HVP: Biggest Food Recall in U.S. History?

Isn't it Time to Stop Eating Processed Foods?

From Care2

by Melissa Breyer

'We will now attempt to scare you into walking away from the processed food. Why? Well for many reasons, but here is one that is immediately compelling. Thousands of types of processed foods–including many varieties of soups, chips, frozen dinners, hot dogs and salad dressings–may pose a health threat because they contain a flavor enhancer that could be contaminated with salmonella. Manufacturers have voluntarily recalled 56 products, and that number is expected to balloon in the coming weeks into what could be one of the largest food recalls in U.S. history.

The salmonella was found last month in the flavor enhancer, hydrolyzed vegetable protein (HVP), made by Basic Food Flavors, as well as inside the company’s Nevada manufacturing facility, according to the FDA. The company has an extensive customer list of manufacturers who use the powder or paste to enhance savory flavor–it is similar to monosodium glutamate.

“We don’t know precisely how large this recall will get,” said Jeff Farrar, associate commissioner for food protection at the FDA. “The potential amount of products . . . is very large.”

The contamination is believed to date to September 2009, with millions of pounds of potentially tainted HVP–all of which the company has recalled–shipped in bulk to foodmakers over five months. Many of those companies then sold their products to other clients, complicating the chain and making it hard for federal officials to assess the scale of the problem.

According to the Washington Post, the company at the heart of the problem knew that its plant was contaminated with salmonella but continued to make the flavoring and sell it to foodmakers around the country. Federal officials were alerted to a problem with Basic Food Flavors in early February and sent inspectors to the plant within days of the complaint.

They documented dirty utensils and equipment–mixers and tubing coated with brown residue–and cracks and fractures in the floor, as well as standing water on the floor–all conditions where bacteria can breed. In one area where paste mixers and belt dryers were positioned, FDA inspectors noted “standing, grey/black liquid” in the drain near the area where the hydrolyzed vegetable protein was turned from paste to powder. “We sensed an odor in the vicinity of this drain,” the inspectors wrote. Enough said?

'The FDA has posted on its Web site a searchable list of products being recalled by manufacturers. It can be found HERE.

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Depression link to processed food

Brian Godfrey: 'I gradually got rid of foods that were causing the problem'

'Eating a diet high in processed food increases the risk of depression, research suggests.

What is more, people who ate plenty of vegetables, fruit and fish actually had a lower risk of depression, the University College London team found.

Data on diet among 3,500 middle-aged civil servants was compared with depression five years later, the British Journal of Psychiatry reported.

'The team said the study was the first to look at the UK diet and depression.

They split the participants into two types of diet – those who ate a diet largely based on whole foods, which includes lots of fruit, vegetables and fish, and those who ate a mainly processed food diet, such as sweetened desserts, fried food, processed meat, refined grains and high-fat dairy products.

After accounting for factors such as gender, age, education, physical activity, smoking habits and chronic diseases, they found a significant difference in future depression risk with the different diets.

Those who ate the most whole foods had a 26% lower risk of future depression than those who at the least whole foods.'

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