Salon.com > Food safety http://www.salon.com Thu, 23 May 2013 18:59:53 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 How neglecting bees could endanger humans http://www.salon.com/2013/05/01/follow_europes_lead_in_protecting_bees/ http://www.salon.com/2013/05/01/follow_europes_lead_in_protecting_bees/#comments Wed, 01 May 2013 18:50:00 +0000 http://www.railrode.net/?p=13286205 If you are an almond farmer in the Central Valley of California, where 80 percent of the world’s production is grown, you had a problem earlier this spring. Chances are there weren’t enough bees to pollinate your trees. That’s because untold thousands of colonies -- almost half of the 1.6 million commercial hives that almond growers depend on -- failed to survive the winter, making this the worst season for beekeepers in anyone’s memory. And that is saying a lot, because bees have been faring increasingly poorly for years now.

Much of this recent spike in bee mortality is attributed to Colony Collapse Disorder, a mysterious condition where all the worker bees in a colony simply fly off as a group and never make it back to the hive. Scientists have been studying this odd phenomenon for years and they still aren’t sure why it is happening.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/05/01/follow_europes_lead_in_protecting_bees/feed/ 26 Senate Appropriations chairwoman disavows “Monsanto Protection Act” http://www.salon.com/2013/04/02/senate_appropriations_chair_disavows_monsanto_protection_act/ http://www.salon.com/2013/04/02/senate_appropriations_chair_disavows_monsanto_protection_act/#comments Tue, 02 Apr 2013 19:21:00 +0000 http://www.railrode.net/?p=13259212 Food activists outraged at the so-called Monsanto Protection Act -- a provision that, as noted here, snuck into law late last month as a part of a broader spending bill -- have directed significant blame at Sen. Barbara Mikulski, D-Md., chairwoman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, for not drawing attention to the biotech rider.

The Monsanto Protection Act was signed into law by the president as one small section of the HR 933, approved by Congress to avoid a government shutdown. But many Congress members said they had not even seen the controversial provision (Section 735 in the bill), which protects genetically modified seeds (like those produced by biotech leviathan Monsanto) from litigation in the face of health risks. The biotech rider was introduced anonymously as the larger bill progressed, was not subject to appropriate review by the Agricultural or Judiciary Committees, and was reportedly not even seen by many voting Congress members. In response to public outcry over the provision, Mikulski has offered a tepid mea culpa -- a statement of disavowal that does nothing to undo the legislation, which, although temporary, sets dangerous precedent for shielding biotech giants from federal prosecution and intervention. The statement from the senator's office reads:

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/04/02/senate_appropriations_chair_disavows_monsanto_protection_act/feed/ 10 Everything you never wanted to know about the European horse meat scandal http://www.salon.com/2013/02/19/everything_you_never_wanted_to_know_about_the_european_horse_meat_scandal/ http://www.salon.com/2013/02/19/everything_you_never_wanted_to_know_about_the_european_horse_meat_scandal/#comments Tue, 19 Feb 2013 17:46:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13205402 It started when Ireland's food safety authority discovered that horse meat accounted for nearly 30 to 100 percent of the meat content of hamburgers being sold by major supermarket chains, but in less than a month, the scandal spread as horse meat -- and, in some cases, a powerful equine drug -- was found in beef products in Britain, Spain, Italy and Germany.

Today, there are nearly a dozen countries pulling products believed to be adulterated with horse DNA from their shelves, sparking a flurry of attention to a continent-wide crisis over international supply chains and a lack of transparency in food manufacturing standards.

Where did the horse meat even come from? 

