Apples top the list of the Dirty Dozen.

I’ll be the first to admit I’m a little neurotic.

One of my neuroses involves a paranoia of chemicals — in short, I know human beings are routinely exposed to a litany of chemicals and I wonder if that has something to do with the scary health diagnoses I hear about every day.

One of the worst places for a person with chemophobia (that is a real word) is the grocery store produce department. If it isn’t organic, then what was used to keep all the pesky bugs and fungi from devouring or damaging it?

Despite the chemophobia, I do not buy all organic. That’s because one of my other neuroses revolves around money — buying organic is generally more expensive.

So what is an average-income person to do in order to save money without ingesting enough chemicals to make her glow in the dark?

The Dirty Dozen is a good place to start.

Minimize your exposure

For nine years, the non profit, Washington, D.C.-based Environmental Working Group has analyzed pesticide data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Food and Drug Administration to come up with an annual shopper’s guide they call the Dirty Dozen.

I love this concept because it means that, according to the EWG, you can greatly minimize your family’s intake of pesticides by purchasing organic versions of specific fruits and vegetables rather than trying to go completely organic, which can be cost-prohibitive for many people.

To continue reading this column, please click here.

Here’s an addendum to today’s column: The EWG compares pesticide levels in almost 50 different fruits and veggies. The cleanest 15 are named the Clean Fifteen while the most chemical-ridden 12 are the Dirty Dozen. In between fall a number of other products. To see the entire list of 48, click here.

Do you buy organic produce? Do you think you’ll use the Dirty Dozen list to help inform your purchasing decisions?

From a press release from the Virginia Cooperative Extension:

The Virginia Cooperative Extension and the Virginia Household Water Quality Program will host the “Roanoke Valley Drinking Water Clinic”, for citizens whose water supply comes from wells, springs or cisterns.

The “Kick-Off” meeting is on Monday, May 20, 2013, 6:00 p.m., at the South County Library, 6303 Merriman Rd., where participants will receive instructions and the water sample kit. The sample “Drop-Off” day is Wednesday, May 22, between 7:30 and 10:00 a.m. The “Interpretation Meeting” will be on Monday, June 17, 6:00 – 7:30 p.m., where participants get their confidential results along with an educational program explaining the results and possible treatment options.

The water will be tested for: iron, sodium, fluoride, coliform bacteria, manganese, copper, pH, E. coli bacteria, sulfate, nitrate, total dissolved solids, lead, hardness and arsenic. The $49 fee covers the cost of one sampling kit and analysis (a $200 value).

Please register by May 18. Forms are available at our office, 3738 Brambleton Ave. SW, Roanoke, VA 24018 or on our website at http://offices.ext.vt.edu/roanoke. Payment can be cash, check or charge. Either drop-off the registration form and cash or a check made payable to “VCE Roanoke” at our office, or mail in the registration and check. You can also pay with credit card only at our website and then email or mail a copy of your receipt to ksturgil@vt.edu along with your registration form.

Registrants will receive confirmation email containing directions prior to the Kick-Off. Please help us manage postal costs by accepting email from Virginia Cooperative Extension.

For more information, contact:
Deb Chappell, Extension Agent, Family and Consumer Sciences
Virginia Cooperative Extension, Roanoke Office
3738 Brambleton Ave SW
Roanoke VA 24018
540-772-7524, dchappel@vt.edu

The Virginia Cooperative Extension offices in Floyd and Montgomery County sent along the following information about upcoming canning classes.

April 27: Home Food Preservation Safety
This is a prerequisite course for all home food preservation classes. Topics to be covered are common food-borne pathogens; basic sanitation and safeguards against bacterial and cross-contamination; proper temperatures for food preservation and the role altitude plays. A receipt will be handed out to those in attendance at the close of the class and must be presented upon future registration for home food preservation classes.
Location: Jessie Peterman Library, 321 W. Main St., Floyd, Va.
Time: 10 a.m. to 12 p.m.
Fee: Free. No registration necessary.

May 18: Home Food Preservation Safety
See April 27 listing.
Location: Montgomery Co.: St. Michael’s Lutheran Church, 2803 Merrimac Road, Blacksburg, VA
Time: 10 a.m. to 12 p.m.
Fee: Free. No registration necessary.

May 25: WBC 101: Basics of Water Bath Canning
Learn the basics of safely canning high-acid foods in a boiling water bath. Topics to be covered are: Basic jars, pots and utensils; what is a high-acid food; adding acidity to foods; problem solving; recognizing a product gone bad. Class is hands on.  Participants will prepare, pack, process, and take home a jar of a high-acid food. Please wear comfortable closed-toe shoes. An apron is suggested but optional. Prerequisite for this class is completion of the Home Food Preservation Safety Class (see above listings). Class is limited to 15 participants.
Location: Montgomery Co.: St. Michael’s Lutheran Church, 2803 Merrimac Road, Blacksburg, Va.
Time: 1 to 4 p.m.
Fee: $15 in advance, $20 at the door (as space allows). Contact the Floyd Cooperative Extension Office to register at 540-745-9307. Payment may be mailed to or dropped off at the office at 209 Fox St NW, Floyd, VA 24091.  Remember, the only reservation is a paid reservation.

June 1: Basics of Water Bath Canning
See May 25 listing.
Location: Floyd Co.: Farm Bureau, 335 E. Oxford St, Floyd Va
Time: 1pm-4pm
Fee: $15 in advance, $20 at the door space providing.  Contact the Floyd Cooperative Extension Office to register at 540-745-9307. Payment may be mailed to or dropped off at the office at 209 Fox St NW, Floyd, VA 24091. Remember, the only reservation is a paid reservation.

