food museum blog

Which Fish?

Having finally found two reputable fish markets near my rental in St. Pete, FL, now I stand paralyzed in front of their numerous offerings. We all knew about mercury in fish, right, but largely ignored it? Recent articles on mercury, by Marian Burros in the NYTimes, among others, have poked us into researching what fish we can eat, either on an eco-friendly basis or a health basis.

Char, bass, trout, croaker? Wild Pacific halibut? Striped bass? None of my personal faves in that list, save pink trout.  Then there's klip, a delicious firm, white fish we had last week. A rockfish from S. Africa, Google tells me. OY. NG.  Croaker? One website tells me this fish is "full-flavored." This could be an iffy choice, then. Char, too, is apparently "strong."

Clearly I need to find a local fisherperson and grill her/him as to what's coming out of FL waters. With a tad of butter and Meyer lemon from our own small tree.

They Eat Pizzas, Don't They? Food Issues and the Pols

I  don't know if you are as weary as I am of the non-issues making headlines among the current crop of pols vying for our attention. Who has religion and what kind, and what about those pesky gay people, who have always been here in every area of endeavor, and always will, and so on.......

As many of you know, the motto of The FOOD Museum On-Line, of which this blog is an offshoot, is a line from writer M.F.K.Fisher, " First we eat, then we do everything else." So as a member of the Foodie political persuasion, I thought I would examine some of the Presidential candidates' websites to see where food, the major national security and health issue for Americans, appears on their agendas.

In my informal and incomplete survey,  New Mexico's Governor Bill Richardson, Arkansas' Mike Huckabee and John Edwards of North Carolina give space to food issues. Richardson pledges new legislation to protect the safety of America's food, as well as anti-trust legislation to support the farm sector.  Huckabee states that America's security in part rests on its ability to feed itself. ( A factor Huckabee, a famously successful dieter, is familiar with.) Of the three, Edwards has the most detailed plan for food safety on any website. Chris Dodd of Connecticut has this item--he wants to open new markets for American agricultural products.

Massachusett's Mitt Romney's wife Ann is intent on gathering American family recipes for his website, incluidng the current one posted for Welsh skillet cakes. In her words, "the kitchen lies at the heart of our home."  I certainly agree. Filling our tums and hanging out in kitchens are cherished pasttimes for us all.

Obama? Hillary?  Fred T. ? Rudy G? Nothing readily apparent.

Ron Paul, MD, of Texas, everybody's favorite maverick, says this on his website:

"Americans are justifiably concerned over the government’s escalating intervention into their freedom to choose what they eat and how they take care of their health.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA), in order to comply with standards dictated by supra-national organizations such as the UN‘s World Food Code (CODEX), NAFTA, and CAFTA, has been assuming greater control over nutrients, vitamins and natural health care providers to restrict your right to choose the manner in which you manage your health and nutritional needs. "

  ps I've always loved Joe Biden and I'm sure he eats and cares. His Iowa team created this hilarious corn-themed visual to point out his vast experience, as compared to, well, a couple of front-runners.

( "Ears" from Biden's website; official headshot of Hil, who also eats, from hers.)

Just When You Thought....Now It's Frozen Pizzas

Ugh to frozen pizzas anyway. But--apparently General Mills' Totino and Jeno's frozen pepperoni pies may contain a strain of E. coli, so the company is recalling a gazillion of them.

According to Environment News Service, "The recall affects 414,000 cases of pizza products Totino's and Jeno's now in stores and all similar pizza products in consumers' freezers. Consumers are advised to discard the products. "

Is microwaving to blame for not killing off naughty bacteria? I heard one talking head on the news suggest that, with no real scientific backup. Could baking a frozen pizza in a proper oven kill off the stuff?  Maybe, at 450 degrees?   

Topps Goes Bottoms Up After Burger Recall

According to today's NYTimes report, the first hint that frozen hamburger patties from Topps Meat Company of Elizabeth, NJ might carry the E.coli bacteria came on July 5 when a girl in Pennsylvania sickened after eating one. Testing confirmed the bacteria to be present on September 7.  ( Over a month for these results??)

Yet the USDA apparently did not announce the recall of 21.7 million pounds of meat until September 25. Today Topps, in business since 1940, closed its doors and sent 87 employees home.

The Times stated that "Anthony D’Urso, the chief operating officer at Topps, said the company was unable to withstand the financial burden of the recall.

