Big News for Food Safety

Michael Pollan and Eric Schlosser weighed in on the FDA Food Safety Modernization Bill, calling it the "best opportunity in a generation to improve the safety of the American food supply," in a New York Times Op-Ed published yesterday. "This legislation is by no means perfect. But it promises to achieve several important food safety objectives, greatly benefiting consumers without harming small farmers or local food producers."

The Senate is scheduled to vote on the bill tonight. Here are some basic objectives of the bill:

• The bill would, for the first time, give the F.D.A. (who oversee 80% of American food) the authority to test widely for dangerous pathogens and to recall contaminated food.
• The FDA would gain resources and authority to prevent food safety problems, rather than respond to them after people have become ill.
• The bill would also require large-scale, high-risk food-production plants get more frequent inspections.
• For the first time, imported foods would be subject to the same standards as those made in the United States.
• Small farms are exempt from the bill and may continue to be regulated under state and local laws. 
• Senator Tom Coburn, Republican of Oklahoma is annoying.

Bagged Salad - Still Not So Clean

Recent testing by Consumer Reports revealed that "prewashed" and even "triple-washed" salad greens sold in bags contain unacceptable levels of fecal contamination and bacteria that are common indicators of poor sanitation (coliforms, enterococcus, etc). Brands that they tested included Dole, Earthbound, Farm Organic and Fresh Express. Read more about the results here and how to best care for your greens and prevent cross contamination here. Most importantly, wash greens yourself regardless of packaging claims, keep them away from raw meat that could easily cross contaminate, and opt for bags that are the farthest from their use-by date.

(thnx DW)

"You're turning Violet, Violet!"

I'm no PhD but I think it is safe to say that the scientists University of Rochester Medical Center who discovered that a compound called Brilliant Blue G, found in blue M&Ms, did not set out in their experimentation thinking, "Hmmm... I wonder... Does Brilliant Blue G have any impact on recovery from secondary spinal cord injuries?" Chances are, they were investigating whether any of the dye used in those unsustainable yet irresistible morsels causes cancer and after lots of trial and error they ended up with blue rats, wonderful hopes for the human trials set to start in September, and great news for M&M lovers worldwide: M&Ms dye is fairly safe. Woo hoo!!! Read more here.

Unusual, but not entirely surprising, contaminated "food" recall

Yesterday, after US health officials linked Toll House refrigerated cookie dough to E. coli infections in as many as 66 people in 28 states, Nestle USA recalled the convenience item I am struggling to call "food." From the NY Times article:

Officials have been hunting since March for the cause of cases from across the country that shared the same genetic fingerprint. Because most victims were young and female, the investigation was unusual from the start. Twenty-five people have been hospitalized, including seven who suffered a severe complication called hemolytic uremic syndrome. No one has died.

Among the early food suspects were strawberries and fruit smoothies, but neither quite fit. On Wednesday, health investigators in Washington State proposed a link with Nestlé’s raw cookie dough, prompting officials in the rest of the country to re-interview victims. All six in Minnesota confirmed eating raw dough, said Carlota Medus, an epidemiologist in the state health department.

As tempted as I am to rant about the sorry state of food safety, I think I have to bring up consumer responsibility instead. I mean, isn't there a universal rule about not eating raw cookie dough (unless, of course, it happens to be mixed with ice cream in a Ben 'N Jerry's container)? And if you do dare to taste a spoonful of raw cookie dough or brownie batter, aren't you admittedly taking a gamble?

Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that Nestle should be entirely off the hook... I'm just saying that while food safety officials investigate the source of contamination, be it an ingredient or something within the processing facility, maybe people could use a little common sense.

Not too surprised...

According to a recent report released by the CDC, poultry was the number one source of food borne illness in the United States in 2006. Read more here.

Food, Inc.