June 15: PC 101: Basics of Pressure Canning
Learn the basics of safely canning low-acid foods in a pressure canner.  Topics to be covered are: basic jars, pots and utensils; a pressure cooker is not a pressure canner; what is a low-acid food; problem solving; recognizing a product gone bad. Class is hands-on. Participants will prepare, pack, process, and take home a jar of a low-acid food. Please wear comfortable closed-toe shoes. An apron is suggested but optional. Bring your pressure canner dial gauges for calibration. Prerequisite for this class is completion of the Home Food Preservation Safety Class (see above listing). Class is limited to 15 participants.
Location: Floyd County: Farm Bureau, 335 E. Oxford St, Floyd, Va.
Time: 1 to 4 p.m.
Fee: $15 in advance, $20 at the door (as space allows). Contact the Floyd Cooperative Extension Office to register at 540-745-9307. Payment may be mailed to or dropped off at the office at 209 Fox St NW, Floyd, VA 24091. Remember, the only reservation is a paid reservation.

June 22: PC 101: Basics of Pressure Canning
See June 15 listing.
Location: Montgomery Co.: St. Michael’s Lutheran Church, 2803 Merrimac Road, Blacksburg, Va.
Time: 1 to 4 p.m.
Fee: $15 in advance, $20 at the door (as space allows). Contact the Floyd Cooperative Extension Office to register at 540-745-9307. Payment may be mailed to or dropped off at the office at 209 Fox St NW, Floyd, VA 24091. Remember, the only reservation is a paid reservation.

Poplar Forest. Courtesy photo.

Thomas Jefferson Craft Beer Tasting

April 13, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Poplar Forest, 1542 Bateman Bridge Road, Forest

This tasting will include six Virginia craft breweries: Apocalypse Ale Works, Blue Mountain Brewery, Devil’s Backbone Brewing Company, Parkway Brewing Company, Starr Hill Brewery and Wild Wolf Brewing Company.

Admission is $30 in advance, which includes 20 (5-oz.) beer tastings. Admission the day of the event is $25 for 10 tastings or $35 for 20. Non-tasting tickets, $10 in advance and at the door. The price of admission will also include a Thomas Jefferson’s Poplar Forest beer glass (until they run out of them).

Event is rain or shine. No refunds. There will be no children’s activities available. Buy tickets online at www.tjcraftbeertasting.com until midnight April 12 or at the museum shop until 5 p.m. on April 12. For more information, call (434) 534-8120.

Southwest Virginia Gluten-Free Expo

April 13, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Tanglewood Mall (inside near A.C. Moore entrance)
This event will feature a variety of vendors offering tips, information and free samples to those interested in a gluten-free diet. The expo will also include raffles, prizes and games for kids.
Free admission.

Chef Behmoiras. Photo courtesy of The Bank.

Local Chef Recognized

From The Bank Food and Drink in Pearisburg: “Chef Michael Behmoiras, of The Bank Food and Drink restaurant, has been honored as one of the country’s top culinary talents in the inaugural edition of Best Chefs America. This is the first-ever peer review guide of U.S. chefs, who were chosen after extensive interviews between their fellow chefs and Best Chefs America analysts. Chef Michael is showcased in the informative and exquisitely produced 386-page coffee table book that was just released in March 2013.”

Congratulations, Chef Behmoiras!

Satellite image of Sandy

Hurricane Sandy has already begun to hammer parts of the East Coast, and the situation will only get worse as the day progresses. Fortunately, Roanoke Times weather columnist Kevin Myatt does not think our area will experience lots of rain or snow (keep up with Kevin’s updates here), but there are parts of our coverage area that might see snow. Also, we all need to be aware that strong winds are projected to increase throughout the day Monday and into Tuesday.

With leaves still on the trees, that might mean downed trees and power lines in some areas. Many of us are still restocking our refrigerators and freezers after losing a lot of food in the days after June’s derecho, so I know we don’t want to have to throw away anything else. With that in mind, I thought it might be helpful to share some food safety advice for power outages.

From the FDA:

Read more »

I don’t know about you guys, but I was pretty interested in reading the Associated Press article on the front page of today’s Roanoke Times, “Study: Organic foods offer few health benefits.”

My initial reaction to the headline was not one of surprise. Although I don’t make many purchasing decisions based on whether a food is “organic” or not, I was still disappointed that my suspicious were basically confirmed by this Stanford University research.

In all my years of reporting about food, I’ve talked to many local farmers who are not certified organic. They explain that it costs money and takes time to fill out paperwork to be certified organic, and the only difference it would make in the way they grow or raise their products is in the eyes of the consumer. Not that the consumer’s perspective is not important, but most of these local farmers’ customers have talked to the farmer and know they follow organic principals (not using synthetic pesticides; not giving their animals hormones and antibiotics; giving animals room to roam and forage) even if they have not jumped through the hoops in order to earn that label.

At the grocery store, however, it is not possible to talk to the growers. So we walk into the produce department or the meat department and know nothing more than that a product is “organic” according to government standards. And that makes a lot of people feel better, which is probably why, according to the AP article, organic food sales went from $3.6 billion in 1997 to $31.4 billion last year.
Read more »

On Monday, a reader named Ann left this public comment on my Facebook page:

“Lindsey, I was horrified at reading in Sunday, 8/19 Roanoke Times of the FDA proposing changes in the inspection of chickens as they are being prepared for our consumption. I would expect more time for inspections instead of less and also, certainly not inspections by employees of the poultry producers, but unbiased inspectors. I may have to become vegetarian after all.
Could you find where we could complain about this and start a public outcry?”

