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Posts Tagged food safety

Watch Your Oscar Snacks

Mar 5

Posted by admin in lifestyle, news

Big food weekend coming up with so many people trying to figure out how to host Oscar-themed parties. Go with Julie & Julia and it’ll be tricky for food pairings (better get started now), but not as complicated as fooding Avatar.

If you’re thinking about carrying in to help ease the set-up, then you have some additional homework. In one of the larger, more widespread FDA recalls, hydrolyzed vegetable protein (HVP) has been targeted for a Salmonella outbreak. This is a tricky one. First of all, if you follow the “I don’t buy it if I can’t spell it” rule, you’d never have it within 50 yards of your cupbaords or refrig. The problem is far more complicated as it is a pervasive ingredient. You may be surprised by its presence! Scroll through the list and start checking your larder. Almost all of the government agencies that get involved with food safety issues (USDA, CDC, FDA) have information on their sites. Plenty to read.salmonella

Popular veggie and spinach dips, some types of potato chips, soup mixes, pre-packaged meals (various tofus), and organic salad dressings are well-defined on this list.

This recall started the week with fewer items, but has multiplied.

Be thorough as this ingredient has become a popular additive. Even some Chinese restaurants list their HVP menus which they have cleverly crafted to increase their dining base. You don’t want to ruin the Red Carpet or miss the weekend festivities.

Lotsa movie competition. Make room.

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Kick-Off: Food to Score

Feb 5

Posted by admin in food universe, lifestyle

OK, as a food blogger, I’d be remiss not talking about what food you need to have on hand for this weekend’s long extravaganza of a Super Bowl. Of course, if you are in the weather-beleaguered East Coast, you may be entertaining yourself in front of the game as mountains of snow are again predicted for this, the third weekend in a row!

Even if you are left with leftovers, most games revolve around the seasonal avocado. Grocers are touting their special prices for this versatile fruit/vegetable with its heart-healthy fats. Not everyone has to turn it into a chip dip of guacamole. The naturally, beautifully colored sliced avocado turns an ordinary platter into a more attractive platter for deli meats or cheeses. Yes, deli somehow wins over the legions of sandwich lovers, and dips of all types manage to fill the groaning board.

You would think this would be an impossible food celebration without wings. For over a week now, every bar and grocer has been promoting prepared wings and wings to prepare. Don’t forget the sauces as those who like milder wings will attest, they prefer to dip the wings into some condiment combination.

The other food that begs big bowl mastery is chili. This is the time of year chili cook-offs win over new legions of followers from the bean-no bean turf wars to the vegan aficionados.

The food safety people have even gotten into the act making certain you remember about temperature and storage.fsbillboard_feb2010_1

However you approach the weekend, remember this football maxim: The game takes forever. Food has to last into overtime.

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USDA–Hello, Anyone There? Anyone Care?

Jan 3

Posted by admin in Administration

I guess being naive is a blessing. Who knew that it was OK to inject animals with AMMONIA so it would kill off any potential E. coli or Salmonella pathogen? Not me. And in my limited scientific world, it sounds disgusting, and wrong. Wait, there’s more; the SD Beef company that came up with this idea often got a pass in terms of reinspections.

(It is important to note that the USDA has revoked the company’s automatic exemption from the routine tests and plans to conduct a review of their processes and that the company has not been linked to a major outbreak). A major front page newspaper article was able to get individuals at the Department to focus on the seriousness of the issue.

Wait. The story gets worse. A lot of this “ammonia-ed” meat went into burgers for the school lunch program and to big name fast food restaurants and grocers. Remember all those discussions we had about the end of the burger? Maybe it should be called the end of the USDA as we know it and the creation of a new agency that understands food safety.

This is disgusting. The fact that this kind of pass-play has been going on for several years now says no one is looking nor is anyone being logical about the dire state of our food safety network. We were told and basically believed that food safety would be a major issue that would be tackled and improved during the early years of this Administration.

