OT: Dirty Secrets of the Food Processing Industry

Many people on this list are concerned with nutrition.

Some might find this article of interest:

http://www.westonaprice.org/modernfood/ ... crets.html

Not bad, a little dated and I don't agree with the raw milk study. It may be better for you but it also kills much easier. Better pasteurized milk the thousands of deaths.

BlackSpinner wrote:Not bad, a little dated and I don't agree with the raw milk study. It may be better for you but it also kills much easier. Better pasteurized milk the thousands of deaths.

I'm a bit cautious about the raw milk, myself, but I can't deny that clean dairy conditions would make for healthier milk -- and factory farm conditions aren't healthy.

Since I'm lactose intolerant, I use pastured milk (and then pasteurize it myself) before making 24 hour yogurt.

Do you have newer studies / articles in a similar vein?

Personally I gave up on milk a long time ago for the same reasons. I do eat cheese and yogurt. but Soy milk is so much easier for cooking and baking and cereals Oat meal - because when I compared the price oat meal is like many times cheaper. Instead of spending $10 for breakfast cereal a week I spend $2.

My uncle had an old fashioned dairy farm - There is no such thing as a sterile environment at a farm. Poop and pee come out near the same end. Contamination is super easy and raw milk is a breeding ground for bacteria. They didn't drink raw milk. One of my uncles paid jobs was to go around to all the farms and collect samples of "stuff" from the cows to get tested for things like TB, other bacteria and antibiotics once a week.

Last weekend I was cooking for the film shoot I looked at buying humus - then I saw the ingredients and the price - I made it my self chickpeas, olive oil, lemon juice salt & pepper instead of an arm length of ingredients.

Well, soy is right out. I happen to like breathing -- odd of me, I know! -- and if I eat soy anything, I stop. I also don't do grains -- my gut won't tolerate it. I hope, some day, to be able to do proper, old fashioned oatmeal again... because I like it.

I know there's no such thing as "sterile" on a farm... but there's a BIG difference between a factory farm and a pastured dairy farm.

Last weekend I was cooking for the film shoot I looked at buying humus - then I saw the ingredients and the price - I made it my self chickpeas, olive oil, lemon juice salt & pepper instead of an arm length of ingredients.

I do the same thing with guacamole. Avocados, lemon juice, a little white pepper and salt... if I'm feeling fancy, I may had some garlic, red onion, and cumin. I'd make hummus with lentils, since I can't do chick peas, either. Too much starch.

I'm going to call bunk on a good bit of that article. My neighbor is a food safety scientist. I won't say what worldwide corporation he works for, but he travels to every country on this earth where a U.S. food company is located and examines food from the field to the moment that it reaches the consumers hands. Everything from pesticide residue to field personel washing their hands, to how they dry their hands, vermin, process equipment, proceedures, things you don't even consider in your own homes. Trust me, no matter how meticulous you think you are in your home, commercially processed food, in most cases, is held to a much higher standard. Have you taken bacteria cultures from your cabinet door handles, your faucet handle, your refrigerator interior, your HVAC ducts, etc. etc.? They do every few hours in a food plant, from every piece of machinery that touches food.

The exception are plants & processors that ignore the established rules. Along with produce and spices imported from overseas, imported foods only get random safety sampling. If it's grown & processed in this country by a major corporation, you can pretty well be assured that it exceeds all standards for safety from raw product to your hands.

I have worked in a food processing plant.
Sanitation is a very important part of the business.
Just from a greedy dollars and cents perspective it makes sense.
A couple contaminated batches, an FDA recall, and nobody buys your product.

All of this is not secret either. You can read citations from the FDA Register.
It tells you how many insect parts were found in your raspberry preserves
(and I always thought those were seeds)

Mark

Mmm... I guess all the modern food safety is why all those peanut products had to be recalled earlier this year. And why the spinach was recalled before that, and....

Kiralynx wrote:Mmm... I guess all the modern food safety is why all those peanut products had to be recalled earlier this year. And why the spinach was recalled before that, and....

The peanut products recall and the contamination were a result of a company being cited several times before and ignoring those citiations then attemtping to cover up their bacteria counts by retesting. You haven't heard more about it but the individuals involved, company owners will serve prison time, the USDA & FDA don't play. If I recall correctly the spinach contamination was a result of either overspray from a farm or the direct use of night soil, aka Milorganite aka processed sewage.

