BARC gives litchis long shelf life, export tag

BARC gives litchis long shelf life, export tag

As the litchi season kicks in and you start seeing carts overflowing with these juicy red fruits at street corners, here’s some food for thought — India will soon be able to export the fruit abundantly and the large Indian community living in the US and Europe will be able to enjoy the fruit.

You can thank scientists at the food technology division (FTD) of the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre in Trombay, who have successfully completed research to increase its shelf life and kill all insects, pests and parasites in the fruit using a process known as irradiation.

Irradiation, which uses gamma rays, electron beams or x-rays to kill pests, is mandatory for a fruit to be exported to countries such as the US, Australia, New Zealand and Japan.

Litchi is the second fruit to be irradiated in India. Six years ago, the BARC irradiated the mango.

“Litchi is a highly perishable fruit… Besides, it has pests that need to be eliminated to meet quarantine regulations of the importing countries,” said A.K. Sharma, head of FTD.

“Irradiating it will open doors for exports in US and Europe,” said K.K. Kumar, director, National Litchi Research Centre, Muzaffarpur.

A team of nine scientists worked through two harvest seasons, from March to June in 2008 and 2009, with two litchi varieties.

Litchis packed in polythene bags were exposed to gamma radiation and stored at 4 deg C, making them stay fresh for up to 28 days. Normally, their shelf life is a week.

FTD’s paper titled ‘Quality profile of litchi cultivars from India and effect of radiation processing’ was published in the April online issue of two international journals — Radiation Physics & Chemistry and ScienceDirect.

Mapping the flow of foods to cities

http://tuftsjournal.tufts.edu/2010/05_1/briefs/01/
Local PotentialMapping the flow of foods to cities—and finding out if locavore is the way to goBy Julie Flaherty
Advocates of local food say buying food closer to the source is fresher, more nutritious and better for the environment than buying stuff that’s been trucked in over miles and miles. But even if we gave up bananas and pineapples, and strove to eat in a 100-mile radius, would there be enough food for everyone? Can all food be local?
In New York state, at least, the answer is no. That is where Christian Peters, an assistant professor at the Friedman School, has studied the potential of local food systems through the mapping of “foodsheds.”
Much like its namesake the watershed, a foodshed is a tool for understanding the flow of food in a food system. Peters collected data on the location of New York’s available farm land and its productivity; the location of population centers and the number of people living in or near them; and the land needed to feed people an adequate diet.
He found that it would take all of the state’s agricultural resources to meet just half of the total food needs of New York City alone. But there was good news for locavores, too. In places like Albany, Buffalo, Syracuse and Rochester people could meet nearly all of their food needs surprisingly close to home.
“That’s valuable information to help frame the debate” about local foods, Peters says. “If you can’t produce everything, what should you choose to produce?”
Peters, who joined the Friedman School this year in the Agriculture, Food and Environment Program, plans to apply his methodology to a larger area, such as the lower 48 states. He hopes his mapping method will help in the search for sustainable agriculture strategies in the face of growing food needs and diminishing resources.
Part of what makes his research unusual is that it looks at both farming and nutrition. “Food consumption and agricultural production are interdependent, and new tools are needed to understand how one influences the other,” he writes.
For a study published in 2007, for example, he looked at 42 different diets to determine which offered the most efficient use of farmland in New York state. The diet that fed the most people—about a third of the population—was a low-fat vegetarian diet.
But interestingly, when he looked at diets with higher amounts of fat—such as a vegetarian diet with plenty of oils and a diet with small amounts of meat or eggs—the omnivore diet was more efficient. Why? Because oil-producing crops like corn and soybean require high-quality acreage, while cows, sheep and goats can be raised on lower-grade hay and pasture lands, which might not otherwise be put to use.
That’s useful to know, even if Americans aren’t ready to radically change their diets. “There wasn’t a very good sense of what was possible,” Peters says.Julie Flaherty can be reached at julie.flaherty@tufts.edu.