Good question, but it's a hard one to answer. Food supply chains are incredibly complex, so European authorities are scrambling to trace multiple sources. The number seems to grow by the day.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/02/19/everything_you_never_wanted_to_know_about_the_european_horse_meat_scandal/feed/ 6 Has Sandy put our water at risk http://www.salon.com/2012/11/01/has_sandy_put_our_water_at_risk/ http://www.salon.com/2012/11/01/has_sandy_put_our_water_at_risk/#comments Thu, 01 Nov 2012 20:33:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13060066 The safety of our water supply is a growing concern after Hurricane Sandy swept millions of gallons of sewage into our waterways. In New Jersey, with many cities and towns still experiencing flooding, several municipalities have issued boil water advisories. However, unlike many regions of the world besieged by floods, deadly diseases such as cholera and typhoid are not a major risk in the U.S. Watch the video below, via HuffPost Live, in which reporters and experts discuss the risks to our water supply:

 

 

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/11/01/has_sandy_put_our_water_at_risk/feed/ 0 Monsanto crops cause tumors http://www.salon.com/2012/09/19/monsanto_crops_cause_tumors/ http://www.salon.com/2012/09/19/monsanto_crops_cause_tumors/#comments Wed, 19 Sep 2012 22:08:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13016606
A study released Wednesday found that rats fed Monsanto’s genetically modified corn or exposed to the biotech giant’s herbicide, Roundup, developed tumors and organ damage. As Reuters reported, “The researchers said 50 percent of males and 70 percent of females [in the test group] died prematurely, compared with only 30 percent and 20 percent in the control group.” The lead researcher of the French study is an outspoken Monsanto critic, which, according to Reuters, “may make other experts wary of drawing hasty conclusions.” However, the findings will no doubt fuel the controversy already surrounding Monsanto and GMO crops. As Think Progress’ Aviva Shen noted, the study “may hurt efforts by ... Monsanto, to defeat a California ballot initiative that would require labels on genetically modified foods.” The study may also buoy anti-Monsanto protests -- food activists acting under the banner “Occupy Monsanto” organized 65 protests this past week at Monsanto facilities across the country.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/09/19/monsanto_crops_cause_tumors/feed/ 12 When antibiotics no longer work http://www.salon.com/2011/08/04/salmonella_turkey_recall/ http://www.salon.com/2011/08/04/salmonella_turkey_recall/#comments Thu, 04 Aug 2011 22:45:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2011/08/04/salmonella_turkey_recall There may be nothing more viscerally unsettling than the idea that our food is tainted and could make us seriously ill. Those anxieties were stoked this morning when Cargill, the third-largest turkey producer in the country, announced the recall of 36 million pounds of poultry for fear of salmonella contamination. The scare was precipitated by an outbreak in California -- which left at least one person dead and more than 70 sick -- which was traced back to Cargill's products. The recall is one of the largest recalls of meat in American history. 

What's particularly alarming is that the salmonella in question is resistant to antibiotics, at a time when drug-resistant bugs, of all stripes, are generating increased public attention. Just as Cargill was pulling its meat off of store shelves, French scientists released a report detailing the emergence of another drug-resistant strain of Salmonella, called "S. Kentucky," in Europe. (The California strain is "S. Heidelberg.") S. Kentucky made nearly 500 people sick across the continent between 2000 and 2008, and researchers suspect that it hopped over the pond to the U.S. and Canada. 

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2011/08/04/salmonella_turkey_recall/feed/ 23 36M lbs. of turkey recalled in salmonella outbreak http://www.salon.com/2011/08/04/us_tainted_ground_turkey/ http://www.salon.com/2011/08/04/us_tainted_ground_turkey/#comments Thu, 04 Aug 2011 12:48:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2011/08/04/us_tainted_ground_turkey Meat giant Cargill is recalling 36 million pounds of turkey after a government hunt for the source of a salmonella outbreak that has killed one person in California and sickened dozens more.

The Agriculture Department and the Minnesota-based company announced Wednesday evening that Cargill is recalling fresh and frozen ground turkey products produced at the company's Springdale, Ark., plant from Feb. 20 through Aug. 2 due to possible contamination from the strain of salmonella linked to 76 illnesses and the one death.