Ann is referring to this story, which was written by a reporter with the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and which ran in our paper. The proposed new changes were also reported in several other papers, so some of you might already be familiar with the gist of it. For those who are not, here are some basics as they were worded in the AJC story:

The new proposals would:

“- Use workers in chicken and turkey plants to replace all but one federal inspector on the conveyor belt, where bad birds are removed from the production line. (Currently, chicken plants have as many as four federal inspectors on their lines.)

- Let those plants decide how much training their workers receive in identifying diseased or defected birds.

- Enable plants to speed up their slaughter lines so that the sole federal inspector, stationed at the end of the line, would be required to view up to 175 birds per minute. The maximum speed now is 140 per minute, but that workload is divided among four inspectors so that it averages out at 35 per minute for each inspector.

- Let poultry plants decide what dangerous bacteria they test carcasses for and how often they test, and no longer require plants to test for E. coli.”

Read more »

Thank goodness for the grill!

Like many of you, I have been powerless since Friday night.

But this morning was the first time I began to feel powerless.

Before any of you leave a comment on this blog post and tell me to join the crowd, suck it up and be patient, please know that I’m already over feeling sorry for myself and I’ve already given myself a mental kick in the butt. I know my situation pales in comparison to that of many other folks in the world and I know power company employees and contractors are busting their tails.

But until I worked up my resolve, I was whining in my head (and to my husband) about how much I miss sleeping in my own bed, how tired I am, how bummed I am that we have no food in the house and that I — a food writer — can’t do much cooking or test any recipes for my blog or column

Inconvenience aside, this situation does show us how resilient we can be, and how creative when it comes to feeding our families. I’ve heard of people cooking three meals per day on the grill — my mom’s been doing eggs in a skillet on the side burner, which is yet another reason to praise the person who invented side burners on grills. The other night, we did the whole dinner – burgers, beans and corn on the cob – on the grill. Some are grilling and eating a lot of meats to keep them from going bad, eating a lot of cold suppers, inviting friends and relatives over for meals, and volunteering at shelters to help feed the temporarily homeless.

Also, although a good many restaurants are still closed (my hubby drove a stretch of Williamson Road last night looking for an open restaurant and finally settled for Wendy’s after passing several dark ones), plenty are open and are getting good business from folks like us. I had a bagel from Mill Mountain Coffee yesterday morning, some pizza from Leonardo’s in Fincastle the other night (it was VERY good), a bagel from 2nd Helpings Cafe this morning and a Macado’s quesadilla the other night.

I’d like to know how those of you who lost power or are still without power have been feeding yourselves. Are you trying to prepare any foods at home or have you been going to restaurants and friend/family’s houses? Are you worried about all the money you’ve lost on food and are now spending having to eat out?

Updated 7/3/12 at noon:

Woo-wee! Five days in without power and at this point, it probably isn’t a good idea to try and keep any food around unless you’ve had it iced down well enough. Please see the food safety information below if you still have questions about that.

Meanwhile, I’m moving up the information about deodorizing your fridge and freezer. I think this is going to be more helpful to everybody at this point.

FOOD SAFETY: REMOVING ODORS FROM REFRIGERATORS & FREEZERS

Refrigerators and freezers are two of the most important pieces of equipment in the kitchen for keeping food safe. We are instantly reminded of their importance when the power goes off, flooding occurs, or the unit fails, causing food to become unsafe and spoil. The odors that develop when food spoils can be difficult to remove. Use this information to learn how to remove odors from units or how to safely discard an affected unit.

To Remove Odors from Refrigerators and Freezers If food has spoiled in a refrigerator or freezer and odors from the food remain, they may be difficult to remove. The following procedures may help but may have to be repeated several times.
. Dispose of any spoiled or questionable food.
. Remove shelves, crispers, and ice trays. Wash them thoroughly with hot water and detergent. Then rinse with a sanitizing solution (1 tablespoon unscented, liquid chlorine bleach per gallon of water).
. Wash the interior of the refrigerator and freezer, including the door and gasket, with hot water and baking soda. Rinse with sanitizing solution as above.
. Leave the door open for about 15 minutes to allow free air circulation.

If odor remains, try any or all of the following:
. Wipe inside of unit with equal parts vinegar and water. Vinegar provides acid which destroys mildew.
. Leave the door open and allow to air out for several days.
. Stuff both the refrigerator and freezer with rolled newspapers. Close the door and leave for several days. Remove paper and clean with vinegar and water.
. Sprinkle fresh coffee grounds or baking soda loosely in a large, shallow container in the bottom of the refrigerator and freezer.
. Place a cotton swab soaked with vanilla inside the refrigerator and freezer. Close door for 24 hours. Check for odors.
. Use a commercial product available at hardware and housewares stores. Follow the manufacturer’s instructions.

If Odors Remain
If odors cannot be removed, then the refrigerator or freezer may need to be discarded. If you need to discard the refrigerator or freezer, discard it in a safe manner:
. “Childproof” old refrigerators or freezers so children do not get trapped inside. The surest way is to take the door off.
. If the door will not come off, chain and padlock the door permanently and close tightly, or remove or disable the latch completely so the door will no longer lock when closed.

END UPDATE

Read more »

nafmo/Flickr

Those of you who have been following more newsy food happenings have probably heard about the Corn Refiners Association‘s bid to change the term “high fructose corn syrup,” which is found on many food labels, to “corn sugar.”

They petitioned the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to allow them to make the change on nutritional labels, but the FDA has rejected that petition. The FDA defines sugar as a “solid, dried and crystallized food,” according to multiple news sources* reporting this decision.

High fructose corn syrup has become increasingly unpopular amid reports and opinions that it is a creepy, chemically processed Frankenfood that is unhealthy for human consumption. And a lot of folks got even more upset when they realized it’s in … well, just about *everything* we eat.

