FOOD WASTE REDUCTION-AN IMPERATIVE OPTION

Food wasting is a criminal act which must be condemned unequivocally. Mere fact that a country is wealthy does not confer upon it special rights to waste foods and such wastage is unconscionable looked from any angle. It is said that the world throws away food in such high quantities that it would be sufficient to feed 2 billion people, if saved, by taking a little bit more care by those who are blessed with access to plenty of foods. Food safety authorities world over have created an unenviable situation by mandating the industry to declare expiry date on each and every package of foods manufactured with the noble intention of helping consumers to avoid unsafe foods and face the adverse consequences of food poisoning. But the present system is not considered satisfactory since manufacturers routinely print expiry dates without any scientific basis and most foods even after the expiry date are considered safe though quality wise it may be marginally inferior. Ultimately it is the consumer who has to decide whether a food is good or bad through his sensory powers. Recent report that new smart freezers are being developed to help the consumer to forewarn about products dumped in the freezer and helping to remove old ones with expired dates already passed, is a welcome development. Here is a take on this electronic gadgetry which may hit the market soon. 

"Aside from the customer, the food industry includes many participants — from growers and producers to manufacturers who turn foods into products, to packaging companies, distributors, wholesalers, and retailers. The logistics are often complex: Food products can have many different ingredients, with multiple sources for each one. Perishable foods need cold storage and distribution that keeps them fresh. Food provenance, or where food is grown or made, also impacts the sustainability of the supply chain. Locally sourced food can reduce both transportation costs and emissions. With a global population expected to reach nine billion in 2050, efficiency is key in order to meet the increased demand for food. Food production consumes 10 percent of the U.S. energy budget and 50 percent of U.S. land, according to the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC). Yet, 40 percent of food in the U.S. goes uneaten. The U.S. wastes about 121 billion pounds of food each year, with some two-thirds of that going to landfills. At the same time, said the NRDC, one-in-six American households struggle to find enough food. Reducing losses by just 15 percent could feed an additional 25 million Americans every year, the group said. The Food Waste Reduction Alliance Project is a coalition working to re-route edible food to food banks. At the 2013 Sustainable Foods Summit in San Francisco, Bon Appetit Management Company said it's reducing food waste by changing meal sizes and menu options, while Whole Foods Market said it's composting its food waste in about 75 percent of its stores. Playing it Safe New food safety laws are also exerting pressures on food supply chains. The Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA), signed into law by President Obama in 2011, makes regulators more responsible to prevent contamination, rather than just responding to it. The FSMA redefines how food is tracked, traced and monitored. As a result, new technologies are helping food companies trace the source, distribution path, and handling of ingredients in case of contamination and recalls.Temperature tags using Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology can provide continuous temperature data for perishable foods, enabling manufacturers and retailers to prevent spoilage and loss. IBM  used its RFID technology to create a smart freezer that can identify items nearing their expiration dates and alert staff when inventory is low on a particular item. Supermarket shoppers can also trace foods with the free HarvestMark Food Traceability App. Consumers can use a smart phone to scan codes on some three billion food items to see data on farmers and growing methods.With the help of new technology and smart changes to food management, companies can minimize safety risks, reduce waste and hunger, and help save the planet, too — a triple bottom line with far-reaching results for global sustainability".

More than the freezer, it is the refrigerator that needs such an app since frozen foods are relatively safe even after the expiry date linebut the temperature conditions in a refrigerator can definitely support bacterial and fungal growth after a few days of storage. If fresh produce packed properly are equipped with the appropriate RFID tags and smart refrigerators designed with the alert function, this will go a long way to help the consumers to save lot of foods. Such smart refrigerators can alert the house wives regarding the approaching expiry date so that the older foods are used in preference to fresher ones getting into the refrigerator.

V.H.POTTY
http://vhpotty.blogspot.com/
http://foodtechupdates.blogspot.com

AMERICA-CHINA BHAI BHAI!-THE CONSEQUENCES OF CHINESE FOOD IMPORTS

America and China are two countries which have a love-hate relationship since both are global rivals trying to establish unchallenged economic superiority. Though America enjoyed a near monopoly as a super power ever since the fall of the mighty Soviet Union, China with its Communist dictatorship registered dramatic growth during the last one and a half decade and according to economic experts America cannot afford to antagonize this nation because of its close economic dependence on Chinese investments in the US and over dependence of America on cheap Chinese imports. While cheap and low quality consumer products may not pose serious dangers to the citizens, when it comes to food safety, one can never compromise and it is here that Americans are becoming increasingly vulnerable to food poisoning from food products imported from China which are not subject to regular and thorough checking at various ports of entry. Here is a critical commentary on the current practices vis-a-vis the safety risks Americans face due to this situation.      

