I don’t often copy and paste recent news but this one caught my ear as I was working away as it hit CBC radio and I felt it was worth putting out.

In today’s reuse, recycle as much as possable, there are times where you need to know what the container used to hold and that there are something’s you just can NOT clean enough to be used again safely for humans or your farm critters.

The second thing of note this brought out to me, is that as we continue to see more and more folks doing things themselves that we need to be aware that there is a lack of formal control, this can be a great thing,

 I would take a properly farm butcher chicken over a factory one any day of the week, having said that, I am leary and sometimes down right scared at some of the risks I have seen folks take in regards to food safety. As folks start to barter back and forth between themselves, just take the time to make sure that the folks you are bartering with, are giving you a properly prepared food item.

Or follow in my footsteps and barter for the raw whole form, so you can control the rest of the process in your own kitchen.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/aug/22/vinegar-contaminated-antifreeze-china-ramadan

Vinegar tainted with antifreeze is suspected of killing 11 people and making a further 120 ill after a communal Ramadan meal in China‘s far western region of Xinjiang.

Investigators suspect the victims consumed vinegar that was put in two plastic barrels that had previously been used to store toxic antifreeze, the official Xinhua news agency reported.

It said the mass food poisoning occurred on Saturday night in a village close to Hotan city in Xinjiang, a region that borders Afghanistan and Pakistan. The victims were Muslims who were sharing an evening meal after the daily fast observed during Ramadan.

Xinhua said children as young as six were among the dead. One person was in a critical condition.

Authorities were still testing to confirm the source of the poisoning, it said.

China’s food safety record has been battered by the rampant use of illegal or substandard additives by unscrupulous food producers. Milk powder laced with the industrial chemical melamine killed at least six children and made 300,000 ill in 2008. Producers added the nitrogen-rich melamine powder so their milk would seem higher in protein.

Revenge attacks using rat poison or other chemicals are also common in China, where access to firearms and other deadly weapons is tightly controlled. In April, three children died and 35 others became ill after drinking milk tainted with nitrite. An investigation showed that a local dairy farmer had put the poison into a competitor’s milk supply.

Accidental contamination is also a problem, caused by poor hygiene, particularly in rural areas, and weak quality control by regulators.