The corn refiners’ group wanted the FDA to let them change the term to “corn sugar” in order to get across the message that high fructose corn syrup is a sweetener derived from natural products and has the same nutritional value as granulated sugar. They started an advertising campaign featuring commercials such as this one, in which one mom judges another mom for feeding her kids HFCS.

Consumer groups, including Consumers Union, the policy and advocacy arm of Consumer Reports, jumped in and urged the FDA to deny the petition.

Here’s an excerpt from a press release Consumers Union sent me:

Read more »

Associated Press photo.

The Associated Press reported Monday that three of the four plants that manufacture lean, finely textured beef, which has taken on the repulsive nickname “pink slime,” have suspended operations indefinitely. These plants are located in Amarillo, Texas; Waterloo, Iowa; and Garden City, Kan.

According to the AP, the Amarillo plant produced 200,000 pounds per day while the other two plants produced about 350,000 pounds per day. The fourth plant, in Dakota Dunes, SD, continues to operate. For 60 days, workers at the shut-down plants will get full salary and benefits.

I feel sorry for those folks. They’re just trying to make money to support themselves and their families. The larger picture, however, shows what consumers can do when they bond together and firmly decry a product or practice they find unacceptable.

The closure is directly related to the public outcry over the use of the ammonia-treated substance in ground beef found in school cafeterias, restaurants and grocery store meat departments. Pink slime has been around for years, and it was outed in the documentary “Food, Inc.” which was released in 2008. I can remember the Beef Products, Inc. interview and the comment that 70 percent of the pre-formed hamburger patties made in America contain LFTB.

Apparently that revelation was not enough to cause the shock and disgust that recently launched a social media campaign and petition to rid school cafeteria beef of LFTB. The campaign (complete with some pretty nasty pictures) has spurred coverage from traditional media. All of this attention has caused companies to hurriedly pull LFTB ground beef from store shelves and reassure customers that they are listening.

Read more »

File photo

On page 3 of Tuesday’s Roanoke Times, at the bottom of the wire reports, there was a small agriculture brief titled “Budget cutting leads to facility closings.” This brief was about the fact that the U.S. Department of Agriculture is going to close 259 offices, laboratories and other facilities in the country in order to save $150 million per year.

The brief says, “While the closings and other cost-cutting steps will affect the department headquarters in Washington and operations in 46 states, the savings will be relatively small in the context of the agency’s $145 billion budget.”

It is my opinion that anybody interested in food safety ought to read the entire article by The Associated Press. Click the link to access that report as it ran in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution yesterday.

Here are some highlights:

Read more »

A daylong forum at Virginia Tech on Thursday will address food production, consumption and choices with a series of speakers who each have a unique perspective on our food system. This forum is FREE and open to the general public. For all the details, please see this press release from the College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences:

The Choices and Challenges project at Virginia Tech is hosting a daylong program of interactive sessions, expert panels, and discussions on the complexities of food choices in light of nutrition, environmental sustainability, economic well-being, and social justice.

This public forum brings together a range of scholars, policymakers, and citizens to discuss the varied and sometimes conflicting dimensions of what makes food good and how society chooses what food to produce, buy, and eat. Entitled “What is Good Food?,” the event will be held on Thursday, Oct. 27 at the Lyric Theatre and the Graduate Life Center at Donaldson Brown. This forum is open to the public at no charge.

“Food occupies a large part of both public and private lives and is ever present in the news and public life,” said Choices and Challenges co-coordinator Saul Halfon of Blacksburg, Va. “It is a broad and complex topic that spans science and aesthetics, politics and culture, technology and taste.“This forum brings together people who don’t often get a chance to talk to each other about these issues: food scientists talking with local food growers; nutrition experts with food economists; consumers with producers, ” added Halfon, associate professor in the Department of Science and Technology in Society in the College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences.

The forum will begin at 9:30 a.m., with background sessions on a range of topics. The main panel, at 11 a.m., in the Lyric Theatre, will be moderated by Barbara Bekken of Blacksburg, Va., associate professor of geosciences in the College of Natural Resources and Environment, and former director of Virginia Tech’s Earth Sustainability Program.

Read more »

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has published a report about their findings at Jensen Farms, the producer that has been linked to the recent listeria outbreak involving cantaloupe. The outbreak so far has allegedly made more than 100 people ill and killed more than 20.

Some highlights from the report:

FDA identified the following factors as those that most likely contributed to the introduction, spread, and growth of Listeria monocytogenes in the cantaloupes:

Introduction:
* There could have been low level sporadic Listeria monocytogenes in the field where the cantaloupe were grown, which could have been introduced into the packing facility
* A truck used to haul culled cantaloupe to a cattle operation was parked adjacent to the packing facility and could have introduced contamination into the facility

Spread:
* The packing facility’s design allowed water to pool on the floor near equipment and employee walkways;
* The packing facility floor was constructed in a manner that made it difficult to clean
* The packing equipment was not easily cleaned and sanitized; washing and drying equipment used for cantaloupe packing was previously used for postharvest handling of another raw agricultural commodity.

Growth:
There was no pre-cooling step to remove field heat from the cantaloupes before cold storage. As the cantaloupes cooled there may have been condensation that promoted the growth of Listeria monocytogenes.

FDA’s findings regarding this particular outbreak highlight the importance for firms to employ good agricultural and management practices in their packing facilities as well as in growing fields. FDA recommends that firms employ good agricultural and management practices recommended for the growing, harvesting, washing, sorting, packing, storage and transporting of fruits and vegetables sold to consumers in an unprocessed or minimally processed raw form.

