posted on April 26, 2004 07:21:20 PM new
how do we know where our produce come from??
some we do,say mango from mexico or hawaii,peaches from chile,prawn from thailand.
but scallions.you remember the scallion scare??
one day i was shopping for scallion ,then i saw the crate it came in,it said made in mexico.
where do supermarket scallion come from??if not from mexico??
-sig file -------we eat to live,not live to eat.
Benjamin Franklin
[ edited by stopwhining on Apr 26, 2004 07:22 PM ]
posted on April 26, 2004 09:54:07 PM new
Mexico produces over half the scallions consumed in the US. At certain times of the year, 70 percent of the produce in markets is Mexican in origin. You'd expect therefore that if the problem with those onions was because they came from Mexico, there would be people dropping like flies from HepA all over the country. It isn't happening. A batch of domestic onions could be as easily contaminated by an infected farm worker inside the US as one in Mexico. Grow your own produce? You're not safe either if you use poorly composted manure as a fertilizer. It could be ALIVE with E-Coli bacteria and god knows what else. The only way to be at all safe with leafy produce is to wash the beejeezus out of it, and preferably cook it too, regardless where it was grown. The problem isn't where the produce is grown, it's the modern food distribution system that makes it so easy for a relatively small contamination to infect a whole bunch of people at once, and the fact that people are so lax about the way they wash food once it gets to the kitchen.
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When a dog howls at the moon, we call it religion. When he barks at strangers, we call it patriotism. - Edward Abbey
posted on April 26, 2004 09:58:38 PM new
On second thought, maybe I'm mistaken. Maybe US farmers are out there in the fields with a bucket of hot bleach water, making sure all the pickers give their handsies a good scrub after they use the port-o-san. Why, I'll bet US growers even require their field workers to take HepA tests before they hire them...silly me, I should have known better. Sorry.
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When a dog howls at the moon, we call it religion. When he barks at strangers, we call it patriotism. - Edward Abbey
posted on April 27, 2004 12:02:40 AM new
I don't worry about things like produce. But I don't mess with packaged food items from Mexico as I don't trust their quality control. We periodically have listeriosis outbreaks in the hispanic community here in southern California, who get it from cheese and other foodstuffs from Mexico. And just today, we had an article in the local paper about candy manufactured in Mexico that is imported & eaten mainly by the Hispanic population--it has high levels of lead, which leads to brain damage.
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Censorship, like charity, should begin at home; but unlike charity, it should end there --Clare Booth Luce
posted on April 27, 2004 05:14:14 AM new
Why, with the number of farmers we have here in this country and with the number of farmers in financial trouble, are we buying produce from other countries? I shop at a market that sells nothing but produce either grown in the state of Ohio or in the US. No where else. I refuse to buy any produce produced in other countries.
I try to buy everything US made, but it's becoming harder and harder with companies taking their business overseas. Produce is still something I can buy that's home grown.
posted on April 27, 2004 05:46:23 AM new
You're right cheryl, but the fact is most people want tomatoes in January, not just May thru September. They want apples in June, not just in the fall. Imagine being told at the grocery store "Green onions are out of season, sorry". That's the reason we import so much produce, and will continue to do so.
bunni, If you do a search on listeria in Mexican food products, you'll discover that most of the recent cases involved US companies who were producing products aimed at the latino market, not imported items. Mexican style cheeses are most often of the soft variety, and those are more prone to listeria contamination for some reason.
The lead in imported candy is a real serious issue. What's interesting is how often these products were allowed to remain on store shelves, with no action being taken. I wonder if that would be the case if the product was corn flakes, or Twix candy bars, or Nerds or something?
SANTA ANA -- More than 100 brands of candy sold in California, most of them from Mexico, have tested positive for dangerous levels of lead in the past decade and little has been done about it, a newspaper reported.
In nearly every case, the candy -- mostly marketed to Latino kids -- stayed on store shelves and no action was taken against the Mexican manufacturers, the Orange County Register reported in Sunday’s editions, citing state and federal records.
The public was rarely informed of test results, the newspaper found.
"Children are eating poison," said Leticia Ayala, of San Diego-based Environmental Health Coalition, a nonprofit group that urged the state to better regulate Mexican candies.
State officials said they lack the resources to tackle the problem and have little jurisdiction over Mexican candy manufacturers.
"We have a lot more responsibilities than looking for lead in candy," said Jim Waddell, chief of the state Health Department’s Food and Drug Branch.
Now there's a real bureaucrat for you..."Just because I'm in charge of the state's food and drug department doesn't mean it's my job to make sure food eaten by kids is safe.."
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When a dog howls at the moon, we call it religion. When he barks at strangers, we call it patriotism. - Edward Abbey
posted on April 27, 2004 05:56:55 AM new
The tight layers of the scallion plant make thorough washing almost impossible. Because of contamination risk, all scallions should be thoroughly cooked no matter what their country of origin. As someone suggested, dirt is the problem.
posted on April 27, 2004 05:59:44 AM new
yesterday WSJ-ca police raided a mexican farmworker who refused quarantine after infecting an estimated 56 people with TB.
Air from his cell is filtered.
it can be anyone,anywhere,has anyone of you look into the kitchens of most restaurants??
-sig file -------we eat to live,not live to eat.
Benjamin Franklin
posted on April 27, 2004 06:27:27 AM new
I, too, am one who supports only selling/eating foods that are US homegrown. Too much risk with foods coming from Mexico and a few other countries.
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Preface
Foodborne illness is a serious public health problem. CDC estimates that each year 76 million people get sick, more than 300,000 are hospitalized, and 5,000 die as a result of foodborne illnesses. Primarily the very young, the elderly, and the immunocompromised are affected.
Recent changes in human demographics and food preferences, changes in food production and distribution systems, microbial adaptation, and lack of support for public health resources and infrastructure have led to the emergence of novel as well as traditional foodborne diseases. With increasing travel and trade opportunities, it is not surprising that now there is a greater risk of contracting and spreading a foodborne illness locally, regionally, and even globally.
I get tomatoes and all other produce all year 'round. They're grown in greenhouses. They cost a bit more, but the cost is worth it, IMO, if it's helping to keep a farmer here in the U.S. afloat.
stopwhining
how do we know where our produce come from?? some we do,say mango from mexico or hawaii
I would like Hawaii is okay since it is in the U.S. IMO, Mexico already has too many of our jobs.
I don't buy scallions unless I intend to cook them thoroughly. My boyfriend is fond of spinach (yum) and other greens cooked up with onions, garlic and a bit of bacon. The first time he tried to duplicate what I make they tasted terrible! It turns out instead of the correct greens, he used leafy lettus! Ugh! Talk about bitter. He was quite embarrassed because he served this to my parents one Thanksgiving!