"Viewers who haven’t thought much about how all that food in the grocery store got to be there will likely find it hard to toss a few packages of pork chops and some Froot Loops in the cart and call it a day. Some viewers will undoubtedly look away during the meat cutting and processing scenes. For parents the eye-averting moment will come during repeated slow-motion scenes of a 2-year-old’s last vacation. His mother, now a food-safety advocate, explains in a tearful voice-over the gruesome details of his death after he ate hamburger tainted with E. coli."

...from The NY Times' review of Robert Kenner's "Food, Inc." I'm going to go ahead and deem the film a "must see" and I'm not just saying that because my man, MP, narrates it.

“The way we eat has changed more in the last 50 years than the previous 10,000,” Michael Pollan says as the film opens. Mr. Pollan, an author and occasional contributor to The New York Times Magazine, is the spiritual guide for the film and serves as its narrator. “A lot of it is hard to watch,” he conceded, “but I think people are ready to take a good, unflinching look at how their food is produced.”

Can't wait to get my hands on the companion book! The film opens in select cities this weekend. For now, here's a trailer:

Very uncool

Egypt ordered the slaughter of 350,000 pigs over the Swine Flu - even though eating pork has nothing to do with the spread of the Swine Flu. Both the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the U.S. Department of Agriculture have indicated influenza is not passed through food. This is very uncool. Calling all PETA members...

CAIRO (Reuters) – Egypt began slaughtering the roughly 300,000 pigs in the country Wednesday as a precautionary measure against the spread of swine flu even though no cases have been reported here yet, the Health Ministry said. The move immediately provoked resistance from pig farmers. At one large pig farming center just north of Cairo, farmers refused to cooperate with Health Ministry workers who came to slaughter the animals and the workers left without carrying out the government order. “It has been decided to immediately start slaughtering all the pigs in Egypt using the full capacity of the country’s slaughterhouses,” Health Minister Hatem el-Gabaly told reporters after a Cabinet meeting with President Hosni Mubarak. Egypt’s overwhelmingly Muslim population does not eat pork due to religious restrictions. But the animals are raised and consumed by the Christian minority, which some estimates put at 10 percent of the population.Health Ministry spokesman Abdel Rahman estimated there were between 300,000-350,000 pigs in Egypt. All major news outlets are reporting that it is ok to eat pork and that the virus is not spread through eating pork.

Never. Eating. Pork. Again.

A recent Op-Ed piece, Our Pigs, Our Food, Our Health, by Nicholas D. Kristof (NY Times) pretty much sealed the deal for me. I sent this article out to some friends earlier this week and have been debating about whether or not to post it to the blog. It's, well, in a word: gross. However in light of President Obama's recent promise to "bolster and reorganize the nation’s fractured food-safety system" I am hopeful that methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, aka: flesh eating bacteria, in pigs will be addressed.

2,500 plant lice with your pilsner?

Some maggots with those mushrooms? Rodent hairs? I probably shouldn't pose it as a question because chances are, you are already consuming a fair amount of rodent and insect filth thanks to the casual regulation of our food supply. In fact, according to E. J. Levy's recent Op-Ed in the NY Times, "...you’re probably ingesting one to two pounds of flies, maggots and mites each year without knowing it, a quantity of insects that clearly does not cut the mustard, even as insects may well be in the mustard."

For more about the stomach-turning contaminants deemed "allowable defects" by the FDA in their booklet: The Food Defect Action Levels: Levels of Natural or Unavoidable Defects in Foods That Present No Health Hazards for Humans, definitely check out Levy's article.

(thnx Alissa)

Department of Food?

In response to the most recent peanut butter recall, the NY Times "Room for Debate" has asked some experts: Would creating a single Department of Food better protect consumers? And how could the current crisis have been prevented?

Whether or not each of these contributors feel that a single department is necessary, all agree that the current food safety system is unfortunately reactive when it needs to be preventative, that it is broken, and that it's in desperate need of an overhaul or reinvention. Not surprisingly, I like what Ann Cooper had to say:

"If we want to make disease outbreaks a thing of the past, we have to move away from this industrial model of food production to one that is more localized and able to put a higher priority on children’s health, the environment and the health of sustainable businesses."

Get in on the conversation here.