Food Safety
In the last 6 months I have read Michael Pollan's The Omnivore's Dilemma and In Defense of Food. In some ways, Pollan's suggestions feel a bit out of reach, especially his exhortation to eat local, sustainably raised food. At least in Georgia, that means paying nearly double for certain foodstuffs.
But then I read articles like this and it's like, hmmm, $7 a pound for butter? $15 for a small chicken? That's a steal!
Basically, ConAgra has found salmonella in their Banquet Pot Pies. (I used to eat these for lunch on the weekends sometimes when I was a kid.) They can't figure out what ingredient is causing the problems, or which step in the preparation process is introducing the bacteria. So their solution is to tell people to make sure that they're using an 1100-watt microwave and to use a food thermometer to make sure that the internal temperature is 165 degrees F "in several places." This solution, according to the FDA, is FINE as long as people can get the food to the correct temperature by following the package directions (e.g., if it says to cook on high for 5 minutes, uncover, stir, and cook for 2 minutes more, then it should be 165 degrees by the end of the 7 minutes).
I don't have a whole lot of experience with frozen foods, but I have made enough to know that they rarely cook evenly (leaving aside the fact that they taste like chemical-flavored crap. Aside from those pot pies.). Anyway, this is, in fact, what the NYT discovers when it tries to cook several frozen meals--some parts will be burned, and others not up to temperature yet.
When you consider just how many products ConAgra makes (Banquet frozen meals, Chef Boyardee, Gulden's mustard, Health Choice meals and products, Hebrew National hotdogs, Redi-Whip, Blue Bonnet and Parkay margarine, among many others) and then realize that Nestle and Kraft have similarly huge product portfolios like that, it seems ridiculous to trust companies that want you to run around with a food thermometer so that THEY can't be held responsible when you get salmonella.
I think I'll go order that $15 chicken now...
But then I read articles like this and it's like, hmmm, $7 a pound for butter? $15 for a small chicken? That's a steal!
Basically, ConAgra has found salmonella in their Banquet Pot Pies. (I used to eat these for lunch on the weekends sometimes when I was a kid.) They can't figure out what ingredient is causing the problems, or which step in the preparation process is introducing the bacteria. So their solution is to tell people to make sure that they're using an 1100-watt microwave and to use a food thermometer to make sure that the internal temperature is 165 degrees F "in several places." This solution, according to the FDA, is FINE as long as people can get the food to the correct temperature by following the package directions (e.g., if it says to cook on high for 5 minutes, uncover, stir, and cook for 2 minutes more, then it should be 165 degrees by the end of the 7 minutes).
I don't have a whole lot of experience with frozen foods, but I have made enough to know that they rarely cook evenly (leaving aside the fact that they taste like chemical-flavored crap. Aside from those pot pies.). Anyway, this is, in fact, what the NYT discovers when it tries to cook several frozen meals--some parts will be burned, and others not up to temperature yet.
When you consider just how many products ConAgra makes (Banquet frozen meals, Chef Boyardee, Gulden's mustard, Health Choice meals and products, Hebrew National hotdogs, Redi-Whip, Blue Bonnet and Parkay margarine, among many others) and then realize that Nestle and Kraft have similarly huge product portfolios like that, it seems ridiculous to trust companies that want you to run around with a food thermometer so that THEY can't be held responsible when you get salmonella.
I think I'll go order that $15 chicken now...