation: Aroma; Taste;

Spoilage: Molds in Spoilage; Storage Stability:

Mechanisms of Degradation

Further Reading

Chandler WH (1965) Deciduous Orchards, 3rd edn. Phila-

delphia, PA: Lea & Febiger.

Eksteen GJ and Combrink JC (1987) Manual for the Iden-

tification of Post-harvest Disorders of Pome and Stone

Fruit. Stellenbosch, South Africa: Van der Stel Printers.

Harvey JM, Smith WL, Jr. and Kaufman J (1972) Market

Diseases of Stone Fruits. US Department of Agriculture,

Agriculture Handbook 414. Washington, DC: US

Government Printing Office.

Holland B, Welch AA, Unwin ID, Buss DH, Paul AA and

Southgate DAT (1991) McCance and Widdowson’s The

Composition of Foods, 5th edn. Cambridge: Royal Soci-

ety of Chemistry and Ministry of Agriculture Fisheries

and Food.

Langenhoven ML, Kruger M, Gouws E and Faber M (1991)

MRC Food Composition Tables, 3rd edn. Parow, South

Africa: South African Medical Research Council.

Macheix JJ, Fleuriet A and Billot J (1990) Fruit Phenolics.

Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press.

Ramming DW and Cociu V (1990) Plums (Prunus). In:

Moore JN and Ballington JR, Jr. (eds) Genetic Resources

of Temperate Fruit and Nut Crops, vol. 1, pp. 235–281.

Wageningen, The Netherlands: International Society for

Horticultural Science.

Salunkhe DK, Bolin HR and Reddy NR (1991) Storage,

Processing, and Nutritional Quality of Fruits and Vege-

tables, 2nd edn, vol. 1. Boston, MA: CRC Press.

Teskey BJE (1978) Tree Fruit Production, 3rd edn. West-

port, CT: AVI.

Wills RBH, Scriven F and Greenfield H (1983) Nutrient

composition of stone fruit (Prunus spp.) cultivars: apri-

cot, cherry, nectarine, peach and plum. Journal of the

Science of Food and Agriculture 34: 1383–1389.

POLITICS AND NUTRITION

C Geissler, King’s College London, London, UK

Introduction

0001 Politics can be defined as both the art and science of

government, as well as the play of competing eco-

nomic and ideological interests. This article reviews

some aspects of government nutrition policies and the

effects of disparate interests on nutrition in develop-

ing and developed countries.

Nutrition Policies

0002 Governments in both developed and developing

countries have over the last two decades increasingly

focused attention on nutrition through explicit

national nutritional policies. (See Nutrition Policies

in WHO European Member States.)

0003 Hunger and malnutrition were put on the inter-

national agenda by the League of Nations in the

1930s and remained an important focus of the United

Nations (UN) technical agencies, the Food and

Agricultural Organization (FAO), World Health

Organization (WHO), and United Nations Children’s

Emergency Fund (UNICEF), which were created im-

mediately after World War II. The types of nutrition

interventions and development policies supported

were shaped by the World Food Surveys conducted

every decade by the FAO (these estimated the extent

and defined the causes of malnutrition) and by post-

colonial theories of economic development. During

the 1950s and 1960s, the prevailing policy encouraged

industrialization and large-scale agriculture in order

to increase economic wealth, from which improved

nutrition would ‘trickle down’ rather than be achieved

by improved distribution. Nutrition continued to be

approached mainly through piecemeal interventions,

including child-feeding programs and nutrition educa-

tion, but also via some integrated village-level ‘Ap-

plied Nutrition Programs’, that addressed the

economic, educational, and food resource constraints

on good nutrition. (See World Health Organization.)

0004By the early 1970s, it had become clear that rapid

economic growth had led to increased inequalities, as

well as increased absolute poverty in some countries

such as Pakistan, Nigeria, and Brazil, resulting in

greater levels of undernutrition in the impoverished.

