There is new hope that the FDA is finally ready to get serious about BPA.

The agency said Friday that it had “some concern about the potential effects of BPA on the brain, behavior and prostate gland of fetuses, infants and children,” and would join other federal health agencies in studying the chemical in both animals and humans.

BPA is a chemical that is technically not in food, instead it can be found in hard plastic bottles (look for recycling number 7) and the lining of aluminum cans. However, the chemical doesn’t always stay there, and has been found to leach into the food it holds, often at toxic levels.

The first major concern was the high levels of BPA found in baby bottles and sippy cups.  While manufacturers have been moving to remove BPA from those items, people are starting to ask about BPA affects on the rest of us.

Naglene and Camelbak have stopped using BPA in their products, however if you have an older item, you may want to look into an upgrade. Sadly, most canned goods manufacturers have resisted a BPA-free diet. Requiring product labeling, coupled with a good education program, amy be an easier and almost effective strategy than attempting an outright ban.

Yep, they found fecal matter in soda machines.  According to Virginia food scientists, 48% of the liquids they tested were positive for Coliform bacteria, which is an indicator of feces. Drink up!

While most of the barely year old administration has been mired in a morass of inertia, there has been a few bright points of, egads, CHANGE. And I’m happy to report its the good sort of change.  While Hilda Solis has been hard at work trying to keep employers from killing their employees and screwing them over in their paychecks, the FDA has been ginning up the oversight machine as well.

Working with the DOJ, the FDA has asked for a permanent injunction against the Quesos Mi Pueblito manufacturer, because along with a bunch of mexican cheese-esque products, they have also been manufacturing Listeria.

WalletPop has all the delightful details:

In the complaint, provided to WalletPop, inspectors found a pit in the cheese production room with sewer gases leaking from it, thermometers that register the wrong temperatures — causing cheese to be “refrigerated” at up to 55 degrees, the use of rusty equipment and an infestation of cockroaches and other insects. Tests also found Listeria in several parts of the facility.

The FDA said the company reported addressing many of the issues in the fall, but retests over several months continued to find contamination at the plant. On other occasions, responding to state officials, the plant was closed for cleaning and repairs only to be cited again for more violations.

Requests to close down facilities are uncommon.

Compare this response to the horrendous peanut butter contamination a year and a half ago that killed 8 people.  Yep, change is good.  People not dying is even better.

The Center or Science in the Public Interest put out a list this week of the Top 10 riskiest foods based on the number of outbreaks and the number of people who got sick. And those lucky duckies are:

The NYT outlined on Sunday why ground beef might be the most dangerous thing on the supermarket shelves. It’s a behemoth of an article which starts with a young woman who is paralyzed by eating a contaminated beef patty, but then goes on to show how stores who want to do that right thing are often helpless against the mega slaughterhouses and what a joke our regulations and government agencies are.

The retail giant Costco is one of the few big producers that tests trimmings for E. coli before grinding, a practice it adopted after a New York woman was sickened in 1998 by its hamburger meat, prompting a recall.

Craig Wilson, Costco’s food safety director, said the company decided it could not rely on its suppliers alone. “It’s incumbent upon us,” he said. “If you say, ‘Craig, this is what we’ve done,’ I should be able to go, ‘Cool, I believe you.’ But I’m going to check.”

Costco said it had found E. coli in foreign and domestic beef trimmings and pressured suppliers to fix the problem. But even Costco, with its huge buying power, said it had met resistance from some big slaughterhouses. “Tyson will not supply us,” Mr. Wilson said. “They don’t want us to test.”

These meat producers are so powerful that they can refuse to do business with a massive chain like Costco.  Not only that, but it is so important for them to make sure their meat is not tested that they are willing to forego a huge contract that is probably worth millions upon millions of dollars a year. Its not just the retailers that are controlled by these agri-businesses though.  They own government agencies too.

The meat industry treats much of its practices and the ingredients in ground beef as trade secrets. While the Department of Agriculture has inspectors posted in plants and has access to production records, it also guards those secrets. Federal records released by the department through the Freedom of Information Act blacked out details of Cargill’s grinding operation that could be learned only through copies of the documents obtained from other sources. Those documents illustrate the restrained approach to enforcement by a department whose missions include ensuring meat safety and promoting agriculture markets.

