It may be "toad-ally gross" as some bloggers are calling it, but there's nothing funny about a Michigan family's recent experience with a bag of frozen vegetables.
On Oct. 13, Tim and Marty Hoffman of Grand Ledge, Mich. found a frog in their bag of store-brand frozen vegetables, purchased from a Meijer store, which immediately took all bags of its product off the shelf.
The incident is yet another scary example of contamination in the food supply.
My colleague, Tim Steller, found a cockroach in a bag of potato chips he bought in Nogales, Sonora while on assignment.
While the frog and cockroach were quickly discovered and didn't cause any illness, others like tainted eggs, peanut butter and spinach have.
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Most recently, San Antonio-based Sangar Fresh-Cut Produce closed down after the deaths of five people from the bacterium Listeria monocytogene were linked to celery shipped from the plant.
(None of the celery is known to have been shipped to Arizona.)
Many advocates of food safety say current quality control measures in the nation's domestic food supply are rife with problems and that more regulation is needed.
The U.S. Food Safety Modernization Act, which some say would fix problems with contamination in the food supply, is currently working its way through the U.S. Senate, though critics say it's not moving fast enough.
The legislation wouldn't have an effect in Sonora, where the cockroach was found in the chips, but it may help curb foodborne illness in the U.S.
Of course, there's another side of the argument - some say food safety is actually better than ever. They say the fact that we are hearing so many reports of contaminated food means our system of checks and balances is working.
Thoughts?
