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DocWatch
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Tue, Oct 7, 2014
from Reuters:
U.S. foods labeled 'natural' often contain GMOs, group reports
majority of U.S. packaged foods labeled as "natural" and tested by Consumer Reports actually contained a substantial level of genetically modified ingredients, according to a report issued Tuesday by the non-profit product testing group.
Consumers are being misled by the "natural" label, said Urvashi Rangan, executive director of Consumer Reports Food Safety and Sustainability.
Consumer Reports said it had conducted a survey of more than 80 different processed foods containing corn or soy, the two most widely grown genetically engineered crops in the United States, to determine whether labeling claims for GMO presence were accurate.
While foods labeled as "non-GMO," or "organic" were found to be free of genetically modified corn and soy, virtually all of the foods labeled as "natural" or not labeled with any claim related to GMO content contained substantial amounts of GMO ingredients, Consumer Reports said.
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Everything about me is natural.
ApocaDoc
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Wed, Aug 27, 2014
from Reuters:
China police seize 30,000 tonnes of tainted chicken feet
Chinese police have seized over 30,000 tonnes of tainted chicken feet, common on restaurant menus in China, in the latest food scandal to hit the country.
Authorities have detained 38 people involved in the sale of the chicken feet in provinces including the eastern province of Zhejiang, the official Xinhua news agency reported on Tuesday.
The arrests followed raids on nine supplier factories in nearby Jiangsu, Anhui, Henan and Guangdong provinces, Xinhua said, adding police found that excess hydrogen peroxide was being added to the meat. ...
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Thankfully, the gizzards were pristine.
ApocaDoc
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Thu, May 29, 2014
from Mother Jones:
Big Dairy Is Putting NanoMetal in Your Food
The rapid emergence of nanotechnology suggests that size does, indeed, matter. It turns out that if you break common substances like silver and nickel into really, really tiny particles--measured in nanometers, which are billionths of a meter--they behave in radically different ways....
According to the Project on Emerging Nanotechnologies (PEN -- a joint venture of Virginia Tech University and the Wilson Center...
lists 96 food items currently on US grocery shelves that contain unlabeled nano ingredients. Examples include Dannon Greek Plain Yogurt, Silk Original Soy Milk, Rice Dream Rice Drink, Hershey's Bliss Dark Chocolate, and Kraft's iconic American Cheese Singles, all of which now contain nano-sized titanium dioxide. As recently as 2008, only eight US food products were known to contain nanoparticles, according to a recent analysis from Friends of the Earth--a more than ten-fold increase in just six years. ...
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Titanium dioxide nanoparticles -- right up there with xanthan gum and BHT for enhanced processed-food value!
ApocaDoc
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Fri, Apr 11, 2014
from Reuters:
El Nino more than 50 percent likely by summer: U.S. weather forecaster
The chances have increased over the past month that the much-feared El Nino phenomenon, which has the potential to wreak havoc on global crops, would strike by summer in the Northern Hemisphere, the federal U.S. weather forecaster said Thursday... El Nino - a warming of sea-surface temperatures in the Pacific - affects wind patterns and can trigger both floods and drought in different parts of the globe, curbing food supply. ...
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El Nightmare!
ApocaDoc
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Wed, Dec 11, 2013
from San Francisco Chronicle:
Stomach-churning CDC report on restaurant food safety
...About 48 million people a year in the United States come down with food-borne illnesses, and more than half of those illnesses can be traced to food from restaurants, delis, banquet halls and schools, according to a new report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. ...
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Time to fast.
ApocaDoc
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Thu, Sep 19, 2013
from San Francisco Chronicle:
Masses of food wasted - 'use by' dates mislead
Americans throw away 40 percent of the food they buy, often because of misleading expiration dates that have nothing to do with safety, said a study released Wednesday by Harvard University Law School and the Natural Resources Defense Council, an environmental group.
"The date labeling system is not a system at all," said NRDC staff scientist Dana Gunders, co-author of the report, the first to assess date labeling laws nationwide.
The report said 90 percent of Americans toss good food into the garbage because they mistakenly think that "sell by," "best before," "use by" or "packed on" dates on food containers indicate safety. One-fifth of consumers, the report said, "always" throw away food based on package dates. ...
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Homo Wastiens
ApocaDoc
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Mon, Sep 2, 2013
from Reuters:
Warming helps crop pests spread north, south: study
Crop-damaging pests are moving towards the poles at a rate of more than 25 km (16 miles) a decade, aided by global warming and human transport, posing a potential threat to world food security, a study showed on Sunday.
The spread of beetles, moths, bacteria, worms, funghi and other pests in a warming world may be quicker than for many types of wild animals and plants, perhaps because people are accidentally moving them with harvests, it said. ...
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Who exactly are the pests here?
ApocaDoc
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Tue, Aug 20, 2013
from Philadelphia Inquirer:
GreenSpace: Who's monitoring food additives?
About 10,000 chemicals are added to Americans' food to make it taste better or look better, to thicken it, preserve it, or otherwise improve it. That's an awful lot of chemicals for the federal Food and Drug Administration to monitor. How do they do it? It turns out that, often, they don't. According to the authors of a study published in JAMA Internal Medicine this month, the agency doesn't even know what all the food additive chemicals are.
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Thank goodness GMOs are monitored!
ApocaDoc
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Tue, May 21, 2013
from Time Magazine:
Labs Fail to Detect Cases of Bacterial Food Contamination
Foodborne illnesses are a continuing problem in the U.S., but labs that are supposed to detect the presence of pathogens aren't up to snuff, according to a new report.
The analysis, presented at the 113th General Meeting of the American Society for Microbiology, revealed worrisome gaps in the ability of food laboratories to detect or rule out the presence of common disease-causing bacteria such as E. coli, Salmonella, Listeria, and Campylobacter.
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Maybe I'll avoid food altogether.
ApocaDoc
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Wed, Apr 3, 2013
from Indiana Living Green:
Doctor/farmer/medicine man: Kevin Logan moves from pharm to farm
....growing numbers of patients have discovered Logan's mind-body-spirit approach to wellness--one that focuses less on treating symptoms and more on identifying their root cause.
One of the biggest root causes of health problems is diet. "In cases of chronic illness, incorporating dietary changes into patients' lives really makes a world of difference in how they feel. I talk about food all day long with my patients, the things they should be eating, the things they should be avoiding. I see things that you wouldn't even expect would be food-related.” ...
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Aw, man, I thought this story was going to be about a dude who grows pills.
ApocaDoc
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Mon, Dec 10, 2012
from Food safety news:
Brazil Kept Mad Cow Secret for Two Years
Enough beef to feed one million Americans for a year has been imported from Brazil without the bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) mitigations that are supposed to be applied to countries where BSE is known to exist.
That's because for the past two years, USDA was operating under the assumption that Brazil had not experienced any BSE, or Mad Cow disease as it's commonly known. But Brazil -- the world's biggest beef exporting country -- was keeping a secret for the past two years. A secret that if known might well have seen its beef banned from the U.S., or at the very least, subjected its beef to BSE controls.
That's because while the U.S. was importing 67 million pounds of beef from Brazil, South America's biggest country was keeping a Mad Cow secret. ...
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This is crazy!
