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Is this what they meant by ‘beetlejuice’?
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Some food recalls have sadly become so commonplace that we barely bat an eye when we hear the latest news report. Salmonella in our eggs? No surprise, these days. Beef recalled for E. coli? Guess I’ll go check my freezer (again).
But beetle parts and larvae in infant formula – now that’s a new one.
Similac’s announcement last week recalling about 5 million cans of powdered infant formula for that very reason certainly turned some heads (and freaked out some new parents). On the upside, the likeliest worst case scenario is that a baby would experience some gastrointestinal distress (unlike major illness or even death that can result from pathogens like E. coli, Salmonella or Listeria). On the downside though – feeding bug parts to sensitive newborn babies is just pretty gross.
Infant formula is regulated a little bit differently than eggs, produce, and processed food. But we just had a massive egg recall, and this infant formula recall is ironically happening in the shadow of the ongoing battle over the food safety bill in Washington, which still hasn’t passed the Senate. The big-picture goal of this legislation is admirable, as well as long overdue: to switch our food production system from one that merely reacts to problems to one that proactively prevents outbreaks and recalls from happening in the first place.
This is a critical transition, given that ‘reaction’ isn’t working out so well for us right now: millions of people get sick every year from foodborne illness, it can take months to detect an outbreak and trace it to the right farm or factory (as in the recent egg recall), and companies aren’t always ready to handle the kind of rapid response that consumers expect in a recall scenario (as evidenced by Similac’s crashed website and phone lines this week).
To start moving us from reaction to prevention, the food safety bill would:
- increase inspections of food processing facilities, especially those deemed high risk, to catch problems at the source
- require companies to figure out likely sources of contamination in their production process, and have a plan in place to prevent it from happening
- explore new methods of traceablity to be able to track the source of tainted food products more quickly
Then, if all else fails, the bill would give the FDA the authority to order a mandatory recall of unsafe food products, a power it currently lacks.
Despite broad bipartisan support, as well as backing by major industry and consumer groups, the bill did not move forward last week due to the objections of Senator Coburn from Oklahoma. The Senate has precious little time to act before they adjourn next week for the election season. Take action for food safety now: call 1 (800) 944-6762 to be connected directly to your Senators, and tell them to get the job done.
If they don’t, expect a forecast for more Salmonella, E. coli, and beetle parts in the near future.
Government inspections and standards need to be upgraded. Babies health should come before Senators rushing home to try to get reelected. Anyone opposed to this bill should be thrown out of elected office by his/her constituancy.
and those bad eggs? not destroyed, indeed ended up in prepared foods such as cake mixes. Who is protecting us??
I agree that we need some food safety measures but the FDA is ill equipped and way too influenced by big business (factory farming, Monsanto-like-agribusiness and drug companies) to do this job well as is. There are way too many provisions in this bill that will hurt HEALTHY food sources like small organic farms. What will keep you safe is making safe choices such as eating local, sustainably grown food as much as possible. I will eat my eggs undercooked or even raw if I want to and never worry about getting sick since my eggs do not come from sick chickens like the ones in the grocery stores. I really don’t want the FDA poking their noses more into small healthy sustainable farms-big business is not interested in supporting anything local or healthy as it does not make money for them just like pharma wants you to believe that herbal solutions are potentially dangerous so they can be the only game in town (and kill a lot of people in the process) I will use raw, local dairy and know it is safe because it is from well kept, non chemical doused and vaccine overloaded stressed cows. The way food is produced and what is allowed in it (preservatives, chemicals, pesticides, etc) is what is making this country sick (among other things like mining runoff, toxic indoor home air, mercury from coal plants, etc) so until the FDA actually pulls it’s head out and starts looking at the obvious, real and serious health threats that are there AND is willing to go against billion dollar businesses to make real reform, it is hard to support much of what they do. We DO need protections but we can’t have the fox watching the henhouse. Where was the FDA or the USDA when these farming methods were being developed, when heavy metals were allowed into fertilizer, when pesticides known to be toxic were allowed on the market? Prove to us you can do the job by focusing on the pertinent issues! I am sorry but it really fries me when I hear talking heads on the news babbling on about “no more over easy eggs now”. HELLO! It does not take a rocket scientist to know what eggs are safe and what aren’t. NO eggs from factory farms should be consumed because it is a horrific way to treat animals and a horrific way to produce food and it should be illegal as it is in many other countries and now in California. Common sense people, please, just a little common sense. Do your research and make the healthy, ethical choices.
I totally agree with Dr. Zamzow. As veterinarians, we are trained in food safety. Part of our Oath as veterinarians is to protect the Public Health. We see the small farmers and ranchers who are struggling to produce a healthy, safe product for consumers. Sad to say, we often never get to set foot on some of the big agri-business factory farms. There are plenty of rules and regulations in place for safe food. The lack is in effective enforcement of existing regulations.
“Prove to us you can do the job by focusing on the pertinent issues!”, Dr. Zamzow? Aren’t you putting a cart in front of the horse? The FDA can’t “prove” anything to us unless they are authorized by duly enacted law!
