Food on the go

Over the past few years our high streets have seen traditional sandwich shop and bakeries replaced by American and Italian-style coffee shop chains. Ruth Rosselson goes out to lunch.

The proliferation of chain coffee and sandwich shops means that you can now get identical food and drink in almost every town and city across the country while lining the pockets of larger corporations instead of local businesses. Starbucks has already been the target of campaigns by anti- globalisation protestors for this very reason while sandwich chain Subway now boasts that it has more outlets in the US than McDonald's. We looked at 11 of the most common stores to see how their ethics measured up

Coffee sourcing
A cafe latte or cappucino can set you back more than £2.00 in most coffee shops. Yet despite these inflated prices, the coffee bean market itself is still at an all time low. According to Oxfam, coffee prices have fallen 70% since 1997(1) and up to 25 million coffee producers are suffering as a result.(2) This means that many are unable to send their children to school, access to basic healthcare and even have had to cut back on food. Many coffee producers have been forced to sell their beans for much less than they cost to produce. And while farmers may sell at a loss, the coffee brands, including the coffee chains, sell at a hefty profit.(2) Oxfam is calling roaster coffee companies, including our chains -to pay a decent and fair price to farmers and increase the proportion of Fairtrade coffee that they buy.

Fairtrade
Campaigners argue that choosing fairly traded coffee is still the only way to guarantee that coffee farmers are paid a fair price. At the time of our last report in 2001, you could only get a Fairtrade brew in Costa Coffee. Three years on, Fairtrade coffee is much more readily available. Earlier this year, Marks & Spencer's Revive coffee chain announced that all its coffee would be certified Fairtrade. "M&S have shown that it can be done and we're hoping that it will be a challenge to the other chains and they'll follow suit" said a spokesperson from the Fairtrade Foundation. "Ideally," she says "all chains will convert to 100% fairtrade coffee. Until then, consumers can play their part by requesting Fairtrade coffee wherever it is available".

AMT coffee kiosks (not covered in this report), found throughout the country, announced as we went to press that all its coffee will be Fairtrade. Costa coffee offers a Fairtrade option, although consumers have to pay more for the privilege. All Pret A Manger's filter coffee is Fairtrade (15% of its volume of coffee) and its other coffee is sourced from suppliers using the Ethical Trade Initiative's base Code of Conduct. Starbucks offers Fairtrade coffee on demand - although this is only the drip coffee. All Starbucks chocolate is certified Fairtrade. Although Caffe Nero does not currently offer Fairtrade certified coffee, it claims on its website to be directly addressing Oxfam's campaign with its own coffee buying policies.

Independent outlets
Since we last covered coffee shops there has been a small improvement in the ethical performance of the coffee and sandwich chains. This improvement can partly be put down to moves by independent coffee and sandwich shops around the country to address these issues themselves, forcing the chains to compete. According to the Fairtrade Foundation, increasing numbers of independent shops are switching to Fairtrade and this is a trend that is not expected to slow down. The Fairtrade Foundation doesn't have a list of all the independent shops which stock Fairtrade coffee and tea, although it is currently trying to collate this information. Support your local coffee and sandwich shop whenever possible and request Fairtrade products wherever they aren't available.

Animal issues
We asked all the companies on the report about their animal welfare policies. ECRA considers any meat not labelled as free range or organic to have come from factory farmed sources. Pret A Manger was the only chain to use free range meat in its sandwiches - although chicken and pork are still from factory farmed sources. Eggs not labelled as organic or free range are also likely to have come from battery chickens. According to the RSPCA, hens in battery cages have almost no space to stretch their wings, move around properly or behave naturally. Their cramped living conditions can also lead to the hens suffering from fragile bones with up to one third breaking their bones after being removed from their cages. Marks & Spencer does not use eggs from battery hens in its own brand products and Pret A Manger and Starbucks both told us that the eggs they used came from free range hens. All milk served in Pret A Manger is organic.

Veggie options
Most of the outlets in this report do offer vegetarian options although these aren't always clearly labelled. Unfortunately, none of the outlets currently carries the Vegetarian Society Seedling on its non-meat options. Caffe Nero's labelling appeared clearer than others when we did our shop survey. Since we last covered coffee chains, most now offer soya milk in their coffees with the exception of Upper Crust and Revive. Vegans will find it harder to find food sustenance however. Our shop survey only found food options for vegans at Pret A Manger, although Starbucks and Caffe Nero both told us that some stores might have vegan food options.

Fish fillings
Fish eaters should be aware that tuna, the third most popular sandwich filling, is a highly sought after fish. According to the Marine Conservation Society, world catches have doubled in the last decade. This has led to the overfishing of most tuna species. MCS recommends you look for "pole and line caught, dolphin-friendly skipjack or yellowfin tuna".(3) Pret A Manger was the only company to supply us with a tuna policy and only sources tuna certified by the Earth Island Institute in the USA. These standards ensure, among other things, that there has been no intentional chasing, netting or encirclement of dolphins during the entire fishing trip, no use of drift gill nets and no accidental killing or serious injury to any dolphins. Salmon has also been widely overfished and it is recommended that consumers avoid wild Atlantic salmon.(3)

Waste
Buying food to take out will almost inevitably involve the use of packaging, often involving difficult to recycle plastics or polystyrene. According to recycling campaigners Wastewatch, packaging waste is very visible and often discarded in a dirty state and contaminated by residues of the original contents, which is also a problem for recycling. Eating in does not necessarily avoid this problem as many food products have already been pre-packaged and coffee may even be served in disposable cups. Starbucks will serve coffee to go in your own reusable mug or its own special tumblers which you can buy from its outlets.

References
1 Cafe Progreso website, viewed 15/11/04
2 Mugged Poverty In Your Coffee Cup, Oxfam publications, 2002
3 Marine Conservation Society viewed 10/11/04
4 Eurest website viewed October 2004.
5 Labour Research August 2004
6 Subway website viewed 14/11/04
7 Ends, July 2003
8 Big Campaign website, viewed October 2004
9 Multinational Monitor, April 2001
10 Marks & Spencer Annual Report 2003
11 Pret A Manger website visited October 2004,
12 email from Pret A Manger 25/10/04
13 Organic Consumers' Association website viewed October 2004,
14 Ethical Consumer issue 72, August/September 2001
15 www.inminds.co.uk/boycott- israel.html October 2004
16 Ecologist July/Aug 2003
17 Ends : October 1999, July 2000 & Environment Agency May 11 1999.