Everett, Wash.
Published: Wednesday, October 8, 2008

Food safety should be higher on U.S. menu

 A town hall question to the presidential candidates: What will you do to ensure food safety in this era of fatal E. Coli outbreaks and melamine contamination? What will you do to make the FDA and USDA more effective?

Where are we now? A New Jersey company is recalling a yogurt-type drink from China called "Blue Cat Flavor Drink" after FDA testing found melamine. This latest discovery coincides with new rules that went into effect this month requiring "country of origin" labels for fresh meat and produce. Alas, there are loopholes. Since "Blue Cat Flavor Drink" is a processed food product, it doesn't fall under the labeling requirement. (In this case, however, the product's own label, the one that says "Blue Cat Flavor Drink" should be enough warning to stay away.)

Foods requiring a label include most cuts of beef, lamb, chicken, goat and pork and their ground-meat versions; perishable agricultural products like fresh and frozen fruits and vegetables and macadamia nuts, pecans and peanuts. But the minute any of those foods are mixed together or altered (like through roasting), they are considered "processed" and are excluded from the labeling requirements. Salad mixes that contain more than one kind of lettuce are excluded, as are bacon, "organ meats," marinated meats, etc.

Consumers fending for themselves need to remember that just because a food product doesn't have a label, it's incorrect to assume it's a product of the United States.

It's also important to remember that the "country of origin" of certain food culprits causing recent E. Coli outbreaks, such as spinach and lettuce, was the United States.

In China, the melamine-tainted baby formula has sickened 54,000 children, mainly with kidney problems, and is blamed for the deaths of at least four. Meanwhile, the FDA reassured Americans that eating a miniscule amount of melamine -- 2.5 parts per million -- would not raise health concerns, even if a person ate food every day that was tainted with the chemical. FDA officials also stressed that their "risk assessment" does not mean U.S. authorities will condone foods deliberately spiked with the chemical. Again, that is supposed to be reassuring.

Considering the pet food recall last year, and the current sick and dying Chinese children, it's evident that some food suppliers in China deliberately spike products with melamine and who knows what else. What preventive steps should we take as we import more and more food?

Like our food safety measures, the "country of origin" labels are entirely inadequate. Just as ingredient labels are dangerously incomplete -- since they don't list such "additives" as melamine, let alone which country the melamine came from.
© 2009The Daily Herald Co., Everett, WA