Challenge Coming Up for Food Marketing - Prove Your Ingredients Are Safe

Starting now, safety is going to become the food industry's biggest issue. As the truth about the dangers in our food supply come out, that's going to be a bigger and bigger challenge.

USA Today has an AP story that explains why foods from salad dressing to ice cream may be dangerous to eat.

The challenge for food marketers that will be proving that ingredients and additives in food they sell are rigorously tested and safe to eat. Right now, AP reports, testing is haphazard or non-existent, and just about anything we eat could be contaminated.

The bottom line:

"Billions of dollars' worth of foreign ingredients that Americans eat in everything from salad dressing to ice cream get a pass from overwhelmed inspectors, despite a rising tide of imports from countries with spotty records, according to an Associated Press analysis of federal trade and food data....By its own latest accounting, the FDA only had enough inspectors to check about 1% of the 8.9 million imported food shipments in fiscal year 2006. Topping the list were products with past problems, such as seafood and produce."