4610 POLITICS AND NUTRITION

0005 Dissatisfaction with the effectiveness of past

approaches in improving malnutrition led to the

concept of National Nutrition Planning, based on

the coordination of sectoral policies to focus on nu-

trition. The aim was to remove the barrier to eco-

nomic growth of malnutrition that results in

increased morbidity and mortality, poor educational

achievement, low work capacity, increased absentee-

ism, and low productivity. This integrated, system-

atic, intersectoral approach was endorsed and

promoted by the FAO and the United States Agency

for International Development (USAID), that assisted

several countries to prepare explicit integrated nutri-

tion policies. (See Malnutrition: The Problem of Mal-

nutrition.)

0006 In this international context, the need for integrated

national food and nutrition policies was also expressed

in the developed countries, where the malnutrition of

poverty had been largely eliminated but where malnu-

trition of affluence, reflected in increased rates of cor-

onary heart disease, diabetes, obesity, and cancer, is the

current concern. Several countries developed national

dietary goals in the 1960s and 1970s to encourage their

populations to consume a more healthy diet, but

Norway was the first to pass an intersectoral Food

and Nutrition Policy in 1975. (See Malnutrition: Mal-

nutrition in Developed Countries.)

0007 Duringthe1980s,thisextentofintegration fell outof

favor because of practical difficulties, and the inter-

national community concentrated on improving the

nutritional impact of agricultural and other sectoral

development programs. In the 1990s, the focus moved

to micronutrient interventions to eradicate the most

prevalent vitamin and mineral deficiencies. However,

in 2000, the pendulum of opinion is swinging away

from specific ‘magic bullet’ interventions and back to

calls formore integrated approaches to national policy.

Types of Nutrition Interventions

0008 The types of interventions that form part of national

nutrition policies tend to be limited to palliative

measures such as vitamin supplementation, nutrition

education, and child-feeding programs, because the

underlying political issues that lead to malnutrition,

whether undernutrition or overnutrition, involve fun-

damental economic and political interests. These are

much more difficult and contentious issues and rarely

features overtly in nutrition policies. (See Community

Nutrition.)

Famine

0009 One extreme example of the political aspects of

nutrition is famine, with mass starvation and death,

often attributed to climatic causes such as drought or

flooding. Such factors may precipitate famine, but it

is only the most vulnerable members of society who

starve in this type of famine. To quote Amartya Sen,

‘starvation is the characteristic of some people not

having enough food to eat. It is not the characteristic

of there being not enough food to eat.’ He argues that

poverty and famines are related to ‘entitlement’ or the

ability of individuals to obtain food through the legal

means available in the society, including production

possibilities, trade opportunities, state provisions,

and other methods of acquiring food. When individ-

uals can no longer obtain enough food in exchange

for their products or services, they suffer from famine,

as happens with food price rises owing to local short-

ages and hoarding. Several examples exist where ag-

gregate food supplies were adequate but certain

groups could not afford to buy them, such as the

Irish famine of 1846, the Bengal famine of 1943,

and more recent famines in the Sahelian countries.

War

0010War is an extreme example of political crisis and is an

increasingly common contributor to the causes of

famine through the blockade or diversion of food sup-

plies, the destruction of cropland and the migration of

farmers away from their lands in the war zones. War

contributed to the famines in Bengal, The Netherlands

and Warsaw (World War II) and more recently in

Nigeria, Timor, Kampuchea, Laos, Vietnam, Afghani-

stan, Chad, Uganda, and the Sudan. War and its after-

math also have an strong impact on nutrition, short of

famine. One example is the 1990–1991 Gulf War,

which resulted in extensive destruction of Iraq’s infra-

structure and economy so that widespread malnutri-

tion, particularly of children, has occurred.

Refugees

0011War and political crises also create refugees. The

number of people in the world who have either fled

their country as refugees, or have been displaced

internally, mainly as a result of civil war increased

greatly during the 1980s and 1990s and at the begin-

ning of the new millenium stands at around 50 mil-

lion. Refugees suffer from the same type of diseases as

other vulnerable groups in developing countries, the

main killers being measles and diarrhea, to which they

are more susceptible because of malnutrition. They

often receive food inadequate in quantity and quality.

If prolonged, this deprivation leads to starvation, and

debilitating outbreaks of scurvy, pellagra, beriberi,

and other deficiency diseases are now common. This

is attributable to the dependency of refugees on the

food provided by governments and aid donors, which

POLITICS AND NUTRITION 4611

has little diversity and is inadequately planned. (See

Refugees; Scurvy.)

