Food Companies Are Placing the Onus for Safety on Consumers (NYT)

[tj2001]

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/15/business/15ingredients.html?em

New York Times
May 15, 2009
Food Companies Are Placing the Onus for Safety on Consumers
By MICHAEL MOSS

The frozen pot pies that sickened an estimated 15,000 people with salmonella in 2007 left federal inspectors mystified. At first they suspected the turkey. Then they considered the peas, carrots and potatoes. The pie maker, ConAgra Foods, began spot-checking the vegetables for pathogens, but could not find the culprit. It also tried cooking the vegetables at high temperatures, a strategy the industry calls a “kill step,” to wipe out any lingering microbes. But the vegetables turned to mush in the process.

So ConAgra — which sold more than 100 million pot pies last year under its popular Banquet label — decided to make the consumer responsible for the kill step. The “food safety” instructions and four-step diagram on the 69-cent pies offer this guidance: “Internal temperature needs to reach 165°F as measured by a food thermometer in several spots.”...

In addition to ConAgra, other food giants like Nestlé and the Blackstone Group, a New York firm that acquired the Swanson and Hungry-Man brands two years ago, concede that they cannot ensure the safety of items — from frozen vegetables to pizzas — and that they are shifting the burden to the consumer. General Mills, which recalled about five million frozen pizzas in 2007 after an E. coli outbreak, now advises consumers to avoid microwaves and cook only with conventional ovens. ConAgra has also added food safety instructions to its other frozen meals, including the Healthy Choice brand...

The problem is particularly acute with frozen foods, in which unwitting consumers who buy these products for their convenience mistakenly think that their cooking is a matter of taste and not safety...

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How many people out there are checking their 69-cent pot pie to make sure it is 165°F as measured by a food thermometer in several spots? How many people own a food thermometer?

[OwnedByFerrets]

1. But, but, but....its the free market way...

:puke:

[Deja Q]

2. How about molds and other various nasties? Heat can't make those safe to eat...

Customers pay good money for food. I don't see why companies continue to act like this.

ConAgra and Banquet - boycotting both.

[AndyA]

3. People need to quit buying this cheap shit food.

When their pot pies get so old they have freezer burn in the grocery stores, perhaps then they'll get the message. This is bullshit. We're going to make food for you to feed yourself and your family, but we aren't going to make sure it's safe to eat. That's the purchaser's responsibility.

They deserve to be put out of business for an attitude like this. And the FDA needs to check their food extra carefully and start ordering it out of the stores if they find anything bad.

Corporate America doesn't care if they kill their customers, apparently.

[Dappleganger]

4. Oh, damn!

We may be forced to return to cooking our own food...from scratch!


:sarcasm:

[Catshrink]

5. David Kessler's new book is all about the tricks of the food industry.

Mostly it's about how they disguise our food and fool us into eating fat on top of sugar on top of salt on top of fat, etc. It's so disgusting. He interviews food nad restaurant industry executives who spill the goods. It's a great read.

Title is The end of overeating: Takeing control of the insatiable American appetite. It is NOT a diet book. Once people know what is in their food when they eat out or buy processed foods, they'll make better decisions.

Amazon link: http://www.amazon.com/End-Overeating-Insatiable-American-Appetite/dp/1605297852/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1242484063&sr=8-1

[HarukaTheTrophyWife]

6. I don't even own a food thermometer

Then again, I don't buy ConAgra crap.

[chemp]

7. I got two

and I've trained my wife and daughter to both clean and calibrate them.

I'm a chef certified in food service safety for over twenty years.

All these food bourne pathogens are directly related to Reagan era deregulation of the food industry.

[MadHound]

8. This is why people need to get to know where their food comes from

Rather than buying this mass produced crap, buy local. Get to know your local farmers, grow a garden, get to know your local food producers. Perhaps if enough people did this, Big Ag and Big Food would get the message and clean up their act.

[MineralMan]

9. Sadly, we are too few to have that effect on the

commercial food industry. People who buy Banquet Pot Pies are not going to make chicken and dumplings from scratch. It ain't gonna happen.

We must hold our food manufacturers to some sort of minimum health standard. That is the only way to protect everyone, since cooking is a lost art among most of the population of this country.