Will this be the end of John’s Amazing Dog Treat?
A mix of bacteria-killing viruses can be safely sprayed on cold cuts, hot dogs and sausages to combat common microbes that kill hundreds of people a year, federal health officials said Friday in granting the first-ever approval of viruses as a food additive.
The combination of six viruses is designed to be sprayed on ready-to-eat meat and poultry products, including sliced ham and turkey, said John Vazzana, president and chief executive officer of manufacturer Intralytix Inc.
The viruses are grown in a preparation of the very bacteria they kill, and then purified. The FDA had concerns that the virus preparation potentially could contain toxic residues associated with the bacteria. However, testing did not reveal the presence of such residues, which in small quantities likely wouldn’t cause health problems anyway, the FDA said.
“The FDA is applying one of the toughest food-safety standards which they have to find this is safe,” said Caroline Smith DeWaal, director of food safety for the Center for Science in the Public Interest, a consumer advocacy group. “They couldn’t approve this product if they had questions about its safety.”
Intralytix also plans to seek FDA approval for another bacteriophage product to kill E. coli bacteria on beef before it is ground, Vazzana said.
Living next to a city that has every flavor of Luddite ever conceived, I’m surprised I haven’t heard of this being imminent. While I’m never automatically convinced of product safety just because the FDA says so — I don’t doubt they were aware of everyone looking over their shoulder on this one.
Should be interesting.
Of course, the cynic lurking in my cerebral cortex says, “Now, every sleazy retailer of mystery meat will try to push expiration dates out to the next century!”
Update — Response to this topic here and elsewhere is growing exponentially. I’ll provide more links to the discussion:
Phage History at Intralytix website
Evergreen State College is a leading study site in the US
The George Eliava Institute in the nation of Georgia is connected with Intralytix, structurally through individual researchers and also as a provider of research [and production?] material.
Center for Science in the Public Interest
No thanks fda (lower case). I would rather eat my plain ole’ bacteria ridden food thanks!!!
I miss longitudinal studies.
This brings up an interesting question. At what point is the risk no longer worth the reward? Is spraying large quantities of food with a (potentially) dangerous additive (be it a virus or chemical or anything else) worth it to save a few hundred lives a year worth it? The US seems to be nuts about safety, perhaps it’s our sue happy culture, perhaps it’s something else. In Europe they still don’t have no-scald shower valves or grounded outlets, yet they still seem to survive and aren’t that motivated to change.
In 1999 there were 2,394,871 deaths in the US, is reducing that number by a few hundred worth additional risk, especially without a longitudinal study?
However, testing did not reveal the presence of such residues, which in small quantities likely wouldn’t cause health problems anyway, the FDA said.
“The FDA is applying one of the toughest food-safety standards which they have to find this is safe,” said Caroline Smith DeWaal, director of food safety for the Center for Science in the Public Interest
Saying “it isn’t likely” is one of the “toughest” standards the FDA has doesn’t raise a red flag for anyone?
A -BIG- #ucking flag?
And tossing-off “anyway” at the end doesn’t make you suspicious that FDA haven’t even bothered to test that hypothesis???
I know, lets all puss out and cry like little Europeans whenever an exciting new food technology comes out.
It sounds gross. Yet one more reason to avoid eating hot dogs.
You’re right, of course, Andrew.
As a citizen of the sole Superpower left in the world – home of John Wayne & all – I should just accept what my government agencies tell me, and dig in!
Bon Appétit…
These viruses are ‘bacteriophage’; that is, viruses tha attack bacteria. They do not infect animals or plants. Some have been used in clinical treatment of disease in Europe. They would have as much chance of causing disease in man as plant viruses… eg no chance!
This shouldn’t do much more long term harm than the 3000 other additives already in food to give it the shelf life of uranium. So eat up and enjoy the moment. Short term, you might want to carry a roll of emergency Charmin with you at all times though, since this virus pack will probably kill the flora and all that other helpful stuff in your system. And remember to keep a GPS/Street Atlas-Public Restrooms Edition handy. Or, if you don’t know what, how old and where something has been, don’t eat it.
Ballenger has made a good point, the number of additives in these prepackaged meat products is staggering and also likely to cause long term health problems. I’m not afraid because it’s a virus, I understand that it is a bacteria eating virus and not one that would normally infect humans. I’m more concerned that yet another additive is being added into Americans’ diets. Another good reason to find a local butcher shop and purcahse fresh, high-quality meat.
I once visited a meat processing plant that made wieners from chicken. Chicken carcasses after being stripped of the higher priced flesh was ground to a paste, bones and all. This was mixed with other trimmings, reground, extruded and cooked with steam. They were quick chilled and slapped in plastic. Sausage and laws, you don’t want to watch either being made.