Chinese imports dominate some food categories to a striking extent. In a testimony before a subcommittee of the House Foreign Affairs Committee in May (pdf), food safety expert Patty Lovera noted that China accounted for 80% of tilapia, 51% of cod, 49% of apple juice, 34% of processed mushrooms, 27% of garlic and 16% of frozen spinach consumed in the U.S. in 2011. Reports on the state of Chinese food processing establishments are discouraging. More than half of food processing and packaging firms on the Chinese mainland failed safety inspections in 2011, according to a report by Asia Inspection, a China-based food quality control company. Meanwhile, in the U. S., inspections of imported food products are minute compared to the total volume of imports. According to a recent study by the Democrats on the House Appropriations Committee in 2011, FDA inspections were a mere 2.3 % of the total of all imported food products (pdf). The same study states that food imports generally have risen 10% annually since 2004, and are continuing to rise (imports grew from $399 million in 2011 to $426 million in 2012). The FDA estimates that food imports from China and India will grow by 9% annually between 2010 and 2020. The flow of reports in recent years from domestic and foreign sources alike about serious violations of food safety in China has been continuous and alarming. In the last year alone, the country has seen thousands of dead pigs show up in a major river, faced multiple milk scandals and busted operations that were passing off rat meat as mutton. In addition, as Patty Lovera told Congress, there is "widespread smuggling of products like honey to avoid tariffs and food safety restrictions [and] mislabeled products 'transshipped' through another country but produced in China." Food safety problems are, of course, not only a concern to the U.S. The German magazine Der Spiegel recently posted online a list of "rejected food" imported into the EU from China during 2012, including insect-infested potatoes, rabbit meat loaded with antibiotics, oyster sauce with staphylococcus, salmonella-infected ginger, pumpkin seeds contaminated with glass chips and arsenic in frozen calamari. American history of the late 19th and early 20th century reminds us that periods of rapid economic growth stimulate fraud and deception in food processing, which leads to increased regulation. As I noted in an earlier column, it wasn't until author Upton Sinclair aroused public concern with "The Jungle," his 1906 book on conditions in the Chicago meat packaging industry, that President Theodore Roosevelt moved to create the FDA.

China is not a saint when it comes to food safety assurance, even for its own citizens. This country was rocked by many food related frauds during the last one decade affecting children and adults alike and fraudulent practices are still being perpetuated by a section of the food industry which are being splashed across the news channels of electronic media across the globe! Whether this is happening in spite of the government or because of the government is not quite clear. The advantage China has in meting out justice is apparent when it is realized that the governing system is dictatorial in nature and unlike democracies, deciding about the guilty and according severe punishment can be swift. Still food safety scandals are tumbling out of the cup board in that country with a sickening regularity. America which prides itself the best governed country in the world, seems to be lowering its guard against China for reasons which are not very clear. If economic considerations are handicapping that country in taking the Chinese food safety problem seriously, one can only wish that the lives of innocent American citizens are not sacrificed at the altar of extraneous considerations.      

V.H.POTTY
http://vhpotty.blogspot.com/
http://foodtechupdates.blogspot.com

MEAT CONTAMINATION-WHY IT OCCURS?

If there is a perceptible change in dietary habits where people are increasingly shifting to non-animal based foods, one of the most critical factors has been their perception regarding the safety of meat products offered in the market place by the meat products industry with indifference to the well being of the consumer. There are thousands of reports that indict meat products like various cuts, minced products and ground meat items, the main culprit being the virulent E.coli mostly originating from fecal sources. Slaughter house facilities which ought to be clean, hygienic and safe are not up to the desired standards while the handling personnel with potential as carriers of pathogens are not as clean as they should be. While in tropical countries where the primitive slaughtering practices are still in vogue, food poisoning episodes from meat are far and few, probably because they are cooked properly and the consumers have better immunity to these bugs. Here is a commentary on the situation obtaining in a country like the US where food poisoning episodes from beef products are assuming dangerous proportion. 

