Consumer Reports: How dangerous bacteria travel from farm to table

This easy to understand graphic appears in the January 2016 issue of Consumer Reports, a magazine that has taken the lead on trying "to stop the antibiotic overuse in meat and poultry production that gives rise to dangerous bacteria."

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

You could say the story of how dangerous bacteria gets from the factory farm to your table is full of shit -- or manure, if you prefer a more polite word.

The story begins on farms where healthy animals "are routinely given antibiotics in their food and/or water," and "bacteria that's present in the animals' intestine react with the antibiotics," Consumer Reports says.

"Some of the bacteria are killed, but a few survive. Those resistant bacteria flourish."

In the final part of a three-part series, the magazine traces bacteria that are resistant to antibiotics as animals excrete it in manure, and how the bacteria can be spread to the community.

Many carriers

In the January 2016 issue, the magazine's editors note resistant bacteria or superbugs spread:

"Via soil, when animal waste is used to fertilize crops; via water, when waste seeps into groundwater; and via air, when bacteria are carried by the wind."

Also, "via farmworkers, who pick up the bacteria on their skin and transfer it when they come into contact with other people; and via flies, which carry bacteria they have picked up on the farm."

During slaughter

Even scarier, "resistant bacteria can also contaminate raw meat during slaughter or processing" in a number of ways.

"Plant workers can pick up bacteria on their skin and transfer it to the meat or to other people," and "raw meat sold in supermarkets may contain bacteria that may infect people who handle or eat it."

The bottom line is that people become ill with antibiotic-resistant infections, and some die.

See: The Rise of Superbugs

Factory farms

Nowhere are antibiotics "more inappropriately employed than in the meat and poultry industries," according to Consumer Reports.

"Abut 80 percent  of the antibiotics sold in the U.S. are give to animals raised for food -- including hogs, cattle, chickens and turkeys.

"The most recent data from the Food and Drug Administration show that more 32 million pounds of antibiotics were sold for use food animals in the U.S. in 2013 -- up 17 percent from just four years earlier."

About 20 percent of people sickened by an antibiotic-resistant bug don't pick it up in the hospital or from another person -- they get it from food."

Best practices

The article contains two lists showing which chain restaurants, and meat and poultry producers use human and animal antibiotics, and which don't.

I was surprised to learn that Coleman Natural and Niman Ranch, two brands known for organic or naturally raised meat and poultry, are owned by Perdue, which uses antibiotics widely.

The only chains that ban antibiotics for growth promotion and disease prevention, as well as other drugs, are Chipotle Mexican Grill and Panera Bread (beef, chicken, pork and roasted turkey).

What you can do

I've stopped eating meat and poultry altogether, but other family members look for organic or antibiotic-free beef, chicken and turkey.

When I buy seafood, I look for wild-caught fish and shrimp or farmed fillets that are raised without antibiotics. 

A flock of rotisserie chickens that beat Costco Wholesale's quality

Whole Foods Market in Paramus offers a naturally raised rotisserie chicken for $8.99 or two for $14.98. The 2-pound, antibiotic-free chickens are available plain, with salt and pepper, and Tandoori-style. Whole Foods also sells organic rotisserie chickens, but I didn't see any today. 

The ingredients label on Whole Foods' antibiotic-free Simple Rotisserie Chicken is short and sweet ("chicken, salt, pepper") compared to the many ingredients and additives -- listed and unlisted -- on rotisserie chickens from Costco Wholesale, ShopRite and other stores.

-- HACKENSACK, N.J.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Costco Wholesale's rotisserie chickens probably are the biggest and cheapest around.

But if you are worried about consuming harmful animal antibiotics, you can do a lot better at Whole Foods Market, Kings, Fairway Market and even ShopRite.

At the Costco in Hackensack today, dozens of highly seasoned chickens were rotating on spits in two big rotisserie cases, and an employee was putting them in containers with the Kirkland Signature label.

