Archive for the ‘Dessert Lover’ Category
Functional foods—defined here as food and beverage products that offer a distinct health advantage beyond basic nutrition by including specific ingredients whose therapeutic benefits provide a primary market positioning—continue as a key food industry driver due to greatly ramped up product development and marketing. Although the economic recession may prohibit some consumers from purchasing higher-priced specialty items, functional foods can actually save consumers money in the short term by pumping up basic food items with ingredients shoppers would otherwise have to get in the form of more expensive nutritional supplements. Additionally, whereas in the past consumers were primarily reactive, trying to treat health problems after they arise, today they are more proactive, focusing on overall “wellness” and turning grocery aisles into hunting grounds for healthful, functional foods to prevent illness and chronic conditions.( http://www.bharatbook.com/Market-Research-Reports/Functional-Foods-and-Beverages-in-the-US-4th-Edition.html )
This fully updated fourth-edition report examines the U.S. market for functional foods and beverages from all angles while providing insight into key international markets, identifying global trends in new product introductions by geographic region and company and exploring developing markets poised for growth. For the U.S. market, it presents retail sales breakouts of food and beverage categories with a strong functional tilt, from yogurt to food/snack bars to cranberry juice; examines market drivers and trends; and maps out the overall competitive situation. Trends in new product introductions are examined in depth, based on data from Datamonitor’s Product Launch Analytics, as are trends in functional ingredients and condition-specific product thrusts. The report also profiles major marketers, including Groupe Danone, Kellogg Co., Kraft Foods, Nestlé SA, PepsiCo and Nature’s Path Organic.
An exclusive feature of Functional Foods and Beverages in the U.S., 4th Edition is custom survey data from February 2009 online poll of 2,600 U.S. adults, which was conducted to measure purchasing patterns, attitudes and demographics specific to functional foods and beverages. Drilling down to the marketer and brand level, the analysis also relies on consumer survey data from Experian Simmons’ Fall 2008 National Consumer Study, and on Information Resources, Inc. InfoScan Review data charting product sales in mass-market channels.
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Buy paul hobbs wine & get the best available at http://www.nickswinecorner.comArticle Source:http://www.articlesbase.com/food-and-beverage-articles/buy-paul-hobbs-wine-get-the-best-from-the-large-variety-1191142.html
With the recession being felt in full force now all across the country, people have begun to take a closer look at their consuming habits and making steps to cut back costs in any way possible. One strategy people have started warming up to again is the brown bag lunch. Spending $10-15 every day of the week on buying lunch at work can add up rather quickly and so we’ve put together a guide that will help reacquaint you with that old childhood lunch box – upgraded for the working class man and woman.
So save some cash and eat well by replacing the business lunch with the business lunchbox.
Tricks of the Trade
Anybody can throw together a cold egg-salad sandwich and some celery, but who wants to sit alone at a desk eating a miserable meal while your coworkers hit up the local Chinese restaurant? The trick to bringing a lunch to work is making a variety of tasty options that won’t leave you bored and resentful after your first week of brown-bagging it. Fortunately for you, there are a wealth of options that will not only make lunch a pleasure, but will also leave your coworkers jealous of your healthy and cost-saving meal.
The first step to take is investing in the right containers and utensils. Replace that plastic bag with a Tupperware container and buy a thermos for soups. Also purchase plastic utensils that you can either pack in your lunch or keep in desk drawer at work. In addition to keeping utensils at work, it’s a good idea to keep some of your favorite condiments at your office such as mustard, salt and pepper, ketchup and hot sauce as none of these require refrigeration.
If your office has a refrigerator, bring your own salad dressings, write your name on the bottle and store it in the fridge. Also, most offices have a microwave available but if they don’t, just check your local corner stores or 7-11’s as most will have one free for use.
Once you’ve got your tools ready, you can finally get to work on bringing your lunch to work!
Buying in Bulk
One of the biggest setbacks people face when attempting to make that step towards making your own lunches involve time-constraints. With family, work and leisure time all competing for your attention, not all of us can set aside 20 minutes every morning to make a tasty lunch. That’s why buying and cooking in bulk has become a popular and highly effective strategy for saving time and money.
