Safety Of Food Ingredients

Report: Industry Determines Safety Of Food Ingredients- Associated Press- October 27, 2011

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Thousands of ingredients that go into food have been classified as safe by private industry alone, without any U.S. government oversight, according to a new report published Wednesday. 

 Since the early 1960's, private companies and industry trade associations have determined at least 3,000 ingredients are safe, with no federal scrutiny, the study found. The ingredients include everything from artificially synthesized chemicals used in chewing gum to grape seed extract used in cheese and instant coffee.

Oilve Oil- "liquid gold" or adulterated?

Olive oil, or "liquid gold," has been produced in California since well before the 49ers arrived. Yet as of now, only 2 percent of olive oil consumed in the U.S. is produced here. The California Olive Oil Council and its members are looking to change that.

Brocolli-"No florets"? No infestation? priced right?

British Scientists Grow Super Broccoli- October 26, 2011


LONDON (AP) -- Popeye might want to consider switching to broccoli. British scientists recently unveiled a new breed of the vegetable that experts say packs a big nutritional punch. The new broccoli was specially grown to contain two to three times the normal amount of glucoraphanin, a nutrient believed to help ward off heart disease.


"Vegetables are a medicine cabinet already," said Richard Mithen, who led the team of scientists at the Institute for Food Research in Norwich, England, that developed the new broccoli. "When you eat this broccoli ... you get a reduction in cholesterol in your blood stream," he told Associated Press Television.
Glucoraphanin works by breaking fat down in the body, preventing it from clogging the arteries. It is only found in broccoli in significant amounts.

Who's teffilin & mezuzohs did the Sofer return to you?

UPDATE: It is more common than most think.

Who's tefilin & mezuzohs did  the Sofer return to you?

It's all too common for a Sofer to receive from numerous people their teffilin & or Mezuzohs to check at the same time.

The tefilin & or Mezuzohs when opened contain many different individual items from numerous different people, all of looks basically the same.

Do they get mixed up? Yes!
You paid a lot of money for your teffilin& Mezuzohs, now you got someone else's.

What system does the sofer have to prevent even the slightest chance of a mix up? Verify 100%

You can help solve the Treif טריף milk issue.

http://yudelstake.blogspot.com/2007/07/cholov-stam-cholov-akum-cholov-treife.html

Due to the Veterinary procedures on cows, many of the cows are actualy treif טריף. Milk from a treif cow is not kosher-this has nothing to do with Cholov-akum חלב עכו"ם. In the USA practically speaking there isn't Shishim on any farm, the treif cows ranges from 3% to 8% on the average. On the Cholov yisroel farms they remove all of those procedured cows. Hence all Cholov akum milk in the USA may be Cholov-Treif and not be permitted.

The farmers association realize that there is an over supply of milk on the market and that supresses the price the farmers receive. In order to keep prices of milk higher they at times remove a certain amount of milking cows in order to create some shortage. "SEE FOLLOWING ARTICLE".

The consumers should contact the kosher certifiers to ask the "CWT" to remove on a constant basis the procedured or treif cows, the price of milk in the USA would stabilize & we would eliminate the Treif Milk from the market. Then all those that want to rely on the various leniencies re: cholov akum can do so.

BTW- In some countries e.g. Germany, all procedured cows are removed permanently from the milking herds.

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5/13/2009 2:00:00 PM -Dairy Update: CWT To Remove More Than 100,000 Cowshttp://www.cattlenetwork.com/bayer_Content.asp?ContentID=314544

The dairy industry’s self-help program, Cooperatives Working Together (CWT), announced today that it has tentatively accepted 388 bids representing 102,898 cows and 2 billion pounds of milk production capacity. CWT officials will now begin the task of culling or “retiring” that many cows from the nation’s dairy herd.

It is the first in a series of herd-retirements planned over the next 12 months. The number of cows and pounds of milk represent the largest single herd-retirement carried out in the six-year history of CWT.

Dairy farmers in 41 states submitted a total of 538 herd-retirement bids by the May 1 deadline. The 388 bids tentatively accepted represent 72 percent of the total bids received by CWT. The number of cows now scheduled to be removed account for 64 percent of the total number of cows offered and the 2 billion pounds of milk account for 67 percent of the milk production offered.

“The high percentage of bids CWT selected this time around is an indication that producers understood that CWT would only be able to accept reasonable bids per hundred pounds of milk in order to adjust the nation’s dairy herd and better align supply and demand,” said Jerry Kozak, president and CEO of the National Milk Producers Federation, which administers CWT.

Starting next week, CWT field auditors will begin visiting the 388 farms whose bids were accepted, checking their milk-production records, inspecting their herds, and tagging each cow for processing. All farms should be audited by early July and cows should begin moving off dairies by late May. All bidders will be notified no later than June 12 as to whether their bid was among those accepted.

“The bids selected ranged from farms with fewer than 50 cows to dairies with over 5,000, demonstrating that farms of all sizes in all areas are facing a very difficult year in 2009,” Kozak said. “Those that took advantage of CWT’s offer to retire their herds will aid others still wanting to farm by reducing the amount of milk coming to market and strengthening prices going forward.”

“CWT, thanks to the commitment of 36 cooperative members and over 500 individual dairy farmer members, has the resources to carry out additional herd-retirements in the coming months. That is why CWT will not announce the average level of the bids accepted until all the herd-retirements are completed,” Kozak noted. “We will continue to monitor key economic indicators in order to determine the right time to implement the next herd-retirement.”

Since 2003, CWT has been responsible for culling 285,717 cows through its herd-retirement program. It has also provided export assistance.

Its efforts have been made more imperative in recent months, due to the low milk prices received by dairy producers. Officials hope that removing thousands of cows will help bring supply and demand into better balance.