DON'T LET YOUR TOAST KILL YOU

Well, it seems that burnt toast has brought me back to blogging. It was bound to happen eventually, but I sort of wish it had been something more dramatic (another Fukashima?).

Today seems to be “acrylamide” day in the United States. A long list of on-line sites have suddenly discovered this potentially cancer-causing cooking chemical (MSN, CBS, sciencefocus.com, fox13news.com, lifescript.com, wdef.com, news.sky.com, and many, many more). Most have associated it with burnt toast and/or potatoes. It seems that Britain’s Food Standards Agency (FSA) started the ball rolling.

I hate to be doing a Trump and knock the media. But while it may not be fake news, it is very old news. European countries recognized acrylamide as a potential cause of cancer ages ago and have been educating the public well before Britain joined the chorus. And as for the United States…well. It has gone back and forth, but has been afraid to stick its bureaucratic neck out (the potato chip lobby at work?).

Now I am going to boast, which seems to be fashionable these days, at least in political circles. I did a thorough review of the issue about ten years ago. The Safe Food Handbook: How to Make Smart Choices about Risky Food, has a relatively short section on it – much shorter than originally went to the publisher.

And if you read it, you may find some other surprising foods that can contain acrylamide, not just burnt toast and certain kinds of potatoes.

But let me finish on a positive note about toast. One or two slices is not going to do it, so don't worry too much.

TSF (By the way, for those who always wondered, that stands for "The Safe Foodie."

IS BIRD FLU A FOOD SAFETY CONCERN?

The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), for which I have worked, has just put out a new alert on "bird flu" - correct name "Avian Influenza" . Remember how scared we were of it years ago? And then, we forgot all about it. Now apparently it is on the rise again, especially in Asia.

When I was writing The Safe Food Handbook, I debated whether to include bird flu in the discussion of risks in meat and poultry. In the end I did - because I became convinced that there could indeed be a resurgence of it and the virus could mutate. But the final section on it is very abbreviated because it is not currently considered a food risk in North America.

True, the most common way you can catch this potentially deadly kind of flu (which has about a 60% mortality rate) is not through eating undercooked chicken or other poultry or eggs. Rather, it is through handling diseased birds (including wild ones) or touching their saliva or droppings. And, even through breathing in contaminated dust. Many of the children who have caught it did so when cleaning out poultry cages - a chore I well remember having to do as a child.

But can you ever get it from food? I became very involved in researching this issue, spending weeks on it, reviewing all the global case studies and research I could find. Yes, there have been a limited number of cases recorded where people did catch it from undercooked poultry or dishes made with poultry blood. However, many more have caught it from preparing the raw poultry.

So, how worried should you be if you don't work on a poultry farm - just eat poultry? In general, I would say "not much" especially if you don't live in countries where it is presently most prevalent - Egypt, Bangladesh, China, India, Indonesia, Cambodia or Vietnam. But with bird migration and the globalization of our food supply, this could change. Occasional cases have indeed occurred elsewhere.

To my knowledge, there has been just one small - and quickly caught - outbreak of this H5N1 virus in the US - on an Idaho pheasant farm (in September 2008).

To your good health,
TSF