May I inquire what the FDA is supposed to do? To my knowledge they are charged with protecting the health and safekeeping of U.S. citizens, and you are telling me that they have no authorization to do anything about factory farms that repeatedly commit health violations? If that is correct, then rather than pass flawed legislation that uses Homeland Security as enforcers, simply dissolve the FDA and USDA and in their place create agencies who have not only power to inspect all facilities that relate to food manufacture, growth and marketing, but also have the power (and will) to close those who violate the laws. S510 does none of that. It simply eliminates small farmers and CSAs and gives corporate agriculture and Monsanto free rein for absolute control over everything we eat, drink or apply to our bodies. It is reported that the bill was written by an attorney whose law firm has Monsanto as one of its clienbts. Get the connection?????
You go Dr. Z.! Few people realize how jammed full this bill is with protections for big agra from local farmers selling eggs, milk, and veggies to their friends and neighbors.
It needs to be more than one bill, so that you don’t have to destroy small farmers and local markets in order to keep beetles out of infant formula.
There are still too many provisions in this bill, as it is currently written, that negatively affect home and small gardens, and local/organic and community food production. The onerous rules imposed by the bill are no doubt appropriate for agribusiness but will create “barriers to entry” that small producers cannot meet, thereby destroying local and natural production. Until such protective language is included in this bill that satisfies these and other concerns, I will continue to sign petitions calling for its delay. Let’s look at it more completely and not rush to sign something that doesn’t work well for those already producing safe food. Thank you.
It is amazing how little the Senate cares about their constituents lives.
And they expect us to vote for them.
What the hell is the holdup with the FDA inspections? We need food safty now before half of the country is poisioned by unsafe food. People in Washington want to keep thier jobs they better get off thier butts and do something to protect the consumers.
ALL FOODSTUFFS should be strictly controlled both to possible reduce adverse problems for the consumer, AND to allow better government control during production, thus better protecting the consumer.
A safe food supply is not something that a citizenry should have to be organizing and pleading for. Pass a tough food safety bill, NOW!
This heinous disregard for the welfare of the people must stop. We elect people to serve us, not their parties…but clearly they think otherwise from their actions.
Get a clue and serve the people who elected you, not big business or lobbyists. Protect us and our children. Your children are endangered from these substances, too.
It’s too bad that Congress can’t put aside their political and ideological differences long enough to do their job … the job that WE hired them to do, which would be to PROTECT THE WELL BEING OF ALL CITIZENS. Big business, including big agriculture, has proved repeatedly that they care more for profits than for the community they allegedly “serve.” Regulate them until they scream for mercy!
I believe sufficient rules are in place. Even though government seems “bloated” with employees, it appears that more are needed to complete the inspections that are now required.
Are we back to Upton Sinclairs’s The Jungle? So much for enlightenment. But then listening to the rhetoric today, I am not holding out much hope for our leaders because their constituents do not want to be bothered with facts, just knee-jerk emotion. Any probing for cause in any of these issues or backing of causes is dismissed as a (fill in the blank) plot.
Consumers also need to understand that in order to protect our food and health there must be government investment in civil service jobs, training, and inspections. The money to do this must come from somewhere, and that somewhere is out taxes. We can’t keep demanding less taxes and expecting more services. We must also insist that money be available for consumer protections and less for new “toys” for war.
familiy members in Texas have been exposed. Time to figure it out.
“There are still too many provisions in this bill,… that negatively affect home and small gardens, and local/organic and community food production.”
What are they and why would people not want to be protected against anyone selling food to the public by those not interested or unable to care about the cleanliness of it?
There already ARE plenty of laws governing food safety. There is not enough ENFORCEMENT. All those recalled eggs were traced to one factory-farm that had a history of violations. THAT one producer should be targeted and made to clean up its act, not passage of more bills! ALSO – there are hidden provisions in this bill that will severely damage organic food producers, small farms, even your ability to buy nutritional supplements.
Put pressure on enforcement of existing health and sanitation laws, as well as humane housing and care for the chickens or other animals. You don’t get these scary stories from organic farms.
It seems Food Safety and Babies’ Health are never high priorities for Republicans in power, but please, could you think of your own children and grandchildren instead of lobbyists and corporate profits? PLEASE PASS THE FOOD SAFETY BILL, for all of our children.
It has come to the point that I am not even surprised by any of this stuff. The government has been bought and paid for – actually pretty cheaply, if you think of it, which should tell us how low they actually think of themselves.
It appears that there is not one whit of concern for the public from business and industry, and without doubt from government and the conservative who have no understanding nor concern for anything but themselves. Let the kids die, I suppose it their thought.
If our own growers can accidentally contaminate our food supply, how easy would it be for terrorists to do the same only on a much larger scale?
In answer to your question of who has read the bill, I would like to answer that three members of our local committee have read all several hundred pages of S510, as well as the Chairman of our County Commission. Yesterday all five Commission members (3 Democrats and 2 Republicans) voted to sign a resolution we had presented to them stating their concerns about the effects of S510 on local farmers, farmers’ market, food cooperative and other local vendors of their home-grown and homemade products. Furthermore, the Commission is sending the Resolution to every county in North Carolina.
