http://www.ajc.com/news/content/health/stories/2008/07/30/salmonella_mexican_peppers.html
Washington — The outbreak of salmonella poisoning that sickened more than 1,300 people across the country and cost American tomato growers more than $300 million has been traced to irrigation water and peppers grown on a farm in Mexico, federal officials said Wednesday. But they refused to completely clear tomatoes as carriers of the bacteria.
"Now we have a smoking gun, it appears," said Lonnie King, who directs investigations of food-borne illnesses at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta.
House members scolded the CDC and FDA for taking so long to find the salmonella source and for hurting U.S. growers.
David Acheson, the head of food safety at the Food and Drug Administration, said the strain of salmonella Saintpaul that caused the nationwide outbreak has been found in irrigation water and serrano peppers on a Mexican farm. Earlier, a single contaminated jalapeno pepper had been traced to the Mexican grower.
Consumers should not eat jalapeno and serrano peppers imported from Mexico, Acheson told the Horticulture and Organic Agriculture Subcommittee of the House Agriculture Committee.
Members questioned Acheson and King sharply about why it has taken since May to track down the source of the food poisoning and whether they were mistaken all along in associating the illness with tomatoes.
The warning from the federal agencies led to a mass removal of tomatoes from grocery market bins and restaurant menus and cost the industry more than $300 million, said subcommittee chairman Dennis Cardoza (D-Calif.). He asked Acheson if a single contaminated tomato was ever found.
"No," Acheson said.
But he would not clear tomatoes, saying the fruit, as well as jalapeno and serrano peppers, were grown on the Mexican farm in the state of Tamaulipas with contaminated irrigation water. In addition, he said, tomatoes were processed through the same packing center in Nuevo Leon, Mexico, so it is "plausible" that some of the illnesses were caused by contaminated tomatoes.
King said the CDC's first series of interviews "indicated raw tomatoes were the most commonly consumed food item — reported by 84 percent of ill persons — leading to the hypothesis that they were a possible source of the illnesses."
On July 21, however, a genetic match with the salmonella Saintpaul was found in a jalapeno pepper. And now another type of pepper has been implicated. But the officials still wouldn't admit that their agencies had been wrong on tomatoes.
"It appears likely that more than one food vehicle is involved," said King. "The outbreak appears to be ongoing, but with fewer new illnesses each day."
Rep. Tim Mahoney (D-Fla.) told the officials that tomato growers in Florida had lost $47 million because of the federal warning.
"You understand that crop insurance doesn't cover this," he said pointedly.
The CDC and FDA were criticized by members from both political parties.
"This incident demonstrated that our governing food safety authorities are outdated and must be reformed," said Rep. Adam Putnam (R-Fla.). He said the agencies are not protecting consumers and hurting growers with their blanket warnings and slow "tracebacks."
"Despite the fact that nearly all spinach was harmless in 2006, and the vast majority of jalapenos are probably safe now, and the distinct possibility that not a single tomato was ever contaminated, growers and distributors suffered catastrophic losses," said Rep. Diana DeGette (D-Colo.).
The fact that it took more than two months and more than 1,300 illnesses to trace the cause of the outbreak "is extremely troubling," especially considering the attention and funds focused on the process under the Bioterrorism Act, said Cardoza, the subcommittee chairman.
"Clearly serious flaws continue to exist in the methodology used by some states to collect primary epidemiological data," he said. "Furthermore, the process used by the CDC to verify and refine the collected data calls into serious question the effectiveness of communications between the states, CDC and FDA."
King said some states do get data to the CDC faster than others. In half these cases, he said, it took more than 16 days from the time the person fell ill to the time the DNA footprint of their salmonella was added to the PulseNet database used by the CDC and states.
And in this case, the suspected foods are often eaten together — tomatoes and peppers are both part of many salsa and guacamole recipes, he noted.
When fresh produce is suspected as the source, he said, there is none left around to test for contamination, as there would be for frozen or processed foods.
He said this has been the nation's largest food-borne outbreak of salmonella investigation in a decade and was "especially complex, difficult and prolonged."
Wednesday, July 30, 2008
FDA warns against eating lobster liver
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5jJCB3jCj46AXmkHWoyW95rQqObnQD9273AL84
WASHINGTON (AP) — The government warned consumers Monday not to eat the soft, green substance found in the body cavity of lobsters, saying it may be contaminated with a toxin.
It's still OK to eat the white lobster meat found in the claws and tails of the undersea delicacy, but the green stuff that most diners already avoid should definitely be discarded this year, said the Food and Drug Administration. Known also as tomalley, the substance acts as the liver and pancreas of the lobster.
A red tide — or algae bloom — ranging from Northern New England to Canada this year has contaminated fishing grounds with high levels of toxins that cause paralytic shellfish poisoning. The federal warning follows similar advisories from public health authorities in Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Canada.
The warning applies to American lobster, also known as Maine lobster, which is harvested in Atlantic waters from Canada to South Carolina.
Cooking does not eliminate the toxins, but studies have shown that even when high levels are present in the tomalley, lobster meat is usually not affected, the FDA said.
Symptoms of paralytic shell fish poisoning usually appear within two hours of exposure. They include tingling and numbness of the mouth, face or neck, muscle weakness, headache and nausea. Anyone who suffers such symptoms should see a doctor, the FDA said. In rare cases, people who consume a large amount of toxin can suffer respiratory failure and death.
Blogged with the Flock Browser
Tuesday, July 29, 2008
Putting the squeeze on produce to kill germs
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5jxbyOeE1GGcs6O7cNNPk8eTgKM5QD92702SG0
WASHINGTON (AP) — Could food producers literally squeeze the salmonella out of a jalapeno? Or zap the E. coli from lettuce without it going limp?
Headline-grabbing food poisonings from raw foods are prompting new interest in technology — from super-high pressure to irradiation — to get rid of some of the bugs. It won't be a panacea: Far better to prevent contamination on the farm than to try to get rid of it later.
"This is never an excuse for a dirty product," warns University of Minnesota infectious disease specialist Michael Osterholm.
But it's impossible to prevent all contamination in open fields. And increasingly popular ready-to-eat foods — salads already washed and bagged, fruit peeled and sliced — allow another processing step where a single slip-up can introduce pathogens.
Washing, even with chlorine or other chemicals, only gets rid of surface contaminants, not germs that sneak inside the fruit or vegetable. Enter high-tech options.
At a Virginia Tech laboratory this summer, food scientists subjected small grape tomatoes to what's called "high pressure processing" to see if they could squeeze salmonella to death.
It's been known for decades that massive pressure — the equivalent of two African elephants standing on a dime is how Tech microbiologist Robert Williams puts it — can destroy certain pathogens. The question is how to kill the bugs without smushing the food they're in.
Key is to choose a water-packed food with few air pockets. Put it in a container of water and apply pressure evenly to all sides. Air pockets will collapse but waterlogged tissue is more resistant.
Grape tomatoes emerged fine, says Tech food scientist George Flick.
But bigger beefsteak-style tomatoes cracked under the pressure. There's more air inside the regular tomatoes than their tiny cousins.
Foods treated by high-pressure processing, or HPP, already are on the market — particularly raw oysters treated to kill the vibrio germs that proliferate in warmer waters, and processed meats treated to kill dangerous listeria.
For more delicate raw produce, sliced fruits and vegetables seem to be HPP's main niche, says Errol Raghubeer of Avure Technologies, the Kent, Wash.-based company that makes high-pressure food processing equipment sold under the trade name "Fresher Under Pressure."
First on the market: Sliced avocadoes and guacamole, when companies realized that HPP treatment killed spoilage germs that rapidly turned cut avocadoes brown, thus extending the products' shelf life.
Whole large tomatoes don't fare well but diced ones can if they're processed in certain ways, Raghubeer says — and a number of HPP-treated salsas are hitting the market.
Also arriving are ready-to-assemble fajita meal kits with little bags of HPP-treated fresh, sliced jalapenos. Raw jalapenos have become the prime suspect in the nationwide salmonella outbreak that sickened more than 1,200 people this summer.
A whole jalapeno goes limp when HPP treated because of its hollow center, but diced jalapenos emerge just as crisp, says Raghubeer.
Simple physics is behind high-pressure processing. A different approach under consideration by the Food and Drug Administration is irradiation, zapping fruits and vegetables with enough electron beams or other radiation to kill germs.
Irradiated meat has been around for years; it's considered particularly useful in the ground beef that is a favorite hiding spot for E. coli. And while irradiated foods initially caused some consumer concern, government scientists make clear that the food itself harbors no radiation.
But early on, irradiation left lettuce and spinach limp and made tomatoes mushy. That's changed, says Minnesota's Osterholm: "It's like talking about the TV sets of the 1970s versus flat screens of today," he says of improved irradiation delivery.
In studies of bagged salads, tailored irradiation doses killed E. coli on nine different types of lettuces without harming the texture, or affecting the taste of accompanying ingredients like tomatoes and cucumbers, says Jeffrey Barach, director of the Grocery Manufacturers Association's food laboratory. Killing salmonella takes a little more energy, so producers would customize the beam to the need.
Barach's trade association has petitioned the FDA to allow the irradiation levels, somewhat lower than meat requires, for produce pathogen and other ready-to-eat foods, and hopes for approval by year's end.
Both high-tech options add to foods' cost, meaning they'd always be something of a niche product. But parts of the population are particularly vulnerable to food poisoning because of age or health conditions, a natural market.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Could food producers literally squeeze the salmonella out of a jalapeno? Or zap the E. coli from lettuce without it going limp?
Headline-grabbing food poisonings from raw foods are prompting new interest in technology — from super-high pressure to irradiation — to get rid of some of the bugs. It won't be a panacea: Far better to prevent contamination on the farm than to try to get rid of it later.
"This is never an excuse for a dirty product," warns University of Minnesota infectious disease specialist Michael Osterholm.
But it's impossible to prevent all contamination in open fields. And increasingly popular ready-to-eat foods — salads already washed and bagged, fruit peeled and sliced — allow another processing step where a single slip-up can introduce pathogens.
Washing, even with chlorine or other chemicals, only gets rid of surface contaminants, not germs that sneak inside the fruit or vegetable. Enter high-tech options.
At a Virginia Tech laboratory this summer, food scientists subjected small grape tomatoes to what's called "high pressure processing" to see if they could squeeze salmonella to death.
It's been known for decades that massive pressure — the equivalent of two African elephants standing on a dime is how Tech microbiologist Robert Williams puts it — can destroy certain pathogens. The question is how to kill the bugs without smushing the food they're in.
Key is to choose a water-packed food with few air pockets. Put it in a container of water and apply pressure evenly to all sides. Air pockets will collapse but waterlogged tissue is more resistant.
Grape tomatoes emerged fine, says Tech food scientist George Flick.
But bigger beefsteak-style tomatoes cracked under the pressure. There's more air inside the regular tomatoes than their tiny cousins.
Foods treated by high-pressure processing, or HPP, already are on the market — particularly raw oysters treated to kill the vibrio germs that proliferate in warmer waters, and processed meats treated to kill dangerous listeria.
For more delicate raw produce, sliced fruits and vegetables seem to be HPP's main niche, says Errol Raghubeer of Avure Technologies, the Kent, Wash.-based company that makes high-pressure food processing equipment sold under the trade name "Fresher Under Pressure."
First on the market: Sliced avocadoes and guacamole, when companies realized that HPP treatment killed spoilage germs that rapidly turned cut avocadoes brown, thus extending the products' shelf life.
Whole large tomatoes don't fare well but diced ones can if they're processed in certain ways, Raghubeer says — and a number of HPP-treated salsas are hitting the market.
Also arriving are ready-to-assemble fajita meal kits with little bags of HPP-treated fresh, sliced jalapenos. Raw jalapenos have become the prime suspect in the nationwide salmonella outbreak that sickened more than 1,200 people this summer.
A whole jalapeno goes limp when HPP treated because of its hollow center, but diced jalapenos emerge just as crisp, says Raghubeer.
Simple physics is behind high-pressure processing. A different approach under consideration by the Food and Drug Administration is irradiation, zapping fruits and vegetables with enough electron beams or other radiation to kill germs.
Irradiated meat has been around for years; it's considered particularly useful in the ground beef that is a favorite hiding spot for E. coli. And while irradiated foods initially caused some consumer concern, government scientists make clear that the food itself harbors no radiation.
But early on, irradiation left lettuce and spinach limp and made tomatoes mushy. That's changed, says Minnesota's Osterholm: "It's like talking about the TV sets of the 1970s versus flat screens of today," he says of improved irradiation delivery.
In studies of bagged salads, tailored irradiation doses killed E. coli on nine different types of lettuces without harming the texture, or affecting the taste of accompanying ingredients like tomatoes and cucumbers, says Jeffrey Barach, director of the Grocery Manufacturers Association's food laboratory. Killing salmonella takes a little more energy, so producers would customize the beam to the need.
Barach's trade association has petitioned the FDA to allow the irradiation levels, somewhat lower than meat requires, for produce pathogen and other ready-to-eat foods, and hopes for approval by year's end.
Both high-tech options add to foods' cost, meaning they'd always be something of a niche product. But parts of the population are particularly vulnerable to food poisoning because of age or health conditions, a natural market.
Sunday, July 27, 2008
Enough to make you sick: Most imports not inspected
http://www.reporternews.com/news/2008/jul/26/enough-to-make-you-sick-most-imports-not/
From spinach to tomatoes, every few years a new food-related health concern sends government officials and private individuals scurrying for solutions.
A 2007 poll by consumer group Trust For America's Health found that 67 percent of Americans are worried about food safety -- ranked higher than concerns about pandemic flu, biological or chemical terrorism, and natural disasters.
And there is cause for concern. About 76 million Americans -- one in four -- are sickened by food-borne illnesses every year, according to the organization.
Much attention in investigations such as the recent salmonella outbreak is given to the quality and standards of imported foods, which make up 15 percent of food consumed in the United States.
Each year the average American eats about 260 pounds of imported foods, The Associated Press reported in 2007.
But only about 1 percent of imported foods the Food and Drug Administration oversees -- including fruits and vegetables -- is inspected, according to Trust for America's Health.
An estimated 85 percent of known food-borne illness outbreaks are associated with FDA-regulated food products, compared with 15 percent of such outbreaks being associated with meat, poultry and eggs -- items regulated by the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Food Safety and Inspection Service.
"We need to recognize that Americans are getting 13 to 15 percent of their diet from imported food products," said Sarah Klein, staff attorney with the Center for Science in the Public Interest's food safety program.
"When you think about how much that is, and how little the FDA is inspecting, it is somewhat alarming."
The FDA regulates $417 billion worth of domestic food and $49 billion worth of imported food each year, according to its Web site. Questions sent to the FDA were not immediately answered.
The organization has been systematically stripped of the funding it needs to adequately oversee food safety, Klein said.
The FDA's Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition has lost 20 percent of its science staff and about 600 inspectors in the past three years, according to TFAH's April 2008 report, "Fixing Food Safety: Protecting America's Food Supply From Farm-to-Fork."
The organization has 1,700 field inspectors, versus 7,600 for the USDA, and the FDA's budget for fiscal year 2007 was $563 million, versus the USDA's $1.02 billion.
Patty Lovera, assistant director for consumer group Food & Water Watch, said that while for years her group has focused on the USDA, the FDA is responsible for much more of the U.S. food supply, both imported and exported.
"We have a split system, and many people are shocked when they realize how much the FDA doesn't do," she said. "Many more people are familiar with the concept that the USDA is in there. That's their legal mandate -- to be in the plants."
The FDA relies solely on point-of-entry inspections of imported food. The USDA, on the other hand, works with the importing establishments' governments to verify that other countries' regulatory systems for meat, poultry and egg products are equivalent to that of the U.S. and that products entering the U.S. are safe.
The FDA's inspection requirements are company-specific, meaning companies must register with the FDA before importing food products.
