Food and Consumer Product Safety Hazards.

Well, it's no big secret by now that bad things can and do end up in our food and other consumer products Off the top of my head, I can think of:

- E. coli in spinach
- Melamine in dog food
- Fungal contamination in contact lens fluid
- Diethylene glycol in toothpaste.


That's just within the past year or so. Going back a few more years, there's been Salmonella in ice cream, Listeria in soft cheeses, and E. coli in juices and Jack-In-The-Box hamburgers. It's increasingly clear how vulnerable our food and consumer supply chains are to deadly contamination due to errors, haste, greed or neglect.

However, the way I see it, the rate of incidents due to contamination is actually pretty low, considering the sheer volume of goods being manufactured - there is the potential of many, many more of these incidents happening, which is kept in check by regulation.

So, discuss:


- Do these safety scares affect the way you think about food and the choices you make?

- Do you think your government is doing enough to regulate food and consumer safety?

- Do you think the media is overblowing these food safety scares? Or are they doing a valuable job in informing the public about these hazards?

- How much do you think you know about food and consumer safety? If you're in college, would you take a course that specialized in food microbiology or safety to learn more about it?

- What topics in food safety and microbiology would you be interested in knowing more about? Like, "the 5-second rule", "how cheese is made", etc?


My opinion? I'm not really bothered by a lot of these things - I mean, there's not much I can do, considering I'm not a farmer or a hunter. I need to depend on corporations for most of my food. However, I know there are things that I can do to reduce my risk of exposure - for example, I never eat raw oyster ( Vibrio cholerae and parahaemolyticus, yo).

Anyway, this post is long enough, so I'll reserve the rest of my opinions for later.




(In the interest of full disclosure, I'll just say that I'm an aspiring food safety scientist, and I've worked as a microbiologist testing food and other consumer products before. If I start teaching microbiology, I'd like to know what topics are on people's minds.)

Jam it back in, in the dark.