Food Safety

The food Americans eat is the safest in the world. In the final analysis, that might not be saying very much. No need to be alarmist: Chances of eating a deadly hamburger, egg or strawberry are small. Unfortunately, the chances weren't small enough for the estimated 9,000 Americans who die each year because of a food-related illness. That's why a tougher, better-coordinated food inspection process is needed in the United States. The Clinton administration has made that a goal.

Agriculture Secretary Clayton K. Yeutter and top foreign agricultural ministers tentatively agreed yesterday to develop an international crisis- management plan to respond to food scares. Yeutter and agricultural ministers from the European Community, Canada, Australia and Japan agreed they needed to devote more attention in the 1990s to consumers' demand for safe food. Fresh in their minds were U.S. controversies last year over a U.S. ban on imports of Chilean grapes and consumer concern about residues of the chemical Alar, which extends the shelf life of apples.

Can a society achieve an environment free of risk? And at what cost? Recent reports that fruits and vegetables have been contaminated by the E. coli O157:H7 bacterium have prompted calls for new food safety regulations. Plenty of existing rules cover food packing and distributing, but consumer advocates have turned to the farmers themselves and questioned whether they safely grow and pick fruits and vegetables. In earlier decades the American public worried that farmers were dousing their produce with too many carcinogenic fungicides and pesticides.

News about the massive Iowa egg recall has turned attention to practices at two industrial-size egg producers, and to the question of how salmonella bacteria were spread around the farms and even into chicken feed. It's a good moment to focus on a risk many of us don't like to think about: the possibility of getting very sick from microbes spread via our own food - in this case, from bacteria that inhabit the reproductive tracts of some perfectly healthy hens. Inside unbroken shells, eggs were once considered safe from pathogens.

Joining a national movement for food safety, restaurant inspectors in Philadelphia have abandoned the "floors, walls, ceilings" focus that experts say catches chipped paint but often misses real public health threats such as undercooked food and chefs' unwashed hands. Instead, the city is phasing in a more scientific, "risk-based" approach that emphasizes food workers' knowledge and behavior - do they know how contamination is spread and how to prevent it? - and calls for more frequent inspections of eateries that pose greater risks.

The incredible, edible egg - or at least those coming from two rodent-infested Iowa egg farms - caused 1,937 traceable illnesses from Salmonella enteritidis last year, which means the contaminated eggs probably sickened nearly 60,000 people nationwide. Thankfully, there's no evidence anyone died from the outbreak - unlike other recent outbreaks linked to peanuts and packaged celery, blamed in at least 14 deaths. But there was also no evidence that one of the farms, Wright County Egg, had ever been inspected by the Food and Drug Administration.

Salmonella, a common and serious food-borne menace, could be cut sharply in chicken and turkey by a breakthrough in food safety, Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman announced yesterday. Glickman said the government has approved a spray that kills the salmonella bacterium in young chickens, thereby keeping it out of the food chain. Up to two million Americans each year suffer from salmonella poisoning, and about 1,000 die, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

IT'S ENOUGH to make you sick. In fact, it may already have. So far, 550 cases of salmonella infection and eight deaths have been tied to products made with peanut butter from one Georgia plant, the Peanut Corp. of America. The stuff was used by about 100 companies in cookies, ice cream, crackers, snack bars and candy. More than 800 products have been pulled from store shelves so far and many people have given up eating peanut butter entirely. The true number of those who have gotten sick is probably much, much higher.

The nation's food-safety problems, from flawed inspections to limited enforcement to management conflicts, are not insurmountable. Even the harshest critics of the current system say that new techniques and new authority could provide greater public safety. Here is a blueprint for change, suggested by inspectors, academics, food-safety activists, and lawmakers: Give inspectors more power. The U.S. Department of Agriculture lacks sufficient authority to close plants that exceed limits for bacterial contamination, to issue mandatory recalls, or to impose civil fines.

Sometimes, it's good to be an Average Joe. Enjoy that pretzel and beer in the bleachers at Citizens Bank Park tonight and know that it's about as healthy as it's going to get. According to Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture inspections, most of the stadium is in compliance when it comes to food-safety issues. But high-fliers take note: The tony Diamond Club had violations ranging from fruit flies in the bar area to "visible physical evidence of rodent/insect activity," according to a PDA report dated last September.

