Bacteria Eating Virus Used As Food Additive On Organic Foods
Avoid food products that contain ingredients that a third-grader cannot pronounce.
~ Michael Pollan
Love him or hate him, Michal Pollan’s food rule #7 is spot on. And it seems simple enough, right? No disodium guanylate, pyrophosphate, sodium stearoyl lactylate, or crazy glow-in-the-dark food additives. Just real food.
Unfortunately, when it comes to bacteria-eating viruses sprayed on your lunch, labels don’t help – and “organic” is no exception. Clever labeling laws have made detecting the presence of this “food additive” – sold under the brand name Listex – virtually impossible.
Why exactly would anyone want to spray meat, cheese, fruit vegetables and other foods with viruses? It’s simple, really. Listex is a cocktail of 6 bacteria-eating viruses (bacteriophages) that have been “trained” in a lab to target and kill Listeria monocytogene, a bacteria which sickens about 1,600 people a year. Rather than work on raising healthier animals and improving handling processes, this “band aid” approach to dealing with pathogens has been creatively classified as a “clean label processing aid.” In other words, it’s been going on for years but no knows because companies aren’t required to tell you.
Read the rest over at Food Renegade, where I’m guest posting today!
(photo by danielle-scott)
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[...] i might have to start making these easy meatballs for lunchboxes instead of lunch meat sandwiches, now that i’ve learned even organic lunch meat can be treated with bacteria to prevent listeria. [...]