Yesterday the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA’s) Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) announced the opening of its new help desk for small meat, poultry, and processed egg producers to help them comply with agency requirements.
“USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service is committed to providing assistance to businesses of all sizes that provide American consumers with access to a safe and healthy food supply,” said Deputy Under Secretary (and acting Under Secretary) for Food Safety, Jerold Mande. “The small plant help-desk will help the development of small, local producers by offering a one-stop shop for questions about how to make sure their meat, poultry, and processed egg products are safe, wholesome and properly labeled.”
Everyone agrees on the importance of eating more fresh fruits & vegetables. A diet rich in fresh fruits and vegetables is important to maintaining good health. The vitamins and minerals in fruit and vegetables can help reduce the risk of cancer, heart disease and high blood pressure, and type 2 diabetes.
Since fresh fruits and vegetables are not cooked, anything that is left on them after they come into contact with other things will be consumed. As these travel through the Food Supply chain,changes take place in their food structure. This includes micro-organisms in organic manure and in the water used for irrigation and initial rinsing, microbes on the hands of the people who pick the product, the containers and vehicles used to store and transport it.
Occasionally,fruits and vegetables get contaminated with harmful bacteria or viruses which are commonly called as pathogens. Contaminated fruits and vegetables if consumed can cause food borne illness. Common symptoms are nausea,vomiting,diarrhea,headache etc.
Efresh(R) device measures the freshness and palatability of food products. The process involves a nondestructive method which includes applying an electrical circuit to the fruits and vegetables and measuring the electric values that corresponds directly to the freshness of the food product. Vitality index is the measured value which is compared to the scale of that type of food to grade the results.
The quality, value and nutrient density of the food is what matters the most to all of us. Fresh fruit and vegetables are tasty and satisfying to eat and are essential in providing the necessary vitamins, minerals and fiber in our diet. Let’s enjoy their wide variety everyday as part of a healthy diet.
EFresh® is based on a simple and straightforward concept that utilizes electricity to illustrate the cellular architecture of food (or any biological entity). By seeing the condition of the cells in food we can understand how fresh it is as the changes in freshness occur first in the food cells. Each food has a unique average value of cellular health when it is harvested and that number declines over time based upon how long, how well it is kept and how well it is packaged.
EFresh® uses a medical diagnostic technique called impedance plethysmography to illustrate the cellular architecture of food. By applying a safe and highly controlled electrical circuit to food (or any biological entity) the characteristics of electrical conduction are measured and illustrate directly the physiological and anatomical make-up of foods. The number and quality of cells is what changes over time to illustrate freshness and palatability. The vitality and health of the cells is highest at harvest or slaughter, as you would expect; diminishing and changing over time. The ability of the cell membrane to hold an electrical charge illustrates the number and quality of the cells.
The global sourcing of food poses many challenges. Americans count on the safety of their food. But the question is how fresh and safe is it? The below article states that “Salmonella” bacteria cause 1.3 million illnesses each year including fever, diarrhea and even death. The CDC(Center for Disease Control and Prevention) has found that “Salmonella” is the most common bacterial cause of food borne illness.
President Barack Obama recognizes the importance of food safety to Americans. He has created a Food Safety Working Group to coordinate Federal efforts and develop short- and long-term agendas to make food safer. Below is a summary from the article.
The U.S. Drug and Food Administration presents a robust strategy to protect the nation’s food supply from both unintentional and deliberate attack. One of them being ensuring that food that comes into the country is safe, high quality with nutritional value. Safer food means healthier children, longer lives, less costly healthcare.
On July 1, 2009, the Working Group submitted its general principles to the President mentioned below.
Principle 1: Preventing harm to consumers is our first priority: Too often in the past, the food safety system has focused on reacting to problems rather than preventing harm in the first place. The Working Group recommends that food regulators shift towards prioritizing prevention and move aggressively to implement sensible measures designed to prevent problems before they occur. Key to this approach is setting rigorous standards for food safety and providing regulatory agencies the tools necessary to ensure that the food industry meets these standards.
Principle 2: Effective food safety inspections and enforcement depend upon good data and analysis .High-quality information will help leading agencies know which foods are at risk; which solutions should be put into place; and who should be responsible. The Working Group recommends that the Federal government prioritize crucial inspection and enforcement activity across the world; support safety efforts by States, localities and businesses at home; and utilize data to guide these efforts and evaluate their outcomes.
Principle 3: Outbreaks of foodborne illness should be identified quickly and stopped. The Working Group recommends the establishment of a food tracing system that shortens the time between outbreak detection, resolution, and recovery. It is in everyone’s interest for outbreaks to be rare in number, limited in scale, and short in duration.
The fish on your dining table today was probably alive in the waters near Japan a few days ago. The transportation of the fish from Japan to USA takes time and is accompanied by events like – processing, freezing, packaging, etc.
So the fish which was labeled as “Fresh” in the grocery store when you picked it up – was not really fresh. Are you concerned or curious to know how fresh your food is before you eat it?
Now there is a safe, reliable and objective method to measure the freshness of your fish or any other food.
EFresh®device applies an advanced clinical medical technology to objectively and accurately assess and report, how fresh is your food.
EFresh® measures the health of the cells which cannot be observed by our naked eyes or measured by traditional methods.
It is important to know whether your food is fresh or previously frozen because previously frozen food is often sold as fresh out of ignorance or for greater profits. This might results in food related illness.
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