The USDA is in many ways "doing a much better job than the FDA," but the organization also imports fewer products and has more resources, Klein said.
The United States Department of Agriculture inspected about 16 percent of imported foods in fiscal 2006, The Associated Press reported last year.
Inherent difficulties
There are inherent difficulties in dealing with any agricultural products from other nations, Lovera said.
"If you're talking about things like salmonella in produce, chances are you're talking about something that was spread through contaminated water," she said. "That's an example of a challenge in other countries."
Items such as fish have an enormous number of challenges, including being kept at the proper temperature.
"There are logistical issues in just moving some of this stuff around the planet and keeping it at the temperature it needs to be," she said.
"There are so many things that can go wrong."
The FDA import model is one of voluntary guidance, she said.
"They tell the industry, 'Here are our suggestions for how to do things safely,'" Lovera said. "When it comes to the inspection resources they have and the size of the industry they're supposed to be regulating, they're just really outgunned."
But according to a 2007 U.S. Government Accountability Office report, federal oversight of food is in general fragmented, with 15 agencies collectively administrating at least 30 laws related to food safety.
"None of those agencies has ultimate authority or responsibility, so accountability for the total system is limited," according to TFAH's April report. "No one person in the federal government has the oversight and accountability for carrying out comprehensive, preventive strategies for reducing food-borne illness," the report says.
America's food safety system includes the government, which ideally serves as a regulatory agency, and the food industry, which produces, processes, distributes and sells food, according to the report, which said that most producers take safety seriously. Historically, innovations in food safety come from within the industry.
The FDA does not have the authority, in this country or elsewhere, to take an overly active role, Klein said. The FDA has had problems with tainted imports including pet foods, seafood and produce in recent years, she said.
"One of the things we saw during the pet food outbreak last year was that the FDA had to basically make a request to China to go inspect facilities that had been importing tainted wheat glutens," Klein said. "We'd like to see the FDA go over and certify these systems before they accept product from them."
While much attention is paid to potential overseas problems, domestic outbreaks can be just as deadly and hard to track, Lovera said.
Two years ago, a domestic E. coli outbreak in spinach made people in "almost the entire country sick" from something that happened in one county in California, she said.
The Center for Science in the Public Interest wants a comprehensive traceability system, similar to tracking systems used by shipping businesses such as UPS, Klein said.
"When you mail a package, you're given a bar code that allows you to go online and track your package," Klein said.
"It will show you that your package went from the UPS center where you dropped it off to the distribution center where it was sorted to an airplane, where it was sent to another distribution center and sorted again."
In CSPI's vision, a farmer would affix a label to an item of produce, similar to stickers already seen on foods at some supermarkets.
"We're just saying, why don't we do a standardized number?" she said. "On that sticker would be a number that stays with that commodity whether it was repacked, what kind of packing house or distribution it went through, so that in the event of an outbreak like the one we're experiencing now, the FDA would be able to track it right back to its source."
Jaydee Hanson, policy analyst at the Center for Food Safety, said some have proposed other solutions such as laser-inscribed tattoos on the skins of fruits.
But determining who should run such a tracking program is difficult, Lovera said.
"We think it should not be an industry-run system," she said. "We need more than what we have now, I think we're living through an example of that. But right now, I don't think that just a traceability system is all we need to do. That's a system for dealing with a problem, and we would also like to put as much energy into preventing problems."
Ideally, government agencies should implement farm-to-fork tracking to prevent drawn-out searches for the source of tainted goods when it happens, while trying to create better practices to ensure safety before the food reaches them, Klein said.
In 2004 the FDA came up with what Hanson called a good food safety strategy but didn't ask Congress for the money to implement it.
"The FDA has come up with some good designs, but it hasn't asked Congress for the resources to build the house," he said.
The Bush Administration released its Import Safety Action Plan in November. The Plan is integrated with the FDA's Food Protection Plan, also released in November, according to the TFAH report.
"The Food Protection Plan discusses the need to build safety into the entire food supply chain -- including imported foods," according to the report.
The plan directs the FDA to "work with foreign governments, which have a greater ability to oversee manufacturers within their borders to ensure compliance with safety standards."
Hanson said the FDA has announced intentions to open offices this year in Latin America, India and China, which he called a good step.
It is essential to stress that the United States wants food that meets its higher standards, he said.
"If China, India and Mexico want to export to us, then let them pay to meet our standards," Hanson said.
From spinach to tomatoes, every few years a new food-related health concern sends government officials and private individuals scurrying for solutions.
A 2007 poll by consumer group Trust For America's Health found that 67 percent of Americans are worried about food safety -- ranked higher than concerns about pandemic flu, biological or chemical terrorism, and natural disasters.
And there is cause for concern. About 76 million Americans -- one in four -- are sickened by food-borne illnesses every year, according to the organization.
Much attention in investigations such as the recent salmonella outbreak is given to the quality and standards of imported foods, which make up 15 percent of food consumed in the United States.
Each year the average American eats about 260 pounds of imported foods, The Associated Press reported in 2007.
But only about 1 percent of imported foods the Food and Drug Administration oversees -- including fruits and vegetables -- is inspected, according to Trust for America's Health.
An estimated 85 percent of known food-borne illness outbreaks are associated with FDA-regulated food products, compared with 15 percent of such outbreaks being associated with meat, poultry and eggs -- items regulated by the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Food Safety and Inspection Service.
"We need to recognize that Americans are getting 13 to 15 percent of their diet from imported food products," said Sarah Klein, staff attorney with the Center for Science in the Public Interest's food safety program.
"When you think about how much that is, and how little the FDA is inspecting, it is somewhat alarming."
The FDA regulates $417 billion worth of domestic food and $49 billion worth of imported food each year, according to its Web site. Questions sent to the FDA were not immediately answered.
The organization has been systematically stripped of the funding it needs to adequately oversee food safety, Klein said.
The FDA's Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition has lost 20 percent of its science staff and about 600 inspectors in the past three years, according to TFAH's April 2008 report, "Fixing Food Safety: Protecting America's Food Supply From Farm-to-Fork."
The organization has 1,700 field inspectors, versus 7,600 for the USDA, and the FDA's budget for fiscal year 2007 was $563 million, versus the USDA's $1.02 billion.
Patty Lovera, assistant director for consumer group Food & Water Watch, said that while for years her group has focused on the USDA, the FDA is responsible for much more of the U.S. food supply, both imported and exported.
"We have a split system, and many people are shocked when they realize how much the FDA doesn't do," she said. "Many more people are familiar with the concept that the USDA is in there. That's their legal mandate -- to be in the plants."
The FDA relies solely on point-of-entry inspections of imported food. The USDA, on the other hand, works with the importing establishments' governments to verify that other countries' regulatory systems for meat, poultry and egg products are equivalent to that of the U.S. and that products entering the U.S. are safe.
The FDA's inspection requirements are company-specific, meaning companies must register with the FDA before importing food products.
The USDA is in many ways "doing a much better job than the FDA," but the organization also imports fewer products and has more resources, Klein said.
The United States Department of Agriculture inspected about 16 percent of imported foods in fiscal 2006, The Associated Press reported last year.
Inherent difficulties
There are inherent difficulties in dealing with any agricultural products from other nations, Lovera said.
"If you're talking about things like salmonella in produce, chances are you're talking about something that was spread through contaminated water," she said. "That's an example of a challenge in other countries."
Items such as fish have an enormous number of challenges, including being kept at the proper temperature.
"There are logistical issues in just moving some of this stuff around the planet and keeping it at the temperature it needs to be," she said.
"There are so many things that can go wrong."
The FDA import model is one of voluntary guidance, she said.
"They tell the industry, 'Here are our suggestions for how to do things safely,'" Lovera said. "When it comes to the inspection resources they have and the size of the industry they're supposed to be regulating, they're just really outgunned."
But according to a 2007 U.S. Government Accountability Office report, federal oversight of food is in general fragmented, with 15 agencies collectively administrating at least 30 laws related to food safety.
"None of those agencies has ultimate authority or responsibility, so accountability for the total system is limited," according to TFAH's April report. "No one person in the federal government has the oversight and accountability for carrying out comprehensive, preventive strategies for reducing food-borne illness," the report says.
America's food safety system includes the government, which ideally serves as a regulatory agency, and the food industry, which produces, processes, distributes and sells food, according to the report, which said that most producers take safety seriously. Historically, innovations in food safety come from within the industry.
The FDA does not have the authority, in this country or elsewhere, to take an overly active role, Klein said. The FDA has had problems with tainted imports including pet foods, seafood and produce in recent years, she said.
"One of the things we saw during the pet food outbreak last year was that the FDA had to basically make a request to China to go inspect facilities that had been importing tainted wheat glutens," Klein said. "We'd like to see the FDA go over and certify these systems before they accept product from them."
While much attention is paid to potential overseas problems, domestic outbreaks can be just as deadly and hard to track, Lovera said.
Two years ago, a domestic E. coli outbreak in spinach made people in "almost the entire country sick" from something that happened in one county in California, she said.
The Center for Science in the Public Interest wants a comprehensive traceability system, similar to tracking systems used by shipping businesses such as UPS, Klein said.
"When you mail a package, you're given a bar code that allows you to go online and track your package," Klein said.
"It will show you that your package went from the UPS center where you dropped it off to the distribution center where it was sorted to an airplane, where it was sent to another distribution center and sorted again."
In CSPI's vision, a farmer would affix a label to an item of produce, similar to stickers already seen on foods at some supermarkets.
"We're just saying, why don't we do a standardized number?" she said. "On that sticker would be a number that stays with that commodity whether it was repacked, what kind of packing house or distribution it went through, so that in the event of an outbreak like the one we're experiencing now, the FDA would be able to track it right back to its source."
Jaydee Hanson, policy analyst at the Center for Food Safety, said some have proposed other solutions such as laser-inscribed tattoos on the skins of fruits.
But determining who should run such a tracking program is difficult, Lovera said.
"We think it should not be an industry-run system," she said. "We need more than what we have now, I think we're living through an example of that. But right now, I don't think that just a traceability system is all we need to do. That's a system for dealing with a problem, and we would also like to put as much energy into preventing problems."
Ideally, government agencies should implement farm-to-fork tracking to prevent drawn-out searches for the source of tainted goods when it happens, while trying to create better practices to ensure safety before the food reaches them, Klein said.
In 2004 the FDA came up with what Hanson called a good food safety strategy but didn't ask Congress for the money to implement it.
"The FDA has come up with some good designs, but it hasn't asked Congress for the resources to build the house," he said.
The Bush Administration released its Import Safety Action Plan in November. The Plan is integrated with the FDA's Food Protection Plan, also released in November, according to the TFAH report.
"The Food Protection Plan discusses the need to build safety into the entire food supply chain -- including imported foods," according to the report.
The plan directs the FDA to "work with foreign governments, which have a greater ability to oversee manufacturers within their borders to ensure compliance with safety standards."
Hanson said the FDA has announced intentions to open offices this year in Latin America, India and China, which he called a good step.
It is essential to stress that the United States wants food that meets its higher standards, he said.
"If China, India and Mexico want to export to us, then let them pay to meet our standards," Hanson said.
Saturday, July 26, 2008
Young people cultivate a community through food
http://www.mercurynews.com/lifeandstyleheadlines/ci_9998306
Mark Anthony Medeiros was looking for a little patch of earth to grow a few vegetables to freshen up his college-student diet.
When he couldn't snag a plot in a local community garden, Madeiros put up some fliers in the Naglee Park neighborhood just east of San Jose State University, offering to create and tend gardens for homeowners in return for a share of the bounty.
The response was so enthusiastic — he heard from more than a dozen people offering space on their properties — that he recruited other San Jose State students to join the "Veggielution Urban Farming Project." Within a year, the volunteer group had four gardens in production.
This spring, they scaled back to just two so they could concentrate their efforts on an even more ambitious undertaking: a one-third acre farm at Emma Prusch Farm Park in East San Jose.
"We're educating ourselves about growing, but also are building a community around food," says Medeiros, 23. "There are few outlets for people our age to have this kind of activity. It's not part of most young people's experience to grow their own food."
Along the way, Medeiros and his tribe are sowing the seeds of a new sort of community devoted to empowering youth, promoting sustainability and eating and distributing locally-grown food.
These young people are at the vanguard of the locavore movement that is taking hold across the country — and which has its roots in the Bay Area.
Locavores advocate eating fresh foods produced close to home.
Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) programs, where subscribers receive weekly deliveries of fresh fruits and vegetables direct from growers, are becoming increasingly popular. Community garden plots have long waiting lists — even San Jose's newest, which won't open until this fall at Guadalupe Gardens, is already oversubscribed.
San Francisco is encouraging residents to plant edibles in postage-stamp city gardens as part of Victory Gardens 2008+. So-called "guerrilla gardeners" are digging plots in vacant lots, public and private, in cities all around the bay. An organic garden will be built near San Francisco City Hall as a part of the Slow Food Nation event in September.
A business called MyFarm in San Francisco can be hired to come install and maintain a garden, including a compost bin on site.
Even Sunset magazine has turned a big chunk of its expansive Menlo Park campus into a food-producing test garden and is featuring its "One Block Feast" — where everything on the menu was grown or produced on the property — in its August issue.
Amie Frisch, a recent San Jose State grad who is the project director for Veggielution, calls it a "perfect storm."
"People are afraid of their food," says Frisch, 25, citing food safety issues fueled by tainted spinach and suspect tomatoes in the nation's food supply.
Health-conscious consumers are increasingly wary of commercially grown produce and weary of paying high prices for foods that are grown far away and trucked to market in gas-guzzling semi trucks. And the country's obesity epidemic is causing people to be more conscious of eating fresh, healthy foods.
For Frisch and Medeiros, the Veggielution project is about more than just the joy of harvesting fresh produce to consume and share with others.
"A few of us are committed and we're confident there will be others," Medeiros says of the organic nature in which Veggielution has evolved. "Things just started happening, and the resources have come to us."
Work began in earnest at Prusch in April, when a dogged team of volunteers began the labor-intensive double-digging of the plot of land provided by the Prusch Farm Park Foundation. The city donated a small mountain of compost to amend the beds.
The group got some help planning and troubleshooting the irrigation system from Curtis Horticulture, a San Jose company.
The warm-season crops were planted in April. The Master Gardeners of Santa Clara County donated hundreds of tomato seedlings left over from its big Spring Garden Market. Payless Nursery provided pepper seedlings. Other veggies and fruits — including zucchini, corn, beans and watermelons — were started from seed.
The volunteers also have been given the gift of advice from experienced gardeners, including Walt Davis, who runs the Cornucopia Community Garden, one of two such gardens at Prusch, and various Master Gardeners. Guidance also has come from the staff and volunteers at Full Circle Farm in Sunnyvale, a new 11-acre organic, educational farm in Sunnyvale that is producing fresh food for Santa Clara Unified School District cafeterias. Frisch works at the farm as its volunteer coordinator on an AmeriCorps stipend.
Most of the Prusch harvest so far this summer — cucumbers, peppers and a boatload of zucchinis — has been donated to Martha's Kitchen, a San Jose food pantry that serves low-income residents; some has been sold to Good Karma Vegan House, a downtown restaurant.
On a recent sweltering Sunday, Ryan Smith, 25, was helping corral some of the 230 tomato plants by stringing twine between pieces of angle iron that mark the four-foot rows. It was his first time volunteering in the garden, although he had visited previously with the young teens he supervises in the Summer of Service program offered through the Children's Discovery Museum.
"The kids come out here every other week, and it's one of their favorite sites to visit," Smith says. "I like the idea of growing organic, sustainable food. And it's fun being around people with similar interests."
Judy Nguyen, 22, works two jobs — in a dental office and at a pasta restaurant — but makes time to get her hands dirty in the garden. "I'm learning so much," she says.
It's a pretty place to work, once you get past the constant drone of noise from the nearby freeways. There's an umbrella-topped picnic table laden with fresh fruit and water that beckons the volunteers to take a break from the heat.
