Backyard gardens and food safety

With gasoline prices soaring and food costs not far behind, the number of Americans planning to grow their own backyard vegetables this year is up sharply. Gardening organizations, seed wholesalers, and local nurseries are all reporting hikes in the number of people buying vegetable seeds and starter plants.

It's a trend that started slowly several years ago, spurred by concerns about food safety, food quality, and global warming, say garden mavens. But how safe is what we grow? Very, especially when you follow some common sense practices.

This week, a look at backyard gardens and food safety.

TTFN, Fred.

Quote of the week: "Between the idea and the reality, between the motion and the act, falls the shadow." - T. S. Eliot (poet, dramatist, and literary critic who received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1948, 1888 - 1965)

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The Chemistry of Fireworks

At some point, most everyone has a chance to be exposed to the awing nature of fireworks. As children, we may only see them on the television while we watch a New Years celebration, snuggled up with our parents. We continue to be exposed through our lifetimes, perhaps under the stars on the Fourth of July. But no matter the age difference, reality seems to escape with each colorful explosion. The pleasure alone lies in the magnificent bursts before our eyes.

This week, we look at the chemistry of fireworks.

TTFN, Fred.

Quote of the week: "In order to learn the most important lessons of life, one must each day surmount a fear." - Ralph Waldo Emerson (American essayist, philosopher, poet, and leader of the Transcendentalist movement in the early 19th century, 1803 - 1882)

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HACCP Principle 3: Establish Critical Limits

In 1972 there was an outbreak of botulism from commercially canned potato soup. This outbreak prompted the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to promulgate regulations for the production of low acid canned foods. These regulations had many of the basic concepts found in HACCP. In this same year, FDA inspectors were trained in HACCP principles and their application, but it took more "accidents at the intersection" and nearly twenty years for HACCP to really take hold.

A critical limit ensures that a biological, chemical or physical hazard is controlled by a CCP. Each CCP should have at least one critical limit. Critical limits must be something that can be monitored by measurement or observation. They must be scientifically and/or regulatory based. Examples include: temperature, time, pH, water activity or available chlorine.

This week, we look at HACCP Principle 3: Establish Critical Limits.

TTFN, Fred.

Quote of the week: "The ultimate choice for a man, in as much as he is given to transcend himself, is to create or destroy, to love or to hate." - Erich Fromm (internationally renowned Jewish-German-American social psychologist, psychoanalyst, and humanistic philosopher, 1900 - 1980)

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Deja Moo? Unpasteurized milk products and tuberculosis

A rare form of tuberculosis caused by illegal, unpasteurized dairy products, including the popular queso fresco cheese, is rising among Hispanic immigrants in Southern California and raising fears about a resurgence of a strain all but eradicated in the US. Cases of the Mycobacterium bovis strain of TB have increased in San Diego county, particularly among children who drink or eat dairy foods made from the milk of infected cattle. The germ can infect anyone who eats contaminated fresh cheeses sold by street vendors, smuggled across the Mexican border or produced by families who try to make a living selling so-called “bathtub cheese” made in home tubs and backyard troughs.

Unlike typical TB, caused by the M. tuberculosis strain, the bovine variety is not easily spread through human-to-human contact. It settles less often in the lungs, making it less likely to be transmitted through breathing and coughing. However, the M. bovis bug is resistant to front-line drug therapy and adults who contract it are more than twice as likely as those with traditional TB to die before treatment is complete.

At one point, TB was referred to as consumption, because it seemed to consume people from within, with a bloody cough, fever, pallor, and long relentless wasting. This week, a look at tuberculosis.

TTFN, Fred.

Quote of the week: "It's not so important who starts the game, but who finishes it." - John Wooden (retired American basketball coach, most notably at UCLA, 1910 - )

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HACCP Principle 2: Identify Critical Control Points

HACCP represents an important food protection tool supported by Standard Operating Procedures, employee training and other prerequisite programs that small independent businesses as well as national companies can implement to achieve active managerial control of hazards associated with foods. Employees must learn which control points are critical in an operation and what the critical limits are at these points, for each preparation step they perform. Establishment management must also follow through by routinely monitoring the food operation to verify that employees are keeping the process under control by complying with the critical limits.

A critical control point is any step in which hazards can be prevented, eliminated or reduced to acceptable levels. CCPs are usually practices/procedures which, when not done correctly, are the leading causes of foodborne illness outbreaks. Examples of critical control points include: cooking, cooling, re-heating, holding.

This week, we look at HACCP Principle 2: Identify Critical Control Points.

TTFN, Fred.

Quote of the week: "We can easily forgive a child who is afraid of the dark. The real tragedy of life is when men are afraid of the light." - Plato (classical Greek philosopher, ~427 BC – ~347 BC)

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One Country's Table Scraps

Going green has never been more in vogue. Whether it's concern over climate change or an affinity for organic, pesticide-free products, many people are eating up the now trendy socio-political movement with a recyclable spoon.

A good way to be green is to avoid food waste, kitchen waste, garbage...call it what you will, it is any form of waste derived from food materials. It typically consists of peelings, scraps, excess or spoiled prepared food, and other discards from domestic or commercial kitchens. And it's a huge problem, as enough food is thrown away to feed the world.

This week, a look at food waste.

TTFN, Fred.

Quote of the week: "Although the world is full of suffering, it is also full of overcoming it." - Helen Keller (American author, activist and lecturer, and the first deaf and blind person to graduate from college, 1880 – 1968)

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HACCP Principle 1: Conduct a Hazard Analysis

A while back (okay, months ago), we looked at a brief overview of HACCP and then more in-depth at the Five Preliminary Tasks that need to be accomplished before you can develop a HACCP Plan.

The National Advisory Committee on Microbiological Criteria for Foods (NACMCF), which developed the seven HACCP principles, was established in 1988 and has as members officials from several federal agencies which include the Food and Drug Administration, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Food Safety Inspection Service, the Agricultural Research Service, the National Marine Fisheries Service, and the U.S. Army. The NACMCF also has national experts from academia, state government, consumer groups, and the food industry.

The purpose of a hazard analysis is to develop a list of hazards which are likely to cause injury or illness if they are not controlled. The next step is to determine if the factors may influence the likely occurrence and severity of the hazard being controlled. Finally, the hazards associated with each step in the flow of food should be listed along with the measures necessary to control the hazard.

This week, we look at HACCP Principle 1: Conduct a Hazard Analysis.

TTFN, Fred.

Quote of the week: "In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act." - George Orwell (pen name of Eric Arthur Blair, English writer and journalist, 1903 – 1950)

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