Yesterday, Nathan Mhyrvold, an ex-Microsoft exec and all-around food nerd posted an excerpt of his new book Modernist Cuisine: The Art and Science of Cooking at The Guardian.

There, Mhyrvold talks about the “misconceptions of pork,” and how most of us cook the hell out of it, way beyond what’s needed to be safe. And for the most part, he’s right. In fact, the USDA just revised their standards for cooked pork, dropping the suggested internal temperature down from a cotton-mouthed 160 degrees to a succulent and juicy 145.

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As I start weighing the evidence for or against the raw milk movement, at least one thing seems clear: the government isn’t exactly friendly to the idea, as they mandate, and enforce, a lot of regulations in this space.

Three months ago, NPR reported that the FDA was cracking down on a Northern California dairy farm that makes the wildly popular, high-end ($20 per pound) Point Reyes Farmstead Cheese Company, an operation run by Jill Giacomini Basch and her sisters.

According to Basch, the sisters have never pasteurized their artisanal cheese, allowing it to keep a “farmy” taste (whatever that means). In the past, the FDA has stayed clear of the family’s farm, because Basch followed their protocol: age unpasteurized cheese for 60 days to kill any E. coli bacteria that’s camping among its ridges.

But after two large-scale raw milk-related recalls, the FDA got spooked. They second-guessed themselves, mumbling about whether 60 days was in fact long enough to kill the harmful bacteria. And now many farm owners are holding their breath to see what the government’s new standards will be, and whether the changes will run them out of business.

The second interesting thing I found is that once federal hurdles have been cleared, purveyors still have to deal with their individual state governments. And it’s not just cheeses, or the raw milk enthusiasts, that are under scrutiny.

Last week, The Economist told the story of Homa Dashtaki, an immigrant whose family came to the US from Iran in 1984. Embracing the foodie culture of California, Dashtaki decided to make and sell her father’s secret family recipe yogurt, the type of craft food you’d expect to find in an outside stand of a farmer’s market.

Though Dashtaki’s recipe calls the same processed milk that one can get in a gallon jug in any supermarket, the California Department of Food and Agriculture told her that the state’s code requires that everyone producing yogurt must have the equipment that’s needed to pasteurize their product. She explained that she was already using pasteurized milk, but they didn’t budge. Ultimately she gave in, conceding to their ridiculous requests. But the agency still wasn’t satisfied, because even with the equipment in hand, she would be re-pasteurizing pasteurized milk, which was also a violation of their antiquated rules.

So the rules prevent her from following the rules…yep, seems about right for government directives.

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Read post 1 here: So long, raw milk cheese
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Photo via Flickr / By DanBrady

The Associated Press reported today that a food distributor in Virginia will start tracking their beef from farm to table by monitoring a DNA tag.

The technique has already been used in Europe, but people certainly have high-hopes for its utility in the US:

[I]ndustry experts say being able to follow filet mignon, rib eye and other cuts of beef back to the ranch can pay off in multiple ways, including boosting consumer confidence, upping the value of a dinner, and cutting the time needed to track recalled meats.

And the company’s market research backed their belief that people are willing to pay a premium for what they consider a “value-add” product:

Tests the company did in some steakhouses it supplies, as well as surveys outside other restaurants, showed consumers were willing to pay $2 or $3 more for the same cut meat if various “pleasers” were added — a higher quality of meat, traceability, as well as how the animals were treated and fed.

Any bets on how long until there’s a tableside smartphone app tracing your dinner’s journey? Or maybe showing at which restaurants the remaining portions of the cow are located? Then there could be a Facebook group that will bring the remote eaters…ah, forget it.

In the Bay Area, investors are a dime a dozen. Credentials for the job must come as part of the Successful Entrepreneur Gift Pack handed out after an idea nets a 9-figure payday.

Relax. I’m only (half) joking.

Investors are the lifeblood of the startup culture. But just because their numbers are strong doesn’t mean that getting even 30 seconds of their time is easy, as I found out first-hand while peddling my own idea a few years back. But I was one of the lucky ones. No, my idea didn’t get funded, but I was fortunate to have a few seconds of their time and make a pitch.

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One of the biggest battles between strong scientific evidence and those with a downright pigheaded refusal to accept the facts isn’t happening inside a medical clinic, but in the dairy fields of Northern California.