Sunflowers and vining plants surround the perimeter of the plot and soften the chain-link fence that was built to keep out the park's voracious chickens and guinea hens. Sometimes, Frisch says, truck drivers will honk out greetings as they pass overhead on the 101-to-680 connector ramp.
Medeiros, who will be a senior at San Jose State this fall studying sociology "with an emphasis on community change," says the group is "finding a lot of support for what we're doing."
Besides continuing a good relationship with the foundation at Prusch, Medeiros, Frisch and others are looking into grants and talking about partnerships with the university.
Sharon McCray, president of the Prusch Farm Park Foundation, says the board is "thrilled" with the Veggielution project.
"These young people have inspired these old people," McCray says with a smile. "They are learning a lot. We are learning a lot. It has been a pleasure to mentor them through this, but they have been incredibly resourceful with grants. We have not babysat them at all."
And Medeiros, who has joined the Prusch foundation board, is thinking big.
"A 10- to 15-acre farm is not impossible," he says.
Mark Anthony Medeiros was looking for a little patch of earth to grow a few vegetables to freshen up his college-student diet.
When he couldn't snag a plot in a local community garden, Madeiros put up some fliers in the Naglee Park neighborhood just east of San Jose State University, offering to create and tend gardens for homeowners in return for a share of the bounty.
The response was so enthusiastic — he heard from more than a dozen people offering space on their properties — that he recruited other San Jose State students to join the "Veggielution Urban Farming Project." Within a year, the volunteer group had four gardens in production.
This spring, they scaled back to just two so they could concentrate their efforts on an even more ambitious undertaking: a one-third acre farm at Emma Prusch Farm Park in East San Jose.
"We're educating ourselves about growing, but also are building a community around food," says Medeiros, 23. "There are few outlets for people our age to have this kind of activity. It's not part of most young people's experience to grow their own food."
Along the way, Medeiros and his tribe are sowing the seeds of a new sort of community devoted to empowering youth, promoting sustainability and eating and distributing locally-grown food.
These young people are at the vanguard of the locavore movement that is taking hold across the country — and which has its roots in the Bay Area.
Locavores advocate eating fresh foods produced close to home.
Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) programs, where subscribers receive weekly deliveries of fresh fruits and vegetables direct from growers, are becoming increasingly popular. Community garden plots have long waiting lists — even San Jose's newest, which won't open until this fall at Guadalupe Gardens, is already oversubscribed.
San Francisco is encouraging residents to plant edibles in postage-stamp city gardens as part of Victory Gardens 2008+. So-called "guerrilla gardeners" are digging plots in vacant lots, public and private, in cities all around the bay. An organic garden will be built near San Francisco City Hall as a part of the Slow Food Nation event in September.
A business called MyFarm in San Francisco can be hired to come install and maintain a garden, including a compost bin on site.
Even Sunset magazine has turned a big chunk of its expansive Menlo Park campus into a food-producing test garden and is featuring its "One Block Feast" — where everything on the menu was grown or produced on the property — in its August issue.
Amie Frisch, a recent San Jose State grad who is the project director for Veggielution, calls it a "perfect storm."
"People are afraid of their food," says Frisch, 25, citing food safety issues fueled by tainted spinach and suspect tomatoes in the nation's food supply.
Health-conscious consumers are increasingly wary of commercially grown produce and weary of paying high prices for foods that are grown far away and trucked to market in gas-guzzling semi trucks. And the country's obesity epidemic is causing people to be more conscious of eating fresh, healthy foods.
For Frisch and Medeiros, the Veggielution project is about more than just the joy of harvesting fresh produce to consume and share with others.
"A few of us are committed and we're confident there will be others," Medeiros says of the organic nature in which Veggielution has evolved. "Things just started happening, and the resources have come to us."
Work began in earnest at Prusch in April, when a dogged team of volunteers began the labor-intensive double-digging of the plot of land provided by the Prusch Farm Park Foundation. The city donated a small mountain of compost to amend the beds.
The group got some help planning and troubleshooting the irrigation system from Curtis Horticulture, a San Jose company.
The warm-season crops were planted in April. The Master Gardeners of Santa Clara County donated hundreds of tomato seedlings left over from its big Spring Garden Market. Payless Nursery provided pepper seedlings. Other veggies and fruits — including zucchini, corn, beans and watermelons — were started from seed.
The volunteers also have been given the gift of advice from experienced gardeners, including Walt Davis, who runs the Cornucopia Community Garden, one of two such gardens at Prusch, and various Master Gardeners. Guidance also has come from the staff and volunteers at Full Circle Farm in Sunnyvale, a new 11-acre organic, educational farm in Sunnyvale that is producing fresh food for Santa Clara Unified School District cafeterias. Frisch works at the farm as its volunteer coordinator on an AmeriCorps stipend.
Most of the Prusch harvest so far this summer — cucumbers, peppers and a boatload of zucchinis — has been donated to Martha's Kitchen, a San Jose food pantry that serves low-income residents; some has been sold to Good Karma Vegan House, a downtown restaurant.
On a recent sweltering Sunday, Ryan Smith, 25, was helping corral some of the 230 tomato plants by stringing twine between pieces of angle iron that mark the four-foot rows. It was his first time volunteering in the garden, although he had visited previously with the young teens he supervises in the Summer of Service program offered through the Children's Discovery Museum.
"The kids come out here every other week, and it's one of their favorite sites to visit," Smith says. "I like the idea of growing organic, sustainable food. And it's fun being around people with similar interests."
Judy Nguyen, 22, works two jobs — in a dental office and at a pasta restaurant — but makes time to get her hands dirty in the garden. "I'm learning so much," she says.
It's a pretty place to work, once you get past the constant drone of noise from the nearby freeways. There's an umbrella-topped picnic table laden with fresh fruit and water that beckons the volunteers to take a break from the heat.
Sunflowers and vining plants surround the perimeter of the plot and soften the chain-link fence that was built to keep out the park's voracious chickens and guinea hens. Sometimes, Frisch says, truck drivers will honk out greetings as they pass overhead on the 101-to-680 connector ramp.
Medeiros, who will be a senior at San Jose State this fall studying sociology "with an emphasis on community change," says the group is "finding a lot of support for what we're doing."
Besides continuing a good relationship with the foundation at Prusch, Medeiros, Frisch and others are looking into grants and talking about partnerships with the university.
Sharon McCray, president of the Prusch Farm Park Foundation, says the board is "thrilled" with the Veggielution project.
"These young people have inspired these old people," McCray says with a smile. "They are learning a lot. We are learning a lot. It has been a pleasure to mentor them through this, but they have been incredibly resourceful with grants. We have not babysat them at all."
And Medeiros, who has joined the Prusch foundation board, is thinking big.
"A 10- to 15-acre farm is not impossible," he says.
FDA: Avoid jalapenos from Mexico, not US
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5jFyDyMJjsAW0XxBNGpIldKhhToOgD9253CA00
By LAURAN NEERGAARD
WASHINGTON (AP) — The government is narrowing its warning to hot pepper lovers, saying only Mexican-grown jalapenos now are linked to the nationwide salmonella outbreak — clearing the U.S. crop.
Food and Drug Administration inspectors are on a large Mexican farm that grew a pepper discovered in a Texas warehouse that was tainted with the same strain of the bacteria. They're trying to determine where that farm distributed its peppers, to see if it harvested enough to be responsible for an outbreak that has sickened nearly 1,300 people and counting.
Tomatoes were an initial suspect and health officials still haven't exonerated them from causing illnesses when the outbreak first began in April. But those on the market now are safe to eat.
By LAURAN NEERGAARD
WASHINGTON (AP) — The government is narrowing its warning to hot pepper lovers, saying only Mexican-grown jalapenos now are linked to the nationwide salmonella outbreak — clearing the U.S. crop.
Food and Drug Administration inspectors are on a large Mexican farm that grew a pepper discovered in a Texas warehouse that was tainted with the same strain of the bacteria. They're trying to determine where that farm distributed its peppers, to see if it harvested enough to be responsible for an outbreak that has sickened nearly 1,300 people and counting.
Tomatoes were an initial suspect and health officials still haven't exonerated them from causing illnesses when the outbreak first began in April. But those on the market now are safe to eat.
Friday, July 25, 2008
EPA Acts To Reduce Toxic Pesticide -- Carbofuran -- Residue In Food
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/07/080725080827.htm
ScienceDaily (July 25, 2008) — Due to considerable risks associated with the pesticide carbofuran in food and drinking water, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is revoking the regulations that allow carbofuran residues in food.
Carbofuran is used to control insects in a wide variety of crops, including soybeans, potatoes and corn. It is a systemic insecticide, which means that the plant absorbs it through the roots, distributing it primarily to vessels, stems and leaves.
Even though carbofuran is used on a small percentage of the U.S. food supply and therefore the likelihood of exposure through food is low, EPA has identified risks that do not meet the EPA food safety standards.
Carbofuran is also known to be highly toxic to birds. EPA is proceeding on the path toward cancellation of the pesticide registration, which will address the risks to pesticide applicators and birds in treated fields.
As part of this effort, EPA is also releasing its response to the peer review conducted by the independent Scientific Advisory Panel and the agency's response to the U.S. Department of Agriculture's comments on the effect of the cancellation of carbofuran on the agricultural economy.
ScienceDaily (July 25, 2008) — Due to considerable risks associated with the pesticide carbofuran in food and drinking water, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is revoking the regulations that allow carbofuran residues in food.
Carbofuran is used to control insects in a wide variety of crops, including soybeans, potatoes and corn. It is a systemic insecticide, which means that the plant absorbs it through the roots, distributing it primarily to vessels, stems and leaves.
Even though carbofuran is used on a small percentage of the U.S. food supply and therefore the likelihood of exposure through food is low, EPA has identified risks that do not meet the EPA food safety standards.
Carbofuran is also known to be highly toxic to birds. EPA is proceeding on the path toward cancellation of the pesticide registration, which will address the risks to pesticide applicators and birds in treated fields.
As part of this effort, EPA is also releasing its response to the peer review conducted by the independent Scientific Advisory Panel and the agency's response to the U.S. Department of Agriculture's comments on the effect of the cancellation of carbofuran on the agricultural economy.
Food industry bitten by its lobbying success
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5iVHt-zqI9SBYX7gUbzPTug-Ns3ewD924VCTG0
WASHINGTON (AP) — One of the worst outbreaks of foodborne illness in the U.S. is teaching the food industry the truth of the adage, "Be careful what you wish for because you might get it."
The industry pressured the Bush administration years ago to limit the paperwork companies would have to keep to help U.S. health investigators quickly trace produce that sickens consumers, according to interviews and government reports reviewed by The Associated Press.
The White House also killed a plan to require the industry to maintain electronic tracking records that could be reviewed easily during a crisis to search for an outbreak's source. Companies complained the proposals were too burdensome and costly, and warned they could disrupt the availability of consumers' favorite foods.
The apparent but unintended consequences of the lobbying success: a paper record-keeping system that has slowed investigators, with estimated business losses of $250 million. So far, nearly 1,300 people in 43 states, the District of Columbia and Canada have been sickened by salmonella since April.
Investigators initially focused on tomatoes as a culprit. Now they are turning attention to jalapeno peppers.
A former member of Bush's Cabinet and three former senior officials in the Food and Drug Administration told the AP that government food safety experts did not get the strong record-keeping and trace-back system originally proposed under a bioterrorism law to cope with a major foodborne illness.
"In retrospect, yes, if they (the regulations) had been broader and a bit more far-reaching, it could have helped with this," said Robert Brackett, senior vice president of the Grocery Manufacturers Association. "It wouldn't have hurt, for sure." Brackett formerly was a top safety official at the FDA.
Under pressure in 2003 and 2004, the White House agreed to dilute record-keeping proposals by FDA safety experts.
"If the FDA had been given the resources and authority years ago that it asked for to solve these kinds of problems, I think we would have solved this already," said William Hubbard, a former FDA associate commissioner.
Tommy Thompson, who was health secretary during the industry's lobbying campaign, acknowledged that a more robust food-tracking system — opposed by business groups as too expensive — could have helped stem the current illnesses and business losses.
"We went in with the larger package but knew we had to compromise," Thompson told the AP. "I was satisfied with this being the first step. It's always better to be a Monday morning quarterback. We could have ended up with nothing. If we had more, would it help the situation now? Yes."
According to government records reviewed by the AP, business groups met at least 10 times with the White House between March 2003 and March 2004, as the FDA regulations were under debate. Food industry lobbyists successfully blunted proposals using arguments familiar in other regulatory debates: The government's plans would saddle business with unnecessary and costly regulations.
"The FDA's strong proposed bioterrorism rules were significantly watered down before they became final," said Caroline Smith DeWaal, food safety director at the Washington-based Center for Science in the Public Interest. The private advocacy group obtained the White House meeting records under the Freedom of Information Act and provided them to the AP.
Participants in the meetings included companies and trade groups up and down the food chain, including Altria Group Inc. and Kraft Foods Inc., when Altria was Kraft's parent; The Kroger Co.; Safeway Inc.; ConAgra Foods Inc.; The Procter & Gamble Co.; the American Forest and Paper Association; the Polystyrene Packaging Council; the Glass Packaging Institute; the Cocoa Merchants' Association of America; the World Shipping Council; and the Food Marketing Institute.
The Grocery Manufacturers Association spent $2.6 million on lobbing in 2003 and 2004, the period when the FDA rules were under consideration, according to federal lobbying records. The Food Marketing Institute spent $1.7 million during the period. The figures were for all lobbying by the trade groups and on their behalf.
The grocery group complained during the comment period that the FDA was overstepping authority that Congress had granted under the new bioterrorism law. It said the FDA wanted a "cradle-to-grave record-keeping system" to track every morsel of food delivered to every retail grocery shelf and said more tracking information does not always produce a better result.
The marketing institute said a proposed tracking system as envisioned by the FDA "would be exorbitantly costly."
The food industry now says it will agree to a better tracing system operated by the government, as long as the industry can advise how to design it.
"We support the government requiring industry to have traceability systems that are effective and work," said Jill Hollingsworth, group vice president for food safety programs at the marketing institute. "But industry has to come up with a system that follows products throughout the food chain."
The FDA official in charge of the current salmonella investigation, David Acheson, said the agency slowly is reviewing paper records to help trace tainted produce. But Acheson disputed arguments that an electronic records system would necessarily have helped investigators.
"We still haven't managed to figure out this outbreak," he said in an interview days before the case's biggest break — discovery of a tainted Mexican-grown jalapeno in a southern Texas warehouse.
The White House Office of Management and Budget defended its meetings with food industry groups in 2003 and 2004, saying it regularly meets with companies and individuals with a stake in proposed government rules.
"Our door is open for anyone — from non-profits, industry representatives to individual citizens — who request meetings on regulations," OMB spokeswoman Jane Lee said. "These are listening sessions in conjunction with personnel from the regulating agency and we publicly post these meetings online."
On the Net:
* Food and Drug Administration: http://www.fda.gov
* OMB link to meetings: http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/oira/0910/meetings.html
WASHINGTON (AP) — One of the worst outbreaks of foodborne illness in the U.S. is teaching the food industry the truth of the adage, "Be careful what you wish for because you might get it."
The industry pressured the Bush administration years ago to limit the paperwork companies would have to keep to help U.S. health investigators quickly trace produce that sickens consumers, according to interviews and government reports reviewed by The Associated Press.
The White House also killed a plan to require the industry to maintain electronic tracking records that could be reviewed easily during a crisis to search for an outbreak's source. Companies complained the proposals were too burdensome and costly, and warned they could disrupt the availability of consumers' favorite foods.
The apparent but unintended consequences of the lobbying success: a paper record-keeping system that has slowed investigators, with estimated business losses of $250 million. So far, nearly 1,300 people in 43 states, the District of Columbia and Canada have been sickened by salmonella since April.
