Senate passes food safety bill

"The Senate on Tuesday approved a vast overhaul of the nation’s nearly century-old food safety system, ending more than a year of political stalemate and boosting the Food and Drug Administration’s power to deal with contaminated products that have sickened thousands of Americans."

Not sure what's behind this (other than big-Food/agribiz lobbyists), but according to a chart I saw in the paper, 12 people have died in 2008-2010 from e-coli or Salmonella. Meanwhile in the same time period I think about 15,000 teenagers have died in auto accidents because we don't raise the legal driving age to 18. So it seems this is just a power move on the part of another government bureaucracy and/or the mega-food companies to drive out the little guy with higher costs, but it's not a safety measure. (There are some who think it is a deliberate move to raise food prices and level of panic among voters.) Even the problems they had with food safety in the last few years could be traced back to unsanitary conditions, often using illegal agricultural workers.

Senate passes food safety bill - Meredith Shiner and Scott Wong - POLITICO.com

Carolina Farm Stewardship Association

HALE: Food-safety law raises prices, puts unreliable FDA in charge - Daily Nebraskan - Opinion


Lobbying Spending Database-Food Industry, 2010 | OpenSecrets

Monday Memories--Mother's mixing bowl

Do you ever freeze any leftovers and then aren't quite sure what they are? That happened to me yesterday. I thought we were going to have spaghetti for supper, and when I thawed the package (unlabeled) it was chili. So I made chili-mac by adding some cooked macaroni and added two lonely slices of cheese. Quite tasty with the fresh blueberries topped with plain yogurt, and key lime pie later. Anyway, while we were eating my husband mentioned that tonight the artists are having their potluck at the home of the Rhein Center director. I'm in class until 5:30, pot luck is at 6. So what to bring that can be reheated? The chili-mac tasted so good, I decided to go to the little grocery up the street and buy the beans and a little hamburger. This morning I began looking through the cupboard for the right dish, and found this, which I'd forgotten I have since I'm not sure I ever used it--a covered vegetable dish in the apple pear design by Harker.

I bought it a few years ago from a local "antique" store because it reminded me of a bowl that my mother had for many years. I'm a little fuzzy on the details, and it was no longer in the kitchen after my dad died, or I would have asked for it. Maybe someone else in the family also has happy memories of pies and cookies from this mixing bowl?

I heard this morning that there is an e. coli outbreak from raw retail cookie dough. When I was cleaning the bowl and spoon from Mom's bowl, there was no danger because Mom carefully checked to make sure no cracked or damaged eggs went into her food. She was also careful about washing her hands and cleaning the counter top after handling eggs or raw meat. But these days, the salmonellosis passes directly from the chicken to the eggs, and no crack is necessary. So I don't think it is safe to eat anything with eggs uncooked.

Most types of Salmonella live in the intestinal tracts of animals and birds and are transmitted to humans by contaminated foods of animal origin. Stringent procedures for cleaning and inspecting eggs were implemented in the 1970s and have made salmonellosis caused by external fecal contamination of egg shells extremely rare. However, unlike eggborne salmonellosis of past decades, the current epidemic is due to intact and disinfected grade A eggs. The reason for this is that Salmonella enteritidis silently infects the ovaries of healthy appearing hens and contaminates the eggs before the shells are formed. USDA

So, things change. Not everything in the "good old days" was safer or better, but some things, like memories of Mom in the kitchen and safe eggs were.

Who bears the responsibility?

If the managers and owners of Peanut Corporation of America knew about the salmonella contamination, they are worse than pond scum and should go to jail. But what about all the workers, the ones who now say they saw the filth, the rats, the chipped paint above roasters?

Terry Jones, a janitor, remembered the peanut oil left to soak into the floor and the unrepaired roof that constantly leaked rain.

And James Griffin, a cook at the plant, recounted how his observations led to this simple rule. “I never ate the peanut butter, and I wouldn’t allow my kids to eat it.”

In interviews, these three men and another employee who worked at the now-closed plant, provided an inside glimpse into the day-to-day sanitation lapses there. AJC.com

There must have been employees up and down the line, managers, union members, illegals and legals, educated and no-so-much, who saw and didn't act because they wanted to keep their jobs. How is that different than the men testifying before Congressional leaders whose values and ethics are also screwed up?

So now a government that can't provide enough employees so the FDA can keep the plants inspected using regulations and laws long on the books is going to spend massive amounts of our money dabbling in less critical facets of our lives, like universal pre-school, light bulbs to save energy and dangerous to dispose, and rewriting marriage laws so gays don't feel left out.

Good news about tomatoes

Apparently there's no salmonella threat. We can eat tomatoes again.

Although the FDA still believes that fresh tomatoes may have been a source of the bacteria in the early days of the outbreak, last week it said it is now safe to eat them because the trail had now turned toward fresh peppers.

Dr. David Acheson, the beleaguered FDA associate commissioner in charge of the probe, on Monday called the discovery of a genetic match for the salmonella strain on the jalapeño "a very important break in the case," although the ultimate source of the contamination has yet to be found.

Acheson was clear that, although the pepper came from a farm in Mexico, it has yet to be determined whether the source of contamination was on the farm, at the distributor or somewhere in between.San Francisco Chronicle

But there's more good news about tomatoes. New research shows the mechanism behind tomatoes' protective effect against prostate cancer. Rats fed tomato paste plus FruHis, a carbohydrate derivative present in dehydrated tomato products, lived longer than those in any other group. On postmortem examination, prostate tumors were found in 18% of rats in the tomato paste plus FruHis group compared with 39% of rats in the tomato paste only group, 43% of rats in the tomato powder group, and 63% of rats in the control group.

A combination of lycopene, an antioxidant in tomatoes that also protects against DNA damage, and FruHis caused a greater than 98% inhibition of prostate cancer cell growth in vitro compared with single agents. (story from JAMA, July 2, 2008, p. 33) Research published in Cancer Research 2008;68[11]:4384-4391.

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Chicken and salmonella

The news was full of some Salmonella stories this morning--pot pies, I think. Chicken just must be cooked thoroughly before you eat it. Same with giving uncooked meat to your pets. They all have it. Kill it!

"The company reminds consumers that these products are not ready-to-eat, and must always be thoroughly cooked as instructed on the packages," the company said in a statement on its Web site. "The cooking instructions for these products are specifically designed to eliminate the presence of common pathogens found in many uncooked products."

The pot pies in question have the code P-9 printed on the side of the package, ConAgra said." CNN

I served chicken cordon bleu (swiss or Provolone and ham rolled inside chicken breast) the other night, with cooked carrots and fresh greens salad, banana nut muffin with sugar free Cool Whip. Yummy. However, I did purchase the chicken roll ups at Fresh Market, which is the next best thing to having a chef drop by at dinner time. The instructions said, "Bake at 350 degrees for approximately 20 minutes wrapped loosely with foil. Uncover and bake approximately 15 more minutes. I added 5 minutes, and still think it should have been more, because my husband's portion was just slightly pink. Next time. . . I'll adjust the cooking time and also split the portions. My husband complained that they were too large. Hmm. I had no problem at all.

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BARF

As seen at Medscape.com continuing education unit on zoonotic diseases (requires registration):

The current trend for "natural diets" has led some owners to provide their dogs with a "bones and raw food diet (BARF)." The diet often consists of whole raw chicken mixed with vegetables. A recent study found that 80% of dogs fed this diet shed Salmonella in their stool. Another source of Salmonella for dogs and, subsequently, human infections has been processed pig ear treats.

Hmm, as they say, "everything but the squeal," but I don't think I'd buy that "treat."