E. Coli in the frozen pizza aisle

Frak! My favorite fall-back food item just got fucked.

MINNEAPOLIS - General Mills on Thursday recalled about 5 million frozen pizzas sold nationwide under the Totino's and Jeno's labels because of possible E. coli contamination.

The problem may have come from pepperoni on pizzas produced at a General Mills plant in Ohio, the suburban Minneapolis-based company said. It said the pepperoni itself came from a separate supplier, not produced at the plant itself, but it declined to release the name of the pepperoni distributor.

The voluntary recall covers pizzas containing pepperoni that have been produced since July, when the first of 21 E. coli illnesses under investigation by state and federal authorities emerged.

credit: AP

What the fuck is going on with our food? [x-post'd at Omens and Oracles]

Plastic Water Bottles : Unintended Consquences

from the NYTimes mag

This year, Americans will drink more than nine billion gallons of bottled water, nearly all of it from polyethylene terephthalate, or PET, plastic bottles. Water, together with other nonfizzy drinks, accounted for 90 percent of the growth of the entire beverage industry between 2002 and 2005. By the end of the decade, they are expected to outsell soda.

It's an oil issue:

Americans will throw out more than two million tons of PET bottles this year. Even when recycled, it is hard to turn scrap PET into new bottles. More virgin material is always necessary. PET is a petroleum product; it comes from oil. The Container Recycling Institute estimates that 18 million barrels of crude-oil equivalent were needed to replace the bottles we chucked in 2005, bottles that were likely shipped long distances to begin with —from Maine or Calistoga or Fiji.

Solution?

... the bottle bill is designed to hold industry accountable for the disposal of its products. This accountability has practical, not just philosophical, benefits: forcing companies to take back their empties has ensured they make their containers recyclable and build markets for the scrap. (It is because of the bottle bill that fleece jackets, mattresses and carpeting are now made from recycled plastic bottles; recycled bottles have become one of the most valuable scrap materials.) Nevertheless, defenses of the bottle bill often boil down to an insistence that the essential rightness of its principle, the idea of producer responsibility, simply outweighs its many other costs and inconveniences — particularly since the bulk of those costs and inconveniences are borne by the industry. That’s only just.

FUN FACT:

Globally, Nestlé owns 72 different brands of water, including Poland Spring, Deer Park and Arrowhead

More on the Pet Food recall

"Also Friday, the company that produced the food expanded its recall to include all 95 brands of the "cuts and gravy" style food, regardless of when they were produced."

95 brands --- all really from the same place. That the Iams food is made by the same company that make that cat food for Food Lion's generic label.

The power of marketing. The illusion of choice.

And I wonder if the company plays a bit of a re-packaging trick. The recall notice on the site also notes:

"If you are in possession of a variety or multi-pack, please be sure to check the individual can or pouch rather than relying solely on the date coding on the side of the carton."

Why would the carton have a different date coding?

Expanded Menu Foods recall list here for Cats

For Dogs

Purina said as

"a precautionary measure, it is voluntarily withdrawing its 5.3 ounce Mighty Dog® brand pouch products that were produced by Menu Foods, Inc. from December 3, 2006 through March 14, 2007."

The product isn't on the Menu Foods recall list, but since Purina uses them for that product, it's taking that extra step as a precaution. Good for them. That's good business, as in responsible.

Hill's® Pet Nutrition is doing the same thing with it's Science Diet for cats.

P&G Pet Care did so for Iams and Eukanuba and noted of reports of illness in cats. No dogs so far.

More from Iams and anFAQ .