The government is not just hiding their secrets though.  These industries are their number one priority - above and beyond the consumers that they are supposed to be protecting.

In October 2007, the agency issued a notice recommending that processors conduct at least a few tests a year to verify the testing done by slaughterhouses. But after resistance from the industry, the department allowed suppliers to run the verification checks on their own operations.

In August 2008, the U.S.D.A. issued a draft guideline again urging, but not ordering, processors to test ingredients before grinding. “Optimally, every production lot should be sampled and tested before leaving the supplier and again before use at the receiver,” the draft guideline said.

But the department received critical comments on the guideline, which has not been made official. Industry officials said that the cost of testing could unfairly burden small processors and that slaughterhouses already test. In an October 2008 letter to the department, the American Association of Meat Processors said the proposed guideline departed from U.S.D.A.’s strategy of allowing companies to devise their own safety programs, “thus returning to more of the agency’s ‘command and control’ mind-set.”

Dr. Kenneth Petersen, an assistant administrator with the department’s Food Safety and Inspection Service, said that the department could mandate testing, but that it needed to consider the impact on companies as well as consumers. “I have to look at the entire industry, not just what is best for public health,” Dr. Petersen said.

Are you scared yet?

PEW put out a new report yesterday on American attitudes regarding food and food safety.  The verdict is pretty clear:

• 58 percent of voters are worried about bacterial contamination of the food supply
• 83 percent of likely voters interviewed believe the federal government should be responsible for ensuring that food is safe to eat
• 89 percent support the federal government enacting new measures to better protect people from getting sick from eating contaminated food
• 91 percent of those polled favor annual or semi-annual government inspections of facilities that process food that is at a high risk of contamination

Also out yesterday, the FDA rolled out their Reportable Food Registry, the new database that is supposed to track food bourne illnesses:

Facilities that manufacture, process or hold food for consumption in the United States now must tell the FDA within 24 hours if they find a reasonable probability that an article of food will cause severe health problems or death to a person or an animal.

The reporting requirement applies to all foods and animal feed regulated by the FDA, except infant formula and dietary supplements, which are covered by other regulatory requirements. Some examples of reasons a food may be reportable include bacterial contamination, allergen mislabeling or elevated levels of certain chemical components.

Not a moment too soon, now the question is whether this new reporting scheme is going to change the practices of food processors.

Our favorite Ag lobby rag, Brownfield, is celebrating 50 years of Atrazine today. In case you weren’t familar with this wonder chemical, here’s what’s so great about this well used herbicide:

Atrazine, an endocrine disrupter, can interfere with the body’s hormonal activity and the development of reproductive organs. The Environmental Protection Agency looks at annual average levels of the chemical in drinking-water systems, but the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) says this misses spikes likely to occur after rain and springtime application of the herbicide.

“Our biggest concern is early-life-stage development,” said NRDC senior scientist Jennifer Sass. “If there’s a disruption during that time, it becomes hard-wired into the system. These endocrine disrupters act in the body at extremely low levels. These spikes matter.”

She said the chemical could also be linked to menstrual problems and endocrine-related cancers in adults.

Sounds like something to pop the bubbly over, doesn’t it?

Gerry over at Organic Authority takes a novel approach to tomato growing - by growing tomatoes in trash.  He swears by this strategy.  I have seen this phenomenon first hand - when I was in Boston visiting my friend James he showed me a tomato plant that started all on its own in his compost bin.  Now its taken over half his backyard.  The tomatoes definitely seem to love it.  And while both Gerry and James’ tomatoes are growing in compostable material - its not composted yet.  In the meantime there is all sorts of weird mold, bacteria and unidentifiable larvae growing in there.  So while it may be great food for the plants, the food from the plants is not something I would try.

Looks like Rep. Peterson stripped out the provisions to cover farms under the new regulations of the Food Safety Enhancement Act.  While it is troubling that we’re not going to have any safety “enhancements” on our nation’s farms, there is a positive to this.  There was a concern that the new changes would be unfairly burdensome to small farmers, so this should take that issue off the table for now.  However, this bill will do nothing to provide new and badly needed standards for the mega factory farms.

