Food Safety for America
Recent food recalls: New safeguards for consumers
"According to a recent report by the Institute of Medicine and the National Research Council, food-borne illnesses in the U.S. cause more than 5,000 deaths each year." (Suddah 2010). Food and product recalls have become increasingly commonplace: "there were 214 food recalls in 2006, 247 in 2007 and 310 in 2008 according to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA)" (Jana 2009). From spinach to peanut butter to Spaghetti-Os to pet food, it is hard to think of a sphere of the consumer market that remains untouched by the taint of food recalls. There has been growing demand for greater stringency and oversight over the safety of the food system. Few ordinary Americans know, however, exactly how, why, and when recalls take place. It may surprise people to know that the FDA did not have the ability to issue mandatory recalls of products until the passage of the Food Safety and Modernization Act of 2010, which was only recently signed into law by President Obama.
The FDA is not solely responsible for food oversight in the U.S. "When the CDC gathers enough information to link an outbreak to a food product (for example, if everyone sickened by a particular strain of salmonella ate the same store-bought product), it contacts the Department of Agriculture (USDA) if it's meat or poultry or the FDA if it's anything else" (Suddah 2010). The FDA is responsible for the safety of 80% of the nation's food (Pollan & Schlosser 2010). The 'divided' nature of the monitoring system is one frequently-cited problem, in terms of its efficacy and structure.
Another problem is the difficulty of finding the source of the tainted items, particularly produce. "Sometimes it's near impossible to find out where an individual tomato came from. Bagged leafy greens are easy to trace back to a processor...tomatoes and other fruits are often sorted according to size, so there's a lot of co-mingling going on" (Suddah 2011). A further problem with 'raw' ingredients is the fact that many common forms of produce and other foodstuffs are used in such a wide array of products. For example, during the infamous 2009...
Food The case of Stephanie Smith is certainly alarming, and having familiarized myself with both the ammonia in hamburger issue and the pink slime issue, I will argue that my faith in the USDA and FDA to provide protection to American consumers in terms of the food they eat is sorely lacking. I understand the reality that I have personally not become sick from eating food in America, but that does
Food Safety When shopping for food, one should always follow a few simple rules to ensure health and safety. The first basic rule is to always add refrigerated foods, such as meats and dairy products into the cart last, after canned and packaged goods, such as chips and sugar (Food pp). Make certain to check expiration dates, generally found on front, side or bottom, on all products, especially dairy and meats,
imported food labeling and safety aspects in China. Of late, China has become a key food import source in the U.S. Chinese food imports increased more than thrice in value from 2001 to 2008. A number of highly publicized food adulteration and contamination cases in China's local food supply as well as in its imported goods to America have led public concern to be directed towards safety of Chinese foods
Food, Inc. The Industrialization of Farming and Agriculture: Effects on the Environment and the Way We Live The film Food, Inc. By award winning documentary maker Robert Kenner starts out with a simple goal: it wants to find out where our food comes from. In his quest to answer this question, however, Kenner, and his two narrators, Pollan and Schlosser, find some unpleasant and startling facts about the way in which our food
Food Inc. Food, Inc.: How the Industrial Food is Making us Sicker, Fatter and Poorer -- and What You Can do About It (Karl Weber [editor]) Quotation "When you think of the California economy, you think of high-tech industries like Silicon Valley, you think of Hollywood. You don't think of poor, desperate migrants picking fruits and vegetables with their bare hands" (p. 4). This is interesting because people often associate places with a few
Having started as a bookkeeper in Cleveland, John D. Rockefeller accumulated money while being a merchant, and then bought his first oil refinery in 1862. By 1870 he had started Standard Oil Company of Ohio. His secret agreements with railroads allowed him to ship his oil with rebates and discounts, thusly driving competitors out of business. By 1899, The Standard Oil Company, acting as a holding company, controlled the stock
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