Vy | Grocery Guidance

Vy

I'm currently a 2nd year Business Accounting major at University of California, Riverside. Also, i'm interning as an inbound marketer for the company IT Retail. As an intern, I advertise by Blogging, link building, and finding ways to optimize our website.

Tainted Bagged Salads

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Apr 192012

Nowadays, we are all so busy with work and school that we often don’t have time to prepare and cook up a whole meal. We’re always going in and out of the house, and once we come home from a long day, we just want to rest. To stay healthy during these busy days, I

bagged salads at a grocery store

always enjoy eating salad as a side dish along with my main meal. For millions of Americans, bagged salads are a miracle food, the perfect mix of health and convenience. You can take it anywhere and also add your own favorite toppings. Time-pressed people can easily rip open a bag and pour the leaves right into the bowl. We often forget the “triple wash” rule when it comes to the bagged salads because we expect the leaves to be clean already. This is why the safety of bagged salads has emerged as one of the biggest issues in today’s fresh produce and grocery business.

People tend to forget about the bacteria E.Coli that could be hidden within their bagged salads. The salad industry also doesn’t want consumers thinking about this bacteria as

E Coli Bacteria in salad

well. Therefore, the industry fails to place caution labels on the bags. This is why food companies headquartered in theSalinasValley, the nation’s salad bowl, are rushing to find the “perfect wash” or the perfect solution to prevent any health problems that people can get from E.Coli in their salads. The fresh produce industry have been working on this since 2006 when the local spinach tainted with E. coli killed five people and sent 100 more to the hospital in the worst food poisoning outbreak linked to leafy greens in U.S. history.

Two of the biggest fresh greens produce “Popeye” and “Green Giant” sent their safety team from the industry to search for the special weapon that could carefully clean salad greens. The safety team found the solution. It’s unofficial name is T-128 and is also known as SmartWash. This is a “new industrial salad wash additive that can reduce the E.Coli bacteria from spreading within the leaves” says president Brennan of New Leaf Food Safety Solutions. The research team has been studying the effectiveness of this product and though it is not the ultimate solution, President Brennan believes that they are getting the industry closer. However, it’s nearly impossible to stop all pathogens from landing on lettuce and spinach leaves. We need to be more cautious of the foods we consume and especially the bagged salads. It might take a few minutes to wash the salad before you eat it, but preventing the risk of food poisoning is definitely worth it!

If you’re concerned about other fresh produce, the easiest way to make those greens safe? Cook them. Treat them like meat! If you heat them to 160 degrees, you will kill off E. coli and other pathogens! Thanks for reading, Leave comments below (:

Not So “Sweet” Corn

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Apr 172012

Are you aware of what’s in the foods you eat? I know that I’m not. I rarely take the time to look at the labels or search up the foods I consume. One of my favorite foods is corn. I love eating corn on the cob, canned corn, and anything made out of corn. Recently I found out that all the corn I consume could be genetically modified without me even knowing.

Genetically Modified Corn

Genetically modified foods are foods from crops whose genes have been scientifically changed. Genetically modified or shortened “GM” has been introduced since 1994, and has also been tested in the crops: soybeans, tomatoes, and canola. However, the most recently approved was the Monsanto’s genetically modified sweet corn that was available for direct consumer consumption. Monsanto’s GMO sweet corn containing Bt toxin is designed to protect the plant by rupturing

BT Toxin

the stomach of any insect that feeds on it. Monsanto claims the toxin will break down before the corn makes it to your dinner table. People believe that the Monsanto’s sweet corn passed for approval of the USDA because they do not have independent tests of Genetically Modified crops. This means that the herbicide resistance and pesticide production lacks all sorts of crop evaluation.

Monsanto’s GM sweet corn is used in canned and frozen foods, and will be indistinguishable from natural corn because the FDA does not require genetically altered food products to be labeled. Wouldn’t you want your products to be correctly labeled and distinguished?

According to foodandwaterwatch Monsanto hopes that farmers will grow their GE Sweet Corn on 250,000 acres next year, which is roughly 40 percent of the sweet corn market. This means GM sweet corn could hit your grocery store by the end of 2012 and it won’t be labeled, so again we will have no way of knowing if the corn we’re eating is genetically engineered or not. Also, Monsanto’s genetically modifiedsweet corn will debut in Walmart stores across the country as early as Summer 2012, unless there is massive public outcry in opposition.

