I recently read an article entitled 'Frankenstein wine' warning over French supergrapes.
Apparently, French wine scientists have developed some vines that are impervious to fungal attack, specifically downy mildew and powdery mildew, and therefore requiring little or no fungicidal chemicals. You'd think that this was a good thing and would be welcomed. But no, some people, who may have a vested interest in turning back innovation, are claiming that the "lab-grown creations" combine genes from around the world and could lead to dumbed-down, low-grade "Frankenstein wine", whatever the hell that means. The implication is that the new varieties are somehow unnatural. As far as I can tell, genetic engineering has not been involved; conventional cross breeding has been used.
Let's just step back from this hysterical attack on scientific improvement in winemaking. As a result of claimed cancer links among grape growers, the French are under intense pressure to reduce the amount of fungicides used. The use of these new varieties would therefore seem to be a good move. However, a winemaker and researcher from western France has claimed that these vines, which are hybrids, would lead to "artificial and unnatural 'Frankenstein wine'." According to the article, he likened the development of the new vines to crossing a monkey with a man - technically feasible but going against nature. That is a completely over-the-top reaction, but I'd be keen to see the resulting animal!
The development and growing of hybrid grape varieties has in fact been going on since the 1950s in the northeast and Pacific Northwest of North America. Those varieties have enabled production of wines in these short season, cooler and more humid areas. They also have greater resistance to disease and therefore require less use of chemicals.
Though rare, natural interspecific hybrids do occur as a result of cross-pollination, the earliest known was discovered in 1740 near a vineyard planted in Vitis vinifera.
Monday, August 20, 2018
Tuesday, August 7, 2018
FDA issues an update statement on Yuma E coli outbreak
Earlier this year, a serious multi-state outbreak of Escherichia coli O157:H7 infection was associated with consumption of Romaine lettuce from Yuma, Arizona.
The US FDA has now issued an update statement, though the investigation is not completed. Tests of canal water close to the lettuce growing farms has tested positive for the outbreak strain of E. coli O157:H7, which is capable of producing Shigatoxin. Infection with this microorganism can result in serious disease - 210 people in 36 states have become ill, with 96 hospitalizations and five deaths.
No single farm has been determined as the source of the outbreak, nor has the distribution chain been implicated so far.
The lettuce growing farms and canal are close to a Concentrated Animal Feeding Operation (CAFO), which can hold in excess of 100,000 head of cattle at any one time. Since cattle can harbour the STEC E. coli involved in the outbreak, there is the possibility that the presence of the bacteria in the canal water originated from the CAFO. Further testing of the CAFO and the animals would be necessary to establish a link.
The means by which the lettuces became contaminated must also be investigated. Was the canal water used directly for irrigation, or were the bacteria somehow transferred from the canal water to the leaves?
The US FDA has now issued an update statement, though the investigation is not completed. Tests of canal water close to the lettuce growing farms has tested positive for the outbreak strain of E. coli O157:H7, which is capable of producing Shigatoxin. Infection with this microorganism can result in serious disease - 210 people in 36 states have become ill, with 96 hospitalizations and five deaths.
No single farm has been determined as the source of the outbreak, nor has the distribution chain been implicated so far.
The lettuce growing farms and canal are close to a Concentrated Animal Feeding Operation (CAFO), which can hold in excess of 100,000 head of cattle at any one time. Since cattle can harbour the STEC E. coli involved in the outbreak, there is the possibility that the presence of the bacteria in the canal water originated from the CAFO. Further testing of the CAFO and the animals would be necessary to establish a link.
The means by which the lettuces became contaminated must also be investigated. Was the canal water used directly for irrigation, or were the bacteria somehow transferred from the canal water to the leaves?
Thursday, August 2, 2018
Safe Food - Product Lifetime of the blog
All products have a lifetime, after which sales drop off. The usual response is either to discontinue the line, or to set the New Product Developers (NPD) to updating the product. Think of ice cream. There will probably always be a market for ice cream, but the flavours of your childhood have been surpassed and the presentation has changed dramatically. You now have the options of ice creams on sticks, with creamy toffee, chocolate or fruit puree centres, coated in chocolate and nuts etc.
Safe Food first appeared in November 2006 while I was working at Hong Kong University. The wide varieties of foods in HK are completely different from those of our adopted country, New Zealand, though the safety issues are similar. I felt the need to write about the hazards associated with foods to help ordinary folk and food manufacturers to understand food safety, with the aim of reducing the incidence of food-mediated illness. I hoped the blog would become a resource for teachers in schools.