ApocaDoc
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Tue, Oct 2, 2012
from Reuters:
Pesticide use ramping up as GMO crop technology backfires: study
U.S. farmers are using more hazardous pesticides to fight weeds and insects due largely to heavy adoption of genetically modified crop technologies that are sparking a rise of "superweeds" and hard-to-kill insects, according to a newly released study.
Genetically engineered crops have led to an increase in overall pesticide use, by 404 million pounds from the time they were introduced in 1996 through 2011, according to the report by Charles Benbrook, a research professor at the Center for Sustaining Agriculture and Natural Resources at Washington State University.... in recent years, more than two dozen weed species have become resistant to Roundup's chief ingredient glyphosate, causing farmers to use increasing amounts both of glyphosate and other weedkilling chemicals to try to control the so-called "superweeds." ...
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GMO no mo'
ApocaDoc
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Wed, Sep 19, 2012
from Reuters:
Study on Monsanto GM corn concerns draws skepticism
In a study that prompted sharp criticism from other experts, French scientists said on Wednesday that rats fed on Monsanto's genetically modified corn or exposed to its top-selling weedkiller suffered tumors and multiple organ damage.
The French government asked the country's health watchdog to investigate the findings further, although a number of scientists questioned the study's basic methods and Monsanto said it felt confident its products had been proven safe.
Gilles-Eric Seralini of the University of Caen and colleagues said rats fed on a diet containing NK603 - a seed variety made tolerant to dousings of Monsanto's Roundup weedkiller - or given water with Roundup at levels permitted in the United States, died earlier than those on a standard diet. ...
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People sure get wound tight talking Roundup down, don't they?
ApocaDoc
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Want more context?
Try reading our book FREE online:
Humoring the Horror of the Converging Emergencies!
More fun than a barrel of jellyfish!
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Tue, Sep 4, 2012
from New York Times:
Stanford Scientists Cast Doubt on Advantages of Organic Meat and Produce
... Stanford University scientists have weighed in on the ... debate after an extensive examination of four decades of research comparing organic and conventional foods.
They concluded that fruits and vegetables labeled organic were, on average, no more nutritious than their conventional counterparts, which tend to be far less expensive. Nor were they any less likely to be contaminated by dangerous bacteria like E. coli. The researchers also found no obvious health advantages to organic meats.
Conventional fruits and vegetables did have more pesticide residue, but the levels were almost always under the allowed safety limits, the scientists said. ...
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Seems like it would cost more for all the fancy pesticides and antibiotic-resistant bacteria.
ApocaDoc
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Mon, May 21, 2012
from TIME:
Does Organic Food Turn You into a Jerk?
Are these strawberries organic? Is this omelette made with free-range eggs? Can you swap out the rice for quinoa? Is this kale locally sourced? Pesticide-free? Fair trade? Are the hazelnuts local?
The onslaught of questions from an enlightened eater can test the patience of even the calmest restaurant server.
And a new study shows that organic foodies' humane regard for the well-being of animals makes some people rather snobbish. The report, published last week in the Journal of Social Psychological & Personality Science, notes that exposure to organic foods can "harshen moral judgments." ...
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I pledge to be a jerk for the earth.
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Fri, Mar 16, 2012
from Los Angeles Times:
Cadmium in diet is linked to higher breast cancer risk
In a finding that strengthens the link between environmental pollutants and rising rates of breast cancer, new research finds that women whose diets contain higher levels of cadmium are at greater risk of developing breast cancer than those who ingest less of the industrial chemical in their food.
Cadmium, a heavy metal long identified as a carcinogen, leaches into crops from fertilizers and when rainfall or sewage sludge deposit it onto farmland. Whole grains, potatoes, other vegetables and shellfish are key dietary sources of cadmium, which also becomes airborne as a pollutant when fossil fuels are burned, and is likely inhaled as well as ingested. ...
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When it comes to breasts there's almost always a cad involved.
ApocaDoc
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Thu, Dec 29, 2011
from Associated Press:
Bugs may be resistant to genetically modified corn
One of the nation's most widely planted crops -- a genetically engineered corn plant that makes its own insecticide -- may be losing its effectiveness because a major pest appears to be developing resistance more quickly than scientists expected. ...
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Curses, foiled again.
ApocaDoc
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Mon, Oct 10, 2011
from Associated Press:
Foreign insects, diseases got into US
Dozens of foreign insects and plant diseases slipped undetected into the United States in the years after 9/11, when authorities were so focused on preventing another attack that they overlooked a pest explosion that threatened the quality of the nation's food supply.
At the time, hundreds of agricultural scientists responsible for stopping invasive species at the border were reassigned to anti-terrorism duties in the newly formed Homeland Security Department -- a move that scientists say cost billions of dollars in crop damage and eradication efforts from California vineyards to Florida citrus groves.
The consequences come home to consumers in the form of higher grocery prices, substandard produce and the risk of environmental damage from chemicals needed to combat the pests. ...
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The terrorists won, after all.
ApocaDoc
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Tue, Sep 27, 2011
from Environmental Health News:
Organic farming reduces antibiotic resistant bacteria.
Antibiotic-resistant bacteria were less common on chicken farms that had recently switched to organic farming practices when compared to those that continued to use conventional farming practices, finds a study of organic poultry farms in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. The results are published online in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives.
The results show that reducing nontherapeutic use of antibiotics also reduces antibiotic-resistant bacteria in chickens and their waste materials. It is one of the first to examine the changes on farms in the United States. The findings agree with prior studies from Europe and Asia that report similar results: less antibiotic use means fewer resistant bacteria in the animals and food products.
In conventional chicken farming, antibiotic use goes beyond just treating sick chickens. The drugs are often added to feed to promote the growth of chickens living in crowded poultry houses. Antibiotics use increased during the 1990s and a large portion of that increase was due to these so-called nontherapeutic uses.
However, this kind of overuse can increase antibiotic-resistant bacteria in the facilities. The bacteria can then spread to people by either direct contact with the animals, through the handling and eating of meat products and via manure spread on crops and farmland. ...
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The sky is still falling, just not as bacterially!
ApocaDoc
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Thu, Aug 25, 2011
from Christian Science Monitor:
Feared Khapra beetle pest intercepted at airport
U.S. Customs and Border Patrol investigators said Tuesday that they intercepted a feared nonnative beetle in bags of rice that arrived at O'Hare International Airport from India, the latest in a surge of discoveries of the hard-to-kill pest that could damage this country's grain industry if it became established.
The beetle, about 2 to 3 mm long, can damage up to 70 percent of grain, and can cause intestinal problems if eaten, officials said. Infestations are difficult to control because the beetle can survive for long periods of time without food or moisture -- including in spices, packaged food and stored grain -- is resistant to chemicals and can hide in tiny cracks and crevices.
If it were to become established in this country, "it's going to disrupt our economy" because of the volume of grain and wheat exported by farmers, Bell said. "Countries know they're getting a clean product (from the U.S.)."
Experts say the number of interceptions of the khapra beetle have increased dramatically in recent years. As of July 26, the bug has been intercepted 100 times nationwide, compared to an average 15 times in 2007-2009 and an average 6 times per year in 2005 and 2006, Bell said. Those shipments mostly have come from northern Africa, the Middle East and parts of Asia, he said. ...
