“Chinese chicken” will soon have a whole new meaning thanks to a recent move by the USDA. While it has nothing to do with tasty sauces or sesame seeds, the news has everything to do with take-out as the USDA recently gave the green-light to four chicken processing plants in China, allowing chicken grown in the U.S. to be exported to China for processing and then shipped back to the U.S. and sold on grocery shelves here. (No word on proper tipping etiquette when your delivery comes via container ship.)
This news left me with two major questions:
1. Who is General Tso anyhow and what did he do to deserve such a tasty dish named after him?
2. If we can’t even safely leave chicken out for the length of a family picnic, how can it be shipped halfway around the world and back with no ill effects? (I swear one of my family’s favorite games at family reunions is “Guess how long the food’s been sitting out?” closely followed by “It’s your turn to clean up.”)
Since I can’t be bothered to Google the first question, I decided to focus on the answer to the second one when I interviewed Arianne Perkins, USDA public affairs specialist, for a recent Shape story. I mean, the logistics of such a thing are a little hard to imagine – unless we’ve finally invented Star Trek transporters and I wasn’t paying attention? But the USDA is trying (hard) to reassure both chicken farmers and consumers that the process is 100% safe. “The FSIS’ number one priority is always food safety,” Perkins says. In the official memo they say that “all outstanding issues have been resolved” – a pretty big promise considering that in the past year alone China has made news for passing off rat meat as mutton, selling sausages filled with maggots, inexplicably finding thousands of dead pigs floating in the waters of Shanghai and even having an outbreak of the H7N9 bird flu in live poultry.
My sense of unease deepened when another official, so far off the record I couldn’t remember his/her name if you pistol-whipped me with a drum stick, commented dryly that the government shutdown and subsequent cessation of inspections by the US Food and Drug Administration shouldn’t worry consumers… because even when they’re “working” the new food inspection guidelines are basically worse than nothing.
He’s referring to the other recent decision by the USDA to change up their meat inspection guidelines, removing independent inspectors and giving that power back to the food companies. cough::foxinthehenhouse::cough One of the many ways this is supposed to save money is to “cut the number of poultry inspectors by increasing the use of antimicrobial sprays to control bacteria.” This means that instead of visually inspecting meat they’re hosing our chicken down with chlorine and hoping it will compensate for any incidental “feces and pus”, also known as the “spray and pray” method according to Daily Finance. My source went on to elaborate on how much of a chicken can be covered in pustules and scabs and still considered “clean” and how even tumors can get “repurposed.”
He apologized for grossing me out but clearly he didn’t know to whom he was speaking: I am the Queen of the Iron Gut. Thanks to a lucky combo of good genes*, a generally safe food supply and, well, dumb luck, I hardly ever get the pukes. (At least not from being sick. The irony is that when I have panic attacks – which I do with some frequency – I quite often vomit.) So while some people might get creeped out by all these food horror stories, it turns out that sharing nauseous narratives is one of my favorite pastimes!
My personal favorite story is also my Worst First Date Ever story. The poor boy took me on a romantic picnic in the mountains and romantically fed me Subway sandwiches that had been incubating bacteria (that had been engaging in bacterial romantic reproductive activities) in his warm car all day. I felt fine until halfway through the Homecoming Dance at which point I romantically puked so much I had to go to the E.R. Nothing says young romance like an IV! To this day I can’t even stand the smell of a Subway restaurant and pretty much avoid all hoagie sandwiches of any variety.
Of course I’m not the only one with a good food poisoning story. Food poisoning is basically a right of passage for being human on this planet. Indeed, Truth-Out.org recently reported that Americans are 110 times more likely to die from food poisoning than terrorism – “We have more to fear from contaminated cantaloupe than Al-Qaeda”. (Side note: what does it say about our national consciousness that we compare every risky thing to terrorism?) But before vegetarians start to get too comfy, it’s not just hinky meat that’s doing people in – contaminated produce has played a large part in recent food recalls of everything from berries to peanut butter to spinach. In 2011 food-born pathogens sickened 48.7 million people, hospitalized 127,839 and caused a total of 3,037 deaths.
