MYSTERIOUS AND UNPRONOUNCEABLE

MYSTERIOUS AND UNPRONOUNCEABLE

(Green Bay Press Gazette, Candice Choi)

(U.S. Food and Drug Administration, Daniel Duffy)

(Kashrut.Com, Ribbi Gavriel, Arlen Mathes-Scharf, Frazer Chronicle)

It’s funny, (not in a ha, ha kind of way) how some industries dance around governmental regulations that have been established to protect consumers from those unscrupulous manufacturers. I’m talking about food manufacturers here that have continued to push the envelope on their ingredients that prolong the shelf life of their products that can add color, or suppleness.

There’s a whole host of additives that can produce all sorts of aesthetics, can enhance the taste, or…..I don’t have a clue…..what it adds. In a typical bottle of salad dressing, xanthan gum, polysorbate 60, propylene glycol, alginate, annatto, sorbic acid and calcium discodium EDTA to protect quality.

Now I’d look these ingredients up, but chances are I wouldn’t understand what they did after the effort, so why try. There is a question that is asked by professionals that at times they can’t answer, “Can I be reasonably sure that what’s not on the label is not in the food.

Man that’s a freaky thought, if the quote, unquote experts can’t rely on the food manufacturers to put all of the ingredients on the label what exactly are we, as consumers, supposed to do? I’m a diabetic and I read labels on the cans, bottles and packages for all sorts of food intake, sugars, sodium, and carbohydrates. I’ve often wondered how honest and accurate the labeling was…..and now I’m finding out that there not always honest and accurate.

The regulations that the Food and Drug Administration, (FDA) imposes is usually done at the behest of the U.S. Congress. There are people that figure that the FDA has two responsibilities, one to the consumer, and offer as much information as is possible to help the consumer make choices. There would seem to be a second responsibility that the FDA has, and that would be to the help to protect trade secrets.

TRADE SECRETS

Trade secrets, I’ve always had a problem with that term, soda pop has ingredient trade secrets, it would seem that beer might have a trade secret or two, and I suppose booze might also. Not listing ingredients because of how something is made, and the ingredients involved, and the amounts would seem to me to be a true concern.

However whenever something is secret, closed, or clandestine, the hair on the back of my neck begins to stand on edge, and I get a feeling of mistrust. In this day and age, are you serious, you’re trying to tell me that there isn’t the technology to analyze, and figure out exactly what is in a can, package, or bottle…..come on, I watch cop shows, they can tell what some dead guy eat before he was shot to death…..20 years ago.

Everything…..and I mean everything that is added to green beans, or a can of corn, a bottle of beer, or a cake mix needs to be listed…..no exceptions. Trade secrets, give me a break, there aren’t any trade secrets, or some magical elixir that’ll help prolong a guy’s head hair…..I know, I’ve lost most of mine…..and it’s just an accident of the aging process.

RECALLS AND COMPLIANCE

If food makers comply with all of the food labeling laws, there won’t be any problems, and there usually won’t be any recalls. Recalls can be scary, but are necessary, mistakes and accidents do happen, and they need to be dealt with in a forthright and judicious manner. All the cards need to be put on the table so that everybody knows the problems.

Believe it or not some products aren’t required to list their ingredients on their labels; it’s a voluntary issue, and baby you can guess how many of these companies choose to omit their products stuff that was inside their products container.

If a product container doesn’t list the serving size, the number of servings in a container, the number of calories per serving, amount of fat, saturated fat, cholesterol, sodium, total carbohydrates, complex carbohydrates, sugars, protein and dietary fiber per serving, and vitamins, minerals, or nutrients is considered misbranded.

In a person’s life, he is routinely exposed to foods that’ll give him food poising, up to and including 1000 different times. With little exception we recover from the effects, diarrhea, fever, the chills, and just feeling like crap. Usually the food sickness that we have isn’t even diagnosed, and within 24 to 36 hours we’re once again on our merry way.

Allergens can be a person’s worst enemy, approximately 2% of adults and 5% of infants and young children suffer from food allergies, roughly 30,000 individuals require emergency room treatment in a year, and about 150 die because of allergic reactions to food…..and there is no cure for allergies.

As with some laws, regulations or restrictions, states vary in how they deal with different issues, it’s called sovereignty, and every state in the United States has it and guards it almost to the death. While people may be dying from some mislabeled food product, the fed and states battle it out over technologies…..something that I’ve never understood.

THE FOOD AND BEVERAGE INDUSTRY

With little exception the food and beverage industry needs to, and must be mandated to, list every ingredient that is used in food products. But now there is a move by the food and beverage industry to again omit some additives that can sound funny, or dangerous, and again their citing recipe infringement in a renewed fight to omit.

It’s the old bug-a-boo, we don’t want to eat stuff that’s not safe, but we want it to last, look good and taste good…..all at the same time. I’m not sure that’s possible, unless we completely disregard what food makers put into their products…..and I don’t want that…..but am not sure which to sacrifice to insure a healthy and safe consumable product.

Decisions, decisions, it’s hard to be a consumer, know who to trust, and what is the fairest prices to pay for eatery products. In the old days, whatever my mother put on the table was safe…..I think, actually I’m sure, most of what she served was home grown, or was processed in state, or regionally. Thank God I’m 70, and I don’t have that long to go to the end, so if I eat something that will have long term effects, I won’t have to worry.

HAVE A NICE DAY!