Nothing screams “Foodie” like being a self-proclaimed artisanal cheese connoisseur. Don’t believe me? Check out the lines of people stacked three deep at your local Whole Foods cheese counter on a Saturday morning, all waiting to get their fill of a distinctly bold raw milk cheddar. Trust me, I know what I’m talking about; I’m the one more than likely pushing my way to the front of the line.

Considering the numerous store recalls on tainted cheeses, study after scientific study showing that pasteurization is the most effective way to keep dairy products safe, and, um, I don’t know, the fact that I’m trained as a scientist, some of you will say that I should know better. And you’re right.

I know where the evidence points. I just don’t heed the advice. Well, I didn’t, until now. So, I’m swearing off raw cheese until I conduct a full investigation of what the risks include. (Happy now?) And instead of writing a monster post, I’m thinking I’ll make this into a series. That way, I can incorporate the feedback I get from readers along the way. Plus there are too many avenues to explore and I don’t feel like organizing the structure of a long post. (Yes, I’ve also developed a newfound zeal for brutal honesty, effective immediately.)

I think I know how this one is going to end , but it will still be fun to see what I learn. And who knows, maybe someone else has the same questions.

Photo via Flickr / Royalty-free image collection

If the idea of triaging patients at the emergency room seems complicated, consider how public health officials prioritize threats posed by organisms they can’t even see. Yet the microscopic microbes and viruses that sicken millions of people with infectious diseases still require a plan of attack. As in any medical scenario, resources are limited. And whether it’s due to low staff numbers, not enough research dollars, or too few hours in the day, someone ultimately has to make the call on where to funnel assets.

In 1994, the World Health Organization started measuring the cumulative healthy years lost to disease with Disability Adjusted Life Years (DALY). And each infectious disease is currently ranked according to its DALY score, providing a numbered system to help guide the public health community in crafting a suitable approach to managing the myriad of diseases they face.

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How can the CDC make public health campaigns sexier?

One way: to release a top-ten list of the greatest achievements in public health, from triumphs over vaccine-preventable diseases to the boon in tobacco control programs.

The other: instead of releasing the dry, stale prose of a disaster preparedness fact sheet, build a website that tells people how to protect themselves from “zombies…or hurricanes or pandemics.”

The New York Times reported on the creative initiative by the CDC intended to get people’s attention, and get them ready for a disaster. And so far, it’s been doing quite well:

The blog post went up on Monday. “A typical post gets 1,000 hits,” Mr. Daigle said. “We got 10,000, then 30,000 on Tuesday, and then it crashed the server.”

Score one for the CDC on public engagement.

Photo via Flickr / aeviin

Donated blood is routinely screened for dangerous pathogens – things like HIV and Hepatitis – to make sure there is no threat to the recipient’s health during a transfusion. But a case study just published in The New England Journal of Medicine suggests that viruses are not the only hazards lurking in the collection bag.

The authors of the paper, a physician team from The Netherlands, reported that during a blood transfusion, the 6-year-old recipient suddenly burst out in a rash and started having difficulty breathing. Recognizing the boy was having an anaphylactic reaction, the doctors rescued him with a syringe of adrenaline.

The patient was definitely allergic to something, but quick tests showed that it was not due to latex glove sensitivity or an adverse reaction to a drug. Upon questioning, the boy’s mother recalled that he had a similar reaction after eating a few peanuts a few years back.

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When public health officials track the outbreak of a virus, like H1N1, it takes time to get the story right. They have to collect and assemble data from institutions scattered across the country, a process that can be, well, slow.

For instance, at the CDC’s FluView website, you can see statistics for influenza trends across the country. But today’s “weekly influenza report” was assembled with data from the week ending 7 May 2011. Or put another way, the latest information is already 11 days old.

It seems crazy that sometimes the information we desperately need is the most difficult to get, but it’s all too often true. You can up-to-the-minute details on the location of your neighborhood’s taco truck, but if you want flu data, you’ll have to wait about 2 weeks.

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In 2007/08, the work of Nicholas Christakis and James Fowler revealed that human behaviors, and even states of mind, tracked through social networks much like infectious disease.

Or put another way, both obesity and happiness worm their way into connected communities just like the latest internet meme, the best Charlie Sheen rumors, or the workplace gossip about Johnny falling down piss-drunk at the company’s holiday party.

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