Fresh from China ... tucking into sandwiches from Pret A Manger. Photograph: Frank Baron.
We are growing more and more aware of the food we buy and prepare at home, with two out of three UK consumers making sure at least some of their food is organic, according to a Soil Association report out today. In fact we're so keen on it - sales rose 30% last year alone - that demand is outstripping home-grown supply, leading to concerns about clocking up "food miles" just when we thought we were purchasing ethically.
And what about the food that we don't cook ourselves? The Fair Food Foundation's "What's on your plate?" campaign raised similar concerns this week by calling on food outlets to disclose much more about the origins - and food miles - of the ingredients sourced for their dishes, to give consumers the chance to make an informed choice.
The campaign analysed the origins of some common dishes on British menus and found that their ingredients - among them Peruvian asparagus (at the RAC Club at the height of the English asparagus season), Chinese farmed crayfish (in Pret a Manger sandwiches) and Egyptian potatoes - had collectively travelled a total of 32,550 food miles. This could have been reduced to 425, the Fair Food Foundation claims, if locally sourced ingredients had been used in place of imported produce.
Though it's unlikely that top-end chefs will compromise on sourcing the best quality ingredients, the campaign has the backing of Phil Howard, chef-patron of the two-Michelin-starred, The Square, in London. In fact Lyndon Gee, co-founder of the Food Foundation, told me that their campaign was actually going down better with chefs than with the catering industry as a whole and predicted a "Jamie Oliver effect" once the provenance of Britain's imported produce was publicised. Not only are some ingredients flown thousands of miles contributing to global warming, he points out, but some come from countries with poor farming records too.
Simon Hargraves, Pret's Commercial Director, confirmed today that Pret sourced its crayfish from China (and its chicken from Brazil) but stressed: "We never air freight anything". Instead the produce is surface shipped, frozen if necessary, to the UK.
Welcoming the campaign as "quite commendable" he cautioned that it was "a small part of a much bigger picture" and that cutting down on foreign food imports would seriously challenge the British catering industry. UK consumers were just not as educated about healthy and seasonal food as their European neighbours, he said, and further food labelling was not going to solve that problem.
• Do you know of a restaurant, cafe or bar which sources good local produce? Post your tips below or at theguardian.com/been there, our readers' travel guide to the world.
