food museum blog

Cans Nixed: Further Proof That Fresh ( Or Frozen?) Is Better

The self-described "food politics" website Civil Eats has posted this by Naomi Starkman:

"Consumer Reports’ latest tests of canned foods, including soups, juice, tuna, and green beans, have found that almost all of the 19 name-brand foods tested contain measurable levels of Bisphenol A (BPA). The results are reported in the December 2009 issue and also available online. BPA, which has been used for years in clear plastic bottles and food-can liners, has been restricted in Canada and some U.S. states and municipalities because it has been linked to a wide array of health effects including reproductive abnormalities, heightened risk of breast and prostate cancers, diabetes, and heart disease. I’ve reported on BPA here, here, and here."

My pantry, which I just checked, contains a few cans--tomatoes, white beans, black beans, and pumpkin. I stared hard at them just now. A can of green beans never has entered my larder but, yes, tuna has, sardines have, along with the odd cans of beans. As a spontaneous, non recipe-based cook, those beans are vital and always ready to go.  Soaking dry beans overnight-- of course I have done that, but usually when I know that I am preparing a massive portion of black bean soup the next day.

I am sure many of you soak and cook beans ahead, and then freeze them in handy sized amounts, right?  But in what? Plastic bins! Baggies?  Chemical-laden somethings?

Help!

( Tks to http://www.thehungrymouse.com/home/2008/10/24/white-beans-two-ways-garlicky-dip-creamy-soup/ for can pix. It's a site that looks lively and informative, BTW.)

Organic Bananas Taste Better

After a two week utterly informal comparison test, I have decisively concluded that organic bananas do indeed taste better than the usual, much better. 29 cents each vs 19 cents at Trader Joe's. I focused in on the organic bananas because their  texture was firm, their flavor not icky and cloying, and one had the sense that these were fruits  that had not traveled thousands of miles in refrigerated ships and trucks, though of course, they must have.

It's well known that commercially grown bananas experience their share of herbicides and pesticides, as do the people who work with them in the fields and pack them in the sheds. That alone makes the move to organic--only a dime more per banana!--the appropriate choice.

Along with the taste.

Commercial Raw Cookie Dough Addicts, We Are Soooo Sorry!

Who among us does not recall "licking the beaters" when Mom (in her quaint apron) had been baking?
Who has never run a finger inside a bowl used for making, say, muffins, and licked off the uncooked dough residue?
We know you're out there!
Now--- acknowledgment of this happy and innocent indulgence many years ago led to the creation of ice creams containing, supposedly, "cookie dough." As in Ben and Jerry's Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough ice cream.
(In the course of my intense research for this post I came across this hilarious, off-the-wall rant from 2004 on "How Much (C.Dough) Is In Cookie Dough Ice Cream?")

Anyway!

Across this great nation,  people who stand in front of their fridges inhaling uncooked c. dough straight from the packaging of Nestle's Toll House Cookie Dough  are getting freakishly ill and tummy achy from E.coli bacteria contained therein. 25 have been hospitalized.

Please do not do this, even with another brand of c.dough. This is a revolting and no longer hidden habit of yours, and  we regret that you have become really, really ill from pursuing it. 

You might look into purchasing and consuming library paste,  if it still exists. Oddball kids at school used to eat it, back in the day.

Exquisite Excess

We have an unemployed, unmarried mother of 6 deciding she absolutely had to have more children; we have a whistle blower filled with info on the nefarious Bernie Madoff ignored for years by the SEC; we have our beloved and leguminous Peanut Corporation of America knowingly shipping out salmonella-afflicted products, inspection reports by the state overlooked by the overworked USDA, slapped in a file cabinet; we have Republican leaders deeply involved in the financial and international debacle of the past eight years whining and wringing their hands on tv because their wisdom is being overlooked----whatever!!

Justice: PCA filed for bankruptcy. Its CEO took the Fifth before Congress days before, his emails piling up as evidence against him.

Questions:  

Did Bernie's wife squirrel away $15 million in chump change before his arrest? Has she Madoff with it?

Where will the nation's Lovebirds in Chief have Valentine's Day dinner? ( In Chicago.)

What would happen if you didn't   A--pay your taxes; B--have a financial plan ready, accurate to the penny, as you are asking for,  ooh, billions of dollars?

Does anyone really like that bizarre red velvet cake?

Scary Peanut Satay Sauce?

As I prepared a leftover multi-grain pasta and veg dish for my lunch yesterday, I considered opening a brand new jar of Trader Joe's Peanut Satay Sauce to go with.
OY!

What about those nasty, scheming, b*****ds at Peanut Corp of Amurrica? Were they in any way involved with TJ's sauce?

I called my local TJ's and asked.   The back and forth of the staff was not that reassuring. 'Hey, Luis-- what about the Satay Sauce?  Peanuts from those guys or what?"

Silence.

Me: Errr, isn't there some kind of list?
Them:   Yeah, well, maybe, I think so, on our website.
Me: Well I know that some of your peanut trail bars are on the USDA list of tainted products.
Them: Oh yeah?
Me: Yeah.
Them: Hang on.
Me: ( gnash, sigh...)
Them: No problem, no worries. The Satay Sauce is not affected.
Me: You're sure?
Them: Luis, are we sure?
Me: ( OY!)
Them: We're sure.

