What are you eating? The junk food recall.

Think of the common foods that are usually purchased when you take a trip to your local superstore, grocery chain, or corner store. How often are foods such as “…dips, salad dressings, chips, sauces, hotdogs, soups and frozen dinners…” ever found on your shopping list?

Well, if you are anything like the majority of North Americans with a busy lifestyle and family full of mouths to feed many and if not all of these items mentioned, are probably often consumed by someone in the house and purchased quite regularly.

The recent food recall that has erupted across North America, and may continue to do so, may be making most shoppers think twice though about picking up their next bag of chips or frozen dinner, or any processed food for that matter. And rightfully so!

According to a report written by Sarah Schmidt for Canwest News Service and published in the Vancouver Sun, “…the Food and Drug Administration in the United States said this could result in one of the largest food recalls in North America…”. As most of us are already aware, the substance in question in this recall is a “…flavor enhancer… “ added to many of our “…processed foods…”. Schmidt goes on to report:

“…The popular flavour enhancer hydrolyzed vegetable protein (HVP) is added to a wide range of processed foods, including dips, salad dressings, chips, sauces, hotdogs, soups and frozen dinners. Already, 56 products in the United States and two in Canada — chips and veggie dips — have been recalled this week after salmonella was detected in the flavouring ingredient produced by a Nevada company…

…In this case, Basic Food Flavors, based in Las Vegas, is one of a handful of companies that supplies hydrolyzed vegetable protein to foodmakers. The additive, which comes as a powder or a paste, is often blended with other spices to make seasonings that are used in or on foods to give them a meaty or savory flavour…

…All HVP manufactured since last September is caught up in the recall — meaning millions of kilograms of a potentially contaminated additive were distributed in bulk to foodmakers over a five-month period…”

Source: Sarah Schmidt, Vancouver Sun

The question remains, how safe are the additives that are used to flavor, preserve and create the foods and substances that we ingest on a day to day basis? Was the human body meant to consume the conglomeration of processed food and drinks we consume today?

Will this latest food recall finally help people to see past convenience, that all these ingredients added to our bread, milk, water, produce, meat, canned foods, and pretty much anything we eat or drink today, may be what is causing a large majority of the sickness and disease that exists around the world today?

What are your thoughts?