FDA Suspends E. coli Testing in Cheese
The federal Food and Drug Administration is bowing to cheesemakers who claim that in applying a standard for non-toxigenic E. coli in cheese that they claim is arbitrary and unscientific, the agency could be, in effect, limiting the production of raw milk cheeses without demonstrably benefiting public health.
“In response, we want to first acknowledge our respect for the work of the artisan cheesemakers who produce a wide variety of flavorful, high-quality cheeses using raw milk and our appreciation for the great care that many take to produce raw milk cheeses safely. We understand the concerns expressed by some cheesemakers, as well as lawmakers, and intend to engage in a scientific dialogue on these issues,” read’s the FDA’s statement announcing the change, issued on February 8.
The FDA has been testing raw milk cheeses for the presence of non-toxigenic E. coli because that’s been thought to indicate fecal contamination. The FDA says that the bacterium is used as an indicator of fecal contamination by other public health agencies in the U.S. and other countries as well as by the FDA. “The FDA’s reason for testing cheese samples for non-toxigenic E. coli is that bacteria above a certain level could indicate unsanitary conditions in a processing plant,” the FDA says.
FDA recently sampled and collected data on 1,200 imported and 400 domestic raw milk cheeses, according to the American Cheese Society. The FDA notes that the sampling it has conducted to date shows that the “vast majority of domestic and imported raw milk cheeses” are meeting the FDA’s criteria.
The FDA will also hold a listening session later this week in Washington, D.C. to hear directly from ACS raw milk cheesemakers. ACS President, Dick Roe, and ACS Executive Director, Nora Weiser, will be joined by seven raw milk cheesemakers from around the country, who will share their stories and speak to the impact of raw milk cheese regulatory changes on their businesses. The seven cheesemakers who will be addressing the FDA include:
- Gianaclis Caldwell, Pholia Farm Creamery and Dairy (Oregon)
- Lynn Giacomini Stray, Point Reyes Farmstead Cheese (California)
- Andy Hatch, Uplands Cheese Company (Wisconsin)
- Mateo Kehler, Jasper Hill Farm (Vermont)
- Jeremy Little, Sweet Grass Dairy (Georgia)
- Marieke Penterman, Holland’s Family Cheese (Wisconsin)
- Jeremy Stephenson, Spring Brook Farm and Farms for City Kids Foundation (Vermont)
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Michael Taylor, Deputy Director for Foods and Veterinary Medicine, and FDA colleagues will be present to hear from these producers, and they will have an opportunity to ask questions and engage in candid dialogue.
Looking ahead, with the FSMA preventive controls rule now final, the FDA plans to take another look at what role non-toxigenic E. coli should have in identifying and preventing insanitary conditions and food safety hazards for both domestic and foreign cheese producers. Changes in the safety criteria the FDA is using will consider what the cheesemakers and other experts have to say about the use of a single bacterial criterion for both pasteurized and raw milk cheese, and the use of non-toxigenic E. coli as an indicator organism.
Produce Springs Forward
By Micah Cheek
Spring’s bounty will be headed to shelves in just a few months, and customers will be looking for the most Instagram-friendly options for their plates. In addition to the usual snap peas and asparagus, the more exciting options for spring produce have never been better.
Interest in foraged produce is continuing to increase. “On the specialty side the most typical produce would be morel mushrooms and ramps. Next would be fiddlehead ferns. You’ve got a bunch of peripheral specialties there [too], miners lettuce and nettles,” says Justin Marx, CEO of Marx Foods.
Morels are a traditional spring favorite in the northwest, becoming available in April. ”Morels just knock it out of the park,” says Kim Brauer, Culinary Concierge at Marx Foods. “In the Northwest, a lot of us survive winter be knowing that morels will be coming out.” Now that wild vegetables have moved from a restaurant favorite to a foodie phenomenon, they are expected to remain on the minds of consumers. “The ramps and the nettles, I’m seeing more cooks look for those,” Brauer adds. Ramps and stinging nettles will be available for their limited growing season from April to May.
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For Easter, the classic fresh vegetable choices are expected to remain robust, so much more so if those veggies are miniature. The cipollini onions are being joined by baby beets, carrots and radishes, says Karen Caplan, President and CEO of Frieda’s, Inc. A violaceous variety will be available for Frieda’s “Power of Purple” promotion in March. A monochromatic medley will be promoted, including purple snow peas, cauliflower, artichokes and a new breed of purple sweet potatoes.
For late winter and early spring, an increasing variety of citrus will become available. “In the winter and spring, we do a bang-up job in all the citrus categories,” says Caplan. More specialty options like Meyer lemons, Buddha’s hand (a fingered variety of citron) and finger limes have been finding their way into popular recipes. The same goes for some non-citrus tropical fruits. “Dragonfruit has just become the darling of American consumers,” Caplan adds.
