Last weeks egg recall is the latest in recalls of tainted foods released into the supply chain that have included peanuts, spinach, lettuce, tomatoes and hamburger. Is there something inherently problematic with these foods or is there another reason for these recalls?
One thing is for sure that the egg recall is focusing greater scrutiny onto farmers, food producers and manufacturers. Up to now farmers, food producers and manufactures have been pushing the responsibility of food safety onto the consumer. Why? Because farmers, food producers and manufacturers admittedly are having a harder and harder time ensuring the quality of the ingredients used to manufacture products or the feed they supply to their animals.
This is coupled with the dysfunction in enforcement by government regulatory agencies like the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). In the case of the eggs, a New York Times article illustrates how these two agencies divide oversight of egg producers that leaves lots of room for an egg or two hundred thousand to fall through the cracks.
So who is minding the chicken coop? No one, except for you at the breakfast table. The solution to the problem seems to be to provide reminders that eggs should be cooked fully and kept refrigerated and so forth and so on (see the CDC’s complete list of recommendations here). While I agree that the buyer need to beware, why is this issue of food safety only becoming a major issue in the last five years or so?
Many consumer groups are rekindling their protests against huge factory farming practices that have eliminated the local farmer and replaced him or her with only one or two food producers that supply the entire chain under the guise of multiple brand names. In fact, that’s at the core of the investigation into the egg recall.
Normally, salmonella taints an egg when the bacteria, which is naturally found in the intestinal tracts of the hens, is transferred to the outside of the shell through incidental contact. Normal washing procedures at the farm typically takes care of 99.995% those contaminated eggs.
In the case of this recall, the salmonella bacteria was found on the inside of the egg which means that the hens themselves were infected with salmonella and transmitted the bacteria directly to the egg as the egg was formed. This is leading many experts to suspect that the feed might have been the cause. More specifically that rodents who were carrying the salmonella bacteria infested the chicken feed through which the bacteria was transferred to the hens. This brings us back to the earlier point that farmers, food producers and manufacturers admittedly can not ensure the quality of the ingredients provided to them in the production of our food.
So if this is truly a problem of large factory farms that are operating with little to no regulatory oversight, then the responsibility of the quality and safety of your food does rests on you. What are your options? For simplicity, you could cook your food thoroughly to kill most of the bacteria that might be present, this includes pre-packaged foods too (recall the salmonella outbreak involving turkey pot-pies).
But if you are also interested in a little variety in your diet that might include some under and uncooked foods – like raw eggs for a hollandaise sauce, or in my case raw cookie dough- then you’ll need some additional options.
First, grow it yourself if you can. There is a growing movement in home gardens and back yard chicken coops. If you can’t do it yourself, consider sharing the responsibility with a neighborhood garden.
Secondly, buy locally. Know the farmer, food producer or manufacturer of the foods you are eating.
Finally, buy foods that are in season. We’ve been suckered into thinking that because of cheap transportation that things like peaches, grapes and melons are available year round. Well yes it’s true if you want to eat food produced in the other half of the planet and then shipped five thousand miles to your dining table. This certainly isn’t buying locally (see the paragraph above).
Or you can choose to do nothing and continue to buy and eat in the fashion that has become the American way. There might be nothing wrong with that until the next outbreak of salmonella in a food that we thought was safe from contamination. Your stomach is in your hands. Eat well.
- Paul Kulpinski, LMT
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