Because the genetically modified crops have not been tested for impacts on the human body and our health, I’m going to be more aware of purchasing corn. I believe that grocery stores should visually label these products and maybe even separate them in the location of the stores so there isn’t a chance that the crops could be mixed. How do you feel about purchasing corn? Do you think the FDA should reconsider these GM products?

Thanks for reading, leave comments below!

The Ultimate Meat Label

Grocery Gadgets of the Future, New technology for Grocers, Uncategorized No Responses »

Apr 062012

When I go to the grocery store to pick up any kind of raw meat to cook for dinner, I always find it difficult to choose which piece or package is the “best.” What exactly are you supposed to look for in order to choose the best tasting piece? Do you judge by the biggest piece in the package, the color of the meat, or simply choose the furthest expiration date?

Meat section in a grocery store

The invention of The Fresh Label can eliminate the time we waste while we examine which meat package we want to purchase. The fresh label is a visual aid method that helps track the expiration dates on meat packages. The Label is in the shape of an hour glass and the hour glass would progressively “fill up” or become shaded in with a darker color as the meat gets older and expired.

I bet you’re thinking HOW would the fresh label do this? The Fresh Label is made to test the different levels of ammonia that the meat contains. For all different types of meats, they all emit a source of ammonia that can determine the expiration or spoilage. When the meat is completely expired, the bar-code on the package label would completely disappear. This could help consumers by fresh meat since the cashier would not be able to ring up the item when the bar-code disappears. The Fresh Label contains the printed information of the kind of meat and details (lbs/price) and another layer that contains a unique and special ink that can read levels of ammonia. This printed ink is not toxic because it is solely made from the pigment of purple cabbages.

With this label, it is possible to prevent diseases that we could get from eating meat that’s not processed carefully or expired. The possible diseases are Trichinosis, Brucellosis, Tularemia, E Coli, and a few others. Also, if the expiration date is inaccurate, the fresh label helps determine if the meat is good enough to eat. False food labeling is a worldwide concern and this could be the solution. The U.S should consider this invention, it could really help consumers, eliminate the time we use debating which package to purchase, and

Food Label Scale

also prevent many diseases.

I think these labels can be beneficial to everybody. Also, the fresh labels could soon test the expiration for many other grocery items! I know I wouldn’t have much trouble looking for the “best” meat anymore! Would the fresh labels help you when you’re looking for meat? Or your shopping experience in general? Thank you for reading, please leave comments below! :)

Kinect, the Future Grocery Technology

Grocery Gadgets of the Future, Grocery Store Ideas, New technology for Grocers, Uncategorized No Responses »

Mar 122012

Whenever my mom asks me to go grocery shopping, I always dread it so much. She buys so much that it feels as if she picked at least one item from each aisle in the grocery store. Not only do I have to load up all the products and put them in the shopping cart for her, the check out usually takes forever. Waiting in line is a waste of time especially for an impatient person.

Recently, Microsoft has been working on an evolving project that could potentially cure the wait for checking out products in a grocery store. The technology company Chaotic Moon uses the Kinect system to navigate the cart around the grocery store. This is

Kinect Grocery Cart

from the same Kinect system as we know in games where it senses and detects your body and the motions. This system still detects your body so it can follow you around the store on it’s own and you wouldn’t have to push it yourself. In addition, this invention would detect and recognize grocery products. The speakers on the system read aloud what products you put into your cart as well. This could be a great new technology that would help the visually impaired grocery shop!

One of the best features that they’ve been working on is the ability to ring up all grocery items using RFID(Radio-frequency identification is the use of a wireless non-contact system that uses radio-frequency electromagnetic field transfer data from a tag attached to an object) tags as each item is placed into the shopping cart. While each item is placed into the cart, the Kinect will tally up how many items there are and display it on the mini screen. You can also, make a grocery list on the screen beforehand that includes the product and it’s brand so it can

detect exactly the item you need. No need for hand written grocery lists! Additionally, the Kinect will notifiy the shopper if they choose the wrong brand for the item that they want or even more specifics like gluten free products! There are so many benefits but mainly that once customers finish shopping, they don’t need to wait in line for check out because it’s already done by the kinect. Also, the company is working on the RFID to recognize the smallest products, especially the items like mini jars that are really hard to scan. The company began officially sanctioning developers outside the game industry to begin toying with the system last year in hopes of this new technology.

Hopefully Microsoft finds a way to really improve this technology and fix all of its problems because the Kinect would benefit our shopping experience! I would finally enjoy and maybe even offer to go grocery shopping with my mom on the weekends.

How would the Kinect Shopping Technology benefit you? Do you have any suggestions of anything else it should be able to do? Thanks for reading, leave comments below!

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