Investigators initially focused on tomatoes as a culprit. Now they are turning attention to jalapeno peppers.
A former member of Bush's Cabinet and three former senior officials in the Food and Drug Administration told the AP that government food safety experts did not get the strong record-keeping and trace-back system originally proposed under a bioterrorism law to cope with a major foodborne illness.
"In retrospect, yes, if they (the regulations) had been broader and a bit more far-reaching, it could have helped with this," said Robert Brackett, senior vice president of the Grocery Manufacturers Association. "It wouldn't have hurt, for sure." Brackett formerly was a top safety official at the FDA.
Under pressure in 2003 and 2004, the White House agreed to dilute record-keeping proposals by FDA safety experts.
"If the FDA had been given the resources and authority years ago that it asked for to solve these kinds of problems, I think we would have solved this already," said William Hubbard, a former FDA associate commissioner.
Tommy Thompson, who was health secretary during the industry's lobbying campaign, acknowledged that a more robust food-tracking system — opposed by business groups as too expensive — could have helped stem the current illnesses and business losses.
"We went in with the larger package but knew we had to compromise," Thompson told the AP. "I was satisfied with this being the first step. It's always better to be a Monday morning quarterback. We could have ended up with nothing. If we had more, would it help the situation now? Yes."
According to government records reviewed by the AP, business groups met at least 10 times with the White House between March 2003 and March 2004, as the FDA regulations were under debate. Food industry lobbyists successfully blunted proposals using arguments familiar in other regulatory debates: The government's plans would saddle business with unnecessary and costly regulations.
"The FDA's strong proposed bioterrorism rules were significantly watered down before they became final," said Caroline Smith DeWaal, food safety director at the Washington-based Center for Science in the Public Interest. The private advocacy group obtained the White House meeting records under the Freedom of Information Act and provided them to the AP.
Participants in the meetings included companies and trade groups up and down the food chain, including Altria Group Inc. and Kraft Foods Inc., when Altria was Kraft's parent; The Kroger Co.; Safeway Inc.; ConAgra Foods Inc.; The Procter & Gamble Co.; the American Forest and Paper Association; the Polystyrene Packaging Council; the Glass Packaging Institute; the Cocoa Merchants' Association of America; the World Shipping Council; and the Food Marketing Institute.
The Grocery Manufacturers Association spent $2.6 million on lobbing in 2003 and 2004, the period when the FDA rules were under consideration, according to federal lobbying records. The Food Marketing Institute spent $1.7 million during the period. The figures were for all lobbying by the trade groups and on their behalf.
The grocery group complained during the comment period that the FDA was overstepping authority that Congress had granted under the new bioterrorism law. It said the FDA wanted a "cradle-to-grave record-keeping system" to track every morsel of food delivered to every retail grocery shelf and said more tracking information does not always produce a better result.
The marketing institute said a proposed tracking system as envisioned by the FDA "would be exorbitantly costly."
The food industry now says it will agree to a better tracing system operated by the government, as long as the industry can advise how to design it.
"We support the government requiring industry to have traceability systems that are effective and work," said Jill Hollingsworth, group vice president for food safety programs at the marketing institute. "But industry has to come up with a system that follows products throughout the food chain."
The FDA official in charge of the current salmonella investigation, David Acheson, said the agency slowly is reviewing paper records to help trace tainted produce. But Acheson disputed arguments that an electronic records system would necessarily have helped investigators.
"We still haven't managed to figure out this outbreak," he said in an interview days before the case's biggest break — discovery of a tainted Mexican-grown jalapeno in a southern Texas warehouse.
The White House Office of Management and Budget defended its meetings with food industry groups in 2003 and 2004, saying it regularly meets with companies and individuals with a stake in proposed government rules.
"Our door is open for anyone — from non-profits, industry representatives to individual citizens — who request meetings on regulations," OMB spokeswoman Jane Lee said. "These are listening sessions in conjunction with personnel from the regulating agency and we publicly post these meetings online."
On the Net:
* Food and Drug Administration: http://www.fda.gov
* OMB link to meetings: http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/oira/0910/meetings.html
Food Safety Advocate William Marler Calls for Public Meat Inspection Records
http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/food-safety-advocate-william-marler/story.aspx?guid={B22E4426-CC83-49C5-94CF-78786B4EBFBC}&dist=hppr
SEATTLE, Jul 25, 2008 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- Food safety advocate and attorney William Marler is calling on the Meat Industry and the USDA Food Safety Inspection Service (FSIS) to make the inspection reports from meat processing facilities visible and easily available to the public so that consumers -- including grocery stores and restaurants -- can make informed choices on which products they want to purchase.
"During the last decade, the number of city and state health departments that post restaurant inspection results online has increased significantly," said Marler from his office in Seattle. "Moreover, in places like Los Angeles County, all restaurants regularly receive either a letter-grade or inspection-score, and these must be prominently posted near the entrance to the restaurant. The primary goal of these efforts is to motivate restaurants to improve sanitation and food-handling practices so that fewer people get sick. When faced with a choice between dining at a restaurant that received a C-grade versus an A-grade, it is pretty much a no-brainer that people are going to be more inclined to spend money at a restaurant with a higher grade!
"But if making this kind of information easily available is such a no-brainer, why then does the FSIS make it so difficult for the public to find out the results of thousands of inspections it performs everyday in meat plants across the country? In 2005, FSIS employed over 7,600 inspection program personnel in about 6,000 federally inspected establishments nationwide with an annual cost of $815.1 million. That is a lot of money to spend on inspections given that the public does not currently have any way by which to gain easy and timely access.
"Right now, for all meat products made in a USDA-inspected plant, the plant's establishment number must appear on the label with the mark of inspection. But if a consumer trying to decide what brand of frozen hamburgers to buy wants to compare one plant's inspection records with another, the only way copies of the inspection reports (called Noncompliance Records, or NR's) can be obtained is by making a request under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). These FOIA requests can, however, take years to be processed. And so usually it is only after there has been a big outbreak and recall -- like the recent ones involving Topps or Nebraska Beef -- that the public learns about how many times a plant has failed an inspection, or been found to be in violation of safety regulations."
"Consumers should know the record of the company responsible for any meat they purchase," sums up Marler. "We've paid for the inspections -- we're owed that much, at least."
BACKGROUND: An accomplished personal injury lawyer and national expert in foodborne illness litigation, William Marler has been a major force in food safety policy in the United States and abroad. He and his partners at Marler Clark have represented thousands of individuals in claims against food companies whose contaminated products have caused serious injury and death. His advocacy for better food regulation has led to invitations to address local, national, and international gatherings on food safety, including recent testimony to the US Congress Committee on Energy and Commerce. Marler Clark is considered the nation's foremost law firm representing victims of foodborne illness and other serious personal injuries. Contact Mary Siceloff at msiceloff@marlerclark.com or (206) 719-4705. For further information visit www.marlerclark.com and www.marlerblog.com.
SOURCE: Marler Clark
Marler Clark
SEATTLE, Jul 25, 2008 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- Food safety advocate and attorney William Marler is calling on the Meat Industry and the USDA Food Safety Inspection Service (FSIS) to make the inspection reports from meat processing facilities visible and easily available to the public so that consumers -- including grocery stores and restaurants -- can make informed choices on which products they want to purchase.
"During the last decade, the number of city and state health departments that post restaurant inspection results online has increased significantly," said Marler from his office in Seattle. "Moreover, in places like Los Angeles County, all restaurants regularly receive either a letter-grade or inspection-score, and these must be prominently posted near the entrance to the restaurant. The primary goal of these efforts is to motivate restaurants to improve sanitation and food-handling practices so that fewer people get sick. When faced with a choice between dining at a restaurant that received a C-grade versus an A-grade, it is pretty much a no-brainer that people are going to be more inclined to spend money at a restaurant with a higher grade!
"But if making this kind of information easily available is such a no-brainer, why then does the FSIS make it so difficult for the public to find out the results of thousands of inspections it performs everyday in meat plants across the country? In 2005, FSIS employed over 7,600 inspection program personnel in about 6,000 federally inspected establishments nationwide with an annual cost of $815.1 million. That is a lot of money to spend on inspections given that the public does not currently have any way by which to gain easy and timely access.
"Right now, for all meat products made in a USDA-inspected plant, the plant's establishment number must appear on the label with the mark of inspection. But if a consumer trying to decide what brand of frozen hamburgers to buy wants to compare one plant's inspection records with another, the only way copies of the inspection reports (called Noncompliance Records, or NR's) can be obtained is by making a request under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). These FOIA requests can, however, take years to be processed. And so usually it is only after there has been a big outbreak and recall -- like the recent ones involving Topps or Nebraska Beef -- that the public learns about how many times a plant has failed an inspection, or been found to be in violation of safety regulations."
"Consumers should know the record of the company responsible for any meat they purchase," sums up Marler. "We've paid for the inspections -- we're owed that much, at least."
BACKGROUND: An accomplished personal injury lawyer and national expert in foodborne illness litigation, William Marler has been a major force in food safety policy in the United States and abroad. He and his partners at Marler Clark have represented thousands of individuals in claims against food companies whose contaminated products have caused serious injury and death. His advocacy for better food regulation has led to invitations to address local, national, and international gatherings on food safety, including recent testimony to the US Congress Committee on Energy and Commerce. Marler Clark is considered the nation's foremost law firm representing victims of foodborne illness and other serious personal injuries. Contact Mary Siceloff at msiceloff@marlerclark.com or (206) 719-4705. For further information visit www.marlerclark.com and www.marlerblog.com.
SOURCE: Marler Clark
Marler Clark
Thursday, July 24, 2008
California's Prop 2- good for animals, good for food safety
http://www.hsus.org/press_and_publications/press_releases/ucdavisstudyprop2072308.html
A study produced by UC Davis researchers and released yesterday provides further evidence that Proposition 2 is good for California consumers. The study, which was reportedly funded by the American Egg Board, evaluated the economic impact of Prop 2, the Prevention of Farm Animal Cruelty Act, which will appear on the statewide ballot in November.
According to the study's authors, "little, if any cost increase and no substantial impact on prices to California consumers" will occur when voters approve Prop 2. The measure would prevent the cruel and inhumane confinement of calves raised for veal, breeding pigs, and egg-laying hens kept in crates and cages so small they cannot lie down, turn around, or extend their limbs. Prop 2 is endorsed by leading organizations including the Center for Food Safety, the Consumer Federation of America, The Humane Society of the United States, and the California Veterinary Medical Association.
This latest study also affirms the previous estimate by a California-based poultry economist, who has written that raising egg-laying hens in "cage-free" facilities costs less than a penny per egg more than cramming them into tiny cages. The UC researchers estimate that the cost differential is even less than this previous claim.
"Even though the researchers are aligned with and funded by opponents of Prop 2, their work confirms that consumers won't pay higher prices as a result of the measure," said Jennifer Fearing, campaign manager for the Yes on 2 campaign. "The latest Field Poll shows nearly two-thirds of California voters support Prop 2—a wider margin of support than any other initiative on November's ballot."
In addition, at least one of the study's authors has been instrumental in bringing to light the cruelty of the current extreme confinement systems. UC Davis professor Joy Mench has published and co-authored a number of peer-reviewed articles and books describing the poor welfare of battery-caged egg-laying hens. Among Dr. Mench's previous writings published with esteemed co-authors:
* "…conventional battery cages must restrict freedom of movement... No other poultry production system is so restrictive of movement as battery cages."
* "…60-80 square inches per hen [provides] barely enough [room] for the hen to turn around and not enough for her to perform normal comfort behaviors; however, many hens are allowed less than even that meager amount."
* "…conventional cages for laying hens have pervasive problems for welfare."
* "Battery cages provide an inadequate environment for nesting…"
"Prop 2 is good for animals and good for California," added Fearing. "That's why it is supported by consumer advocates, veterinarians, family farmers, and businesses. All animals deserve humane treatment, including animals raised for food. It's just the right thing to do."
For more information about the Yes on Prop 2 campaign and to see a complete list of endorsers, please visit YESonProp2.com.
Chain Grocers Put a Face on Food
http://www.usnews.com/articles/business/economy/2008/07/24/chain-grocers-put-a-face-on-food.html
Locally grown produce is in vogue as even the biggest grocers try to appeal to shoppers and save on fuel costs. Among the big names selling homegrown food are Whole Foods Market, Safeway, Tesco, and Wal-Mart. As gas prices remain high and the popularity of local food grows—the number of local farmers markets has more than doubled in the past decade, the Department of Agriculture says—grocers are reviving the old practice of buying from smaller regional farms.
Wal-Mart's former produce plan involved an international network of large farms with which shoppers had little or no contact. For the most part, customers didn't even know where their foods were coming from. The company, now the nation's largest buyer of locally grown produce, labels all its produce—every peach and potato—by its state of origin. And it doesn't stop at the store. On the company's website, customers can look up farms to see pictures of their owners and read their stories, and view an interactive map.
When shopping for produce, customers have higher expectations than for other goods, says Kelly O'Keefe, professor and executive education director in Virginia Commonwealth University's advertising program, Brandcenter. They "don't want the bottom-of-the-barrel product," O'Keefe says. Chain grocers and big box stores are catering to that mentality, he says, by revamping their produce sections to reflect the region in which the goods are sold, while also continuing to import produce from abroad.
Celia Gould, director of Idaho's Department of Agriculture, says she has heard from many shoppers who say "they love buying produce that came from right here in Idaho."
Some Wal-Mart competitors are also putting a face on food. Safeway has partnered with several states to sell regionally grown food, using labels like "Colorado Proud" on produce. At Tesco, shoppers can recommend farmers they like to buy from. Whole Foods features farmers by region and facilitates "local producer loans" at interest rates of 5 to 9 percent to fund farming projects that could ultimately result in local produce being sold at a Whole Foods store. Each project is displayed online with photos and project details.
Locally grown produce is in vogue as even the biggest grocers try to appeal to shoppers and save on fuel costs. Among the big names selling homegrown food are Whole Foods Market, Safeway, Tesco, and Wal-Mart. As gas prices remain high and the popularity of local food grows—the number of local farmers markets has more than doubled in the past decade, the Department of Agriculture says—grocers are reviving the old practice of buying from smaller regional farms.
Wal-Mart's former produce plan involved an international network of large farms with which shoppers had little or no contact. For the most part, customers didn't even know where their foods were coming from. The company, now the nation's largest buyer of locally grown produce, labels all its produce—every peach and potato—by its state of origin. And it doesn't stop at the store. On the company's website, customers can look up farms to see pictures of their owners and read their stories, and view an interactive map.
When shopping for produce, customers have higher expectations than for other goods, says Kelly O'Keefe, professor and executive education director in Virginia Commonwealth University's advertising program, Brandcenter. They "don't want the bottom-of-the-barrel product," O'Keefe says. Chain grocers and big box stores are catering to that mentality, he says, by revamping their produce sections to reflect the region in which the goods are sold, while also continuing to import produce from abroad.
Celia Gould, director of Idaho's Department of Agriculture, says she has heard from many shoppers who say "they love buying produce that came from right here in Idaho."
Some Wal-Mart competitors are also putting a face on food. Safeway has partnered with several states to sell regionally grown food, using labels like "Colorado Proud" on produce. At Tesco, shoppers can recommend farmers they like to buy from. Whole Foods features farmers by region and facilitates "local producer loans" at interest rates of 5 to 9 percent to fund farming projects that could ultimately result in local produce being sold at a Whole Foods store. Each project is displayed online with photos and project details.
Tuesday, July 22, 2008
FDA may ease rule on China seafood
http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/food/2008-07-20-seafood-china-fda_N.htm
By Julie Schmit, USA TODAY
The Food and Drug Administration may loosen restrictions imposed last year on Chinese seafood processors following recent inspections of some firms in that country, a senior FDA official says.