On the bright side, the bill does increase inspections and fines for violation for food processing facilities.  This would be a huge step forward and address some the contamination issues we’ve seen in the past year such as the multiple ground beef recalls and the peanut butter contamination.

The fines actually look like they have real teeth, from CQ:

The bill imposes both criminal and civil penalties for individuals and companies that violate food safety laws. For individuals who knowingly violate food safety laws, the measure allows for a prison term of up to 10 years.

• For unintentional violations involving individuals, the measure imposes a fine of $20,000 per violation, not to exceed $50,000 in a single proceeding.
• For unintentional violations involving companies, the bill imposes a fine of $250,000 per violation, not to exceed $1 million in a single proceeding.
• For intentional violations with respect to individuals the fine would be $50,000 per violation, not to exceed $100,000 in a single proceeding.
• For intentional violations involving companies, the fine would be $500,000 per violation, not to exceed $7.5 million in a single proceeding.

Update: meat and poultry are exempt. Sigh. OK this bill is not so good.

From Congressional Quarterly, the House is scheduled to vote today on this (no link, subscription required):

Food Safety — HR 2749, Food Safety Enhancement Act, is scheduled for House consideration today under suspension of the rules. The bill overhauls food safety regulations for farms and food processing facilities, requiring more frequent inspections at food facilities and giving the FDA authority to impose criminal and civil penalties. The measure generally exempts farms from registration requirements and fees, although the bill does establish new regulations for the farming practices for fresh produce. The FDA would have authority to impose mandatory quarantines on geographic areas which are concluded to be the source of contaminated food posing a serious threat to humans or animals. The House will take up a version of the bill that has been modified as a result of talks between leaders of the Energy and Commerce and Agriculture committees to address concerns of agricultural interests about the role of the FDA in regulating farm activities. The compromise bill was released this morning.

Just one last day in the week, and it was looking so good for eaters across America.  But not quite.  The USDA warns that ground beef produced between May 23 and June13 and are labeled “Est. 6250″ may be contaminated with salmonella. Yes, that does mean that the USDA did inspect this meat, it was sold to the public and it is in fact contaminated.

The meat was sold in the mountain west and central plains through King Soopers and City Market stores.

More Recall!

The SF Chronicle has a sprawling article on the extreme and unscientific safety measures being taken by some produce providers. Fun things like pumping out poison gas to kill mice and squirrels, banning children under the age of 5 from farm visits, and bulldozing ponds used for irrigation recycling.

The strangest part of all this craziness is that the produce buyers refuse to divulge what these new directives are that they are handing down to their farmers.  Considering all of these mandates are in response to food recalls and the lawsuits that followed, one would think that they would want to shout their new and supposed improved guidelines from the rooftops. Yet, instead, they are hiding behind a curtain.

Food safety is moving briskly along.

The House Energy and Commerce Committee unanimously passed legislation yesterday that would increase government oversight of the U.S. food supply and, if the measure passes in the House, it will be the most sweeping reform of the food safety system in nearly 50 years. The House of Representatives is expected to decide on the bill before the July 4 recess.

The bill is not perfect, but at least it will increase inspections significantly.

Remember that pistachio recall last month?  The company in question recalled the nuts - then repackaged and resold them.

Joseph Coning

Joseph Coning died yesterday morning at the age of 8.  His kidneys failed and then his heart gave out after contracting E. Coli.  The source of the E. Coli is unknown at this time.

Jill at Locavore gives an awesome write up on major elements of the Food Safety Enhancement Act of 2009. The huge piece?  Gives the FDA mandatory recall authority. Huge! Going from advisory recalls to mandatory recalls is Progress with a capital P.  Most Americans don’t even know that if their food is contaminated all the US government can do is ask food companies nicely to alert their customers.

There is one element that I am slightly concerned with - the $1,000 registration fee that is required of all farm producers.  If you’re a tiny 100 acre family farm, that can only get by by supplementing with other part time work, then this is a problem.  What we really need is sliding scales based on previous year’s income. So If you’re farm only makes $30,000 a year you only pay something like $200. If your farm makes $1 million youpat $10,000. I’m totally making up numbers here, but you get the point. Sliding scales based on income or acreage is the long ball game. As I mentioned in my post about the food safety hearing, house members do seem to recognize the issue.