Worried about food safety? You should be
October 27, 2008
A new poll says 90% of U.S. consumers are worried about food safety, but 79% of the worried think the problems are with imported food and only 21% are worried about domestic food. Everybody should be worried about both, if you ask me. The U.N. says China needs to do something about its food safety problems, and fast. That would help. China reports that melamine has been found in eggs, of all things (the chickens ate contaminated feed?). So would cleaning up our own food safety system.
People should also be concern about eating salmon from a specific region in Chile. Not only do they use way too much antibiotics in their aquatic pens but since the summer of last year, there has been an outbreak of the salmon anemia virus.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/27/world/americas/27salmon.html?_r=1&no_interstitial&oref=slogin
Comment by Foodaroo — October 27, 2008 @ 9:13 am
I would be concerned about the safety of milk in the United States with so many of the cattle being injected with genetically engineered Recombinant Bovine Growth Hormone, rBGH, (or the more industry friendly term BST, Bovine Somatotropin rBST) as well as extensive use of antibiotics in healthy cattle.
the following excerpt from:
http://www.becomehealthynow.com/article/dietbad/1196
“Moreover, the FDA ruled, in a decision marred by rampant conflict of interest (several key FDA decision makers, including Michael Taylor, previously worked for Monsanto), that rBGH-derived products did not have to be labeled, despite polls showing that 90% of American consumers wanted labeling — mainly so they could avoid buying rBGH-tainted products.
All of the major criticisms leveled against rBGH have turned out to be true. Since 1994, every industrialized country in the world, except for the US, has banned the drug.”
For some reason, the FDA would like you do believe that milk with added Growth Hormones is the same as milk without them added. It seems the rest of the first world countries are interested in the health of their citizens, e.g. “European Union Scientific Committee Says Monsanto’s Posilac (rBGH) Should Not Be Used”. It is time to contact to FDA and ask them to review such a tainted decision.
If you are concerned with this issue for yourself and for others you could avoid dairy products and/or http://www.fda.gov/comments.html
Take action!
Comment by Daniel Ithaca, NY — October 29, 2008 @ 1:23 pm
Daniel, your comment reminded me of a post I saw over on Gourmet’s Food Politics. Barry Estabrook says:
“In the waning months of the Bush administration, the [FDA] has been working overtime to please big businesses by stripping away regulatory protection.”
And he’s keeping a tally:
“January 2008: The FDA says that meat and milk from cloned animals is safe to eat.
August 2008: The FDA says it’s OK to have levels of the chemical Bisphenol A in plastic bottles, even though some countries have banned its use because it can disrupt hormone function.
August 2008: The FDA gives its blessing to irradiating spinach and lettuce.
September 2008: The FDA issues guidelines aimed at paving the way for genetically modified meat and fish in our diets.
October 2008: The FDA establishes “safe” limits for the poisonous chemical melamine in food, while most other countries ban milk products from China outright because of melamine contamination.”
There does seem to be a trend there.
Comment by Bix — October 29, 2008 @ 3:56 pm