Comments on: Big Government, Big Business, and artisanal food

By: Deoxy

Deoxy — Tue, 25 Sep 2007 10:03:51 +0000

OBQuiet,

I ate raw mexican cheese literally for years at a local food establishment… and then it was no longer available.

No one complained about getting sick from it, it just had to go away.

The list of dangerous, active bacteria in many foods is scary, but people manage to not notice, generally speaking…

By: OBQuiet

OBQuiet — Mon, 24 Sep 2007 13:12:37 +0000

I’ll have to check with her later but my wife worked for the USDA and did some research on local,raw Mexican cheeses(your tax dollar at work).
The list of dangerous, active bacteria in them was scary.

It may have been a coincidence, but while my wife was doing this study, a coworker of mine visited Mexico and told me just how wonderful the local cheeses were. She had just gotten back work after a week at home sick as a dog following her vacation.

I’m not the microbiologist, but there is a reason we pasteurize dairy products. If there are safe alternatives, ok, but you cannot just dispense with pasteurization.

By: Ted

Ted — Sun, 23 Sep 2007 05:22:23 +0000

Cheese, too. Pasteurization requirements keeps some of the best raw cheese out of America.

It doesn’t begin to compare to cost of Sarbanes-Oxley in creating a barrier to entry.

By: Jack Payne

Jack Payne — Sat, 22 Sep 2007 17:09:35 +0000

True, the big food processors march to a different drummer. I keep waiting for one of them to trip themselve up, by putting a green label on a canned meat–something like that. But, alas, they neve seem to. And, you’re right, they do have the ear of Mother Hen Government.

I’ve been writing on con men for the past 45 years, and some of Big Foods’ tactics are very similar.