Ingredients include sodium phosphate, modified food starch, potato dextrin, carrageenan, sugar and dextrose.

There is no indication Costco chickens are vegetarian fed or raised without antibiotics or even who supplies them to the warehouse chain.

An employee said the chickens come from Pilgrim's Pride, which is based in North Carolina.

The Web site, which refers to the company as Pilgrim's, says its chickens are fed "only natural ingredients," including corn, soybean meal and other grains.

The company uses "3,900 family farmers in the U.S. and Mexico to grow chickens for our operations." 

But nowhere on the Web site does Pilgrim's say it bans the use of antibiotics to raise its chickens. 

At Kings Super Market in Hillsdale, large, antibiotic-free rotisserie chickens were $4.39 a pound. The label lists the time they were put under the lights, above, which is also the practice at Whole Foods Market in Paramus.

What's in this chicken?

When my teenage son finished eating antibiotic-free rotisserie chicken from Kings in Hillsdale, he asked me where I had bought it.

I knew why he liked it: 

The ingredients label lists water, evaporated cane juice, sea salt, natural ingredients and native corn starch. 

At ShopRite in Paramus, low-quality Perdue and antibiotic-free Readington Farms rotisserie chickens are sold side by side.

Perdue rotisserie chickens are sold for $4.99 (35 ounces) and $6.99 (48 ounces). Antibiotic-free, vegetarian-fed Readington Farms chickens were $5.99 (35 ounces), but occasionally go on sale for $4.99.

An unseasoned kosher rotisserie chicken at ShopRite in Paramus was $3.99 a pound.

At ShopRite, a  lot of choice

Costco offers one rotisserie chicken, take it or leave it, but at ShopRite in Paramus, shoppers have a choice of three birds -- kosher, mystery Perdue and antibiotic-free Readington Farms.

Around lunchtime today, business was brisk at the store's kitchen counter, where the rotisserie chickens were displayed along with sandwiches and other prepared food.

Tables and chairs are provided for those who want to eat lunch in the store.

The kosher rotisserie chickens were displayed on an island in another section.

Fairway and Murray's Chickens

Years ago, I bought Murray's antibiotic-free rotisserie chickens at the Harlem branch of Fairway Market, which later opened a store in Paramus.

The store also sold conventional rotisserie chickens.

I shop for food a lot closer to home now and don't go to the Paramus Fairway much anymore, so I don't know how much they are.

The New York-style hype is a big turnoff. 

Murray's Web site says the drug-free chickens are raised in Pennsylvania, and are certified non-GMO.

At Costco's Hackensack store, the rotisserie chickens are big and cheap, but the ingredients label may stop you from actually buying one, below.

See:

Costco rotisserie chicken makes great dog food

Costco shoppers see red in undercooked chickens

Consumer Reports: Buy only antibiotic-free chicken

The February 2014 issue of Consumer Reports concludes "that most raw chicken breasts are contaminated with bacteria, including antibiotic-resistant strains."

By VICTOR E. SASSON
Editor

An investigation by Consumer Reports magazine led to a startling conclusion:

"Ninety-seven percent of the [chicken] breasts we tested harbored bacteria that could make you sick."

"Consumer Reports' recent analysis of more than 300 raw chicken breasts purchased at stores across the U.S. found potentially harmful bacteria lurking in almost all of the chicken, including organic brands."

Chicken can kill

The magazine's February 2014 issue reports "more deaths were attributed to poultry than to any other commodity," according to an analysis of outbreaks from 1998 through 2008 by the national Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

A total of 48 million people fall sick each year from eating tainted food.

Go drug free

"Still, there are good reasons for selecting chicken raised without the use of antibiotics," the magazine advises, adding:

"Buying those products supports farmers who keep their chickens off unnecessary drugs, and that's good for your health and preserves the effectiveness of antibiotics.

