Recalling concerns over safe food, products

As a child, I always associated peanut butter with jelly. I learned as an adult to think “potential allergy.” After last month’s peanut butter recall, “salmonella” comes to mind.

Food like peanut butter that once seemed innocuous is now a concern to many parents. We have to worry because mass-market food is so frequently mislabeled or tainted. Children’s weakened immune systems make them more susceptible to outbreaks like the salmonella found in peanut butter earlier this year and in spinach in 2007.

These food fouls were trumpeted throughout the media, but other food recalls are mere whispers. Chicago Tribune staff investigated recalled foods and learned that many recalls are surprisingly quiet. They found that in the last 10 years, 47 percent of foods recalled for hidden allergens were not publicly announced. Even alert parents who are watching for recalls cannot trust their food. Ridiculous!

My daughter has no allergies but I feel sorry for kids who do. Many of them have parents who are busy working or might not speak English well or don’t have regular internet access. How are they supposed to monitor product safety?

And we parents are also learning to be cautious about what we serve our children’s food on. We see plastic in a new light after studies show how phthalates (THAL-ates), added to some plastics to soften them or make them more flexible, are pervasive in children’s products.

Phthalates are dangerous because they have been shown to migrate from plasticized substances to foods and enter the human body. They’ve been banned in Europe because of links to reproductive damage and increased risk of asthma and cancer. Virtually every American body over age 6 has measurable levels of phthalate metabolites. In the United States, six phthalates are banned in levels above .1 percent from children’s products by the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act of 2008, which took effect last month.

But the law wasn’t enough to convince manufacturers-or regulators-to remove these products from the shelves. The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, responsible for enforcing this law, had argued companies could keep selling products with the prohibited phthalates if they had been manufactured prior to the date the law took effect. The National Resource Defense Council and Public Citizen had to sue government regulators to make the law apply to existing inventories. This really irks me and I am glad the CPSC lost its recent federal court case in New York.

With all this in mind, I decided to buy bowls for our toddler that are free of phthalates and all plastic. Also, I wanted bowls not made in China. I am wary of Chinese manufacturing after problems like the lead toy recalls of August 2007 and the September 2008 recall of intentionally tainted baby formula. Lastly, I needed “unbreakable” bowls because everything toddler-related occasionally lands on the floor.

I talked with a few parents in the Holistic Moms Network, a group into natural solutions, and poked around on blogs like Life Less Plastic. Then I checked out all the usual stores. Everything was plastic except a few choices like imported stainless steel bowls. I wasn’t finding what I wanted but kept hunting. I looked at fair trade stores in Bay View and Cedarburg in hopes of discovering bowls designed for adults that would be small enough for our toddler. Bamboo bowls seemed promising until I learned most bamboo is imported and is easily stained by colorful foods. The quest became frustrating.

Then I found some bowls when I wasn’t looking for them. My husband and I were on an overnight trip in the western part of the state and we shopped at Amish stores. One store abounded in small, wooden bowls made in Wisconsin from local hardwood. I don’t love the multicolored style but by then was way beyond being picky about appearance. We bought several: one small, three medium, and one large.

Now I’m searching for safer pots and pans and trying not to worry.

The author is a freelance writer and mother of one. Reach her with comments or suggestions at jill@bayviewcompass.com.

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