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Globalization, at the species level.
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Mon, Jul 18, 2011
from EcoHearth:
The Film 'Farmageddon' Says It's 1984 for Small Farmers
The documentary film Farmageddon explores the fine line between consumer protection and government intrusion when it comes to food safety. Certainly we all want wholesome food, but what happens when rules written with agribusiness in mind are inflexibly applied to family farms by overzealous regulators? It often means the latter are harassed to the point of being driven out of business, less choice for consumers and ultimately less healthy food....
Farmageddon has high production values and a solid human-interest angle. It follows individual farmers and others as their businesses are slowly choked off by raids, forced shut-downs and confiscations of products and equipment--many times unrelated to the laws being enforced, and so seemingly serving only the purpose of harassment.
Some of the police actions are chillingly reminiscent of those depicted in the dystopian classic, 1984. Since when is it necessary for a local sheriff to employ an armed SWAT team to shut down a co-op for selling raw-milk yogurt? Since when should a parent who has found that raw milk cured a longstanding illness in her son have such difficulty obtaining it? These are just two questions that the film Farmageddon skillfully and entertainingly asks. ...
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I heard that small natural farms were unhealthy, because they don't feed everything antibiotics.
ApocaDoc
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Fri, Apr 15, 2011
from EurekAlert:
Nationwide study finds 1 in 4 samples of US meat and poultry is contaminated with MRSAs
Drug-resistant strains of Staphylococcus aureus, a bacteria linked to a wide range of human diseases, are present in meat and poultry from U.S. grocery stores at unexpectedly high rates, according to a nationwide study by the Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen).
Nearly half of the meat and poultry samples -- 47 percent -- were contaminated with S. aureus, and more than half of those bacteria -- 52 percent -- were resistant to at least three classes of antibiotics, according to the study published today in the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases.
This is the first national assessment of antibiotic resistant S. aureus in the U.S. food supply. And, DNA testing suggests that the food animals themselves were the major source of contamination. ...
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Rare-meat Roulette.
ApocaDoc
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Wed, Feb 16, 2011
from PhysOrg:
China rice laced with heavy metals: report
Up to 10 percent of rice grown in China is contaminated with harmful heavy metals but little has been done to highlight the possible public health risks, a report said.
This week's edition of the New Century magazine cited studies showing that large amounts of Chinese rice have been tainted with heavy metals like cadmium due to years of pollution stemming from the nation's rapid economic growth.
"During China's fast-paced industrialisation, activities such as mining have sprung up everywhere, releasing into the environment chemical elements like cadmium, arsenic, mercury and other harmful heavy metals," the report said.
"These harmful heavy metals have spread through the air and water, polluting a rather large area of China's land... a complete chain of food contamination has existed for years."...
Most at risk from high cadmium levels were subsistence farmers in polluted areas who mainly live on the rice they grow, Pan said. ...
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Could that be why they're all moving to the cities?
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Wed, Feb 2, 2011
from Mark Bittman, New York Times:
A Food Manifesto for the Future
And we've come to recognize that our diet is unhealthful and unsafe. Many food production workers labor in difficult, even deplorable, conditions, and animals are produced as if they were widgets. It would be hard to devise a more wasteful, damaging, unsustainable system.
Here are some ideas -- frequently discussed, but sadly not yet implemented -- that would make the growing, preparation and consumption of food healthier, saner, more productive, less damaging and more enduring....
Total agricultural subsidies in 2009 were around $16 billion, which would pay for a great many of the ideas that follow.
Begin subsidies to those who produce and sell actual food for direct consumption.... Outlaw concentrated animal feeding operations and encourage the development of sustainable animal husbandry. The concentrated system degrades the environment, directly and indirectly, while torturing animals and producing tainted meat, poultry, eggs, and, more recently, fish. Sustainable methods of producing meat for consumption exist. At the same time, we must educate and encourage Americans to eat differently. ...
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This from the guy whose food column in the NYT was called the Minimalist?!
ApocaDoc
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Tue, Nov 9, 2010
from University of Toronto:
Dangerous chemicals in food wrappers likely migrating to humans
U of T scientists have found that chemicals used to line junk food wrappers and microwave popcorn bags are migrating into food and being ingested by people where they are contributing to chemical contamination observed in blood.
Perfluorinated carboxylic acids or PFCAs are the breakdown products of chemicals used to make non-stick and water- and stain-repellant products ranging from kitchen pans to clothing to food packaging. PFCAs, the best known of which is perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), are found in humans all around the world.
"We suspected that a major source of human PFCA exposure may be the consumption and metabolism of polyfluoroalkyl phosphate esters or PAPs," said Jessica D'eon, a graduate student in the Department of Chemistry. "PAPs are applied as greaseproofing agents to paper food contact packaging such as fast food wrappers and microwave popcorn bags."... "In this study we clearly demonstrate that the current use of PAPs in food contact applications does result in human exposure to PFCAs, including PFOA. We cannot tell whether PAPs are the sole source of human PFOA exposure or even the most important, but we can say unequivocally that PAPs are a source and the evidence from this study suggests this could be significant." ...
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What a lot of PAP.
ApocaDoc
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Fri, Oct 22, 2010
from Environmental Health News:
Pesticides taint one-fifth of kids' food
More than one-quarter of the food eaten by a small number of U.S. children contained pesticides, confirming again that food is a source of chemical exposures for youngsters. Researchers measured 14 varieties of pesticides in the fruits, vegetables and juices tested.
While many studies have measured levels of pesticides in various foodstuffs on grocery shelves and a few have looked at levels excreted from the body, little has been known about the level of pesticides found in the food that children actually consume. This study attempted to capture the pesticide levels of foods just as they were prepared and in the amounts eaten by the children.
It has long been known that pesticide exposure presents a health risk to infants and children. Food is one of the main sources of exposure. ...
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What. You'd rather they eat bugs?
ApocaDoc
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You're still reading! Good for you!
You really should read our short, funny, frightening book FREE online (or buy a print copy):
Humoring the Horror of the Converging Emergencies!
We've been quipping this stuff for more than 30 months! Every day!
Which might explain why we don't get invited to parties anymore.
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Sun, Sep 12, 2010
from BBC:
Glow in cattle's eyes may be a sign of mad cow disease
The eyes of cattle may reveal signs of neurological disorders such as mad cow disease, say scientists.
Noticing the symptoms early may help prevent infected meat from getting into the food supply.
Researchers, led from Iowa State University, US, examined the retinas of sheep infected with scrapie - a disease similar to BSE, or mad cow disease.
They write in the journal Analytical Chemistry that sick sheep's eyes had a distinctive "glow". ...
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I thought that glow meant love.
ApocaDoc
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Tue, Aug 3, 2010
from AP, via PhysOrg:
La. fishermen wrinkle their noses at 'smell tests'
Even the people who make their living off the seafood-rich waters of Louisiana's St. Bernard Parish have a hard time swallowing the government's assurances that fish harvested in the shallow, muddy waters just offshore must be safe to eat because they don't smell too bad.... "If I put fish in a barrel of water and poured oil and Dove detergent over that, and mixed it up, would you eat that fish?" asked Graybill, a 28-year-old commercial oyster, blue crab and shrimp angler who grew up fishing the marshes of St. Bernard. "I wouldn't feed it to you or my family. I'm afraid someone's going to get sick."... "They capped the well, they stopped the oil, so now they're trying to hurry up and get us back working to where they can say everything's fine when it's not," he said. "It's not fine."... "It's nothing but a PR move," she said. "It's going to take years to know what damage they've done. It's just killed us all." ...