"'Chickens without antibiotic resistance to salmonella and other dangerous pathogens can't pass antibiotic-resistant bugs onto you,' says Dr. Robert Lawrence, a professor at the John Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health."

The Costco Connection cover story on "making food safer from farm to table" includes an appetizing photo of cooked poultry, produce and wine.

Costco weighs in

The Costco Connection magazine takes a starkly different approach to its report on food safety.

In a cover story in the January 2014 issue, Editor Tim Talevich asks whether government regulators are "making progress in the effort to make food safer?"

To answer this question, the editor met with officials from the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Food Safety and Inspection Service.

He also asked Craig Wilson, who oversees "Costco's food safety and quality-assurance program, to explain how food safety is promoted within Costco,  from fresh meats prepared in warehouse meat departments to packaged foods that come from suppliers."

Costco poultry

The magazine doesn't discuss Costco Wholesale food products that are raised on animal antibiotics, growth hormones or both.

The vast majority of meat and poultry sold at my Costco Wholesale contain harmful animal antibiotics, and labels on farmed fish are silent on whether their feed contains antibiotics or preservatives.

That includes the wildly popular Kirkland Signature whole rotisserie chickens.

At the Hackenack Costco, I've seen two antibiotic-free poultry brands, Coleman Organic and Empire Kosher.  The store also carries organic ground beef.

The ShopRite and Stop & Shop supermarket chains also offer their own brands of antibiotic-free chicken, and I've seen Coleman Organic chicken parts in several North Jersey ShopRites.

Whole Foods Market pledges all of its farmed seafood is raised without antibiotics and preservatives.

Footnote

Consumer Reports could have done a better job of communicating that all chicken, including more expensive organic and antibiotic-free brands, can be contaminated with bacteria.

A heading in the index, repeated in a prominent headline on Page 30 of the February 2014 issue reads:

"The high cost of cheap chicken"

As consumers know, organic and antibiotic-free chicken are more expensive than such low-cost, low-quality brands as Perdue, Amick Farms and Tyson.

Also, chicken breasts aren't the only parts that harbor harmful bacteria.

The Consumer Reports article includes a photo and story about Richard Schiller, 51, of San Jose, Calif., who was sickened by a salmonella strain found in the Foster Farms chicken thighs he ate.

Why all of us are confused about nutrition

This idealized farm house on the side of Perdue chicken trucks is part of a campaign by that processor and many other companies to trick the public into thinking they are buying food that has been raised or grown naturally on small family farms.

I received a comment from a reader, Emily Wesley, who said:

"You have written a nice blog, and I have learned a lot from you after reading this. 

"Still, you can add some more information about these organic foods sold in markets by discussing their benefits. 

"I am a concerned person on what I eat and in everything I do."

It's no surprise that, like many of us, Emily wants more information about the nutritional value of organic and other food.

I don't hold myself out as an expert, but I do know where she and others can go for unbiased information about food.

It's not the mainstream media, which depend so heavily on advertising from food processors, supermarkets and restaurants.

Forget the papers

It certainly isn't my local daily newspaper, which employs a restaurant reviewer who is so addicted to sugar she occasionally rates the desserts higher than the entrees, and rarely eats salad.

And don't bother with the Food Channel, which is also beholden to advertisers.

Recall recent news reports on a study that supposedly exposed the "empty calories" in alcoholic drinks and compared them unfavorably with such sugary drinks as Coke and Pepsi.  

Red wine may have "few nutrients," but it has proven health benefits, doesn't rot your teeth and isn't linked to the obesity epidemic, as sugary drinks are.

So, does the issue of "empty calories" really matter or is this just another clueless wire-service reporter trying to hype the latest study?


Winking at Twinkies


After Hostess, the company that makes some of the worst processed food known to man, looked like it was going out of business, National Public Radio actually called Twinkies and Ding Dongs "iconic foods."

I feel bad for all the workers who might be joining the unemployment lines.