Illnesses in the outbreak date back to March and have been reported in 26 states coast to coast. Both the Agriculture Department and the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are still working to identify the source. Meanwhile, the Agriculture Department has warned consumers to properly cook ground turkey.

Just before the recall announcement Wednesday, CDC epidemiologist Christopher Braden said he thought health authorities were closing in on the suspect. He said some leftover turkey in a package at a victim's house was confirmed to contain the strain of salmonella linked to the outbreak.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2011/08/04/us_tainted_ground_turkey/feed/ 11 911 called over botched Chinese food order http://www.salon.com/2011/06/15/911_call_chinese_food/ http://www.salon.com/2011/06/15/911_call_chinese_food/#comments Wed, 15 Jun 2011 16:16:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/entertainment/tv/feature/2011/06/15/911_call_chinese_food How many times has this happened to you? You go home and try to enjoy a nice dinner of Chinese food delivery. But when your meal arrives, they've got the order completely wrong!

Do you:

A) Call back the restaurant and ask for a refund;

B) Just eat the food and promise to deal with it next time;

C) Call the police

If you answered C, you are not alone. A woman in Savannah, Ga., called 911 to rectify her dinner order yesterday. This was the result:

 

Sadly, these kinds of calls aren't as uncommon as you might think. In March 2009 a woman called the police after being given the wrong order of McNuggets at McDonald's.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2011/06/15/911_call_chinese_food/feed/ 9 When is radioactive food dangerous? http://www.salon.com/2011/04/05/japan_nuclear_crisis_radioactive_food/ http://www.salon.com/2011/04/05/japan_nuclear_crisis_radioactive_food/#comments Tue, 05 Apr 2011 20:06:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2011/04/05/japan_nuclear_crisis_radioactive_food Even short of a catastrophic meltdown at Japan's Fukushima Daiichi nuclear reactor, serious questions remain about the ongoing crisis's effect on health, particularly with food exposed to radioactive material. Officials have warned about contaminated spinach and milk. Now, hauls of fish pulled in by commercial fishermen near the plant are showing amounts of radioactive iodine-131 double current standards -- prompting the Japanese government to regulate radiation levels in seafood. How worried should people be?

Salon talked to Stephen Frantz, director of the Reed College Research Reactor, about the threat.

What does radiation in food do to people?

When you ingest radioactive material, as the material decays, some of the radiation will hit the cells in your body and perhaps do damage and increase the chances of cancer -- if there's a sufficient amount of materials. "Radioactive" does not mean it's deadly or dangerous. We've been eating radioactive materials all our throughout human history. It's the levels you have to worry about.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2011/04/05/japan_nuclear_crisis_radioactive_food/feed/ 2 Do food dyes cause hyperactivity? http://www.salon.com/2011/03/30/food_dyes_hyperactivity/ http://www.salon.com/2011/03/30/food_dyes_hyperactivity/#comments Wed, 30 Mar 2011 21:31:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/food/feature/2011/03/30/food_dyes_hyperactivity The Food and Drug Administration will hear a panel today to examine a possible link between artificial food coloring and hyperactivity in children. Though no one actually expects the FDA to ban the dyes, the panel provides a great opportunity for reporters to dig up hand-wringing parents ... and strike fear into the hearts of many more.

According to the New York Times, the petitioner, the Center for Science in the Public Interest, is seeking either an outright ban or, at the very least, a prominent warning label. European companies have had to put warning labels on artificially colored products for years, and many have switched to natural dyes, such as from beets. Should the U.S. follow suit?