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Something is rotten in the state of Louisiana.
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Mon, Aug 2, 2010
from Center for Science in the Public Interest:
CSPI Says Food Dyes Pose Rainbow of Risks
Food dyes--used in everything from M&Ms to Manischewitz Matzo Balls to Kraft salad dressings--pose risks of cancer, hyperactivity in children, and allergies, and should be banned, according to a new report by the Center for Science in the Public Interest. A top government scientist agrees, and says that food dyes present unnecessary risks to the public.
The three most widely used dyes, Red 40, Yellow 5, and Yellow 6, are contaminated with known carcinogens, says CSPI. Another dye, Red 3, has been acknowledged for years by the Food and Drug Administration to be a carcinogen, yet is still in the food supply.
Despite those concerns, each year manufacturers pour about 15 million pounds of eight synthetic dyes into our foods. Per capita consumption of dyes has increased five-fold since 1955, thanks in part to the proliferation of brightly colored breakfast cereals, fruit drinks, and candies pitched to children.
"These synthetic chemicals do absolutely nothing to improve the nutritional quality or safety of foods, but trigger behavior problems in children and, possibly, cancer in anybody," said CSPI executive director Michael F. Jacobson, co-author of the 58-page report, "Food Dyes: A Rainbow of Risks." "The Food and Drug Administration should ban dyes, which would force industry to color foods with real food ingredients, not toxic petrochemicals." ...
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But without artificial dyes, how shall we get "Cheet-O-range"?
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Mon, Jul 19, 2010
from Chicago Tribune:
Meat with antibiotics off the menu at some hospitals
The evening's menu featured grass-fed, antibiotic-free beef over pasta, fresh seasonal vegetables and fresh organic peaches -- items right at home in the city's finest restaurants.
Instead, the dishes were prepared for visitors, staff and bed-bound patients at Swedish Covenant Hospital.
The Northwest Side hospital is one of 300 across the nation that have pledged to improve the quality and sustainability of the food they serve, not just for the health of their patients but, they say, the health of the environment and the U.S. population. ...
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Hospitals being about health? What'll they think of next!
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Wed, Jul 14, 2010
from New York Times:
Hydrocarbons in Cereal Stoke New Debate Over Food Safety
When Kellogg Co. pulled about 28 million cereal boxes from store shelves last month, the company said only that an "off-flavor and smell" coming from the packaging could cause nausea and diarrhea. But the culprit behind the recall is a class of chemicals now making news in the Gulf of Mexico: hydrocarbons, a byproduct of oil. The nonprofit Environmental Working Group (EWG) reported yesterday that the hydrocarbon methylnaphthalene, which the government has yet to evaluate for human carcinogenicity, was behind the recall. For EWG and other public-health advocacy groups, the appearance of a chemical missing consistent risk data in popular products such as Apple Jacks strengthens the case for food safety reform -- an issue that remains stalled in the Senate. ...
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"Methylnaphthalene Loops" or "Methylnaphthalene Jacks" just doesn't sound very appetizing to me.
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Tue, Jun 29, 2010
from FDA:
Kellogg's recalls boxes of Pops, Smacks, Loops, and Jacks
Working in consultation with the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Kellogg Company (NYSE:K) is implementing a voluntary recall of certain breakfast cereals due to an uncharacteristic off-flavor and smell coming from the liner in the package.... While the potential for serious health problems is low, some consumers are sensitive to the uncharacteristic off-flavor and smell and should not eat the recalled products because of possible temporary symptoms, including nausea and diarrhea.... "We apologize to our consumers and our customers and are working diligently to ensure that the affected products are rapidly removed from the marketplace," said David Mackay, president and chief executive officer, Kellogg Company. ...
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Froot Loops already made me a little queasy.
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Thu, May 27, 2010
from New Scientist:
The taste of tiny: Putting nanofoods on the menu
So what is a nanofood? It isn't just about nanoparticles. Many foods have a natural nanostructure - the proteins in milk form nanoscale clusters, for example - that can be altered on the nanoscale to enhance their properties.
In fact, researchers have been changing the nanostructure of food for years, for example by adding emulsifiers to improve the texture of ice cream. It's the emergence of technologies such as atomic force microscopy that has changed the game by finally opening a window on the nanoworld. Rather than working blind, Morris can now take a close look at the tiny structures he works on, understand their behaviour and then make changes in a more rational and deliberate way.... "We know that the food industry is looking at encapsulating certain ingredients like omega-3 fatty acids, vitamins or minerals," says Frans Kampers, who researches bionanotechnologies at Wageningen University and Research Centre in the Netherlands. The idea is an attractive one. Oil-soluble nutrients can be poorly absorbed in the watery environment of the gut, with a proportion passing right through the body. Nano-encapsulation converts them to a dispersed form that is more easily taken up (Current Opinion in Colloid & Interface Science, vol 14, p 3). Wrapping them in nano packages also extends their shelf life, masks any unpleasant tastes and, in the case of nano-emulsions, makes them invisible to the naked eye so that they don't affect a food's appearance. ...
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I'm sure any unintended consequences will be really small!
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Wed, Apr 21, 2010
from CBC:
Tuna mercury levels vary by species
Despite their findings about grocery store tuna, the researchers say their study shows that all species exceed or approach levels permissible by Canada, the EU, Japan, the U.S., and the World Health Organization.
Mercury is a naturally occurring element and a serious health hazard. Chronic exposure can damage the brain, spinal cord, kidneys, liver and developing fetus. Exposure in the womb can lead to neuro-developmental problems in children.
In general, mercury levels are significantly higher in lean fish because it has an affinity for muscle and not fatty tissue. That means higher levels in bluefin akami (sushi from lean, dark red tuna) and all bigeye tuna than in bluefin toro (sushi from fatty tuna) and yellowfin tuna akami.
The researchers caution that there seem to be other factors involved. Although yellowfin tuna is very lean, it tends to have less mercury, likely because the fish are typically smaller than other tuna and are harvested at a younger age.
In addition, yellowfin are tropical and don't need to eat as much as warm-blooded bigeye tuna and bluefin tuna to maintain their energy level. That could mean yellowfin tuna don't increase their level of toxins as quickly as other species.
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When did heavy metals in our food become the new normal?
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Tue, Apr 13, 2010
from Reuters:
Special Report: Are regulators dropping the ball on biocrops?
Robert Kremer, a U.S. government microbiologist who studies Midwestern farm soil, has spent two decades analyzing the rich dirt that yields billions of bushels of food each year and helps the United States retain its title as breadbasket of the world. Kremer's lab is housed at the University of Missouri and is literally in the shadow of Monsanto Auditorium, named after the $11.8 billion-a-year agricultural giant Monsanto Co... But recent findings by Kremer and other agricultural scientists are raising fresh concerns about Monsanto's products and the Washington agencies that oversee them... many people on both sides of the debate who say that the current U.S. regulatory apparatus is ill-equipped to adequately address the concerns. Indeed, many experts say the U.S. government does more to promote global acceptance of biotech crops than to protect the public from possible harmful consequences. ...