But if Twinkies can by any stretch of the imagination be called "iconic," then they are another symbol of the obesity epidemic and all that is wrong with the marketing of junk food.  

In fact, "Ding Dong" sounds like a character in a porn movie.

   

What you could look like, if you eat Twinkies and other junk food.

Road to ruin 

On the New Jersey Turnpike, travelers pay for the privilege of stopping for fried chicken, low-quality fast-food hamburgers and other unhealthy food.

They fill the tables in the food courts of rest areas, gorging on greasy french fries and ignoring the few healthy choices, such as salads at an Italian-American concession or the fruit-and-cheese plate at Starbucks.

Watching them eat is almost enough to turn my stomach.

On Monday, I stopped for a cup of coffee on the turnpike, and noticed that the Asian Indian man at the next table was eating a salad he had brought with him.

He said he runs the sunglass concession, and always brings his own lunch. As a Hindu, he doesn't eat meat.

And if he did, he certainly wouldn't be eating any of the garbage served at Nathan's or Burger King.

Cholesterol, he said, clogs coronary arteries and weakens vision.

Most of the food choices on the New Jersey Turnpike are unhealthy.

  

Honest food reporting 

If you want honest, unbiased reporting on food, nutrition, supermarkets and related issues, Consumer Reports is one of the few places to find it.

Consumer Reports magazine and a newsletter, Consumer Reports on Health, are filled with information you will have a hard time finding anywhere else.

They are published by the non-profit Consumers Union, and they don't accept advertising.

Consumers Union recently launched a campaign to get a big food retailer, Trader Joe's, to carry only antibiotic-free meat and poultry.

Have you seen anything on the campaign in the mainstream media? Of course not.  

Jumbo shrimp and mixed vegetables in fresh garlic from Zen Kitchen in Teaneck.

Leftover vegetables made a great side dish at breakfast the next day.

 

Personal tips

You can go a long way toward improving your health by giving up meat and poultry altogether.

Eat as much fruit and vegetables as possible, even non-organic; choose the kind of whole grains you find in brown rice and whole-wheat pasta; buy wild-caught, low-mercury fish, and low-fat milk and cheese; and favor ethnic restaurants that serve tofu and lots of vegetables.

I gave up bread, pizza, meat and poultry, and lost more than 40 pounds. I go to the gym, and walk as much as possible. 

And I have a glass of red wine with dinner two or three nights a week.

I feel great, and look forward to every meal.    

'Health crisis' linked to animal antibiotics

ShopRite's brand of antibiotic-free chicken.

Consumer Reports has issued its strongest statement to date on the use of antibiotics to raise animals for human consumption.

The popular consumer magazine, which accepts no advertising, is calling on all grocers "to require their meat suppliers to reduce antibiotics in livestock production [on factory farms], and we urge shoppers to support those efforts by buying meat labeled 'no antibiotics' when they can."

On Page 6 of the August 2012 issue, Consumers Union -- the magazine's policy and action arm -- said it "believes that sharply limiting antibiotic use in animals is necessary to preserve the effectiveness of drugs for treating diseases in people."

"The declining effectiveness of antibiotics is becoming a national health crisis.

"A whopping 80 percent of the antibiotics in the U.S. are used not for human health but by the meat and poultry industry to make animals grow faster and to prevent sickness in crowded and unsanitary conditions."

For more information, go to a Consumers Union  Web site: Meat Without Drugs

You can usually find low-quality Perdue chicken --which is raised on plenty of harmful antibiotics -- at 40% off in ShopRite supermarkets.

Can Can sale

ShopRite supermarkets offer antibiotic-free Readington Farms poultry, as well as products from Coleman Organic, but it still runs fire sales on Perdue and other low-quality chicken raised on antibiotics, as it is doing now during the Summer Can Can Sale.

I prefer to buy seltzer and pasta sauce at Can Can prices.

