Viruses the New Condiment

Lip writes to tell us that a new bacteria killing virus has been deemed safe by the FDA as a food additive for ready-to-eat meats. These bacteriophages are designed to kill a common microbe (Listeria monocytogenes bacteria) to which hundreds of deaths every year have been attributed. From the article: "The viruses are grown in a preparation of the very bacteria they kill, and then purified. The FDA had concerns that the virus preparation potentially could contain toxic residues associated with the bacteria. However, testing did not reveal the presence of such residues, which in small quantities likely wouldn't cause health problems anyway, the FDA said."

Comments

as if it were not enough to eat the innocently

[porky_pig_jr]

slauthtered cow, now we're adding innocently slaughtered bacteria to the whole meal.

Wait, let's look at this more carefully

[peterfa]

This is the FDA we're talking about here. The FDA approves a lot of foods and chemicals that are questionable. I may be reactionary in this, but I've got good reason.

First of all, there is hydrogenized oil. In our country we have such a high incindence of heart disease. Hydrogenized oil is a vegatable oil that has been put in a tank, and under high temperatures, had hydrogen bubbled through it. This changes the texture to mimic butter. Think Crisco shortening. This sounds great since it's cheaper and it's vegatable oil, but on the molecular scale, things are different. Vegatable oil is composed of unsaturated fatty acids. These acids are made up of stings of carbons and hydrogens, there is a peice added to the molecule that changes it from a string of carbons and hydrogens, but I forget what it's called (carboxal group?). Unsaturated means that there is a double bond between at least one pair of carbon atoms, and no hydrogen to go with that. Hydrogenizing adds the missing hydrogen, but this causes so much damage to the molecule. The importance of the unsaturated fatty acid is in it's electrical properties. The body can use it like an electromagnet. The force of electricity is quite strong. Hydrogenization damages the molecule and it can no longer be used. The danger lies in the fact that the body is unable to determain a good molecule from a bad one, since hydrogenization doesn't occure in nature. The body just goes along and tries to use it. The name of this molecular change is call transmrogification (sp?), hence "trans fats". Trans fats are known as a metabolic poison... it slows all the processes of the body. The FDA approves of this.

The FDA also approves of food coloring. Food coloring comes from petroleum. It also causes lots of problems for a lot of people. Try removing it from your diet, and and your children's, and see how that goes. The FDA approves of use of petroleum by-products in foods.

Now, this is going to gaurentee my troll -1 modding. There's always the wonder if I'm trolling, or I have a different opinion. As if the above didn't make people wonder in the first place if I'm just trolling. Dairy is not the super food they'd like you to believe. The FDA approved of dairy a long time ago because they found that if you feed rats dairy, they didn't die. In fact, this is how the approve most of their foods. The study they used to approve was performed by these dudes from the dairy industry, which makes it just absolutely doubtful that the study is legitimate. Dairy is said to have lots of calcium and vitamins. However, milk is a poor delivery of calcium. Despite the richness, the body cannot absorb calcium from milk. What's worse is that milk also stops the body from absorbing calcium from other sources. Milk is harsh on the digestive system. It strips the lining of the intesting, causing "leaky-gut syndrom," it causes heart-burn (don't drink any dairy, or consume products with whey, or caisin if you don't believe me, and see how you feel a week later), and a myriad of other problems. If you have health problems, you might be alergic to dairy.. try removing it from your diet, it might be the cause of it. After all these problems, the FDA still manages to advocate dairy consumption...

The point is that the FDA approves of things they really should not approve. When they say to me that this is good, I am not quick to believe them. Things looks really good when they give you the papers, but you wonder what they left out.

Re:Food security is a local issue.

[The Spie]

As someone who spent seven and a half years as a meat and poultry inspector at both the state and federal levels, I have two words for you: Fuck. You.

Re:If you were an inspector

[donscarletti]

No, you should fire that guy, you don't need him. Just give every person a REALLY powerful magnifying glass and tell consumers to look for prions. You get your steak at a resturant, medium rare with a dianne sauce, pull out the ol' glass and look for badly folded proteins. Man, I found one of those little fuckers once, I knew it wanted to get into my head and give me CJD but that wasn't going to happen on my watch damnit. It didn't really love me, it just loved my PrP protein and it only wanted one thing.

These days though I'm more careful. I go up the supply line inspecting the living conditions of every animal I plan to eat. One time an abatoir didn't let me in for my weekly inspection and I resolved never to eat their meat again, that will show the arseholes.