Food Safety
Do you know what's in your food?
With all of the problems in our food system, it can be hard to find the information we need to make smart choices about the food we eat. Use this page to keep up to date on food safety issues, including pesticides, aspartame, flouridation, irraditation, toxic sludge, mad cow disease, and more.
A panel of the National Academy of Sciences concluded yesterday that the maximum amount of fluoride currently allowed in the nation's drinking water can cause health problems and "should be lowered."
The report concluded that children exposed to four milligrams of fluoride per liter, the highest allowable level, risk developing severe dental fluorosis, in which teeth become mottled, pitted and scarred. Because fluoride can weaken bones, people who consume water containing that much fluoride over a lifetime are likely to be at increased risk for bone fractures.
Only 200,000
Read morePRESS RELEASE
MARCH 23, 2006
8:43 AM
CONTACT: Commercial Alert
Gary Ruskin (503) 235-8012
WASHINGTON - March 23 - In response to recent findings by scientists at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and elsewhere that certain soft drinks may contain amounts of the carcinogen benzene above the U.S. legal limit for drinking water, Commercial Alert and public health advocates sent letters today to all U.S. chief state school officers, asking them to stop the sale and marketing of these soft drinks in public schools, until they can be proven safe and free
Read moreThe arrogance of this government was demonstrated once again earlier this month when the U.S. House ignored 50,000 letters and phone calls from the Organic Consumers Association, and a like number from other groups, and passed a bill that bars local and state requirements for food safety labels.
This legislation more than 200 state requirements for labeling to ensure food safety and public health.
The bill, known as H.R. 4167, has four versions before the Senate's Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions. It is opposed by most environmental groups, Democratic
Read morePRESS RELEASE
CONTACT: Environmental Working Group
EWG Public Affairs, (202) 667-6982
Severity of Overexposure Tied to Fluoride Levels in Water Used to Reconstitute Formula
WASHINGTON - March 22 - A new report from the prestigious National Academy of Sciences (NAS) concludes that the current allowable level of fluoride in tap water is not protective of the public health and should be lowered, citing serious concerns about bone fractures and dental fluorosis, a discoloration and weakening of the enamel of the teeth that the committee
Read moreWASHINGTON (AP) - Investigators may never figure out where the Alabama cow with mad cow disease was born and raised, in part because the U.S. lacks a livestock tracking system the Bush administration promised two years ago. After the first case of mad cow disease in December 2003, the government pledged to get a nationwide program into place quickly so officials could track cows, pigs and chickens from their birth to the dinner table. Today, however, the system is a long way off.
Alabama officials saw the need firsthand last week as they tried to discover where the infected cow came
Read moreFEED - Food & Environment Electronic Digest
March 2006
Read FEED online at: http://ucsaction.org/ct/Jd_Ifnd1OmgC/
CONTENTS
1. The virtues of grass-fed beef and milk
2. House passes bill that would gut food safety laws
3. Global poultry industry may be implicated in bird flu
If you love fish but avoid it because you're worried about high mercury content, you may be in luck -- if you live in Northern California, that is. Pacific Seafood Group, a large fish wholesaler, has partnered with Holiday Quality Foods, a chain of 19 grocery stores in rural Northern California, to test-market fish labeled as low-mercury. Fish to be sold under the new Safe Harbor brand will be tested for mercury before being packaged, and only those with mercury levels well below the FDA-recommended level of one part per million will make the cut. At least half of the fish tested are
Read moreWeb Note: In the past 48 hours over 25,000 members of the Organic Consumers Association network have sent an email to the House Representatives in Congress, calling for them to vote against HR Bill 4167, the so-called "National Uniformity for Food Act." Tens of thousands of other consumers, responding to Action Alerts from the Consumers Union, the Center for Food Safety, the National Campaign for Sustainable Agriculture, and other groups have done the same thing.
Ag Policy Issues
Food Labels
With respect to food, several media reports have
Read moreBelow are two good articles on H.R. 4167, the National Uniformity for Food Act:
BILL MAY UNDO STATES' RULES ON SAFE FOOD
By MARIAN BURROS
New York Times, March 1, 2006
<http://select.nytimes.com/mem/tnt.html?_r=1&emc=tnt&tntget=2006/03/01/politics/01food.html&tntemail0=y>
WASHINGTON, Feb. 28 - The House is expected to vote Thursday on a bill that would pre-empt all state food safety
Read moreWhen grocery shoppers look at where many of their fresh foods originate, they typically find a range of international sources: seafood from fish farms and foreign trawlers around the world, fruit from South American countries, vegetables from countries in Latin America, cheeses from Europe. While this has become routine, it may surprise many shoppers to know that it is state governments, and not the federal government, that typically ensure the safety of most commonly imported foods, along with the safety of many foods, including milk, from their own states and others around the country.
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