And to think I don’t even wash my apples! I know, I’m gross. Partly because I’m lazy but also partly because I think that a 3-second swipe under the faucet probably isn’t going to get off that many germs. On the flip side, I have friends that scrub their produce religiously with one of those special “fruit and veggie” soaps. It turns out we’re both doing it wrong. According to a 2010 study, rinsing produce under tap water reduced the amount of pathogens just as well as using a special produce soap or regular dish soap. (Are there people who are really using Palmolive to wash their olives?!) The scientists said it was the friction – the act of rubbing the produce under running water – that did the trick, not whatever you put on it. Oh, and you have to rinse it for a whole minute.
Want to get your produce even cleaner? Here’s a neat tip: The researchers found that using a solution of 10% white vinegar reduced bacteria by 90 percent and viruses by about 95 percent! Sure your produce will smell like vinegar but if you’re making a salad then your dressing is half done! This was even more effective than peeling unwashed produce as the cutting of the knife brings surface bacteria into the food. (Note: This will, unfortunately, do nothing for pathogens that are inside the produce like the recent salmonella outbreak where the germ had actually been taken up by the spinach plant into its leaves.)
(Tangentially related: You all read that rinsing off your raw chicken before you cook it actually spreads more germs around than if you just leave it as is? Yes. Watch this gross-out video if you don’t believe me. Stop rinsing your chicken in your sink! And also, don’t put raw meat down your disposal – you basically turn it into a salmonella-scented air freshener.)
So yeah, no more chicken hot tub parties you sick-o.
How much do you worry about food poisoning? Do you wash your produce? And: What’s your best food poisoning story?? Do you have a food that you can’t stand the sight of now since you puked it up once?
*Thanks to my 23andme genetic test I discovered I’m in the fortunate 2% of the population who is naturally resistant to Norovirus, also known as the cruise ship illness where puke fountains become more plentiful than chocolate ones.
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I wash my veges with OLC (Nutrimetics Organic Liquid Cleanser). I tend to soak them and then give them a scrub and a rinse. I eat seafood (no meat/poultry) and I’ve had a couple of food poisonings from that. My last one was about 6 months ago. I bought an octopus salad from a seafood place near where I live. It was not good, and now I can’t even think about going into that shop without wanting to throw up. I haven’t eaten octopus since then.
I no longer buy seafood salads and will only buy Australian seafood (I’m in Australia).
I’ve never considered food poisoning from veges and fruit. I wash them because of the pesticides, and other people in the store handling them. The percentage of people who don’t wash their hands after using the loo is horrifying ! Also if you watch people grocery shopping they’ll cover their mouth with their hand when they cough (if you’re lucky) and then use that hand to handle the produce.
Now I’m getting a little concerned that I’m turning into a germ-phobe !
I have been pretty lucky and only had one bout of food poisoning that I am aware of (knock on wood!). It was when I was in professional school and ate sausage at an Octoberfest. Here is a link to a TED talk that talks about General Tso’s chicken. http://www.ted.com/talks/jennifer_8_lee_looks_for_general_tso.html
I out lazy you. I rarely wash apples before I eat them. I usually just wrap them up in the end of my shirt and polish them. If the stem hole looks dirty, I’ll cram a bit of paper towel in there to wipe out the dust. I only wash if they feel extra waxy (but I tend to buy the organic apples so they have less wax). I do wash grapes mostly to rinse off all the dust and bits of dead stems (and any bugs). I never wash any produce that I remove the skin (oranges/banana).
That chicken info is so gross. Makes me glad I get my chicken from a local butcher who gets the birds from a local farm. Yes, I might find a feather now and again but I’ll take it over Mystery Schmeat that’s logged more travel time than the folks on the Amazing Race.