When making dinners, cook more than needed so that you will have leftovers to use for the next several days. You would be surprised by how many foods can be tweaked to be made lunchbox friendly – everything from roast beef to grilled salmon make for great meals the next day.
Another option is to make large stews or soups with the intention of freezing the leftovers to be microwaved back at work. A good way to do this is by placing the leftover soup into plastic bags and then freezing them in a cup so that they can stack easier. Then, when you’re at work and feel the hunger, you just remove the plastic bag and place it in a bowl and microwave that sucker for a piping hot fresh soup!
Additionally, soups and stews are some of the only foods that actually get better with age as the ingredients settle together for a more flavorful food.
The Sandwich Solution
The first option you have is to put a twist on the classic sandwich. When deciding on what kind of sandwich to make, avoid recipes that could result in soggy bread or spoiled ingredients. Using a more hearty bread such as a baguette or a roll will keep your sandwich from falling apart and also add to the taste. And if your office lacks a refrigerator, avoid using condiments such as mayonaisse or butter as these ingredients can go bad quickly and spoil a perfectly good sandwich – plus, most of these add unnecessary calories and one of the biggest benefits to making your own lunch relates to health.
So what’s the perfect office sandwich? One great recipe is the classic grilled chicken sandwich. Grilled chicken is great as you can make it for dinner one night and use the leftovers the next day to put on some bread resulting in one very tasty sandwich. Additionally, you can add your own variations to the dish including mozzarella, pesto sauce, tomatoes or lettuce to customize the dish to your liking.
Other satisfying sandwiches include tuna fish (light on the mayo), the classic deli, mozzarella and tomato, hummus and grilled portabella mushroom.
However, don’t feel pressured into conforming to the standard bread-based sandwiches. Wraps and pitas are becoming more common alternatives for those looking to add variety to the standard sandwich.
Tupperware Party
This is the part where the right tools come in to play. Certain foods won’t fit easy into a brown bag or thermos and to avoid getting caught in a soup and sandwich rut, get a hold of some Tupperware containers and watch the world of the business lunchbox open in front of your eyes!
Tupperware makes pastas, salads, rice dishes and other foods all fair game. Most leftovers will easily fit into the containers but some foods hold up better the next day then others.
For instance, salads that have already been mixed with dressing will become soggy and unappetizing by the next day. Additionally, certain cheese-heavy dishes like macaroni-and-cheese or pizza won’t fare so well overnight in a refrigerator.
However, pasta with a light olive oil sauce, feta cheese and fresh tomatoes is an excellent example of a pasta that would be delicious the next day heated up or cold. Other dishes that stand up cold include chicken and salmon, as mentioned earlier, and they can be combined with rice or bread to add variety to the meals.
Bring In, Dine Out
A less obvious but very rewarding reason to bring your lunch in to work is the ability to take it with you anywhere. Just because you brought your own lunch doesn’t mean you can’t step out on a nice day and enjoy it outside or drive to a nearby park with friends or coworkers. Even if you do decide to eat at your desk, use the time you saved by staying in the office to take a walk around the neighborhood or run some personal errands. Remember, it’s not just money that you waste eating out but also valuable time waiting for servers and splitting bills.
So take that final step and join the brown-bag revolution!
Do you have any tips or recipes for good brown-bag lunches? If so, leave your suggestions in the comments section below! Thanks for reading!
Ben Goldman is a writer for Yodle, a business directory and online advertising company. Find a restaurant or more food articles at Yodle Consumer Guide. Business Lunch Box 2.0 Article Source:http://www.articlesbase.com/food-and-beverage-articles/business-lunch-box-20-1188775.html
The latest Australian nutritional promotion states “eat two serves of fruit and five serves of vegetables” a day to get your recommended daily intake of nutrients. But how strict is this? It’s a great guideline, but variety is the spice of life. If you love fruit and hate veggies, don’t worry if you have five serves of fruit and two serves of veggies, it will pretty much do the job. Both are high in similar vitamins.
A great idea is to eat from the rainbow. This means fruit and veggies with a variety of colours. They get their colours from different nutrients and vitamins, so if you eat a variety of colours this will meet most of your nutritional needs. Purple, orange, green, yellow and red fruits and vegetables are higher in certain nutrients than others. By balancing the different colours, you will receive a well balanced amount of nutrients, whether fruit or vegetables.
