Posted on 05/18/2005 9:01:42 PM PDT by calcowgirl
BOISE, Idaho -- Gov. Dirk Kempthorne has met with California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in an effort to exempt french fries from a California list of foods requiring warnings that they could cause cancer.
California is revising a citizen's right-to-know law passed in 1986 and will likely include specific warnings about food-based acrylamide.
The chemical was previously considered an industrial agent until a 2002 study reported that it occurred naturally in many carbohydrate-rich foods. It occurs in cereals, for instance, though high levels in potatoes have been a focus, scientists say. It is released when the food is baked or fried.
Studies have linked acrylamide to cancer in animals, according to the World Health Organization, and McDonald's and Burger King have been sued in California for not providing warning labels about their fries.
Some consumer advocates say Kempthorne is misguided, arguing he should be lobbying the food industry to slash levels of the chemical.
But Kempthorne wants potatoes - Idaho's No. 1 agricultural product accounting for $2 billion of the state's economy - off the table in the law's revision, concerned that certain changes could stoke fear among consumers and dent potato sales that have already been hurt by low-carbohydrate diet trends.
"It could have negative economic impact on interstate commerce," said Mike Journee, a Kempthorne aide. "How are you going to get away from something that's naturally occurring?"
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is currently assessing the chemical in food, according to a statement on its Web site.
Kempthorne, now in Asia on a trade mission, was accompanied by numerous state officials at the May 9 meetings in Sacramento, Calif., including Pat Takasugi, Idaho's Agriculture Department director, Commerce director Roger Madsen and Toni Hardesty, who heads up the Department of Environmental Quality.
In a measure backed by Kempthorne, potatoes and other foods would be exempted from warning requirements if it could be shown that acrylamide was formed solely from the foods' natural makeup and was released as a result of being cooked, and if producers did everything possible to cut the chemical to the lowest possible levels.
Should California's 35.4 million consumers sour on french fries because of cancer fears, potato industries in Oregon and Washington would take a hit, industry officials warned.
"If the french fry business in California drops, it would hurt everybody," said Keith Esplin, director of the Potato Growers of Idaho.
Carol Monahan is chief counsel at the California Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment, the agency that enforces the food-warning law known as Proposition 65.
She said it forbids businesses from knowingly and intentionally exposing people to chemicals on a list of known carcinogens or toxins that can cause birth defects.
A 2002 Swedish National Food Authority study first reported that acrylamide occurred naturally in some starch-rich foods - as a result of cooking or heat processing. Until then, the chemical was generally thought of as an industrial agent, used in food packaging and even to treat sewage, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
The Swedish study provided the impetus for reviewing the law, Monahan said, saying the effort may take until April 2006 to complete. It likely won't require warning labels on packages, opting instead for cautionary signs in restaurants and stores.
"We want people to still eat the foods that are good for them," Monahan said. "We just want people to know, so they can make good choices."
The agency was partially prompted to review the issue when a lawsuit was filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court in September 2002 against McDonald's and Burger King.
Rafael Metzger, a Long Beach, Calif.-based lawyer representing the Council for Education and Research on Toxics, argues the fast-food restaurants hid that their french fries "contained a cancer-causing chemical."
"Acrylamide is an industrial carcinogen, and it's a major component of the diets of children who eat McDonald's and Burger King french fries," Metzger said in an interview.
He declined to identify his clients and said the case has been stayed until at least August.
McDonald's believes the lawsuit is without merit, spokeswoman Lisa Howard said Wednesday.
A call for comment to Burger King was not immediately returned.
Some consumer-health advocates say Kempthorne, in lobbying Schwarzenegger to get fries exempted, is kowtowing to economic interests at the expense of public health.
"The governors are watching out more for the potato industry than for the consumer, and that's unfortunate," said Michael Jacobson, executive director of the Washington, D.C.-based Center for Science in the Public Interest, adding the food industry should come up with ways to slash acrylamide levels in fries, potato chips and baked products.
Industry advocates counter that science hasn't proven a link to human cancers and that state-by-state efforts to require warnings could create chaos.
They also note that people have been eating potatoes since about 750 B.C. in South America, and french-fried potatoes since at least the 1830s, when French and Belgium diners popularized the preparation style, according to "The Secret History of French Fries," a history of the tuber.
I think we should just cut to the chase and adopt the "Joe Jackson" warning label for each and every item sold in the U.S.: "Everything Gives You Cancer."
potatoe
potato
potawtoe
puhdato
pass the salt and ketchup... and beer
acrylamide, huh?
One more thing to worry about... ;-)
Actually, it's all in the preparation, it sounds..
And for all those South Beach dieters, they can slap on "Warning: Contains Potatoes."
ROFL. I just thought I'd post something 'off-topic' to the immigration threads that are currently dominant.
When will these enviro-whackos shut up?
Sheesh.
I don't think I've ever seen you at a loss for words, lol.
> "Everything Gives You Cancer."
Thanks to California, we're already there. A preposterous'
number of products now carry the warning: "This product
is known to the State of California to cause Cancer".
