Salmonella Outbreak in Red Onions

The FDA has reported 375 cases and 75 hospitalizations are confirmed due to a salmonella outbreak in red onions.

Thomson International, a produce supplier in Bakersfield, Calif., distributed them to restaurants across the country.  They also went to retail outlets under the names TII Premium, El Competitor, Hartley, Onions 52, Imperial Fresh, Utah Onions, and Food Lion.

The following advisory from the FDA:

Recommendations

Advice for consumers, restaurants, and retailers: Consumers, restaurants, and retailers should not eat, sell, or serve red, white, yellow, or sweet onions from Thomson International, Inc. or products containing such onions. If you cannot tell if your onion is from Thomson International Inc., or your food product contains such onions, you should not eat, sell, or serve it, and should throw it out.

FDA recommends that anyone who received or suspects having received onions from Thomson International, Inc. use extra vigilance in cleaning and sanitizing any surfaces and containers that may have come in contact with these products to reduce the risk of cross-contamination. This includes cutting boards, slicers, countertops, refrigerators, and storage bins.

The agency also recommends that if you’re unsure where the onions came from, to discard all onions (red, white & yellow).

The following states have reported cases:

States with Cases: AK (6), AZ (14), CA (49), CO (10), FL (3), ID (5), IL (10), IN (2), IA (15), KS (1), KY (1), ME (4), MD (1), MI (23), MN (10), MO (6), MT (33), NE (5), NV (5), NY (4), NC (3), ND (5), OH (7), OR (71), PA (2), SC (1), SD (11), TN (5), TX (1), UT (61), VA (4), WA (2), WI (5), WY (11)

Do We Need 37 Different Versions of Oreo’s?

Yesterday I straightened shelves. In retail, it’s called many names, front-face, zone,  or recovery. In other words, make things look nice and move product from the back of the shelf so customers can get to it easily.

Now this being a “regular” grocery store, not a healthy one like where I used to work, I am utterly amazed at the amount of crap foisted upon the American people.  Utter garbage, loaded with artificial ingredients with unpronounceable names, preservatives,  and glow-in-the-dark colors.

‘Course this isn’t news to me. I’ve been writing and researching about food for almost 20 years now.

A case in point is the selection of a cookie named “Oreos.”
How about “Cheerios?” These are two standards of the grocery industry, they’ve been around for decades.

Remember when there was only one kind of Oreos and Cheerios?

I counted no less than 37 different versions of Oreos on our shelves. Some were different sizes of the same thing but the overall dizzying array of selections: Oreos, Double Stuf’d, Mega Stuf’d, Golden, DS Golden, Birthday Cake, Mint, Peanut butter, Chocolate, Red Velvet, Chocolate Peanut Butter, Carrot Cake, and Lemon. Then there were variations of “Thins” – think skinny Oreos- Classic, Golden, Mint, Chocolate. This wouldn’t have been enough so they had to make “Thins Bites.” Then “Thins Chocolate Covered.”

The kicker was “Oreo Cookie Crumbles.” They take the broken ones from production and bag them up for you to buy.

Why?

If you want Oreos on your ice cream or in/on anything else – why not just smash them up yourself?

Oh, wait – I forgot! It’s Corporate Greed 101. Sell anything to make money.

God forbid we should inconvenience the customer!  It’s too much trouble for them to smash up Oreos by hand or whiz them up in a food processor for a few seconds, isn’t it?

Don’t even get me started on the Cheerios. There are 19 different selections listed on the Cheerios site: We had 18 various ones & sizes in our store ranging from Regular, Blueberry, Frosted….. well, check out the link to the Cheerios page.  It’s ridiculous.

I waded through Triscuits: We had about 15 sizes/varieties or so on our shelves. There were 37 different kinds listed on the Triscuit website, including “minis,” “thin crisps.”

Let’s not go there on Pop-Tarts, either!

Avoid Fresh Express Salads

For the umpteenth time, Fresh Express Salads have been recalled. This time it’s for cyclospora.  The salads were sold at ALDI, Giant Eagle, Hy-Vee, Jewel-Osco, ShopRite and Walmart.  Click here for the latest info from the FDA.

All the affected products were produced at the Fresh Express production facility in Streamwood, IL.

There have been too many recalls for Fresh Express salad mixes for me.