"There have been a number of reports of people falling ill from fecal contamination in beef products. E. coli is a group of bacteria that is commonly found in the lower intestine of warm blooded organisms and is known to cause diarrhea, dehydration and in most severe cases kidney failure and death in those with weak immune systems (children, the elderly). E. coli bacteria is normally present on surface of beef in which cooking from 145 F-160 F, depending on how the meat is processed will effectively kill bacteria. However many beef producers mechanically tenderize their beef to produce a tender cut of beef as well as to produce ground beef. The process of mechanically tenderizing meat cuts through the connective tissue in the meat and brings bacteria from the surface to the inner parts of the meat thoroughly infecting the meat with E. coli."

It is still a mystery as to why the beef industry is not using the well proven irradiation technology or other newer technologies that can effectively decontaminate the surface area of the carcass adequately which can pre-empt further contamination of the products during processing. Some critics seem to be pointing their fingers to fresh produce like leafy vegetables for most of the infection in meat, forgetting that the very same slaughter house waste and effluents let out to growing fields are responsible for vegetable contamination! There is an urgent need to over haul the abattoirs to prevent pollution of waters nearby as well as to ensure carcasses are decontaminated thoroughly before processing them into finished products. While safety agencies can contribute to better safety through more frequent and efficient inspections, there has to be more introspection on the part of meat industry regarding their responsibility to the well being of the consumers who are their "bread and butter' partners!

V.H.POTTY
http://vhpotty.blogspot.com/
http://foodtechupdates.blogspot.com

MEAT PRODUCTS-THE ANTIBIOTIC USE REALLY HURTS THE CONSUMER?

Use of antibiotics in raising food yielding animals is a subject courting intense controversy and no one knows the real situation at the ground level. Two important arguments one hears against wide scale use of a number of antibiotics by the animal food industry are that it makes many pathogens that cause disease in humans become more resistant to use of antibiotics when used against diseases and more than 80% of the US production of antibiotics goes for incorporation in animal feed stock. Both the above claims are sought to be debunked by a report which recently appeared in the media which makes some sense. Here is a take on this critique on antibiotics and animal food industry.  

From what I have been reading lately, it appears to me that the next big fight over agriculture's ability to provide consumers with plentiful, safe and affordable meat and poultry products will focus on the use of antibiotics in animals raised for food. And it also appears to me that the information being provided through media outlets is not designed to inform, but to misinform and play on the public's lack of detailed knowledge about the use of antibiotics in animals raised for food. And it also appears to me that the main thrust of the attack will be eliminating the use of antibiotics needed to maintain healthy animals in Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations, or CAFOs. Eliminating antibiotics to control or prevent infections in our herds and flocks will eliminate many CAFOs and drive up the cost of protein to the point where many will have to look elsewhere for this portion of their diets. And many opponents of the use of antibiotics in animals say: "And that would be a good thing." So is the agenda to protect me from multi drug resistant bacteria or is it to reduce the amount of animal products we consume? To try and answer that question I want to supply the readers with some facts, facts that I will provide links for and can be repeated time after time as the truth, if anyone cares to listen to you. First of all, a statistic often repeated by the crowd calling for change is that 80 percent of all antibiotics sold in the U.S. are used in animals. The 80 percent number is meant to be a distraction from the real truth. In truth, the numbers posted on the FDA's website, titled 2010  SUMMARY REPORT on Antimicrobials Sold or Distributed for Use in Food-Producing Animals, are in total kilograms of drugs sold. The listing is not indicative of what the antibiotics were used for, nor is it an accurate reflection of illnesses treated vs. prevented, etc.
For instance, a 2,500 pound prize bull with pneumonia is going to be treated with a much larger dosage of an antibiotic than an 8 pound newborn with the same bacterial infection. But the numbers are the best we have for animal antibiotic use, so I will be using them today. For human use of antibiotics, the same caveat about weight applies. The antibiotic numbers sold for human use that I will use for this discussion come from a letter to Congresswoman Slaughter from the FDA dated April 19, 2011, citing the IMS Health, IMS National Sales Perspectives data Year 2009.
According to the FDA report, 28 percent of all antibiotics sold for animal use in 2010 were Ionophores.  Ionophores have never been approved for use in human medicine. Several other drugs sold for use in animals are also not approved for use in human medicine. When they are combined with the Ionophore total, the percentage of antibiotics sold for use in animals but having no place in human disease treatment reaches 45 percent.
The largest class overall of antibiotics sold or distributed for use in animals in 2010 was the tetracycline class.  This class accounted for nearly 42 percent of total sales. Tetracycline use in human medicine comprises about 1 percent of the total amount sold based on weight. Tetracycline used to be widely prescribed, but is now limited in use to treating the sexually transmitted disease caused by Chlamydia, Mycoplasma infections and Rickettsial diseases like Lyme and Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever. For these illnesses, there are antibiotics far superior to tetracycline. These other antibiotics, generally in the class called Macrolides, are the first line of therapy.

