Today’s New York Times carries an article sounding alarms about packaged and frozen food safety. I didn’t at all care for the article, which I thought went out of its way to characterize as new and “increasing” a number of safety problems that are neither new nor necessarily on the increase. (A sample of the piece’s breathless, accusatory tone: “Increasingly, the corporations that supply Americans with processed foods are unable to guarantee the safety of their ingredients. … almost every element, not just red meat and poultry, is now a potential carrier of pathogens, government and industry officials concede.” You’d never guess that depending on which years you look at, food poisoning rates are either declining or flat.) At any rate, the editors at the Times generously invited me to discuss the general topic at their popular “Room for Debate” online feature, and the results are here.

Filed under: food safety, WO writings