The dye debate has been raging since the 1970s, with very little conclusive evidence to settle for either side once and for all. The FDA previously stated that there was no reason to fear the dyes, but since the use of artificial coloring has skyrocketed in recent years, scientists have been examining this claim, with little success. The most convincing evidence comes from a 2007 study headed by University of Southampton professor Jim Stevenson. In the study, children were fed a daily fruit juice containing different concentrations of dyes and the preservative sodium benzoate, and noted a small effect on behavior. It isn't clear whether the dyes, the preservative or the combination caused the effect.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2011/03/30/food_dyes_hyperactivity/feed/ 14 How many bugs are allowed in your pasta? Reading the FDA’s Food Defect Action Levels http://www.salon.com/2011/01/27/fda_food_defect_action_levels/ http://www.salon.com/2011/01/27/fda_food_defect_action_levels/#comments Thu, 27 Jan 2011 18:01:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/food/francis_lam/2011/01/27/fda_food_defect_action_levels The closest I ever got to being a lawyer was flirting with a married one once, so I'm not going to comment on the legal wisdom of Dennis Kucinich's suit against congressional cafeteria operators for leaving an unpitted olive in his sandwich three years ago. He bit the pit. The pit hurt him. (Bad, too!) But in light of this awful miscarriage of justice, I recall once learning that many foods are allowed to contain a certain amount of "foreign matter" from the processor.

So, curious about what other "filth" and "water insoluble inorganic matter" are legally tolerated, I consulted the Food and Drug Administration's stunningly poetic-sounding "Food Defect Action Levels" -- the level of screwiness you are allowed to have in your food before the FDA will take action. You never actually want to get some FDA action, but you might be surprised at how much gunk can be in your product before they will show up with some bad news.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2011/01/27/fda_food_defect_action_levels/feed/ 37 Dennis Kucinich sues House cafeteria because of a sandwich http://www.salon.com/2011/01/26/kucinich_sues_sandwich/ http://www.salon.com/2011/01/26/kucinich_sues_sandwich/#comments Wed, 26 Jan 2011 19:01:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/news/politics//war_room/2011/01/26/kucinich_sues_sandwich The headline basically sums up everything you need to know about this news: Dennis Kucinich is suing the Longworth House Office Building cafeteria because of a sandwich.

You want more? The friendly Cleveland congressman filed suit against a number of companies that supply and run the congressional eatery, because in 2008 he bit into a "sandwich wrap" of some kind and hurt his teeth on an olive pit.

According to the suit: "Said sandwich wrap was unwholesome and unfit for human consumption, in that it was represented to contain pitted olives, yet unknown to plaintiff contained an unpitted olive or olives which plaintiff did not reasonably expect to be present in the food prepared for him, and could not visually detect prior to consumption."

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2011/01/26/kucinich_sues_sandwich/feed/ 51 Lawsuit to Taco Bell: Where’s the beef? http://www.salon.com/2011/01/25/us_taco_bell_lawsuit/ http://www.salon.com/2011/01/25/us_taco_bell_lawsuit/#comments Tue, 25 Jan 2011 00:56:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2011/01/24/us_taco_bell_lawsuit An Alabama law firm claims in a lawsuit that Taco Bell is using false advertising when it refers to using "seasoned ground beef" or "seasoned beef" in its products.

The meat mixture sold by Taco Bell restaurants contains binders and extenders and does not meet the minimum requirements set by the U.S. Department of Agriculture to be labeled as "beef," according to the legal complaint.

The class-action lawsuit was filed Friday in federal court in the Central District of California by the Montgomery law firm Beasley, Allen, Crow, Methvin, Portis & Miles.

Attorney Dee Miles said attorneys had Taco Bell's "meat mixture" tested and found it contained less that 35 percent beef.

Miles said the lawsuit does not seek monetary damages, but asks the court to order Taco Bell to be honest in its advertising.

"We are asking that they stop saying that they are selling beef," Miles said.

Irvine, Calif.-based Taco Bell spokesman Rob Poetsch (PAYCH) said the company denies that its advertising is misleading.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2011/01/25/us_taco_bell_lawsuit/feed/ 0 Kinder Surprise chocolates and other surprising border-patrol contraband http://www.salon.com/2011/01/14/kinder_surprise_contraband/ http://www.salon.com/2011/01/14/kinder_surprise_contraband/#comments Fri, 14 Jan 2011 16:32:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/food/francis_lam/2011/01/14/kinder_surprise_contraband With all the stop-looking-at-my-privates noise being made at airports these days, it's easy to overlook the real victims of Homeland Security crackdowns: the children. Specifically, the children who are expecting their toy-filled Kinder Surprise chocolate eggs.

