Food Expert Warns-Act on Food Safety Now

Technocrat

Food Expert Warns-Act on Food Safety Now

zogger

Wed Aug 22 14:41:27 -0700 2007

Health+and+Medicine.

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A food expert at the University of Georgia (that is our ag college), is warning that the time to act on improving food safety is now. Citing globalization and lack of adequate standards globally and even less inspections, he says the government and producers and distributors need to address this issue in a big way before it gets much worse.

..."He said 15 percent of the food Americans eat is imported from other countries. "That may sound like a small amount," he said. "But it represents 80 percent of the seafood and 45 percent of the fresh fruit consumed in the U.S.""...more food for thought there

ed: and why is it again that food produced inside the US can't be sold with pesticide or herbicide a,b or c that's been allegedly "banned", but overseas it's still legal and it is legal to import foods soaked in that stuff and sell it? Really, what mastermind thunked that one up, what "investor" class business cartel saw that as such a deal? Is this yet another example of where they just don't care, or are they really just completely stupid? I am thinking it isn't stupid, but on purpose, those pennies extra profit add up, especially when you don't have to pay the health costs! Sure, government is not well known for being all that much on the ball, but even still, this has always been pretty ultra-screwy to me, like it is designed to put folks out of business (so higher level fatcats can snag up their farms once they can't "compete" globally for dimes on the dollar and go bankrupt and to the auction most likely), yet at the same time provide "feel good" legislation and laws they can point to in TV soundbites.

Either way, stupidity or greed, it should stop. Completely. No exceptions. Banned in the US, you shouldn't be able to circumvent that food safety ban by importing it. It's the same dang grocery store shelves dang it!

Food Expert Warns-Act on Food Safety Now

Spider

Wed Aug 22 15:43:39 -0700 2007
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I think most countries around the world have the same problem. New Zealand (and Australia I think) have made it compulsory for manufacturers to label what is actually in all food products. NZ is bringing in laws to make it compulsory to label where the food actually comes from (this includes "fresh" fruit and vegetables). How many people that go shopping in the super-markets actually know where there food comes from? . Recently in my super-market I was buying peanut butter and because of radio reports actually took the time to read the labels on the various brands of peanut butter (about 4 different brands) and found it all came from China. It has also been found that there are very high levels of formaldehyde in clothes and blankets imported from China which can cause rather bad skin problems especially for children. And just recently children's pajamas labeled "flame proof" have been catching on fire badly burning the young wearers, these originated from Taiwan (I think). I know NZ farming generally has gone more "organic" and the use of pesticides has decreased markedly, but all imported products whether animal, vegetable or mineral should come under stringent health and safety checks.

Food Expert Warns-Act on Food Safety Now

Bjørn Konestabo

Thu Aug 23 03:03:42 -0700 2007
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I work for TraceTracker a traceability company which provides members of a value chain the ability to exchange data and create complete histories of products.

There are many applications for this, counterfeiting-protection being an obvious one. More narrow and 'surgical' recalls will reduce insurance costs. Better temperature history across many parties allow for better expiration date certainty.

Ideally digested parts of the dataset for a product should be available to the customer allowing him or her to make ethical choices where before you could only discriminiate by price.

Being a programmer my sales pitch ends here. There are of course some practical hurdles, higher resolution of product identification being one.

Food Expert Warns-Act on Food Safety Now

President4242

Thu Aug 23 09:20:15 -0700 2007
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But it represents 80 percent of the seafood and 45 percent of the fresh fruit consumed in the U.S

Boy, I guess I'm really safe. I refuse to eat seafood that wasn't caught off the Oregon Coast for the most part (though, I must admit, I'm not real sure where restaurants get their shrimp when it isn't popcorn bay shrimp). And *ALL* of my fresh fruit comes from 'gonie farmers- we freeze and can what we can't eat immediately.