Food Fraud
Arsenic
RiceMay 28, 2017
The
stories below didn't mention the sources of the bad olive oil (
Tainted Olive Oil)
or the bad honey (
That's
Not Honey, Honey).
The worst “olive oil” (and some of the best) came
from
Italy. The worst “honey” was coming from Chinese
suppliers.
This third edition of
Food Fraud is about
rice from the south-central United States.
Rice
grown in the United States contains an average of 1.4 to 5 times more
arsenic than rice from Europe, India and Bangladesh, according to a
2004 international rice survey of world grains reported in the journal
of
Environmental
Science and Technology.
What is
Arsenic? Arsenic compounds are white or colorless
powders
with no smell or taste. You usually cannot tell if arsenic is present
in your food, water, or air.
Arsenic is classified
by the
International
Agency for Research on Cancer as a group 1 carcinogen
-- one of the most potent cancer inducers. Arsenic has two chemical
forms, inorganic
(combined with oxygen, chlorine, or sulphur) and organic
(combined with carbon, less toxic),
and is naturally part of the minerals in the earth’s crust.
Regular
exposure to small amounts of arsenic can increase the risk of bladder,
lung, and skin cancer, as well as heart disease and type 2 diabetes.
The United States has used more arsenic than any other country, 1.6
million
tons since 1910. Arsenic was used primarily as a pesticide, mostly
after 1960, until it was banned in 1993. Arsenic was used in cotton
farming as a pesticide to control boll weevils and as a defoliant to
remove leaves before harvest. Today arsenic is used mostly as a wood
preservative. |
Rice
crops failed to grow in former cotton fields due to an arsenic-induced
disease known as
straighthead
(
Oryza sativa L.).
Straighthead-resistant rice varieties were bred (and field re-flooding
techniques developed) enabling rice to withstand the legacy arsenic and
appear healthy (
Nature).
Most rice consumed in the U.S. is domestically grown, half of it is
exported, and more than half of U.S. rice is produced in Arkansas.
While
there are
no
arsenic-food safety standards in the U.S., the
federal limit of arsenic in water is 10 ppb (parts per billion). In New
Jersey, the arsenic limit is 5 ppb in water.
Consumer
Reports
studied arsenic in rice in 2012 and 2014 and found the
highest levels of arsenic in rice from Arkansas, Louisiana, and Texas (
Food
Safety News). Here is a sample of the
Consumer
Reports chart:
General
Mills Rice Chex gluten free Gerber Goya enriched
medium grain Kellogg's Rice
Krispies Target - Market Pantry enriched long grain white Uncle
Ben's enriched long grain Walmart - Great
Value brown Walmart -
Great Value parboiled Whole Foods - 365 Everyday long grain
brown | 240-344 ppb 232-264 ppb 196-297
ppb 168-196 ppb 184-254 ppb (AR. LA, TX) 220-246
ppb 212-344 ppb (U.S.) 138-239 ppb (U.S.) 210-282
ppb |
I
read about the Consumer Reports survey back then, got disgusted, and
read the bag of rice in my kitchen: Roberts A-1 Rice from Riceland
Foods, Stuttgart, Arkansas. Roberts A-1 Rice was never listed in the
Consumer Reports survey, but coming from Arkansas was enough to make me
switch brands to one that specifically says, “
California Grown.”
Music Association: Coldplay -
Scientist
Movie Association: Arsenic and Old LaceFood FraudTainted
OliveMay 26, 2017
If
you mouth the words
Olive Juice
to someone, it looks like you are saying
I Love You
but you aren't.
Real olive oil is also easily faked,
despite the words:
100% Extra
Virgin Olive Oil.
Oils labeled as
Extra Virgin Olive Oil
(EVOO) were found to be
mostly
soybean oil in an April 2007 olive oil bust. Australia tested
all of its olive oil brands in 2012 and
none
were certified as pure olive oil. And in 2008, Italian police
seized 85 oil farms which were
mixing
chlorophyll to sunflower and canola oils and labeling it as
EVOO.