FDA has issued a warning letter to Jensen Farms based on environmental and cantaloupe samples collected during the inspection. FDA’s investigation at Jensen Farms is still considered an open investigation.

To read the entire report, click here.

Royalty free image collection/Flickr

BUENA VISTA – Bill Marler, the most prominent food-poisoning attorney in the country, had been scheduled to speak at Southern Virginia University in Buena Vista for some time.

It was a coincidence that his visit fell on Oct. 7, in the middle of the worst food-borne illness outbreak the United States has seen in 25 years. But if you’ll pardon my pessimism, I’d be surprised if the man could find an outbreak-free window at any time.

Lately, listeria-contaminated cantaloupe has sickened 116 people and killed 23 – mostly folks over the age of 60 who probably felt good about having fresh fruit in their diets. I mean, it isn’t as if they were eating an undercooked hamburger or raw cookie dough.

But lately, that doesn’t seem to matter. In the past 10 years, people have died or gotten sick after eating seemingly innocuous foods such as green onions, tomatoes, papayas, fresh spinach and nuts. The Food and Drug Administration has gone so far as to say it isn’t even worth the risk anymore to eat raw sprouts, which have caused outbreaks every year in the U.S. since at least 1995.

That, my friends, really is nuts.

Continue reading this column-slash-rant here.

How does the latest foodborne illness outbreak make you feel? Have these outbreaks changed the way YOU eat?

A leading lawyer in foodborne illness cases will speak to the public at Southern Virginia University on Friday.

Bill Marler started working food safety cases in 1993, when he represented Brianne Kiner, who was seriously sickened in the E. coli outbreak at Jack in the Box restaurants. Marler is featured in a recently published book by SVU professor Jeff Benedict called “Poisoned: The True Story of the Deadly E. coli Outbreak that Changed the Way Americans Eat.”

Marler’s forum address will take place at 11 a.m. Friday in the Stoddard Activities Center on the SVU campus at One University Hill Drive in Buena Vista.

Here’s a little more information about Marler from the SVU press release:

Read more »

Associated Press

Update 2:45 p.m.: According to Anne Jenkins, spokeswoman for Kroger’s Mid-Atlantic Division, cantaloupes sold in SWVa. Kroger stores are safe to eat. End update.

Please be aware, if you are not already, that a serious listeria outbreak linked to cantaloupes has killed as many as 16 people and sickened more than 70 nationwide, according to the Associated Press.

The AP is reporting that some of those ill are in Virginia, and that tainted fruit may have been sold in Virginia. I don’t want ANY of my wonderful readers to get sick, so PLEASE click on the link below and read more about the outbreak.

“Cantaloupe listeria outbreak is deadliest in a decade”

My sister took a parasitology class in college that led to the ruin of any steak that would cross her plate for the rest of her life. Seriously, those pictures in her textbook are to blame for the horse saddles that she calls well-done steaks.

I can also remember her being icked out by trichinosis, a parasitic disease caused by eating raw or undercooked pork. And who could blame her? I certainly do not want trichinosis. For years, the United States Department of Agriculture has recommended that pork be cooked to an internal temperature of 160 degrees Fahrenheit in order to kill the bug.

Until now! The big news in food safety circles this week is that the USDA has lowered the recommended cooking temperature for pork to 145 degrees with a 3-minute resting period, which puts it in line with the recommended temps for beef, lamb and veal. You know if the USDA has decided to make this change, they have probably studied the issue ad nauseum.

Here are a few important points to remember:

Read more »

File photo

My colleague Rebecca (who writes the Shoptimist blog) yesterday sent me an intriguing link to a recipe for red velvet cake made with beets. Beets! It may seem strange at first, but it made perfect sense to me when I stopped to think about it.

Store bought food dyes are approved by the Food & Drug Administration, but that doesn’t give me a whole lot of confidence. They are still basically synthetic, with names like FD&C Blue Nos. 1 and 2, FD&C Green No. 3, FD&C Red Nos. 3 and 40, FD&C Yellow Nos. 5 and 6, Orange B, Citrus Red No. 2. Yummmmmmm!

These days, we are seeing a return to old food ways. More people are gardening, more people are canning and otherwise preserving, and more people are interested in things like raw milk or fermented teas. So why shouldn’t we borrow a page from the Native Americans, who knew how to color fabrics and other items with natural ingredients such as flowers, vegetables and tree bark?

The beet cake is just the beginning. Beets can infuse all sorts of things with their lovely hot pink/red hue. And according to this recipe, the red velvet cake has no lingering beet flavor. Here are a few other clever ideas I found:

Read more »

Over the past couple of years when we’ve chatted about slow cooker recipes on the blog, it is often mentioned that new slow cookers seem to cook food faster than the older models. Many of us have noticed that our meat is too mushy and/or we have to cut back the cooking time on some of our favorite recipes by several hours.

I’ve been holding on to the theory that maybe my recipes are turning out differently because I now own a larger, oval cooker with more surface area. But this week, reader Art sent me a link to an interesting article and discussion of this phenomenon on About.com. According to the writer, Linda Larson, slow cookers manufactured within the past 5 to 6 years have been made to cook at higher temperatures (200 degrees F on low; 300 degrees F on high) than older models.

Why would they want to mess with a good thing? Well, it has to do with food safety. Supposedly, someone somewhere got concerned that food was hanging around too long in the “danger zone” range of 40 to 140 degrees F, increasing the chances for bacterial growth. For the record, I’m all about avoiding food poisoning. But do you ever wonder if we are taking it a bit too far?