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What's all the ruckus? It's only food.
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Sun, Jan 24, 2010
from London Guardian:
Fears over use of chemicals to castrate pigs
Meat from pigs that have been "chemically castrated" could soon be on sale in Britain, with no label to warn shoppers that it contains a controversial drug.
An injection to prevent puberty in male pigs was licensed for use in Britain and most of Europe last year, and has gone on sale to farmers who produce pork.
Pharmaceutical giant Pfizer developed the drug, Improvac, to allow farmers to grow pigs bigger before slaughter but without them releasing the hormones that cause boar taint, a taste many consumers dislike. In much of Europe, young males are physically castrated, but in the UK the practice is rarely carried out.
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I'd rather not know and I'll bet the pigs agree!
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Mon, Jan 18, 2010
from The Herald Scotland:
Tofu is bad for the environment, finds food study
Vegetarians have claimed for years that their meat-shy ways are helping save the world but a new study has found that tofu may actually be worse for the environment than beef.
In a stark report on the environmental impact of the global food industry, WWF has warned that replacing meat with "highly refined" substitutes such as Quorn could increase the area of farmland needed to feed the UK.
Instead, the charity has said, a wide range of measures will be required to bring harmful emissions from agriculture down to a safe level. In the new report, released today, researchers said: "A broad-based switch to plant-based products through increasing the intake of cereals and vegetables is more sustainable." ...
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Tofu worse than beef? Let's ask the cows!
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Wed, Dec 2, 2009
from USA Today:
Healthy, organic and cheap school lunches? Order up
On the combination plate of problems plaguing the USA's public schools, few are as intractable as this: Can you serve fresh, healthful meals each day to millions of kids without breaking the bank, or must you resort to serving up deep-fried, processed, less expensive junk?... For the first time, a small, privately held start-up is pushing to do just that: producing what are by all accounts fresh, healthful, all-natural school meals for just under $3 apiece. Starting with just one school in spring 2006, Revolution Foods has quietly grown year by year and now delivers about 45,000 breakfasts, lunches and snacks daily to 235 public and private schools in California, Colorado and the District of Columbia...Revolution shuns high-fructose corn syrup, artificial colors and flavors, trans fats and deep-frying. Its meats and milk are hormone- and antibiotic-free, and many of its ingredients are organic and locally sourced. ...
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Doesn't sound very lunchable to me.
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Fri, Aug 14, 2009
from Reuters:
California meat company recalls hamburger patties
California meat company Sterling Pacific Meat Co has recalled about 3,500 pounds of hamburger patties that may be contaminated with E. coli 0157:H7, the U.S. Agriculture Department said.
The patties were made on May 18 and distributed to wholesale food service companies, who sold the meat to restaurants in California and Arizona, according to USDA.
The problem was discovered by the agency during a review of the meat plant's records, and USDA said it has not received any reports that the hamburger made people ill. ...
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Recalled yes, but not too fondly remembered.
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Mon, Aug 3, 2009
from :
From the ApocaDesk
In the intro to the new film Food, Inc., writer Michael Pollan narrates the following: "The way we eat has changed more in the last 50 years than in the previous 10,000."
Pollan emphasizes that our food now comes from factories, not farms. Factories where animals -- and the workers -- are being abused.
Section one of Food, Inc. focuses on the work of writer Eric Schlosser, who wrote Fast Food Nation... Food, Inc. begins with fast food, for as Schlosser says, the "industrial food system began with fast food."
And how do you start with fast food, without addressing the primordial fast food: McDonald's -- the largest buyer of ground beef in the country. And since they want their hamburgers to taste exactly the same everywhere you go, you can see a compelling reason why farms are now factories.
To feed the voracious appetite for fast and cheap food, chickens are now raised to slaughter in half the time -- and at twice as size. Says one chicken farmer, "if you can grow a chicken 49 days, why would you want a chicken that takes three months to grow?" A couple reasons explored in the film involve the dangers of the overuse of antibiotics (which are administered to the animals in a "preventative" gesture) as well as the fact that the animals' bone structure can't keep up with the growth of their meat, and so they can't walk -- even if there was room to move in their packed animal enclosures.
By and large, farmers are reluctant to talk about corporate farming, whether they raise animals for slaughter or grow Monsanto crops for harvesting. One farmer does talk and her heartbreaking account -- along with hidden camera footage of heartless chicken wranglers -- is enough to make you wonder why you ever eat meat.
In section two, Pollan riffs from his work, especially Omnivore's Dilemma. "Corn has conquered the world," he states, pointing out that the big fat kernel of starch pretty much finds its way into most of the products you find on the grocery shelves and beyond (disposable diapers, for example).
Evolution designed cows to eat grass -- not corn -- but corn is cheaper (encouraged by government subsidizing). And the conditions are ripe that new strains of E coli will be created -- spread by the manure that cows stand in as they're being slaughtered in the slaughterhouse.
As Food, Inc. begins to follow food safety advocates as they try and communicate issues of concern to their government, the story moves into heart-wrenching territory. One advocate turns out to be a mother -- a mother whose two and half year old son, she tells us, "went from perfectly healthy to dead in 12 days ... from eating [E coli contaminated] meat."
Home movie footage of this now dead child is enough to send you running for the aisles, but fortunately Food, Inc. is also here to create solutions. A good portion of the film is directed toward remedies to our corporate-dominated food world. If you enjoyed Omnivore's Dilemma, you get to see in living color, the irascible and fascinating Joel Salatin, whose Polyface Farms is testimony to how a farmer can create nutritious, pesticide-free food in a balanced ecosystem.
We visit with Gary Hirshberg, the owner of Stoneyfield Farms, whose organic yogurt is another exemplary foodstuff -- and is now being featured on Wal-Mart shelves.
Still, when you learn what happens to these corporately-raised animals, and the stranglehold (by government and corporations) over our farms and farmers, and facts like 1 in 3 children born in the United States after 2000 will develop diabetes ... well, Food, Inc. might just give you heartburn.
As Pollan says toward the end: "I think it's one of the most important battles for consumers to fight: The right to know what's in your food and how it's grown. Not only do they not want you to know what's in it, they've managed to make it against the law to criticize their products."
But criticize we can, three meals a day, by learning what is in the food we're buying, by buying in season, and by buying local. And by saying bye-bye to fast food, period. ...
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Two hungry thumbs up!
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Thu, Jul 30, 2009
from Reuters:
Organic food is no healthier, study finds
Organic food has no nutritional or health benefits over ordinary food, according to a major study published Wednesday... A systematic review of 162 scientific papers published in the scientific literature over the last 50 years, however, found there was no significant difference.
"A small number of differences in nutrient content were found to exist between organically and conventionally produced foodstuffs, but these are unlikely to be of any public health relevance," said Alan Dangour, one of the report's authors. ...
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Call me crazy, but... I prefer food not laced with pesticides or antibiotics!
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Sun, Jul 26, 2009
from Denver Post:
Organic goes down a slippery road
Here's the sad news: Even as the demand for organic food continues to explode, organic farmers in America are getting thrown under the very beet cart they helped build.