Soda tax can help

http://media.www.gwhatchet.com/media/storage/paper332/news/2010/05/10/Opinions/Justin.Guiffre.Soda.Tax.Will.Help.Alleviate.D.c.Obesity.Health.Crisis-3918723.shtml
Soda tax will help alleviate D.C. obesity, health crisisby Justin GuiffréManaging Editor
Issue: 5/10/10 Opinions
In the time it takes me to write this column, I will have finished all 20 ounces of a delicious Dr Pepper. I will have consumed 2.5 servings of soda, 64 grams of sugar, and if I drank one soda a day I would gain an average of 10 pounds over the next year. What did my carbonated corn syrup cost me? $1.25. What is it going to cost if the D.C. City Council approves Mary M. Cheh's new soda tax? One cent more for every ounce, for a total of $1.45. And I would happily pay that tax.
Criticism of this new tax comes in a few forms. Opposing the measure from the D.C. City Council itself is councilmember Jack Evans. His concerns come from a similar "snack tax" that failed in the 1990s. Ellen Valentino, president of the Maryland-Delaware-D.C. Beverage Association, has promised her organization and retailers will fight the bill. Others, mostly those who love any excuse to use the phrase "big government," argue the D.C. City Council shouldn't be trying to control how people eat through taxes.
For me, none of these arguments hold water (or soda if you prefer). The truth is, D.C. faces a serious public health crisis and the soda tax is a perfectly sound initiative to solve some of the District's problems.
The District has the highest rate of childhood obesity in the nation, and in some neighborhoods more than half of the children are overweight. According to Cheh's proposal, the 1-cent-per-ounce could be the single best measure for fighting the obesity epidemic in general, a statistic she pulled from Center for Disease Control studies. The tax would work to reduce consumption and bring D.C.'s childhood obesity rate down.
Perhaps, even more important than the effects of the tax, is the direction of the revenue. Around $6 million of the estimated $16 million generated by the tax would help fund the Healthy Schools Act of 2010, a much-needed educational initiative.
Evans argues it would be a repeat of the failed 5.75 percent tax on snack foods, which was repealed in 2001 due to widespread confusion over its application. But this is a specious and irrelevant comparison. Implementation of a soda tax would be much easier to implement and enforce. The bill is even designed so the tax is levied on distributors, leaving the confusion of an added retail tax out of the equation.
It is natural that the Maryland-Delaware-D.C. Beverage Association would be against the tax. It is a tax on the soda industry. But to claim the tax is regressive ignores the fact that sodas are a luxury, not a necessity. It is true soda will be more expensive, and therefore a bigger strain on some family's budgets. But since when was soda a good that people absolutely had to have?
Public health expenditures are a good investment. Education is probably the number one tool for reversing negative health trends. Education can be directly correlated to positive health and reducing health risk factors in a number of ways. And because so much of our behavior is learned from our parents, the benefits will continue through the generations. This education needs to be funded somehow, and the soda tax is a prime example of a source of funding that will also reduce unhealthy behavior.
Fighting this tax is petty. Cheh has taken the reins on one of D.C.'s biggest problems and is finding very reasonable ways to not only fund her educational program but also to help the city close its budgetary shortfall. Even after finishing my Dr Pepper, I'm willing to say those goals are worth the extra 20 cents.
The writer, a junior majoring in international affairs, is a Hatchet senior columnist

