Dennis is going to starve

There is a segment I never miss when reading the Nevada Daily Mail, "Dennis the Menace." It seems there are always bits of wisdom and insight from this daily cartoon character. I really relate to Dennis, and have done so since my youth. Dennis and I share a common fancy for a couple of food treats, peanut butter and catsup. I am seriously worried about Dennis and his health these days. This recent outbreak of "salmonella," in the nation's peanut butter supply, must certainly have affected his diet. Dennis is not alone in this looming national food tragedy.

I have talked to many people since the outbreak, who tell me that peanut butter is not only one of their favorite food treats, it is also one of their almost daily treats. Most of them sadly, have thrown away the peanut butter jars from their cabinets and refrigerators. Most likely, there was not one tainted jar here in Nevada. It would be interesting if we could find out just how many jars were thrown out. I heard that you could take your jar back to the grocery store and get a refund if it was the brand that was found to be infected. I would venture a wagering guess, that here in Nevada alone, there were at least a thousand jars that are now missing from local homes.

I looked up "salmonella" on the internet. According to CNN, the most common cause of this bacterial growth comes from animal droppings, especially from birds. If you remember a few months ago, spinach and lettuce from fields out west got infected this way. The problem for the government's scientists, is to determine how the peanuts got the disease? In the same news article, the companies involved in the current problem, had no idea how it happened. They say that in the process of making the peanut butter, the peanut mixture is heated to a high temperature that kills all the germs including "salmonella." At this early stage of the investigation, the most likely cause will be from contamination in jars or equipment, at the canning factories. There was a similar outbreak in Latin America back in the mid '90s, which was caused by dirty jars. Makes you wonder how many of our other canned foods are safe doesn't it? There is nothing new in this story. The history of problems in the storage and preparation of food is long and painful. In the early 1900s one of America's greatest writers Upton Sinclair, became a leader in the fight to make our foods safer.

His most famous work was "The Jungle." In this book he related the ghastly stories of America's canning industry. His exposure of the terrible unsanitary conditions in these factories led to several new laws.

The first two laws were enacted in 1906. The "Meat Inspection Act" and the "Pure Food and Drug Act," helped to clean up these industries. These acts also created the Food and Drug Administration to regulate these laws. The more I read about this subject, the more it worried me. Like most of you, I buy what I eat from a grocery store or a food vendor. I place my trust in these businesses, that the products they are selling me, are not harmful for human consumption. When I go to the pharmacy, I get prescriptions, which I assume the FDA has approved, as safe for me to take. Is this true? I can't answer that question. We consume so many products these days, that it is difficult to be sure if they are all safe. We get mountains of products from other countries each day. I wonder if these are all checked and verified? It is like driving on the highway. Every time you leave your home, you are at risk to be involved in an accident. Well each time you put something in your mouth that you did not personally prepare, you are taking just as much of a chance. When I was a kid, I remember that in both of my grandparents' homes, they used a common household item, the table cloth. After a meal, much of the food was left on the table, covered only by a cloth. How many of you have similar memories? I wonder how many of our ancestors got sick or died from food poisoning? I suspect there were many cases, and most of the time the cause was never connected to what they ate. How many of you have had an experience of what you thought was food poisoning? I imagine that almost all of you have similar disgusting tales. I guess I better quit worrying so much. After all, if I let my imagination and fears get the best of me, I will never eat peanut butter again. Like Dennis, that prospect is worse than my fear of peanut butter safety. By the way, have you ever had catsup on your peanut butter sandwich?