Here’s a tip…
Try buying QUALITY meats from a QUALITY charcuterie… Perhaps the best option is avoiding manufacturers that service the prison industry as well as _insert super market_.
I buy all kinds of artisan cheeses which are all made from raw, unpasteurised milks. Best experience ever! Get some proper Serano or Bayonne ham and enjoy.
To segue, I was looking up some additional french cheeses to try and ironically I found that freerepublic had a list of cheeses to ban. All french in origin. It was over 250 items long! Best resource ever! I love the comments that KRAFT is the best cheese. Can you imagine the elites of America serving KRAFT singles and Oscar Meyer Bologna on their million dollar yachts? heh….
8 They would have as much chance of causing disease in man as plant viruses… eg no chance!
Bob,
FDA should hire you to make press releases. Your short explanation makes more sense than their “…which in small quantities likely wouldn’t …”.
Where as Ben doesn’t sound any more convincing than the FDA. 🙂
10 …and also likely to cause long term health problems.
Here we encounter similar problem as previous generation with DDT and such. We are not ready to admit that we do not know everything and if short time study shows some use for chemical/genetic manipulation/viruses in food… we are ready to embrace it. I hope they’ll require labeling of so treated foods as I will avoid them.
As for the fact that these viruses do not “attack” humans, one of the main capabilities of viruses is the quick change. Not to forget ones with long dormancy and uncurable results that apparently came to us relatively recently from other species… Or more recently quick killers arriving from yet another species…
I may have missed it — and I don’t know the whys and wherefores — but, it appears there are no labeling requirements for this process.
#15. that’s my problem with both it and GMF – the powers that be don’t trust the public enough to label the stuff so we can decide for ourselves whether or not to eat it. I probably would, but in my book, both the virus here and the inserted gene(s) in GMF are “ingredients” that I should be told about.
Ummm,
And leaving the Meat in its OWN jiuses(blood) and Vacumme packing ISNT going to be BETTER??
Ya know, this soulnds like the IDEA, of Adding MTBE to Fuels in winter…
If you dont know it, LOOK IT UP..
There are BETTEr alternatives..That have been used for ages…
I really miss the days when food was made of food.
And I’m not old enough to remember those days in the first place.
YEP..
FOOD insted of EXTRA WATER…that ROTS the meat.
I guess my Dad was right when he decided not to eliminate our whole herd of cattle and to keep pigs for home use. He said he wouldn’t buy beef, pork or chicken from a public market, we eat our own or none at all.
I think I see the Virgin Mary in that pic!! Do you think JCD will sell it to me for $100, or is he going to be selfish and put it up for auction on Ebay for a higher price?
Please God, don’t allow that the dog has eaten it.
all you have to is look into monsanto (at the time it was searl foods) and aspertaine. Anyone who drinks a diet drink is ingesting formaldhyde, caused by the breakup of methel alchol. thanks but no thanks, the FDA isn’t doing it’s job and hasn’t been since it’s inception. They are controlled by corporate intrestest. All you have to do is look at how many people were higher ups at the FDA then went to work at monsanto or the government and back and forth and back and forth ect. GMO crops and patenting of life are going to be the big suprises in the next 10 to 15 years or sooner. The URL i give is a clearing house of info on apertaine and the FDA and CDC. i would take a gander and decide for yourself
oops, i put in the wrong URL sorry about that. The URL is
HTTP:\www.dorway.org\
or just click on my name 😉
#3: In Europe they still don’t have no-scald shower valves or grounded outlets, yet they still seem to survive and aren’t that motivated to change
In fact we have both in (as far as I know) most EU countries, if by no-scald shower valves you mean those thermostatic ones (which you can override if you really want a good scalding) – they’re not compulsory but you can buy them at any hardware store if you really want them. And at least here (Spain) all electrical outlets are either earthed or have quick-acting circuit breakers (safer than fuses). What we don’t have is additive-crammed, poorly inspected American “meat”!
For some reason, we HAVE to make up reasons to protect each other.
Even if its NOT needed…OR we made a mistake int eh firt place doing something ELSE.
Look at all the water in hot dogs, and the Lose of flavor.
Look at Beef…Do you KNOW what color Blood is supposed to be???
they replace it with an Equal amount of water for Loss during handling…
Blood is DARK red, almost Burgandy to Black.
IT AINT RED, and it REALLY ISNT PINK….
Red shows its about 1/2 water added…PINK you dont WANT TO SEE…
But, its the Water that ROTS in the meat.. The Blood is used to soften it, for GREAT taste…Yes we ARE Vampires..
#22: Thanks for the google tip. I did look it up and was apalled. I myself dont drink diet but its more because I can taste the artificial sweetener no matter what kind it is. Its amazing USA must be the only country with both high rates of obecity and anorexia/bulemia. We go to such lengths as to poison ourselvs for the sake of weight.