Alice Waters setting national agenda

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/05/09/FDGG1D8S2V.DTL&type=health
Alice Waters push for local, organic setting national agenda
Food crusader Alice Waters is making the rounds to promote her new cookbook.
McDonald's, she told Bill Maher on his TV show, "Real Time," "is never the answer," not even for impoverished families trying to put food on the table. Then, in her signature breathy voice, she lambasted the microwave.
"That's not cooking," Waters said, somewhat flustered that Maher would even ask about the common kitchen appliance. "I don't know how to relate to it. I need a little fire."
Last week on Martha Stewart's program she tried to impress the importance of learning how to chop an onion, peel garlic and make chicken stock.
Food bloggers responded with their usual snark. Waters' appearance on Maher's show was "cringe worthy," wrote Grub Street San Francisco, going on to describe her performance on "Martha" as "loopy." When she roasted an egg on a giant iron spoon in her kitchen fireplace during an earlier "60 Minutes" interview, you could almost hear the nation gagging.
Yet, despite the scorn she sometimes evokes, Waters is steadfast. Her message is hitting its mark.
For nearly 40 years, "St. Alice," as she's been called for her unrepentant views, has touted the importance of eating local, organically grown food; emphasized the necessity of being good stewards of the land; and tirelessly advocated and funded nutritional meal programs in public schools. For many of those years she was mostly ignored, seen as a Berkeley radical whose ideals were not only elitist and unrealistic but also a bit wacky.
But as Americans began grappling with an obesity crisis, and journalists and documentarians began exposing the ills of factory farming, Waters' little movement motored away from the fringes and into the mainstream.First lady on board
Michelle Obama wasted no time in planting an edible garden, some believe at the urging of Waters, on the South Lawn of the White House. Obama's Let's Move campaign, which replaced her predecessor's literacy drive, addresses much of what Waters has been preaching. Celebrity chef Jamie Oliver's "Food Revolution" on ABC-TV has taken Waters' message to prime time. Even former President Bill Clinton, famous for his love of Big Macs, has taken up the cause, combining forces with the American Heart Association to form the Alliance for a Healthier Generation.
"Alice and people like her, along with my own weight and heart problems, inspired me to take on the issue of childhood obesity," Clinton wrote in an e-mail. The former president says he met Waters while dining at her restaurant Chez Panisse - where the activist supposedly tried to talk him out of blueberry ice cream in favor of a "perfect" peach - and has read her books.
"I know how passionate Alice is about fresh foods and the importance of Americans living healthier lives," he wrote.
This helped inspire Clinton to work with the soda companies to wean students off high-calorie soft drinks and to help schools improve their meals and exercise programs. "The first lady's leadership on this issue will make a big difference," he added. "And Alice's involvement ensures even more success."Thrilled with progress
Waters, 66, couldn't be happier with the momentum.
"I feel empowered," she says while sipping mint tea at her Chez Panisse Cafe, upstairs from the restaurant that inspired the farm-to-fork movement and will celebrate its 40th birthday next year.
And perhaps she feels a bit vindicated.
"I always knew it had to happen," she says. "I just didn't know it would happen so soon.
"These are not my ideas," she continued, a bit teary-eyed. "It's the way people have been eating for hundreds of years."
Still, Chris Lehane, a political consultant who has worked for Al Gore and Bill Clinton, sees Waters as "the George Washington of the movement and Northern California as the 13 colonies."
"If you're going to pick a figure who's responsible for it all, it all comes back to her," says Lehane, adding that even 10 years ago food probably wouldn't have crossed a politician's mind as a public policy issue.
"Not unless you include Ronald Regan calling ketchup a vegetable," he laughs.
But now, Lehane says, people don't see the campaign as more of those "San Francisco values." "This has become a health issue - even in the red states."
About 32 percent of children and adolescents today are obese or overweight, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Being overweight is a health risk that can lead to Type 2 diabetes, heart disease, depression and other life-threatening illnesses.
It's a problem that Waters says has reached emergency levels. In 1996 she created the Chez Panisse Foundation, a nonprofit that, along with the Berkeley Unified School District, pioneered one of the most ambitious and lauded school food programs in the country. First they planted an edible garden at Martin Luther King Jr. Middle School that became a model for the rest of the nation. Then they hired renowned school chef Ann Cooper, who made every dish from scratch and bought all the produce from local farms - organic whenever possible.Starting a movement
A.G. Kawamura, California secretary of food and agriculture, says he first met Waters at the edible garden five years ago. Since then, nearly 4,000 gardens have been planted at California schools.
"When we saw how Alice had linked the garden to the cafeteria - a culinary institute so to speak - we were amazed," he says. "It was a great concept that could be duplicated everywhere."
But her contributions haven't stopped at the school cafeteria. Waters, who was recently awarded the French Legion of Honor for her efforts to promote Slow Food, a movement designed to combat fast food, has been a boon to small farms and the local food shed.
Two years ago, she helped organize the first American Slow Food Nation, a four-day political food festival in San Francisco that featured local growers, chefs and nutrition experts.
"She has helped to reintroduce the public to where their food comes from," Kawamura says. "What's really remarkable is that she has been consistent with her message, even if people don't agree with it."
And a lot of people don't - partly because she's rarely willing to compromise. In her new book, "In the Green Kitchen: Techniques to Learn by Heart" (see Cook's Books, Page K7), Waters hopes to get Americans back to the stove.Basic cooking