Are they going to label the “Chinese Chicken” so I can avoid buying it? Kind of makes me want to be a vegetarian. Like you, I have a stomach of steel and typically only barf when pregnant but I did get some horrendous food poisoning when I was in a small town on the shore of Lake Titicaca in Peru. I seriously thought I might die and I wasn’t sure which was more frightening, sudden death or the prospect of visiting a “doctor” in Puno Peru. My husband and I also got sick from a local restaurant (in Denver, serves Italian food, starts with a P) and it was the salad that did us in.
I know from personal experience, and 23 and me confirms, that I succumb easily to norovirus.
But as to germs on food… eh, I don’t worry much about it. I’m probably being stupid, but if produce is organic and doesn’t have pesticide residue, I’m really lazy about washing it. I may rinse, but sometimes not even that if it’s something I don’t want wet and don’t want to have to bother to dry. I also use the five second rule for dropped food, shun hand sanitizers at supermarkets, and don’t get particularly freaked out at the latest news story saying cell phones, water fountains, purses, steering wheels, or whatever are more bacteria-laden than toilets. I figure my immune system needs a work out in order to stay in shape, so I give it plenty of exposure to pathogens and they ain’t killed me yet.
But again, I’m probably being dumb about it…
I’m the same as you re hand sanitizers, phones etc – that makes me feel better because I’m obviously not turning into a germ-phobe 🙂
Thanks !
A few years ago, norovirus took out almost half of the 50 people in our company. When I called in sick, they told me I was the 17th person to do so. Three people ended up in the hospital. The cause was a contaminated water cooler. I’ve since had norovirus once more, likely from food that sat out too long (at work). Norovirus is nasty and I’ve now become a bit paranoid about the cleanliness of my food.
My mom, a retired nurse, sanitizes her edibles by soaking them in salt water, so my son and I get salty grapes, strawberries, etc., from her. She insists that she rinses them, but the saltiness persists.
I just wash things best as I can and try to buy fresh food and not worry too much about it. I admit I’m terrible for not washing lettuce but everything else I try to do clean them off. Working in a lab I just wash my hands a lot and for the most part I am OK.
I am leery about street food vendors though. I tend to have an iron stomach, but I bought some spring rolls a few years ago at a Fringe Festival and got food poisoning -to this day I can’t enjoy them. Happened with pizza too, but I just don’t eat pepperoni mushroom pizza anymore and my brain is OK with that 🙂
I pick fruit off trees/bushes and eat it without thinking 😛 I don’t make a big deal out of washing vegetables, and I’ve only gotten food poisoning maybe twice. Maybe I just have a high tolerance for sketchy food; maybe I’ve just happened to get lucky.
I am also one of the folks with the natural norovirus resistance. I’ve only gotten it once ever…and man was that a horrible experience. Luckily, it wasn’t on vacation!
I remember getting food poisoning x2 because I didn’t learn the first time around, stupid.
There was a jar of questionable mustard in my fridge… And who knows how long it had been there. Yeah, typically mustard doesn’t really go bad, ever… But this was contained eggs because it was some sort of fancy garlic, mustard aoli thing. It sounded super delicious so I was eating it with cabbage one day. Well the next day. Wow. I couldn’t even get up. I was plagued to my bed and just wanted to die. Finally I started feeling better the following day (chicken – free range, PAHHHLEEZE!, soup helped A TON)… However, a few months later, I tried the mustard again, because I guess I didn’t really think that that was what caused my problems (which is why it was still on the fridge door shelf) and WHAT DO YOU KNOW. A repeat experience. Lets just say that jar of mustard went straight to the trash, after I could even stomach looking at it again! lol
I hadn’t felt well all night but it was Boxing Day morning and we were going to the second biggest mall in Canada. You can imagine the line up for the washrooms. I just shoved by everybody and destroyed one stall. There was not enough toilet paper to clean it all up. I can not imagine the poor woman in the surrounding stalls. The horror!! Well I thought that was it and I would be fine. I climbed on a crowded escalator going down and started making noises. I looked over the side, but there was hundreds of people below. I looked up and saw the horror on the faces of the people in front of me that could hear me. Well I’m a polite Canadian girl so I threw up into the neck hole of my sweater and down my front on the inside of the sweater. After that sacrifice wouldn’t you know it I got a lecture from an older woman about being drunk!