Read more »

UPDATE: I spoke this morning with Sam Hsu at Formosa, and it seems that I was overly general in my article about Formosa when I wrote that “Hsu explained that fresh, never frozen fish and sterling knife skills distinguish excellent sushi from the rest…”

Hsu has explained that he was referring to the varieties of tuna they use, which are NOT required to be frozen before service (see regulations below). He said they buy whole tuna fish, never frozen, and cut them up for sushi. It does not get any fresher than that. The salmon they buy fresh and freeze for seven days according to health department regulations. Any other fish they purchase has previously been frozen by the supplier, but tuna and salmon are the most popular sushi varieties there.

Formosa was inspected by the health department before opening and no violations were noted. Hsu was quizzed by the inspector to ensure that he knows all of these regulations. You can go to Formosa and enjoy their sushi with no concerns about their compliance with this rule.

Also, readers have reminded me of two other sushi restaurants in the area, Tokyo Express in Salem and Cafe Asia in Bonsack. Neither have had violations relating to freezing fish that I can find. Kabuki also came to mind since they recently started doing sushi – no such violations there either. If you think of any others, feel free to search them on the Health Department inspections page here. END UPDATE

Blog reader Laura raised a question after I wrote a recent article about a new restaurant in downtown Roanoke called Formosa. Laura questioned Formosa owner Sam Hsu’s comment about always using fresh fish, saying she’d heard that sushi fish MUST be frozen at some point in order to kill any parasites which may be present.

I’d never heard that before and it fascinated me, so I contacted Bobby Parker, Public Information Officer for the Western Region of the Virginia Department of Health. Mr. Parker responded to my query via e-mail with this information:

START: “Fish used in sushi does not have to be cooked if specific requirements are met.

One of the primary concerns with the consumption of raw fish is the destruction of any parasite which may be present.  The following is a simplification of some of the technical requirements in the Food Regulations  focused on parasites.

Read more »

UPDATE NOON: It does appear as if an exemption for small farmers passed as part of this bill. From an eMaxHealth entry:

“S.510, the FDA Food Safety Modernization Act, passed by a vote of 73 to 25 after an amendment to the bill was approved to exempt small farms and producers with less than $500,000 a year in sales from the legislation. Opponents of the bill were concerned that local farmers would go out of business because of the need for expensive food safety plans.

Currently, the FDA is responsible for safeguarding about 80% of the US food supply, but inadequate budgets and limited enforcement authorities have hindered the agency’s ability to prevent outbreaks. It also increases the ability of the FDA to monitor imported foods, as these comprise nearly a fifth of the US food supply.” END UPDATE

Don’t let Wikileaks overshadow one of the most important pieces of food legislation in decades. It is Senate Bill 510, otherwise known as the highly debated Food Safety and Modernization Act, and it just passed.

Watch live streaming of the voting on C-SPAN here.

Read the full summary of the bill here.

Read a Washington Post commentary by local food advocates Michael Pollan and Eric Schlosser here.

And here’s a look at the other side.

It’s been a hard summer for the Incredible Edible Egg. As many of you know, a huge voluntary recall of shell eggs occurred in August after the Food and Drug Administration and Centers for Disease Control traced a salmonella outbreak to two different farms in Iowa. To date, this recall has affected more than 500 million eggs. It appears the ongoing investigation is now focusing on a feed mill located near both farms. You can find a ton of up-to-date information about this investigation, including a list of frequently asked questions and a list of recalled brands, on the FDA website here.

It is a shame that this has caused many Americans to shy away from eating eggs, because they are such a delicious source of protein and vitamins. The Virginia Egg Council has sent a release with a list of questions and answers, including the question “Is it safe to buy eggs?” Answer: “Yes. However, as a general food safety rule, it is recommended that eggs be cooked until the white and yolks are firm or, for dishes containing eggs, until an internal temperature of 160 degrees Fahrenheit is reached.”

Well, that’s great for folks like me who prefer their eggs scrambled or hard boiled. But I’m probably in the minority. I know plenty of people, including my husband, who love to dip their toast into a runny yolk. So while I understand that recommendation, I find it very unrealistic. The egg council offered a few other safety tips, which can easily be remembered as Clean, Separate, Cook, Chill. This basically means that we should treat eggs as we treat raw chicken: wash our hands and everything that comes into contact with raw eggs, keep them separate from ready-to-eat items in the grocery cart and bags, cook thoroughly and keep chilled at 33 to 40 degrees.

Read more »

I simmered this pork in its own marinade for about 20 minutes before adding pre-softened cabbage. Delish!

Recipes generally do not contain exclamation points, but on occasion I will see one that says “Do not use marinade after removing the meat!” or “Discard marinade!” and I think we all know why. We’ve had food safety drummed into us, so we realize that used marinade is full of raw meat juices that could make us sick if we ingested them.

So no, don’t baste your pork loin or chicken with the leftover marinade as it cooks or you run the risk of making yourself and your family sick. But here’s the question that has lately been on my mind: Why can’t you cook the marinade, reducing it as you would a sauce, and effectively killing the offending raw meat organisms?

I did some Internet searches and found that many sites still advise against cooking and using your marinade as a sauce, but they didn’t really explain why. Then I went to FoodSafety.gov, a service of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and found that it IS safe to turn marinade into a sauce as long as you bring it to a boil and let it boil for at least one minute.

Aha! Now, some marinades might still be too strong or salty to be used as a sauce, because those recipes call for pretty strong flavors to permeate the meat. But last night I tested the marinade-as-sauce theory by making a Chinese-style pork with cabbage, and it turned out wonderful. So far, I feel fine.

For the details, see below the jump. Do any of you have recipes that call for boiling/reducing marinade for a sauce?

Read more »

Andrew Skelton helps a customer on Wednesday at his Salem seafood market, Capt'n Paul's. Photo by Jared Soares/The Roanoke Times.

