From the upcoming January edition of Consumer Reports Magazine, disheartening news about the pathogen content of broiler chickens. More than 60% were infected with either salmonella or campylobacter. If this makes you sad, at least it’s an improvement over 2007, where 80% of broilers were contaminated.

These are crazy high numbers. It did not matter if the chickens were from top brands like Perdue and Foster Farms, or from smaller players, or even supermarket brands.

What you need to know:

Salmonella is a bacteria. According to the Mayo Clinic, there are more than 2,000 varieties of salmonella, but only about a dozen of them cause illnesses in people. Most cause severe diarrhea. The feistier ones result in typhoid fever, which can be deadly.

Campylobacter literally mean twisted bacteria. It produces cramps, stomach pains, diarrhea, and dysentery. According to the CDC, In persons with compromised immune systems, campylobacter occasionally spreads to the bloodstream and causes a serious life-threatening infection.

Consumer Reports says that each year, salmonella and campylobacter from chicken and other food sources infect 3.4 million Americans, send 25,500 to hospitals, and kill about 500!

What to do at the supermarket:

There’s not much you can do at the supermarket because it’s impossible to know by looking at a piece of chicken or meat if it has been contaminated or not.

Rather, at home you should take every measure to protect yourself. It’s not that difficult. Make sure you always separate between raw and cooked product, as well as plates and utensils used with each. Always cook the chicken to at least 165 degrees Fahrenheit. Use a meat thermometer to make sure you’ve reached the right temperature.

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The December Edition of Consumer Reports, already out, is bringing BPA, a controversial chemical, back to the headlines. The non-profit publisher, Consumers Union, tested various canned foods for BPA and found alarmingly high values in daily staples such as tuna, beans and soups. You can read more about it here.

This is a good opportunity to get reacquainted with a chemical we  all consume in some form, whether we know it, like it, or not.

What you need to know:
1. Bisphenol-A  is a chemical compound used as a building block of several polymers and polycarbonates that in turn are found in plastic bottles and cans. Which means all of us are exposed to tiny amounts, whether drinking canned juice, milk from a baby-bottle, or any other product sold in a plastic container or a can.

2. The chemical has been sold since the 1940’s and starting in the 1960’s has been lining the insides of cans in order to extend shelf life.

3. 7 billion pounds of BPA are produced annually, for use in food packaging, PVC water pipes, electronics, and more.

4. In 2008, more than 22 billion cans for food and more than 100 billion cans for beer and soft drinks were produced with BPA.

5. BPA behaves like the hormone estrogen once it enters the body and disturbs the normal working of certain genes. Estrogen mimicking chemicals like BPA are potentially harmful even at very low doses, such as those found in plastic bottles and cans.

6. Toxicity questions have been around for decades, raising safety issue, especially for babies who ingest a proportionally larger amount due to their small size. Potential problems include hyperactivity, learning disabilities, brain damage, and immune deficiencies.

7. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) calculated that people consume 50 micrograms of BPA per kilogram of body weight every day over the course of a lifetime. Over 40 studies have found adverse health effects in rats given less than one hundredth of that amount!

8. Over 200 animal studies that have linked BPA consumption in tiny amounts to a host of reproductive problems, brain damage, immune deficiencies, metabolic abnormalities, and behavioral oddities like hyperactivity, learning deficits and reduced maternal willingness to nurse offspring.

9. In 2008, Canada added BPA to its list of toxic substances and plans are to ban BPA from all baby bottles.

10. The FDA has zigzagged on BPA safety. In August 2008 it deemed BPA safe. However, in December 2008, the FDA’s own advisory board accused the FDA of weighing 2 industry-backed studies much more heavily than the hundreds of other independent studies. The FDA’s excuse: all the other studies did not meet the FDA’s guidelines for determining safety for human consumption, did not provide raw data, and a host of other “reasons”.

11. In March 2009, six manufacturers announced that they would voluntarily stop manufacturing bottles with BPA. Playtex Products, Gerber, Evenflo, Avent America, Dr. Brown and Disney First Years decided to so in order to preempt legal action being considered at the time by several state attorney generals.

12. In May 2009, Chicago became the first city to ban sales of baby bottles and sippy cups with BPA. Denmark became the first European country to do the same.

13. Many other European countries conducted reviews in the past 2 years but decided to maintain BPA’s safe status for now.

14. If you think you’re safe, 93% of the population has BPA in their bodies, according to urine sampling conducted by the Center for Disease Control, CDC.

15. There’s hope – Many Japanese manufacturers voluntarily stopped using BPA in 1997. In a 2003 study, BPA levels in people’s urine had dropped by 50%.

