This Just In

1. Another one bites the dust. It's back. Captain Salmonella strikes again, this time tainting our peanuts, sending food companies into a frenzy of peanut product recall, and hundreds of consumers to the hospitals. More than 125 products containing peanut butter and/or peanut paste from the Peanut Corporation of America plant in Blakely, GA have been recalled, marked with the proverbial scarlet letter (S is for salmonella), reminding us just how vulnerable our food system really is. An AP article, noted that peanuts were considered to be low-risk for salmonella, and that:

There is no federal law that mandates the number of inspections that must be carried out each year at peanut processing facilities. The Food and Drug Administration contracts with states to perform inspections but allows them broad discretion when it comes to how they do them. The agency asks the states to base the frequency and nature of inspections on how risky a food is considered, giving priority to high-risk foods.

Hmm...well, that doesn't make me feel too good. And if you read on, the article later states that the plant was inspected a month after the first people fell ill, but that inspectors had failed to test for salmonella during that inspection. Whew, I have to say that in the Year of Salmonella I sure am glad that I'm eating nothing but Alabama peanuts, and making my own peanut paste (for dippin' sauce, of course).

After perusing the list of possibly contaminated products, I was a little surprised to come across an organic granola bar - Health Valley Organic Peanut Crunch Chewy Granola Bars. How could an organic product be on the list? You would think that if the lead descriptor of a product was organic, then most of its ingredients would also be organic. Well, upon further investigation I discovered that the only organic ingredients in this granola bar were the oats. Go figure.

Ingredients: brown rice syrup, brown rice flour, cane juice, chocolate coating (cane juice, natural palm oil, cocoa, soy lecithin, vanilla), organic oats, peanuts, peanut butter chips (cane juice, natural palm oil, whey powder, peanut flour, penut butter (peanuts, salt), milk solids, soy lecithin, salt), soy grits, rice bran, vegetable glycerin, natural flavors, natural vitamin e (for freshness), salt, soy lecithin, concentrated fruit juices, (pear, pineapple, grape), barley malt.

Why don't they just call it Health Valley Peanut Crunch Chewy Granola Bars with organic oats? Because Organic sells. And because food companies don't have to give you all the information. They are misleading by nature. And just so you know, there's no mention of the recall of the granola bars on the Health Valley website.

(photo from www.fiery-foods.com)

2. Food Matters. Mark Bittman is at it again. In his new book, Food Matters, Bittman dishes out the food wisdom so often shared in his New York Times columns - a few of which I've mentioned in this blog. If you want to change the world, start by changing what's on your plate.


(photo from Torontoist.com)








3. Food Police. A not-so nice critique of Alice Waters and - what the author believes to be - the waning local foods revolution. He writes:

Cooking, after all, is not about doing good; it's about tasting good.

Pshaw. Why can't it be both? Read this article only to learn how the enemy thinks. Then, strike it from your memory. Retaliate by eating local foods for an entire week. Food is the new counterculture!

(photo from Getty Images)




4. New Chef in the White House. The Obamas hire a new chef, Sam Kass, to help prepare meals in the White House. According to the NYT, Kass, who often cooked for the Obamas in Chicago, has a "particular interest in healthy and local foods". Arugula salads all around!

(photo from TimeOut Chicago)