“This is tragic for all concerned,” Mr. D’Urso said in a statement. “In one week we have gone from the largest U.S. manufacturer of frozen hamburgers to a company that cannot overcome the economic reality of a recall this large.”"   I think he missed the part about being falling ill from eating his company's tainted products...

The USDA website has a different, somewhat more complex report on this.

Deputy Assistant Administrator for the USDA Office of Policy, Dr. Daniel Engeljohn, said the agency would require all beef plants to demonstrate they have E.coli: 0157: H7 under control, based on a checklist established in 2002.

He went on to say, limply, "We are notifying all slaughter and grinder establishments that it is their responsibility to ensure that these measures are in place. " 

(The words "slaughter and grinder" really stick in my craw, like a piece of tainted meat. Mass animal processing described in raw terms.)

Depressing Food News From All Over

LifeScience informs us that mussels are declining in North American waters. " ...mussels now are one of the most endangered groups of animals on the continent, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Humans are primarily responsible for the disappearance of mussels through water pollution and changes to their physical habitat wrought by the construction of dams, dredging and the introduction of exotic species."

So eating mussels locally will start to be challenging--we will all be making moules frites with Dutch bivalves, or worse, those huge greenies from New Zealand.

Meanwhile, good old beleaguered China now has a killer pig virus problem, apparently. According to the Washington Post,  "Moving rapidly from one farm to the next, the virus has been devastating pig communities throughout China for more than a year, wiping out entire herds, driving pork prices up nearly 87 percent in a year and helping push the country's inflation rate to its highest levels since 1996. "   International authorities are concerned that the virus may easily spread beyond Asia--it's already in Vietnam and Burma--to affect people worldwide.

The Dole bagged salad people are doing a voluntary recall of their Heart Delight salad mix after one bag in Canada tested positive for the E. coli bacteria.

And then, in Michigan, former president Gerald Ford's bulgy-eyed likeness--the poor guy is even wearing a striped tie!-- has been carved from a corn field at Gull Meadow Farms.

( Thanks to pbs.org for the mussels shot and a nifty-seeming recipe at the webiste link  for "Mussels steamed on the grill with chourico sausage in a white wine butter sauce, served with Texas toast .")

Not Just China--Vietnam Suffers From Food Scares

A country  known for its healthy, veggie-rich cuisine is reeling from news reports of toxic domestically-raised soy sauce, cancer-causing chemicals saturating greens, and formaldehyde in the country's signature pho noodle soup.

Agrarian Vietnam, "where three quarters of people are farmers"  is being rapidly transformed into a "industrialized and market-driven economy," according to a report from Agence France Presse.

"A recent survey by the state-run Plant Protection Department found pesticides on 30 to 60 percent of the vegetables tested in Hanoi markets, including substances that are banned in Vietnam and other countries.

One of them was the insecticide metamidophos, which has been linked to health problems in China, Hong Kong, South Korea and the United States. Many farmers in Vietnam and neighbouring China use high doses of chemical fertilisers and pesticides to boost production in a cut-throat market where margins are slim, even though many know the substances pose health risks."

One farmer, Nguyen Thi Nhuong, admitted she and her family do not eat what she grows commercially.

"We have set aside a small part of our garden for vegetables that grow naturally for our daily use. We are afraid the chemicals will harm our health."

(Thanks to http://www.dgfoundation.org/programs/country-gateway-support.html for the photo of  Vietnamese farmers.)

Meat Labeling in 2008?

According to the AP,  "The House Agriculture Committee voted Thursday night to require country of origin labels on meats beginning next year, striking a compromise as reports of tainted food from China raise consumer awareness about imported food safety."

Pesky paperwork apparently is part of the compromise reached--as in, meat companies won't have to do much of it, as long as that little label is in place.

Also--the bill was in place as early as 2002 but the majority Republicans at the time stalled its implementation.

( Seal at left found here: http://www.kitchengardens.net/  COOL stands for Country of Origin Labeling.)

Whither the F in FDA?

Congress--specifically the House Committee on Energy and Commerce-- is all in a swivet at the FDA's decision, taken last December, mind you, to close down half of its existing food testing labs across the country. (Ironically, The Decider had actually authorized a $20 million increase in funding for such labs, stating it was important to “expand the network of laboratories that would rapidly and competently analyze samples in the event of a terrorist attack on our nation’s food supply.” )

According to an AP report July 17 at sfgate.com,

"The FDA's ability to police the nation's food supply has come under withering criticism from Congress and others amid a string of high-profile cases of foodborne illness, including E. coli-tainted spinach and salmonella-contaminated peanut butter and snack foods, as well as concerns about drug-laced, farmed fish imported from China.