The FDA restricted imports of five types of Chinese-raised fish in June 2007, saying many contained chemicals the U.S. doesn't allow for health reasons, such as long-term cancer risks.
Since then, China's government and seafood producers have stepped up testing and safety controls, and the percentage of shipments testing positive for the drugs has dropped from about 25% to less than 6%, says Don Kraemer, deputy director of the FDA's Office of Food Safety.
FDA inspectors in China this month audited 13 seafood processors, including some of China's biggest. They checked for good food-safety controls and the quality of inspections done by the Chinese government. Within weeks, the FDA expects to decide whether to free any of the plants from the import restrictions.
The restrictions affected Chinese firms shipping farm-raised shrimp, catfish, eel, basa, which is similar to catfish, and dace, a relative of carp. To pass into the U.S., the FDA required they test free of certain antibiotics and anti-fungals that Chinese farmers use to battle fish diseases.
Only one Chinese firm has been exempted from the testing because it proved to the FDA that it shipped clean fish. The 13 recently audited plants were selected by the Chinese government for FDA review.
If the FDA accepts the quality of Chinese inspection of the plants, it'll rely more on Chinese inspections in granting future exemptions, Kraemer says. The seafood restrictions affected 500 Chinese companies, far more than the FDA can inspect, Kraemer says.
Exempting more companies would speed shipments and cut import costs from China, historically a major supplier of the USA's shrimp and catfish.
Importers say China's government has clamped down on shoddy producers.
Last winter, Beaver Street Fisheries in Florida had a third of its shrimp imports from China test positive for the drugs. "I haven't had a positive test in months," says Beaver's import buyer Carlos Sanchez.
China's regulators have become very stringent, agrees Norbert Sporns, CEO of HQ Sustainable Maritime Industries in Seattle. It produces tilapia in China. Before, he says they "turned a blind eye" to some lax producers.
By Julie Schmit, USA TODAY
The Food and Drug Administration may loosen restrictions imposed last year on Chinese seafood processors following recent inspections of some firms in that country, a senior FDA official says.
The FDA restricted imports of five types of Chinese-raised fish in June 2007, saying many contained chemicals the U.S. doesn't allow for health reasons, such as long-term cancer risks.
Since then, China's government and seafood producers have stepped up testing and safety controls, and the percentage of shipments testing positive for the drugs has dropped from about 25% to less than 6%, says Don Kraemer, deputy director of the FDA's Office of Food Safety.
FDA inspectors in China this month audited 13 seafood processors, including some of China's biggest. They checked for good food-safety controls and the quality of inspections done by the Chinese government. Within weeks, the FDA expects to decide whether to free any of the plants from the import restrictions.
The restrictions affected Chinese firms shipping farm-raised shrimp, catfish, eel, basa, which is similar to catfish, and dace, a relative of carp. To pass into the U.S., the FDA required they test free of certain antibiotics and anti-fungals that Chinese farmers use to battle fish diseases.
Only one Chinese firm has been exempted from the testing because it proved to the FDA that it shipped clean fish. The 13 recently audited plants were selected by the Chinese government for FDA review.
If the FDA accepts the quality of Chinese inspection of the plants, it'll rely more on Chinese inspections in granting future exemptions, Kraemer says. The seafood restrictions affected 500 Chinese companies, far more than the FDA can inspect, Kraemer says.
Exempting more companies would speed shipments and cut import costs from China, historically a major supplier of the USA's shrimp and catfish.
Importers say China's government has clamped down on shoddy producers.
Last winter, Beaver Street Fisheries in Florida had a third of its shrimp imports from China test positive for the drugs. "I haven't had a positive test in months," says Beaver's import buyer Carlos Sanchez.
China's regulators have become very stringent, agrees Norbert Sporns, CEO of HQ Sustainable Maritime Industries in Seattle. It produces tilapia in China. Before, he says they "turned a blind eye" to some lax producers.
Monday, July 21, 2008
Source of Salmonella Saintpaul finally discovered
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/S/SALMONELLA_TOMATOES?SITE=SCAND&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT
By LAURAN NEERGAARD
AP Medical Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Government inspectors finally have a big clue in the nationwide salmonella outbreak: They found the same bacteria strain on a single Mexican-grown jalapeno pepper handled in Texas - and issued a stronger warning for consumers to avoid fresh jalapenos.
But Monday's discovery, the equivalent of a fingerprint, doesn't solve the mystery: Authorities still don't know where the pepper became tainted - on the farm, or in the McAllen, Texas, plant, or at some stop in between, such as a packing house.
Nor are they saying the tainted pepper exonerates tomatoes sold earlier in the spring that consumers until last week had been told were the prime suspect.
Still, "this genetic match is a very important break in the case," said Dr. David Acheson, the Food and Drug Administration's food safety chief.
For now, the government is strengthening its earlier precaution against hot peppers to a full-blown warning that no one should eat fresh jalapenos - or products such as fresh salsa made from them - until it can better pinpoint where tainted ones may have sold.
Tomatoes currently on the market, in contrast, now are considered safe to eat.
The Texas plant, Agricola Zaragoza, has suspended sales of fresh jalapenos and recalled those shipped since June 30 - shipments it said were made to Georgia and Texas.
FDA said no other produce currently in the plant has tested positive for salmonella, and was continuing to probe where the produce came from and went.
But a sign over Agricola Zaragoza's spot inside a huge produce warehouse on Monday displayed pictures of tomatoes, onions and tomatillos alongside jalapenos - suggesting the small vendor might have handled both major suspects in the outbreak that has sickened 1,251 people.
McAllen, Texas, near the Mexican border, is in a region deemed a major hub for both Texas-grown and imported produce. Although Agricola Zaragoza is a small operation, it's unclear whether inspectors have yet visited the company's neighboring vendors inside the huge warehouse filled with tractor-trailers loading and unloading fruits and vegetables.
"I recognize there is a need to narrow this as soon as possible," Acheson added - as parts of the country are entering prime hot pepper season.
A person who answered the phone at Agricola Zaragoza declined comment.
The pepper industry was bracing for an economic hit and urged FDA to quickly clear jalapenos grown in certain areas, like it earlier did with tomatoes.
"That is a very broad brush to tar the industry with," said John McClung, president of the Texas Produce Association.
Tomato producers have insisted their summertime staple couldn't be to blame, and are estimating that industry losses may reach $250 million.
But health officials maintain they had good evidence linking certain raw tomatoes to the outbreak's early weeks in April and May, and that the jalapeno connection appeared only in June.
"There may be more than one vehicle here," Dr. Robert Tauxe of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Monday.
"The tomato cases are not exonerated," Acheson added.
The tainted pepper "is an important clue but the investigation is far from complete," said Caroline Smith DeWaal of the consumer advocacy Center for Science in the Public Interest, who described a maze of channels the FDA now must follow to determine where the contamination occurred.
Among top questions: Did the farm, packing house and distributors all use clean water? What fertilizer was used, and when? Given this distributor's small size, who else distributed contaminated supply - or could there have been cross contamination with other products?
While health officials were cautiously excited at finally finding a firm clue, lawmakers decried the probe's slow pace.
"The fact that it has taken over 14 weeks to identify the source of the contamination is simply unacceptable," said Rep. Diana DeGette, D-Colo., who is pushing for stronger requirements to help trace tainted produce. "Much like (the) tomato industry, the result is a blanket warning that will decimate the entire industry and further depress consumer confidence when only a tiny fraction of peppers may be contaminated."
The outbreak isn't over yet, said Tauxe said. But the CDC said last week that it appeared to be slowing, and indeed has confirmed just 14 additional cases since then. The latest that someone fell ill was July 4.
---
Associated Press Writer Christopher Sherman in McAllen, Texas, contributed to this report.
By LAURAN NEERGAARD
AP Medical Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Government inspectors finally have a big clue in the nationwide salmonella outbreak: They found the same bacteria strain on a single Mexican-grown jalapeno pepper handled in Texas - and issued a stronger warning for consumers to avoid fresh jalapenos.
But Monday's discovery, the equivalent of a fingerprint, doesn't solve the mystery: Authorities still don't know where the pepper became tainted - on the farm, or in the McAllen, Texas, plant, or at some stop in between, such as a packing house.
Nor are they saying the tainted pepper exonerates tomatoes sold earlier in the spring that consumers until last week had been told were the prime suspect.
Still, "this genetic match is a very important break in the case," said Dr. David Acheson, the Food and Drug Administration's food safety chief.
For now, the government is strengthening its earlier precaution against hot peppers to a full-blown warning that no one should eat fresh jalapenos - or products such as fresh salsa made from them - until it can better pinpoint where tainted ones may have sold.
Tomatoes currently on the market, in contrast, now are considered safe to eat.
The Texas plant, Agricola Zaragoza, has suspended sales of fresh jalapenos and recalled those shipped since June 30 - shipments it said were made to Georgia and Texas.
FDA said no other produce currently in the plant has tested positive for salmonella, and was continuing to probe where the produce came from and went.
But a sign over Agricola Zaragoza's spot inside a huge produce warehouse on Monday displayed pictures of tomatoes, onions and tomatillos alongside jalapenos - suggesting the small vendor might have handled both major suspects in the outbreak that has sickened 1,251 people.
McAllen, Texas, near the Mexican border, is in a region deemed a major hub for both Texas-grown and imported produce. Although Agricola Zaragoza is a small operation, it's unclear whether inspectors have yet visited the company's neighboring vendors inside the huge warehouse filled with tractor-trailers loading and unloading fruits and vegetables.
"I recognize there is a need to narrow this as soon as possible," Acheson added - as parts of the country are entering prime hot pepper season.
A person who answered the phone at Agricola Zaragoza declined comment.
The pepper industry was bracing for an economic hit and urged FDA to quickly clear jalapenos grown in certain areas, like it earlier did with tomatoes.
"That is a very broad brush to tar the industry with," said John McClung, president of the Texas Produce Association.
Tomato producers have insisted their summertime staple couldn't be to blame, and are estimating that industry losses may reach $250 million.
But health officials maintain they had good evidence linking certain raw tomatoes to the outbreak's early weeks in April and May, and that the jalapeno connection appeared only in June.
"There may be more than one vehicle here," Dr. Robert Tauxe of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Monday.
"The tomato cases are not exonerated," Acheson added.
The tainted pepper "is an important clue but the investigation is far from complete," said Caroline Smith DeWaal of the consumer advocacy Center for Science in the Public Interest, who described a maze of channels the FDA now must follow to determine where the contamination occurred.
Among top questions: Did the farm, packing house and distributors all use clean water? What fertilizer was used, and when? Given this distributor's small size, who else distributed contaminated supply - or could there have been cross contamination with other products?
While health officials were cautiously excited at finally finding a firm clue, lawmakers decried the probe's slow pace.
"The fact that it has taken over 14 weeks to identify the source of the contamination is simply unacceptable," said Rep. Diana DeGette, D-Colo., who is pushing for stronger requirements to help trace tainted produce. "Much like (the) tomato industry, the result is a blanket warning that will decimate the entire industry and further depress consumer confidence when only a tiny fraction of peppers may be contaminated."
The outbreak isn't over yet, said Tauxe said. But the CDC said last week that it appeared to be slowing, and indeed has confirmed just 14 additional cases since then. The latest that someone fell ill was July 4.
---
Associated Press Writer Christopher Sherman in McAllen, Texas, contributed to this report.
Sunday, July 20, 2008
S.F. Food Bank struggles to keep up with crush
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/07/19/MN2H11MB85.DTL&tsp=1
They begin lining up two hours in advance, armed with empty cloth bags, suitcases and metal dollies waiting to be filled. At exactly 10:30 a.m., a volunteer stands at the entryway, her arm outstretched to prevent a mad rush.
They crane their necks past her to see their target: long wooden tables stacked with ears of corn, onions, potatoes, cans of diced tomatoes, cabbage, plums, rice, cartons of orange juice, and plastic bags filled with bread, hot dog buns and bagels.
Desperation has become a Thursday morning staple at the Ingleside Community Center, which hosts a weekly food pantry run by the San Francisco Food Bank. Last year, 120 people used the pantry, a number that has recently climbed to 154 and continues to rise.
Monique Martin, executive director of the center, has had to ask a police officer to stop by regularly because food fights - and not the fun kind found in elementary school cafeterias - have occasionally broken out as people push past each other to grab the goods.
"There's a lot of anxiety in people - a lot of fear," she said.
More people are relying on the Bay Area's food pantries, soup kitchens and free meal delivery services as the price of stocking their refrigerators with grocery store goods spirals out of reach.
Pei Zhen Zan, 40, visited the Ingleside food pantry for the first time on a recent Thursday. Her husband works in construction while she stays at home with their 2-year-old daughter, Tammy.
"We don't have money to buy food right now," she said, looking down at her haul, about the size of a full grocery bag. "This will help a little."
The San Francisco Food Bank served 118,000 people in 2007 and now serves 124,000 - the biggest jump in years. And most clients are not down-and-out homeless people. Sixty percent of households that use the food bank have at least one working adult.
"No longer is it an issue of employment. It's becoming an issue of working hard, but not having enough to meet the basics," said Marguerite Nowak, advocacy and education manager for the food bank.
She added that when money is tight, food is often the first to go. You can skip breakfast and have a skimpy dinner, but you can't pay half your rent or utility bills if you want a place to live.
"Food is the one place where there's wiggle room," she said.
But there's little wiggle room in the food bank's operations. It is getting less food from the federal government's commodities program because its money isn't stretching as far, and corporate food donations are also down in this struggling economy.
So the food bank is trying to get creative: driving to the Central Valley to collect discarded produce that's perfectly fine but not pretty enough for grocery store shelves; accepting the tops of carrots that are normally thrown away when bagged "baby carrots" are made; buying seven truckloads - 280,000 pounds - of rice at a discount; buying a 2,000-pound bag of beans and assigning volunteers to divide it among the 188 food pantries around the city.
All backgrounds
At Valencia Gardens, a public housing development in the Mission District that also includes affordable and market-rate housing, people of all socioeconomic backgrounds have begun lining up at the facility's Wednesday afternoon food pantry.
Gloria Santa Maria, 71, lives with her 73-year-old sister in a Valencia Gardens apartment and gets a bag of groceries at the food bank every week.
Her Social Security check doesn't go as far as it used to at the grocery store.
"Everything is so expensive now," she said. "The meat, you know? And the milk. Eggs. Vegetables, too. And the fruit. Everything. I like steak, but I can only buy chicken now."
Michael Love, 40, volunteers at the food bank each week and gets to take home leftovers. But first he has the unpleasant job of fending off people desperate for more food than he's allowed to give them.
"They want three or four bags of bread, but you just get one," he said. "They say, 'It's hard times,' but I have to say, 'Talk to my boss.' "
Food squeeze
The food bank isn't the only organization dealing with more mouths to feed.
-- San Francisco's Human Services Agency is handling 660 more food stamp caseloads than last year, bringing it to a total of 15,363.
-- Nationally, Meals on Wheels, which delivers food to homebound seniors, has lost volunteers who can't afford the gasoline. The San Francisco chapter doesn't rely on volunteers but uses vans to deliver 805,000 meals to 1,450 seniors. The agency is struggling to cover rising fuel costs while also meeting a 10 percent increase in demand, said Ashley McCumber, executive director.
-- Glide, the only San Francisco organization that serves three meals a day, has seen demand rise 13 percent this year. Bruce McKinney, the free meals program manager, said he can rarely serve salad and sometimes cuts vegetables and rice. "It's getting scary right now," he said. "The back half of the year is going to get real ugly."
-- Project Open Hand, which delivers meals to chronically ill people and runs a grocery center where people can pick up bags of food, has cut bananas and margarine because of costs. Director Tom Nolan has eliminated five positions and all staff raises this year.
E-mail Heather Knight at hknight@sfchronicle.com.