I've now amassed 144 cans of Adirondack Lemon-Lime Seltzer, enough to last until the next Can Can Sale.

Packs of 12 12-ounce cans are $1.99 during the 10th anniversary sale, a discount of $1.80.

I also picked up six 24-ounce jars of Classico pasta sauce at two for $4: Tomato and Basil, Spicy Tomato and Basil, and Cabernet Marinara With Herbs.

Bottled pasta sauce is just a base, because we add a can of anchovies and oil, red-pepper flakes and dried Italian herbs.

Last night, we also added capers to the sauce from one and a half Classico bottles, and used it with 1 pound of Trader Joe's Organic Whole Wheat Spaghetti. 

 

H Mart

Baby mustard greens were only 68 cents a pound on Sunday at the Little Ferry H Mart.

Wash greens and blanch them in boiling water. Drain the pot, and add salt and other seasonings, and olive oil. For an Asian  flavor, try a little soy sauce and sesame oil.

For breakfast on Monday, leftover mustard greens went well with an open-face egg-white omelet of smoked wild Alaskan sockeye salmon and capers.

Mung-bean pancakes are among the many free weekend samples at H Mart stores.

A $5 lunch comes with a catch

Bowl of Sushi by Hiroshige. (Credit: Wikipedia)

Editor's note: Today's buffet includes a visit to a restaurant in Hazlet, the Jamaican national dish, how to make an open-face omelet, shopping at Trader Joe's, another Korean meal and a brief discussion of 'road food.'

Around midday at Park East, a restaurant and sushi bar in Hazlet, you'll be handed a card listing more than a dozen $5 lunches.

But if you don't eat meat, you'll be disappointed that most of them include beef, pork or chicken. All come with a side of potato chips.

Fish and chips

I asked the waiter to name the "catch" in one non-meat offering, Corona Battered Fish Sandwich, and whether I could substitute something for the potato chips.

He said the fish was cod, but that if I wanted salad, coleslaw or anything else, I would have to pay a $3 supplement, as listed on the back of the card.  

I go vegetarian

I then asked about the a la carte vegetables ($4 each), and whether the kitchen used butter -- another artery clogger I try to avoid. He said he believed they were steamed.

I ordered the Chef's Vegetables and Sauteed Spinach, a cup of black coffee and water (a total of $10.34 -- $2.34 for coffee).

An acquaintance came in 10 minutes later, sat down at my table and ordered the Chicken Parmigiana Sandwich with potato chips ($5). The hero was the standard size.

Is that butter?

The sauteed spinach tasted wonderful. Was that "buttery taste" from butter?

At the bottom of my small bowl of zucchini, carrots and string beans was a puddle of ... butter? 

However, the place seems serious about sushi. I saw an employee ducking into the back of the sushi bar with a plastic tub holding two or three whole fish.

Park East, 3352 Route 35, Hazlet; 1-732-739-2002.

Web site: Go for the sushi

 

In my home, a pan of Jamaican Ackee and Saltfish goes quickly.

When we said we would buy 24 cans, ShopRite cut the price further.

We used salted Alaskan pollock from Costco Wholesale, instead of more expensive cod.

Many Jamaican-Americans rely on visiting relatives to bring them an odd tree fruit called ackee.

Though it is called a fruit, ackee isn't sweet. 

But its blandness is a perfect foil to the salted fish and sweet and hot peppers in Ackee and Saltfish, a Jamaican breakfast served with boiled, soft green bananas.

We usually buy our ackee in a can, but quality varies and so does the price -- $8.99 to $14.99 for 19 ounces of the fruit in salt water, what you'd use to make a pan of Ackee and Saltfish, the national dish.

We got a discount on a case of 24 cans at Hackensack Market on Passaic Street, but recently, my wife was told the discount is no longer available.

Ackee on sale

The other day, she called from the Rochelle Park  ShopRite and said 19-ounce cans of Grace-brand Ackees were on sale for $9.99 each. 