The Chinese are taking over market share, especially of vegetables and agricultural commodities like soy, thanks to several American-based multinational food corporations that have hijacked the organic bandwagon they only recently jumped onto.
When mega-corporation Dean Foods acquired Silk soy milk -- which I used to drink as if it were the staff of life -- the prospects looked good for American organic soy farmers. Silk had always been committed to supporting domestic organic farmers, and with the new might of Dean Foods behind it, I assumed that Silk would likely grow. Silk did grow, but it also dropped its commitment to domestic soy.
When Midwestern farmers and farmer cooperatives in the heart of American soy country were told by Silk they had to match the rock-bottom cost of Chinese organic soybeans, they found it was a price they simply could not meet. Organic agriculture is labor-intensive, and China's edge comes largely from its abundance of cheap labor. ...
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Globalganic trade, anyone?
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Mon, Jul 6, 2009
from Lifespan, via EurekAlert:
Possible link between environmental nitrates and Alzheimer's, diabetes
A new study by researchers at Rhode Island Hospital have found a substantial link between increased levels of nitrates in our environment and food with increased deaths from diseases, including Alzheimer's, diabetes mellitus and Parkinson's.... "We have become a 'nitrosamine generation.' In essence, we have moved to a diet that is rich in amines and nitrates, which lead to increased nitrosamine production. We receive increased exposure through the abundant use of nitrate-containing fertilizers for agriculture." She continues, "Not only do we consume them in processed foods, but they get into our food supply by leeching from the soil and contaminating water supplies used for crop irrigation, food processing and drinking."... The findings indicate that while nitrogen-containing fertilizer consumption increased by 230 percent between 1955 and 2005, its usage doubled between 1960 and 1980, which just precedes the insulin-resistant epidemics the researchers found. They also found that sales from the fast food chain and the meat processing company increased more than 8-fold from 1970 to 2005, and grain consumption increased 5-fold. ...
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Or, plastic wrapping. Or, heavy metals. Or, organochlorides. Or... um... what was I saying?
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Sat, Jun 13, 2009
from TIME Magazine:
Congress Finally Gets Tough on Food Safety
Every few months, it seems, a new food-contamination scandal grips the nation, playing out in the same troubling way. Someone dies of a food-borne infection with a scary Latin name. The government recalls a dinner-table staple and traces its contamination to dirty irrigation water or a processing plant. Everything returns to normal until the next case of killer spinach or poisoned peanuts stalks the nation. Despite the toll -- 5,000 deaths and 325,000 hospitalizations a year -- Congress has typically been unwilling to strengthen controls on the growing, manufacturing and handling of food in the face of powerful industry resistance. But as profits and consumer confidence have plummeted with each new outbreak, the political climate has changed -- so much so that earlier this week, a House panel reached unusual bipartisan consensus on the most sweeping reform of the food-safety system in at least 50 years. ...
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I'll belch to that!
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Fri, May 8, 2009
from Syracuse Post-Standard:
Syracuse's community gardens are tainted with lead and arsenic
A dedicated band of gardeners have been tilling Syracuse's soil as a way of building community and providing fresh fruits and vegetables to their families. But the plots they have been eating from and others they have been working to develop are contaminated with toxic metals.
In at least some cases, Syracuse city workers were likely the ones who laid down the polluted dirt.
A recent study of six local community gardens by scientists at the State University College of Environmental Science and Forestry showed that all but one of the plots contained elevated levels of lead, according to preliminary results. Samples from one garden in development -- the Isabella Street Community Garden -- exceeded health standards set by the federal Environmental Protection Agency.
The normal level of lead in soil is between 40 and 50 parts per million. The Syracuse gardens have lead levels that range from 46 to 820 parts per million.
Moreover, arsenic levels in all of the plots except for one were off the charts, said ESF professor Venera Jouraeva, who led the study. ...
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I wondered why my carrots seem soooo heavy...
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Fri, May 1, 2009
from The Charleston Gazette:
Study finds food-wrapper chemicals in blood
A new scientific study has for the first time found a group of chemicals used in coatings on food wrappers in human blood.
Previous reports have documented low levels of certain perfluorochemicals -- those used to make commercial products like food wrapper coatings -- in the blood of the general human population. But the new study, led by University of Toronto researchers, focused on chemicals that are actually used in food wrapper coatings and other consumer products...
Scott Mabury, one of the study authors, said the results indicate that these food wrapper coatings are likely breaking down in the body into C8, which is also known as PFOA, and a related chemical called PFOS. ...
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They say you are what you eat.
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Wed, Apr 15, 2009
from London Daily Telegraph:
Forty per cent of children now suffer from food allergies
The number of children with food allergies has tripled in the past decade, with millions being diagnosed with severe immune system disorders, some of them potentially life-threatening.
Researchers believe that as exotic foods become more commonplace in British households, the number of people being diagnosed with allergies is likely to rise further. Dr Jonathan North, a consultant immunologist at Birmingham Children's Hospital, said: "We used to say that 15 per cent of the population had an allergy of some sort, now the figure is nearer 40 per cent."... Other research has also found that climate change could be responsible for exacerbating the seriousness of conditions such as hay fever. ...
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If we could just get kids to be allergic to television...
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Sun, Apr 12, 2009
from The Australian:
When farm sprays go astray
When fisheries veterinarian Matthew Landos got his first look at the double-headed fish embryos in a Queensland hatchery, he had no idea he would soon team up with a Tasmanian doctor worried that the widespread use of agricultural and forestry chemicals was making her patients sick.
"In hindsight it makes perfect sense. If exposure to agricultural chemicals could cause deformed and dying fish, as the evidence suggests, of course the chemicals had the potential to trigger serious health problems with other animals, including people," says Landos, who runs a [fisheries] consulting practice...
Late last year hatchery owner Gwen Gilson hired Landos to find out why -- after years of healthy hatchings -- embryos and fish fry were dying in huge numbers, while others showed bizarre physical or behavioural abnormalities. His investigation suggested the problem was the result of a cocktail of chemicals sprayed on a nearby macadamia plantation.... "The same company that makes atrazine (as a herbicide) spun out a new company that makes an anti-breast cancer medication that blocks its action," he says, noting that the company involved has complained formally to UC administrators about his public pronouncements on the subject. ...
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In most of the world, that kind of thing is called a "protection racket."
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Tue, Mar 31, 2009
from Popular Science:
Rust in the Food Supply
Food-borne illness frequently grabs headlines: tomatoes, peanut butter and, most recently, pistachios have all made people sick from salmonella and caused headaches for grocers across the United States.
Now, another food illness of sorts is popping up on the international radar screen -- only this one makes the food itself ill. Well, one of the plants that turns into much of our food, in any case. Scientists from 40 countries on six continents are fighting a virulent form of an old wheat disease that some fear could threaten 90 percent of the world's wheat crop. They aim to fight the fungus on the genetic level, hoping to prevent it from spreading to North America by replacing much of the world's wheat varieties with tougher plants.
At a conference in Mexico earlier this month, scientists confirmed that a newly emerged wheat rust strain known as Ug99 is now in most of eastern Africa and is marching toward South Asia, a region that produces 19 percent of the world's wheat. The wind-borne fungus has already devastated farms in Kenya, where some farmers have reported losses up to 80 percent. ...
