The spinach recall was to food what the subprime mortgage crisis was to finance: a watershed event that prompted wholesale regulatory changes. There had been proposals stalled in Congress for years to require growers and processors throughout the food supply chain to take preventive steps against contamination and audit their suppliers to aid in tracing sources of contamination. Together with several other foodborne illness outbreaks, the spinach incident melted industry opposition, and in 2011 the Food Safety Modernization Act passed.Read more at location 845
The premise of safety is, most of the time, true. Even during outbreaks of foodborne illness, the vast majority of food is fine. But the slight possibility that a portion may be tainted is unacceptable when the public is accustomed to taking its safety for granted, and the response is to discard everything: a small amount that’s bad and a vast swath that’s good.Read more at location 852
Natural Resources Defense Council, an environmental group, began studying the potentially carcinogenic properties of Alar, a pesticide sprayed on apples to improve their appearance and the length of time they stayed on the tree.Read more at location 856
An American supermarket chain yanked all the apples off its shelves after trace amounts, none exceeding government standards, were found in its apple juice. “We’re dealing with perceptions here,” said a spokesman. “We’re not dealing with reality.”Read more at location 861
The spinach recall was to food what the subprime mortgage crisis was to finance: a watershed event that prompted wholesale regulatory changes. There had been proposals stalled in Congress for years to require growers and processors throughout the food supply chain to take preventive steps against contamination and audit their suppliers to aid in tracing sources of contamination. Together with several other foodborne illness outbreaks, the spinach incident melted industry opposition, and in 2011 the Food Safety Modernization Act passed.Read more at location 845
The premise of safety is, most of the time, true. Even during outbreaks of foodborne illness, the vast majority of food is fine. But the slight possibility that a portion may be tainted is unacceptable when the public is accustomed to taking its safety for granted, and the response is to discard everything: a small amount that’s bad and a vast swath that’s good.Read more at location 852
Natural Resources Defense Council, an environmental group, began studying the potentially carcinogenic properties of Alar, a pesticide sprayed on apples to improve their appearance and the length of time they stayed on the tree.Read more at location 856
An American supermarket chain yanked all the apples off its shelves after trace amounts, none exceeding government standards, were found in its apple juice. “We’re dealing with perceptions here,” said a spokesman. “We’re not dealing with reality.”Read more at location 861
