STRANGE RECALL OF KIDS ORANGE JUICE

Usually I only blog food recalls in the United States. But I do keep up with those of some other countries as well. The current one in the U.K. is just too odd not to blog. A nice change from the usual boring contaminated sprouts, deli products and cheeses.

Here are the facts: 277 units of Tropicana Kids (multi-packs of 4) Orange Juice Drink were sent out to stores in the U.K. with nothing but plain water in them - no juice at all (usually it's juice plus water). And it's not even "potable" (drinking quality) water. It's too contaminated with bacteria.

Poor PepsiCo has its corporate hands full. How on earth did this happen? Apparently someone at a PepsiCo plant was doing some testing and accidentally sent out the test packages that were meant to be tossed. It was what a PepsiCo spokesman called "a dispatch error." Oh..oh. I hope this isn't going to be a pattern.

The packages have no batch or data codes. The company and the U.K. Food Safety Agency warns people not to drink the stuff. Who would want to, anyway?

To your good health,
TSF

BACK TO FLORIDA ORANGES FOR TROPICANA ORANGE JUICE

Both PepsiCo which makes Tropicana orange juice, and Coca Cola Co. which makes Minute Maid orange juice have found traces of that nasty fungicide, Carbendazim, in their juice. Bad news for the two companies (their stock price suffered) but good news for Florida orange growers.

As we know by now, Carbendazim is used in Brazil to combat black spot and blossom blight on orange trees, and the inclusion of orange juice from Brazil in Tropicana and Minute Maid products was the cause of last week's problems (see previous posts). The use of this fungicide has not been permitted on U.S. oranges in recent years. But reportedly trace amounts of it are allowed in some 31 other foods such as non-citrus fruits, nuts and grains.

The amounts of the fungicide found in the orange juices were not high - but high enough to upset the FDA, and to upset a lot of Americans who drink orange juice every day. And it's not just Americans. I have heard from people in other countries are also concerned. After all, these are global corporations.

The end result: a return to Florida oranges. PepsiCo Inc announced today that it is returning to using only Florida oranges in its Tropicana Pure Premium orange juices. (It had used 100% Florida oranges until 2007). The company claims it made this decision several months ago, even before low levels of this fungicide were found in oranges from Brazil - and, in its juice. The transition is already under way and will be completed by the end of the month.

I think I'll buy PepsiCo stock when the market opens tomorrow. Or, maybe I shouldn't - a California woman is already suing her Tropicana for not being pure enough!

To your good health,

TSF

BRAZIL'S ORANGES : WHAT ABOUT TOXIC PULP?

People everywhere in the world love orange juice. And Brazil is the world's biggest exporter of the product. Think in terms of big tanker ships of the stuff, going everywhere. In fact, Brazil has been called " the Saudi Arabia of orange juice."

But what do you have when you squeeze out the juice? You have orange pulp. In fact, when oranges are processed for juice or sections, 45 to 60 percent of their weight remains in the form of peel, rag and seeds. A pity to waste it. So Brazil's orange growers have caught onto the idea that they can export that as well. Much of it is dried and processed into pellets to be made into animal feed. Since there is no major cattle growing business in Brazil, they are happy to send it to us.

Alright, but when you spray an orange tree with toxic chemicals, the orange peel gets the bulk of the residues. And even if washed well, not all of it can be removed. Now we have found that orange farmers in Brazil are using a lot of the toxic fungicide carbendazim (see previous post), with imported orange juice from Brazil carrying much more of it than say, orange juice made from U.S. oranges. So what about all that citrus pulp that goes into animal feed?

I guess that will hit the headlines soon. In the meantime, let me remind you that the chemicals that our food animals ingest can reach us too. The World Health Organization (WHO) for which I have worked, has put together a nice little list of human food contamination incidents originating in animal feed. And..yes...one of these cases - also quoted in The Safe Food Handbook - involves citrus pulp pellets.

Here's what happened. In March 1998, high levels of dioxins in milk sold in Germany were traced to citrus pulp pellets from - you guessed it - Brazil, that had been used as animal feed. The investigation resulted in a ban on all citrus pulp imports to the EU from Brazil.

So, are we going to find now that there are high levels of carbendazim in our milk or meat? I wouldn't be surprised.

To your good health,

TSF