THE BIGGEST THREAT IN THE U.S. FOOD SUPPLY

I am just back from a neighborhood social event. One of the people there (a retired psychologist by the way) asked me what I thought was the biggest safety threat in the U.S. food supply. Trust a psychologist to ask a difficult question like that.

Really, I am not trying to evade the question, but the only answer I can give is "It depends." It depends on the specific food involved, on who you are (some kinds of people are more vulnerable to one kind of contaminant, some to another), and on whether we are talking about short term risks or longer term ones.

Mostly, what we hear about in the news, and what we tend to think about as food contaminants, are those microbes such as E.coli 0157:H7, Salmonella, Staphylococcus and Listeria monocytogenes which can give us a violent bout of illness (usually diarrhea, stomach cramps, vomiting, nausea, weakness). Very nasty, but in the majority of cases, this kind of "food poisoning" will be over in a few days. Unless, of course, you are unlucky enough to be among the 2% or so of people who end up with a chronic health condition as a result.

Then there are those hazards in food which can threaten our long-term health and happiness - increasing our chances of certain cancers, damage our body organs, or give us milder, but still irritating problems such as skin rashes or degenerative conditions.

So which are the biggest threats? It depends on your point of view. If you are a professional performer or an athlete, who needs to be at their peak tomorrow, or the next day, you will naturally be more concerned about bacteria and viruses. If you are thinking long-term health, you may want to think more about drug residues and chemicals in your food.

TSF

RECALL OF GROUND BEEF

It has been a fairly quiet year for ground beef recalls. So I suppose it was time for one more before the end of 2010. The recalled product is "organic" ground beef - which we would like to think is a little better. This time it isn't.

The recalling firm is based in California. It has one of those quality-sounding names that are common in the food business - "First Class Foods, Inc." Unfortunately, first class or not, it is in trouble. Over the years several companies have folded because of E.coli 0157 in their ground meat. Recalls are very costly. And we may be in trouble too if we eat that meat undercooked. As we all know, ground meat is the most risky of all fresh meat products, because of the way it is made. E.coli 0147 can give you bloody diarrhea, and dehydration. In most severe cases, kidney failure can occur. No fun. Most likely to become seriously ill are young children, seniors and anyone with a weak immune system.

By the way, this is the fifth case in 2010 (12 mos.) of E.coli 0147 that testing has turned up in widely sold U.S. ground beef or raw beef products (such as raw patties, burgers). Plus two more in meat that would probably have been ground at the retailers, as it often is.

Here are the facts:

- Products were sent to retail establishments in Calif., N.J., N.Y., N.C., Wis., and Wash. State.

- The ones being recalled are:

---16-oz. packages of "NATURE'S HARVEST ORGANIC GROUND BEEF BRICK" sold singly with one of the following "USE or FREEZE by" dates: "12/30/10" or "01/08/11."
---16-oz. packages of "ORGANIC HARVEST ORGANIC GROUND BEEF BRICK" sold singly and in three-packs with one of the following "USE or FREEZE by" dates: "12/28/10" or "01/06/11."
---16-oz. packages of NATURE'S HARVEST GROUND PATTY" containing four (4) 4-oz. patties with the following "USE or FREEZE by" date: "12/30/10" or "01/08/11."
--- Each package label has the establishment number "EST. 18895"

If you have questions, you can call the USDA Meat and Poultry Hotline (1-888-MPHOTLINE) or Lucienne Adams -(310) 676-2500 at the recalling company. That is, if they are answering.

Remember, in many recalls, additional products and additional companies are added later, so you may want to be even more cautious. That is, if you don't want a bad start to 2011.

Cook those burgers well!
TSF

E. coli O157:H7 in Costco Cheese

E. coli O157:H7 is a particularly nasty bacterium. Only a few in your food can be enough to give you a totally miserable week or so of diarrhea and stomach cramps. For people who are more vulnerable, and especially young children (under age 5), and sometimes, older adults, it can even be much worse. Just as they seem to be improving, they develop a type of kidney failure called hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS). HUS can be fatal.

We tend to associate E. coli O157:H7 with meat, particularly consumption of undercooked hamburgers. True, it turns up there fairly regularly, including in the past few months. But vegans - don't think you are safe. It can be on your fruit and vegetables too. And, for those who eat dairy - it can be right in the cheese.
That is where it has been turning up in the past ten days. On November 4, the FDA informed us that E. coli O157:H7 had been found in Bravo Farms Dutch Style Gouda cheese. Ugh - offered at in-store tastings by Costco in Arizona, California, Colorado, New Mexico and Nevada and sold in Costco stores. ("Would you like a little taste of deadly bacteria?") People in the Southwest are getting very sick...although no one has died yet.

Then today I found another cheese recall, this time for Mauri Gorgonzola cheese with sell-by dates of 01/31/11 and 01/14/11. It has also tested positive for E. coli O157:H7. And, again Costco is selling it. DPI Specialty Foods of Tualatin, Ore., cut, packaged and distributed the cheese to Costco stores in Colorado. According to the FDA, the strain of E. coli O157:H7 in this cheese is different from the one in the earlier alert. So what is happening? Who knows. Once the investigation is completed - and this could take weeks, or even months - we may be told the cause. But - and this is an update(11/15) further investigation shows Costco is blameless. It wasn't one of their workers, contaminating it while cutting it up. The cheese came from DPI Specialty Foods already carrying the E.coli (proven through its presence in an unopened package).

In the meantime, I continue to suggest a preventive approach. If you would just as soon not spend the next week or more in misery, don't buy or eat any kind of cheese distributed by DPI Specialty Foods or bought at Costco, until we find out more (contaminated equipment? sick workers with poor sanitation? ). It could well be that other cheese products will be implicated as well. If you want to be even safer, cut out all cheese for a while, as the problem or problems may turn out to be earlier in the food chain - and, could be an ingredient problem.

TSF

Unhealthy Spinach, Healthy Spinach

Americans love spinach. And we believe it is good for us. According to some statistics, teenage girls eat the least spinach, and women over 40 eat the most. Does this mean that we women must be undergoing some type of spinach epiphany somewhere between the ages of 20 and 40?

Most of the spinach we eat is grown right here in the United States. The U.S. is in fact, the world's second largest producer of spinach (China is well in the lead, with about 85 percent of the world's output). Most of what we buy is in fresh form. Whether fresh or frozen, we eat the bulk of our spinach at home.

For some reason, which always escapes me, a lot of my friends like their spinach raw - in the form of spinach salads. Of course, that leaves them more vulnerable to risks, since the cooking "kill" step is missing. Any bacteria (or parasites) in it, is going to end in us.

Remember that huge outbreak of food borne illness in 2006, caused by E.coli 0157 in bagged spinach? There have been some other smaller ones linked to spinach since. Most recently (in May, 2010) Salmonella bacteria were found in organic bagged spinach (no confirmed illnesses yet). Both of these instances originated in Salinas, California. True, there may well be animal-feces irrigation water being used, or, bacteria-carrying wild pigs running around the spinach patch. But the odds are, any problems in spinach that originate at the farm level, will be traced back to Salinas. After all, Salinas, California produces around 75 percent of the U.S. spinach crop.

Of course, if you eat your spinach cooked, you will be far less likely to come down with a nasty illness that originates in cattle or wild pig feces. But I have found few American restaurants - even those serving Italian food - that serve delicious cooked spinach the way I always ate it when working in Rome: delightfully covered in slices of roasted garlic, fresh lemon juice and olive oil. You may never eat a risky spinach salad again.

bon appetit!
TSF