This article appeared on page A - 1 of the San Francisco Chronicle
Friday, July 18, 2008
New Leaf opens doors in Half Moon Bay
Premium foods store works to cultivate community ties
http://www.hmbreview.com/articles/2008/06/18/news/doc485976ca4e51c813715543.txt
The movers and shakers of Half Moon Bay came out in full force on Monday for an evening of decadent food and wine. Today, it’s your turn.
In the premium-food chain’s first expansion outside of Santa Cruz County, New Leaf Community Markets opens the doors of its Half Moon Bay supermarket this morning, potentially changing the dynamics of the grocery business for the Coastside.
Occupying the former Albertsons building at the corner of highways 1 and 92, the 23,200-square-foot store concentrates its business on environmentally sound specialty foods with a special emphasis on items produced locally.
Those attending Monday’s kickoff party got a taste of those specialties. Four sommeliers stood ready to top off a glass, or regale an eager listener on the intricate points of a sangiovese, a syrah or a cabernet. Heading over to the hors d’oeuvres, one could sample goat cheese, and perhaps rub elbows with a local politician or the director of a local charity.
New Leaf managers acknowledge that such products could cost more than food offered by the competition, but they say their higher quality outweighs the added expense.
“We have much better products,” co-owner Scott Roseman said. “We’re going to have beautiful organic products bought locally.”
Among other local products, the new store will feature produce from local growers including Jacob, Daylight and Pastorino farms. Produce Director Mark Mulcahy says that finding more local produce for the store will be an ongoing project.
“We’ll be bringing in all kinds of different people,” Mulcahy said. “Our focus is organic and local, so we’re always looking out to develop local relationships, ’cause that’s what we’re about.”
The store has already cultivated a relationship with one local icon: Bev Cunha Ashcraft. The former owner of the downtown Cunha’s Country Grocery will be working as a customer service representative at the new store.
“Bev met with us and was excited to join the New Leaf team,” Roseman said. “We’ve hired a number of former Cunha’s employees.”
Even before its opening, the new grocery store has gained a number of supporters in the community, including Erin Tormey, who organizes the Coastside Farmer’s Market. Tormey says the grocery chain didn’t treat the farmers market as competition. Quite the opposite, New Leaf cultivated a cooperative relationship with the farmers market over recent months by sponsoring the weekly event, according to Tormey.
“I see New Leaf as a huge complement and a vital resource,” Tormey said. “I think they’re going to be wonderful community partners.”
The New Leaf chain is committed to helping the community, Roseman said, noting his company’s tradition of donating 10 percent of its profits to local charities. Roseman says he plans to continue that company program on the Coastside, although he admits he hasn’t settled on any specific charities yet.
New Leaf directors say they have no doubt their new store will quickly find a competitive niche against Safeway, the only other large supermarket in Half Moon Bay.
With more than 1,750 stores across the nation, Safeway Inc. is at the top of the supermarket food chain. But the grocery giant has been in a difficult dilemma in recent years, facing increased competition from low-cost competitors such as Wal-Mart and Costco, while specialty chains including Whole Foods, Trader Joe’s, and New Leaf gobble away its premium-food shoppers.
“I think all the old-line supermarket chains that used to inhabit the middle are justifiably frightened and are trying to figure out what their place is going to be.” said David Gwynn, founder of the supermarket-industry blog, Groceteria. “Safeway seems to be trying to move more upscale, thinking it will be easier to compete with high-end stores than with Wal-Mart.”
But Safeway has been remarkably agile and able to turn impressive profits despite its tough situation, says Pete Bucklin, professor emeritus at the University of California, Berkeley Haas School of Business.
“Safeway, with all their faults, has been aggressive about modernizing their store and updating to provide their foods less expensively,” Bucklin said.
For New Leaf, facing a supermarket giant that has an expansive distribution system could be a challenge, he said. But that might be a best-case scenario, Bucklin said, because if the two stores develop a fierce competition, then the consumer ultimately wins as the stores work harder to draw more business.
Bucklin notes that one area where New Leaf is definitely ahead of the curve is its effort to stock local food products. Even big chains like Safeway and Wal-Mart are taking a second look at local foods, he says.
“In part, this is because of the fuel costs,” he said. “If you look at the logistics of moving tomatoes to the East Coast, there’s a lot of transportation in that.
“Local produce is a better deal than organic produce, I think it might grow to be a major selling point,” he said.
http://www.hmbreview.com/articles/2008/06/18/news/doc485976ca4e51c813715543.txt
The movers and shakers of Half Moon Bay came out in full force on Monday for an evening of decadent food and wine. Today, it’s your turn.
In the premium-food chain’s first expansion outside of Santa Cruz County, New Leaf Community Markets opens the doors of its Half Moon Bay supermarket this morning, potentially changing the dynamics of the grocery business for the Coastside.
Occupying the former Albertsons building at the corner of highways 1 and 92, the 23,200-square-foot store concentrates its business on environmentally sound specialty foods with a special emphasis on items produced locally.
Those attending Monday’s kickoff party got a taste of those specialties. Four sommeliers stood ready to top off a glass, or regale an eager listener on the intricate points of a sangiovese, a syrah or a cabernet. Heading over to the hors d’oeuvres, one could sample goat cheese, and perhaps rub elbows with a local politician or the director of a local charity.
New Leaf managers acknowledge that such products could cost more than food offered by the competition, but they say their higher quality outweighs the added expense.
“We have much better products,” co-owner Scott Roseman said. “We’re going to have beautiful organic products bought locally.”
Among other local products, the new store will feature produce from local growers including Jacob, Daylight and Pastorino farms. Produce Director Mark Mulcahy says that finding more local produce for the store will be an ongoing project.
“We’ll be bringing in all kinds of different people,” Mulcahy said. “Our focus is organic and local, so we’re always looking out to develop local relationships, ’cause that’s what we’re about.”
The store has already cultivated a relationship with one local icon: Bev Cunha Ashcraft. The former owner of the downtown Cunha’s Country Grocery will be working as a customer service representative at the new store.
“Bev met with us and was excited to join the New Leaf team,” Roseman said. “We’ve hired a number of former Cunha’s employees.”
Even before its opening, the new grocery store has gained a number of supporters in the community, including Erin Tormey, who organizes the Coastside Farmer’s Market. Tormey says the grocery chain didn’t treat the farmers market as competition. Quite the opposite, New Leaf cultivated a cooperative relationship with the farmers market over recent months by sponsoring the weekly event, according to Tormey.
“I see New Leaf as a huge complement and a vital resource,” Tormey said. “I think they’re going to be wonderful community partners.”
The New Leaf chain is committed to helping the community, Roseman said, noting his company’s tradition of donating 10 percent of its profits to local charities. Roseman says he plans to continue that company program on the Coastside, although he admits he hasn’t settled on any specific charities yet.
New Leaf directors say they have no doubt their new store will quickly find a competitive niche against Safeway, the only other large supermarket in Half Moon Bay.
With more than 1,750 stores across the nation, Safeway Inc. is at the top of the supermarket food chain. But the grocery giant has been in a difficult dilemma in recent years, facing increased competition from low-cost competitors such as Wal-Mart and Costco, while specialty chains including Whole Foods, Trader Joe’s, and New Leaf gobble away its premium-food shoppers.
“I think all the old-line supermarket chains that used to inhabit the middle are justifiably frightened and are trying to figure out what their place is going to be.” said David Gwynn, founder of the supermarket-industry blog, Groceteria. “Safeway seems to be trying to move more upscale, thinking it will be easier to compete with high-end stores than with Wal-Mart.”
But Safeway has been remarkably agile and able to turn impressive profits despite its tough situation, says Pete Bucklin, professor emeritus at the University of California, Berkeley Haas School of Business.
“Safeway, with all their faults, has been aggressive about modernizing their store and updating to provide their foods less expensively,” Bucklin said.
For New Leaf, facing a supermarket giant that has an expansive distribution system could be a challenge, he said. But that might be a best-case scenario, Bucklin said, because if the two stores develop a fierce competition, then the consumer ultimately wins as the stores work harder to draw more business.
Bucklin notes that one area where New Leaf is definitely ahead of the curve is its effort to stock local food products. Even big chains like Safeway and Wal-Mart are taking a second look at local foods, he says.
“In part, this is because of the fuel costs,” he said. “If you look at the logistics of moving tomatoes to the East Coast, there’s a lot of transportation in that.
“Local produce is a better deal than organic produce, I think it might grow to be a major selling point,” he said.
Thursday, July 17, 2008
FDA Lifts Salmonella Warning On Tomatoes
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=92643266&ft=1&f=1001
It's OK to eat all kinds of tomatoes again, the U.S. government declared Thursday — lifting its salmonella warning on the summer favorites amid signs that the record outbreak, while not over, may finally be slowing.
Hot peppers still get a caution: The people most at risk of salmonella — including the elderly and people with weak immune systems — should avoid fresh jalapenos and serranos, and any dishes that may contain them such as fresh salsa, federal health officials advised.
Investigators still don't know what caused the salmonella outbreak, which now has sickened 1,220 people in 42 states — the earliest falling ill on April 10 and the latest so far on July 4.
But Thursday's move, coming as the tomato industry estimates its losses at more than $100 million, doesn't mean that tomatoes harvested in the spring are cleared. It just means that the tomatoes in fields and stores today are safe to eat, said Dr. David Acheson, the Food and Drug Administration's food safety chief.
"This is not saying that anybody was absolved," Acheson said. But, "as of today, FDA officials believe that consumers may now enjoy all types of fresh tomatoes available without concern of becoming infected with salmonella Saintpaul," the outbreak strain.
— From The Associated Press.
It's OK to eat all kinds of tomatoes again, the U.S. government declared Thursday — lifting its salmonella warning on the summer favorites amid signs that the record outbreak, while not over, may finally be slowing.
Hot peppers still get a caution: The people most at risk of salmonella — including the elderly and people with weak immune systems — should avoid fresh jalapenos and serranos, and any dishes that may contain them such as fresh salsa, federal health officials advised.
Investigators still don't know what caused the salmonella outbreak, which now has sickened 1,220 people in 42 states — the earliest falling ill on April 10 and the latest so far on July 4.
But Thursday's move, coming as the tomato industry estimates its losses at more than $100 million, doesn't mean that tomatoes harvested in the spring are cleared. It just means that the tomatoes in fields and stores today are safe to eat, said Dr. David Acheson, the Food and Drug Administration's food safety chief.
"This is not saying that anybody was absolved," Acheson said. But, "as of today, FDA officials believe that consumers may now enjoy all types of fresh tomatoes available without concern of becoming infected with salmonella Saintpaul," the outbreak strain.
— From The Associated Press.
USDA to disclose which markets sold tainted meat
http://blogs.consumerreports.org/safety/2008/07/usda-recalls.html
It should be a little easier for consumers across the country to figure out if they have recalled meat in their freezers under a new system being implemented by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Beginning next month, the USDA will start listing on its Web site retail stores that received meat or poultry products involved in Class I recalls—those of the most serious concern to public health. The USDA says it will post the retail outlet listings within 10 business days of issuing the recall release.
As Jean Halloran, the Director of Food Policy Initiatives at Consumers Union told Scientific American, the new USDA rules are helpful, but need to go further. Specifically, Halloran says the retail outlet disclosures should cover all meat recalls, not just Class I level recalls.
For example, the recent recall of 143 million pounds of beef from the Hallmark/Westland facility in California, which was prompted by video showing cows too sick to stand being illegally forced into the slaughterhouse, was a Class II recall. "All meat recalls that could affect health should be disclosed to the consumer including the information on the names and locations of stores involved," says Halloran.
Consumers Union is also concerned that the USDA has chosen not to list institutions such as schools and nursing homes that have been shipped recalled products. "People want to know if their children or elderly parents might be getting a potentially dangerous food product and can help bring attention to the need for action on a recall at these institutions," says Halloran. "We hope USDA can add such disclosure to its rules in the future."
Shoppers should note that not all meat products come under USDA jurisdiction. Some are regulated by the Food and Drug Administration and those are not covered in the new measure. For example, if there's a sausage recall the USDA list would not include stores that sold the sausage as a closed-face sausage-and-egg sandwich (FDA jurisdiction), but would include stores that sold open-face sausage-and-egg sandwiches (USDA jurisdiction). It can be confusing but a chart on the FDA's Web site explains which agency is responsible for oversight of which foods.
Despite the drawbacks, Halloran says, "We're pleased that USDA will no longer keep consumers in the dark about recalled meat."
It should be a little easier for consumers across the country to figure out if they have recalled meat in their freezers under a new system being implemented by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Beginning next month, the USDA will start listing on its Web site retail stores that received meat or poultry products involved in Class I recalls—those of the most serious concern to public health. The USDA says it will post the retail outlet listings within 10 business days of issuing the recall release.
As Jean Halloran, the Director of Food Policy Initiatives at Consumers Union told Scientific American, the new USDA rules are helpful, but need to go further. Specifically, Halloran says the retail outlet disclosures should cover all meat recalls, not just Class I level recalls.
For example, the recent recall of 143 million pounds of beef from the Hallmark/Westland facility in California, which was prompted by video showing cows too sick to stand being illegally forced into the slaughterhouse, was a Class II recall. "All meat recalls that could affect health should be disclosed to the consumer including the information on the names and locations of stores involved," says Halloran.
Consumers Union is also concerned that the USDA has chosen not to list institutions such as schools and nursing homes that have been shipped recalled products. "People want to know if their children or elderly parents might be getting a potentially dangerous food product and can help bring attention to the need for action on a recall at these institutions," says Halloran. "We hope USDA can add such disclosure to its rules in the future."
Shoppers should note that not all meat products come under USDA jurisdiction. Some are regulated by the Food and Drug Administration and those are not covered in the new measure. For example, if there's a sausage recall the USDA list would not include stores that sold the sausage as a closed-face sausage-and-egg sandwich (FDA jurisdiction), but would include stores that sold open-face sausage-and-egg sandwiches (USDA jurisdiction). It can be confusing but a chart on the FDA's Web site explains which agency is responsible for oversight of which foods.
Despite the drawbacks, Halloran says, "We're pleased that USDA will no longer keep consumers in the dark about recalled meat."
USDA AWARDS $4.1 MILLION TO STUDY COLONY COLLAPSE DISORDER
http://www.usda.gov/wps/portal/!ut/p/_s.7_0_A/7_0_1OB?contentidonly=true&contentid=2008/07/0188.xml
WASHINGTON, July 17, 2008 – Agriculture Secretary Ed Schafer announced today that more than $4 million will be awarded to the University of Georgia to study the causes of Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) and other diseases affecting bee populations, whose pollination is valued at $15 billion annually to U.S. agriculture.
"Bees are an extremely valuable contributor to the overall productivity of American agriculture, but invasive pests, diseases and environmental stresses are putting U.S. bees at serious risk," Schafer said. "This research will help beekeepers meet the pollination demand for the nation's food supply."
The Protection of Managed Bees Coordinated Agricultural Project (CAP), funded through a 4-year grant from USDA's Cooperative State Research, Education, and Extension Service (CSREES), aims to improve the health of managed bee populations in agricultural systems. The research will address genomics, breeding, pathology, immunology and applied ecology to explain the causes behind dwindling bee populations. Researchers will work closely with the extension community and other stakeholders to develop and implement mitigation strategies for CCD and other significant problems.
CCD became a matter of concern in the winter of 2006-2007 when an estimated 25 percent of the beekeepers in the United States reported major losses of adult bees from their hives.
CAP projects combine significant funding over time and across institutions to support discovery and applications, and promote communication leading to innovative science-based solutions to critical and emerging national priorities and needs. These integrated projects focus not only on research to solve critical issues, but also feature education and extension components that bring knowledge gained through research to citizens at the local level. The project will complement and/or link with existing programs and projects at the national level.
CSREES committed $1.7 million to honeybees and pollinator research in Fiscal Year 2007. National program leaders at USDA's Agricultural Research Service and CSREES developed an action plan for CCD, which is a long-term plan for research, extension and educational activities that are recommended to address this important problem. Background information about CCD and the action plan is available at www.ars.usda.gov/is/br/ccd .
