Friday, October 3, 2008

The FDA Saved My Grocery List!

Good news, mamas: A tiny bit of melamine in food is O.K.! (They didn’t say “safe,” but “O.K.” is good enough for me.)

After hearing about the babies dying in China, I was actually starting to worry about our global food economy. Remember when all those animals died last year from melamine-laced Chinese pet food? Or when we found loads of drugs and contaminants in Chinese seafood? (The lead-tainted toys are a topic for another time. Toys are only toxic if babies put them in their mouths. Oh wait…)

Thank goodness the Food and Drug Administration is on top of it. The FDA will only allow the wee bit of melamine that enters food through normal factory processing to grace our shores. And they won’t allow any melamine in baby formula! Why? “There is too much uncertainty to set a level in infant formula and rule out any public health concern.” I almost get choked up thinking about how much the FDA cares about our babies.

Anyway, I'm just glad that I don’t have to worry about these things. For a while, I was thinking, “Oh my gosh! Maybe I should buy real food grown by local farmers instead of industrialized food crap grown in foreign countries and transferred through God knows how many ports and processing plants!”

I know what you’re thinking: “Move to Canada, you naïve, idealistic liberal!” Touché.

Thankfully, the FDA has changed my tune and turned me back into global food consumer. Sometimes I wonder how that pet food ever got past those guys. And did they ever figure out the source of those contaminated tomatoes/peppers/whatever? Hmmm...

Oh well, I’m not supposed to think. I'm a mom. I’m supposed to shop! In fact, shopping is my civic duty. And what's more patriotic than buying food that's grown and processed in foreign countries? Some products might even contain soy lecithin or high-fructose corn syrup derived from commodity crops grown right here in Minnesota.

God, help America!

Ooops!

I mean, God bless America!

-Angie

1 comment:

Sarah said...

Most Excellent! As always, the FDA puts my mind at ease...

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