The above report raises serious questions regarding the role and credibility of scientists, the USFDA, the USDA and others involved in educating consumers regarding the truth vis-a-vis antibiotics use by animal food industry. If logic is the guiding factor the contention by the author of above critique sounds more convincing than the off-the-cuff opinions and views of critics who deride the practice of antibiotics use by the animal food industry. Another issue is that antibiotics in feed increases the yield of meat which is a desirable practice and no one should have quarrel on that unless it is proved unhealthy to the humans. Now that this controversy has been raked up there is a need for scientific clarity and make a revisit of the issue by those in power controlling the destiny of the food industry through their executive authority. 

V.H.POTTY
http://vhpotty.blogspot.com/
http://foodtechupdates.blogspot.com

BOTTULISM POISONING- HOW CRITICAL IT IS?

Food poisoning by bacteria is occurring with sickening regularity in almost all parts of the world, though such incidences are more accurately documented in the western world. Whether it is the greater immunity enjoyed by the population in poorer countries against food-borne pathogenic infection or it is lack of proper documentation very few poisoning episodes are reported from these countries. It is but natural that many wealthy countries raise their guard against food poisoning through elaborate safety regimes with high tech diagnostic facilities put in place at great cost. Recently there was a food poisoning scare due to botulism, a rare occurrence these days when canning as a food preservation method is not practiced widely. Here are a few bits of information about the dangers posed by the dreaded bacteria Clostridium botulinum, an anaerobic organism found in improperly canned food products. 

"1. Food borne botulism is caused by eating foods that contain the botulism toxin and is often associated with home-canned foods that have been improperly processed. Ingesting botulism toxin can lead to illness within a few hours- to days. Food borne botulism is often caused from home-canned foods with low acid content such as asparagus, green beans, beets and corn.
2. Wound botulism is caused by toxin produced from a wound infected with the bacterium. Wound botulism can be prevented by promptly seeking medical care for infected wounds and by not using contaminated injectable drugs.
3. Infant botulism is caused by consuming the spores of the botulinum bacteria, which then grow in the intestines and release toxin. Honey can contain spores of the botulinum bacteria and has been a source of infection for infants. Children less than 12 months old should not be fed honey. Generally, honey is safe for people one year of age and older.


The classic symptoms of botulism include double or blurred vision, drooping eyelids, slurred speech, difficulty swallowing, dry mouth, and muscle weakness. These are all symptoms of the muscle paralysis caused by the bacterial toxin. If untreated, these symptoms may progress to cause paralysis of the arms, legs, trunk and breathing muscles. In food borne botulism, symptoms generally begin 12 to 36 hours after eating a contaminated food, but they can occur as early as six hours or as late as 10 days later".

Food canning has survived in countries like the US in spite of many new technologies emerging during the last 3 decades. Canning is also practiced by many house holds under less than optimal conditions and most cases of botulism are reported from this sector. It is reported that in the US, on an average, about 145 cases of botulism occur each year but only 15 percent is due to ingestion of improper foods while 65 percent are infant botulism, rest being wound botulism. Recent studies in the US also indicate that outbreaks of food borne botulism involving two or more people occur almost every year and are usually caused by eating improperly processed home-canned foods. Utmost precaution against botulism whether food borne or from other sources is necessary to avoid unnecessary fatalities. In most developing countries more attention is focused on Clostridium tetani which causes a great number of infectious episodes through wounds, especially caused by rusted iron materials like nails, implements, knives etc.and many urban children are immunized against this infection during early days of their life. 

V.H.POTTY
http://vhpotty.blogspot.com/
http://foodtechupdates.blogspot.com