CSREES funded this CAP project under the National Research Initiative. Dr. Mary Purcell-Miramontes, national program leader for arthropod and nematode biology, developed this new CAP project and will be coordinating this new funding opportunity.
Through federal funding and leadership for research, education and extension programs, CSREES focuses on investing in science and solving critical issues impacting people's daily lives and the nation's future. For more information, visit www.csrees.usda.gov .
WASHINGTON, July 17, 2008 – Agriculture Secretary Ed Schafer announced today that more than $4 million will be awarded to the University of Georgia to study the causes of Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) and other diseases affecting bee populations, whose pollination is valued at $15 billion annually to U.S. agriculture.
"Bees are an extremely valuable contributor to the overall productivity of American agriculture, but invasive pests, diseases and environmental stresses are putting U.S. bees at serious risk," Schafer said. "This research will help beekeepers meet the pollination demand for the nation's food supply."
The Protection of Managed Bees Coordinated Agricultural Project (CAP), funded through a 4-year grant from USDA's Cooperative State Research, Education, and Extension Service (CSREES), aims to improve the health of managed bee populations in agricultural systems. The research will address genomics, breeding, pathology, immunology and applied ecology to explain the causes behind dwindling bee populations. Researchers will work closely with the extension community and other stakeholders to develop and implement mitigation strategies for CCD and other significant problems.
CCD became a matter of concern in the winter of 2006-2007 when an estimated 25 percent of the beekeepers in the United States reported major losses of adult bees from their hives.
CAP projects combine significant funding over time and across institutions to support discovery and applications, and promote communication leading to innovative science-based solutions to critical and emerging national priorities and needs. These integrated projects focus not only on research to solve critical issues, but also feature education and extension components that bring knowledge gained through research to citizens at the local level. The project will complement and/or link with existing programs and projects at the national level.
CSREES committed $1.7 million to honeybees and pollinator research in Fiscal Year 2007. National program leaders at USDA's Agricultural Research Service and CSREES developed an action plan for CCD, which is a long-term plan for research, extension and educational activities that are recommended to address this important problem. Background information about CCD and the action plan is available at www.ars.usda.gov/is/br/ccd .
CSREES funded this CAP project under the National Research Initiative. Dr. Mary Purcell-Miramontes, national program leader for arthropod and nematode biology, developed this new CAP project and will be coordinating this new funding opportunity.
Through federal funding and leadership for research, education and extension programs, CSREES focuses on investing in science and solving critical issues impacting people's daily lives and the nation's future. For more information, visit www.csrees.usda.gov .
Wednesday, July 16, 2008
Chocolate may be headed toward extinction
http://www.slashfood.com/2008/07/09/chocolate-may-be-headed-toward-delicacy-status/
Some people are worried that in the not too distant future, chocolate could become much more rare and expensive... and it's not because of global warming (at least not for the most part). In fact, John Mason, of the Nature Conservation Research Council (based in Ghana), says that "in 20 years chocolate will be like caviar."
This terrible fate is possible mostly because of poor farming practices in Western Africa, where most of the world's chocolate is grown. According to this article from CNN online, farmers clear cut sections of rain forest and work that land to death. The problem with that method of farming is that it is not sustainable: cacao trees (from which chocolate is ultimately produced) on the clear cut land live about 30 years, compared to 75-100 years in the regular rain forest. The farmers would have to then clear another section of rain forest to grow trees on.
There may be hope, though. A handful of different groups have come together to try and solve this problem, including farmers, environmental groups and Cadbury, the British chocolate maker. The interests of each group intersect, and so they've created a scientific research unit to study ways to farm cacao trees sustainably. There may be hope for humanity (and chocolate) yet.
Nestle recalls Lean Pockets sandwiches
Nestle is recalling almost 200,000 pounds of Lean Pockets frozen stuffed chicken sandwiches because they may contain pieces of plastic.
There have been at least two unspecified injuries.
According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the recall involved nine-ounce boxes of Lean Pockets Spinach Artichoke Chicken.
The affected packages have a best before date of November 2009. The package code is 8144-544-616 with an establishment number of p-7721-a.
There have been at least two unspecified injuries.
According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the recall involved nine-ounce boxes of Lean Pockets Spinach Artichoke Chicken.
The affected packages have a best before date of November 2009. The package code is 8144-544-616 with an establishment number of p-7721-a.
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
Veggie Mobile delivers produce to 'food deserts'
http://www.cnn.com/2008/LIVING/wayoflife/07/15/food.deserts.ap/
ALBANY, New York (AP) -- For years, Mel Williams rarely ate fruit and vegetables -- unless it came out of a can.
A customer leaves the Veggie Mobile, a truck that delivers healthy foods to underserved areas.
A customer leaves the Veggie Mobile, a truck that delivers healthy foods to underserved areas.
Fresh produce was too expensive or too far away until the state-funded "Veggie Mobile" started bringing the fruits and vegetables to him at a lower price.
"I'm a diabetic and I have problems with my heart," the 66-year-old said. "The canned stuff has so much sodium in it. So now with the fresh fruit, it's less sugar and carbohydrates and stuff."
Williams is one of millions of Americans living in a "food desert," urban or rural areas unserved by a big grocery chain that can serve up fresh foods at lower costs. He's in Troy, a former industrial city about 10 miles from New York's capital.
With the rapidly climbing cost of food and fuel, states and nonprofit groups are finding ways to get healthy food to these underserved areas.
In New York, the health department gave $500,000 to the Veggie Mobile, operated by the Capital District Community Gardens and delivering fresh, locally grown produce to people in Albany, Troy and nearby Schenectady who otherwise might never buy a fresh apple or tomato.
"It makes it possible for families to include these foods in their diet because it's about half the price of what it is in the market," said Amy Klein, executive director of the nonprofit.
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When compared to New York Supermarket -- a small grocery in the poor Arbor Hill neighborhood of Albany -- the Veggie Mobile offered dramatic savings, more selection and fresher options. Bananas sold for $0.99 a pound at the supermarket, but went for $0.59 a pound from the Veggie Mobile. Iceberg lettuce was $1 each at the mobile grocery, and $1.99 at the New York Supermarket. Cucumbers sold for $0.89 each at the neighborhood market, but were 3 for $1 from the Veggie Mobile.
The difference means that poor families cannot only afford and access fresh produce, but can buy more than if they relied on the neighborhood options.
Instead of going to a big chain grocery store each week, where volume sales and competition mean lower prices, families in urban food deserts and rural communities tend to rely on gas station convenience stores, or corner stores where milk, bread and other staples cost more.
"As more and more national chains have a greater share of the food market, it can impact areas that don't have either the space or the demand for a full line grocery store," said Ephraim Leibtag, an economist with the U.S. Department of Agriculture. "The majority of the country is predicated on driving somewhere (for groceries), so 'close to home' may be defined differently if you don't have a car."
Many rural areas are using consumer supported agriculture, like Iowa's Farm to Folk program, to tackle the problem. Customers within 30 miles of the Ames, Iowa-based organization can order 20 weeks' worth of food off the Internet -- either a weekly share of whatever local farmers produce, or an a la carte selection, coordinator Marilyn Andersen said.
Farm to Folk sells products from 10 farmers to about 130 consumers at prices from $95 for a small fruit share, to $430 for a share of whatever the farmers produce that would serve a family of four. Each week the customers pick up their food from a church.
Neighborhood stores in urban areas across the country have been closing as chains invest in building bigger, new stores in suburbs, a 'disinvestment' forced by urban crime, high employee turnover and the lack of space for large stores. But some grocery stores are responding to the need and earning potential of food deserts.
St. Louis-based Schnuck Markets, Inc., announced plans earlier this year to open a two-story, urban market in a parking garage in the city's downtown. It will be the downtown neighborhood's only full-scale grocery store and pharmacy when it opens in 2009.
British grocery giant Tesco PLC has opened 61 Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market stores in California, Nevada and Arizona. The small grocery stores are found in upscale markets, but have also filled gaps in underserved areas -- including a recently opened store in Compton, California, south of Los Angeles.
Pennsylvania's Fresh Food Financing Initiative was created in 2004 to commit millions in public funds to leverage additional public and private funds. The money is used to create loans for supermarket development across the state. It provides incentives for stores to open and gets more coolers into small corner stores so they can offer healthier options.
That effort was driven by The Food Trust, a nonprofit which has also helped New Orleans come up with a proposal for dealing with food deserts.
In Chicago, the city created a program to make it easier for grocery stores to do business, attracting new stores to long-underserved neighborhoods.
And in Connecticut, the nonprofit Hartford Food System has signed up 40 smaller retailers for its Healthy Food Retailer Initiative, which since 2006 has provided healthier options to customers in underserved areas. Smaller stores that agree to shift a portion of their shelf space from junk food to healthier options get promotional assistance as an incentive.
In rural communities, the problems can be different. The family store on Main Street has likely closed, and rural communities often don't offer a financial incentive to support grocery stores. Big chains are reluctant to build here, where the customer base is too small to support a mega-store.
While people living in these communities are used to driving long distances for groceries, rising gas costs and inflation make it difficult for some to pay for both transportation and food.
Whether families live on a farm in rural Iowa, or in a population dense inner-city, the need for healthy affordable food is the same. In many cases the solutions are being built around the communities they serve. There's plenty of untapped demand in the communities that need the most help.
"People were skeptical and thought they (low-income families) weren't going to come, and they're not going to spend their money on fresh produce," Klein said of the Veggie Mobile. "But they are, and they're buying it in large quantities ... They're not looking for a freebie, they're appreciative that it's there, that it's available and it's affordable."
Neb. cop, family win $40K over urine-tainted food
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080714/ap_on_re_us/officer_s_food_tainted;_ylt=Av9.DwK6gblDpMg0YAluMCkEtbAF
OMAHA, Neb. - A police officer and his family have won $40,000 in their lawsuit against a restaurant that had served them food tainted by an employee's spit and urine.
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A jury on Friday ruled in favor of Sidney police Officer Keith Andrew, whose two sons, then 4 and 7, were sickened by the food they ate at a KFC/Taco Bell in October 2005. Sidney is a town of about 6,000 in western Nebraska.
The younger boy became violently ill with gastroenteritis and dehydration, vomited for hours and was forced to spend time in a hospital, the family's lawsuit said.
The lawsuit, filed last year in Cheyenne County District Court, named the restaurant's owner, North Platte-based Mid Plains Food and Lodging.
The jury found the restaurant negligent, said the family's attorney Andy Snyder. He said of the restaurant owner, "I'd advise them to get a better class of employees."
A KFC spokesman, Rick Maynard, said KFC is committed to the highest levels of food safety.
"Our franchisee does not agree with the court's verdict, and they are looking at their legal options," Maynard said Monday.
Workers who saw a fellow employee taint the family's food reported it to management, but the managers didn't inform the family, the lawsuit alleged.
The suit also alleged that Andrew, his wife and their children were victims of an employee scheme that targeted police officers.
"Employees maintained 'special servings' of food reserved for ... officers," the lawsuit said. "The 'special servings' had been urinated in or spit in by KFC/Taco Bell employees."
The employee accused of urinating and spitting in the Andrew family's food, Casey Diedrich, pleaded guilty last year to violating the Nebraska Pure Food Act and fined $100, according to court records. The prosecution was for the same incident described in the lawsuit.
A company spokesman said last year that Diedrich eventually was fired for missing work but not for any of the incidents the lawsuit cited.
There was no listing under Diedrich's name in Nebraska.
OMAHA, Neb. - A police officer and his family have won $40,000 in their lawsuit against a restaurant that had served them food tainted by an employee's spit and urine.
ADVERTISEMENT
A jury on Friday ruled in favor of Sidney police Officer Keith Andrew, whose two sons, then 4 and 7, were sickened by the food they ate at a KFC/Taco Bell in October 2005. Sidney is a town of about 6,000 in western Nebraska.
The younger boy became violently ill with gastroenteritis and dehydration, vomited for hours and was forced to spend time in a hospital, the family's lawsuit said.
The lawsuit, filed last year in Cheyenne County District Court, named the restaurant's owner, North Platte-based Mid Plains Food and Lodging.
The jury found the restaurant negligent, said the family's attorney Andy Snyder. He said of the restaurant owner, "I'd advise them to get a better class of employees."
A KFC spokesman, Rick Maynard, said KFC is committed to the highest levels of food safety.
"Our franchisee does not agree with the court's verdict, and they are looking at their legal options," Maynard said Monday.
Workers who saw a fellow employee taint the family's food reported it to management, but the managers didn't inform the family, the lawsuit alleged.
The suit also alleged that Andrew, his wife and their children were victims of an employee scheme that targeted police officers.
"Employees maintained 'special servings' of food reserved for ... officers," the lawsuit said. "The 'special servings' had been urinated in or spit in by KFC/Taco Bell employees."
The employee accused of urinating and spitting in the Andrew family's food, Casey Diedrich, pleaded guilty last year to violating the Nebraska Pure Food Act and fined $100, according to court records. The prosecution was for the same incident described in the lawsuit.
A company spokesman said last year that Diedrich eventually was fired for missing work but not for any of the incidents the lawsuit cited.
There was no listing under Diedrich's name in Nebraska.
Country, the city version: Farms in the sky gain new interest
http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/07/15/healthscience/15farm.php?page=2
What if "eating local" in Shanghai or New York meant getting your fresh produce from five blocks away? And what if skyscrapers grew off the grid, as verdant, self-sustaining towers where city slickers cultivated their own food?
Dr. Dickson Despommier, a professor of public health at Columbia University, hopes to make these zucchini-in-the-sky visions a reality. Despommier's pet project is the "vertical farm," a concept he created in 1999 with graduate students in his class on medical ecology, the study of how the environment and human health interact.
The idea, which has captured the imagination of several architects in the United States and Europe in the past several years, just caught the eye of another big city dreamer: Scott Stringer, the Manhattan borough president in New York.
When Stringer heard about the concept in June, he said he immediately pictured a "food farm" addition to the New York City skyline. "Obviously we don't have vast amounts of vacant land," he said in a phone interview. "But the sky is the limit in Manhattan." Stringer's office is "sketching out what it would take to pilot a vertical farm," and plans to pitch a feasibility study to the mayor's office within the next couple of months, he said.
"I think we can really do this," he added. "We could get the funding."
Despommier estimates that it would cost $20 million to $30 million to make a prototype of a vertical farm, but hundreds of millions to build one of the 30-story towers that he suggests could feed 50,000 people. "I'm viewed as kind of an outlier because it's kind of a crazy idea," Despommier, 68, said with a chuckle. "You'd think these are mythological creatures."
Despommier, whose name in French means "of the apple trees," has been spreading the seeds of his radical idea in lectures and through his Web site. He says his ideas are supported by hydroponic vegetable research done by NASA and are made more feasible by the potential to use sun, wind and wastewater as energy sources. Several observers have said Despommier's sky-high dreams need to be brought down to earth.
"Why does it have to be 30 stories?" said Jerry Kaufman, professor emeritus of urban and regional planning at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. "Why can't it be six stories? There's some exciting potential in the concept, but I think he overstates what can be done."
Armando Carbonell, chairman of the department of planning and urban form at the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy in Cambridge, Massachusetts, called the idea "very provocative." But it requires a rigorous economic analysis, he added. "Would a tomato in lower Manhattan be able to outbid an investment banker for space in a high-rise? My bet is that the investment banker will pay more."
Carbonell questions if a vertical farm could deliver the energy savings its supporters promise. "There's embodied energy in the concrete and steel and in construction," he said, adding that the price of land in the city would still outweigh any savings from not having to transport food from afar. "I believe that this general relationship is going to hold, even as transportation costs go up and carbon costs get incorporated into the economic system."