"I'm trying to demystify cooking," she says. "I'm trying to talk about universal and basic techniques so that once you know them you can cook anything."
So if she manages to teach her readers how to whip up a scramble, will it be enough, even if the eggs were bought at Safeway?
"No," she says.
"I want to know where everything comes from," continues Waters, who buys her groceries straight from California farms. "I don't want to have to choose between local and organic. I want both. I don't want to live a half-good life."
That's where her message can start to bug people.
"It's making the task of getting Americans to eat more fruits and vegetables unachievable," says James McWilliams, a food historian at Texas State University. "It's a great example of the perfect being the enemy of the good."A privileged view
McWilliams, who warns against food "primitivism," says Waters' message involves a certain amount of privilege.
"There is a kind of elitism about it, which isn't necessarily a bad thing," he says. "If you have the time and the resources to support the local food-shed, that's great. But there are some who see her as having boutique concerns that are out of touch with where our food worries should be - like how we're going to globally produce 70 percent more food in the next 40 to 50 years."
School chef Cooper, who has left Berkeley Unified to start similar lunch programs in Boulder, Colo., and across the country, says her mentor has certainly been a target for the naysayers.
"When her effort to launch organic lunches at Berkeley High School didn't work, it made the New York Times in a particularly ugly, nasty way," she remembers. "Then there was the Atlantic piece that criticized her Berkeley program. People just seem to like to pick on her. Maybe it's because they perceive her as just a little too precious.
"But in the face of intense adversity she's been unwavering."
The seemingly unflappable Waters has big plans for the future. Tops on her agenda is overhauling the USDA's National School Lunch Program. She's already started lobbying for the federal agency to more than double its budget to feed America's youth, which would include ridding the cafeteria of processed foods such as chicken nuggets and syrup-drenched fruit.
If she has her way, schools would serve more fruits and vegetables bought from nearby growers who use sustainable and organic farming methods.
"I'm trying to focus my energy on the people who can win this race," Waters says. "And there are so many doors that are open right now."
Roast Chicken
Serves 4 to 6
Adapted from "In the Green Kitchen: Techniques to Learn by Heart," by Alice Waters (Clarkson Potter, 2010).
* 1 whole chicken, about 3-4 pounds * -- Salt and fresh-ground pepper, to taste * 3 to 4 sprigs thyme, or other herbs * -- Olive oil, to taste * -- Chicken stock (optional)
Instructions: A day or two ahead of cooking, if possible, remove the neck and giblets from the chicken. If there are any lumps of fat just inside the cavity, pull them out and discard. Season the chicken inside and out with salt and fresh-ground pepper. Put a few sprigs of thyme or other herbs in the cavity, and truss, or tie, the legs together. Tuck the wing tips up and under the back of the neck. Cover loosely and refrigerate.
Remove the chicken from the refrigerator 1 hour before cooking and preheat the oven to 400°. Place the chicken in a lightly oiled roasting pan or earthenware dish, breast side up. Roast about 20 minutes, then turn the chicken over, and roast breast side down, for another 20 minutes. Turn the chicken over again, and roast breast side up, for about 20 minutes more. To test for doneness, pierce the leg joint with the tip of a knife; the juice should run clear, not pink. Remove the chicken to a platter to rest for 10 to 15 minutes before carving.
While the chicken is resting, prepare the pan juices. Tilt the pan to one corner and skim off and discard most of the clear fat from the top. Put the pan on the stovetop, add a little chicken stock or water, and scrape loose all the browned bits on the bottom. When carving the chicken, collect all the juice released from the bird and add to the pan juice. Heat the juices and pour over the chicken just before serving, or pass in a bowl at the table.
Per serving: 253 calories, 33 g protein, 0 g carbohydrate, 13 g fat (4 g saturated), 103 mg cholesterol, 96 mg sodium, 0 g fiber.
Wine pairing: Roast chicken is one of the most accommodating dishes in wine pairing - flexible enough to pair with a wide range from aromatic whites to oakier Chardonnay to light reds.Greens With Ginger & Chile
Serves 4
This recipe, adapted from "In the Green Kitchen: Techniques to Learn by Heart," by Alice Waters (Clarkson Potter, 2010), can be made with any type of greens. Tender greens such as spinach, watercress and pea shoots cook in just a few minutes, uncovered. Sturdier greens (chard, kale, broccoli rabe, collards, cabbage, amaranth, beet greens, turnip tops) take longer. They are best cut into ribbons and covered to steam during cooking.
* 1 to 1 1/2 pounds amaranth or other leafy greens * 4 coin-size slices peeled fresh ginger * 1 to 2 tablespoons vegetable oil * -- Kosher salt, to taste * 1 fresh red or green chile, or 1 dried red chile (for flavor, not heat)
Instructions: Sort the greens, removing any tough stems, and wash and drain the leaves. Cut the ginger slices into a fine julienne, or chop them, or simply leave them as round slices. Cover the bottom of a wok or generous skillet with a layer of oil, and heat over medium-high heat. Add some salt to the oil, then add the ginger and the chile pod. If it is a fresh chile, make a slit in it to prevent it from bursting in the heat.
When the ginger begins to sizzle, stir it around and add the greens. Use tongs to toss the greens to distribute the oil and flavorings and to keep the greens moving and cooking evenly. Very tender greens will wilt and cook in 1 to 2 minutes. For sturdier greens, reduce the heat and cover the pan for a few minutes to let them steam and wilt. Remove chile and ginger; discard or, if desired, chop them fine and add to the greens.
Serve greens hot, warm or at room temperature.
Per serving: 64 calories, 3 g protein, 6 g carbohydrate, 4 g fat (0 g saturated), 0 mg cholesterol, 24 mg sodium, 2 g fiber.
E-mail Stacy Finz at sfinz@sfchronicle.com.
This article appeared on page K - 1 of the San Francisco Chronicle
Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/05/09/FDGG1D8S2V.DTL&type=health#ixzz0nX0Tjwkv