Olive
oils for 186 brands were tested using chemical and sensory tests
through the Olive Center at the University of California - Davis in a
year-long study reported in
2011
and
2010.
About 70% of the olive oils failed to meet the proper ratio of
diacylglycerols. International Olive Council (IOC) sensory tests were
failed by 73% of the olive oil brands.
The
UC-Davis tests concluded that olive oils had been hydrolyzed, oxidized,
fermented, and adulterated with cheaper oils.
Olive
oil brands passing the tests were:
Corto Olive
Ottavio
Omaggio
Bariani
Olive Oil
Lucini
Kirkland Organic
Lucero
Olea
Estates
McEvoy Ranch Organic
Cobram Estate
California
Olive Ranch
Brands
failing the tests were: Pompeian, Bertolli, Colavita, Star, Sasso,
Antica Badia, Primadonna, Carapelli, Mazola, Felippo Berio, Safeway,
Whole Foods, Carapelli, Coricelli, & Mezzetta.
The
internet
and TV suggest testing olive oil is as easy as sticking the bottle in a
refrigerator to see if it congeals. The UC-Davis Olive Center finds the
refrigerator
method for testing olive oil to be less than foolproof.
Non-olive oils will not coagulate in the cold but some olive oil
varieties will not coagulate either. And the refrigerator test will not
determine rancidity or if the olive oil tastes good.
Olives
and olive oil are “
excellent
sources of oleic acid, an omega-9 monounsaturated fatty acid”
and “
have many
unique phenolic and aromatic compounds, including oleuroprein and
flavonoids.”*
Music Associations: Soft Cell -
Tainted Love & Madonna - Like A Virgin* Michael Murray,
The Encyclopedia of Healing Foods,
p 435.
Food Fraud
That's
Not Honey, Honey!May 18,
2017
I can eat anything. Spicy
food. Old shoe... anything. I'm part goat. Over time I have become more
selective about food.
Honey
is a super-food. It has antioxidants – phenolic
compounds.*
It can heal wounds.* It is energy-enhancing.* And some of the honey at
the store is not honey.
Honey is being adulterated
with cheaper
(and very not-super) ingredients like
high fructose corn syrup
(HFCS),
corn syrup, sugar, molasses, illegal antibiotics, and other substances.
The FDA has issued several alerts. The
latest
FDA alert was issued September 20, 2016:
“
The
presence of cane or corn sweetener in the adulteration of honey can be
selectively detected by using the internal standard stable carbon
radioisotope ratio method. Reference for the appropriate analytical
technique is published in the Official Methods of Analysis of AOAC
International, AOAC Official Method 991.41, C-4 Plant Sugars in Honey.”
There
you go, that's how you'll know if you have adulterated honey.
Here
is a
2012
infographic describing ways
anyone
can test their own honey:
“
Is It from Bees or Is It from a
Factory? (Click the image for a
larger size. Here is the original
Russian
version.)
How to Distinguish Natural HoneyPure honey•
honey aroma (exception: honey with rose tea)
•
causes mild burning sensation in the throat
•
does not separate into layers
•
has natural impurities (pollen, bee bread, microparticles of
wax, propolis)
•
has a soft texture (thin, filament-like trickle)
•
quite thick, trickles in a thin stream
•
no foam
Fake
honey•
sour smell or no smell
•
separates into layers
•
no impurities
•
has rough texture (forms clumps)
•
runny (drips, immediately spreads along the surface)
•
has foam
Home laboratoryIn
order to boost profits, some producers dilute honey with sugar syrup
and molasses. To increase thickness they add flour, chalk, sand, and
even sawdust.
•
Hold a lighted match to the honey. If it is natural honey it
will melt and not begin to hiss straight away.
•
Mix honey in water. Natural honey will not dissolve. If you
add
2-3 drops of iodine to the solution it will not turn blue.
•
Put some honey on a piece of paper. If a damp patch spreads
around it then it is diluted.
•
Dip a piece of stale bread into the honey. After 8-10 minutes
it should still be firm and not soften.
•
Mix some water into the honey and add2-3 drops of vinegar
essence. If the solution becomes foamy, it is adulterated honey.
