OK, time to fess up: How many times have you had guacamole and salsa so far this month? I know it’s still early in the month, but I bet your chips were filled with these dippers. Or are you more of a salsa on the side person? Either way, there’s troubling news about these two popular foods, whether we consume them at home, dining out, or carrying in. There’s a major concern.

The Centers for Disease Control, the CDC, reports the less-than-welcome news. The underlying issue is that the ingredients may not be stored properly because they are often made in large batches. Food-borne illnesses like to travel so to prevent this from occurring in our home kitchens, use fresh ingredients and store leftovers promptly. Remember that this has been a wonderful avocado season and East Coast peppers and tomatoes are just beginning to ripen so making homemade salsa should not be an issue. Don’t forget proper handling and washing.

The salsa-guac trend has grown in popularity over the last decade due to taste, familiarity, and growth of many Mexican fast food and midscale casual restaurants. The incidence, a 4% increase in outbreaks parallels the popularity curve. What are we to do? Send back warm salsa–it’s been sitting around. (As a rule of food safety, warm food should spell a problem almost regardless of the item–food should be served chilled or hot. The in-between can cause the greatest upset). Restaurants need to serve from the refrigerator. We cannot inspect the restaurant’s kitchen and storage, but we can be proactive in our decision-making.

No one’s going to take a bite out of this market space, especially in a down economy. We can enjoy and at the same time be smart. Our personal safety depends on it!

Those who like looking in blog archives will find plenty of references to the FDA and the need for the Food Safety Modernization Act. On a positive note, the latest FDA food safety blog has good suggestions for ensuring food safety when shopping and purchasing from a farm market. Worth a read.

Where does this leave food safety legislation? In the quiet corner. So quiet, barely a whisper. Actually the fire has been stoked with conversations about BPA. Several states (CT, MA, and MD) have banned BPA from food and beverage containers, and several are in the discussion stage. Yet, the current legislation impasse seems to be bogged down at the heels of California Senator Dianne Feinstein’s Amendment to the bill which would ban BPA. This thoughtful approach has further slowed down the process. Not everyone in the Senate appears to be comfortable with this additional step as several industry groups are screaming loudly about the cost of doing a nationwide BPA ban. Translation: These industry groups provide significant sums of money to many on the Hill!

Let’s end with the current  food safety concern–hydrocarbons in cereal packaging that lead to a major recall. Yes, the petrochemical leached from the package which created a “funny-tasting cereal.” Yum. Certainly not the last food safety problem.

As I’ve said before, we need the passage of the food safety legislation and the FDA needs the help. The problem has become too pervasive for it to be ignored. Now.

Food labels: The FDA has had a busy week with the various recalls and its announcement that it will be spending more time scrutinizing those so-called healthy food labels. We often grab food with a banner notation indicating its healthy properties. The FDA wants proof that these claims are accurate and not just marketing strategies. They promise to get tough on misleading labels. Time to understand a label and not just give it a quick once-over: Watch for saturated fat and sugar.

In other health news:

–Chocolate: A Harvard study says enjoying a few pieces of dark chocolate daily may lessen the possibility of certain types of strokes.

–Potassium-rich foods: Also related to issues of preventing strokes, foods that are high in potassium (potatoes, bananas, avocados, and leafy greens, for example) helped lower the risk for stroke and coronary heart disease. Sounds like a reminder to eat fruits and vegetables.

–Metal cans and BPA: Several environmental and scientific groups have called for the immediate banning of metal cans for their various health risks. Tests indicate higher BPA levels than originally expected and fears of overall exposure has heightened attention to this issue.

–Dieting. An Israeli study found that weight-loss diets, whether Mediterranean, low-fat, or low-carb, help reverse atherosclerosis. The probable benefit of these diets comes from reduced blood pressure. Great news. The type of diet is not as critical as the fact that one diets!

–Lessen salt intake. Now that’s a shocker! A government study found that billions of health dollars could be saved if salt intake could be reduced by 10 %. They are trying to get the food industry to understand the overall implications and get them to hold back on salting up foods. When dining in we can get a tighter grip on the shaker.

–Milk allergies. A simple blood test may determine if young children are allergic to all milk products or if they can tolerate heated milk. Knowing the severity of the allergy would make it easier in determining the safest foods. The test is not yet available, but it is definitely one to watch.

As with most weeks, it is fun to end on a good news coffee note. Several studies presented at the recent American Heart Association conference found good news in the coffee department! Coffee drinkers had a lower risk of getting heart rhythm problems. Another study found no link between coffee intake and atherosclerosis. The third significant study found that women who consume multiple cups of coffee daily had a lower risk of getting type 2 diabetes!