I tried to answer this question for a story in today’s paper, but what I learned is that it’s too soon to know for sure. It seems likely that the Gulf Coast disaster WILL cause prices of at least some seafood, particularly gulf shrimp and oysters, to go up. But nobody is quite sure yet how it will affect the seafood industry on a broader scale.

As we all know, however, when there’s a shortage in one part of the world, it often has a ripple effect on an entire industry. So even though a lot of the seafood consumed in America is imported, that might not save us at the grocery store or the seafood restaurant.

Know this: You should not be afraid to eat any seafood right now. Nothing in the supply line now was fished after the oil spill. Also, despite reports that the entire Gulf of Mexico is closed to fishing, some large swaths are still open and healthy products are coming out of those parts.

To learn more, check out my story here. Are you concerned? Let’s talk about this.

My husband went to the grocery store last night to return a box of appetizers he had purchased. It seems they were on the huge list of products (thousands) recently recalled by the Food and Drug Administration because of possible salmonella contamination. The salmonella is feared to be in an ingredient called Hydrolyzed Vegetable Protein (otherwise known as HVP or acid-HVP).

As of Monday, no illnesses had been reported in connection with this recall, but the FDA is still urging people to not eat any of the recalled products to be on the safe side. To see a list of affected products, click here to view the FDA list.

Here’s what I want to know: What is HVP and why are we eating something that sounds like an STD? I went searching for a definition, which wasn’t easy to find at a reliable source. I did locate a transcript of a conference call between FDA officials and the media, but the only description of HVP in the call was:

“This hydrolyzed vegetable protein ingredient is a widely used flavor enhancer in the food industry used in items such as soups, cheese, sauces, hot dogs, frozen dinners, snack foods, dips, and dressings and so forth.”

Hmmm. OK, but WHAT IS IT? The Wikipedia definition was icky, but I don’t trust Wikipedia. Finally, after reading a half-dozen articles in publications like the Chicago Tribune and the L.A. Times that didn’t really tell me how HVP is made, I noted that a Canadian reporter had called a scientist and basically confirmed the Wikipedia definition. Here’s an excerpt from her story in the Montreal Gazette:

Read more »

UPDATE: Here is the Washington Post story about yesterday’s testimony.

Some interesting testimony was scheduled to begin at 3 p.m. today before the House of Representatives Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, Subcommittee on Domestic Policy. According to a news release from the Government Accountability Project, a non-profit whistleblower protection organization, a supervisory veterinarian with the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service named Dean Wyatt will detail a long list of problems he claims to have observed at two different U.S. slaughterhouses.

Wyatt has fingered a Seaboard Foods pork plant in Guymon, Oklahoma and Bushway Packing, Inc. in Grand Isle, Vermont, saying he witnessed several cases of inhumane animal treatment and violations of food safety protocol. He says when he brought the problems to the attention of the FSIS, he was ignored in some cases and reprimanded in others. Seaboard Foods is a “top ten pork producer and processor in the United States,” according to their Web site, but Bushway Packing Inc. appears to be a smaller, single-location slaughterhouse. I can’t find a Web site for them, but a story in the Burlington (VT) Free Press said: “In an online trade magazine, Bushway is described as a small, custom slaughterhouse, certified for organic slaughter and processing through the Northeast Organic Farming Association.”

USA Today obtained a copy of Wyatt’s planned testimony today; here’s a quote from the testimony they ran in their article: “When upper-level FSIS management looks the other way as food safety or humane slaughter laws are broken … then management is just as guilty for breaking those laws.” If what Wyatt says is true, this is incredibly disturbing, especially in light of the huge product recalls that have occurred in the meat industry over the past few years.

Read more »

Given the recent winter weather and related power outages, the Virginia Department of Emergency Management yesterday sent around a list of food safety tips. Many are common sense, but I found them to be a good reminder. I hope someone out there can benefit from seeing these ideas.

After the loss of power, people can practice safe food handling and prevent food-borne illness by following simple steps:

- Keep the refrigerator and freezer doors closed as much as possible to maintain the cold temperature.

- The refrigerator will keep food safely cold for about 4 hours if it is unopened. A full freezer will hold the temperature for approximately 48 hours (24 hours if it is half full) and the door remains closed.

- Discard refrigerated perishable food such as meat, poultry, fish, soft cheeses, milk, eggs, leftovers and deli items after 4 hours without power.

- Food may be safely refrozen if it still contains ice crystals or is at 40°F or below when checked with a food thermometer.

- Never taste a food to determine its safety.

Read more »

Are you drawn to foods because their labels boast “all natural” ingredients, “real fruit,” “whole grains” and “immunity strengthening” vitamins?

Well – shocker! – someone may be misleading you. I’d like to draw your attention to a fascinating article in The New York Times last week about some of these labels.

Surprised? Angry? Couldn’t care less?

From the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service Web site: A New York company called Fairbank Farms is recalling more than a half-million pounds of ground beef feared to be tainted with e.coli. There is some concern that the product could be responsible for illnesses in the New England area.

I’ve skimmed the list of stores that carry Fairbank Farms beef and it does not look like we have any of those stores in The Roanoke Times coverage area. In fact, the only store names I recognized were Trader Joe’s and Giant. But for the full list, click the link above.

We’ve been talking lately about the safety of ground beef here on the old Fridge Magnet blog. Find a link to a New York Times story here, and information about grinding your own beef at home here.

Do you think you deserve to know the details of your food’s journey from the field to your plate? I do, and it seems like a reasonable enough request. But apparently, some large food producers don’t see it that way.

Yesterday, The New York Times published an investigative article about the safety of ground beef in America. The article centers around a 22-year-old dance instructor in Minnesota who will probably never walk again because she contracted a severe case of E. coli from a single hamburger her mother grilled on a Sunday evening.

