Food fraud cases growing. My Mother's Day.

“As the racketeering enterprise’s leader and primary decision maker, SALYER is also alleged to have directed a widespread practice of selling and shipping processed tomato product that did not meet contractual specifications, contained MOLD levels in excess of the thresholds established by the FDA and was thus unsaleable domestically. The indictment alleges that at SALYER’s direction, various individuals at SK Foods falsified both internal and customer-bound documentation to make the product appear as if it were legal and contractually compliant when, in fact, it was not. “
From: http://sacramento.fbi.gov/dojpressrel/pressrel10/sc021810.htm
More on Salyer selling Moldy Food:
An alleged, long-running bribery scheme apparently resulted in tainted tomato products being added to foods processed by some of the nation's biggest companies, including Kraft Foods Inc., Frito-Lay and Nabisco, federal prosecutors say.
“Giant tomato processor SK Foods has been accused of paying off buyers at large food companies to accept mold-riddled tomato products for above-market prices.”  From: http://abcnews.go.com/WN/tomato-bribery-case-california-company-allegedly-paid-off/story?id=9956305
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“With the recession, people are trying to make money in any way, shape or form," said William Gergits, a co-founder of Therion International LLC, which specializes in DNA-based testing services. "Southeast grouper and red snapper fisheries here are limited.
If you think about all the restaurants in Florida, there's not enough supply to go to those restaurants."”
From: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/03/29/AR2010032903824_2.html?sid=ST2010032903826
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“The expensive "sheep's milk" cheese in a Manhattan market was really made from cow's milk. And a jar of "Sturgeon caviar" was, in fact, Mississippi paddlefish.
Some honey makers dilute their honey with sugar beets or corn syrup, their competitors say, but still market it as 100 percent pure at a premium price.
And last year, a Fairfax man was convicted of selling 10 million pounds of cheap, frozen catfish fillets from Vietnam as much more expensive grouper, red snapper and flounder. The fish was bought by national chain retailers, wholesalers and food service companies, and ended up on dinner plates across the country.
"Food fraud" has been documented in fruit juice, olive oil, spices, vinegar, wine, spirits and maple syrup, and appears to pose a significant problem in the seafood industry. Victims range from the shopper at the local supermarket to multimillion companies, including E&J Gallo and Heinz USA.”
From:  http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/03/29/AR2010032903824_pf.html
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"Smart Choices" food label is marketing fraud.
“The big food companies have dreamed up yet another clever con to sell processed junk foods to parents and children: A "Smart Choices" label that implies the food product is a smart choice for health and nutrition. The problem is that the standards for qualifying for this designation were set by the food companies themselves, and processed junk foods like Froot Loops (a sugary breakfast cereal) qualify.
Froot Loops is 41 percent processed white sugar. It also contains processed flour and partially-hydrogenated vegetable oil. But that's not all you'll find in the box: Froot Loops is also made with synthetic coloring chemicals, including Red #40, Blue #2, Yellow #6 and Blue #1. The No. 1 ingredient of Froot Loops is sugar, and each serving contains 12 grams of sugar.
So how, exactly, did Froot Loops qualify for the "Smart Choices" label?”  More at: http://www.naturalnews.com/027077_nutrition_food_Tufts_University.html
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Robyn O'Brien, a food expert and the author of The Unhealthy Truth, recommends other ways to weed out potential food fraud at the grocery store, "Stick with ingredients that your grandmother would have used in her kitchen, use products that contain ingredients that a third grader can read and pronounce, avoid ingredients that have been artificially engineered in a lab as they tend to be a compound blend." From: http://www.walletpop.com/blog/2010/04/02/food-fraud-cases-growing-as-well-as-safety-warnings/?icid=sphere_newsaol_inpage_walletpop
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My Mother's Day.


My daughter, Wendy, called me about 2 PM, and said that she and her husband, Richard, were coming up here to take me out for an early dinner.
We had a great meal at Appleby's in Conroe.  Richard had something that looked like chicken-fried chicken parts on rice, Wendy had a steak and shrimp dinner.   I had a Californian Shrimp Salad, with avocados, tomatoes, hard-boiled eggs, black olives, real bacon bits, and shrimp on a bed of lettuce with an avocado dressing.  We all had to get take-out boxes.
Wendy had some kind of a gizmo that plays games, but it also takes pictures.
Here I am taking a picture of Wendy, taking a picture of me.  Her husband hates to have his picture taken, so he was acting the fool.

I had just got home, and as I was taking the dog out,  I could see this strange truck had pulled in behind my van.  Then I saw the Tree Service signs on it,… it was my young son, Kevin.   He has several large trucks equipped for what he is doing at the time.  Tree felling, stump grinding, dirt hauling, or moving mobile homes.

He had just finished a job, and had swung by to say Happy Mother's Day.  I tried to take his picture, which he didn't want me to do, as he said he was grubby from working.  I don't see him very often, even though he lives the closest of my three kids, so I was going to try.  I managed to take some, not very good ones, while he was pacing around talking business on his phone:
 

That's the way it is when you have your own business, you return calls whenever you can.  Not like working for someone else, and sticking to office hours!


My oldest son, Peter, lives in England, and they don't have the same date for Mother's Day.

I hope you had a lovely one, and that was my great Mother's Day.