Scary Food, Food Scares

Of all the things that can interfere with one's trust of food, the very last might be the realization that the fresh fruits and vegetables that we trustingly purchase, prepare and eat might pose a risk to our health. After all, we're talking fresh out of the ground. Fruit, vegetables.

Sure, we're concerned about the use of pesticides, and we take measures to carefully wash and rinse these foods, but it's not that; it's the contamination of fresh fruits and vegetables by dangerous bacteria that just shouldn't be there. Seeping into their growing medium. In the ground. On the farm, or the corporation's fields.

Cause for consternation. But if we, the consumers are befuddled by the very thought that harmful bacteria could infect our fresh food sources, it does nothing to give us confidence to learn that food producers themselves are little able to understand the process by which our fresh food is being exposed to contaminants.

How's that? The North American food supply is becoming mysteriously contaminated with potentially life-threatening bacteria and the growers are ignorant of the source?

Now that's downright scary. "At this point we really don't know what we would need to do to make produce safer," according to David Gombas, senior vice-president of the United Fresh Produce Association. "It's difficult to fix the problem when the source is unknown."

Well, who could argue with that? If you don't know what is happening to contaminate the food you're growing, how solve the problem?

Well, as a layman (or woman), someone who merely eats the fresh produce she shops for at her handy supermarket or temporary farmer stall conveniently located at highway intersections, I'd hazard a guess. Perhaps it's more than a mere guess, since I've read elsewhere the likely contamination source.

Remember contaminated spinach and the consumer panic that ensued with its publicity? That was attributed at the time to unsanitary conditions relating to the pickers not being provided with proper toilets. When you have to go, you do. No toilet, however primitive as a repository for human waste, and consequently no paper, no water, no way to wash contaminated hands that will then continue picking.

Remember that carrot juice that was hauled off the shelves on suspicion of contamination and reports of poisoning? Same thing applies; lack of responsible sanitary oversight in production. And how about contaminated green onions out of Mexico the year before? Right. And field crops like soft berries? And sprouts? These products are typically grown in open fields, and after harvesting, eaten raw.

Remember that old real estate adage of location being everything in desirability? Location, location. And then there's proximity. Chemical and other pesticide run-off. And best of all, the run-off of farm animal dung.

For that matter, the spreading of matured and collected pig manure, chicken waste, cow manure. The spreading of such waste that has not been properly composted out. The accidental leaching of contaminations into nearby fields of growing produce.

We're not thrilled with the prospect of becoming ill as a result of consuming assumed-to-be healthy fresh produce, that is in reality contaminated with dangerous bacteria with the potential to make us very ill indeed. We're very well aware of the potential for illness relating to consuming of meat that has been inadequately cooked, of contaminating food preparation surfaces in the kitchen with bacteria from raw chicken.

But there's only so much aware consumers can do to protect themselves and their dependents from contaminated-food-related harm. Consumers have a right to be worried about the safety of the food supply, the fresh produce that we take for granted.

Government issues food alerts when situations get out of control and people are sent to hospital, or even die, because of exposure to foods that have been contaminated as a result of poor business practise.

Awareness of the potential to contamination and adherence to careful hygienic practises should not only be top of the order of the day for produce growers and suppliers, seeking to restore confidence in the minds of consumers, but government food protection agencies too must begin to take a more active role in protecting our food supply.

If only to teach the elemental science of separation from sources of contamination to food growers and the efficacy of taking practical first steps in location and proximity.