While it's not something you hear much about, food irradiation would greatly reduce instances of food born illnesses. Everyone freaks out over radiation in this country but the fact is, all the military food produced; MRE's is irradiated. All your Bandaides and similar medical supplies are irradiated, a good portion of the mail after the anthrax incident was irradiated. The type of irradiation used for food processing has no residual effect. It's been used since the 60's for the military and has been used in other countries for some time.

Rustyolddude wrote:While it's not something you hear much about, food irradiation would greatly reduce instances of food born illnesses. Everyone freaks out over radiation in this country but the fact is, all the military food produced; MRE's is irradiated. All your Bandaides and similar medical supplies are irradiated, a good portion of the mail after the anthrax incident was irradiated. The type of irradiation used for food processing has no residual effect. It's been used since the 60's for the military and has been used in other countries for some time.

Bluntly -- I don't want, and will not buy irradiated foods.

And those jerks with the peanut recalls and similar should do time.

Kiralynx wrote:

Rustyolddude wrote:While it's not something you hear much about, food irradiation would greatly reduce instances of food born illnesses. Everyone freaks out over radiation in this country but the fact is, all the military food produced; MRE's is irradiated. All your Bandaides and similar medical supplies are irradiated, a good portion of the mail after the anthrax incident was irradiated. The type of irradiation used for food processing has no residual effect. It's been used since the 60's for the military and has been used in other countries for some time.

Bluntly -- I don't want, and will not buy irradiated foods.

And those jerks with the peanut recalls and similar should do time.

Likewise, I refuse to buy produce, juices, canned goods from mexico, south america or china, seafood from thailand, vietnam, cambodia or china. Imported products only get spot inspected, it's only when someone dies or gets sick is there any interest as to why. Remember the chinese baby formula? The pet food? The chinese cough syrup & toothpaste? The chinese toys? Anyway, point being I trust domestic products way more than I do something produced elsewhere.

The best thing to do is to work with animals, and 'share' in the 'uncleanness' associated in being around large animals. I have found that my health has improved dramatically since I started working at the zoo. Although you wash your hands frequently (especially when working around cats, their body wastes, and the fresh and leftover meat you find in their world), you can't help but to pick up their bacteria. I suspect that having this extra bacteria has kept my immune system more 'on guard'. And since I try to eat a carnivore diet myself, I suspect I have picked up a sampling of 'cat gut bacteria' that helps me digest meat better as well.

timbalionguy wrote:The best thing to do is to work with animals, and 'share' in the 'uncleanness' associated in being around large animals. I have found that my health has improved dramatically since I started working at the zoo. Although you wash your hands frequently (especially when working around cats, their body wastes, and the fresh and leftover meat you find in their world), you can't help but to pick up their bacteria. I suspect that having this extra bacteria has kept my immune system more 'on guard'. And since I try to eat a carnivore diet myself, I suspect I have picked up a sampling of 'cat gut bacteria' that helps me digest meat better as well.

If you start growing fangs, you'll know you've truly evolved.

That peanut factory situation shows that far too many things were wrong, both on the part of the processor and the inspectors. How can the inspectors allow a plant that has been in that bad of a shape for so long, with that many violations, stay open? How can the inspectors let an UNLICENSED food plant stay open that long -- how did they even let it open?

I know of a restaurant and sports bar that was forced to close until a hand washing sink was installed behind the bar -- they got a new inspector who decided that it wasn't good enough for the bartender to use the dish washing sink. I used to do TV and sound work for them; the place was spotless and the cooks and bartenders were very contentious about food safety.

bearded_two wrote:That peanut factory situation shows that far too many things were wrong, both on the part of the processor and the inspectors. How can the inspectors allow a plant that has been in that bad of a shape for so long, with that many violations, stay open? How can the inspectors let an UNLICENSED food plant stay open that long -- how did they even let it open?

I know of a restaurant and sports bar that was forced to close until a hand washing sink was installed behind the bar -- they got a new inspector who decided that it wasn't good enough for the bartender to use the dish washing sink. I used to do TV and sound work for them; the place was spotless and the cooks and bartenders were very contentious about food safety.

This illustrates part of the problem. People live in fear of inspectors. An inspector can come in and make your life miserable, even if you are substantially in compliance. An example is a USDA inspector that was trying for a promotion, so he went out of his way to find everything he could wrong with facilities like zoos. Foe example, if an animal took a dump in a clean enclosure while he was there, and he saw the poo, they were written up for unsanitary conditions. At least one place I know of closed to the public because of these merciless inspections. As a result of this sort of thing, businesses have a strong incentive to 'fly under the radar' to avoid inspections, even if they run a tight ship.