The list of recently recalled foods seems to be getting longer every day.
I’ve already told you about contaminated produce that included romaine lettuce, veggie trays from Del Monte, and salads sold at McDonald’s.
Well, now it’s time to do a thorough check of your cupboards, because there are potentially sickening snacks hiding beneath the labels of big names like Pepperidge Farm and Kellogg’s.
If it seems to you that a lot more foods are being stripped from the supermarket shelves now than in years gone by, you’re absolutely right! Data from the FDA shows that twice as many products are being recalled as a decade ago.
And just because you’ve been acquainted with a brand name for a while, it doesn’t mean that it’s somehow safer – or that it’s even being manufactured by the company whose logo is on the label!
It also doesn’t mean that you know who’s really behind that household-name food item. Because more and more brands are being gobbled up by companies… many of which are probably totally unfamiliar to you.
Certainly, knowing who to trust when it comes to what you serve your family has never been more difficult.
But instead of waiting to hear about the next dangerous product on the nightly news, there’s something you can do to get a step ahead of this risky recall game.
Truth and consequences
Like smaller fish being swallowed by much bigger fish, nearly all of the seemingly huge assortment of foods you see in today’s supermarkets have, in a sense, been “eaten.”
In fact, a study done a few years back identified that just 10 mega-corporations rule the world’s food supply – some of the “biggest fish” include Coca-Cola, Mondelez International, Mars (yep, the candy company), and PepsiCo.
Put them all together, and they generate returns of over a billion dollars a day!
And shockingly, some of the most “All-American” brand names – things that you’ve enjoyed for many years — are now being manufactured by foreign interests.
If a jar of Ovaltine brings back fond memories, know that it’s now coming from Associated British Foods PLC, along with Mazola corn oil, Karo corn syrup, and Fleischmann’s yeast.
Or if you always look for Skippy peanut butter and Hellmann’s mayonnaise, you might not have realized that both of those are owned by a British-Dutch conglomerate called Unilever.
Seriously, keeping track of this is like playing a game of whack-a-mole!
While, of course, that doesn’t mean everything made in the USA is perfectly safe to eat (even if it’s organic), having just a few mega-corporations in control of so much food is an invitation for disaster. Once something goes wrong, these brands are so closely connected that things can start falling like a row of dominos.
When Aunt Jemima frozen waffles, pancakes, and French toast were recalled last year because they were contaminated with Listeria, it was Pinnacle Foods (which also owns Mrs. Paul’s, Swanson TV dinners, Armour canned meats, and Birds Eye) that took the heat.
Now, we’re hearing about possible Salmonella in certain Ritz crackers (from Mondelez), Hungry Man Frozen Dinners (from Pinnacle), and Goldfish (from Pepperidge Farm, which is owned by one of the more familiar names, Campbell’s). That was due to contamination of dry whey powder, an ingredient made by yet another large food company, Associated Milk Producers.
And at the end of last month, Kellogg’s Honey Smacks cereal — also discovered to be contaminated with Salmonella and linked to 100 cases of illness across the country – was still being found in supermarkets weeks after being voluntarily recalled.
That cereal, however, turns out to not even be manufactured by Kellogg’s (which is on that Big 10 list)… but by a “third-party” company! If you want to buy a cheaper cereal from an unknown source, you certainly can do so. But the reason you pay more for the Kellogg’s name is that it appears to be safer and more reliable.
If there ever were a case of “being too big for your britches,” it certainly would be the current system of food production.
The notion of putting your trust in a brand just because you’ve used it for decades, perhaps even remembering it from your childhood, is long gone.
In a statement to the press over the Ritz and Goldfish recalls, FDA head Scott Gottlieb said that there’s “no evidence” that anyone got sick, but the actions were taken just out of an “abundance of caution.”
But these companies would never willingly allow their precious brand names to be linked to a recall unless there were a darn good risk to the public. After all, the abundance of money lost over a scandal like this is no small matter.
But as I mentioned, there is a way to stay on top of all this if you know where to look.
The feds have a website that consolidates recalls from the FDA and USDA (which would be anything that contains meat) in one place, located at foodsafety.gov/recalls. Click on the box that says “see recent recalls” to find out what the latest danger may be.
Also remember that processed foods such as TV dinners, toaster waffles, and frozen pancakes may be convenient, but they also can come with a very high price tag – one you may end up paying your doctor, and not the grocer!
The bottom line is that no food is exempt from contamination with Salmonella, Listeria, E. coli, or a long list of other pathogens. And that’s not to mention the toxic chemicals used in the production and packaging of non-organic processed foods that the FDA considers perfectly OK!
If you want the safest and most natural foods available, as HSI panel member Dr. Mark Stengler says, you’ll have to grow your own, with the next best option being shopping at a local farmers market or directly from a farmer.
“From Ritz crackers to McDonald’s salads, food recalls – and safety questions – are on the rise” Amelia Lucas, July 29, 2018, CNBC, cnbc.com
