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photo credit: EverJean

Dark chocolate sales have reportedly doubled over the last two years in the U.K. according to information supplied by consumer analysts Mintel.

Total sales are now standing at approximately 170 million dollars. Earlier Health and Wellness blog I reported about the health benefits of eating dark chocolate against ordinary milk chocolate. It seems that in the United Kingdom people have become more aware of plain chocolate’s healthier image.

It seems that more people are aware that dark chocolate contains antioxidants which can help in the fight against cancer. In some restaurants dark chocolate bars are being served as an accompaniment to wine.

However as much as you love chocolate, it can still be fattening so don’t use the healthier image as an excuse to eat more chocolate. Instead try to eat less, but simply switch from the more milk containing varieties to the darker chocolate instead.

It would be interesting to see if these figures coincide with trends from other countries.

Tags: dark chocolate, plain chocolate, antioxidants, cancer

photo credit: Noodle Bones

China food risk revealed.

Visited China recently? If you are travelling, or intending to travel to China, then you should pay particular attention to this article.

One of China’s most famous consumer advocates and author has recently revealed some startling insights into China’s food chain, and has indicated that contaminated food products may not only be prevalent in China, but may also be the subject of exports to foreign countries.

Zhou Qing has been exposing China’s food industry and other food related problems in his book called, “What Kind of God”.

It would appear from his investigations that various chemicals are being recklessly introduced into the food chain by breeders of meat and seafood products.

He relates to instances where young girls of seven years old have started to develop breasts, and young boys of six years old who were starting to grow beards.

The problems are that chemicals such as clenbuterol, which is a chemical poisonous to humans, and which causes side-effects such as fatigue nausea, heart palpitations, and dizziness is being given to pigs as a lean meat essence. It also makes the pork much redder and meatier and more appealing.

One breeder when tackled by a Chinese food official was asked didn’t he know that it harms people, replied, “ Yes, but city people have free medical care so it’s no problem”.

Unfortunately tainted Chinese food products and drugs have become a global issue of concern following a spate of illnesses and accidents. A number of deaths of American pets were recently blamed on pet foods that included melamine spiked wheat gluten, and it is believed at least 50 people have died in Panama from cough syrup laced with mislabelled diethylene glycol.

Many countries across Europe, Asia, and the American continent have found potentially carcinogenic chemicals and compounds in seafood exports. And apparently in Russia Chinese exports of pork were found to be contaminated with Mercury.

Zhou claims that even inside China more dangerous practices are occurring, and that the Chinese people themselves especially in the cities are at great risk from contaminated food. In another such example Zhou claims that seafood farmers regularly dump bottles full of potential carcinogens into their tanks in order to reduce or prevent fungal infections among their produce.

It would seem that an attitude of, “well everyone’s doing it”, and “so what, I’m not eating it” is undermining the industry.

Unfortunately these contaminated food products then find their way into street markets, restaurants and street food vendor’s stalls where they are unwittingly consumed by the ordinary Chinese public and tourists alike.

These revelations have personally made me feel very wary of ever travelling to China, and they would have great concerns if any members of my family ever considered a holiday there. Literally, “God knows what you may be eating”.

Tags: contaminated food, contaminated exports, contaminated food risk, chinese food, chinese exports



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photo credit: madame.furie

Salmonella and other food-borne illnesses appear to be on the increase. According to the US food and drug administration there have been a number of outbreaks of illness associated with raw produce contamination since 1990.

The reason seems to be that in most countries the trend is now to import more produce than before. One probable reason seems to be that much of the produce is grown in fields in which water used on the plants has been contaminated with animal waste. What this means is that the contaminant then gets into the plant itself and cannot easily be washed off.

Unfortunately with the volumes of produce that we are dealing with cross contamination can easily occur during packing especially when produce from one area may be stored, or even mixed with similar produce that has been unknowingly infected.

This illustrates the prudence of washing carefully with plain water for about 20 seconds any raw produce you buy from your supermarket. Even vegetables that have been prepacked and say they have been washed should be treated with caution and washed again.

One thing you should never do however is wash raw vegetables with soapy water. All this will do is will do is give you diarrhoea, (from the soap). Use a vegetable brush or a colander, but don’t overload it.

Be cautious with your produce. If it doesn’t look good, chuck it out instead. Of course, unused produce should be refrigerated within two hours just like any other food in your kitchen.

In the US alone since 1990 there has been at least 12 outbreaks of salmonella associated with tomatoes. Most recently several days ago at least 700 people nationwide in America have been made ill by tomatoes contaminated with salmonella, and this has caused problems for the food authorities to try and track down the source of the outbreak.

Unfortunately in real terms because a lot of people don’t report their illness, perhaps as many as 9000 people may actually be affected in this current outbreak. In this particular outbreak the US food and drug administration is recommending that people do not eat certain raw red round tomatoes, unless the tomatoes were from safe sources listed on the FDA’s website.

This case to seems to be not simply one of surface contamination. The FDA is advising consumers not to cook these tomatoes because cooking may not ensure that the Salmonella is eliminated.

It seems to me that two things are needed. Firstly most countries should try and put in place some sort of safe source of food database if not already in place for tracking raw produce similar to meat, and secondly that consumers in those countries be made more aware of the risks of consuming unwashed vegetables.

Markets should also in my opinion be scrutinised to ensure that countries, or growers with a poor record of cleanliness should be become more widely known.

Tags: salmonella, raw produce, produce contamination, food borne illnesses



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