Eat To Live: Want to Reduce Food Safety?

By JULIA WATSON

And in the food-safety category, the food Oscar goes to Supermarket Guru Phil Lempert. Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Mich., and 226 other representatives from both parties get big boos.

Rogers and company are looking to reduce our food-safety protection.

U.S. food labeling is admired by much of the rest of the world. Yet Rogers is looking to dismantle many of its powers to protect consumers from dangers that could lurk behind the packaging of what we eat. And you can thank Phil Lempert’s Web site for pointing this out.

The end effect of the bill Rogers proposes will be to weaken the right of individual states to establish their own food-safety standards. He is recommending the elimination of nearly 200 critical food-safety and public-health protections throughout the land.

The bill, H.R. 4167, is classified thus by the Library of Congress: To amend the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act to provide for uniform food safety warning notification requirements, and for other purposes.

Why, you ask, would a representative representing, you suppose, your best interests, want to do such a thing? There are regulations he would like to see removed that warn consumers, for example, of toxic chemicals in foods that could cause birth defects, cancer and the triggering of certain allergic reactions, the nub of California’s 20-year-old Proposition 65.

The explanation is that uniformity of legislation would prevent confusion among consumers over disparate labeling in diverse states and relieve the burden upon food producers to provide them.

These different state standards hamper the flow of interstate commerce, said Rep. Phil Gingrey, R-Ga. They also lead to increased costs to manufacturers and distributors that are then, of course, passed on to consumers.

Last Wednesday a bipartisan group of 37 state attorneys general, including California’s Bill Lockyer, sent a letter to Congress warning that the measure could undermine state’s rights and consumer protections.

Important consumer warnings about mercury in fish, arsenic in drinking water and lead in cans are just a few examples of state food labeling requirements that would be eviscerated by this bill, the letter warned.

If passed, the bill would prevent state legislation from backing the ability of food-safety officials locally to enforce basic safety and labeling standards regarding food-borne disease.

Should you be anxious to avoid genetically engineered or irradiated foods, if this bill goes through, there will be no way you will know from the label what your food has been subjected to.

Moreover, food manufacturers would no longer need to comply with most state or local food-safety protections that often go further to protect consumers than the FDA demands.

Supporters of the bill include Nestle USA, the HJ Heinz Co., Kraft Foods and Sara Lee Corp. Supermarket chains and trade associations have joined to form the National Uniformity for Food Coalition to back it.

Oh, it’s the food manufacturers and seller who would benefit! Oh, I get it.

In 2004 the Congressional Budget Office estimated that reviewing state waiver requests by those hoping to avoid pre-emption of their food-safety rules would over a five-year period cost the FDA around $100 million. So long as genuine concerns over food-safety exist, is this the best use of a budget?

At least at close of play on March 2, the committee of the Whole House on the state of the Union, in correct legislative parlance, rose, leaving H.R. 4167 as unfinished business.

It’s over to you as a food buyer to make your views known to your own representative if you want to see this legislation stopped. Because it isn’t just Mike Rogers who thinks this is a wonderful idea. Don’t forget the 226 other representatives who support it.

What can they be thinking?

Cheer yourself up with star chef Giorgio Locatelli’s Lenten recipe from Umbria, which will not leave you feeling deprived.

– 5 ½ ounces hazelnuts toasted and rubbed in a tea cloth to remove skins

– 6 ounces superfine sugar

– 4 ounces 00 tipo Italian flour, from Italian markets

– 3 egg whites

– 3 tablespoons confectioners’ sugar

– Preheat oven to 350 F.

– Set aside 1 ounce whole hazelnuts. Grind the rest to a powder, then add the superfine sugar and flour.

– Mix in the egg whites till you have a firm but sticky paste.

– Sift half the confectioners’ sugar over a clean surface and roll lumps of the dough on it into 2-inch logs, dusting with a little more flour if it gets sticky. Stick a whole hazelnut into each one.

– Lay on 2 non-stick baking trays, leaving good space between. Dust with the remaining confectioners’ sugar and leave to rest 10 minutes.

– Bake 20 minutes till gold and firm.

–

E-mail: consumerhealth@upi.com