•
Heat a stainless steel piece of wire and insert it into the
honey. A good product will stick to the metal and not flow back into
the jar.”
Most store honey is not
what is produced by bees, reported
Food
Safety News in 2011. “
The
FDA says any product that’s been ultra-filtered and no longer
contains pollen isn’t honey. However, the FDA isn’t
checking honey sold here to see if it contains pollen. Ultra filtering
is a high-tech procedure where honey is heated, sometimes watered down
and then forced at high pressure through extremely small filters to
remove pollen, which is the only foolproof sign identifying the source
of the honey. It is a spin-off of a technique refined by the Chinese,
who have illegally dumped tons of their honey – some
containing
illegal antibiotics – on the U.S. market for years.”
Music Association: The Beatles -
A Taste of HoneyTwin Cities Calendar:
Get more bee information at the
Native
Plant Sale on Saturday, June 3, 2017 or at the
Pollinator
Party on Thursday, July 27, 2017 or at the
Minnesota
State Fair (August 24 - September 4, 2017).
*
Michael Murray,
The
Encyclopedia of Healing Foods, p 648-655.
Traveling Disease
OutbreakMay 9, 2017
Minnesota
has the
measles.
There
have been
48
cases of rubeola in Minnesota this year. To put that in
perspective, from
1997-2016
the state had 56 cases.
The outbreak can be
attributed to
unvaccinated
travel (out of the country or into the country).
Music Association:
Swing Out Sister - BreakoutFree
Comic Book DayMay 6, 2017
Today
is
Free Comic Book Day.
People can go to a
participating
comic book retailer
today, and they will be handed a bag with promotional comic books.
Free. No purchase necessary. Some of the books are a set of a few pages
of several of their regular comic books put together. Some of the books
are full comic books. Often comic book retailers will include special
sales on this day. All of this is to promote reading and comic books.
As
I've been talking recently about climate change, here are some links to
free (online, electronic) climate change-related comic books:
Music Associations: Remy Zero -
Save Me & Stereophonics - SupermanTwin
Cities Calendar - May 6, 2017QuotationsZen
and the Art of Motorcycle MaintenanceApril
25, 2017
Minneapolis-born Robert Pirsig,
author of
Zen and the
Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, died yesterday. He was 88.
Zen was rejected by
121 publishing houses before it was published in 1974. Here are some of
my favorite quotes from the book:
The
division of the world into parts and the building of this structure, is
something everybody does. All the time we are aware of millions of
things around us... these changing shapes, these burning hills, the
sound of the engine, the feel of the throttle, each rock and weed and
fence post and piece of debris beside the road... aware of these things
but not really conscious of them unless there is something unusual or
unless they reflect something we are predisposed to see. We could not
possibly be conscious of these things and remember all of them because
our mind would be so full of useless details we would be unable to
think. From all this awareness we must select, and what we select and
call consciousness is never the same as the awareness because the
process of selection mutates it. We take a handful of sand from the
endless landscape of awareness around us and call that handful of sand
the world.”
“I'm
no more comfortable than they are in this heat but there's no point in
dwelling on it. All day while I've been thinking and talking about
Phaedrus they must have been thinking about how bad all this is. That's
what's really wearing them down. The thought.”
“You
are never dedicated to something you have complete confidence in. No
one is fanatically shouting that the sun is going to rise tomorrow.
They know it's going to rise tomorrow. When people are fanatically
dedicated to political or religious faiths or any other kinds of
dogmas or goals, it's always because these dogmas or goals are in
doubt.”
“The
place to improve the world is first in one's own heart and head and
hands, and then work outward from there.”
“You
want to know how to paint a perfect painting? It's easy. Make yourself
perfect and then just paint naturally. That's the way all the experts
do it. The making of a painting or the fixing of a motorcycle isn't
separate from the rest of your existence.”
[When
asked if motorcycle maintenance is difficult:] “Not if you
have the
right attitudes. It's having the right attitudes that's hard.
Music Association: The Beatles -
The Long and Winding RoadClimate
Change Solutions