More homeowners "underwater"

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSN0720997220100510
Trend of U.S. mortgages 'underwater' grows -ZillowMon May 10, 2010 8:00am EDT
(Repeats with no changes in text)
Bonds Global Markets Financials
* Home values also fell in first quarter
* Large California markets show signs of reaching bottom
* Home value bottom expected in third quarter
* More than 1 in 1,000 homes was being foreclosed in March
By Julie Haviv
NEW YORK, May 10 (Reuters) - A growing percentage of U.S. homeowners were saddled with "underwater mortgages" in the first quarter, accounting for almost one in four homes in a trend that poses a serious threat to the housing market's recovery, real estate website Zillow.com said on Monday.
U.S. home values also declined again in the first quarter, Zillow reported.
Homeowners with "underwater" mortgages -- where the amount owed on the mortgage exceeds the value of the home -- are more prone to defaults and foreclosures.
The percentage of American single-family homes with mortgages in negative equity rose to 23.3 percent in the first quarter from 21.4 percent in the fourth quarter, according to the Zillow Real Estate Market Reports.
U.S. home values in the first quarter were down 3.8 percent year-over-year and down 1 percent quarter-over-quarter, to $183,700, according to the Zillow Home Value Index. It was the 13th consecutive quarter of year-over-year declines.
"Several large California markets have shown significant stabilization in home values, marking what could be a bottom," Stan Humphries, Zillow chief economist, said in an interview. "But, most markets across the country remained in decline."
Home values declined year-over-year in 106 of the 135 metropolitan areas tracked by Zillow.
But home values in several large California metro areas -- Los Angeles, San Diego, San Francisco, Santa Barbara and Ventura -- have risen significantly for at least the past 10 months, up from lows reached in April or May 2009.
Humphries said the government's recently expired homebuyer tax credits likely only shifted the timing of sales, rather than creating new demand.
Buyers seeking to take advantage of the tax credits had to sign purchase contracts by April 30 and have until June 30 to close on the sales.
Humphries said inventory levels were rising during the first quarter and home values continued to decline at a steady clip, even when the tax credits were still in place.
As a result, national home values are likely to reach bottom in the third quarter, and home value appreciation will likely then be near zero for some time, possibly as long as five years, he said.
The number of homeowners losing their homes to foreclosure across the country rose to a new peak in March, with more than one in every thousand homes, or 0.11 percent, being foreclosed, the highest since Zillow began recording national foreclosure data in 2000.
Foreclosure resales remained high in March, accounting for 22.2 percent of all U.S. home sales. Foreclosure resales made up the majority of sales in several metropolitan areas, including Merced, California, at 66.3 percent; Madera, California, at 63 percent; and the Modesto, California, at 61.7 percent, the reports showed. (Editing by Leslie Adler)

