By Jerry Large
The Seattle Times
December 21, 2009
I really don't want to think about food so much, but it keeps popping up as an issue.
Actually it's food as an issue that I'm tired of hearing about -- how it's produced, where it's produced, how many calories it has, and of course the bacteria count. But I can't safely ignore that stuff.
Consumer Reports magazine tested 382 raw chickens purchased at 100 groceries for its January issue. Two-thirds of the birds were contaminated with nasty bugs -- salmonella, camphylobacter or both.
I don't like to hear that because chicken is the fallback meat around our house. Our son is off pork, and beef is an occasional thing because it's red meat and we're warned not to eat too much of it. And besides, raising cattle is environmentally costly. Steak has to be consumed only on rare occasions and with the shades drawn.
Spaghetti with a little sausage thrown in for flavor used to work, but then I watched a show about how sausage is made and it took a few months for me to recover. My son never did. Hamburger meat was our salvation for a while. Get home from work tired, and hamburger made it easy to whip up a stir-fry, or tacos, or meat sauce for that spaghetti.
But I read one too many stories about what can get into it if carcasses aren't handled carefully, and how careless some processors are with what constitutes hamburger.
I feel like I'm being shoved into a vegan corner by the people who provide meat, the people who should be totally committed to making sure I never have to think about what I might be putting in my mouth with one of their products.
But no. The Consumer Reports article said the percentage of bacteria-free chickens is lower than it was in a similar 2003 study.
Bainbridge, Wash., attorney Bill Marler is the go-to guy for suing food producers who make their customers sick. Last summer, Marler told me the next big food fights will be over contaminated vegetables.
Is nothing safe?
Of course, consumers can wash and cook foods thoroughly to minimize risk. But why should I have to be afraid of my food?
My food phobia has progressed from germ wariness to a growing sense that lots of foods are just gross.
And worse, the more I'm forced to think about what's in food, and how it's produced, about bacteria and fecal contamination, the less appetizing it seems. And it goes even further with animal products. Cuts of meat become body parts, muscles, veins, fat, connective tissue.
I justified eating a few Cheetos the other night on the grounds that they aren't really food and I needed the comfort of knowing I wasn't eating some nasty biological substance. (Please don't tell me what's in the little orange curls.)
I know some of the people who produce our food work hard to keep it clean and healthful, but the statistics show how often many don't get the job done.
Marler sent me a T-shirt printed with the message, "Put a Trial Lawyer out of Business." It's a plea for effective food-safety legislation, since businesses left alone don't seem to be stepping up to the plate.
Meanwhile, each year, millions of Americans are sickened and about 5,000 die of food-borne illnesses, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control.
You'd think the growers, processors and sellers would see it's in their best interest to give the rest of us nothing to think about but flavor.
Reach Jerry Large at
jlarge@seattletimes.com.
Copyright © 2009, South Florida Sun-Sentinel
Author
