Word: usda
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...help anxious cooks, the USDA and other Government agencies have toll-free hot lines for consumer questions. Some requests are a bit exotic. "Did we really have to throw out the whole roast just because my daughter-in-law mistook a daffodil bulb for an onion and sliced it over the meat?" asked a worried caller. Yes, replied the hot line, the bulbs are toxic to humans. Other questions indicate a lot of basic ground needs covering. Two samples: "Can spaghetti sauce left open on the counter for three days hurt me?" and "Is it O.K. to eat groceries that...
...example, can assign only 910 staff members -- in contrast to 1,105 in 1977 -- to monitor food, including imports. Some foreign growers easily circumvent the process; produce from Mexico is often trundled across the border at Nogales, Ariz., on the inspector's day off. And the USDA last year fielded only 7,000 inspectors -- down from 10,000 eight years ago -- to examine the carcasses of nearly 120 million cows, pigs and horses and 5.6 billion chickens...
...heptachlor case highlights another flaw in the system. USDA and FDA investigators have been unable to trace the source of the tainted seed because it changed hands -- from farmer to grain-elevator operator to feed broker to poultry producer -- so many times. Closer monitoring is necessary at every step along the food-supply chain. Federal agencies also need more flexible enforcement powers. The USDA, for example, cannot levy fines on processing plants. It can close a plant down, but that is a drastic action that is not readily employed...
There is another curious reason why the California eggs may not taste very different from the ordinary variety. According to the USDA Agricultural Research Service in Beltsville, Md., the high cholesterol counts that have given ordinary eggs their bad reputation may have been wrong to begin with. Using newer methods of testing, researchers at the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station in New Haven have found that conventional eggs contain between 172 and 232 mg of cholesterol, instead of the 274 previously measured. That would place them somewhat closer to the count of Rosemary Farm eggs. So even if the brave...
...impact will soon be felt at the supermarket, but it may not be too severe. The USDA estimates that retail food prices will rise no more than 5% this year. One reason: much of this year's grain shortfall will be made up from stocks set aside during past bountiful harvests...