They were wrong. We were wronged.

Once again we are left with the “now what” approach to food safety. Even after multiple suspensions and violations, the company is still on the approved list! How many millions of pounds of this ammonia processed food have worked their way through the system? Through our bodies? How much more is out there ready to be consumed? logo_v2_2We can’t be fighting bacteria in our food preparation if products are sneaking through the system without proper inspections.

Not everyone can grind their own meat or shop at grocers that promise they are using straight beef products and not supplementing the meats with parts that make it into pet food.

We need to be comfortable about the food we eat and be secure that our children in the National School Lunch Program, part of the USDA, are being given safe food. Officials should not be making decisions based on price alone; the product needs to be thoroughly examined and given a positive stamp of approval. A maybe doesn’t work.

Food safety has to be a front burner issue.

Now.

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Holiday Recall

Dec 24

Posted by admin in health, news

The irony is not lost on me that this year, the year of so many significant food recalls, ends the decade with another holiday problem.

Let’s review the big impact recalls of ‘09: Peanut Butter, Pistachios, Refrigerated Cookie Dough, Ground Beef, and now another seasonal nut: Hazelnuts. Before we discuss the particulars, let me warn again about ground beef: There’s been another recall.

It’s not too late to get a grinder attachment for your mixer and buy a chuck roast, trim the fat, and make your own 80-20 burger. They come out beautifully and are free of anxiety fears! If you miss out on the Holiday wish list, look for this product on the After-Christmas sales. You’ll be feeling smug about the decision all year–OK, don’t forget the meat thermometer. Together the two products, which will not cost that much, will save you a blood pressure spike every time you read about another meat recall!

Now about those nuts. It’s really been a bad news year for nuts. The overall industry has been hard hit by Salmonella problems and now the popular Hazelnut or as it is often called the Filbert, has joined the dreaded list. Here’s an update from the Oregon Department of Agriculture. It seems not everyone agrees with that assessment and believes that the potential for Salmonella is enough to warrant action. I agree. I’m too squeamish to take a chance. I’ll need to wait it out.

nutbowl

As we leave this decade, the almost one-year old promise of solving Food Safety concerns is still out there. Let’s make sure food safety regulation and monitoring happens early in the new year. Everyone will benefit.

Promises; promises.

We need action.

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Ugly News

Dec 10

Posted by admin in Administration, health, news

We could spend all our time concentrating on news that’s hard to lose: The kind of news that fills the plate but sickens the diner. If you guess food recalls, you’ve got the Ace of Spades. It’s been a tough year as recalls have mounted on top of recalls. Staying on the safe side of food safety has been an ongoing challenge. We’ve had the peanut butter debacle, various fruits and vegetable recalls including cantaloupes, and the big cookie dough scare. As for meats, there have been ongoing chicken concerns, hot dog issues, and numerous ground beef problems.

Is it time to breathe a sigh of relief? Are these recalls a thing of the past? No, not so fast. Once again the ground beef news has been troubling. Another ground beef recall; this one possibly more worrisome as it involved repackaging goods that were known to be on the recall list.

Where is the FDA, the CDC, the Ag Department on all of this? Who’s watching the store? Wasn’t the Administration touting its commitment to overall issues of food safety? What happened?

Not much actually. OK, make that nothing. We are still straddling the line between increased inspections and limited corrections. Food Safety is still a top burner issue that cannot seem to get the attention necessary to move it to the forefront of regulation. This is one time the cry of too much government will not work. We need the inspections to avoid the recalls.

Getting a recall notice is not the right direction. We need to stop the problem at the source; not after the fact.

I’m thinking macaroni is looking pretty good right now.macaroni

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The Less Appetizing Aspects of Food

Dec 3

Posted by admin in news

It should come as no surprise that investigative reporting will turn up some news we don’t want to know or even think about. Hamburger recalls and E.coli was one such problem. Finding additives in our foods or uncovering salmonella in cantaloupe is another.