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And as we know... rust never sleeps.
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Fri, Mar 27, 2009
from Environmental Health News:
Food may contain environmental estrogens
A discovery that two commonly used food additives are estrogenic has led scientists to suspect that many ingredients added to the food supply may be capable of altering hormones.
More than 3,000 preservatives, flavorings, colors and other ingredients are added to food in the United States, and none of them are required to undergo testing for estrogenic activity, according to the Food and Drug Administration.
"We need to be mindful of these food additives because they could be adding to the total effect of other estrogen mimicking compounds we're coming into contact with," said Clair Hicks, a professor of food science at the University of Kentucky and spokesperson for the Institute of Food Technologists, a nonprofit scientific group.
"The benefits of using these additives in food need to be weighed against the risks they present," Hicks said. ...
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I really have to watch my figure now!
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Sun, Mar 22, 2009
from New York Times:
Is a Food Revolution Now in Season?
... After being largely ignored for years by Washington, advocates of organic and locally grown food have found a receptive ear in the White House, which has vowed to encourage a more nutritious and sustainable food supply.
The most vocal booster so far has been the first lady, Michelle Obama, who has emphasized the need for fresh, unprocessed, locally grown food and, last week, started work on a White House vegetable garden. More surprising, perhaps, are the pronouncements out of the Department of Agriculture, an agency with long and close ties to agribusiness.
In mid-February, Tom Vilsack, the new secretary of agriculture, took a jackhammer to a patch of pavement outside his headquarters to create his own organic “people’s garden.” Two weeks later, the Obama administration named Kathleen Merrigan, an assistant professor at Tufts University and a longtime champion of sustainable agriculture and healthy food, as Mr. Vilsack’s top deputy. ...
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A "receptive ear"... My, that does sound tasty!
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Tue, Feb 10, 2009
from Associated Press:
US relies on states for food safety inspections
The U.S. government has increasingly relied on food-safety inspections performed by states, where budgets for inspections in many cases have remained stagnant and where overburdened officials are trained less than their federal counterparts and perform skimpier reviews, an Associated Press investigation has found.
The thoroughness of inspections performed by states has emerged as a key issue in the investigation of the national salmonella outbreak traced to a peanut processing plant in Blakely, Ga. The outbreak, which has highlighted weaknesses in the nation's food-safety system, is blamed for 600 illnesses and at least eight deaths in 44 states.... State investigators performed more than half the Food and Drug Administration's food inspections in 2007, according to an AP analysis of FDA data. That represents a dramatic rise from a decade ago, when FDA investigators performed three out of four of the federal government's inspections.
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We call this the New Fooderalism.
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Sat, Feb 7, 2009
from New York Times:
Fallout Widens as Buyers Shun Peanut Butter
Many consumers, apparently disregarding the fine print of the salmonella outbreak and food recall caused by a Georgia peanut plant, are swearing off all brands of peanut butter, driving down sales by nearly 25 percent. The drop-off is so striking that brands like Jif are taking the unusual step of buying ads to tell shoppers that their products are not affected, and giving them a coupon to make sure they do not learn to live without a staple that almost every child loves -- and more than a few of their parents, too. ...
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Next thing you know jelly will be on the ropes!
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Tue, Jan 27, 2009
from Chicago Tribune:
Mercury in corn syrup?
A swig of soda or a bite of a candy bar might be sweet, but a new study suggests that food made with corn syrup also could be delivering tiny doses of toxic mercury.
For the first time, researchers say they have detected traces of the silvery metal in samples of high-fructose corn syrup, a widely used sweetener that has replaced sugar in many processed foods. The study was published Monday in the peer-reviewed journal Environmental Health.
Eating high-mercury fish is the chief source of exposure for most people. The new study raises concerns about a previously unknown dietary source of mercury, which has been linked to learning disabilities in children and heart disease in adults.
The source of the metal appears to be caustic soda and hydrochloric acid, which manufacturers of corn syrup use to help convert corn kernels into the food additive. ...
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Aw jeez... And here I thought corn syrup was good for me!
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Sun, Jan 11, 2009
from Associated Press:
Salmonella prompts peanut butter recall in Ohio
COLUMBUS, Ohio – An Ohio distributor says it has recalled two brands of its peanut butter after an open container tested positive for salmonella bacteria.
There was no immediate indication whether the brands were linked to a national salmonella outbreak.
King Nut Companies said in a statement issued Saturday that it has asked customers to stop distributing all peanut butter under its King Nut and Parnell's Pride brands with a lot code that begins with the numeral "8." The brands are distributed only through food service providers and are not sold directly to consumers.
Preliminary laboratory testing found salmonella bacteria in a 5-pound container of King Nut brand creamy peanut butter, the Minnesota Department of Health said Friday.
The Minnesota tests had not linked it to the type of salmonella in the outbreak that has sickened almost 400 people in 42 states, but the department said additional results are expected early next week. ...
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Just don't you mess with my jelly!
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Thu, Jan 8, 2009
from Reuters:
Monsanto seeks FDA approval for drought-tolerant corn
KANSAS CITY, Missouri (Reuters) - Monsanto Co said Wednesday it filed for U.S. regulatory approval for what could be the world's first drought-tolerant corn, a product that agricultural companies around the globe are racing to roll out amid fears of global warming and the needs of a growing population.
Monsanto said it submitted its product to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for regulatory clearance. It is working with German-based BASF on the project.
The two companies are jointly contributing $1.5 billion to a venture aimed at developing higher-yielding crops and crops more tolerant to adverse environmental conditions, such as drought, which has eroded production in countries around the world in recent years.
"It's been everybody's dream to have a drought-tolerant crop," said Iowa State University agronomist Roger Elmore, though he pointed out advantages would vary widely depending on geography. ...
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I know that's been my dream all along...
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Sun, Dec 21, 2008
from Chicago Tribune:
Tribune investigation prompts stores to pull food items
Chicago-area supermarkets, gourmet shops and bakeries routinely sell mislabeled products that pose a danger to those with food allergies, according to Tribune testing and a comprehensive check of grocery aisles.
When informed of the findings, more than a dozen food companies said they would remove products from shelves or fix labels to properly disclose all ingredients.
In one of the nation's largest examinations of undisclosed ingredients in food, the Tribune reviewed thousands of items at more than 60 locations, finding dozens of products obviously mislabeled. The newspaper also conducted 50 laboratory tests—more than the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Food and Drug Administration combined over the last several years—to try to determine precise ingredients.
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What I don't know ... could actually hurt me?
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Sat, Dec 20, 2008
from Minneapolis Star Tribune:
X-rayed venison is on its way to food shelves
Minnesota officials are all but finished X-raying donated venison for lead bullet fragments, and meat found to be lead-free is now being shipped to food shelves around the state.
Of about 10,000 packages of venison tested, 560 -- or 5.9 percent -- tested positive for lead, officials said. That meat -- about 1,100 pounds -- will be destroyed after it is tested further to determine lead levels. About 18,000 pounds of venison that showed no detectable lead have been released to food shelves. ...
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Great news! ... um ... unless there's something potentially dangerous with X-rays.