RFID to improve warehouse operations for Mission Foods

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/intermec-rfid-enables-mission-foods-to-improve-traceability-and-reduce-costs-2010-04-15?reflink=MW_news_stmp
Intermec RFID Enables Mission Foods to Improve Traceability and Reduce Costs
EVERETT, Wash., Apr 15, 2010 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- Intermec Inc. /quotes/comstock/13*!in/quotes/nls/in (IN 11.35, -0.25, -2.16%) today announced that Mission Foods, one of the nation's largest tortilla manufacturers, has deployed Intermec RFID technology to improve its warehouse operations. To enhance the tracking of its reusable containers, Mission Foods' pilot consisted of deploying Intermec IF61 readers, along with Intermec antennas, labels and PM4i printers across three plants, with each plant processing 20,000 containers daily.
"Intermec solutions have increased the level of visibility into our supply chain, enabling our organization to improve profitability by eliminating unnecessary costs," said Eduardo J. Valdes, vice president of Mission Foods. "By not having to worry about missing assets, we can focus our attention on additional ways to better our warehouse operations to improve the customer experience."
Prior to deploying Intermec RFID, Mission Foods replaced nearly all of its carton boxes and returnable plastics containers (RPCs), resulting in added direct costs. With Intermec RFID, packaged products are picked and loaded onto RFID-labeled RPCs. The RPCs are loaded onto pallets and an RFID label is encoded by the Intermec PM4i printer and applied to the pallet. Intermec IF61 readers record the pallets and associated RPCs as a forklift drives though an outbound portal prior to loading the route trucks bound for distribution centers. When the trucks return, they are processed through an inbound portal to reconcile the RPCs per route.
"This a prime example of the quick and measurable impact RFID solutions can have for any customer with returnable transport items," said Phyllis Turner-Brim, director of RFID Strategy and Licensing at Intermec. "Intermec RFID solutions consistently provide the insight and intelligence for simple and complex applications that enable businesses to transform their business processes and improve their bottom line."
To follow Intermec visit www.intermec.com/realtime.
About Intermec
Intermec Inc. /quotes/comstock/13*!in/quotes/nls/in (IN 11.35, -0.25, -2.16%) develops and integrates products, services and technologies that identify, track and manage supply chain assets and information. Core technologies include rugged mobile computing and data collection systems, bar code printers, label media, and RFID. The company's products and services are used by customers in many industries worldwide to improve the productivity, quality and responsiveness of business operations. For more information about Intermec, visit www.intermec.com or call 800-347-2636.
About Mission Foods
Mission Foods, headquartered in Irving (Dallas area), Texas is one of the largest tortilla manufacturers in the United States. Gruma S.A. de C.V. is the parent company of Mission Foods (Gruma Corporation) was founded in 1949 and is a leading Mexican producer of corn masa flour and tortilla products. It has operations in Mexico, the United States, Central and South America, Europe and Asia. For more information, please visit www.missionmenus.com.
SOURCE: Intermec Inc.

Senate moves on food safety

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/postpartisan/2010/05/senate_moves_on_food_safety_--.html

Senate moves on food safety -- finally
Before we get consumed by Elena-mania (President Obama is set to pick Solicitor General Elena Kagan for the Supreme Court later this morning, in case you somehow haven't heard), I'd like to point out this little, yet significant, news nugget nestled in Saturday's paper about peace breaking out in the Senate. "A food-safety bill headed to the Senate floor later this month has picked up GOP co-sponsors," wrote The Post's Shailagh Murray. This is great news for all of us, but especially for those who have suffered through E. coli and salmonella outbreaks in a maddeningly long list of tainted foods -- including tomatoes, jalapenos, peanuts, pistachios and spinach.
The House passed its comprehensive food-safety bill ages ago. But the bill has gone nowhere since it arrived in the Senate last August. Not even the March recall of more than 100 products containing hydrolyzed vegetable protein sold by Basic Food Flavors (one of the largest food recalls in U.S. history, by the way) seemed to move the ball. Things didn't get out of hand with HVP for two reasons. First, because the salmonella lurking within the flavor enhancer is cooked either by the food processing company or at home by the consumer. Second, because a new reporting system that requires contamination to be reported within 24 hours was instituted last year.
The bill sitting in the Senate would do much more. Companies would be required to devise food safety plans. The law would give the Food and Drug Administration the power to mandate product recalls. More importantly, it would empower the secretary of health and human services to create a food-tracing system that would allow the FDA to find the source of contamination by tracing ingredients from "farm to fork."
That nice bit of alliteration is courtesy of Rep. Diana DeGette (D-Colo.), who has been pushing to get food traceability and mandatory recall for years. Perhaps the new team spirit in the Senate will finally turn the languishing food-safety bill into law.