Food is a science, as well as an art, thus the topic gets attention during this year's Philadelphia Science Festival, starting Friday through April 29. Among the highlights is a rare public appearance by legendary local chef Shola Olunloyo, wh*o will do a chemistry lab-meets-kitchen demo/discussion, "Extraction: Food and Flavor," 7 p.m. Tuesday at World Cafe Live in West Philly ($25). "All Things Fermented: The Science of Beer and Cheese" is the topic for a tasting and discussion, 3:30 p.m. April 28 at Triumph Brewing in Old City ($50, 21-plus)

Like the troubled individuals they often serve, the Good Samaritans doling out free sandwiches to the homeless along Philadelphia's signature boulevard may need a little tough love. That describes Mayor Nutter's smart decision to ban food handouts in city parks, which includes the Benjamin Franklin Parkway. After several years of trying to persuade community and church-based volunteer groups to move indoors willingly with their feedings of hundreds of people, Nutter needed to kick it up a notch.

On Wednesday, the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry will convene its third hearing in the nation's capital on the federal 2012 Farm Bill. Should you care? Born in 1916, the Farm Bill comes up for reauthorization about every five years. The current version expires in September. It's a real behemoth, with tentacles that affect industrial and small-scale farming, land and energy use, agricultural research, and food safety. But overall, the Farm Bill has more to do with food than with farming.

Ninety percent of the corn, canola, soybeans, and sugar beets grown in the United States today have been fiddled with. Genes have been inserted that will help the crops grow better, resist the onslaughts of insects, or not be harmed by slatherings of herbicide intended to kill weeds. These genetically modified organisms, or GMOs, are the way farming can provide for the future of the planet, the industry tells us. Since GMOs are now in much of the food we eat, some people want to see that information on a label.

Proposed Health Department regulations on outdoor food handouts in Philadelphia should be the catalyst for more community and church-based volunteer groups to move indoors with their laudable efforts to aid the homeless. The new rules would require permits and kitchen inspections for any group feeding more than a few people in an outdoor setting, such as at the weekly feedings along the Benjamin Franklin Parkway in Center City. The city's top health official, Deputy Mayor Donald F. Schwarz, insists that his main objective is food safety - and not coming up with just another fee to fatten the city's treasury.

WASHINGTON - Visitors patrolling the aisles of the National Archives' best-attended show in years last week may have felt curiously at home, though the images on display - warnings about toxic candy, putrid tins of Chicago-packed meats, and ketchup bottles blowing their tops - were hardly soothing. This was the Archives' first "scented exhibit," said staffer Miriam Kleiman; subliminal notes of fresh-baked apple pie perfumed the air. The project is called "What's Cooking, Uncle Sam?"

WASHINGTON - Here is how Philadelphia-area members of Congress voted on major issues last week: House 2012 farm, food budget. Voting 217-203, the House passed a bill (HR 2112) to appropriate $17.3 billion in discretionary spending for the Department of Agriculture and related agencies in fiscal 2012. The bill would cut spending by nearly 14 percent below 2011 levels to meet targets in the Republicans' 2012 budget plan. The bill would provide $2.2 billion for the Food and Drug Administration, down $284 million from 2011 levels, and $171 million for the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, down $32 million.

BEIJING - Toxic bean sprouts, filthy cooking oil, drug-tainted pork: The relentless headlines in Chinese media have churned up queasy feelings for months about the dangers lurking in the nation's dinner bowls. The stories are grim reading but they show that China's usually strict censors are allowing the media more latitude to help it monitor a food industry long riddled with problems. The central government has been cautiously encouraging a sudden burst in food safety muckraking.

Spring for Caleb and Patricia Torrice heralds an annual rush of harried baking and packing as they ready nut rolls, apple cakes, and sticky buns for sale at farmers' markets. This year, though, the Chalfont couple - owners of Tabora Farm & Orchard - are preparing for the weekly market circuit with a few more items on their checklists. You might say they're bringing everything and the kitchen sink. A Pennsylvania law that went into effect in January places new restrictions on farmers' market vendors, mandating licenses and inspections, detailed package labeling, and cleaning equipment including, in some cases, portable sinks.

The practice of eating well locally can pay off for the economy as well as for individuals. That's why the Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission sought ways to secure the food system within a 100-mile radius of Philadelphia. The commission put together a team of stakeholders two years ago, bringing together farmers, antihunger advocates, preservationists, and small business owners to articulate the project's core values. And this month, the commission announced grants totaling $480,000 (funded from the William Penn Foundation)