We seem to be a well-traveled web bunch here. I thought it might be worthwhile to post and discuss news articles related to food recalls and their lifecycles here.

Anyone read any scary food articles lately?

Of course, I'll go first:

http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/05/18/me...l.ap/index.html

It seems like we hear about this on a weekly basis. Is it just me?

Figures, just as I set out on a ground beef kick...

I'm pretty happy I don't eat foods with ingredients much. Although there has been lots of contamination of vegetables too, so I shouldn't be too smug.

http://globalnation.inquirer.net/ce...n-contamination

I found this article to be interesting on many levels. First, how little we have heard about this CDC study, and how the peculiar logic of the author ties this into the obesity epidemic in the US. I'm beginning to think that thinkers outside of the US have a better grasp of our own culture than we do sometimes.

Interesting that if you do a sunscreen search on google news you get this story along with other stories advocating sunscreen use. Fat and sun alike are fodder for phobias.

Edit: Unrelated, but made me think of Pinks Floyd's "Fat Old Sun."

Good one!

This one way down at the bottom of your linked page is something... I like how it manages to segue from softdrinks and type 2 diabetes to deadly rat urine, and manages to stay in the purview of this thread's theme.


Deadly’ canned soda

In the past, we have alluded to the extra high sugar contents of soft drinks which, together with other high-carbo foods, contribute to the development of type 2 diabetes. All types of soft drinks, including the diet or light version, have also been implicated in a “grand slam” condition so called Metabolic Syndrome (combination of hypertension, diabetes, heart disease/stroke), a triple slap of major illnesses.

This topic today relates to an incident where a woman, on a Sunday boating trip, drank a can of soft drink from a boat refrigerator. She fell ill and was taken to the hospital the following day. She died two days later. The autopsy revealed she died of Leptospirosis, a deadly infection caused by dried rat urine, which contains highly toxic substances. Obviously, the can from which the victim drank, without washing, was contaminated with rat urine. These canned beverages (and all canned, bottled and packaged foods) are typically stored in warehouses prior to distribution to stores, where rodents may be present in either places.

For canned soft drinks, its best to clean the top before opening, to use a straw or to drink from a glass. Obviously, general precautions must be taken for anything we ingest.

Yes - because rat urine is the worst thing to fear with soda.

Although this proves my mother is not insane. When we got home from the grocery store, she would run a sinkful of warm, soapy water with a teeny bit of bleach in it, and she'd wash every can of soda before she'd put it away. Ahhh the laughs we'd have at her expense. Apparently she was saving us from rat urine poisoning. Now I owe her a phone call, much like I did after the news articles came out about the woman who was killed by lightning sitting on the toilet and the woman who was in an auto accident while wearing underwear with holes in them....