OTHER OPINIONS : Know where your food started
Posted on Friday, October 10, 2008
Federal legislation prompted by a spate of food-safety scares, some of them deadly, took effect recently. … It will require labels identifying the country of origin of fresh fruit, vegetables, nuts, meats and frozen produce. Seafood origin has been labeled since 2005. …
While this law is a good beginning, more can be done.
Food and other goods from some countries have been the source of so many incidents that the mere mention of the country's name can cause alarm, as in the case of China.
While the country-of-origin label might unfairly taint some harmless goods, consumers have a right to know where food was produced and then decide for themselves. …
Given a choice between apples grown in China, which produces 35 percent of the world's supply, and those grown in upstate New York, many consumers might prefer the latter, even if they have to pay more for them. The labeling law is not perfect, and it doesn't cover everything. … Ultimately, the goal must be to improve food safety worldwide. Education, tighter food-handling rules and other precautions are needed to prevent food-borne illnesses. … To do so would require expanding the role of the Food and Drug Administration, which often finds itself reacting to deadly outbreaks instead of having the tools to prevent them. - The Star-Ledger (Newark, N. J. )
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