In an ideal world, we would all be eating fruit straight from the tree, vegetables fresh from the ground and fish caught that day, or even just be able to buy food grown locally. In Cayman that becomes a difficult practise.

Yes, there is Market on the Grounds at the weekends, but apart from that we have to rely on the supermarkets. And for the supermarkets ‘bought local’ can mean anywhere in the Americas.

Woody Foster explains how it works: “Predominantly, our food comes from the US through a distributor who has people buying from him all over the place.”

Foster hates to say it, but he doesn’t think Cayman could survive without the US, as there are no direct links with anywhere else in the Caribbean for food. Stores also do not have a great deal of control over their choices. They can ask for a specific type of apple, but if the distributor does not have it, then too bad. Also, forget the freshness of freshly picked vegetables and fruits. Foster says on average the food that arrives here is already at least six to ten days old. “It takes three days just on the water (shipped) if you think it is all imported from different places, then put in boxes and taken to Miami then....”

The only item they fly in is fish, so it tends to be fresher. The way to tell whether it has previously been frozen is this: “If you see a sign saying fresh tuna, it has not been frozen. Unless it says fresh, it might have been frozen.” He says while Europeans in Cayman might find the quality of fresh produce inferior, he does not know why this is, except that in the US they pick it green and then ship it out. If you want a peach that is tree-ripened, by the time it is shipped here it is going to be soft. “People should remember we are only an island of 50,000 and we just cannot offer the same things as large chains in the cities that have enormous buying power.”

Foster’s uses local suppliers in Cayman when items like mangoes are in season. As for organic produce, however, Foster says they have not had a great success and ended up dumping food, so now they keep just a small range.

Hurley’s also gets food from suppliers in the US. Store manager Raul Mena says the food comes from all over America, Panama, Columbia and other South American countries depending on where the suppliers source it. Hurley’s, like Foster’s, has no say in  where it is sourced from. They receive a list of what is available and order twice a week. They do have control over the quality of food they order and can specify a particular type of apples,for example ,if they are on the suppliers’ list. Mena says that regarding fruit, vegetables and meat, their customers need to know that they are getting quality, so Hurley’s ask for top level in these products, as graded  by the food industry

With the amount and variety of food available in supermarkets and all the health advice on what to eat and what not to eat, it can get confusing with fresh products.

Meat grading is fairly straightforward, but when you get into packages and tinned products, there can be some discrepancy about what a product claims to be and what it actually contains. Products that claim to be natural,  light and so forth can be particularly misleading. The following are some of the types of labelling that you might come across in your weekly shopping.

Organic

Nutritionist Andrea Hill defines organic as “a food that has been grown or raised without the use of pesticides, hormones, or growth-enhancing antibiotics. Organic farmers are said to pay closer attention to their soils and their animals’ health, so organic foods generally have higher levels of nutrients. To get an organic certificate, a product has to be more than 95 per cent organic.

Natural

Food manufacturers have a way of using natural as if it is some way nutritionally superior and of greater worth. It actually means the item is not expected to contain, or to have ever contained, an added vitamin, mineral nutrient, artificial flavouring agent or food additive, or gone through any processes that have significantly altered the original physical, chemical or biological state. In reality, neither the US Food and Drug Administration nor the US Department of Agriculture has rules for foods described as natural.

Almost all foodstuffs are derived from the natural products of plants and animals, and therefore any definition of natural food results in an arbitrary exclusion or inclusion of food ingredients. Likewise, since almost all foods are processed in some way, either mechanically, chemically, or by temperature, it is difficult to define which types of food processing are natural. Best advice is to read the label to see exactly what ingredients the items contain.

Healthy

For foods that have healthy on the label, the FDA has explicit limits on the amount of fat, saturated fat, cholesterol and salt  it contains. If it is a single-item food, it must also provide at least 10 per cent of one or more of vitamins A or C, iron, calcium, protein, or fibre.

Non- or -free from

These items must have less than the following amounts per serving: fat (0.5 gram), sugar (0.5 gram), cholesterol (2mg), or sodium (5mg).

Low

Generally, the product must have less than the following amount per serving: fat (3 grams), cholesterol (20 mg), or sodium (140 mg).

Reduced

Generally, the product must have at least 25 per cent less of the given component than is typically found in that type of food, such as reduced fat in cheese, less oil in hummus and so on.

Light

If at least half of the product’s calories come from fat, the fat must be reduced by at least 50 per cent per serving. If less than half of the calories are from fat, the fat must be reduced at least 50 per cent, or calories reduced at least 33 per cent per serving.

High In

All designated products with at least 20 per cent of the recommended daily amount per serving.

Good Source or Contains

The product must have more than 10 per cent but less than 20 per cent of the recommended daily amount per serving.

Fortified or Extra

Some label terms, although truthful, have little or no real meaning, and no standards for definition.

‘Made with whole grains’ can be an item containing as little as 5 per cent whole grains.

Similarly, ‘made with fruit’ could also be high in other ingredients, such as sugar corn syrup

Also, look out for all the different guises that sugar comes in, as there are about 30 different names for sugar, including dextran dextrose, fructose and glucose.

Meat and Poultry

Hill says, “commercially raised chicken and meat are raised in unnatural settings. Cows are raised on corn rather than permitted to graze on grasses; chickens never see the light of day, never touch the earth between their cages and are pumped with hormones to stimulate growth and antibiotics to prevent disease.” Again, if you want your meat without all that, it needs to be stamped organic.

Free-range also is tricky, as it can mean anything from an animal that roams freely to one that is let out of its cage from time to time.

Genetically modified foods

Food may also be genetically modified. This technique transfers genetic material from any source to another to create specific variants. Since alien genes are not welcomed by the existing genes, suppressive GE techniques must be used to force the animal or plant to accept them. What is created is an artificially mutated food, which some people believe might be harmful in the long run to both crops and humans.