The Perfect Formula 8 Instead, the leadership came from New York City, which boosted
public awareness by creating its own ban, thereby prompting some food
retailers to voluntarily withdraw trans fat from their products. Not until
June 0 5 did FDA rule that trans fat be phased out over three years.
Their ruling, however, was not a prohibition but a statement that trans
fat was not safe for consumption. Companies could still seek permission
for specific uses. Also, usage and enforcement in non-interstate com-
merce like local restaurants was left to each state.
America’s once localized food system is now global. Food arrives from
at least two hundred different cultures and food systems around the
world. My first brush with unexpected foreign practices was decades ago
while living in Argentina. Tree-ripened, brightly colored navel oranges
are at the top of my favorite-fruits list. While I was growing up, they
were only available for a few short weeks around Christmas. That recol-
lection accompanied me to Argentina, where one day, while walking past
a roadside produce cart, I spotted that round familiar orange glow on
display. The oranges felt overly firm, but their color and my memories
won me over. While expensive for my tight budget, I splurged for a few
and happily strolled away.
It only took a few minutes of tossing the fruit back and forth from one
hand to the other before I noticed that my hands had turned orange. It
had never occurred to me that someone would paint unripe oranges in
order to sell them as ready-to-eat fresh fruit. I had been duped. Welcome
to the world of fraudulent foods and products.
Years later, while at USDA and researching bovine spongiform
encephalopathy (BSE), I was drawn into a world most Americans never
think about. Beyond the meat, milk, and leather coming from cows
are other bovine by-products. Historically, they have included gela-
tin from bones and skins, used to make ice cream, salad dressings, and
calcium supplements; pericardial tissue harvested for heart surgery;
purified blood processed into coagulants; fibrin used to repair internal
organs; glands and organs manufactured into hormones, enzymes, or
medicines such as epinephrine, estrogen, testosterone, and antigens; and
many more.