For example, eggplant and blueberries are great purple foods and offer antioxidants powers. Oranges or carrots are equally nutritious with different, yet similar vitamins. Any kind of green fruits and vegetables are high in fibre and vitamins, whether it is broccoli, cabbage, kale, kiwis or green grapes. Yellow bananas are high in potassium and corn is high in fibre. Red tomatoes or strawberries and pomegranates are high in antioxidants Vitamins C & E.
You can see how eating fruits or vegetables can provide you with essential vitamins and minerals. The important thing is that you eat plenty of these nutritional foods in place of foods that are high in carbohydrates and sugars, when you are on a personal training diet, especially for weight loss.
Since the body metabolizes carbohydrates into sugar for later use, they are stored as fat. This is the energy that the body uses at a later time. Many fruits and vegetables contain what is known as “good” carbohydrates, which are natural sugars. The body uses these as they are consumed, rather than storing them the way it does the “bad” carbohydrates. These are the ones that are responsible for weight gain, heart problems, insulin highs and lows and other health problems.
Natural sugars offer you healthy energy that is consumed easily by the body, because they are quickly absorbed without being stored. When it comes to healthy weight loss, eating the fruits and vegetables of the rainbow offers you many more benefits than other kinds of foods.
If you eat seven servings of fruit and vegetables per day, it is easy to add lean meats, such as chicken, fish, turkey or lean beef, for protein. Of course, you can also add some whole grains or beans to round out your diet and provide fibre.
If you pick your favourite varieties of fruits and vegetables from the different colour groups of the rainbow, you will have the most complete variety of vitamins and minerals that your body needs. This variety is what makes a healthy and complete personal training diet and it is easy and fun to implement, when you use the rainbow as your inspiration.
Scott Hunt has been a Personal Trainer for over a decade and has personally taken over 20,000 Personal Training sessions. While his Gold Coast Studio, Fitness Enhancement has done hundreds of thousands of sessions.
If you are serious about feeling good, exercising, or becoming healthier, try out our Gold Coast Gym – (Gold Coast Fitness Center) Here is a video about the best Gold Coast Gym and what to expect when joining us. Watch some of our fitness training routines on YouTube.Article Source:http://www.articlesbase.com/food-and-beverage-articles/eating-rainbow-foods-while-personal-training-and-exercising-1188470.html
Bread and pizza are two very important foods in the Italian culinary tradition. Here is some advice and a few recipes to cook the best bread at home.
When baking bread you can use a pan covered with tin foil. Even if you do not use a classic pizza oven, you may use a tray, which must be shallow and made of heavy material; iron and copper trays are both very good. To prevent pizzas and calzones from having a soggy bottom and not fully cooked, it is best to put some aluminum paper between the tray and the bottom of the dough: this material enhances the effect of the heat and allows pizzas and calzones to be cooked uniformly.
To make a good bread, you do not always need every single piece of pastry equipment. For example, to test the baking level of the bread, you just have to poke a wooden skewer in the center of the dough: if the dough is well-cooked, it should come out dry. Similarly, to test the baking level of calzones poke a wooden skewer in the center, but keep in mind that it will never come out perfectly dry because the components of the filling (ricotta, tomatoes, mozzarella) maintain a certain amount of moisture even when completely cooked. Do not extend the period of cooking beyond due time, otherwise the crust of the bread becomes too hard.
The temperature of the environment in which the dough is mixed may affect the leavening: if the kitchen is cold, it does not rise enough. A trick to avoid this is to heat the oven to 200° and shut it down after 15-20 minutes of heating, introduce the bowl with the dough and then keep the oven closed.
A very easy and certainly very tasty recipe to cook is white bread. You have to crumble the yeast in a bowl and dissolve it with a little warm milk, then add 50 grams of flour, malt (or honey) and sugar. Now add the remaining flour, salt, milk, and pieces of butter previously softened to room temperature; you need to mix all ingredients very well and then transfer the dough to the work surface, working it for about 10 minutes until it becomes hard, elastic and no longer sticky. Now form a ball and, after having greased it with oil, put it again in the bowl and cover it with a moistened cloth. It has to leaven in a warm place with no open air for about two hours, this will make it double in volume. After this time, work the dough again for a few minutes, give it a cylindrical shape and move it into the buttered tray. Brush the surface with the egg yolk and let it rise again for another hour. Now bake it at 180 degrees for about 35 minutes, then take it out of the mold and continue cooking for another 10 minutes, then serve it after it cools.