Healthy coffee or coffee health: Works for me.

In the food world, it’s been a vocabulary buster. New words were created to define the state of the industry and the intensity of the passionate chef and consumer. All who were interested in food and sourcing (there’s a word) became trend followers as everyone seemed to consider himself a foodie (bad word, overused).

The word locavore was born. This is a word that says it all and says too much, all at the same time. Everyone wanted a ride on this gravy train as a way to support the farmer and all the local producers. People wanted to be called locavores for all their efforts! Food miles became an added descriptor helping people explain that proximity plays an important role in all our purchases. Some even chastised those who exceeded purchases beyond a 100-mile radius.

This was certainly the decade for the farmer, a previously forgotten soul who was hidden under big agriculture’s compost. Although statistics remain gloomy in terms of the small farmer’s livelihood, people wanted to connect with farmers and became loyal devotees of farm markets which managed to end the decade with much higher visibility. CSAs grew in popularity and became more mainstream than alternative as they were a decade or so ago. Green became our favorite color as we recycled and composted: We finally understood Kermit’s mantra.

Vegetable gardening became a headline grabber. Everyone dug the garden culture this year including The White House one, spearheaded by First Lady Michelle Obama who stressed healthy eating.

One of my favorite new food phrases being thrown about is ranch of origin. If you can’t find it locally, then at least you want to know where it is coming from and who is bringing the product to market. I just saw that phrase for the first time not too long ago and believe it will be a keeper. Knowing our food source has become an important shopping goal in light of some of the more fearful food words of the year: food recalls and food safety.

Of course, there’s been heightened interest in organics, but price has been a problem this year with the bleak economic situation, but organic dairy has proven a growth industry.  More people are discovering food allergies and the gluten-free market has literally exploded.

Sustainability has become an important consideration, especially in terms of  the dwindling fish population and the importance of finding foods that are not being overfished. Is it wild has become a common query as farm-raised fish, once a darling concept, lost its luster as questions occur about the water itself–are the fish swimming in chemically-laden runoff?

As for new foods and those we retired: Tilapia has certainly grown in popularity basically because of its less expensive price point and its versatility. Kobe Beef quietly succumbed to the new reality of less spending money and was replaced by its less expensive-sounding name, Wagyu. Semantics. Then there were the hamburger denizens, many overseen by popular chefs who once captured audiences with their expense-account locations.

Of course, the ever-present cupcake helped us maintain our obesity status as food trucks even got in on the never-ending dessert action.

This has been the decade for more products available in cryovac to communicate safer food handling. Sous vide preparation moved from the top tier chef to the home aficionado. The home chef became a reality during this past year as so many people saved their dining out dollars for more clever in-home preparations.

Foam magically appeared on many restaurant dishes as molecular gastronomy has become an important technique for many chefs. With that notion, we grew from 3-course prix-fixe menus to extravagant small plates, with big-name chefs striving for 10 or more courses. We became cooking scientists.

Then there are the words I hope never to see again: E.coli and Salmonella, both too present in our discussions. Too fearful. We purchased way too many containers of hand sanitizers.

The list goes on.

I look for a year, a decade of great food and new traditions.

If you have big party plans or thinking of going out for a burger, it’s OK to ask the question: Who supplied your ground beef?

Home cooks need to consider the thermometer purchase–color is not a sufficient indicator of properly cooked beef.

Be safe.

Sure we could be butchers or grinders and take out our Cuisinarts and hope they were strong enough to wrestle a hefty piece of meat such as a chuck roast and grind it into a burger. That’s a big maybe. Or we could find a trusty, local butcher. Good luck on that, talk about a vanishing breed. Trust may be the bigger issue. While we’ve been reading labels on so many products and deciding whether to buy the 80-20 or 90-10 package, we’ve been ignoring the fearsome possibility of getting the ultimate bacterial infection with all its scary consequences.

What’s one to do? The US government site immediately refreshed its E.coli information link on its site. Sure we can manage the temperature part of avoiding the  scary consequence, but what do we know about meals we purchase or those we order in a restaurant? How comfortable are we about asking the necessary, detailed questions? Are we better off just moving away from the ground beef discussion? What about ground turkey or ground chicken?

In the lengthy, graphic New York Times piece, Costco seems to come out a winner. Another possible bright spot is Whole Foods with its policy about grinding the product fresh at each store. This is the type of information we need to feel safe. Then it is up to us to prepare it properly.

Cooked ground meat cannot sit around. Food safety demands strict adherence to temperature and holding guidelines. Yes, some of the onus is on us, but we need to know what we have. Manufacturers have to be honest about the process. The end result is far too scary. The burger may look good enough to eat; we just need to understand its history!

