how can I ensure food is safe - just watched Food Inc. and I can't stop crying

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think the best bet, if you wish to continue eating meat, is to eat only meat from animals who have been fed foods that are biologically correct for those animals. (i.e. grass-fed beef) Such animals are least likely to have high amounts of pathogens like e coli to begin with. Therefore they don't need irradiation and ammonia to kill the pathogens found on them.

Someone is Europe once asked me why I wouldn't eat raw eggs, and I told him it was because raw eggs had salmonella and needed to be cooked before you ate them. He was amazed. He said, "Why would you keep buying eggs from someone if you know the eggs are diseased? Why don't you find someone who sells disease free eggs?" It was an eye opening question.

I agree with this.

I agree with this, too. However, you cannot always buy these types of product conveniently or easily (yes, we have a Whole Foods nearby but not eveyone does) or cheaply (a major deterrent for some people).

I think that the state of food in this country -generally- is pretty frightening. I am not vegan, but I don't eat any red meats, poultry, pork, in large part b/c of the number of hormones and antibiotics the animals receive. Also, the very cruel treatment that they receive (something few people care about-sadly). The antibiotics are contributing to the resistance issues associated with antibiotics. Why would anyone eat that? Why are people not demanding changes?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think the best bet, if you wish to continue eating meat, is to eat only meat from animals who have been fed foods that are biologically correct for those animals. (i.e. grass-fed beef) Such animals are least likely to have high amounts of pathogens like e coli to begin with. Therefore they don't need irradiation and ammonia to kill the pathogens found on them.

Someone is Europe once asked me why I wouldn't eat raw eggs, and I told him it was because raw eggs had salmonella and needed to be cooked before you ate them. He was amazed. He said, "Why would you keep buying eggs from someone if you know the eggs are diseased? Why don't you find someone who sells disease free eggs?" It was an eye opening question.

I agree with this.

I agree with this, too. However, you cannot always buy these types of product conveniently or easily (yes, we have a Whole Foods nearby but not eveyone does) or cheaply (a major deterrent for some people).

I'm the poster you are agreeing with... and I agree completely. Pathogen free meat and eggs are much more expensive than the kind that come with pathogens. Unfortunately. However, I do find when I spend more money on my family's food, I am less likely to waste it.

[Anonymous]

I think a lot of the diseases enter the meat during hte slaughter process. They process thousands of animals an hour and have to move very very quickly working on floors slick with blood. If they accidentally slit an intestine during the process, then e.coli can be introduced into the meat supply. I am definitely not an expert but I don't know that just having a disease free herd will do the trick...I think there needs to be major improvements made to the slaughter process as well. Again, I can't recommend Fast Food Nation highly enough. I am not a vegetarian anymore (but am seriously considering becoming one again) but I definitely think Americans eat WAY too much meat but if more people REALLY knew what their meat went through before it landed on their table, I suspect there would be a lot of changes made both in terms of how/what we eat and how the animals in our food chain are treated.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think the best bet, if you wish to continue eating meat, is to eat only meat from animals who have been fed foods that are biologically correct for those animals. (i.e. grass-fed beef) Such animals are least likely to have high amounts of pathogens like e coli to begin with. Therefore they don't need irradiation and ammonia to kill the pathogens found on them.

Someone is Europe once asked me why I wouldn't eat raw eggs, and I told him it was because raw eggs had salmonella and needed to be cooked before you ate them. He was amazed. He said, "Why would you keep buying eggs from someone if you know the eggs are diseased? Why don't you find someone who sells disease free eggs?" It was an eye opening question.

Don't kid yourself that European eggs don't have salmonella. My German au pair was just telling me about how her aunt got salmonella from eggs there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think the best bet, if you wish to continue eating meat, is to eat only meat from animals who have been fed foods that are biologically correct for those animals. (i.e. grass-fed beef) Such animals are least likely to have high amounts of pathogens like e coli to begin with. Therefore they don't need irradiation and ammonia to kill the pathogens found on them.

Someone is Europe once asked me why I wouldn't eat raw eggs, and I told him it was because raw eggs had salmonella and needed to be cooked before you ate them. He was amazed. He said, "Why would you keep buying eggs from someone if you know the eggs are diseased? Why don't you find someone who sells disease free eggs?" It was an eye opening question.

I agree with this.

I agree with this, too. However, you cannot always buy these types of product conveniently or easily (yes, we have a Whole Foods nearby but not eveyone does) or cheaply (a major deterrent for some people).

I'm the poster you are agreeing with... and I agree completely. Pathogen free meat and eggs are much more expensive than the kind that come with pathogens. Unfortunately. However, I do find when I spend more money on my family's food, I am less likely to waste it.

You are fooling yourself if you think you can buy pathogen-free animal products. Maybe if you were willing to accept pasteurized eggs and irradiated meat, you would get close. It is just not possible to have animals without bacteria.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
Don't kid yourself that European eggs don't have salmonella. My German au pair was just telling me about how her aunt got salmonella from eggs there.

It was a Danish friend. She lived in a small farming community where there was a very low incidence of salmonella in their eggs.

[Anonymous]

There is a very low incidence of salmonella in ALL eggs, not just Danish or free range ones. It just sucks if you are the unlucky one.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There is a very low incidence of salmonella in ALL eggs, not just Danish or free range ones. It just sucks if you are the unlucky one.

But I think compared to other countries in Europe, there is a very very very low risk of salmonella in eggs in Scandinavian countries.