If you want a good synopsis of the bill written by an attorney, please log onto and locate the article written by Attorney Judith McGeary entitled “Analysis of S510, the Food Safety Modernization Act”, written 8/20/2010.
Who has read the bill? Or knows someone who has read it? Without an ax to grind. Or where can we find a synopsis? Again, from a neutral source. I hear the comments on all three sides: a)pass the bill, b) don’t pass the bill because it will hurt small organic farmers, and c) we don’t need more laws, we need enforcement. I appreciate all 3 positions, but I don’t hear anyone with the facts: either the actual content of the bill and/or the projected consequences of passing the bill based on other examples of similar bills. Come on, folks, this isn’t a shouting match. We’re supposed to be smart enough to have an intelligent dialogue. If not, let’s just turn the country over to whichever group of radicals can make the most noise.
Why is it that all the garbage that comes out of China and all the third world countries are not posted or addressed?
Damn you people!! You can’t even pass a protective food bill!!
How can ANYONE ever be convicted for contempt of congress? You have succeeded beautifully in earning maximum contempt and disrespect – FROM BOTH PARTIES.
Instead of being able to accomplish anything, you want to base most of your activities on too much compromise and corruption.
YOU PEOPLE REALLY STINK!!!
Health needs to come before big business. Those who provide products have a responsibility to certify their safety.
Maybe even worse than (hopefully ‘natural and not pesticide-laden insect parts) is that most formula are GMO-soy-based.
As certified organic pet food manufacturer, I’d love to see more regulations! It appears that small (certified organic pet food) companies like mine are better regulated than most others, even human food processing companies. It would be nice if big industries wouldn’t have their hands in politics, then consumers would be better protected.
The party of “NO” says yes to cutting federal spending. There would be even less monitoring and inspection if they get their way.
It seems “Consumers” are just another resource for big businesses to exploit, with the help of weak government. It should be the reverse. A strong government should regulate, inspect and supervise industries for the safety of the population, great and small.
THE PEOPLE WHO APPROACH THESE BILLS WITH CAUTION ARE RIGHT. WE ALWAYS NEED TO READ AND UNDERSTAND LAWS BEFORE WE MAKE CHOICES IT’S THE CORRECT WAY TO PROCEED AND BOTH SIDES MUST BE HEARD.
Why should we believe that Industrial, Animal based, Sugar contaminated “Formula” is better than Mother’s milk in the first place? There is no immune system benefits and it only drives children to be addicted to sugar and animal milk the number one combo supporting tooth decay and obesity.
Chet Rowe, my 7th grade home room teacher in 1954, told his class, ‘Never think that the president or congress is in charge.’ He said that the “‘Corporations own the government and never forget that.” I never forgot that. It is so true.
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Consumers Union, SnarkRemarks. SnarkRemarks said: RT @ConsumersUnion: The latest in bizarre recall news: insect parts in infant formula http://bit.ly/aOYXZv [...]
calling my senator’s is a waste of time. email s better. when i call I get an assistant who i can tell doesn’t care. Happened several times.
Let’s stop spending our tax dollars on Iraq and Afghanistan and start hiring food inspectors. The appalling conditions on the chicken farms is only the beginning.
Why is Congress still dawdling about passing widespread FDA reforms, especially since these reforms will also provide at least hundreds of jobs across the country? Please let us know how best to put pressure on our elected officials.
We all need to eat foods closer to our own table by using our spaces to raise and cultivate our own food more often. When that is not possible, use the farmer’s markets and other local outlets to get fresher, more wholesome and nutritious food instead of overprocessed junk! Cook instead of nuke, make your own anything you can and stop eating all that fat, salt and cholesterol!
I neither understand the demand for this new/old food safety bill nor do I understand why everybody is so upset about bugs in infant formula. Are you not aware that for years and years all of you are in the middle of THE largest human trial study ever conducted in regards to gene-manipulated corn, canola, etc. That High-Fructose Corn Syrup (short HFCS) is in almost all foods except from organic or very responsible manufacturers, and that this very HFCS causes this immense obesity epidemic as well as skyrocketing Diabetes (the outlook is not very encouraging, you’ll find more by searching the internet). Are you not aware of all the pharmaceuticals in your meat and your drinking water, the steady and dangerous increase of pesticides in your daily vegetables? Do you not know that our water and sewer system is about to break down and that one gallon of bottled water cost more than a gallon of gas, and that in about 15 years 2/3 of the world’s population will not have access to clean drinking water? Think that could never happen to you? Think twice. Supporting and passing this food safety bill without any amendments will lead to even more of these dangers since this bill as it is now will definitely allow Monsanto & Co to erase all organic farmers from the landscape (this could even extend to your little backyard garden!)and totally control our (the world’s) food supply (which is their GOAL). I don’t wish this scenario to anybody! Do some research, watch “The future of food” and other very good documentaries – educate yourself for the sake of your and your children’s health!