I have no idea whether these lofty aims were successful! The blog has only 10 followers 😢 but in the 12 years I have been writing it, there have been nearly 348,000 page views, so I guess that means that some people have found it useful.
Very few people have left comments on the blog, though some have contacted me directly - usually young mothers who have had food scares with their babies and young children.
There are only so many unique food safety incidents to report on. Often contamination and recalls merely reflect the sad fact that manufacturers, distributors and consumers don't learn from earlier incidents. This is one of the reasons that Safe Food has not been published so frequently in the years since I retired from full time teaching and research. Perhaps the blog has become stale and "same old, same old".
It's time for some NPD! I have decided to continue writing the blog, but I want to widen the scope just a bit so that I can comment on some of the food myths that are now so frequently proliferated by minor celebrities, fanatics and those who can best be described as "loonies". There are exciting new developments in foods, such as the plant-based milk and meat substitutes, most recently exemplified by Air New Zealand's offering The Impossible Burger on some of its flights, and I want to discuss these evolutions in food supply.
I may also update the appearance of the blog, so, watch this space and please consider bookmarking, as the option for e-mail following is to be removed by Google in July 2021.
Safe Food first appeared in November 2006 while I was working at Hong Kong University. The wide varieties of foods in HK are completely different from those of our adopted country, New Zealand, though the safety issues are similar. I felt the need to write about the hazards associated with foods to help ordinary folk and food manufacturers to understand food safety, with the aim of reducing the incidence of food-mediated illness. I hoped the blog would become a resource for teachers in schools.
I have no idea whether these lofty aims were successful! The blog has only 10 followers 😢 but in the 12 years I have been writing it, there have been nearly 348,000 page views, so I guess that means that some people have found it useful.
Very few people have left comments on the blog, though some have contacted me directly - usually young mothers who have had food scares with their babies and young children.
There are only so many unique food safety incidents to report on. Often contamination and recalls merely reflect the sad fact that manufacturers, distributors and consumers don't learn from earlier incidents. This is one of the reasons that Safe Food has not been published so frequently in the years since I retired from full time teaching and research. Perhaps the blog has become stale and "same old, same old".
It's time for some NPD! I have decided to continue writing the blog, but I want to widen the scope just a bit so that I can comment on some of the food myths that are now so frequently proliferated by minor celebrities, fanatics and those who can best be described as "loonies". There are exciting new developments in foods, such as the plant-based milk and meat substitutes, most recently exemplified by Air New Zealand's offering The Impossible Burger on some of its flights, and I want to discuss these evolutions in food supply.
I may also update the appearance of the blog, so, watch this space and please consider bookmarking, as the option for e-mail following is to be removed by Google in July 2021.
Wednesday, August 1, 2018
I've been served some pretty awfull coffee in my time ...
Many people on Twitter are reporting that a pregnant woman in Alberta ordered a latte at a McDonald's but was served a cup containing cleaning fluid.
According to a report on CBC News, this was caused by the coffee machine still being connected to two cleaning solution supply lines, rather than the milk reservoir. The cleaning chemical was a mixture of citric acid, phosphoric acid, methyl-trimethyl-3, and 2-butoxyethanol. There is no doubt that ingestion of this material would be harmful.
It's not clear whether the cup contained hot liquid, though if the machine were set to deliver coffee, but connected to a cleaning chemical supply, it's likely that the cup did feel normal, and since it was a takeaway, it would have been fitted with a lid, so gave no indication that it didn't contain latte.
This potentially very dangerous incident gives a lesson: if you are a pilot, a car driver, or the operator of a food processing machine, the principles are pretty much the same - the pre-start checks must always be conducted before any start and done properly.
According to a report on CBC News, this was caused by the coffee machine still being connected to two cleaning solution supply lines, rather than the milk reservoir. The cleaning chemical was a mixture of citric acid, phosphoric acid, methyl-trimethyl-3, and 2-butoxyethanol. There is no doubt that ingestion of this material would be harmful.
It's not clear whether the cup contained hot liquid, though if the machine were set to deliver coffee, but connected to a cleaning chemical supply, it's likely that the cup did feel normal, and since it was a takeaway, it would have been fitted with a lid, so gave no indication that it didn't contain latte.
This potentially very dangerous incident gives a lesson: if you are a pilot, a car driver, or the operator of a food processing machine, the principles are pretty much the same - the pre-start checks must always be conducted before any start and done properly.
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