Where's your food REALLY FROM?

When you buy that lusciously green bunch of spinach or a plump chicken, do you think about where it came from? We look at why provenance is such a buzzword in food these days

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Most of us want to eat the best-quality food possible.

At one time, that just meant nutritious, but these days, you might also think about its provenance. That refers to where a food has actually come from - and more of us are taking an interest.

In fact, research by YouGov found that 79% of Brits think it’s important to buy local produce.

However, it’s hard to know what exactly has happened to your food before it actually reaches your plate. We've lost a lot of our knowledge - a BBC poll found fewer than one in 10 of us knows when fruit and veg are in season - and when you're rushing around the supermarket, you may not always stop to check a food's origin before you buy it. In fact, 40% of the UK’s food is sourced from abroad, according to the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs.

Does it matter?

So, maybe your bagged salad was picked a few days ago in Spain and washed with chlorine to keep it crisp. Does it actually cause any problems? For starters, safety shouldn’t be an issue, says dietician Melanie Hargraves. That not-so-fresh fish may not be quite as firm or tasty as it should be - but it’s unlikely to do you any harm.