Poverty

0012 Famine is only the tip of the iceberg of the larger

problem of poverty and access to resources, which

affects nutrition on a longer-term basis. Various eco-

nomic models or political views exist on the causes of

poverty and wealth creation, ranging from simplistic

models of idleness and ignorance to systematic models

such as the Marxist model, which views poverty as an

inevitable and even necessary part of the capitalist

economic system. These models form the framework

of what policymakers believe can be done to break

out of poverty and malnutrition, what the implica-

tions are for the rest of the economy, and therefore the

type of interventions they support.

Poverty reduction

0013 Poverty reduction became a specific target of the

international community: an International Develop-

ment Goal was set in 1990 to halve poverty and was

expected to be met within 20 years in most areas of

the world. However, the financial crisis later in the

decade led to a rise in levels of poverty and inequal-

ities, setting back progress and leading to renewed

calls for debt relief.

Debt relief

0014 Some countries are unable to tackle poverty ad-

equately because past loans have led to a level of

debt that is now too high for them to repay. For

example, in Africa as a whole, governments spend

four times as much paying back their debts to

developed countries in repayments as they do on

health and education. In 1996, the International

Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Bank, Regional

Development Banks and other external creditors

launched the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries Initia-

tive (HIPCI) to reduce the debts of the poorest coun-

tries who are deemed eligible by their economic track

record over the previous 5–6 years. However, few

countries qualified (Uganda and Bolivia), and in

1998, a fundamental review was agreed upon to

speed up the process and increase the level of relief.

Equity

0015 Poverty is a major, but not the only, determinant of

undernutrition. At the same level of family or national

income, some individuals or countries do better than

others in terms of nutrition. Internationally, there is a

clear relationship between gross national product

(GNP) and several indicators of health and nutrition,

including food available for consumption, infant mor-

tality, etc. Countries that have done best in improving

nutrition in recent decades are those where there is a

greater equity or where policies have concentrated on

insuring the satisfaction of basic needs, including ad-

equate food. These include a wide spectrum of political

ideologies from communist China to capitalist South

Korea. China has been a classic example of a country

that was still poor but conquered millennial problems

of malnutrition and famine – except during the disas-

trous Great Leap Forward policy of rural industrializa-

tion at the end of the 1950s – through effective

organization of food production and distribution.

Other examples are Kerala state in India, Sri Lanka,

Vietnam, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Thailand, which

have had better nutrition conditions than other coun-

tries with similar GNPs. In contrast, some countries

have extensive chronic malnutrition, e.g., Brazil and

some other Latin American countries (Bolivia, Ecua-

dor, Gwatemala), most countries in Sub-Saharan

Africa, and Bangladesh despite massive aid.

0016Since the early 1980s, there has been a widespread

rise in income inequalities with an acceleration in the

1990s in several countries, including all economies in

transition such as China. This has challenged the

poverty reduction targets set by the international

community.

International Relations

0017Poverty and malnutrition are controlled not only by

national policies and resource distribution but also by

the power play of international economic relations.

Again, opposing political views shed very different

lights on their effects.

0018On one side are those who believe that the rich

industrialized countries and the international agen-

cies do much to assist poor developing countries

through technical advice and monetary or food aid,

while international corporations provide them with

employment opportunities.

0019On the other side are those who believe that the

odds are stacked against poor countries breaking out

of poverty, as the countries that became industrialized

first now hold economic power internationally, dom-

inating trading and banking systems. In this view,

national elites of many countries assist the world

powers to dominate their economies through conces-

sions to multinational companies, the acceptance of

aid, and requests for finance from the international

banking system.

0020During the 1980s, the latter view received wider

acceptance and led to calls for a ‘new economic order’

by such groups as the Brandt Commission, which

warned that the inequalities of opportunity between

4612 POLITICS AND NUTRITION

the North (the rich industrialized countries) and the

South (the poor developing countries) could lead to

political and environmental instability, and it was

therefore in the interests of both to allow the South

greater control of its destiny.

0021 The questions of international food trade, food aid,

and the role of international agencies in relation to

poverty reduction and nutrition are therefore highly

contentious political issues that can be touched on

only briefly here.