For those particularly attentive to their health, we are happy to note that some weeks ago major bread producers representing baking artisans, and the Italian industries association, Industrial Alimentary Products, representing industrial bakers, signed an agreement with the Deputy Minister for Health, Ferruccio Fazia, intended to reduce the salt content in bread in order to combat hypertension.
By Martina Meneghetti with support from lavorazione pane for any information, please visit fiera della panificazione or for more info visit impastatrici pasticceria
Webwriter of Prima Posizione Srl. Article Source:http://www.articlesbase.com/food-and-beverage-articles/advice-and-recipes-for-baking-bread-1184637.html
VarietiesLike the country the food of India is also diverse and different in different parts of India.
Its geography and its climate. The essence of good Indian cooking revolves around the appropriate use of aromatic spices. The skill lies in the subtle blending of a variety of spices to enhance rather than overwhelm the basic flavor of a particular dish. These spices are also used as appetisers and digestives.
Besides spices, the other main ingredients of Indian cooking and Indian meals are milk products like ghee (used as a cooking medium) and curd or dahi. Lentils or dals are also common across the country and regional preferences and availability determine the actual use in a particular area. Vegetables naturally differ across regions and with seasons. The style of cooking vegetables is dependent upon the main dish or cereal with which they are served. Whereas the Sarson ka saag (made with mustard leaves) is a perfect complement for the Makke ki Roti (maize bread) eaten in Punjab, the sambhar (lentil) and rice of Tamil Nadu taste best eaten with deep-fried vegetables.
The Hindu vegetarian tradition is widespread in India, although many Hindus eat meat now. The Muslim tradition is most evident in the cooking of meats. Mughlai food, kababs, rich Kormas (curries) and nargisi koftas (meat-balls), the biryani (a layered rice and meat preparation), rogan josh, and preparations from the clay oven or tandoor like tandoori rotis and tandoori chicken are all important contributions made by the Muslim settlers in India.
Although a number of religions exist in India, the two cultures that have influenced Indian cooking and food habits are the Hindu and the Muslim traditions. Each new wave of settlers brought with them their own culinary practices. However, over time they adopted a lot of specialties and cooking methods from the Indian cuisine and blended the two to perfection. The Portuguese, the Persians and the British made important contributions to the Indian culinary scene. Chai meaning tea is very common in North India, but it is catching in South India as well.
Cooking is an art. I like to cook. http://www.planyourdinner.com Article Source:http://www.articlesbase.com/food-and-beverage-articles/varieties-of-indian-cuisine-1184619.html
The way we want to eat today is characterised by the dateless food and wine combinations, that for generations have characterized the Italian diet, with an emphasis on seasonal fruits, vegetables, fish and grain and, of course, the healthy benefits of olive oil. More costly and richer ingredients such as meats and cheeses are used largely as flavouring rather than the main ingredients.
Italian cuisine is not only highly regional, but is also distinguished by its seasonality and the high priority placed on the use of fresh produce.
In Sydney, we have a wide selection of Italian restaurants ranging from small pizzerias to grander, more upmarket city restaurants. But usually the concentration will be on what was fresh at the market that morning – so the specials’ board is always worth checking out.
Sydney has pockets of wonderful Italian restaurants concentrated around Leichhardt and Haberfield. In these areas you have everything from small bakeries exuding enticing smells and behind swinging plastic curtain strips you encounter emporia dedicated to all things Italian from soap powder to that elusive ingredient for the recipe you have been meaning to try for years.
After exploring the shops, time perhaps to have lunch or coffee and canoli at one of the many Italian restaurants.
