Search for:
Categories
Organic Food
Master Cleanse
Detox
Organic Facts

" . . . The quality of the fruits and vegetables available at grocery stores is terrible. Most are laden with toxic substances, such as sulfates on grapes, pesticides . . . many times fruits and vegetables are imported from foreign countries that use toxic pesticides that are illegal in the United States."
As stated by Dr. Ronald Steriti in our article Antioxidants and Organic Foods

Leafy Greens Will Kill You – Top Foodborne Illness List

October 6th, 2009 - Gerald "Gerry" Pugliese

GREEN Forget about swine flu, leafy green vegetables pose the greatest risk to public health, by way of foodborne illnesses like salmonella and E. coli.

It seems pathogens usually linked to meat have made the leap to vegetables, a result of outdated safety laws, mass-production, and global food markets.

Using data from the CDC, the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) has compiled a list of the 10 most dangerous foods.

Leafy greens, such as lettuce and spinach, topped a list which includes: eggs, tuna, oysters, potatoes, cheese, ice cream, tomatoes, sprouts, and berries.

As the “winner” green vegetables reported 363 outbreaks with 13,568 cases of illness from 1990 to 2006. At the bottom of the list, berries got off easy with 25 outbreaks with 3,397 reported cases of illness.

So the CSPI lauds the new Food Safety Enhancement Act, passed by the House of Representatives in July, granting the FDA more authority to crackdown on food production and growing facilities.

I think within the next 10 years food safety will be greatly improved. It is becoming too obvious that a big food system requires a lot more checks and balances.

Via HealthDay News.

Image credit: Fruit Today

Tags: E. coli, salmonella, vegetables
Posted in Health, Political Action | 7 Comments »

President Obama Stoked About New Food Safety Reforms

August 9th, 2009 - Gerald "Gerry" Pugliese

Food safety in the United States is messy. Think about it. In recent years, we’ve had more than a few national scares.

Off the top of my head, I can list the peanut butter and cookie dough salmonella outbreak, E. coli contaminated spinach and peppers, and countless red meat recalls.

But a new bill passed by the House aims to stop all this, giving the FDA more power to keep tabs on things. President Obama gave it a glowing endorsement.

He called it a major step towards modernizing our food safety systems and protecting Americans from tainted food.

The FDA now has more ability to order food recalls, grants increased access to company records, conduct more food inspections and requires all facilities to have a food safety plan in place—makes you wonder what the heck they were doing before!

Via Reuters.

Tags: E. coli, food safety, salmonella
Posted in Political Action | 1 Comment »

CDC Releases Stats on Foodborne Illness

June 17th, 2009 - Barbara Feiner

Norovirus and salmonella were the leading causes of foodborne illness in 2006, according to a report issued Thursday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

That year, there were 1,270 reported foodborne disease outbreaks, which resulted in 27,634 illnesses and 11 deaths. Of the outbreaks, 621 had a confirmed single cause, with norovirus (54%) and salmonella (18%) responsible for most cases.

Norovirus infection usually occurs when infected food handlers fail to wash their hands adequately after using the toilet. Salmonella infection usually occurs when foods that have been contaminated with animal feces are eaten raw or insufficiently cooked.

The foods associated with most outbreaks were poultry (21%), leafy vegetables (17%) and fruits/nuts (16%).

“Determining the proportion of outbreak-associated cases of foodborne illness due to the various food commodities is an important step,” says Patricia M. Griffin, MD, chief of the CDC′s Enteric Diseases Epidemiology Branch. “Identification of particular food commodities that have caused outbreaks can help public health officials and the food industry to target control efforts from the farm to the table.”

But Dr. Griffin offers an important caveat: While this report is useful, some outbreaks are not detected, investigated or reported because many states lack the resources to handle testing.

Photo by James Gathany/CDC

Tags: CDC, factory farms, food safety, Health, Organic Food, salmonella
Posted in Health, Organic Food | No Comments »

Is Peanut Butter to Blame for the Salmonella Outbreak?

January 13th, 2009 - Barbara Feiner

The answer to today’s headline?

Quite possibly.

Solon, OH-based King Nut Companies, a distributor of peanut butter (not organic) manufactured by Peanut Corporation of America in Lynchburg, VA, has announced a recall of peanut butter distributed under the King Nut label. No other King Nut products are included in this recall.

King Nut took this action as soon as it was informed salmonella had been found in an open 5-lb. tub of the company’s peanut butter.

King Nut distributes peanut butter only through food-service accounts (long-term-care facilities, hospitals, schools, universities, restaurants, delis, cafeterias and bakeries). It is not sold directly to consumers.

King Nut does not supply any of the ingredients for the peanut butter distributed under its label.

“We are very sorry this happened,” says President and CEO Martin Kanan. “We are taking immediate and voluntary action because the health and safety of those who use our products is always our highest priority.

“Because we don’t manufacture peanut butter, we will do what we can to get this product out of distribution and will work with the manufacturer to inform others of this problem,” he adds. “We also distribute peanut butter from this manufacturer under the Parnell’s Pride brand, although we are not the only distributor. However, we have asked our customers to remove this brand as well.”

Kanan says King Nut began contacting customers immediately to stop distribution of all peanut butter with lot codes beginning with “8” and immediately canceled orders with the manufacturer.

Customers are asked to take all King Nut and Parnell’s Pride peanut butter distributed by King Nut out of circulation immediately.

Minnesota officials discovered the contamination as a result of product testing. The state’s cases have the same genetic fingerprint as those in the national outbreak that has sickened 410 people in 43 states (numbers updated yesterday).

Clusters of infections in several states have been reported in schools and other institutions, such as long-term-care facilities and hospitals, and King Nut is the only brand of peanut butter used in the facilities for which the CDC has information. More testing will be conducted to confirm the outbreak’s source.

To date, common brands of peanut butter sold in grocery stores do not appear to be associated with the outbreak.

If you think you may have become ill from eating peanut butter, consult your healthcare provider.

Images courtesy of the CDC