We haven’t attacked chicken in a while. Whoa. Stop there. The Consumer Report article just came out and the news is bleak; downright scary. Two-thirds of the almost 400 tested broilers were contaminated with some form of bacteria. Not a pretty picture.

Whenever we’ve talked about food safety, we’ve also talked about the safe handling of food, and with chicken cross-contamination is a major problem. It is always recommended that surfaces be santitized fully and some food experts even suggest that chicken should not be rinsed prior to cooking as further contamination is possible.taylorthermom

What happens when you follow the cooking guidelines? (Cook chicken til at least 165 degrees). Are the pathogens destroyed? After all, we seldom eat our chicken meat raw, but are we careful enough about the proper handling and cooking temperatures? When we buy chicken, air-chilled broilers top the list for the safest purchase.

The results should be good for shoppers who follow the brands. Perdue scored significantly better than many of its competitors as 56% of their chickens were free of the most dangerous bacteria. Tyson and Foster Farms will not be as pleased by the results( pathogens found in 80% of the tested product from these two companies). Bell & Evans did well, but the sample size was too small to yield conclusive results.

Consumer Reports has done a very good job lately of riding the food safety bandwagon. The news has proven disconcerting for most of us! It’s not that difficult to turn us into an anxious nation of worriers about our food safety. Tests and results are critical pieces of information, but we need to make certain we understand all the component parts.

Who do we turn to for results? The FDA or USDA? It doesn’t matter. As consumers we just need to know that the products we purchase have been inspected and the safety of our food has been secured.

Definitely not getting that feeling tonight!

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We’re Talkin’ Hash

Nov 27

Posted by admin in cooking, food universe

It seems no matter the size of the bird, there are leftovers. Same is true with stuffing and the bounty of veggies. What do you do with each of the items? So many people swear by the big sandwich: Turkey, stuffing, cranberries, and gravy. Not bad.

Then there’s the hash theory. Get some eggs, cube the turkey, add the stuffing, and chop up some other vegetables like peppers and mushrooms and turkey hash is a pleaser.

The goal is the same: Turkey sandwiches lose their appeal quickly and inventiveness or incorporating multiple ingredients seems the easiest, best route.

It’s funny: We eat turkey sandwiches all year round, but the days following Thanksgiving, they seem to be a redundant statement to the overall feast of folly.

Don’t forget a turkey salad with a side of cranberries. We seem to remember to make chicken salad, but with the leftover fixings, we should not ignore the obvious!  turkeysalad

No matter the direction you take, remember the food safety rules: You only have a few days to finish the turkey so enjoy the wonderful memories, but finish it off by the end of the weekend. The sooner the better. As for other parts of the Thanksgiving meal, refrigerated storage for gravy is much shorter. To preserve the meal, especially if there are large quantities left, then the freezer route buys you some time.

Enjoy the continued bounty.

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Three-Bean Casserole Alert

Nov 5

Posted by admin in FDA, health, news

The December 2009 issue of Consumer Reports adds to our worry column. We’ve had a week of E.coli reports and undeclared allergens but what about the go-to foods when we just want a little help and the refrigerator section of fresh produce is bare? OK, problem on shelf one.

It’s that time of year when farm market selections get a little repetitive, and it’s a long wait til we rework the soil for the spring garden. Canned goods have a place in our food preparation. Maybe more so at this time of the year than other seasons.

Now this report says: Hold on there: Not everything is as safe as you’d like. Personally, I’ve always preferred glass jars to metal cans but not every manufacturer is on my program. I do have on hand several varieties of metal cans especially for diced bits of tomatoes. Oh, did I mention, tuna. They’re there!

