D.C. Circuit Court Allows USDA Country of Origin Labels for Meat

The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals recently upheld United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) regulations that mandate country of origin labels on meat. The case arose when a group of trade organizations, including the American Meat Institute, representing collectively "big meat," sued in opposition of the regulations.

The regulations require meat packaging (not including packaged hamburger) to include a label listing the meat's country of origin. The regulations further require that labels list all countries where processing of the meat took place. If, for example, a cow was born in Canada, but raised and processed in the United States, the regulations require the label state "born in Canada, raised and slaughtered in the United States." Industry opposed the measure, at least in part, because the regulation will force costly changes in the processing stage. Industry practices today allow meats from different countries to mix together during processing. The regulations, thus, make it difficult for industry to maintain business as usual. The court did not find the industry perspective convincing, while also noting increasing consumer demand for more transparency in food production methods. The court also cited food safety concerns regarding co-mingling of meat from different sources as a basis for its decision.

The decision further deals a blow to commercial speech advocates, and provides a win for consumer and public health advocates. In the decision, the court refused to extend commercial speech protection to include industry claims that country of origin labeling infringed freedom of speech.

Neil Pederson, J.D. expected 2015, William Mitchell College of Law.

Photo Credit: http://www.morguefile.com/archive/display/109091

Food Safety Standards for Canteloupe

From Food Safety News:

California cantaloupes will soon come with the assurance that they meet strict food safety standards, thanks to a mandatory statewide program that includes both announced and unannounced inspections and certification under government oversight.

The plan is for the program to begin this season, which lasts into the fall, but approval of an audit checklist by the U.S. Department of Agriculture is still forthcoming. The goal is to get that done as quickly as possible.

A historic move, this is the state's first mandatory food safety program implemented by a commodity board. . . .

 

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Food Safety Reform in Canada

From Food Safety News:  Harper Government Wants Tougher Food Safety Law for Canada

BY DAN FLYNN | JUN 08, 2012

The federal government of Canada under Prime Minister Stephen Harper of the Conservative Party is pushing for a tough new food safety law with greater penalties for violators and more unified enforcement powers.

Harper's government Thursday introduced the Safe Foods for Canadians Act, Bill S-11, to overhaul Canada's food inspection system.

 . . .

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Starbucks will sell juice

Starbucks is going to start selling juice.  From the L.A. Times,

"The coffee king on Thursday finalized its $30-million purchase of San Bernardino-based Evolution Fresh Inc., an artisanal fruit and vegetable juice maker created by Jimmy Rosenberg, the founder of Naked Juice.

Starbucks said it would begin offering juices, made with a process called high-pressure pasteurization, from the company in stores." 

Personally, I don't much care.  I've decided to be frugal and only drink coffee and juice that I get out of my refrigerator (OJ from concentrate, for what it's worth, and cold process coffee from wherever).  But I'm curious about "high-pressure pasteurization."  So I looked it up.  Here's a fact sheet from Ohio State University Extension.  High pressure processing, as it suggests, subjects the food to really high pressure -- up to 87,000 pounds per square inch, according to the fact sheet.  And this is more than enough to squish the life out of any bacteria present in the food. 

Of course, it would tend to kill ALL bacteria, and probably squishes cells that are not separate organisms, but since it does not use heat, it doesn't "cook" the food.  The food still seems fresh.  It doesn't work with everything, of course.  from the Ohio State fact sheet:

"At the moment, HPP is being used in the United States, Europe, and Japan on a select variety of high-value foods either to extend shelf life or to improve food safety. Some products that are commercially produced using HPP are cooked ready-to-eat meats, avocado products (guacamole), tomato salsa, applesauce, orange juice, and oysters."

Oysters?

Irradiation of Fresh Produce

I am a huge fan of Bill Marler. I get a lot of food safety information from his blog and related websites.  Bill sees people suffering the worst possible effects of having eaten poisonous foods.  So if I disagree with something Bill says, don't ever read any disrespect into that disagreement.

From MarlerBlog:

Less irradiation can kill more bugs on leafy greens
Posted by Bill Marler on December 07, 2010

ScienceDaily reports in “Killing Salmonella and E. Coli on Fresh Produce With Half the Normal Food-Irradiation Levels” that a team of Texas A&M researchers has developed a way to cut by as much as half the amount of irradiation needed to kill 99.999 percent of salmonella, E. coli and other pathogens on fresh produce. . . .

(Isn't this blogging stuff cool? Science Daily publishes an article based on a press release from Texas A&M University. Bill Marler blogs about the Science Daily article. And I blog about Bill Marler blogging about the Science Daily article.)

I suppose it's a relief that it doesn't take much radiation to kill salmonella and e. coli on produce.  But I think this is the wrong direction.  These are pathogens that originate in animals.  They shouldn't be on the produce in the first place.  It is not OK that they are there.  We've been seeing more of this kind of contamination of produce lately.  Is it because our operations are so big we can't keep track of where the animals are? Are harvesting practices so out of control that employees don't clean their hands? Where are these poop bacteria coming from? It's simply NOT a given that food must be contaminated.  We're doing something wrong.

So we keep turning to more and more technology to solve problems that are created by technology in the first place.