"Consumers of California wine easily can tell a red cabernet from a white chardonnay, and soon they will have a tool to determine whether it's green."
 

As Congress moves ahead with legislation to beef up federal regulation of food safety, the Obama administration has appointed Michael Taylor to head the food safety effort at the Food and Drug Administration.

"These foods are not always what consumers think they are. Some are not chemical or pesticide free. Health benefits are questionable. Only certain thing? They cost more."

A USA TODAY probe reveals some of the reason why USDA officials did not recall meat they knew could be tainted with salmonella from school lunch programs. The story is based on documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act.

The secretive Food and Drug Administration withheld information about contaminated tacos sold to school lunch programs that caused kids to continue to get violently sick in several states for years.

"In a tradition dating back to medieval times, growers in Modena, Italy, are deep into the grape harvest, the first step in making their famed balsamic vinegar. ...Thousands of miles away, in California, signs in grocery stores warn shoppers about exposure to a dangerous metal in many balsamic and red wine vinegars. Although the amount of lead in vinegar is small, experts say regularly consuming it may pose a risk, particularly to children."

"Americans consume over $4 billion of soy foods each year because of their many health benefits. But new studies suggest that eating large amounts of soy's estrogen-mimicking compounds might reduce fertility in women, trigger early puberty and disrupt development of fetuses and children."

"Industry and public backing -- a recent poll showed 90% of voters favor measures similar to those in the legislation -- add up to a 'quick win for both parties,' supporters say."

Despite federal efforts, meat companies and grocers have continuted to sell ground beef tainted by the virulent strain of E. coli known as O157:H7.

Some parts of the U.S. are "food deserts," where liquor stores may vastly outnumber grocery stores. Now one Detroit group is fixing that by taking fresh veggies to an inner city neighborhood in what looks like a Good Humor truck.

Tests "show that more than 50 pesticide compounds showed up on domestic and imported peaches headed for U.S. stores. Five of the compounds exceeded the limits set by the Environmental Protection Agency, and six of the pesticide compounds present are not approved for use on peaches in the United States."

When FDA researcher Renee Dufault found residual mercury in high fructose corn syrup in 2004, the FDA ordered her to stop investigating. Mercury is used to make lye -- and lye is used to make the corn syrup that constitutes one in every ten calories that Americans eat.

The rise of cooking shows on TV results from deep interest in cooking. But the transformation of cooking into a spectator activity reflects a decline in actual cooking -- which has vast health and ecological consequences.

"The House approved the first major changes to food-safety laws in 70 years Thursday, giving sweeping new authority to the Food and Drug Administration to regulate the way food is grown, harvested and processed."

"An effort to improve the safety of fruits, vegetables and processed foods is running into objections from a broad collection of farm interests, including livestock producers, organic farmers and small-scale growers."