The Food Safety Modernization Act

Congress is voting tonight on the The Food Safety Modernization Act. Among other things, the bill would actually give the FDA the power to issue food recalls (did you know that although the FDA is responsible for 80% of the nation's food supply, it cannot issue mandatory recalls of contaminated food?)

Here's an interesting NY Times opinion piece by Eric Schlosser and Michael Pollan on the bill. I am very curious to see what new tomorrow brings!

Probiotics in Ice Cream?

I just came across an article in the Journal of Dairy Science about the formulation of probiotic, prebiotic and synbiotic ice cream. Apparently the bacteria remained viable after storage and met the "minimum required to achieve probiotic effects."  More information may be found here. This article disturbs me, but before I continue, some definitions:

Probiotic refers to live microorganisms thought to be healthy for the host organism (in this case, humans).
Prebiotic refers to substances that support the growth or activity of probiotics.
Synbiotic refers to substances or foods containing both probiotics and prebiotics.