I saw it just a few days ago on a replacement power cord
for an electric clothes dryer! (My guess is that either
the individual wire insulation, or the external cord
sheath still contains some lead sulphate, an additive
that keeps the sheath from cracking over time and becoming
a major electrical safety hazard. Unless you like to eat
cable insulation, you're safer with the bound PbSO4 than
without.)
Take 6-8 rashers of decent bacon, chop into fairly small bits, render them down over high heat in a skillet, perhaps 5-7 minutes once the skillet is up to temp. Remove bacon bits, set aside on a paper towel. Do not drain off the bacon oil (ok, grease, whatever) from the skillet.
In the same skillet, now put 1.5-2 pounds of new potatoes (the little red guys that you can almost span your fingers around), cut into quarters, but you can also use regular reds, even I suppose Idahos (never tried 'em). Just cut into bite-size pieces, whichever spud you use.
Broil these spuds for 5-7 minutes on medium heat, then remove. As they're cooking, add salt and black pepper to taste. Add a little cayenne if you like (I do.../evilgrin).
While all this is cooking, in a big salad bowl put 4-5 tbsp mayonnaise, 2 tbsp mustard (I like ''country'' mustard, but Dijon and regular old French's work well, too).
Chop finely 3-5 cloves of garlic (depends on size of cloves), 8-12 Manzanilla olives (or whatever olives you like), and a few slices of dill pickle, just the regular ''hamburger slices'' that you see in the grocery. You can just throw the garlic, olives, and pickles into the ol' food processor if you want...whatever works for you.
Add the garlic, olives, the dried bacon bits and the chopped pickle to the big bowl, and incorporate the potatoes into that bowl too. Toss WELL, distribute the bowl evenly, nice and smooth.
If you like your potato salad creamier, add a bit more mayo, a bit more mustard, even some Durkee's sauce -- hey, get it the way YOU want it, right!
Chill it for an hour before serving.
Short of a relative with a pork allergy, or a mustard hater, just nobody doesn't like this potato salad, in my experience. Try it, and you'll see.
FReegards to all!
I've been seeing that warning more and more. I can't remember specifically now where I saw it, but I think it was on some electrical cables for hooking up DVD players and the like to the TV. I was warned to be sure to wash my hands after handling the product, because they contained some cancer causing substance. Oh the horror! We're all gonna die!
Now I'm hungry! ;-)
Make your mouth water, I **guar-on-tee**.
:^)
I had me a pile of crinkle fries tonight too, nice and crunchy . weird.
when will they shut-up?
The 12th of never..
Sure, go for it! LOL. [mouth watering already]
And actually, a few potato facts for freepers:
There are over 7,000 naturally occurring species of potatoes. Yet almost all potatoes used in America are one of the 3 main species.
Today potatoes are grown in all 50 states of the USA and in about 125 countries throughout the world.
The sweet potato belongs in the same family as morning glories while the white potato belongs to the same group as tomatoes, tobacco, chile pepper, eggplant and the petunia.
The potato is about 80% water and 20% solids.
An 8 ounce baked or boiled potato has only about 100 calories.
The average American eats about 124 pounds of potatoes per year while Germans eat about twice as much.
In 1974, an Englishman named Eric Jenkins grew 370 pounds of potatoes from one plant.
Thomas Jefferson gets the credit for introducing "french fries" to America when he served them at a White House dinner.
According to the Guinness Book of World Records, the largest potato grown was 7 pounds 1 ounce by J. East (1953) and J. Busby (1982) of Great Britain.
Potatoes have less sodium and more potassium than bananas.
Take 4 pork loin chops, boneless, about 1/4 to 3/8 inch thick. Put 'em on a board and flatten them out w/a meat mallet (hell, a regular hammer does fine, just takes longer) until they're about 1/8 thick.
In a blender, take 4-6 oz fresh raspberries, add a little bit of water, and make a puree. Strain it or not, as you prefer (I don't).
On a plate or in a small shallow bowl, take 4 regular-sized cloves of garlic, 1/2 bunch parsley (cilantro leaves if you want), and chop very fine. Pour about half the puree over the garlic/parsley mixture, and mix that a little bit. Smear it on the pork.
Then, take slices of prosciutto that are **smaller** than the malleted pork, place on top of the raspberry/garlic/parsley smear, and roll it up. Toothpick it (I use two for the usual size chop), so it won't come apart.
Now, you can deep fry this, or broil it, your choice. I like to broil it.
Easy. In either bacon oil (ok, ok, bacon fat...wups, bacon grease) or ex-virgin olive oil, 1 tsp per rollup, broil for 6-8 minutes over medium heat, turning once (make sure the pan is hot before adding the roll-up).
Remove and drain the roll-ups (if you like -- I **NEVER** do), take the remainder of the raspberry puree and drizzle over the top. Sure, salt and pepper it if you like, but do so IN THE PAN, not after removing from heat.
Bon appetit! (sounds pretty fair, doesn't it...g!)
Better than fair... and interesting! I might try it one of these days. Thanks!
Never smoked a potato. Wonder how they keep it lit?
Never have figured it out, but raspberries and peaches somehow just go great with pork. If you know why, do please tell me!
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