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Fri, Dec 19, 2008
from London Guardian:
Scientists fear new wave of human BSE deaths may kill up to 350
Scientists were warning today of a possible new wave of deaths from the human form of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) amid fears the disease might have taken hold in a wider range of the population than had first appeared.
Chris Higgins, head of the group that advises the government on variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD), suggested up to 350 people might die if it emerged that the long-incubating illness appeared to have infected a patient with a different gene type from previous British victims.
The first wave of infections almost certainly came from eating infected beef products after BSE struck cattle in the 1980s, although three of the 164 people who have died from the human disease since 1995 are thought to have contracted the disease from contaminated blood transfusions donated by people who were unwittingly carrying the disease.
The first wave of deaths peaked at 28 in 2000, and only one person has died from the disease this year. But Higgins, chairman of the spongiform encephalopathy advisory committee (SEAC), said that if another patient with the disease was found to have the different gene type, more could die. ...
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My poor kids already have a case of bovine spongebob-iform encephalopathy.
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Tue, Dec 16, 2008
from Ashville Citizen-Times:
Ramping down the toxins we eat
Some of the signs of an emerging crisis include: the presence of toxic chemicals, heavy metals and disease-causing bacteria in a host of foods; a rise in obesity and diet-related diseases; and air and water pollution from factory farms. Our current system isn't healthy and it's not sustainable.... Here are nine ideas for ways to improve health and send a strong signal to farmers, grocery stores and policymakers about the kinds of food we want to eat. ...
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I get arsenic in my chicken fajita? Toxic chemicals from my plastic wrap?
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Wed, Nov 19, 2008
from London Daily Mail:
New superbug version of E.coli found on British dairy farm
A new superbug version of E.coli which could trigger life-threatening infections has been found on a dairy farm.
The mutant strain of E.coli 026 is believed to have emerged as a result of the heavy use of antibiotics on farm animals.
It is the first time it has been discovered in this country and only the third time it has been found anywhere in the world.
The bug is similar to the infamous E.coli 0157 which has been implicated in fatal food poisoning outbreaks. ...
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Just so the mad cows don't come home to roost!
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Mon, Sep 29, 2008
from Bandon Western World (OR):
Mussels and scallops harvesting closure
People hoping to gather mussels and scallops on the South Coast will have to wait until the Oregon Department of Agriculture ends a harvesting closure.
The ODA put a closure into effect last Thursday for recreational mussel harvesting from the California border north to, and including, Bastendorff Beach, due to elevated levels of paralytic shellfish poisoning. The ban is for mussels on all beaches, rocks, jetties and at the entrances to bays, a press release said.
Coastal scallops also are included in the closure. Only the adductor muscle should be eaten from scallops harvested on the coast. Crabs are not impacted by this level of toxin and are safe to eat.
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I'm crabby about scary scallops.
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Thu, Sep 18, 2008
from Australian Broadcasting Corporation:
Contaminated milk crisis worsens in China
The contaminated milk powder crisis in China continues to worsen and drag New Zealand's dairy company Fonterra into the scandal.
More than 6000 babies are sick, three have died and 150 have serious kidney failure after drinking milk powder that had been deliberately contaminated with melamine, a toxic substance used in plastics.
The Chinese Government has admitted its dairy market is "chaotic" and has ordered a national testing program. ...
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Plasticizing our infants' insides?
Just hardening them for the vicissitudes of life.
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Sat, Aug 23, 2008
from New Scientist:
Superfood rice bran contains arsenic
"Rice bran – a so-called "superfood" – might contain dangerous amounts of a natural poison. A new study suggests that rice bran, the shavings left over after brown rice is polished to produce white rice grains, contains "inappropriate" levels of arsenic. Andrew Meharg at the University of Aberdeen, UK, and colleagues found that the levels of arsenic in rice bran products available on the internet and used in food-aid programmes funded by the US government would be illegal in China – the only country in the world to have standards for how much arsenic is permissible in food." ...
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'Bout time we're getting back at the Chinese for all that lead in our kids' toys!
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Tue, Jul 1, 2008
from USA Today, via WBIR:
Salmonella probe grows -- maybe not tomatoes
Federal investigators retraced their steps Monday as suspicions mount that fresh unprocessed tomatoes aren't necessarily causing the salmonella outbreak that has sickened hundreds across the USA.
Three weeks after the Food and Drug Administration warned consumers to avoid certain types of tomatoes linked to the salmonella outbreak, people are still falling ill, says Robert Tauxe with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.... If another food is found to be the culprit after tomatoes were recalled nationwide and the produce industry sustained losses of hundreds of millions of dollars, food safety experts say the public's trust in the government's ability to track foodborne illnesses will be shattered. ...
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Apocaiku:
This salmonella
now a serial iller
still on its rampage
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Mon, Jun 16, 2008
from BusinessWeek:
Food Safety: 'Near the Breaking Point'
For the FDA's embattled food safety inspectors, the salmonella scare was more evidence that a chronic lack of money and manpower has left the agency reacting to such events rather than preventing them in the first place -- a longtime goal. Stephen Sundlof, who runs the FDA's Center for Food Safety & Applied Nutrition, has recently wondered if his people can handle more than one big crisis at a time -- say, a nationwide outbreak of E. coli and salmonella. "[We're] near the breaking point," he says. The situation is so dire that the Bush Administration has made an extraordinary request to add $275 million to its proposed 2009 budget for the FDA. ...
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$275 million is about the cost of
8 hours of the Iraq War.
Extraordinary!
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Thu, Mar 13, 2008
from The Canadian Press:
Public warned not to consume certain juices for toddlers that may contain arsenic
"OTTAWA - The Canadian Food Inspection Agency and Loblaws Inc. have warned the public not to consume certain pear juices for toddlers that may be contaminated with arsenic. The CFIA says in a news release that there have been no reported illnesses associated with the consumption of the products. The two products listed in the warning are the one-litre President's Choice Organics Pear Juice from Concentrate for Toddlers and the 128-millilitre Beech Nut Pear Juice from concentrate with Vitamin C added. The products have been distributed across the country, the agency says." ...
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Pear juices? That's what they get for not feeding these toddlers fast food kids' meals like their s'posed to!
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Wed, Feb 20, 2008
from The Asahi Shimbun:
Pesticide dichlorvos detected in sliced frozen mackerel imported from China
"TAKAMATSU--The pesticide dichlorvos, which had contaminated gyoza dumplings imported from China, was detected in sliced frozen mackerel processed in an area of China that handles a large volume of farm produce. The fish was sold in Japan by Kouzai Bussan Co., based in Sanuki city, east of here, company officials said Monday. They said 0.14 parts per million (ppm) of the organophosphorus pesticide was found in the product called Aburi Toro Shimesaba Suraisu, a package of 20 slices weighing about 200 grams." ...
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I suppose you could say that's an unholy mackerel.
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Tue, Dec 18, 2007
from USA Today:
Microwave popcorn chemical out of the bag
"ConAgra has removed a controversial chemical from its microwave popcorn that gives the snack a buttery, creamy taste, citing concern for its workers' health." ...
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This story has gotten soooo much coverage. Why the silence on the harm caused by microwave ovens themselves: http://www.health-science.com/microwave_hazards.html
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