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Thursday, October 8, 2009

News

Foods that are like roulette

Posted by Jonathan Bender on Thu, Oct 8, 2009 at 12:15 PM

roulette.100809.jpg

We rank everything else, so why not the riskiest foods?

The Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) has ranked the top 10 foods that carry food-borne illnesses, as reported by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. 


The list focuses on seafood, eggs, dairy and produce -- the four categories of food regulated by the FDA. Meat, monitored by the United States Department of Agriculture, is not included among the riskiest foods. 

CSPI stressed the study was not designed to condemn particular foods items or even make comments about people's diets, but instead is meant as a criticism of the industrialization of agriculture and the current system of oversight:

"A complex, globalized food system, archaic food-safety laws, and the rise of large-scale production and processing have combined to create a perfect storm of unsafe food," the study states.

The list, in order of proposed risk: leafy greens, eggs, tuna, oysters, potatoes, cheese, ice cream, tomatoes, sprouts and berries. Leafy greens lead the pack in terms of outbreaks and related illnesses over the past 20 years with 368 and 11,163, respectively. 

Food associations were quick to criticize the study as alarmist and argue that these foods are safe: 

"Potatoes are inherently healthy and are not an inherently risky food and they should not be on this list at all," said the U.S. Potato Board. "The issue is cross-contamination, not the potato itself."
No, potatoes are not inherently dangerous -- but a lot happens before they enter your mouth. They can be fried, or even worse, served bland. And remember folks, it's not potatoes that are bad, it's potato guns. 

[Image via Flickr: carey tilden]

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With the exception of potatoes, these are all things that are consumed raw in many cases. So having them on the list does seem a little odd to me.

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Posted by DLC on October 8, 2009 at 2:01 PM
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