JFN1 (975 posts) Wed Sep-24-08 01:54 PM
Original message
US Food Supply In Constant Danger Of Going "Bad"
I was watching Hogan's Heroes last night, and saw something very interesting regarding our food.
In the episode, Sgt. Schultz confiscated a cheese sandwich from LeBeau. Col. Klink held a trial the next day, found LeBeau guilty, and Sgt. Schultz proceeded to eat the sandwich - which had apparently been left sitting on Klink's desk for 24 hours - without ill effect, and no commentary on the dangers of spoiled food. (You literally could NOT make this shit up!)
My husband commented that if a cheese sandwich had been left out these days for an entire day without refrigeration, it would go bad.
I'd been thinking about this all day, so I stepped into the kitchen and started looking at my food.
EVERYTHING has an expiration date on it now - even canned food. I found cans of beans, vegetables, chili, soup, stew, and tuna in my canned goods cabinet that are all due to expire within a few weeks - and I just bought this stuff within the last few months. I found a few cans of food I remember buying, but didn't use. Case in point: A can of cranberry sauce we didn't use when we had Thanksgiving at our house two years ago. According to the can, the cranberries expired Jan 25 07 - just two months after we would have used them.
Growing up, I remember having eggs in our house that lasted for weeks. Canned food that lasted for years and years (I remember eating a five-year-old can of Spam I found in a box of food my mom gave me when I went away to college, and I didn't get sick). Things like canned Spam used to have either no expiration date, or a "best if used by" date on them.
But today - food apparently doesn't last more than a year in a can, and about ten days for stuff like eggs. And fresh vegetables don't last more than a few days anymore.
How can that be? How can it be that in the 1960's, when Hogan's was filmed, a cheese sandwich left on a desk for 24 hours was still edible?
I left a package of Kraft Singles out overnight a while back (it had like three slices in it) after making grilled cheese sandwiches. I threw the remaining cheese away in the morning, because I was afraid to eat it.
I looked in my fridge, with these thoughts in mind, and discovered that I hardly have any food in my fridge that hasn't expired, or is rapidly approaching expiration, according to the date given on the labels.
So I ask: Is our food supply really safe? Or is it going to go bad just as soon as we open it?
And what about all of the "preservatives" they put in food these days? Aren't they supposed to extend shelf life? And if so, then why does food seem to be dated as 'bad' almost as soon as you buy it? How much food are Americans throwing away these days just because the expiration date has passed?
When I was young, food didn't expire like it does today. So what gives, then? Anyone else notice this? Has big business crept up on us and placed fear into us sufficient for us to justify throwing away perfectly good food just because we're told to?
How much money are we wasting? How many resources? How does this affect global warming, and the global food supply?
And most important - is it right? Should our meat expire in days, our eggs expire in a week, our canned food expire in a year? And if so - what has changed to make our food expire faster?
phantom power (1000+ posts) Wed Sep-24-08 01:58 PM:thatsright:
Response to Original message
1. I think...
Edited on Wed Sep-24-08 02:00 PM by phantom power
that food does not spoil any faster now than Back In The Day. I think that there is more sensitivity to liability.
Food left out can very often be eaten. But it does increases your risk. And corporations have become more risk-averse over the years, since they periodically get clobbered with lawsuits or bad publicity. Hence the prevailing use of expiration dates.
Also, I would tend to suspect the continuity-editors of Hogan's Heros more than suspect changing biology. TV and movies make little goofs like that all the time. There are entire subcultures dedicated to finding them. like easter eggs.
Overseas (1000+ posts) Wed Sep-24-08 02:02 PM
Response to Original message
3. As long as Republicans wanting to crush government are in charge,
then yes, our food safety will suffer. That's their style. Cut government agencies that worked well in the past. Since food safety used to be a strong area of good government, Republicans cut the number of inspectors. So that when problems crop up people will complain that government is no good !! Government doesn't work !! SEEEEEE REPUBLICANS ARE RIGHT-- government doesn't work ! (They don't realize that somehow, past administrations didn't have all these food safety problems because they had more inspectors in the field.)
YOu've also been indoctrinated by commercial TV to be germ phobic, worried about poisoning your family with bacteria if you don't spray chlorine all over the place.
So no wonder you're more worried than you used to be.
I just use the smell test with some expiration dates.
Why does bottled WATER have an expiration date?
I always thought Hogan's Heroes was just a TV show. I didn't know it was a food documentary type thing. Silly me.
Most of my canned goods have a "best before" date on them.
I'll typically rotate canned foods out of the stockpile every year or so and consume them.
At times a can of something or other will make it to a couple years past the "best before" date.
The general rule is that if the can ain't bulging, dig in !
Things would be so much better if we were a communist state....
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080925/ap_on_re_as/as_china_elite_foods
....for the leaders which the DUmmies think they will be.