Category: Food

FDA may allow unlabled use of Aspartame in Milk

The International Dairy Foods Association (IDFA) and the National Milk Producers Federation (NMPF) are asking the FDA to allow them to include Aspartame in milk without having to add any labeling indicating that this ingredient has been added.  Worse, it would apply to any artificial sweetener.  Consumers would have no indication that what they’re drinking may not be pure milk, but have artificial ingredients added.  It requires an incredible stretch of the imagination to see how this could be good for consumers, but that is the reality of the food production system that we have created and support in this country.

The government is accepting public comments on this issue through 5/21; follow this link.

For more on this issue, check out this article….it’s long but has a lot of good information in it and is worth reading!

Study finds 84% of all fish have unsafe levels of mercury

fish-2961289136516LOiThis is one of those stories I find almost too scary to be true…yet I don’t see reason to doubt it.  A study by the Biodiversity Research Institute (link) found that 84% of fish have levels of mercury that are unsafe, posing a health risk to humans.  So on the one hand, we’re told to eat more fish, it’s good for you…yeah well except for the mercury part of it. 🙁  Relative to other countries, fish in the US tested better, with a bit more than 40% of samples above the recommend mercury levels.  Most other countries ranked higher, in the 90+% range.  Swordfish and tuna rank as the worst (highest mercury concentrations).

(via CBS News)

Food safety in China

IkeaChina has a well-earned reputation for careless disregard for the safety of their food supply (follow this link for the ‘top 10 food scandals‘, for example).  Now with horsemeat concerns in the European food supply, and most recently Ikea meatballs, Ikea wanted to reassure the Chinese that the meatballs served in China are actually made in China, and are not tied to the horsemeat scandal in Europe.  Well, it kinda backfired, as it seems even the Chinese are losing faith in their food supply…and would rather have potentially horsemeat-laden meatballs from Europe than domestically produced meatballs.  As one person was quoted as saying, “I don’t really care about horse meat. The key point is that if it’s produced in China, it probably has rat meat.”  Hard to argue with that, based on recent history.

Could be worse though…when testing for horse DNA in meat pies produced in Iceland, they found the meat pies actually contained no meat.  Lol.

Then another food surprise in China…in an effort to maximize profits, some vendors are selling walnuts filled with concrete.

In-home hydroponic garden (concept)

nano-garden-1.jpeg.492x0_q85_crop-smartShown here is a pretty slick concept for an in-home hydroponic garden designed by Hyundai.  At this point it’s just a concept, but I’ll admit it has me thinking about designing and building something like this myself.  Hydroponics are nothing new, but what this concept does is make it look good, like something you don’t feel the need to hide away in your basement.

(via Treehugger)

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