Eideard

Holiday greetings from a salmonella culture

A Texas distributor has expanded a recall already involving thousands of cases of produce over fears of salmonella cross-contamination in its processing facility…

The “precautionary, voluntary recall” pertains to cilantro and parsley packed between November 30 and December 6, the Edinburg, Texas-based company said in a statement. The produce…processed and branded as Little Bear between those dates can be taken to retailers for a full refund.

The company is also recalling 19 other types of produce that were run on the same packing lines, because the salmonella may have spread to those products as well.

“It’s imperative to protect public health, even if that means being overzealous in expanding the scope of the products we’re calling back,” said James Bassetti, president of J&D Produce. “We will work closely with regulators, health officials and our customers in bringing back the products.”

No one has reported getting sick from eating the vegetables, according to J&D Produce…

The company’s products are sold retail as well as to wholesalers, who may then distribute them to restaurants and other establishments, according to Sharon McNerney, a public relations consultant for the company…

In addition to cilantro and parsley, the Texas company gathers, packs and distributes a variety of fruits and vegetables such as carrots, limes, eggplants, peppers, greens, onions, melons, mangoes and asparagus, according to its website.

You can find a listing of the recalled produce over here at the company’s website.

Sensible folks work at getting people to eat more veggies. It’s painful to provide another excuse for those who would copout on decent nutrition.

The author of a children’s cookbook cannot copyright ideas for slipping vegetables into children’s food, a federal appeals court said in upholding a ruling in favor of the wife of comedian Jerry Seinfeld in a copyright infringement case.

Jessica Seinfeld wrote a cookbook, “Deceptively Delicious,” offering tips that were similar to those of author Missy Chase Lapine, author of “The Sneaky Chef.” Lapine sued, claiming that Seinfeld had stolen the ideas.

In a ruling announced Wednesday, the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a lower court’s judgment there was no copyright infringement.

“Stockpiling vegetable purees for covert use in children’s food is an idea that cannot be copyrighted,” the court said in its decision.

Seinfeld’s attorney, Orin Snyder, called Lapine’s accusations “an abuse of the judicial system.”

“Two different courts have now seen through these false allegations, and that is why this case has been definitively thrown out of court,” he said in a statement.

Overdue.

Laser labeling of fruit and vegetables is a new, patented technology in which a low-energy carbon dioxide laser beam is used to label, or “etch” information on produce, thereby eliminating the need for common sticker-type labels.

The technology has been licensed for use on a variety of fruits and vegetables and is being used in New Zealand, Australia, and Pacific Rim countries. It has been been approved in Asia, South Africa, Central and South America, Canada, and the European Union. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is in the final stages of approving the use of laser etching in the United States.

Of course. We’ll figure it out after the licensing and royalties are sorted.

During commercial production, citrus fruit is waxed before being labeled, packed, stored, and transported. Whereas common sticker-type labels do not deteriorate during storage, researchers postulated that water loss resulting from laser etching may distort the physical appearance of the fruit’s surface, making it less effective and appealing…

The researchers concluded that, when compared with sticker-labeled fruit, laser etching provides a relatively tamper-free labeling method, while “the fruit quality remains high as the invasion of the epidermis does not incite decay, provide an avenue for food pathogens, and water loss is easily controlled. The technology will offer the grapefruit industry a safe alternative to adhesive sticker labeling without enhancing decay susceptibility.”

I wonder who will be the first to start laser-etching a logo – or a sales message.

Or politics. Florida lemons that say, “Pucker up for Jeb Bush!”

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Nice, natural geometry of stacked and arranged veggies.