I go with petra paks for soup concentrates but let’s get back to the metal world and this report. (Oops, they found some measurable BPA levels in some packaged soups, but not as high as those found in the specific canned soups). There, of course, is the frozen vegetable category, and Bird’s Eye Steamfresh cut green beans had a very low BPA concentration. Have to practice the Thanksgiving casserole recipe with the frozen beans!steamfresh

Consumer Reports tested 19 brand-name foods, including a few in the sacred organic category, and found measurable levels of Bisphenol A (BPA) in the products, even in some of those marked “BPA-free.” Canned green beans and canned soups were some of the worst offenders.

BPA exposure especially in infants and young children is a worrisome issue. With older adults it has been directly linked to numerous diseases and cancers. This is one more item, an important one, on the FDA plate: Now is the time for them to take action on BPA and eliminate this worry from our long anxiety list. I am not alone on this FDA Take Action strategy. These are the serious health action groups saying: Enough, Act Now.

Mercury, BPA, and the unknown food safety concern make it hard to have my tuna fish salad sandwich for lunch.

I’ll just have a smaller portion.

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When Twitter is Not Enough

Nov 3

Posted by admin in FDA, food, health

fafed014bb31409caa1ed472d9e217beI have been resistant but lately have started to tweet (twitter.com/allbeforecoffee) as a vehicle of immediacy; truly, instant communication. I used it when I heard about the latest ground beef recall. (For some reason, I still do not have all the wireless contraptions cooperating–it seems it took several days to appear in my twitter account from my mobile post–went by way of??)

It’s fine for a heads up message, but this recall is far more invasive and needs banner type attention. I have blogged numerous times about food safety and specifically about burgers, but this time the impact seems even more frightening.

What was a smaller E.coli warning has moved into headline space. People need to know. Products need to be returned. Freezers need to be checked for product. This is a sizable recall notice affecting multiple states and covering a broad range of supermarket shopping locations.

Consumers need to be aware, and then after that we need answers to what appears as a lengthy list of unending questions: How do we stop this from happening again? Who do we trust? What is going on? What next?

Although we have praised the efforts of the Administration in setting its food policy agenda, we are still struggling with the overall issues of food safety. BTW, you can follow the foodsafety folks on twitter!

For now, hamburgers are off the grill.

When can we feel safe?

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Bits and Bites

Oct 17

Posted by admin in Starbucks, lifestyle, news

I love when the news focuses on ideas that get a second look. We comment about something and address its key issues, but when it gets further inspection, then we have accomplished a great deal.

Here’s a good one: The Connecticut Attorney General is investigating the Smart Choices program. This program received initial high praise, but after further inspection, there were questions. This is the product group that affixed so-called healthy nutrition information on packs giving certain foods the go-ahead. Foods like Froot Loops and mayonnaise roused the CT office. Yes.

How about all the attention on Starbucks and its high pricing policies. They came out of that tunnel and are now aggressively promoting the nationwide launch of their instant, yes, instant, paks of coffee. Via has already been positioned on the end caps at Costco. Expect big sales numbers for this product from that marriage: The Big Box and the Instant Darling.

Maybe the best news is the direction the government has taken in the realm of food safety. With one focused site we have half a chance of knowing what’s gone wrong within minutes of the first reports. No longer do we have to search for hours. foodsafetybasics_lgThey have food storage charts and food handling information: All pertinent data to insure food safety. As long as the site remains as it’s intended: A proactive information service, we will all be in a better place.

All the bits and bites come together with two final thoughts for now. The success of various cities’ restaurant weeks has spawned an offshoot: Delivery Week in New York City (Oct 19-31). Imagine other cities with strong neighborhood food delivery services will consider the concept. The price is certainly right for the appetizer, entree, and dessert: Lunch, $12.09; Dinner, $20.09.

Grocery stores continue to find strategies to keep prices in competitive balance as new markets open and challenge the old standbys. Grocery wars whether between Amazon and Wal-Mart or locally-based shops help consumers meet their budgets. Specials, double coupons, and affordable recipes need to continue.

Even on this the 4th straight day of dark, cold, gloomy, depressing rain, there are some positive newsworthy items to digest.

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