Realize the USDA is primarily tasked with promoting agricultural business, only secondarily protecting the public. Guess what takes precedence. The FDA is also limited in anything affecting another agency's primary area. Thus FDA cannot affect usage of antibiotics in animal feed.
Food Practices Banned in Europe But Allowed in the US
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Re: Food Practices Banned in Europe But Allowed in the US
#72This is one of the reasons why any possibility of a significant "free trade" agreement between the US and EU is virtually non-existent.
Their principles, economies, and output across a large range of sectors are much more different than many care to admit.
Re: Food Practices Banned in Europe But Allowed in the US
#73See also "Why American Eggs Would Be Illegal In A British Supermarket, And Vice Versa" http://www.forbes.com/sites/nadiaarumugam/2012/10/25/why-ame...
And the associated hacker news discussion https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5325540
Re: Food Practices Banned in Europe But Allowed in the US
#74Earlier quoted context omitted.
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...
> 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. And that anybody that has eaten actual feta will tell you immediately it's a bad imitation (often with the wrong process and/or ingredients). (Same goes for any "feta" sold in American supermarkets, at least Kroger, Walmart etc that I know of (as in the US the point of origin protectio…
I do think the current situation around feta is better than the previous confusing one, where lots of products which were clearly not feta were allowed to be labeled as "feta". But I personally would prefer that methods/contents be regulated rather than location of production.
I do think it's a good thing that what used to be called "Danish feta" is now "salatost" ("salad cheese"), because it is simply not feta. But I sympathize with the French, Israeli, and New Zealand feta that's no longer allowed to be called "feta" in the EU, because those countries do produce some genuine feta, in every sense except being produced in the wrong location. On the other hand, I think the same of champagne, and I doubt France would be willing to trade the exclusive right to the word "champagne" in return for getting to call some of their cheese "feta"...
Re: Food Practices Banned in Europe But Allowed in the US
#75Earlier quoted context omitted.
The article asserts that the increased usage is to compensate for speeding up the kill lines - so less precaution. Bacteria-related food poisonings due to spoiled meat are pretty rare in germany and since the practice is forbidden here I assume it must be perfectly viable, albeit properly more expensive to create proper conditions.
>The article asserts that the increased usage is to compensate for speeding up the kill lines Yes, but we're not talking about restricting usage, this is about banning them altogether. It would be interesting to know how German producers dealt with the ban. Hopefully it didn't lead to an increased use of other chemical products that aren't banned yet but soon will be etc.
I'm no expert on this, but given what I know about food safety the practice would need to be explicitly allowed. I'd be very surprised if such a practice has ever been allowed. Same holds for other chemical products.
Re: Food Practices Banned in Europe But Allowed in the US
#76Is 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?
Really? I eat lots of organic food and have previously researched this, I tried google and its very easy.
Pick up any organic product. It has a sticker "USDA Organic" with white on top and green on bottom. Wikipedia has a great article on "National Organic Program" which is run by the USDA. The NOP website is at:
http://www.ams.usda.gov/AMSv1.0/nop
The blanket reg is CFR 205.105 which references each class of substance separately. Its like the overall flowchart. Then other regs list specific stuff. Like "205.603 Synthetic substances allowed for use in organic livestock production."
So CFR 205.603 says you can use ethanol as a disinfectant only but not in the food, so no white lightning in the food bucket. Aspirin is OK. Vaccines as a blanket order are OK.
(whoops edited to add I think you want CFR 205.601 Synthetic substances allowed for use in organic crop production. Whatever. Nothing is really unexpected in these CFRs and for a guy with a chemistry background I think some rules are a little weird (Ethanol is synthetic and allowed, but Arsenic is non-synthetic and forbidden? Really?) but the writing style should be understandable by the general public)
Re: Food Practices Banned in Europe But Allowed in the US
#771. Being from UK where we have just had months of "how the hell did horsemeat get into every burger and lasagne meal?", the idea Europeans have this food business sorted is laughable.
2. All western countries have high standards in food processing. The differences are arbitrage not horrors that will kill us all, as this article rather lazily implies.
3. processing food is mostly the problem. Processing meat is almost the whole problem.
Re: Food Practices Banned in Europe But Allowed in the US
#78It's a big turn off to me to see these kinds of purely political articles on HN. I like my life somewhat compartmentalized -- I'd like to be able to discuss technology, science, and startups with people without getting dragged into "OMG the US government is bought by industry!"
Re: Food Practices Banned in Europe But Allowed in the US
#79The most sensible European regulations of those listed in the article kindly submitted here are "What Europe did: Banned all forms of animal protein, including chicken litter, in cow feed in 2001." and "What Europe did: In the EU, all antibiotics used in human medicines are banned on farms—and no antibiotics can be used on farms for 'non-medical purposes,' i.e., growth promotion." I'd like to see the United States fo…
> "What Europe did: Banned all forms of animal protein, including chicken litter, in cow feed in 2001." I think this came in the aftermath of the Mad Cow Disease that affected the UK in the mid-'90s ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bovine_spongiform_encephalopat... ). I know that UK does not necessarily mean Europe, but nevertheless, that was really huge no matter where in Europe you happened to live, it showed that a…
Prions absolutely terrify me. Primarily because they are so difficult to kill, er.. destroy. They are basically the zombies of infectious particles.
http://www.nature.com/news/2008/080701/full/news.2008.926.ht...
Re: Food Practices Banned in Europe But Allowed in the US
#80HN kicks up an almighty fuss about any attempts to regulate our industry (see online payments, sales taxes, etc.) but we are happy to pass judgement on others. In Europe we can barely stop people from selling horsemeat as beef. I'm not sure how effectively we are implementing any of these rules, and I'm sure a farmer who wishes to do so can flout them at will. One positive thing to come from the rise of supermarkets…
In my view the horsemeat-as-beef scandal demonstrates that the system works and that mislabeled meat gets detected. In this case the meat was perfectly edible, it was just mislabeled.
Was it perfectly edible? My understanding of the fiasco is that it was not simply calling horsemeat beef or some other meat. My understanding is that the horsemeat found in packages originated from meat labeled as not for human consumption, meaning that particular horsemeat had not gone through the same safety inspection normally given to meat which is labeled as for human consumption. To me, this seems that the horsemeat might not be perfectly edible.