Wholesome Goodness: A Brand of Foods that “Love You Back”
By Lorrie Baumann
Wholesome Goodness is a brand based on three key tenets: that food should taste great, that food should be nutritious, and that nutritious food should be affordable. Because it fulfills all three of these goals, Wholesome Goodness’ product line aligns with the way that Millennial generation consumers want to eat today, according to company founders Jeff Posner and Rick Letizia.
Posner and Letizia had 70 years of experience in the food industry between them when they decided to leave behind their executive positions in major food companies like Kraft and General Foods to strike out on their own with a brand reflecting their beliefs about how more nutritious foods can help address health problems related to diet. Posner himself suffers from high blood pressure, while Letizia has type-2 diabetes, so they are personally aware of the burdens that nutrition-related diseases place on health care costs, quality of life and longevity.
From experience, they knew that major food companies use ingredients that make products cheaper to manufacture but may offer less nutrition to the consumers who used them. They wanted to go another way; to start a food business that would serve consumers’ ever-increasing expectations for healthier foods. “Wholesome Goodness products emphasize positive ingredients like protein, antioxidants and whole grains, while de-emphasizing negative ingredients like saturated fats, added sugars and added sodium,” Posner said.
“Part one of the Wholesome Goodness promise is that for every calorie consumed you get relatively more nutrition than the mainstream national brands,” he continued. “Part two is affordability. This requirement recognizes that 75 percent of the country is overweight or obese, and the barriers to eating healthier foods are both taste and price. Conceptually, if you take nutritional density and divide by price, our products provide consumers with the optimal blend of high nutrition and affordable cost. That’s our unique value proposition. At Wholesome Goodness, we want the 75 percent of the population that’s overweight or obese to be able to afford and enjoy each and every one of our products.”
The FDA has found it increasingly difficult to get online prescription lowest price sildenafil that you can be sure is real can help many to avoid any worries of the stigma that can come with such problems. The unrefined concentrate of this herb demonstrated some comparative response to that of the male pill; levitra 10 mg. It is the brand viagra pfizer enzyme which restricts the erection mechanism of the male penis during sexual activity.Cheap medicine available worldwide:Kamagra is cheap and it is easily available all over the world. In most cases, the side effects are seen only in such cases where the precautions mentioned on the medicine or the precautions given by https://pdxcommercial.com/order-3043 tadalafil best buy the health expert are not followed properly. The two started out six years ago by talking with consumers and retailers to learn more about changing trends in eating patterns before they decided that their first products would be a line of snacks, Letizia said. “Data shows that the bulk of our population, in particular the nearly 80 million Millennials, are snacking four to six times a day; thus, portability is extremely important – things you can throw in your purse or backpack,” he said.
As the two developed other products, they stayed with the directive that they wanted their foods to be nutrition-dense, a concept offered up by Yale University childhood obesity and nutrition expert Dr. David Katz. This concept, simply stated, requires that for every calorie contained in their products, the consumer will get a healthier blend of more positive nutrition and less negative nutrition. They wanted clean ingredients without excessive sodium or added sugars. “We currently ban 127 ingredients that other food companies use today, including all 85 identified by Whole Foods,” Letizia said. “We have the cleanest ingredient deck in the industry at the present time.”
And while they were creating clean ingredient labels for their products, they also wanted to produce foods that were more affordable than mainstream competitors’, Posner said. “These are the kinds of products that my mother would have served the family: great-tasting and affordable for the family. Not that she did anything different from all my friends’ mothers; the only thing my friends and I knew growing up was just good, old-fashioned food,” he said. “Frankly, there is no reason why anyone today should have to pay a premium to have better-for-you products.”
“We don’t have anywhere near the cost structure of the large companies. We don’t own any plants; instead, we use highly-qualified third parties to manufacture our proprietary product formulations, so we don’t have the overhead and capital requirements of a big company. We certainly don’t make the multi-million dollar salaries of the executives of the large food companies. We don’t have the requirement to deliver a 15 percent bottom line just to maintain shareholder value – we can make do on a much smaller percentage,” he explained. “We want our products to be accessible to the masses…. For example, our award winning Sweet Chili and Omega Tortilla Chips come in a 9-ounce bag that retails for $3.99 – and even less on feature. A 5.5-ounce bag of competing better-for-you brands will cost about as much as Wholesome Goodness. Consequently, we’re less expensive, averaging about 20 to 30 percent cheaper, ounce for ounce, than these other brands. When you divide our products’ nutritional density by food budget dollars spent, we’re really the best deal in town.”
The Wholesome Goodness product line includes snack chips and crisps; granola bars, snack mixes, and hot and cold cereals. Learn more at www.wholesome-goodness.com.
