February 20, 2008
Filthy food?
Do you ever wonder just how “clean” your food is? The answer, as illustrated in the above YouTube video, is “probably not as clean as you think.” I hate to tell you folks this, but all produce carries the same risk as those lemons. Every bite of food you’ve ever put in your mouth, with the possible exception of your mother’s milk, comes with a certain exposure to risk. Best-selling novels and hit movies have taught you a few things about that in recent years. Here’s my contribution.
I’ve worked in the pest control industry for almost three decades. Education is an on-going process in regulated industries. Between in-house training, industry seminars, correspondence courses and college classes, I can’t even begin to tell you how many hours of study I’ve completed over the years. Suffice it to say that I have always met or exceeded the continuing-education requirements needed to stay certified and licensed. I wrote the in-house pest control training manual for a national firm and was their primary instructor for several years in a past life. This is by way of explaining that I’ve had a lot of exposure to our industy’s view of sanitation and regulations that impact food safety. The information is out there and available to you, but might not be something that you’ve ever researched.
The bottom line is this: The FDA defines tolerance levels of impurities or adulterants that are “allowable” in our foods. Other state, federal and local agencies also provide regulatory oversight. None of them guarantees that your food is contaminant-free. Their job is to keep contaminants below certain levels. The most common contaminants include insect and rodent droppings, rodent urine, insect body parts, pesticides and just plain dirt. Human fecal matter shouldn’t be present, but here’s a reality check: field workers are paid by production weight. Many of them are not going to walk across several acres of produce when nature calls, nor to wash their hands after they’ve answered that call. If no one is watching they may choose to take care of business between the rows of lettuce and get back to meeting their quotas. The exposure doesn’t stop there. Restaurant and food production facilities have certain standards - washing hands, wearing gloves, sometimes wearing masks and coveralls - but enforcement is lax in many establishments. Regulatory officials and production supervisors can’t monitor your food each step of the way. The best they can hope for is to sample a certain percentage of product as it makes its way from the field to your mouth.
The things I learned about sanitation, food handling establishments and regulatory oversight were pretty hard to stomach during my first few years in the industry. Some of what I witnessed first hand was much more shocking . My clients included restaurants, fast-food chains and food production plants. Some of the best restaurants had dead rats under the stoves, droppings all over the food storage shelves and floor drains crawling with maggots. A company that produced packaged sandwiches for lunch wagons had cockroaches skittering hither and yon on “sanitized” production-line tables the first time I visited. A chef in a fine restaurant smashed open a locked bait station in a service corridor, removed the rodenticide and put it in a saucer on a shelf above his stove. The technician who serviced a commercial route before me had routinely sprayed the open rafters of a food storage warehouse with chlordane to control spiders. That was illegal and he “knew better,” but no one was aware of his unorthodox treatments until I asked because I wasn’t having his success with the spider problem. Like the chefs and plant managers, the only thing he saw wrong about the whole scenario was that he got caught.
I also serviced some remarkably clean facilities over the years. Every surface in a potato chip factory was covered with fine potato dust at the end of each workday, but was spotless before the morning shift started. They processed tons of raw potatoes into packaged product, but the only pest problem I ever found there was a cockroach infestation in the employee break room, probably originating from a single gravid female hitching a ride in a lunch box. An airline catering business isolated and hand inspected each food and packaging shipment before moving it into a sparkling-clean production area. A bottling plant used a high-powered steam wash each night for line equipment, floors and walls. These businesses were no more rigidly regulated than the ones I mentioned above. They just cared more.
I quit eating fast food and certain other types of cuisine shortly after I got into pest control, convinced on my own anecdotal evidence that they were purveyors of filth. A little more experience taught me that sloppy practices can occur at every level of the food-handling process and in every type of establishment. So can diligent adherence to sanitation standards and safe practices. In the end I learned that most of the companies and individuals who handle your food want it to be clean and safe when you get it. Most of them succeed. Even the best of those are giving you a miniscule dosage of cockroach toe or rodent whisker in a small percentage of your food, but it won’t kill you. The best advice I can leave you with? Caveat emptor!
Mahalo and a hat tip to An American housewife whose post inspired me. She’s got some yummy recipes on her blog, including one for Coconut Sour Cream Cake that I definitely need to try soon. Go check her out!
Technorati Tags: food, food contamination, food handling, food handling regulations, pest control
Posted by skeet @ 2:48 pm • Food and beverage
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February 20th, 2008 at 6:38 pm, Flo Says:
Skeet, this is what I do. I’m a chemist/microbiologist in a lab that tests food and water. The truth is I’m torn over this issue. I work all day with e. coli, salmonella, listeria, and I hardly ever get sick. I will NEVER use antibacterial soap. I believe that exposure to low levels of germs actually keeps us healthy. Our bodies were made to deal with this stuff and trying to make our food supply too clean is actually detrimental to our overall health. Okay, I’ll stop there. I could carry on for days on this subject
February 20th, 2008 at 10:16 pm, skeet Says:
Ah, so that’s what you do, Flo! I’m with you on the stand against antibacterial soap. I suspect the younger genration who are overexposed to it may pay a big price down the road. I’ve also moved well beyond the ick factor to calm aceptance that we ingest things we don’t want to think about but that won’t harm us.
I could go on for days, too. We really ought to make a coffee date so we can share all of the fascinating stuff in our heads, lol!
February 21st, 2008 at 2:03 am, Venomous Kate Says:
You mean the alcohol in my lemon-garnished cocktail doesn’t kill all those germs?
February 21st, 2008 at 5:23 am, HoundsGood Says:
Did you ever hear about the student who did her thesis to test the “Five Second Rule?” I think she decided after that to not eat things that fell on the floor. Especially opened oreos that fall cream side down
February 21st, 2008 at 9:39 am, Whim Says:
None of what you’ve said surprises me. I learned about the amount of “impurities” the FDA allows in our food years ago. It’s disgusting really.
February 23rd, 2008 at 12:04 pm, Chris Says:
Skeet, it really makes you wonder now doesn’t it? The FDA is no knight in shining armour it seems. The anti-biotic issue is something that Tricia and I have been preaching for years, but it tends to fall on deaf ears! Great post!
Chris
February 23rd, 2008 at 2:14 pm, skeet Says:
Kate, you be the guinea pig. Keep drinking those lemon-garnished cocktails and give us a report on your health from time to time, okay? Someone has to do it …
February 23rd, 2008 at 2:16 pm, skeet Says:
Hee! I’m not a big proponent of the 5-second rule, Houndsgood! I don’t really worry about filth in food, but I don’t look for opporunities to consume dust bunnies and dog hair, either!
February 23rd, 2008 at 2:17 pm, skeet Says:
It can be pretty disgusting what gets into our food, Whim, but we’d starve if we allowed oursleves to overthink it, don’t you think?
February 23rd, 2008 at 2:21 pm, skeet Says:
Chris, parents are so frightened that their kids will “pick up something” harmful that they really overuse antibacterial products. I’m wondering if the ones who are young now will develop normal, natural immunities. It will probably take a full generation before we now the true impact the constant assault to their developing immune systems. Scary!