The CBC recently reported the tragic story: A Canadian woman, by the near-symmetrical name of Lind Bird, was driving across the U.S. border when she was stopped for a random search, which randomly turned up the most randomly illegal contraband of all time -- a chocolate egg-toy that the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission has determined is a clear and present danger out to choke American children. The border patrol officer threatened a $300 fine, Ms. Bird politely gave up the Kinder Surprise, and, after an extended hassle including signing off on a seven-page letter authorizing U.S. authorities to destroy (read: snack on) the confiscated goods, she tried to pick up the pieces and get on with her life, scarred by a government that has that kind of time and money to throw around, but not enough resources for universal healthcare.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2011/01/14/kinder_surprise_contraband/feed/ 44 Four Loko, other drinks turned into ethanol http://www.salon.com/2011/01/06/alcoholic_energy_drinks/ http://www.salon.com/2011/01/06/alcoholic_energy_drinks/#comments Thu, 06 Jan 2011 19:30:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/food/feature/2011/01/06/alcoholic_energy_drinks Truckloads of Four Loko and other alcohol-laced energy drinks are being recycled into ethanol and other products after federal authorities told manufacturers the beverages were dangerous and caused users to become "wide-awake drunk."

Wholesalers from Virginia, North Carolina, Maryland and other East Coast states started sending cases of the high-alcohol, caffeinated malt beverages to MXI Environmental Services in Virginia after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced a crackdown on the sale of such beverages in November.

Brian Potter, vice president of operations at MXI's facility in Abingdon, Va., said about a couple of hundred truckloads of the drinks would be coming to the plant. Each truck holds 2,000 cases of the 23.5-ounce cans.

MXI Enterprises is one of three facilities in the U.S. that recycle ethanol, according to the American Coalition for Ethanol, an industry group. Potter said Thursday that his competitors also are taking shipments of the drinks.

"We're equipped to process four truckloads a day, and we're at full capacity," he said. "There are about 30 different products involved, and we've only seen a couple of them at this point. It could go on for several months."

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2011/01/06/alcoholic_energy_drinks/feed/ 9 Obama signs $1.4 billion food safety system overhaul http://www.salon.com/2011/01/04/us_obama_food_safety/ http://www.salon.com/2011/01/04/us_obama_food_safety/#comments Tue, 04 Jan 2011 23:38:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2011/01/04/us_obama_food_safety President Barack Obama has signed a $1.4 billion overhaul of the nation's food safety system requiring more government inspections at food processing facilities and allowing federal regulators to order the recall of unsafe products.

Conservative lawmakers, sensitive to public frustration over high levels of government spending, are balking at the price tag. Obama has said food safety is a priority for him.

Obama signed the bill into law Tuesday, a day before a more Republican and less White-House friendly Congress returns to Washington.

The law emphasizes prevention to help stop outbreaks of foodborne illness before they occur. It requires food manufacturers to prepare detailed food safety plans and to tell the Food and Drug Administration what they are doing to keep the food safe at different stages of production.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2011/01/04/us_obama_food_safety/feed/ 13 Are you safer if the cook is wearing gloves? http://www.salon.com/2010/10/13/food_handler_glove_laws/ http://www.salon.com/2010/10/13/food_handler_glove_laws/#comments Wed, 13 Oct 2010 13:01:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/food/francis_lam/2010/10/13/food_handler_glove_laws You're at a deli. You watch the cook take the trash out, or have a cigarette, or step away to heed nature's call, and then come back to the kitchen just in time to make your sandwich. "Put some gloves on her!" you want to scream, and, well, health departments all across the country feel the pain of your silent cry. In many cities and states, people handling food have to wear gloves to protect customers. But is wearing gloves actually effective?

