“THE NUMBER OF FOOD INSPECTIONS IN TURKEY THAN EUROPE”
Metin Yurdagül, Chairman of the Board of the Culinary Products and Margarine Industrialists' Association (MUMSAD) and also one of the veteran names of the sector, and Ebru Akdağ, the General Coordinator of MUMSAD, gave a seminar titled "Boring Realities Against Attractive Superstitions" at the Gastronomy and Culinary Arts Department of Istanbul Gelişim University.
Ebru Akdag, who touched on how people who are far from being scientific about food create an information pollution through the media, mentioned that the food inspection in Turkey is more than that of many EU countries and that the number of inspections carried out by the Ministry has increased over the years. Ebru Akdağ also said that in the light of scientific facts, the food industry is a leading country in many ways in the production of healthy and safe foods, but unfortunately speculative and popular names create information pollution about food through the media.
“TURKEY PRODUCTION BELOW EU LIMITS ON TRANS OIL”
Metin Yurdagül, who stated that the studies on reducing trans fats in margarines started in the 2000s, stated that Turkey had solved the trans fat problem in margarine production much earlier than Europe and America, and that since 2007, the transition to trans fat-free period has been started. Metin Yurdagül also mentioned that margarines are mentioned together with cholesterol and that it is not possible to find cholesterol in margarines obtained from vegetable oils. Metin Yurdagül stated that, as MUMSAD, they always follow the developments in the light of scientific data and express their opinions due to the constantly changing and developing nature of science, and stated that the most important way to prevent the existing information pollution is to share the information obtained in the light of science.
“PACKAGED FOOD IS RELIABLE FOOD”
In the seminar, it was stated that the war waged by the media on the food industry and the extremely wrong and even dangerous information conveyed to people for the sake of being popular should be prevented. Emphasizing that packaged food is safe food, packaged products with inspections, production, packaging and expiry dates should be preferred, and that it is not possible to know the stages through which any product sold outside of packaging reaches our table, Ebru Akdağ said, “As a consumer and food engineer, I am a consumer and a food engineer. I do not buy the product, I prefer packaged foods because I know how it is produced. In addition, it was emphasized that not every packaged food can be reliable, attention should be paid to businesses that can escape the control, and reliable brands should always be preferred.
“THE BAGS ARE MORE RELIABLE THAN THE TEA SOLD IN TEA”
Touching on the subject of tea bags, Metin Yurdagül said, "There is a misconception that teas sold in herbalists are healthier, especially because of the claim that tea bags cause cancer, whereas tea bags are a natural material obtained from the fibers of banana trees."
Ebru Akdağ said that the experts on foods are Food Engineers and Dietitians, and that these two professional groups should complement each other and convey the right information. In addition, he emphasized that cooks and gastronomy experts also have a great responsibility, that we are all in the same boat and that science should always be on the side of false information.
At the end of the seminar, Vice Dean of the Faculty of Fine Arts Assoc. Dr. Müzeyyen Sevtap Aytuğ presented her plaques of appreciation. Head of Gastronomy and Culinary Arts Department Dr. Instructor Emine Olum, Faculty Members of the Department, Dr. Instructor Member Murat Doğan and Lecturer. See. E. Zeynep Özer, Res. See. A souvenir photo was taken with Emel Çirişoğlu.