Food Trade

0022 The economies of the developing countries are affected

by the policies of the major producers of food and

other essential commodities. For example, the ‘world

food crisis’ in 1973, which was marked by soaring

prices of grain and other food commodities on the

world market, was the result of several factors. These

included climate, the USA policy of deliberately redu-

cing its grain stocks by taking land out of production to

maintain producer prices, and Russia’s sudden in-

crease in its grain purchases from the world market

to support its policy of livestock production. These,

and the oil crisis, caused great economic hardship for

many developing countries that depended on imports

for their food supply, and led to a spate of policies to

increase food self-sufficiency.

0023 Similarly, the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP)

of the European Union (EU) has had a controversial

impact on the Third World through price fluctuations

caused by periodic dumping of surplus food on the

world market and through tariff barriers that restrict

imports. Some trade concessions were made by the

EU to the developing countries through the Lome

Convention, but this provided little protection in

practice. (See European Union: European Food Law

Harmonization.)

0024 These protectionist policies are the subject of inter-

national bargaining for free trade that is carried out in

periodic rounds of talks in the council on the General

Agreement on Trades and Tariffs (GATT). However,

these mainly reflect the interests of the seven most eco-

nomically powerful nations, the USA, Canada, Ger-

many, France, Italy, the UK, and Japan (the G7) and

only in the 1986–1992 round included food commod-

ities, prompted by the food price policies that are detri-

mentaltothe food trade oftheUSAandother countries.

0025 GATT was succeeded by the World Trade Organ-

ization (WTO) from 1995, which, by the end of the

decade, had 134 members, accounting for 90% of

world trade and 30 others, including China, negotiat-

ing for membership. The costs of participation are

high for the poorest countries, which means that the

agenda is still dominated by the large economies.

Food Aid

0026Food and other international aid has often been used

as a political weapon, given to politically friendly

countries, such as South-east Asia in the late 60s and

to Egypt and Syria in 1974, and withdrawn from those

that do not conform to the policies of the donor coun-

tries, such as Chile in 1971 and Mozambique in 1981.

0027Food aid has also received much criticism on the

grounds that it has been used by the donor countries

to dispose of surpluses and to penetrate food markets

of developing countries in order to create a long-term

trade demand, that it is unreliable, involves excessive

opportunity costs, reinforces expensive subsidy pro-

grams, provides opportunities for corruption, and is

used by governments to keep urban prices down,

thereby acting as a disincentive to agriculture and

maintaining rural poverty and malnutrition.

0028Food aid and capital intensive agricultural policies

are also seen to contribute to the rapid rural urban

migration seen in so many developing countries,

where cities are unable to cope with the rate of influx

to provide adequate housing, sanitation, water

supply, and employment. As a result, the migrants

can often only scrape a living through petty trading,

begging, and low wage employment. This influx

undermines minimum wage legislation or enforce-

ment and keeps the cost of labor, and therefore

incomes, low. The consequent inability of the urban

poor to purchase adequate diets, and the insanitary

living conditions, result in extensive urban malnutri-

tion in many developing countries. Such effects are

seen to negate the short-term benefits of food aid used

in famine situations, and of child-feeding and food-

for-work projects that act as welfare benefits or re-

source transfers to the poor.

0029The structure of food aid has altered since it

became a permanent international transfer mechan-

ism in the 1954 when the USA enacted the public law

PL480, referring to sales to ‘friendly nations,’ to be

paid initially with local money deposited as counter-

part funds for use by the USA or with their approval

(Title 1), and donations for famine relief and projects

(Title II). The latter represents a small proportion

contrary to the popular belief that all aid is a gift.

Initially, the USA supplied nearly all aid, but now the

EU, Japan, Canada, Australia, and other countries

contribute about 50%. About 35% of food aid is

channeled through the multilateral World Food Pro-

gram for feeding projects; this reduces political bias.

However, 40% is still bilateral, and several countries,

such as Bangladesh, remain dependent on food aid

and, therefore, politically dependent on the donor.

There is widespread recognition of the need for

reform of food aid and its international infrastructure

POLITICS AND NUTRITION 4613

to better handle hunger and meet targets in poverty

reduction, but consensus is difficult to reach.