Some of Sydney’s finest restaurants and one of Sydney’s institutions, base their menus on Italian regional cuisine mainly of the north. For one of the best Italian restaurants in City, one place springs to mind. With is discrete and enticing entrance on Clarence Street, Machiavelli is just the place to enjoy either a quick or long lunch. The food apart of which more later – there is just so much to look at. The first thing that strikes you is the buzz. Portraits of the movers and shakers of Australia adorn the walls and then there is the centrepiece of the room – the anti-pasto bar – laden with beautifully prepared fresh seasonal produce. Glistening olives, crisp greens and little nuggets of spicy meats along with the lushest avocadoes you have ever seen.
The open to view kitchen is run and overseen with precision. In between watching the kitchen, identifying who is who on the walls, and also if any of them might be sitting at a nearby table, observing the team of waiters as the move efficiently between the tables. Balancing plates of veal, pasta and glorious deserts, darting in their bright white shirts and long black aprons they transport you to an Italian restaurant somewhere but not Sydney.
Now that Machiavelli’s is open for dinner, it the perfect venue for a night out Machiavelli’s great location in downtown Sydney makes it the Italian restaurant of choice for a pre-or post theatre anti-pasto plate or on a cold night a bowl of creamy gnocchi. And they do make a good negroni.
Machiavelli’s Italian restaurant is also available for private functions catering for up to 200 people. The ideal city location for anything from an intimate birthday party to a corporate marketing launch.
Great way to make a healthy recipe, low fact cake. For other variations try the following: Diet Sprite or 7-Up with a white or yellow cake mix. Diet Cherry 7 Up or Diet Cherry Coke with a strawberry cake mix. Take mixture (just the diet soda and cake mix mixed well) and bake in the oven according to the directions on the cake box (do not add any other ingredients!). While the healthy recipe cake is baking, defrost your Fat-Free or Sugar-Free Cool Whip. Mix it with the pudding mix until well blended. Choose a pudding mix flavor that will go well with your cake flavor – chocolate, vanilla, mint chocolate, etc. After blending, refrigerate mixture. Your healthy recipe is almost ready.
Pre-heat oven to temperature listed on cake mix box. Spray cake pan with non-stick spray. I like to use Pam high temp spray. Mix any flavor Cake Mix with any flavor Diet Pop in large bowl. (Do NOT add any other ingredients listed on box.) I like Better Crocker’s Yellow cake mix with Diet Sprite, but I have heard that Chocolate cake with Dr. Pepper is good, too. I say it is worth a try! Pour into cake pan and bake for time listed on cake mix box according to size and type of cake pan you are using. Let cool, then frost with fat free cool whip. You will need to keep the cake in the refrigerator until you are ready to serve to keep the frosting from melting. This healthy recipe is that easy. Plus, it is really good. No one will know that it is low fat.
After cake cools, “frost” with the Cool Whip mixture, which is totally delicious! Don’t worry if, while the cake sits out a bit, that the Cool Whip mixture becomes a little runny – just don’t let it melt too much! Refrigerate cake for repeat use. The next day after you make this, the Cool Whip texture will be different, but safe to eat (as long as it has been refrigerated) and just as yummy (you may even find you like this texture better than the normal Cool Whip texture – I do!)
I love to cook. Cooking is an art. http://www.planyourdinner.com Article Source:http://www.articlesbase.com/food-and-beverage-articles/low-fat-cake-healthy-recipe-1180456.html
Since its inception in the early part of the 20th century, The Food and Drug Administration has been no stranger to controversy. Born during a climate of public uproar over various food scares and scandals, the FDA attempted to reestablish consumer confidence after muckraking journalists such as Upton Sinclair exposed the nightmarish practices of the meat packing industry in his seminal book The Jungle. The turbulence surrounding food industry standards eventually led to President Theodore Roosevelt signing into law the Food and Drug Act in 1906.
However, the controversy didn’t end there as the efficacy of the FDA continues to be hindered by outside agendas, bloated bureaucracy and general incompetence – as evidenced by the recent contamination of peanut products with salmonella. Listed below are some of the reasons not to trust the FDA.
Ties to Big Pharma
While the absurdly long disclaimers that often accompany commercials for drugs and pharmaceuticals might lead the average consumer into believing that the FDA has done their work in vocalizing the potential dangers of these products, that assumption would be misguided. This is because many of these drugs shouldn’t have been manufactured in the first place – let alone marketed with tens of millions of dollars in ads to susceptible seniors and insecure males.