What to do at the supermarket:
Here are some tips on how to reduce your family’s  BPA intake:
1. if you have a baby or toddler, purchase BPA free plastic bottles.
2. If microwaving formula, do so in a glass bottle.
3. Opt for fresh or frozen products less than canned.
4. Drink tap water instead of bottled water

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“Nothing happens by accident in a supermarket. Everything is designed to sell.”

Keep these words, by Consumer Reports retail expert Tod Marksare, in mind the next time you go grocery shopping.

In a 5 minute segment from the Early Show (CBS), Mr. Marksare shares 5 improtant lessons:

Lesson 1: The Supermarket Flyer – will steer you to products whose manufacturers have paid to get them featured. Some will be cheap, other not.

Lesson 2: The End of the Aisle — The “End Cap” — Is the Single Hottest Selling Spot in the Entire Store.

Lesson 3: Product Placement Is Key – learn to look beyond eye level on the shelves.

Lesson 4: Convenience Will Cost You – see triple washed, shredded lettuce instead of a lettuce head.

Lesson 5: Saving Money Is in the Bag – bagged is generally cheaper than loose produce.

here is a link to the transcript.

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Consumer Reports’ upcoming May issue will include an extensive report on supermarkets. [subscription required]

The good folks at CR surveyed over 32,000 shoppers across the nation to come up with a ranking of the 59 largest chains.

The ranking criteria used:
- Service level
- Quality of perishables such as meat and produce
- Price level
- Cleanliness

Unfortunately, overall nutritional quality of foods sold was not a criteria.

The top 5 supermarket chains for 2009 are:

1. Wegmans
2. Trader Joe’s
3. Publix
4. Raley’s
5. Harris Teeter

Whole Foods Market came in 8th, penalized heavily for its high prices, while Walmart came in third from last. Although it scored OK on prices, the other parameters were very weak.

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Do you know the difference between bio-dynamic and organic certification?
What makes Rainforest Alliance different from shade grown?
And how fair is Fair Trade?

Consumer Reports Virtual Kitchen

If you are puzzled by the vast amount of eco labels on food products, Consumer Reports has a great online tool that helps you better understand what each label means and which standards body stands behind it.

And the flash based Virtual Kitchen is a nice way to introduce the topic to kids.

Enjoy.

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Consumer Reports

The February 2009 issue of Consumer Reports on Health has a good writeup entitled Grocery-aisle gotchas. The erstwhile consumer information powerhouse has

put together a guide (see links, below) to some of the most confusing label claims. We’ve also looked at new labeling rules and trends that can make it easier for you to choose among products. And because food labeling still has a long way to go, we offer our take on what should be on a label—but sometimes isn’t.

While the list of gotchas is not comprehensive, it certainly illustrates how in every aisle of the supermarket good marketing helps consumers feel like they are eating healthfully when in fact they may be buying junk food in disguise. Here are the links to various topics discussed in the article:

Organic

Natural

Whole grains, cage-free

Health ratings

Made with, serving size

Health claims, nutritional claims

What should be on a label

What to do at the supermarket:

Ignore the health claims and go straight for the ingredient list and nutrition label. Even then, be suspicious of serving sizes that are too small, and ingredient lists longer than a Stephen King novel. By keeping to the supermarket perimeter and buying mostly unprocessed foods, you wont even need to read nutrition labels (fruits, vegetables..)

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For many parents, branded breakfast cereals are a repast into their own childhood memories of sweet Saturday mornings, and they are happy to see their kids munching healthily away at cereal with milk. Sadly though, these cereals tend to be high in sugar, and low in fiber. Consumer Reports has released a comparative study of children’s cereals, aimed at helping parents make better choices. Some of the study’s highlights:

A serving of 11 popular cereals, including Kellogg’s Honey Smacks, carries as much sugar as a glazed donut.

Post Golden Crisp made by Kraft Foods Inc and Kellogg’s Honey Smacks are more than 50 percent sugar by weight; nine brands are at least 40 percent sugar.

Top score goes to Cheerios with 3 grams of fiber per serving and just 1 gram of sugar, Kix and Honey Nut Cheerios, all made by General Mills, and Life, made by Pepsico Inc’s Quaker Oats unit.

What you need to know:

Every 5 grams of sugar translates into one teaspoon. So when you see a label stating 12g of sugar per serving, you are getting almost two and a half teaspoons of sugar in there. If the serving size is 27 grams, 44% of your cereal (12g/27g) is sugar. sweet…

What to do at the supermarket:

Look at the cereal ingredient list, and avoid products with sugar or sugar synonyms as one of the top ingredients in the list. Look at the nutrition label and choose cereals that have less than 6g of sugar per serving and are high in fiber and low in sodium. If you have children that just must have their favorite brand, buy a similar non-sweetened cereal and mix.