N. Galuten

Spicy tuna rolls

Dubbed the "pink slime" of the sea, nearly 59,000 pounds of yellowfin tuna have been recalled after a salmonella outbreak. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the outbreak has been reported in 20 states and 12 people have been hospitalized.

The product is called Nakaochi Scrape. Commonly used in spicy tuna rolls, it looks like raw ground tuna and is essentially "tuna backmeat" scraped from the bones of the fish. Most of the illnesses have occurred in New York and there are currently no recorded cases of sickness in California. The Cupertino-based company Moon Marine USA Corporation has since issued a voluntary recall of the product.

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Max Josephson

Our pantries are a mash-up of products with and without BPA

The fight to get bisphenol A (BPA) out of our kitchens took a hit on Friday, when the Food and Drug Administration declined to ban the controversial chemical from food packaging. The FDA rejected a petition from the environmental group Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), but also said it will continue to investigate health concerns linked to the chemical.

"Is this a major setback? It's an outrage and extreme disappointment," says Mike Schade of the advocacy group Center for Health, Environment and Justice.

BPA, a synthetic compound that mimics estrogen, is used to harden polycarbonate plastic and to make protective epoxy resin linings for cans. Plastics marked PC, "other" or number 7 may contain BPA. Studies have shown that BPA can leach out of packaging and into foods, especially with acidic contents like tomatoes.

In an email this morning, Schade told L.A. Weekly: "It's clear FDA has stuck their head in the sand and ignored the growing body of scientific evidence that suggests BPA is harmful to children's health. BPA, a synthetic sex hormone, has no place in canned food. The FDA must take immediate action to eliminate exposure to BPA in canned foods. In the meantime, we're pleased to see that manufacturers and retailers are beginning to take proactive action to phase out BPA."

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Flickr/Ruthieki

Quorn Nuggets

Fake chicken products were the subject of a piece by Mark Bittman in this past Sunday's New York Times, in which he described one faux meat, known by the brand name Quorn, as "pretty appealing in some instances." While the name Quorn conjures up images of the charming English village for which it's named, some people have had some not-so-lovely reactions to the stuff. We're talking major body rebellions, with Quorn coming out of every orifice.
 
The Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI), the nonprofit food-safety group, has been complaining to the FDA about Quorn since 2002, trying to get the product removed from grocery store shelves or, at the very least, have it come with strong warning labels.

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R.E.~/Flickr

A can of Coke

Updated and clarified with a statement from Coca-Cola after the jump.

As if you need another reason to scale back on all that soda pop: NPR and Reuters report that Coca-Cola and Pepsi will change their recipe manufacturing process slightly to reduce the amount of 4-methylimidazole (4-MI), a chemical that, in very high doses, has been known to cause cancer in animals. In sodas, it's used to give the drinks their characteristic dark caramel coloring.

The change is not so much a health concern as it is a marketing one. In January, California added 4-MI to its list of known carcinogens subject to Proposition 65, the Safe Drinking Water and Toxic Enforcement Act of 1986, which requires businesses to warn consumers when their products contain chemicals "known to cause cancer or reproductive toxicitiy." Had the companies continued to use 4-MI in sodas without modification, then, they would have had to issue a warning label on all bottles, cans and 2-liter jugs. Rather than go through all that trouble, the companies decided to rework the recipe process and find a way to use less 4-MI to create that signature brown color.

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True Sake/Sven Wiederholt

A selection of premium sake from Tohoku at True Sake

Need a reason to feel good about drinking? Japanese sake makers could use your help. Hit hard by the twin natural disasters of earthquake and tsunami, what's really impacting these often small, family-run enterprises is that fact that since the earthquake, sake consumption in Japan has plummeted. "It is like all of the people in Japan went into mourning," explains Kenji Ichishima, president of Niigata's Ichishima Sake Brewery and an executive with the Japan Sake Brewers Association. Per Ichishima, the situation is so bad that the prime minister recently implored people to return to normalcy.

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Flickr/Zanastardust

Consumers have complained of a waxy, metallic or soapy odor and taste.

Do not open that box of Apple Jacks. According to a report Friday in the Christian Science Monitor, Kellogg Co. is recalling the apple-cinnamon-flavored cereal along with Fruit Loops, Corn Pops and Honey Smacks due to "an uncharacteristic off-flavor and smell" from the box liners.

How uncharacteristic and off? Apparently enough to make "sensitive" individuals vomit, the Food and Drug Administration says.

The FDA states that the chance of people becoming seriously ill is low, but Kellogg still is pulling 28 million boxes of cereal from store shelves across the United States. Products marked with the letters "KN" following the "better if used before" date notice are affected. No other Kellogg's products are part of this recall. The recalled products were distributed nationwide.

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With recent food-borne illness outbreaks linked to alfalfa sprouts and romaine lettuce, the Center for Science in the Public Interest has re-released its list of what the group calls the top 10 riskiest foods regulated by the FDA, based on cases of illness reported to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. According to the report, these foods account for nearly 40% of all food-borne outbreaks since 1990. The nearly 50,000 reported illnesses ranged from temporary gastrointestinal distress to long-term disability and death. However, since most illnesses aren't reported to the proper authorities, the report states that "the outbreaks included here represent only the tip of the iceberg." Though not, it would seem, the iceberg lettuce. Turn the page for the list.

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Photo credit: KSEE24

Beef Packers, Inc.

Beef Packers, Inc., a Fresno meat-packing plant, is recalling almost 900,000 pounds of ground beef products due possible salmonella contamination. The U.S. Department of Agriculture's Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) announced the recall today. You may recall, so to speak, that Beef Packers, Inc. was also the subject of a July 2008 recall (beef cheek products, possible E. coli contamination).

The ground beef was produced between June 5 and June 23, and distributed to retail distribution centers in Arizona, California, Colorado and Utah, according to the USDA news release. The situation was first reported in Colorado, as a result of an investigation into an outbreak of Salmonella Newport, which is resistant to many commonly prescribed drugs.

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Ah, government bureaucracy. Since the discovery in the mid-1980s that table eggs contaminated with the bacteria Salmonella Enteritidis were making thousands of people sick, food regulators and lawmakers have been quibbling over how to address the problem. On July 9, they finally did something about it.

Leah Greenstein

Lily's Eggs

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Photo credit: malla mi

Falling water you can follow

If you needed final justification to ban the bottle--the plastic water bottle, that is--a just-released government report provides it. On Wednesday the US Government Accountability Office released a report on bottled water: "FDA Safety and Consumer Protections Are Often Less Stringent Than Comparable EPA Protections for Tap Water." The report calls for greater consumer information to be provided on bottled water labels, confirms that "bottled water does not necessarily have lowers levels of contamination than tap water," and raises concerns about the environmental damage so many un-recycled plastic bottles (about 3/4 of US-produced bottles in 2006 were discarded) continue to inflict.

At the center of the issue is the fact that FDA is required to regulate bottled water as food, which has, according to the report, "subjected it to many of the same problems more generally affecting FDA oversight of food safety." Federal oversight of food safety, the report continues, is a "high-risk area" that is fragmented, increasingly underfunded, and in need of "fundamental reexamination."

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