Is there a good way to buy only products that avoid use of these chemicals?
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Food Practices Banned in Europe But Allowed in the US
21–30 of 203 posts
Re: Food Practices Banned in Europe But Allowed in the US
#22Earlier quoted context omitted.
If your comment about "right to make certain types of sausages" refers to the various protections around food actually coming from a particular area I actually think that is a good thing. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geographical_indications_and_t... After all (to pick an example from the news today) - if something is described as "Stornoway Black Pudding" I'd like to believe it actually came from Stornoway: http://…
If it is exactly the same besides the origin, why does it matter?
I've always viewed it as similar to a regional copyright protection in that a region is allowed to advertise that only it produces the "real" product. Much like any shoe manufacturer can create a shoe exactly like Nike, but only Nike can advertise as actually being Nike.
Re: Food Practices Banned in Europe But Allowed in the US
#23Earlier quoted context omitted.
If your comment about "right to make certain types of sausages" refers to the various protections around food actually coming from a particular area I actually think that is a good thing. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geographical_indications_and_t... After all (to pick an example from the news today) - if something is described as "Stornoway Black Pudding" I'd like to believe it actually came from Stornoway: http://…
If it is exactly the same besides the origin, why does it matter?
In the USA, you can't sell onions as "Vidalia onions" unless they're a specific species grown in a certain part of Georgia where the soil has very low sulfur content. It produces a sweet onion that you could only get with specially prepared soil anywhere else. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vidalia_onion So, you can imagine with something like sausage, where there are many ingredients that are subject to local conditions, it would be impossible to regulate all the criteria for being identical to sausage made in that region, and it's easier to just limit by geography.
Re: Food Practices Banned in Europe But Allowed in the US
#24Is there a good way to buy only products that avoid use of these chemicals?
I would say "buy organic", but organic farms just use "organic" versions, and I'm not 100% clear on what that means. Anyone know the rules for "organic" foods in terms of pesticides, fertilizers, etc?
I a nutshell, the legal definition of organic (in U.S.) means that organic foods are produced using non-synthetic pesticides and fertilizers. In other words, if the FDA (EPA/USDA? Not really sure what organization handles it) classifies a pesticide as organic, then it's allowable for organic certification in the U.S.
Re: Food Practices Banned in Europe But Allowed in the US
#25A reasonably informative article. It must pain HNers in US that if they perceive these items as problems then they have little access to tasty unpasteurized cheeses which would help ease the blows. http://www.fda.gov/Food/ResourcesForYou/consumers/ucm079516.... I'm from Oz originally, and they unfortunately ban unpasteurized cheese too.
My wife and I made strawberry ice cream from raw milk and raw cream just last week. It's easily available in California, just like unpasteurized cheeses.
Re: Food Practices Banned in Europe But Allowed in the US
#26The flipside of this are things like the banana regulation, more commonly known as Commission Regulation (EC) No 2257/94.[1] I believe it's now rescinded under ridicule but there are people who try to deny it even existed. It's well worth reading in full on eur-lex for riveting prose like "the measurement, in millimetres, of the thickness of a transverse section of the fruit between the lateral faces and the middle,…
Rather than trying to ridicule the "banana regulation" and "sausage naming rules" you should do a bit more reading on the true advantages for consumers of classifying fruit and vegetables by quantifiable and tangible aspects (size, shape, colour, etc.); and stopping scams by implementing designation of origin legislation on produce such as sausages. The economic impact of these are measured in billions.
Re: Food Practices Banned in Europe But Allowed in the US
#27How can you take such decisions while considering only the purported benefits and not the costs as well? Let's take antimicrobial sprays for example. They presumably protect some consumers from food-borne illnesses. Shouldn't this be balanced against the risk of rashes and such? If say we estimate antimicrobial sprays save a hundred thousand salmonella etc. cases a year at the cost of ten eye irritations, maybe they're not such a bad deal after all.
Re: Food Practices Banned in Europe But Allowed in the US
#28Is there a good way to buy only products that avoid use of these chemicals?
Whole Foods. Whatever else you say about them (or their prices), they've made these issues easy to deal with as a consumer.
http://wholefoods.com/about-our-products/quality-standards/a...
Re: Food Practices Banned in Europe But Allowed in the US
#29A reasonably informative article. It must pain HNers in US that if they perceive these items as problems then they have little access to tasty unpasteurized cheeses which would help ease the blows. http://www.fda.gov/Food/ResourcesForYou/consumers/ucm079516.... I'm from Oz originally, and they unfortunately ban unpasteurized cheese too.
Brie de Meaux honks like stale feet anyway! Seriously, opened some up in the car once, big mistake, it stank for ages.
> Brie de Meaux honks like stale feet anyway!
Not sure what your point is, it's still delicious. Also brie is not the worst smelling cheese by a very long shot. Maroilles is way worse and used in tarts (a common saying is that after you make a maroilles tart you have to throw out the oven).
And of course they have nothing on (non-cheese) surströmming or hákarl
Re: Food Practices Banned in Europe But Allowed in the US
#30Earlier quoted context omitted.
If your comment about "right to make certain types of sausages" refers to the various protections around food actually coming from a particular area I actually think that is a good thing. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geographical_indications_and_t... After all (to pick an example from the news today) - if something is described as "Stornoway Black Pudding" I'd like to believe it actually came from Stornoway: http://…
You mean like the traditional Croatian wine Prosek being banned from sale because it sounds too similar to prosecco which was developed long after (and they are different types of wine).[1] Or the feta cheese I buy from Germany that can't call itself feta and that anyone in day to day conversation will refer to as feta. [1] http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/04/23/us-croatia-food-eu...
Those sound like debatable edge cases.