Cyclospora cayetanensis, is a parasite that is transmitted through feces.

This isn’t the first time Fresh Express has been pulled from the shelves.  It’s been pulled in 2010 for listeria (3 times) and, in 2011 and 2012.  In April of 2017… this is really disgusting… parts of a bat were discovered in a salad mix.  2018 showed another recall for Fresh Express, this time for cyclospora again.  In December of 2019,  Fresh Express Sunflower Crisp chopped salad kits were recalled for E. coli.

There are probably more but I just don’t feel like digging through volumes of information.  They have a lousy track record in my book.  I avoid them at all costs.

Bottom line:  Way too many recalls.  This stuff is constantly getting recalled. Stay away from it.

 

Your Grocery Store During COVID

Being an “essential” worker in a grocery store, I’ve been on the floor since the start of the COVID pandemic.  It hasn’t been easy.

We’ve had customers go ballistic at each other, freak out at the register because they have to touch the pin pad,  scream that they don’t want bags or the register tape (because I’ve handled it) and refuse to get a cart because of COVID. (the carts are sanitized after every use.)

At the other end of the spectrum – even early on in the pandemic, entire families, sans masks, would traipse through the store, totally oblivious to the possible exposure of COVID.  I repeatedly heard, “Well, everything’s closed so I might as well come here and wander around.”  So much for staying home, eh?

Now since restrictions have been lifted it’s even worse.

Customers have gotten upset because the shelves are bare.

Lemmee ‘splain it to you, Lucy…..

1:  The entire supply chain has been disrupted. COVID has affected everything from the field to the factory – either workers have not been available to harvest, or the processing plants have temporarily been shuttered.

2:  Materials shortages.  Currently, there is an aluminum shortage. Kaiser Aluminum’s LA factory suffered an explosion recently.  Coupled with a return to the market of Chinese consumers, demand is way up.

3:  Labor shortages.  Travel between states by farmworkers has been curtailed regarding hand-harvested crops during the pandemic.

4:  There are 2 different supply chains. Grocery and restaurant/schools are separate from household consumer products.  Toilet paper,  for instance.  That big roll in the restroom of a public place (school, restaurant, grocery store or entertainment complex) is produced on a different manufacturing line than the Charmin or White Cloud that ends up in your bathroom.  Food is the same way.  Huge amounts are produced, packaged & delivered to institutions and restaurants, while a separate faction makes what goes to your grocery store.

5:  What we employees can’t say.  Stop being selfish and wear a mask.

• I wear a mask FOR you and FOR me, too.  If I’m asymptomatic (infected but feeling no symptoms) I don’t want to spread it to you.  I would hope the reverse is true.
• How would you feel if one of your loved ones caught and died of this?  Think about that really carefully because *you* could be the one who transmits it to them by refusing to wear a mask.
• Your refusal to wear a mask will keep this going on and on and on. You, not me!
• We, like other essential workers, have to wear these masks *all* day for 8 hours. You just have to put it on when you come in to shop.  Lucky you.  We have to be around the public for 8 hours a day, 5 days a week, around people like you, who refuse to wear a mask.
• YOU are putting my life and that of my co-workers and all other customers in danger by not wearing a mask.
• Would you get falling-down drunk, load your family & friends into a car and drive drunk?  That’s playing Russian Roulette.  Every time you leave the house without a mask it’s a chance you take.

Wear a damn mask!

We’re tired, too.  We don’t want to wear masks, either.

We can’t do much about the empty shelves and are stocking as fast as we get the stuff.  Please be patient. Don’t ask if we have something.  If it’s not out there, we haven’t got it.

We want this to be over, just like you do. Please do your part.

Antibiotic Resistance Rising: Meat Industry Hampers FDA & CDC

Antibiotic resistance is rising in farm animals.

We are losing the war on germs.

Antibiotic resistance for common illnesses is increasing.  With over 2,500 strains of salmonella alone, the bugs are winning. The meat industry is only required to voluntarily submit data to the FDA and refuses in part, because of the potential of damaging their reputation.  Powerful lobbying in Washington has tied the hands of the FDA and the CDC.

To make matters worse, about 80% of antibiotic use goes into agriculture.

Furthering this, there is no system of tracking the source of meat in the United States. The EU has it. Each farm has a tracking number and it’s on every package of meal sold.  So if you were to become ill, and it turned out to be from the meat, there would be a link.

