Showing posts with label food safety. Show all posts
Showing posts with label food safety. Show all posts

10/19/09

No One Wants to Die From Dinner -- Here's a Quick Primer on What's Safe to Eat and Who's Looking Out for Your Health

This is a pretty scary list. Peacenik has eaten everything on the list except ice cream in the last two months. Click on the link near the top of the article to see the scary 10.

When Peacenik buys a pre-packaged salad there is not much Peacenik can do but eat it. But what about packaged beans, or carrots, or spinich, or lettuce or Parisenne potatoes? Does Peacenik have to wash them before eating? Do you?

By Vanessa Barrington, EcoSalon. Posted October 17, 2009.

Thousands are dying every year from food-borne illness and we have a confusing morass of regulations and agencies charged with enforcing them. How to sort out the mess?

On the heels of the devastating article in the New York Times about a young woman who paid dearly for the horrifying practices and lack of oversight in the meat industry, the Center for Science in the Public Interest released a list of the top 10 riskiest foods regulated by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

Some of your favorite foods are on this list, including ice cream, berries and leafy greens, with tuna being the most surprising culprit. Though meat contains some of the most virulent contaminants, like the strain of E. coli that almost killed Stephanie Smith, it's missing from the list, because it isn't regulated by the FDA. It's regulated by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). Confused yet?

Read on...

5/15/09

Food Companies Are Placing the Onus for Safety on Consumers

By MICHAEL MOSS
Published: May 14, 2009

The frozen pot pies that sickened an estimated 15,000 people with salmonella in 2007 left federal inspectors mystified. At first they suspected the turkey. Then they considered the peas, carrots and potatoes.

The pie maker, ConAgra Foods, began spot-checking the vegetables for pathogens, but could not find the culprit. It also tried cooking the vegetables at high temperatures, a strategy the industry calls a “kill step,” to wipe out any lingering microbes. But the vegetables turned to mush in the process.

So ConAgra — which sold more than 100 million pot pies last year under its popular Banquet label — decided to make the consumer responsible for the kill step. The “food safety” instructions and four-step diagram on the 69-cent pies offer this guidance: “Internal temperature needs to reach 165° F as measured by a food thermometer in several spots.”

Read on...

Just another example of the anti-regulation mindset that drives corporate America and rules social America. It is no better in Canada. That insurance policy you own, the money in your bank account, the planes you fly on, the cars you drive, the water you drink, the food you eat, you thought someone cared about how safe these things are? What meager consumer safety or financial regulations that exist aren't enforced. As you are enjoying barbecuing this May 24 weekend, Peacenik advises that you burn the living shit out of whatever you are cooking. And enjoy the weekend.