She saw the same brand for more than $14 a can at Hackensack Market.

I suggested she ask ShopRite's manager if she could get a discount on 24 cans, and he agreed. We paid $9 a can -- a savings of $59.76 on the case, according to the receipt.

(Originally, I wrote she got the deal at the Englewood store, where she shops most of the time.)
 

Open-face omelet

Heat up a couple of ounces of extra-virgin olive oil and add liquid egg whites.

Add slices of smoked wild Alaskan sockeye salmon.

Add a slice of cheese, such as yogurt cheese with jalapenos.

Tip pan if liquid egg remains on top of omelet and cook it on the sides of the hot pan.

Making an open-face omelet allows you to add more ingredients than if you tried to make a folded omelet, and you never have to turn it over and risk ruining it.

Use a non-stick pan and a high flame to heat up a couple of ounces of extra-virgin olive oil, then turn down the heat to finish the omelet and produce a nicely browned bottom.

I use a generous pinch of Aleppo red pepper from Fattal's Syrian Bakery in Paterson on all of my egg dishes.

The liquid egg whites and smoked wild salmon, both from Costco Wholesale, already contain salt.

Trader Joe's

I bought sliced Yogurt Cheese with Jalapenos at Trader Joe's in Paramus ($4.79 for 12 ounces).

On the same trip, I picked up five 1-pound packages of Organic Whole Wheat Fusilli (spirals), Penne and Spaghetti ($1.39 each).

Liters of 100% Italian Extra-Virgin Olive Oil and 100% Spanish Extra-Virgin Olive Oil were $5.99 each.

I also bought antibiotic- and preservative-free bacon and hot dogs for $3.99 and $4.29, respectively.

A 64-ounce bottle of Organic Lemonade was $2.99, compared to two 96-ounce bottles of Organic Lemonade for $7.69 at Costco Wholesale.

Costco Wholesale Logo ( Wikipedia)

Food notes

We had another good meal at Muk Eun Ji, a Korean restaurant that matches or beats competitors' prices for barbecue, soft-tofu stew and other traditional dishes.

Barbecue portions are 8 ounces. The restaurant also is known for serving tangy, 1-year-old imported  kimchi ($3.99). 

My wife and son selected two meats for their barbecue meal -- sliced pork belly in wine ($12.99) and bulgogi or  marinated, thinly sliced beef ($16.99) -- and cooked them on a table-top grill.

They preferred the beef to the pork, which they said was dry.

I had tofu stew ($9.99) and we shared a stone-bowl vegetarian bibimbap, a rice-based dish ($11.99) that allows you to adjust spiciness with gojuchang, a red-pepper paste in a squeeze bottle.

We especially liked the soundtrack of American rock-and-roll songs.

Muk Eun Ji, 217 Broad Ave., Palisades Park; 

201-363-0600.

Organic chicken feet

Although I've stopped eating meat, I've been trying to get my wife to buy naturally raised pork, beef and other items from Whole Food Market in Paramus.

For years, she bought mystery chicken feet from ShopRite for one of the soups she makes.

Earlier this month, she found organic chicken feet at Whole Foods for $2.99 a pound and organic chicken necks for $3.99 a pound.

In the store's freezer, I've also found organic beef bones with marrow and organic goat meat on the bone.

'Road food' 

Recently, in the truck lanes of the New Jersey Turnpike, I saw a Costco Wholesale tractor-trailer being passed by a ShopRite 18-wheeler.

A tractor-trailer from Perdue lagged -- just as the antibiotic-filled chicken does in quality.

On Cedar Lane in Teaneck, I saw the driver of a red Coca-Cola truck lean out of his cab's open window and spit onto the pavement below.

A couple of blocks later, stopped in traffic again, he pinched his nostrils between his fingers and expelled the contents of his nose.

I'm glad I stopped drinking the teeth-rotting beverage in 1975.