A few years ago in Washington state there was an outbreak related to pork. The CDC was notified that over 50 people in 8 counties were sickened: 192 people sick, 30 were admitted to hospitals. The slaughterhouse in question received meat from 6 farms where the infection could have come from. Because the farms have to voluntarily give any information to inspectors, the investigation ended there.

A particularly virulent strain of salmonella, 4-5-12:i-minus, which resists ampicillin, streptomycin, sulfisoxazole and tetracycline, started in the 1980’s,  has shown a 35% increase where other strains of salmonella have remained constant.

Non-meat eaters like vegans and vegetarians aren’t safe either. Animal waste has long been used on organic farms and once the bacteria get into the soil, anyone is fair game. Unless one is growing their own food, there is no guarantee that they are immune from an antibiotic-resistant illness.

The meat industry, as well as the pharmaceutical companies need to be held accountable.  Until the FDA and CDC are allowed access, there is no slowing this descent into drug-resistant oblivion.

 

 

Dollar Stores: Unhealthy Food Choices For Poor Americans

 

Dollar stores offer the poor cheap, unhealthy food.

Years ago I worked in Dollar General as a cashier. It was in a rural Virginia town that had just lost its only grocery store.  The nearest one was over 10 miles away.  The people of the surrounding area were poor and lacking jobs.  Many were elderly and had no cars.  While the shuttered grocery store did offer fresh food, the produce was wilted and inferior and I sure didn’t trust the meat they sold there, and only bought pre-packed groceries.

When the Dollar General moved into its own building on the town’s main thoroughfare, people raved.  True, it did supply some basic food items, but most of it was high in fat, salt, and sugar.

I eyed customers as they came through my line, noticing the items they were purchasing.  One obese elderly man, who hobbled along in my line, was struggling to breathe.  He had a pile of canned Vienna Sausage.  I cringed. Knowing that the sodium content was staggering, well above 700mg for a half can – and he’d probably eat that whole can for a meal – he’d get over 1,400 mg.  More than likely he had high blood pressure and diabetes.  This was not a good meal choice. Alas, it was cheap.

And so it went – customer after customer purchasing neon-colored juices, artificially flavored, chemically-laden processed food – for a dollar or two.  It was sad. Many of these people had no cars, relying on friends, family or the overpriced local conman taxi service.  They were trapped in this food nightmare.

820mg of sodium for one can in one sitting.

740mg of sodium per serving would equal 1,850mg per can.

This is the lure of Dollar General-type stores.  Cheap food in impoverished food deserts in rural & urban America.   They’ve invaded blighted inner-city neighborhoods like those in Detroit, Philadelphia, and Baltimore.

The unchecked growth of dollar stores creates zero incentive for grocery stores to enter rural areas or food deserts in inner-cities.  The population numbers are thin, unlike more urban and affluent locations.  A stunted earnings base with impoverished citizens counting every cent makes the appeal of a Dollar General, Family Dollar or Dollar Tree all much more alluring.

Dollar General has tried to tout that they are offering fresh produce.  This is only evident in about 600 of their more than 15,000 stores.  The cheap off-brand food is furthering the health crisis of vulnerable Americans who should be eating anything but salt, sugar and fat-saturated foods. Poor people buy far more processed food than their more affluent counterparts. They’re living dollar to dollar.  For instance, in my rural community, organic merchandise wasn’t offered in Wal-Mart because customers on limited budgets can’t afford, or are just plain not interested in it. They tried, then abandoned, selling organics for the most part.  We’ll see how selling produce goes for DG.

Dollar stores, like their gigantic cousin Wal-Mart, stymie and destroy the local Mom and Pop businesses. Where people were once content with a local general store, where produce and meat likely came from nearby farmers which generated income back into the community,  dollar stores rely on corporate distribution warehouses & supply chains. Profits enrich the already wealthy conglomerates.

Market saturation is evident, too. It’s part of their business plan and they’re proud of it.  They aim to populate the abandoned and more remote areas.  This further chokes any interest for small scale family operated groceries to stay in business or open.  In my community, Dollar General opened another store not five miles away. It wasn’t uncommon in rural Virginia to find a Dollar General at one end of town and a Family Dollar at the other.