Structural Adjustment

0030 Over the last decades of the millennium, many

developing countries experienced severe economic

crises owing to rapid changes in oil prices, falling

and unstable prices of export commodities, rapidly

increasing rates of interest, and increasing depend-

ence on foreign borrowing, resulting in reduced for-

eign exchange reserves, and inability to service debts.

0031 To deal with the crisis, countries had to implement

a variety of ‘macroeconomic adjustment policies,’

including reductions in government spending. These

conditionalities have been rigidly imposed by the

International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World

Bank (International Bank for Reconstruction and De-

velopment (IBRD)), to obtain new financial loans.

These institutions are funded by quotas from

members who have voting rights in proportion to

their contribution, assessed according to economic

status. The USA has the majority of the votes,

followed by the European countries, and others very

small percentages, so that decisions are effectively in

the hands of the major industrialized countries, espe-

cially the USA. This banking structure means that the

policies of borrowing countries are dictated by the

industrialized nations.

0032 The primary aim of macroeconomic adjustment

policies is to improve the balance of payments. There-

fore, short-term effects on the poor have often been

ignored unless they threaten political stability, e.g.

through urban riots. Adjustment has frequently in-

cluded changes that are of particular concern to the

poor, such as increased food prices and decreased

expenditure on social programs. The effects of these

policies on health care, food consumption, incomes,

and prices have led to a serious deterioration in indi-

cators of nutrition, health status, and school achieve-

ment in several countries. Efforts have been made by

UNICEF and other bodies to buffer vulnerable groups

from these effects.

Affluence

0033 In most developed countries, the problems of pov-

erty-related malnutrition have been largely overcome

by higher incomes and a safety net of welfare benefits,

and replaced by the problems associated with affluent

diets. The politics of nutrition in this case are very

different from those associated with poverty. Only a

small proportion of the population is involved in

primary food production (2–3% in the US and UK),

and the majority of the population depends on the

food industry, which is a major industry in economic

terms in Europe and the USA: in the UK agriculture,

food processing and distribution contribute more

than 7% to the GDP. Therefore, the agricultural and

food industry lobbies are potentially important in

food and nutrition policy formulation. In food policy,

nutrition generally has a very low priority. For

example, the EU CAP has no explicit nutritional

component, its main aims being to support farm

incomes and food security for Europe in terms of

adequate supplies and stable prices. The emphasis is

therefore on quantity, not on nutritional quality. The

concept of food quality has lagged behind current

values and has generally referred to the purity,

hygiene, and richness of nutrients. These are all

extremely important, but now that nutritional defi-

ciencies have been largely overcome, the concept of a

healthy diet can no longer be related only to purity

and abundance. Government policies have also

lagged behind current needs such that food legislation

and producer incentives continued to favor a high fat

diet, including premium producer prices for high-fat

milk and inappropriate grading systems for livestock.

0034Efforts during the 1980s to translate general nutri-

tional advice on healthy eating into explicit policies

were initially met with considerable concern and op-

position from some sections of the food industry that

were threatened with change. The debate included the

following arguments: the evidence for the relation-

ship between diet and disease is not adequately con-

clusive; the level of risk to the population as a whole

for certain dietary components such as salt does not

warrant blanket nutritional policies, only targeted

interventions to those at risk; and in a democratic

society, the individual must be free to make his or

her own choice of food consumption without coer-

cive pressures from a ‘nanny state.’

0035This initial resistance of the food industry and

of government was viewed in some quarters as a con-

spiracy of vested interests between food producers,

government policymakers and advisory committees.

However, others viewed it as a natural cautious atti-

tude that is necessary because of the widespread indus-

trial and economic changes entailed. Despite this

resistance, the food industry has responded to pres-

sures for change in various ways including research

into leaner livestock, the formulation of a variety of

low-fat and low-energy products, and voluntary nu-

tritional labeling. Also, since 1993, UK health policy

explicitly addresses nutrition and associated ‘diseases

of affluence,’ including obesity and heart disease.

0036Much stronger political support exists for interven-

tions based only on informed choice, and little for

coercive measures to improve the diet such as price

manipulation through consumer subsidies and tax-

ation, even though these instruments are used for

other purposes. There is therefore much effort put

into legislation on food labeling.

4614 POLITICS AND NUTRITION