The reason many of these drugs do make it past the FDA and into production is due in part to some controversial ties to the pharmaceutical industry. In 2006, it was revealed that two of the top positions at the FDA were being headed by representatives from Big Pharma – a move that helped pull many of the stops out of the drug approval process.
The FDA’s ties to Big Pharma have further been cited as evidence for why certain dangerous drugs ever saw the light of day. Some of these drugs include Vioxx – a nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory painkiller that was tied to an increased risk of heart attacks and strokes which was pulled from the market in 2004. Other drugs pulled from the market include Cylert, Palladone and Baycol – which were linked to side effects ranging from liver failure to muscle spasms and even death.
“FDA-approved prescription drugs have killed over half a million Americans since 9/11,” said Mike Adams, a consumer health advocate. “And now this Congress wants to give it even more money and power… The problem at the FDA is not a lack of funding. It’s a lack of honesty and ethics.”
Food AND Drugs?
Though we all know the FDA as the watchdog of both food and drugs, some have argued that in today’s hyper-consumerist society, this is too big of a task for one gargantuan agency.
Criticisms over the bloated size of the FDA have started to emerge recently as increases in food and drug scares continue to plague the nation. Just this year, 9 deaths and 677 illnesses have been attributed to a salmonella outbreak in many peanut products, leading to a recall of more than 1,800 products from store shelves.
A major reason for such egregious oversights is due to the inability of the FDA to properly supervise the safety and standards of both the food and drug industries at the same time. That’s why some have already begun the fight to split the agency into two separate entities, as was recently proposed in a bill earlier this year by Rep. Rosa DeLauro from Connecticut.
One problem DeLauro claims this will address is the jurisdictional issues between the FDA and the Department of Agriculture, which slows the process of investigating poisonous food outbreaks.
“This jurisdictional limbo is potentially dangerous because it delays the investigation into an outbreak that began over four months ago and any delays in these critical investigations can sicken more people,” DeLauro said. “The scope of this recent salmonella outbreak is a reminder that reforming and modernizing our food safety laws should be a top priority in the new Congress.”
Bovine Intervention
With the growth of factory farms and the ever-increased pressure to produce bigger, better and meatier animals, once simple family farmers are now turning to cutting edge science and technology to increase their output.
To do this, the FDA has approved the use of controversial products such as bovine growth hormones, antibiotics and even cloning in the quest to perfect our dinner steaks. And while studies into the harmfulness of these products remain largely inconclusive, most European nations have already taken to banning some of the controversial techniques practiced over here in the States.
In fact, the decision to resume imports of US beef to South Korea in the April of 2008 sparked days of riots and protests from citizens and politicians alike.
The FDA has even more recently approved of the use of irradiation on vegetables and meat in an attempt to combat outbreaks such as the E. coli spinach scare of 2006, and though the FDA swears to the technique’s safety, others remain more skeptical.
“It is unbelievable that the FDA’s first action on this issue is to turn to irradiation rather than focus on how to prevent contamination of these crops,” said Wenonah Hauter, executive director of Food & Water Watch. “Instead of beefing up its capacity to inspect food facilities or test food for contamination, all the FDA has to offer consumers is an impractical, ineffective and very expensive gimmick like irradiation.”
Gimmick or not, the move illustrates the FDA’s awareness of the problems facing the proper regulation of food products while also avoiding the need for tighter regulations.
FDA 2.0
So what will the FDA look like in the future? While it’s impossible to tell, it’s clear that as the world continues to globalize and it becomes more and more difficult to keep track of the ingredients that go into our food and drugs, the FDA’s role in keeping us safe from harmful products will become increasingly vital to the health of the nation. Let’s just hope that they care more about the health of the nation than the health of their wallets.
Ben Goldman is a writer for Yodle, a business directory and online advertising company. Find a restaurant or more food articles at Yodle Consumer Guide. Food Safety Failures – Why the FDA Can’t Protect You Article Source:http://www.articlesbase.com/food-and-beverage-articles/food-safety-failures-why-the-fda-cant-protect-you-1179622.html