According to this report, in 2006:

Salmonella are to be found in around 30 percent of the large-scale German laying hen flocks. In Scandinavian countries this figure is less than 1 percent, in some eastern European countries it is 65 percent or higher.

http://www.bfr.bund.de/cd/7997

Granted, just because salmonella is in your flock, doesn't mean it'll be in the eggs. Still -- the Scandinavians must be doing something right -- 1% of their flocks have salmonella, compared with 30% of German flocks?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think the best bet, if you wish to continue eating meat, is to eat only meat from animals who have been fed foods that are biologically correct for those animals. (i.e. grass-fed beef) Such animals are least likely to have high amounts of pathogens like e coli to begin with. Therefore they don't need irradiation and ammonia to kill the pathogens found on them.

Someone is Europe once asked me why I wouldn't eat raw eggs, and I told him it was because raw eggs had salmonella and needed to be cooked before you ate them. He was amazed. He said, "Why would you keep buying eggs from someone if you know the eggs are diseased? Why don't you find someone who sells disease free eggs?" It was an eye opening question.

I agree with this.

I agree with this, too. However, you cannot always buy these types of product conveniently or easily (yes, we have a Whole Foods nearby but not eveyone does) or cheaply (a major deterrent for some people).

I'm the poster you are agreeing with... and I agree completely. Pathogen free meat and eggs are much more expensive than the kind that come with pathogens. Unfortunately. However, I do find when I spend more money on my family's food, I am less likely to waste it.

E. coli is not transmitted through food to animals. E. coli is a naturally-occurring bacteria in the intestines of animals (including humans) and is healthy to have it (in the intestines) E. coli in human food means contamination from fecal matter and it is not prevented by feeding grass to cows. It is prevented by not contaminating the meat with fecal matter after slaughter.

[Anonymous]

can we go back to food inc. please.
just saw it yesterday after reading OP's post and was chilled to the bones. can we agree at least that maybe we won't get completely "pure" food anywhere but that we can try not to give our money to multi-corporations that are abusing the animals, abusing their workers, abusing the farmers (moe parr's storey felt like it was coming straight out of an emile zola book), and abusing us! i mean, i don't care if what i find at whole foods is not perfect, at least it's a step right?! remember, you vote 3 times a day.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There is a very low incidence of salmonella in ALL eggs, not just Danish or free range ones. It just sucks if you are the unlucky one.

But I think compared to other countries in Europe, there is a very very very low risk of salmonella in eggs in Scandinavian countries.

According to this report, in 2006:

Salmonella are to be found in around 30 percent of the large-scale German laying hen flocks. In Scandinavian countries this figure is less than 1 percent, in some eastern European countries it is 65 percent or higher.

http://www.bfr.bund.de/cd/7997

Granted, just because salmonella is in your flock, doesn't mean it'll be in the eggs. Still -- the Scandinavians must be doing something right -- 1% of their flocks have salmonella, compared with 30% of German flocks?

It probably boils down to better quality control b/c these countries are not as large as ours.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There is a very low incidence of salmonella in ALL eggs, not just Danish or free range ones. It just sucks if you are the unlucky one.

But I think compared to other countries in Europe, there is a very very very low risk of salmonella in eggs in Scandinavian countries.

According to this report, in 2006:

Salmonella are to be found in around 30 percent of the large-scale German laying hen flocks. In Scandinavian countries this figure is less than 1 percent, in some eastern European countries it is 65 percent or higher.

http://www.bfr.bund.de/cd/7997

Granted, just because salmonella is in your flock, doesn't mean it'll be in the eggs. Still -- the Scandinavians must be doing something right -- 1% of their flocks have salmonella, compared with 30% of German flocks?

Actually I believe our salmonella rates are substantially lower than 1%.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
You can buy disease-free eggs. Look for pasteurized eggs in the market. That's the closest you can get. As for finding disease-free egg producers, well that's like looking for a disease-free preschool.

No, I mean buy the eggs that didn't have the disease to begin with. So they don't need to be pasteurized.

This can't be done today. We can reduce the rate of salmonella contamination, but we cannot eliminate it.

[Anonymous]

Actually I believe our salmonella rates are substantially lower than 1%.

The salmonella contamination rate for US eggs is .005%.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:can we go back to food inc. please.
just saw it yesterday after reading OP's post and was chilled to the bones. can we agree at least that maybe we won't get completely "pure" food anywhere but that we can try not to give our money to multi-corporations that are abusing the animals, abusing their workers, abusing the farmers (moe parr's storey felt like it was coming straight out of an emile zola book), and abusing us! i mean, i don't care if what i find at whole foods is not perfect, at least it's a step right?! remember, you vote 3 times a day.

Thanks! This is OP. What is crazy about this thread is that it reinforces the message of the movie - that so many educated people are unaware of these issues, including me to some extent, with my credentials in health and fitness.

I did watch the rest of the movie last night and found it much easier to take (I closed my eyes whenever they were showing animals being mistreated which helped). What was so encouraging was that big business is responding to consumer demands and that we as consumers do have more power than we realize. I feel good about buying organic. I know Whole Foods is not perfect but I feel like they buy better poultry and that is a step in the right direction for me. We will only be buying our poultry and any beef and seafood from there.

To think that Walmart saw there was a demand and now stocks organic dairy and other products - and to think that consumers were disgusted with growth hormone in dairy and now that is out of dairy for the most part. What is unfair is that not everyone can have access to this food, but for now, I think buying it can help eventually lower the cost. The more the industry sees that people are demanding this kind of food, the more they will have to respond.

As for the lack of labeling, at least there is no law preventing the companies who don't have genetically-engineered foods to advertise it - the lack of labels is a shame but the good companies will continue to label their products and that can help consumers.