Justice Department may challenge immigration law

http://www.theepochtimes.com/n2/content/view/35095/
Justice Department May Challenge Immigration Law

The federal government may sue to overturn Arizona’s recently passed immigration law.
Attorney General Eric Holder announced on Sunday that the Justice Department may seek to overturn the law, on the grounds that the law would cause civil rights violations.
Holder announced the option on “Meet the Press.” The newly enacted law at first allowed police officers to ask a person to show ID only because the officer suspected the person might be in the United States illegally. It was since modified, so that an officer may only verify the immigration status of a person who has been stopped or arrested for a different reason. Mere suspicion is no longer sufficient to ask for proof of legal immigration status.
Those who support the law say that Arizona has been overrun by people from Mexico. Opponents of the law say that it could lead to racial profiling.
Holder said on “This Week,” "I think we could potentially get on a slippery slope where people will be picked on because of how they look as opposed to what they have done, and that is, I think, something that we have to try to avoid at all costs." The city councils of Tucson and Flagstaff, Ariz., have said they will challenge the law.
The federal government has not managed to pass an immigration reform bill for many years, and the issue is very controversial.

Who is Elizabeth Hagen?

http://www.allgov.com/Appointments_and_Resignations/ViewNews/Food_Safety_and_Inspection_Service__Who_is_Elisabeth_Hagen100509
Food Safety and Inspection Service: Who is Elisabeth Hagen?
Despite his declaration that the government needed to address the nation’s “troubling trend” with outbreaks of food poisoning, President Barack Obama took almost a year to appoint Elisabeth Hagen as head of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS). Although Obama made the announcement on January 25, her confirmation hearing with the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry has yet to take place. If confirmed for the job, Hagen will be responsible for running an agency with 7,300 inspectors that’s supposed to ensure the safety of meat, poultry, and egg products consumed by Americans. Hagen was not Obama’s first choice for the job. Nor was she his second. In February 2009, the administration approached Mike Doyle, a nationally known microbiologist who directs the Center for Food Safety at the University of Georgia. Doyle was interested in the position of undersecretary of agriculture for food safety, but not at the expense of giving up his financial investment in a patented microbial wash for meat that he had developed. White House officials wanted the divestiture to avoid a potential conflict of interest. With Doyle out of the picture, the administration turned to Caroline Smith DeWaal, director of food safety at the Center for Science in the Public Interest. But DeWaal’s status as a registered lobbyist killed her chances of winning the job, although the Center later stated that she was not really a lobbyist. Finally, Obama turned to Hagen. Hagen, 40, attended college at Saint Joseph’s University in Philadelphia, where she received her Bachelor of Science. She went to medical school at Harvard, graduating in 1996, and completed her specialty medical training at the University of Texas Southwestern and the University of Pennsylvania. She is board certified in infectious diseases. Hagen taught and practiced medicine in both the private and academic sectors, before joining the USDA in 2006 as a senior executive at FSIS. She was responsible for developing and executing the agency’s scientific and public health agendas, and worked to foster coordination with food safety and public health operations at the federal, state, and local level. Hagen was then promoted to USDA’s chief medical officer, advising the department on a wide range of human health issues. Hagen is said to be a bit of an unknown on the subject of food safety, because she hasn’t published any papers, articles or books on the topic. But her nomination was well-received by the meat industry. The American Meat Institute supported Hagen’s selection, as did the National Pork Producers Council. Consumer advocates, on the other hand, had little to say about Hagen, considering her positions on many relevant issues to be something of a mystery.