Tracing the journey of that hamburger and millions of others produced and sold in the United States led reporter Michael Moss to some startling conclusions. Among them:

* “a single portion of hamburger meat is often an amalgam of various grades of meat from different parts of cows and even from different slaughterhouses.” Given that, imagine how difficult it is to finger the offending company when someone gets sick from eating a tainted burger.

* Cargill, the company that made the burger the girl in the article ate, used a mixture of slaughterhouse timmings and other scraps, as well as ammonia-treated fat. “Those low-grade ingredients are cut from areas of the cow that are more likely to have had contact with feces, which carries E. coli,” Moss wrote.

* The United States Department of Agriculture prohibits the sale of E. coli-tainted beef. But there is no requirement that grinders test their ingredients for E. coli. In fact, many do not test because the companies they buy from will not sell them scraps if they DO test. CostCo is one of the few big companies that do test all trimmings before they run them through the grinder. And because of that, CostCo’s safety director told the Times, Tyson will not supply them.

* Properly cooking meat and washing up afterward the standard way, with hot soap and water, is not enough to kill all E. coli bacteria.

* “While the Department of Agriculture has inspectors posted in plants and has access to production records, it also guards those secrets,” Moss wrote. “Federal records released by the department through the Freedom of Information Act blacked out details of Cargill’s grinding operation.” The New York Times was only able to see the redacted part when other sources provided them with the same documents, unaltered. They probably came from anonymous sources.

These are just snippets from the article. Clearly, to establish your own informed opinion, it would be best to read the Times article in its entirety. I am personally getting a little tired of hearing about things like this. We are a huge, civilized country with laws out the wahoo and we still can’t be guaranteed a burger that isn’t laced with crap? Or maybe that’s the problem.

I wouldn’t jump to point fingers at only the huge producers, either. Yes, local food is generally a safer bet, but even that cannot carry a 100% guarantee.

I see the grinder on my KitchenAid mixer getting a lot more action in the future. What do you think?

www.bevreview.com

If you didn’t immediately know what I meant by “HFCS,” then you have been blissfully unaware of the fact that high fructose corn syrup is increasingly making the news as a dreaded ingredient to avoid at all costs. Some have accused the sweetener of contributing to the rise in diabetes and obesity in the United States.

The latest I heard was that if HFCS was one of the first five ingredients listed on a food label, you shouldn’t buy or eat that food. Do you have any idea how many products in the grocery store would never make it into your basket under that rule? It’s in everything from ketchup to breakfast bars to bread.

The Corn Refiners Association is, of course, fighting this negative image tooth and nail. Their Web site claims that some HFCS studies are flawed and includes this argument:

Corn sweeteners, like sugar and honey, are natural and meet the Food and Drug Administration’s policy for use of the term “natural.” Under FDA rules, “natural” means that “nothing artificial or synthetic (including all color additives regardless of source) has been included in, or has been added to, a food that would not normally be expected to be in the food.”

I guess my personal opinion is that high fructose corn syrup is OK in moderation. Same with fatty foods and alcohol and sugar. But the worst offender in the HFCS world may be sodas, and one company is taking steps, albeit temporarily, to change that. Pepsi just announced that they are going to market a “Pepsi Throwback” and a “Mountain Dew Throwback” made with real sugar instead of HFCS. Serious Eats says they will be available from April 20 to June 13. So get your real sugar while you can! Cuz after that, it’s back to high fructose corn syrup.

One other note: I’ve bought bottled sodas at ethnic markets that I think were probably shipped in from Mexico or South America. And I want to say they are still made with real sugar. Anyone know anything about that?

Amazon.com

The Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services would like for you to know that Virginia peanuts are safe to eat.

Today, they put out a press release saying “Virginia peanuts, because of their superior quality, are generally sold as shelled or in-shell peanuts, and these products are safe to eat. They have not been implicated in the recent recall of manufactured products using peanut paste from a single supplier.”

VDACS has good reason to want people eating Virginia peanuts. According to the most recent data from the National Agricultural Statistical Service (2007), peanuts are one of the top 25 farm commodities in the state. During that year, there were 21,000 acres of peanuts harvested in our state for a total of $12 million in cash receipts.

Not to mention the fact that they are darn good. I don’t think I’ve had a peanut I enjoyed as much as the big, jumbo salted Virginia peanuts that always show up at our house during Christmas. Ironically, the latest issue of Cultivate, the Virginia Farm Bureau magazine, features a cover story about a Prince William County couple who own a chocolate shop called Chocolaterie Wanders. They make chocolates using almost all Virginia products. Not surprisingly, one of their favorite Virginia products to incorporate into the chocolates is peanuts!

Support Virginia farmers and don’t turn down those peanuts.

A reader named Craig has asked a very compelling question of Fridge Magnet readers. In case you didn’t see it in the comment section, here it is:

As a frequent reader of ‘Restaurant news’ at the Fridge Magnet I am always curious as to how many of you ever bother to visit the Virginia Department of Health website and review the health inspection records of your ‘favorite’ restaurants – such as Alejandro’s. With all the recent furor over the problems in the Market Building why is it that no other dining establishment in Roanoke is deemed too dirty to eat in? Just how many ‘critical violations’ is too many for you guys?

This is my response:

To be quite honest, Craig, I haven’t checked health inspections in a very long time. And that’s because I think the Virginia Department of Health does those inspections for a reason — so they can shut a restaurant down when it gets “too dirty to eat in.” That’s what happened at the Market building.

Read more »

Officials reportedly find samonella in the irrigation water at a Mexican farm:

See CNN or The Washington Post