The Institute For Self-Reliance reports:  “While dollar stores sometimes fill a need in cash-strapped communities, growing evidence suggests these stores are not merely a byproduct of economic distress. They’re a cause of it. In small towns and urban neighborhoods alike, dollar stores are triggering the closure of grocery stores, eliminating jobs, and further eroding the prospects of the vulnerable communities they target. These chains both rely on and fuel the growing economic precarity and widening inequality that plague America.” 

They have no choice.  They are stranded in a food desert.

 

Monsanto’s Roundup-Ready XTend: Dicamba & Roundup. The Poison Treadmill Continues

Use of Roundup has increased because of resistance to super weeds.

To battle the super weed crisis that American farmers have experienced with Roundup’s failure, the FDA approved  GMO (genetically modified) dicamba-resistant soybean & cotton crops.  This follows on the heels of the EPA green light for the “new &  improved” Roundup, Monsanto’s Xtend, a marriage between Roundup and Dicamba.

Dicamba’s been used since the 60’s. There’s one problem.  It’s highly volatile and prone to drift – even up to 72 hours after application –  to fields where it hasn’t been sprayed.

Soybean plant with Xtend damage. Photo: Andrea Morales for Washington Post

Farmers were told not to spray it directly on crops; only on the soil before planting, for post-emergent weed control. Dicamba has a tendency to drift when airborne,  so instructions were to maintain a sprayer height of 24 inches, adjust nozzles for a larger spray (heavier drops) and avoid use when weather conditions made drift more likely. Because of temperature inversions, night-time spraying was not advised. However, some farmers didn’t heed this advice & sprayed it directly on the GMO crops. In violation of federal pesticide laws, some used an older version of dicamba which is more prone to drift.

 A lawsuit was filed on July 19, 2017, against Monsanto, BASF and DuPont by 7 farmers in Arkansas citing crop damage. Approximately of 22% soybean crops were impacted by dicamba drift.  Over 3 million acres have been involved in 16 states, affecting not only farms but residential areas, as well as organic farms.

Missouri and Arkansas have banned the use of Xtend. Damage has been found in Mississippi, Illinois, Tennesee, and other areas of the South.

Monsanto, in its usual nefarious rush toward approval because of greed, didn’t test Xtend for commercial applications to avoid delay in the process.  BSAF limited their testing of their version, Engenia, further allowing scientists to “selectively choose” data for regulators.  “Monsanto, in particular, did very little volatility field work,” said Jason Norsworthy, an agronomy professor at the University of Arkansas.

More disconcerting is that research indicates this new pairing of herbicides may not work for very long. Scientists have found that in just 3 seasons Xtend is no longer effective against superweeds like pigweed.

So guess what?  More applications of Roundup and Dicamba will be needed. Or Monsanto, BASF, DuPont, Bayer or Syngenta will have to come up with another chemical concoction.

The poison treadmill continues.

Pesticides Affect Babies & Children

 

Babies & children absorb pesticides at a rate 10X that of adults.

In utero, as infants, babies & children absorb pesticides ten times that of adults.

Keep this in mind when your phobia of bugs prompts you to use pesticides in your yard & home.

Remember also that during pregnancy, pesticide and lawn chemical use will affect your unborn child.

Following are some links to articles I’ve written on pesticides and children:

Dangers of Pesticides:  Sevin Dust, Roundup & Other Garden Chemicals

Sevin Dust Illegal in Many Countries – Top Seller in  The U.S.:     Pregnant women should avoid exposure to Sevin dust because it can cause fetal abnormalities: cardio and pulmonary, nervous system development, spontaneous abortion, ADD in their child and a host of other difficulties. Additionally, women whose pregnancies fall between the months of highest Sevin applications – May and September – have the highest instances of fetal distress in development.

Your questions answered on Sevin Dust. It’s not the harmless chemical you think it is.

Are your kids helping in the garden? You may be exposing them to high levels of pesticides.

 

Put Down The Strawberries: These Pesticide-laden Fruits & Veggies Top the Pesticide List For 2017

Topping the list of the most pesticide-laden fruits and vegetables are strawberries, which can contain as many as 20 different pesticides. The Environmental Working Group released its annual “Dirty Dozen” list.