So the fact that I woke up at like, 2 am, with weird tummy things going on was, like, nothing to worry about?   Huh?
OK, so maybe it was just my overactive mind.

Later, like, just now, I checked the TJ's website. At the bottom of the Home page is a tiny line of type that mentions the peanut thing. And when you click on it, it takes you to a page all about their having destroyed those crappy tainted products. No mention of Satay Sauce.

New worries, though: STILTON CHEESE, for gawd's sake. How could anything biologically inappropriate penetrate that stinky, bacterially-awash cheese?

Luis?

USDA Kicks Lethal Legumists Off The List

Verbatim, from the USDA press release:

USDA PROPOSES TO DEBAR PEANUT CORPORATION OF AMERICA

WASHINGTON, Feb. 5, 2009 - The U.S. Department of Agriculture today announced that it is suspending, and proposing to debar, Peanut Corporation of America (PCA) and its subsidiary Tidewater Blanching LLC from doing business with the federal government. Effective immediately, PCA is excluded from participating in government contracts or subcontracts, as well as federal non procurement programs. PCA will also be excluded from doing business as agents or representatives of other contractors, including serving as a subcontractor to other individuals or companies doing business with the government.

The suspension will remain in effect for one year and the debarment is proposed for three years, beginning today.

"The actions of PCA indicate that the company lacks business integrity and business honesty, which seriously and directly hinders its ability to do business with the federal government," said David Shipman, Acting Administrator of USDA's Agricultural Marketing Service.

Peanut Eaters---Explore This List

If you buy peanutty "health" bars, cookies, crackers and more, you may want to avoid the items on this massive list generated at the FDA website. All involved contaminated peanut products from the now legendarily reckless Blakely, GA processing plant of the Peanut Corporation of America.

"All Natural;" "No Preservatives!" Caveat Emptor, Shoppers.

Yeah, right.  In quotes, that's what it says on a 12 oz carton of grape tomatoes I bought recently. Yep, from Mexico, and distributed by Legend Distributing, Glendale, AZ. ( Not local!)

Anyway under those statements it reads, " Coated with food grade petroleum-based wax to maintain freshness."  Does not "maintain freshness" imply "preservatives?"

OK.   So I Googled the wax and was oh so reassured to learn that the Bush-era FDA says it is healthy for humans to eat. ( And it's applied in tiny amounts, people, so...)  The very same FDA that ignored repeated nasty inspection reports re the Peanut Corp of America plant in Blakely, GA.

I am returning the 'maters. I should have read the fine print in any case. And I should have snagged some cans of organic toms instead.

Guilt.

NB  Not all FDA employees are snakes and charlatans. Their budgets have been cut, they don't have enough inspectors, and so on.   Grrr..........

( Photo above from website re food poisoning--http://www.foodpoisonblog.com/articles/foodborne-illness-outbreaks/)

Dirt, Rust, Grease, Even Salmonella--Thank You, P.Nut Corp. of America!

The Peanut Corporation of America plant in Georgia has finally been closed. Within its less than pristine walls, salmonella invaded the plant's industrial peanut paste, and then turned up in over 125 products, making 500 people ill across the country, and, apparently, contributing to the deaths of seven people.

According to a piece in the NYT by Roni Caryn Rabin, "The processing plant in Georgia that produced peanut butter tainted by salmonella has a history of sanitation lapses and was cited repeatedly in 2006 and 2007 for having dirty surfaces and walls and grease residue and dirt build-up throughout the plant, according to state health inspection reports.

Inspections of the plant in Blakely, Ga., by the state agriculture department found areas of rust that could flake into food, gaps in warehouse doors large enough for rodents to get through, unmarked spray bottles and containers, and numerous violations of other practices designed to prevent food contamination."

The state does its inspections for the FDA, a government entity that did not act on these reports, nor on other writeups done in 2008.  The corporate legumes responsible--Peanut Corp is based in Lynchburg, VA, ---clearly were not into self-regulation, that glorious cornerstone of free enterprise. Nor were they available to the Times for comment.

PC's website still proclaims: "Processor of the World's Finest Peanut Products."  OY.

ps   I love peanuts, peanut butter, and last month ate an incredible piece of chocolate cake glazed with peanut frosting. Superb. Yum. Either my tum is made of steel, or the peanut product involved did not originate in Blakely.

UPDATE, Jan. 27    The aforesaid Peanut Corp apparently shipped scungy peanut material knowingly, according to this report in the WaPost.

Lou Dobbs Fired Up to Impeach Bush Over 'Mater Muckup

Really Angry Guy Lou Dobbs, of CNN, took a moment off from assailing illegal immigrants on June 19 and called for the impeachment of President George W. Bush over.............the salmonella tomato thing!  Could have knocked me over with a cutworm. Lou is hopping mad at the ineptitude of the FDA and wants to hold Dubya accountable at least on this one failure of leadership. Maybe Lou reads this blog, wherein I have stated more than once that protection of what we eat in this country is a major Homeland Security issue. YEAH!