OMG.
Maybe we can all just be fed intravenously? I’ve seen women in LA do this. Of course, they walk around looking like they have unwiped snot on their nose, but they’re alive!
Food poisoning doesn’t concern me, just food spoilage. I give my berries a 5 minute soak in 1:10 vinegar:water solution in my sink while I put away the other produce. This keeps ’em from moulding on me before the week is out. I don’t bother for most other things except lettuces as I’m prepping them for use (same routine plus a ride in the salad spinner at the end). Veg from my garden gets a quick dousing with cold water and then the muddy water is fed to my house plants. Water from boiling or blanching veg is also cooled and fed to my plants. Waste not after all. 🙂
Just a quick note FYI. Researchers have proven that e coli germs can get sucked into the roots of spinach plants, but the germs can’t make it up into the leaves of a plant grown in dirt. The hydroponic spinach they tested did have a couple of e coli germs found in the vascular system of the leaves, but it was at such a small level that it would not normally be able to cause illness. Most likely when people get sick from eating greens it’s from improperly composted manure and water splashing up on the leaves. The research was done in 2011, so no worries about it being contaminated from the inside out! Yay! (?)
Thanks for this – I no longer have to squint suspiciously at my spinach before I eat it, especially since I eat a lot of it raw.
I avoid most of the meat as soon as I read the label and find out it is made in China or packed in China. This has been my principle for a long time. I just do not feel to buy food or meat from China.
I can’t believe they are shipping chicken back and forward between the USA and China. GROSS. And spray meat with chlorine. Oh I’m sure there is so much more creepy stuff they do to food too.
Ok then, as if I wasn’t grossed out before, I certainly am now. Is candy on the pyramid? Ha! Guess it’s all relative.
One year I went to visit my parents in SC for the holidays. I was 21 and my sister knew a bartender who gave us free drinks all night on new year’s eve. I was so sick.
I learned my lesson though,and the next year vowed not to drink anything. The whole family went out for seafood on new year’s eve, and I got twice as sick as the year before!
Shipping chicken back and forth to China is disturbing on so many levels
Ewwwww. Yeah, this does make me glad I’m a vegetarian! I mean of course most things can get contaminated but I swear all the worst ones are on meat. And Chinese chicken? That’s awful. Blech! So glad I don’t have to worry about pustules and rat meat. Nasty, nasty.
Although I haven’t had genetic testing I would bet I can’t get norovirus. To my knowledge I’ve never had food poisoning. I’m the girl who has only thrown up twice in the last 15 years. Once could have MAYBE been food poisoning but based on how people describe food poisoning I kind of doubt it. And I’m the worst at “food safety”. I sometimes rinse my produce for a few seconds but mostly not. I’ve also frequently been know to eat things like cottage cheese that expired months ago as long as it’s still sealed or bread from a loaf where a slice or two at the other end has a little mold. (I’m still a little neurotic about wasting food from my ED days.) I’m also not so great about remembering hand sanitizer, etc. I guess I just don’t have the energy to be neurotic about these things since I seem to do pretty well with my current lifestyle.
Umm… What the heck is happening to our government? If putting people’s health and safety behind saving money, then are they really doing their jobs? -____- forget food poisoning, I don’t want to get any E. coli or any other crap that might result on top of the hormone injections!
Dammit, I love chickens too! I don’t know if I can keep eating them now…
I don’t have any hard data here, but as someone who lives in Southeast Asia (Singapore), I can say that there’s a local stigma about eating food that comes in from China. Namely, don’t buy meat from China, and if you buy veggies from China, wash and peel them. Always. People’s opinions vary on the purchase of other packaged food, but we generally avoid it whenever possible.
I can only cross my fingers that items from Malaysia and Thailand are better – otherwise I’m in trouble!