"Pink slime" may be off the menu for many US school children after the US Department of Agriculture (USDA), which provides a fifth of school meals in the US through its National School Lunch Program, yielded to a petition demanding the withdrawal of the meat product from the school menu.
However, the beef industry, the company that makes the product and campaigners against food contamination have fiercely defended the safety and value of the product, officially called "lean finely textured beef" (LFTB).
So what's going on? What is "pink slime", and is it being unfairly demonised? [MORE]
Ancient Nubians Made Antibiotic Beer
Chemical analysis of the bones of ancient Sudanese Nubians who lived nearly 2000 years ago shows they were ingesting the antibiotic tetracycline on a regular basis, likely from a special brew of beer. The find is the strongest yet that antibiotics were previously discovered by humans before Alexander Fleming discovered penicillin in 1928.
“I’m going to ask Alexander Fleming to hand back his Nobel Prize,” joked chemist Mark Nelson, who works on developing new tetracyclines at Paratek Pharmaceuticals and is lead author of the paper published June in the American Journal of Physical Anthropology.
Read More http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/09/antibiotic-beer/#ixzz0ykbbxjqW
Researchers Try to Explain E. coli in Produce
From Food Safety News | Jul 13, 2010
A new field study by UC Davis scientists has measured the incidence of E. coli O157:H7 in the feces of Northern California wildlife. This study, funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) found E. coli O157:H7 in some wildlife stool samples. However, these samples may not be enough to explain the numerous E. coli O157:H7 outbreaks in leafy greens over the past decade.
This study was designed in response to the massive spinach E. coli O157:H7 outbreak of 2006 in which over 200 people were sickened across the country and three people died.[MORE]
The science behind bread making
The science behind bread making centers
around a complicated chemical process that occurs when flour is mixed
with yeast. Learn more about bread making on Discovery Channel's
"HowStuffWorks" show [HowStuffWorks Show: Bread Making ].
More bread and starch science from the Penn State Food Science laboratory of Dr. Donald Thompson here:
Branched Starch Molecules: Contribution to Ordered Structures in Granular Starch and Dispersed Starch Molecules [PDF Download]
Beware the Myth of Grass-Fed Beef
Cows raised at pasture are not immune to deadly E. coli bacteria.
James E. McWilliams Slate.com
The comparative health benefits of grass-fed beef are well documented. Scores of studies indicate that it's higher in omega 3s and lower in saturated fat. But when it comes to E. coli O157:H7, the advantages of grass-fed beef are not so clear. In fact, exploring the connection between grass-fed beef and these dangerous bacteria offers a disturbing lesson in how culinary wisdom becomes foodie dogma and how foodie dogma can turn into a recipe for disaster [MORE].Unpasteurized Milk: A Continued Public Health Threat
Although milk and dairy products are important components of a healthy
diet, if consumed unpasteurized, they also can present a health hazard
due to possible contamination with pathogenic bacteria. These bacteria
can originate even from clinically healthy animals from which milk is
derived or from environmental contamination occurring during collection
and storage of milk.
Pasteurization is the most effective method of enhancing the microbiological safety of milk. The consumption of milk that is not pasteurized increases the risk of contracting disease from a foodstuff that is otherwise very nutritious and healthy. Despite concerns to the contrary, pasteurization does not change the nutritional value of milk. Understanding the science behind this controversial and highly debated topic will provide public health care workers the information needed to discern fact from fiction and will provide a tool to enhance communication with clients in an effort to reduce the incidence of infections associated with the consumption of unpasteurized milk and dairy products.[MORE]
Foodborne disease outbreaks attributed to unpasteurized milk - 1993 -2006
(click image to magnify)