A veggie burger is gaining appeal!

Safety starts with hands, clean hands, and most often, gloved hands. Yet those same employees cannot handle money one minute and with the same gloves, cut the next guy’s sandwich. It’s all about training and diligence. Stopping infection remains a primary goal. All surfaces need to be clean, spotlessly clean, and all food handlers need to remain vigilant about their own personal hygiene.

If you want to understand a restaurant or foodservice’s commitment to food safety, then visit the establishment’s rest room. If it is a mess, sure, tell someone who is supposed to be monitoring it, but recognize that this may be an indication of the business’s overall commitment to sanitation.

Just this past week, the USDA with HHS consolidated its efforts to inform consumers about food recalls and food safety issues. The Administration has been determined to streamline and make information easily accessible while having agencies concentrate on how they can make food safety a primary concern. This site enables the consumer to sign up for alerts as they happen. The slogan that needs to be followed in a restaurant and at home is to “Clean, Separate (don’t cross-contaminate), Cook (to proper temperature), and Chill (refrigerate properly).” No food group appears immune from safety concerns as this has been a terrifying year in terms of basic, so-called ordinary recalls, peanut butter , for example. The crisis in food safety has gone far beyond farm fields and restaurants, and has impacted all our food safety concerns.

It is time to recognize National Food Safety Education Month as an important process that cannot be ignored the other 11 months of the year.

This is bad. It’s unclear the path the product has taken. It’s also unclear how many people have been affected. Maybe most alarming is that the exact cause is unclear as is the solution.

Just when you thought positive changes were happening within the Food Safety Working Group, something of this magnitude occurs. Oh, by the way, there is also a major hot dog recall–several brand names involved. Tonight, maybe not the grill. Might be a good night for a package of pasta and some freshly chopped tomatoes.

Hello, vegetarians, you may be on to something.

There was lots of finger pointing and accusations, but no food safety. Sure we want our food recalls to become an event of the past. We want food safety to be paramount in discussions. Not everyone can have a personal relationship with a farmer, with membership in a CSA, or even be assured of the locale of the goods. Too many people are taking unfair adminadvantage of touting “local” when they could be describing a product from a significant distance away.

Food miles are important, but food safety does not mean compromise. Everyone, from the farmer to the FDA and kindred agencies, would be more accountable.

Let’s get a move on. Skip the special interests and listen to the needs of all constituents.

We need to know strict food safety laws will be in place.

NOW.

Yes, it has been the year of food recalls, and this one regarding romaine lettuce is all the more painful since I’ve returned to the salad aisle. We’re talking about a product that was shipped to 29 states–do the math, there are only 50 states, this type of recall, whether merely cautionary or not, affects a large number of people and companies.

It almost doesn’t matter what food is being recalled, but that food recalls have become so numerous, and we as consumers are so vulnerable. This has been the year of the peanut butter, pistachio, and refrigerated cookie dough recall–all products that cut across a broad swath of our society. As we try to improve food safety and consider giving the FDA greater powers and more staff, we are still left without 100% confidence.

It always goes back to the question of who to trust. Even if you have befriended your local farmer and visit numerous farm stands for your fruits and vegetables, there are still plenty of days you need to pop into the supermarket, sometimes just for that extra head of lettuce or some cilantro, another product recently on the recall list.

Whether you call it coriander or cilantro, lettuce or romaine, it behooves us to stay alert.

Time to start more seeds for the fall homegrown crops!

Today would be a good day to get a boost from some other source. No matter how seductive the vials look or entice–NOT TODAY.

How about an extra espresso?

If you have hesitated to fill your key chain with your frequent shopper card, you may think twice about that decision

This has been a scary food and health week. What started as a limited voluntary recall by JBS Swift of some of its beef products for suspected E. Coli is now listed by the CDC as a multistate outbreak. Then there was the Plainview Milk Products Cooperative nonfat dry milk Salmonella suspicion. It, too, started out with a seemingly limited impact and has become more of a major event. It is nice to know that the grocery tracking system has an inherent safety feature.

Then there’s the fallout from the voluntary recall for suspected Salmonella. If you want to understand the depth of the problem: Here’s an easy way. Dunkin’ Donuts has stopped selling its Dunkaccino drinks and hot chocolate as they were made with the mixes from this company. Stop & Shop also stopped selling its nonfat packaged milk products.

So earlier this week both the milk and the beef had more limited recalls. A simple takeway here: When there is a general recall, it is quite possible it will become a bigger one. One that reaches closer to everyone’s shopping and purchasing habits. We should have learned that from both the peanut butter and pistachio recalls.

It’s been a tough week, and it’s only Thursday.

Hard to have a warm, cuddly feeling about our food supply!