As reported by Food Safety News, a new study in the even-more-thrilling-sounding Journal of Food Protection found that wearing gloves is not only no better than thorough, regular hand washing, but may actually be worse than wearing no gloves at all. The heat and moisture from your hands inside are like a Jersey Shore hot tub for bacteria, and neither glove nor reality show star is ever impervious to "losses of integrity," letting that bacteria loose on your ham and Swiss on rye. But to my mind, the study's most salient point is the notion that wearing gloves creates an aura of hygiene that makes it far too easy for cooks to stop thinking about where their hands have been.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2010/10/13/food_handler_glove_laws/feed/ 10 Tuesday link dump: Look away, look away http://www.salon.com/2010/09/14/tuesday_link_dump_17/ http://www.salon.com/2010/09/14/tuesday_link_dump_17/#comments Tue, 14 Sep 2010 22:50:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/news/politics//war_room/2010/09/14/tuesday_link_dump
  • Who are "top Democrats," and why do journalists tell us what they think?
  • Proven with political science: It's safe to ignore Politico.
  • South Carolina politicians are still very much South Carolina politicians.
  • The Office of the Inspector General gives in to the latest bullshit.
  • Surprise: Corporations and congressmen impede FDA food safety inspections.
  • Michael Kinsley calls on Baby Boomers to fix the mess they created by paying down the debt before they die.

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    ]]>     http://www.salon.com/2010/09/14/tuesday_link_dump_17/feed/ 1     What to know about the great egg recall http://www.salon.com/2010/08/24/salmonella_egg_recall_decoster/ http://www.salon.com/2010/08/24/salmonella_egg_recall_decoster/#comments Tue, 24 Aug 2010 01:20:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/food/francis_lam/2010/08/23/salmonella_egg_recall_decoster The incredible edible egg is starting to seem like a cup of poison these days, what with a recall of half a billion of the poor things. At this scale, all the numbers that fly around the story are staggering: The recall is tiny compared to our total production of eggs, which is something like a hundred billion. Still, as many as 39,000 people may have been sickened with salmonella ... and right about here is where most brains will usually do two things -- turn to mush trying to imagine what these numbers mean, and flash a big red X on eating raw eggs. I'm trying to make sense of it myself. But, first off, if you're concerned about your egg safety, there are some easy things you should know.

    Salmonella and its discontents

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    ]]>     http://www.salon.com/2010/08/24/salmonella_egg_recall_decoster/feed/ 47     How long can food be out of the fridge before it kills me? http://www.salon.com/2010/07/15/how_long_can_food_be_out_of_the_fridge/ http://www.salon.com/2010/07/15/how_long_can_food_be_out_of_the_fridge/#comments Thu, 15 Jul 2010 18:01:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/food/francis_lam/2010/07/15/how_long_can_food_be_out_of_the_fridge There's a caption to a cartoon in the July 5 issue of the New Yorker that reads, "That which doesn't kill you might give you stomach trouble." And of life's most educational episodes, one lesson you really don't want to learn is what it feels like to experience all the parts of your digestive system at the same time.

    Avoiding food poisoning is complex (the p.c. term now is "foodborne illness," lest we start tainting the deli guy as a "poisoner"), but it can be largely boiled down to a few key points about how bacteria grow, taught to us by our friend Fat Tom.

    Fat Tom is not, in fact, a person, but a mnemonic device used by the National Restaurant Association, for whom wit and cuteness don't come easily. (Its literature contains earnest warnings against foods that have been "time temperature abused," and warns against getting your customers sick with an illustration of a judge's gavel banging on a stack of cash.) But it is  good at telling you how to keep bacteria from growing on your lunch. So, Fat Tom helps you remember what makes a bacteria-friendly environment and how to avoid creating one:

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