An Energy and Commerce Committee investigation found the FDA now has little ability to police imports. In San Francisco, for example, the FDA's staff can conduct only a cursory review of imports, generally dedicating just 30 seconds to each shipment as it flashes by on a computer screen, according to investigators."

So why are the labs going to be shut down? Answers are hard to find, aside from the usual "cost-cutting and consolidation" comments.

As we at The FOOD Museum have been saying for decades, food is a topic Americans have been taking for granted for years, and food issues go under-reported and poorly explained. Yes, this is changing, slowly, but it has taken the poisoning and deaths of Rex and Fluffy to wake people up.

This morning there was much talk on the radio about how tough it is to label where our food comes from, yada, yada--we all know European supermarkets have been doing this with apparent ease for years. But the European Union is to thank for that in part, too.

China Bars American Frozen Chicken Feet

The bribe-taking food and drug regulator has been executed and a vendor of pork-flavored cardboard-filled steamed buns or baozi has been shut down as food authorities in China take charge.

And, while reports continue to come in here regarding tainted Chinese food imports, the Chinese government has decided to invoke the "people in glass houses" rule and more heavily scrutinize American products sold to China.

The AP reports today:

"Frozen poultry products from Tyson Foods Inc., the world's largest meat processor, were found to be contaminated with salmonella, the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine said on its Web site late Friday.

Other imports barred by China included frozen chicken feet from Sanderson Farms, Inc. tainted with residue of an anti-parasite drug, as well as frozen pork ribs from Cargill Meat Solutions Corp. containing a leanness-enhancing feed additive, the AQSIQ said.

A spokesman for Cargill denied the agency's claims, while officials at Tyson and Sanderson Farms were not immediately available to comment."

I cannot help but ask....Dear Martha: What do I do with a pound of frozen chicken feet, salt, pepper and a dream? Pls advise.

( Evidently slowly braised c. f's are common in dim sum restaurants and compare favorably with osso buco.. (??!)

( Thanks to http://www.alibaba.com/catalog/11123841/Chicken_Feet_Chicken_Paw.html  for chicken feet pic.)

Imported Food Up, Inspections Down, Consumers Go Plant Your Gardens!

25,000 shipments of food a day, 20 million a year, arrive in US ports, bringing Americans much of what we eat.  92% of all fresh and frozen seafood in the US market comes from abroad, primarily from Asia. 75% of the apple juice we drink, 72% of the mushrooms we eat, and 52% of the table grapes we munch arrives by ship at 418 ports across the country.

Only 1 % of the containers entering the country are inspected. Why? The FDA's budget for food inspection has been cut consistently for over 10 years. Only300 FDA food inspectors are on the job. ( How about putting those vigilant water bottle inspectors at airports to work at the ports?)

When Americans' family pets started falling ill during the recent pet food poisonings, it started to occur to some people to take a look at what we humans eat. According to Ann Bowser who recently reported on all this for PBS' The News Hour With Jim Lehrer, there are 76 million incidents of food poisoning among Americans each year, and 5000 deaths. How many are linked to poor food handling practices on the part of overseas suppliers she did not say. But apparently it is not uncommon for some unscrupulous seafood purveyors to add illegal antibodies to fish or shellfish, sometimes to mask the obvious past the sell-by date condition of their products.

I expect that most growers and packers of food for the US market--like those in Mexico, Canada , Chile, and Brazil, for example, ---want to maintain high standards and retain our business.  As do the Chinese, the world's largest grower of just about everything. The Chinese government recently underscored their commitment to quality trade by sentencing to death the former head of that country's food and drug agency. ( Because of the whole melamine thing, sickening and killing people, animals, etc. Heckuva job, Zheng Xiaoyu!)

US retailers have turned to overseas suppliers for food purchases in many cases because of fewer regulations in those countries and because labor and production costs are much less expensive. Of course we Americans have long expected both our gasoline and our food to be cheap....

Most American consumers rely on imports--a tiny minority grows their own or buys locally to the exclusion of anything else.  We look forward to the issue of food being on top of the list during any future discussions of the security of the homeland. ( And my gawd, doesn't "Homeland Security" sound creepily un-American linguistically, and hasn't it done so from the inception?)