Some criticism is quite helpful. Stephen Colbert jokingly asserted that vertical farming was elitist when Despommier appeared in June on "The Colbert Report," a visit that led to a jump in hits to the project's Web site from an average of 400 daily to 400,000 the day after the show. Despommier agrees that more research is needed, and calls the energy calculations his students made for the farms, which would rely solely on alternative energy, "a little bit too optimistic." He added, "I'm a biologist swimming in very deep water right now."
"If I were to set myself as a certifier of vertical farms, I would begin with security," he said. "How do you keep insects and bacteria from invading your crops?" He says growing food in climate-controlled skyscrapers would also protect against hail and other weather-related hazards, ensuring a higher quality food supply for a city, without pesticides or chemical fertilizers.
Architects' renderings of vertical farms — hybrids of the Hanging Gardens of Babylon and Biosphere 2 with SimCity appeal — seem to be stirring interest. "It also has to be stunning in terms of the architecture, because it needs to work in terms of social marketing," Despommier said. "You want people to say, 'I want that in my backyard.' "
Augustin Rosenstiehl, a French architect who worked with Despommier to design a template "living tower," said he thought that any vertical farm proposal needed to be adapted to a specific place. Rosenstiehl, principal architect for Atelier SOA in Paris, said: "We cannot do a project without knowing where and why and what we are going to cultivate. For example, in Paris, if you grow some wheat, it's stupid because we have big fields all around the city and lots of wheat and it's good wheat. There's no reason to build towers that are very expensive."
Despite its potential problems, the idea of bringing food closer to the city is gaining traction among pragmatists and dreamers alike. A smaller-scale design of a vertical farm for downtown Seattle won a regional green building contest in 2007 and has piqued the interest of officials in Portland, Oregon. The building, a Center for Urban Agriculture designed by architects at Mithun, would supply about a third of the food needed for the 400 people who would live there.
In June at P.S.1 Contemporary Arts Center in New York, a husband-wife architect team built a solar-powered outdoor farm out of stacked rows of cardboard tube planters — one that would not meet Despommier's security requirements — with chicken coops for egg collection and an array of fruits and vegetables.
For Despommier, the high-rise version is on the horizon. "It's very idealistic and ivory tower and all of that," he said. "But there's a real desire to make this happen."
Sunday, July 13, 2008
Judge halts USDA's cattle-grazing plans on Conservation Reserve Program lands
A federal judge in Seattle has put the brakes on an emergency federal program that would allow grazing and hay production on millions of acres of farmland nationwide that had been set aside for conservation.
The injunction ordered Tuesday by U.S. District Judge John C. Coughenour could affect 24 million acres of conservation lands across the country, including fragile habitat in this state. And in Washington, it pits two struggling species against each other: independent cattle producers and sage grouse.
Coughenour ordered the temporary restraining order after a suit was filed by the National Wildlife Federation and six affiliates over the U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA) decision in May to allow grazing and hay production on land now protected under the federal Conservation Reserve Program (CRP).
The program, begun in 1985, pays farmers across the country not to plant fragile lands, and to return them to native grasses and vegetation.
The USDA initiative, called the Critical Feed Use program, was meant to help cattlemen suffering from high feed prices. It allows hay production and grazing on CRP land, to boost production of up to 18 million tons of cattle forage worth $1.2 billion, according to the department.
Meat producers are getting clobbered by hay costs that have shot up to as much as $200 a ton, up from $75 to $100 just three years ago. Hay is scarce because farmers are growing corn and wheat instead, to reap high prices.
There was also to be an added advantage for participants in the CRP: They could keep collecting CRP payments while they put their conservation lands into hay or grazing.
The National Wildlife Federation, and six state chapters, including the Washington Wildlife Federation, say in their suit that the government should have performed an environmental assessment before starting the program.
A full hearing is set for July 17 before Coughenour. His restraining order will keep the program on ice until he rules on the case.
"The CRP program was never intended to be a subsidized hay program, yet we see it contorted now in an effort to buy votes in farm communities," said Ben Deeble, sage-steppe project coordinator for the National Wildlife Federation in Missoula, Mont.
The fallow lands under the CRP program have been crucial to wildlife. In Washington, much of the remaining population of sage grouse, now under consideration for listing under the Endangered Species Act, lives on CRP land, said Don Larsen, of the state Department of Fish and Wildlife.
"Anything that affects sage grouse habitat we have a lot of concern about," Larsen said.
Washington is among the top 10 states for CRP participation, with more than 1.5 million acres in conservation, providing habitat for birds, curbing soil erosion and improving water quality. CRP is the country's largest conservation program on private land.
More than $80 million was paid out to Washington farmers last year under the program, in return for keeping land on some 4,000 farms in conservation — 17 percent of all the cropland in the state.
But some Washington cattlemen say they were counting on the new USDA initiative to get their herds through the coming winter.
Sam Ledgerwood, a cattleman in Asotin County, had just come from a meeting with his banker when he got the news.
"He's not one to loan money to buy $200-a-ton hay," Ledgerwood said. "No way is it going to work — it don't pencil."
"I would like to know this judge's background," he said. "Has he ever been off the asphalt? Does he still eat steak when he goes to his table? Or his restaurant? How can a program be thrown out the window by one judge?"
Kent Politsch, chief spokesman for the Farm Service Agency in Washington, D.C., which admi
The injunction ordered Tuesday by U.S. District Judge John C. Coughenour could affect 24 million acres of conservation lands across the country, including fragile habitat in this state. And in Washington, it pits two struggling species against each other: independent cattle producers and sage grouse.
Coughenour ordered the temporary restraining order after a suit was filed by the National Wildlife Federation and six affiliates over the U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA) decision in May to allow grazing and hay production on land now protected under the federal Conservation Reserve Program (CRP).
The program, begun in 1985, pays farmers across the country not to plant fragile lands, and to return them to native grasses and vegetation.
The USDA initiative, called the Critical Feed Use program, was meant to help cattlemen suffering from high feed prices. It allows hay production and grazing on CRP land, to boost production of up to 18 million tons of cattle forage worth $1.2 billion, according to the department.
Meat producers are getting clobbered by hay costs that have shot up to as much as $200 a ton, up from $75 to $100 just three years ago. Hay is scarce because farmers are growing corn and wheat instead, to reap high prices.
There was also to be an added advantage for participants in the CRP: They could keep collecting CRP payments while they put their conservation lands into hay or grazing.
The National Wildlife Federation, and six state chapters, including the Washington Wildlife Federation, say in their suit that the government should have performed an environmental assessment before starting the program.
A full hearing is set for July 17 before Coughenour. His restraining order will keep the program on ice until he rules on the case.
"The CRP program was never intended to be a subsidized hay program, yet we see it contorted now in an effort to buy votes in farm communities," said Ben Deeble, sage-steppe project coordinator for the National Wildlife Federation in Missoula, Mont.
The fallow lands under the CRP program have been crucial to wildlife. In Washington, much of the remaining population of sage grouse, now under consideration for listing under the Endangered Species Act, lives on CRP land, said Don Larsen, of the state Department of Fish and Wildlife.
"Anything that affects sage grouse habitat we have a lot of concern about," Larsen said.
Washington is among the top 10 states for CRP participation, with more than 1.5 million acres in conservation, providing habitat for birds, curbing soil erosion and improving water quality. CRP is the country's largest conservation program on private land.
More than $80 million was paid out to Washington farmers last year under the program, in return for keeping land on some 4,000 farms in conservation — 17 percent of all the cropland in the state.
But some Washington cattlemen say they were counting on the new USDA initiative to get their herds through the coming winter.
Sam Ledgerwood, a cattleman in Asotin County, had just come from a meeting with his banker when he got the news.
"He's not one to loan money to buy $200-a-ton hay," Ledgerwood said. "No way is it going to work — it don't pencil."
"I would like to know this judge's background," he said. "Has he ever been off the asphalt? Does he still eat steak when he goes to his table? Or his restaurant? How can a program be thrown out the window by one judge?"
Kent Politsch, chief spokesman for the Farm Service Agency in Washington, D.C., which admi
"Victory Garden" planted on the grounds of Civic Center, S.F.
The green thumbs were covered with brown dirt Saturday at San Francisco's Civic Center when 150 people who like to eat their vegetables planted an updated version of a World War II victory garden. The Slow Food Nation Victory Garden, whose organic veggies are a far cry from the stuff being sold at the fast food joints a few feet away on Market Street, aims to show the possibilities and benefits of urban food production. Mayor Gavin Newsom and renowned food guru Alice Waters planted tomatoes, cabbage, beans and other natural treats. Newsom even took off his sport coat to do his digging, although he did not wear gloves and got a lot of dirt under his fingernails. The garden will be the showpiece when Slow Food Nation, a celebration of nonprocessed food, comes to the city over Labor Day weekend. By then, the tomatoes and beans should be grown and ready for their close-ups. The fresh veggies in the garden are representative of the sustainable food movement, which encourages people to buy from small local farms. All produce grown in the garden will be distributed to the needy through local charities.
the Consumerist: 20 ways to save on groceries
http://consumerist.com/tag/consumption/?i=5024694&t=20-ways-to-make-the-most-of-your-groceries-without-spending-an-extra-cent
Americans throw away a quarter of our food uneaten, which translates into serious wasted cash over time. The Guardian compiled an excellent list of ways to shop smarter so you end up buying what you need, and eating what you buy.
-Make A List! Shopping lists top every saving strategy we offer, and for good reason. Lists make for routinized, disciplined shopping.
-Don't Fear An Empty Fridge: Food grows mold, not interest. An empty fridge is a strong sign that your buying matches your consumption.
-Approach Deals Skeptically: Just because an item screams "Two for One!" doesn't mean that you need two. Make sure the item is something that you'll use, and something that won't expire quickly.
-Avoid Supermarkets For Perishables: Buy your vegetables, meats, and fish at local establishments. You'll spend less per visit, while honing your comparison shopping skills. In our neighborhood, the Korean vegetable stand is usually 30% cheaper than the supermarket around the corner.
-Buy Non-Perishables In Bulk: If you can store them, buy your pasta and rice in bulk. Just don't try to buy more than one bag at a time.
-Buy Quality Products: Somewhat counterintuitive for those who focus exclusively on the bottom line, but if you pay more for a high-quality ingredient, you're less likely to let it go to waste.
-Grow Your Own Herbs And Salad: Herbs and salad expire quickly in the fridge. If you have the space, grow your own and save.
-Buy Whole Vegetables: Bagged lettuce? Washed carrots? Like any vegetable, they start to decompose as soon as they're processed.
-Be Storage Savvy: Keep your food fresh with proper storage. If you're a fresh fruit lover, invest in an ethylene gas guardian to stave off spoilage.
-Plan Your Meals: Planning is a key part of list building, and one of the best ways to prevent abandoned foodstuffs from clogging up your fridge.
-Cook! Don't just follow recipes. Real cooks now how to whip that extra bit of coconut milk or leftover celery into a tasty meal.
-Cook In Bulk: Since you're already at the stove, double the recipe and save the leftovers.
-Use Your Freezer: Freezers are more efficient when they're full, so fill 'em up.
-Learn To Love Leftovers: Mmm, leftovers! But seriously, don't throw away perfectly good food.
-Watch Your Portions: The less you eat, the less you spend. If you have trouble eyeballing portions, consider buying a scale.
-Learn From Your Parents: Your pappy's pappy would smack you silly for your wasteful ways. Says Sheila Tremaine, 81, "We never threw anything away, because if you didn't use everything up you had nothing to eat. People just seem to have lost that skill."
-Rediscover Packed Lunches: Dust off that old He-Man lunch box and take your meals to work. Why waste $5.95 on a lunch special when you can eat from your own fridge?
-Equip Yourself: "Make your own bread. It's quick, easy and so much better tasting than shop-bought. It's also much cheaper. Make your own ice cream, it's a doddle.
Invest in a mincing machine as an attachment to a food processor, and turn the leftover roast lamb into a base for shepherd's pie. While you're at it, invest in a sausage stuffer and ask your butcher for some sausage skins when you buy the pork."
-Don't Trust Use-By Dates: If it isn't soft cheese, pate, seafood or processed meat, then it will last for a while. "Chicken, raw meats and fish will all look and smell unpleasant long before they're actively unsafe (as long as you cook it thoroughly, chicken, for example, is good for at least a week past its sell-by date). Apples last for months; potatoes are fine as long as you chop the green shoots off before cooking; tins and jars will last decades if not centuries; hard cheese is indestructible; and dry foods will last for years too."
-Become A Freegan: If all else fails, ditch your wasteful ways and become one with your urban landscape.
Americans throw away a quarter of our food uneaten, which translates into serious wasted cash over time. The Guardian compiled an excellent list of ways to shop smarter so you end up buying what you need, and eating what you buy.
-Make A List! Shopping lists top every saving strategy we offer, and for good reason. Lists make for routinized, disciplined shopping.
-Don't Fear An Empty Fridge: Food grows mold, not interest. An empty fridge is a strong sign that your buying matches your consumption.
-Approach Deals Skeptically: Just because an item screams "Two for One!" doesn't mean that you need two. Make sure the item is something that you'll use, and something that won't expire quickly.
-Avoid Supermarkets For Perishables: Buy your vegetables, meats, and fish at local establishments. You'll spend less per visit, while honing your comparison shopping skills. In our neighborhood, the Korean vegetable stand is usually 30% cheaper than the supermarket around the corner.
-Buy Non-Perishables In Bulk: If you can store them, buy your pasta and rice in bulk. Just don't try to buy more than one bag at a time.
-Buy Quality Products: Somewhat counterintuitive for those who focus exclusively on the bottom line, but if you pay more for a high-quality ingredient, you're less likely to let it go to waste.
-Grow Your Own Herbs And Salad: Herbs and salad expire quickly in the fridge. If you have the space, grow your own and save.
-Buy Whole Vegetables: Bagged lettuce? Washed carrots? Like any vegetable, they start to decompose as soon as they're processed.
-Be Storage Savvy: Keep your food fresh with proper storage. If you're a fresh fruit lover, invest in an ethylene gas guardian to stave off spoilage.
-Plan Your Meals: Planning is a key part of list building, and one of the best ways to prevent abandoned foodstuffs from clogging up your fridge.
-Cook! Don't just follow recipes. Real cooks now how to whip that extra bit of coconut milk or leftover celery into a tasty meal.
-Cook In Bulk: Since you're already at the stove, double the recipe and save the leftovers.
-Use Your Freezer: Freezers are more efficient when they're full, so fill 'em up.
-Learn To Love Leftovers: Mmm, leftovers! But seriously, don't throw away perfectly good food.
-Watch Your Portions: The less you eat, the less you spend. If you have trouble eyeballing portions, consider buying a scale.
-Learn From Your Parents: Your pappy's pappy would smack you silly for your wasteful ways. Says Sheila Tremaine, 81, "We never threw anything away, because if you didn't use everything up you had nothing to eat. People just seem to have lost that skill."
-Rediscover Packed Lunches: Dust off that old He-Man lunch box and take your meals to work. Why waste $5.95 on a lunch special when you can eat from your own fridge?
-Equip Yourself: "Make your own bread. It's quick, easy and so much better tasting than shop-bought. It's also much cheaper. Make your own ice cream, it's a doddle.
Invest in a mincing machine as an attachment to a food processor, and turn the leftover roast lamb into a base for shepherd's pie. While you're at it, invest in a sausage stuffer and ask your butcher for some sausage skins when you buy the pork."
-Don't Trust Use-By Dates: If it isn't soft cheese, pate, seafood or processed meat, then it will last for a while. "Chicken, raw meats and fish will all look and smell unpleasant long before they're actively unsafe (as long as you cook it thoroughly, chicken, for example, is good for at least a week past its sell-by date). Apples last for months; potatoes are fine as long as you chop the green shoots off before cooking; tins and jars will last decades if not centuries; hard cheese is indestructible; and dry foods will last for years too."
-Become A Freegan: If all else fails, ditch your wasteful ways and become one with your urban landscape.
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