As consumers, we continue to be confronted with food safety issues - from both domestic and international origins.
It is clear from many sources (articles, books, documentary films, private organizations) that the food we eat continues to pose serious health risks to all age groups of our population.
Contributing to the list of agents compromising our foods (plants and animals) and health are the following:
- pesticides, herbicides, antibiotics, hormones
- bacteria (including Salmonella, Listeria, Campylobacter, the toxic strain E. coli 0157:H7)
- genetically modified organisms
- minerals (such as arsenic, mercury)
- viruses (especially Norovirus)
One perspective quoted below appeared in a Food Safety Fact Sheet entitled Foodborne Illness (May, 2102) from the Center For Food Safety, a national non-profit public interest and environmental advocacy organization:
Processed food additives remain an area where more authority and oversight by the USDA and FDA is warranted yet lacking.
Melanie Warner's book, Pandora's Lunchbox How Processed Food Took Over the American Meal (2013) cites a 2011 report from a non-profit group, the Pew Charitable Trusts, estimating over 5000 additives have become introduced into our food [excluding the substances that come in contact with the food during processing].
Warner notes the manner and ease of the food industry giants to undermine and compromise the oversight authority of the FDA - including simply declaring food additives safe without any independent evaluation process.
Historically weak congressional legislation has enabled these practices to occur and continue at the expense of our citizens.
It is clear the FDA and USDA has not evaluated all these food additives that have been given a designation of GRAS (= Generally Recognized as Safe) - to the detriment of the public.
It is undeniable the relatively small number of companies that dominate our nations industrialized factory food rearing and processing have been the origins of heath care risks and illnesses for decades [see my recent posts including comments on Food, Inc. - the documentary film and book]
The Fact Sheet comments about food poisoning are alarming: "every year, one in six Americans die of foodborne diseases."
Consider the toxic stain E. coli 0157 found in cow meat - one infected animal can contaminate thousands of pounds of ground beef.
Plants treated with manure of this and other bacterial strains also can be lead to serious health issues including kidney failure and death.
The following figure was cited about E.coli 0157 in a Discover (March 14, 2014) article: it is "the culprit behind nearly 62,000 foodborne illnesses every year" - unfortunately, industrialized food distribution practices facilitate infections being spread readily from one location to many throughout the country.
[Meat containing six other strains of toxic E. coli has been the subject of government regulation - as reported by the New York Times in a report by William Neuman, September 12, 2011]
Imported foods into the U.S. (fruits, vegetables, seafood), federal estimates between 10-15 %, are another cause for public concern - food safety standards of our country are different or simply not observed within other nations.
The USDA and the FDA do not have an adequate number of inspectors to effectively evaluate the vast number of food imports from the international community.
Consider one example: toxic forms of arsenic found in water, plants (apples, rice) and animals (chicken).
"A Trace of Arsenic", an article by Deborah Blum in Discover (October, 2013) was both informative and alarming.
The author describes the discovery of rice from Southeast Asia contaminated with arsenic found in baby formula consumed in the United States.
Blum comments include what we now know about arsenic chemistry, new detection technologies and the emerging awareness of biological consequences of even trace amounts to arsenic over time: citing documented cancers, cardiovascular disease and diabetes.
Lab documentation that organic brown rice syrups associated with health food products (cereals, bars) had arsenic levels as high as 400 parts per billion (ppb) has led to public warnings [the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency limits arsenic in water to 10 ppb].
For many decades, our government agencies [USDA and FDA] responsible for food safety oversight have been limited by food industry lobbyists: with huge resources, they have been successful in influencing (= limiting) the congressional legislation that becomes law.
Legislative language has led to many practices that effectively prevent meaningful food safety standards be met.
Complicating regulatory oversight further has been the practice of industrial food executives assuming positions in our government regulatory agencies. Conflict of interest issues come to mind.
It remains to be seen whether the Food Safety Modernization Act that became federal law in 2011 - an attempt to give the FDA enhanced oversight authority including mandatory recalls over domestic and international foods safety issues - will be funded at levels to address the serious and diverse food safety concerns confronting our nation.
State funding for public food safety issues need to be enhanced as well.
What can you do?
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| Become Better Informed www.centerforfoodsafety.org |
- contact elected representatives at local, state and national levels to support funding for food safety oversight and awareness
- speak out on the importance for our congress to establish "a single cabinet level food safety agency that has a public health focus to prevent dangerous outbreaks"
- avoid processed foods; whenever possible, to purchase your foods from local producers [from organic farms where information is transparent]
A final thought: read Michael Pollan's booK, Food Rules An Eaters Guide (2009) to empower yourself.
#CenterForFoodSafety #TheFDA #FoodSafety #TheUSDA
#CenterForFoodSafety #TheFDA #FoodSafety #TheUSDA
