Dining With Invisible Danger

By Anastasia Toufexis

Remember the good old days when Americans did not know too much about what they were eating and drinking? People would nod approvingly as they pushed their carts through supermarkets. The fruits and vegetables were piled high in glistening mounds, the pristine boxes and shiny cans crammed on shelves, the chickens sitting plumply in refrigerated cases, and the fish shimmering on crystalline beds of ice. The entire scene seemed drenched in wholesomeness.

Those days are long gone. Last week's panics over poisoned grapes and tainted apples were merely the latest in a relentless series of food scares. Anyone who reads newspapers or watches TV knows that invisible dangers lurk in every aisle of the grocery store. Shoppers have been told that the produce is peppered with pesticides, the boxes and cans packed with treacherous additives, the meat stuffed with powerful drugs, the chickens spattered with bacteria, and the fish steeped in chemical wastes. Even the cool, clear water that comes out of every kitchen tap is suspected of being a witch's brew laced with lead, microorganisms and industrial pollutants. To many people, eating and drinking have become death-defying feats. No wonder sales of "organic" foods and bottled waters have surged to new heights.

Is the growing paranoia justified? How safe are the U.S. food and water supplies? The reassuring answer: very safe. In fact, the country's food and water systems are the safest in its history and among the safest in the world today. Despite all the alarms, the dangers to human health appear to be quite small.

Many Americans harbor a grossly distorted and exaggerated view of most of the risks surrounding food. Fergus Clydesdale, head of the department of food , science and nutrition at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, says bluntly that if the dangers from bacterially contaminated chicken were as great as some people believe, "the streets would be littered with people lying in the gutters."

Though the public increasingly demands no-risk food, there is no such thing. Bruce Ames, chairman of the biochemistry department at the University of California, Berkeley, points out that up to 10% of a plant's weight is made up of natural pesticides. Says he: "Since plants do not have jaws or teeth to protect themselves, they employ chemical warfare." And many naturally produced chemicals, though occurring in tiny amounts, prove to be potent carcinogens in laboratory tests. Mushrooms and broccoli might be banned if they were judged by the same standards that apply to food additives. Declares Christina Stark, a nutritionist at Cornell University: "We've got far worse natural chemicals in the food supply than anything man-made."

Yet the issues are not that simple. While Americans have no reason to be terrified to sit down at the dinner table, they have every reason to demand significant improvements in food and water safety. They unwittingly and unwillingly ingest too much of too many dangerous chemicals. If food already contains natural carcinogens, it does not make much sense to add dozens of new man-made ones. Though most people will withstand the small amounts of contaminants generally found in food and water, at least a few individuals will probably get cancer one day because of what they eat and drink.

To make good food and water supplies even better, the Government needs to tighten its regulatory standards, stiffen its inspection program and strengthen its enforcement policies. The food industry should modify some long-accepted practices or turn to less hazardous alternatives. Perhaps most important, consumers will have to do a better job of learning how to handle and cook food properly. The problems that need to be addressed exist all along the food-supply chain, from fields to processing plants to kitchens.

With reporting by Cristina Garcia/Los Angeles, Janice M. Horowitz/New York and Michael Riley/Washington