WHY DO WE HAVE METAL BITS IN OUR FOOD?

We have had all kinds of unpleasant contaminants turning up in our food. But I don't recall any week such as the past one for bits of metal causing food recalls. That's factory-produced food for you. You sometimes end up with the machinery as well! And I bet the U.S. is not the only country where this is occurring.

The most recent incident: the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced that Advance Pierre Foods, of Oklahoma is recalling some 1,200 pounds of fried chicken breasts because they may contain small pieces of metal. The products were distributed in Kansas, Louisiana, Missouri, Oklahoma and Texas.

Before that, we had Annie's Homegrown Inc., of Berkeley, Califoria (down the road from where I live)recalling many of their frozen pizzas because of suspected tiny metal fragments in the crust. And, before that we had BBU Inc. (the parent of Bimbo Bakeries) recalling multiple Thomas', Publix, Sara Lee and Weight Watchers fresh bagels because of pieces of metal being found.

How does this happen? Well, a variety of ways. In the case of the recalled chicken breasts, the company said that the problem occurred when a small metal hand tool fell into a grinder. Apparently the problem was discovered by the company's metal detectors but somehow or other, the chicken was packaged and shipped before the company could begin diverting the product (figure that one out if you can).

In the case of Annie's, they seem to have been a victim of their pizza crust supplier's bad equipment maintenance: there was a defective metal mesh screen at the flour mill, pieces of which ended up in the flour and from there in the pizza crust and in the pizza.

As for Bimbo Bakeries, all the information given is that the presence of fragments of metal was caused by "a faulty manufacturing part." Another case of deferred maintenance?

Again, as I have said before in discussing such "foreign objects" in our food, I bet much of this is due to financially struggling companies trying to cut their costs by not doing regular maintenance of their processing equipment.

To your good health,

TSF

ARE MOLDY DONUTS UNHEALTHY?

Earlier this month there was a recall of donuts in the U.S. Rather unusual. We tend to think of food recalls in terms of meat, produce or dairy products - but donuts? The reason was also not a common one. Bimbo Bakeries, USA, recalled several lots of its Entenmann’s Pop ‘Ems Donuts and Bimbo Donitas distributed in Arizona, California, Idaho, Nevada, Utah and Wyomin because of mold. Reportedly some consumers not only reported odd appearance and smell, but illness. Were they imagining it, or can mold actually cause food poisoning?

In most cases, moldy food is not dangerous. In fact, "good mold" is used to make many kinds of foods, including certain cheeses. But some molds produce dangerous mycotoxins some of the time - when the conditions are right. The best known of these mycotoxins is aflatoxin, but there are plenty of others, including fumonisin, vomitoxin, zearalenone and ochratoxin. These molds and their toxins can potentially pop up in anything we eat, including grains and grain-based foods like bread and donuts, nuts, peanuts, spices, dairy and even produce.

It is unlikely that you will get a big enough dose of a mycotoxin from a single serving of moldy food to become suddenly and violently ill. But mycotoxins in your food could have a longer-term effect. In fact, some of these toxins have been linked to several forms of cancer and other diseases as well. The research is at a very early stage, except in the case of aflatoxin. Who knows what we'll find out in the future.

And, the trouble is that you can't tell when one of the fungi like Aspergillus, Claviceps, Penicillium or Fusarium takes it into its fuzzy mind to start spitting out these toxic byproducts. So, if you find moldy food in your refrigerator or on your kitchen shelf, throw it out. That's what I did with some bread today. Even though I hate wasting food, it is better than ruining your health.

TSF

P.S.: The Safe Food Handbook provides more detail on how you can avoid mold on food, and also how you can save some of the moldy food by careful removal of mold.