Another favorite, spinach, climbed the list from 8th last year to 2nd for 2017.  A disturbing fact is permethrin, a neurotoxin banned in Europe but still used here in the United States, was found on approximately 75% of tested samples. Permethrin was also found in higher levels in the urine of children more likely to have ADHD & can cause seizures as well as endocrine (hormonal) and neurological damage.   Additionally, permethrin is used here in the U.S. to control head lice and is embedded in mosquito and tick-repellent fabrics. It is commonly used on nut, fruit, vegetable, cotton, ornamental, mushroom, potato and cereal crops.

More bad news for spinach:  mandipropam, fluopicolide and ametoctradin, which are used to kill mold and mildew – were found in higher rates this year. In previous years their presence was not found on this and other produce.

New additions to the list were pears and potatoes which edged out cherry tomatoes and cukes.

In contrast, the Environmental Working Group’s “Clean 15” is as follows:  corn, avocados, pineapples, cabbage, onions, (frozen) sweet peas, papayas,  asparagus, mangoes, eggplant, honeydew melon, kiwi, cantaloupe, cauliflower and grapefruit.

It is important to note that even at low levels, pesticides have a cumulative effect.  Children absorb them at a rate ten times that of adults.  Because their systems are still developing, it is wise to limit their exposure. Important READ —>  If You Use Pesticides, READ THIS!

Best bet?  BUY ORGANIC when you can!

Food Waste: 800 Million Starving – We Could Feed Them All

Trillions of pounds of food are discarded annually – perfectly good, edible food that could feed millions.

It’s hard for the average American to imagine true starvation.  With the abundant availability of food at our fingertips:  Grocery stores chock-full of food right around the corner, fast food joints at every turn and restaurants with their heaping portions – we never consider the hungry worldwide.

800 million people on this planet are starving.  Worldwide, we waste 1/3 of the planet’s production,  an astonishing 2.9 trillion pounds of food a year – enough to feed all of them twice.

In developing nations, those without easy access to refrigeration or passable roads, much is lost post-production. In more industrialized countries, more food waste occurs farther down the supply chain.  Retailers order too much, restaurants serve huge portions that patrons don’t finish. Consumers lose leftovers in the back of the fridge or toss food because they’ve bought too much and it’s spoiled.  They pitch perfectly good food (canned, boxed or frozen) because they’re paranoid about the “use by,”  “best before” dates, not realizing that it’s still OK to eat. Nationwide, 40% of  food used in school lunches is thrown in the trash.

Then there’s the 6 billion pounds of unharvested or unsold food which the United States wastes because it failed to win the beauty contest; misshapen, “ugly” produce, bruised, scarred, slightly bug-chewed or deemed not aesthetically pleasing for grocery shelves.  Edible, nutritious food is going to waste while people starve.

Food waste taxes the planet’s resources.  When food is rejected for looks, rots somewhere for lack of storage or thrown away by retailers or consumers, millions of gallons of water are wasted, more dangerous pesticides and herbicides were used than necessary, gasoline or diesel is wasted, seeds squandered and our landfills stuffed with edible food, all for naught.

There is hope.  Here in the States, the USDA is promoting gleaning which means food is collected from farms, grocery stores, farmer’s markets and restaurants. (click HERE to get involved) A growing movement of gleaners salvages food and re-purposes it. A some farms are collecting discarded food, like the pig farmer outside of Las Vegas who gathers uneaten food from casinos to feed to his animals.  PantryNet is available to let consumers find local food banks nearby.  Schools are cutting back on food waste by offering sharing tables.  “Feedback,” an organization dedicated to reducing food waste collects food on an international level.  Feeding America is fighting hunger in America. Many restaurants have begun  fine-tuning purchasing, making portions smaller and donating unused food to charities.  Stores are springing up all over which sell packaged food past its “sell by” date which is certainly still edible.  The former president of Trader Joe’s, Doug Rauch, opened a non-profit supermarket in Massachusetts, The Daily Table,  offering fruits & vegetables soon to be discarded. Imperfect Produce, based in California, collects rejected produce from farms and delivers it right to your door. In our nation’s capitol, D.C. Central Kitchen collects food and provides 11,000 meals a day to shelters, schools and other locations.

We must be more conscious of the food we eat and more aware of the vast amount we waste. Keeping this in mind, we need to pressure those entities which throw away edible food, large grocery chains, restaurants, corporate farms, Mom-and-Pop stores, farmer’s markets and schools, to concentrate on feeding the world’s hungry.