Food Poisoning Journal: Were warnings ignored?

http://www.foodpoisonjournal.com/2010/05/articles/foodborne-illness-outbreaks/as-lettuce-outbreaks-continue-hus-parents-must-ask-were-warnings-ignored/
As lettuce outbreaks continue, HUS parents must ask, were warnings ignored?Posted on May 9, 2010 by Drew Falkenstein
The recent E. coli O145 outbreak linked to romaine lettuce, which has caused several children to develop hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS), parents of severely injured kids are certainly questioning whether warnings to the leafy greens industry were ignored. To recap, there are 29 confirmed and probable illnesses, and realistically many many others, in the outbreak, as well as multiple cases of HUS, linked to Freshway Foods romaine lettuce. The grower is thought to be Andrew Smith Company; and the lettuce likely came from Yuma, Arizona.
What were the warnings? For starters, here is a table showing 34 outbreaks linked to lettuce or other leafy greens over the course of the last two decades, courtesy of www.barfblog.com:
The warnings also have been stated more explicitly, and on two occasions, directly to the leafy greens industry. On February 5, 2004, the FDA wrote a letter to the lettuce and tomato industries to voice its concern about the frequent outbreaks linked to those products. In the letter, the FDA counted 14 such outbreaks since 1996 that it had investigated. Among other things, the letter stated:
In view of continuing outbreaks associated with fresh lettuce and fresh tomatoes, we strongly encourage firms in your industries to review their current operations in light of the agency’s guidance for minimizing microbial food safety hazards in fresh lettuce and fresh tomatoes, as well as other available information regarding pathogen reduction or elimination on fresh produce. We further encourage these firms to consider modifying their operations accordingly, to ensure that they are taking the appropriate measures to provide a safe product to the consumer. Since the available information concerning some of the recent outbreaks does not definitively identify the point of origin of the contamination, we recommend that firms from the farm level through the distribution level undertake these steps.
On September 30, 2005, a year and a half after the FDA’s 2004 letter to the lettuce industry, the Minnesota Department of Health issued a press release stating that 11 Minnesota residents had been infected by E. coli O157:H7 from contaminated Dole romaine lettuce. Two days later, the FDA issued a nationwide public health alert regarding Dole pre-packaged salads. Further investigation indicated that 22,321 cases of potentially contaminated Dole romaine lettuce had been sent to market from a processing facility in central California. Ultimately, at least 32 people were sickened in the outbreak.
One month after the 2005 Dole lettuce outbreak, the FDA wrote the industry again. The November 4, 2005 letter began as follows: “This letter is intended to make you aware of the Food and Drug Administration's (FDA's) serious concern with the continuing outbreaks of foodborne illness associated with the consumption of fresh and fresh-cut lettuce and other leafy greens.” The letter continued:
FDA is aware of 18 outbreaks of foodborne illness since 1995 caused by Escherichia coli O157:H7 for which fresh or fresh-cut lettuce was implicated as the outbreak vehicle. In one additional case, fresh-cut spinach was implicated. These 19 outbreaks account for approximately 409 reported cases of illness and two deaths. Although tracebacks to growers were not completed in all 19 outbreak investigations, completed traceback investigations of eight of the outbreaks associated with lettuce and spinach, including the most recent lettuce outbreak in Minnesota, were traced back to Salinas, California.
And after all this, the spinach outbreak happened in September 2006, causing 204 confirmed illnesses nationally; 102 hospitalizations, 31 with hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS); and three deaths . . . at least by the CDC’s official count. Among the dead were an elderly Wisconsin resident; a two-year-old Idaho boy named Kyle Algood; 81-year-old Ruby Trautz; 86-year-old June Dunning; and 83-year-old Betty Howard.
The result of all these warnings to the industry? I guess we'll found out in litigation with Freshway Foods and Andrew Smith Company. The result for the families of the unfortunate children who contracted E. coli O145 from Freshway romaine lettuce and developed HUS: a life-time of medical care, including possible kidney transplants, and millions of dollars in medical costs.

Del Monte plans additional share repurchase

http://www.businessweek.com/ap/financialnews/D9FGVANG0.htm
Del Monte plans additional $150M share repurchase
CORAL GABLES, Fla.
Fresh Del Monte Produce Inc. said on Wednesday that its board has approved a new three-year share repurchase program of up to $150 million.
The new program is in addition to the current $150 million buyback program approved July 31, 2009. That program has another $107 million remaining as of Wednesday, the company said.
Shares of the fruit grower, marketer and distributor fell 92 cents, or 4.2 percent, to close at $21 before the announcement. They rose 44 cents, or 2.1 percent, to $21.44 in trading after the market closed.