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Previous reports have pegged the total cost of foodborne illness at between $6.9 billion and $35 billion, based on past estimates by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and Food and Drug Administration (FDA). But those numbers are almost surely based on serious undercounting. Most cases of foodborne illness are never officially reported - for every one case of E. coli that goes into the books, another 20 are undocumented. What's more, the FDA and USDA focus on just a handful of reportable pathogens: E. coli, campylobacter, salmonella and listeria, which excludes the many cases of food poisoning for which...
...gets the attention it deserves. That's partially because the food-safety system in the U.S. is impenetrably complex; some 15 federal agencies are responsible for keeping the nation's food supply safe, which means that oversight in many cases falls through the gaps between the FDA, CDC and USDA. The USDA, for instance, is responsible for the safety of meat and poultry; the FDA handles other cases of food contamination; and the CDC tracks human illness in general...
...plan works, there will be chocolate for all tastes. The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is working with a local research center in San Martin, the Institute for Tropical Crops (ITC), to identify new varieties of cacao beans. The institute is studying 342 specimens collected from 12 watersheds. "We are working on categorizing the DNA of cacao," says ITC director Enrique Arevalo. The work will eventually lead to the creation of a Peru-specific chocolate that could be marketed the way countries sell wine. Hiderico Bocangel, general manager of San Martin's Oro Verde cooperative, says Peru is already creating...
There is, of course, stiff competition. Neighboring Ecuador already has a jump on Peru, pushing for its "national" or arriba bean to be granted geographic indication - or certified origin - just like French Champagne. There are five chocolatiers in Ecuador marketing chocolate based on origin and organic production. They have USDA organic certificates and can be found in supermarket chains in the U.S. Peruvian chocolate producers have not gotten that far. "Our job is to get the word out," says Bocangel. "This visit [by the Steinberg delegation] is important for us to do that...
...findings are the result of work conducted by Susan Roberts, professor of nutrition at Tufts University, and Jean Mayer, of Tufts' USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging. It was Roberts who initiated the study, and it was her own struggles with weight that got her started. Author of the book The Instant Diet, she was working on new recipes for the paperback version (retitled The "i" Diet) and, as was her practice, used herself as a guinea pig. As a rule, she lost weight on the menu plans she recommended to readers, but when she redeveloped some...