In a recent study, Consumer Reports concluded that 83% of all the chickens sold in the US are likely to contain foodborne illness-causing bacteria, such as campylobacter and salmonella. Known for its reliable research techniques and consumer-minded approach to issues, Consumer reports has come under criticism from the USDA, which "called the report 'junk science.'"

The CR study involved running tests on 525 supermarket chickens (from leading brands) before drawing their conclusions. Despite the fact that different brands were tested, the USDA says that the sample size was too small to conclude anything about all the chickens in the country - especially considering that there are something like 9 billion chickens killed for food in the US every year. A spokesperson for the U.S. Agriculture Department's Food Safety and Inspection Service said that the methodology was not there, or at least was not sufficiently explained, to justify the conclusions. For example, the study found that 15% of chickens carried salmonella (a number actually in line with USDA data), but failed to identify the strain(s) present, not even mentioning that not every strain makes people sick.

The USDA will conduct its own study of the matter beginning in January.

Scientists are working on research that will give us yet another reason to drink red wine, although the experiment is still in its early stages. Researchers at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York City found that drinking a moderate amount of red wine, Cabernet Sauvignon, to be specific, may reduce the deterioration of brain and memory functions that is typically associated with Alzheimer's disease. Cab Sauvingnon seemed to be able to prevent the buildup of "plaque" in the brain, the main characteristic of Alzheimer's.

The study has only been conducted with mice, where the results of the red wine were compared to the results of groups that received water or ethanol, so more testing is needed before a conclusion about how this will affect humans is made, but since the amounts given were within the USDA guidelines for wine consumption (1 glass per day for women, 2 for men) it probably wouldn't hurt to get a head start, just in case.

The Indian state of Kerala has initiated a plan to ban Pepsi and Coke for having levels of pesticides above the permissible amount. The whole thing seems to be a campaign against the products, both of which are produced locally using the local water supply. Even Indian commentators are taking note and observing that perhaps the money that the Indian Center for Science and Environment (CSE) intends to spend fighting the cola companies would be better spent running "a campaign for clean water" and reducing the levels of pesticides in all instances.

According to the same source, the CSE's "conclusions were that Diet Pepsi contained 0.36 amounts of pesticide per parts per billion (ppb), as tested by the Central Food Laboratory in Kolkata, that Pepsi contained 0.09 and that this was below the limit prescribed for packaged water by the Ministry of Health."

Other sources verify that the levels found in the soft drinks were lower than the levels of pesticide found in tea and other food products, including eggs, apples, rice and milk. So why target Pepsi and Coke? The CSE says that they cannot compare apples - which are reported to have 30200 times the prescribed limit of pesticides, versus 28,040 times the limit in tea and only 24 times the limit for Pepsi - to sodas. But the companies make convenient scapegoats in a country that seems to have pollution issues in areas other than their sodas.

In the UK, the Food Standards Agency is considering implementing a program that would require fortification of white flour with folic acid. The reason for this is that folic acid has been linked to a decrease in birth defects such as spina bifida. In the US and Canada, white flour has been fortified with folic acid since 1998. Since that time, studies have shown a significant drop in stroke mortality when the rates were compared with data taken from the UK. This appears to have been an unintended benefit of the folic acid fortification, but is likely to be a contributing factor to the Food Standards Agency's move towards require the same policy in the UK. If they adopt the plan, it would be the first mandatory food fortification since the 1940s.

Folic acid is found in whole grain wheat, but is largely stripped away by the refining processes used to make white flour. Some bakers and other manufacturers in the UK voluntarily fortify their flour with folic acid already.

Even though the UK's Food Standards Agency and the European equivalent has stated that it "is not aware of any reports of people getting avian flu from eating poultry or eggs and recognizes that the current risk is from people having contact with live birds that have the disease" sales of poultry are likely to plummet in the wake of the UK's first confirmed outbreak.

Supermarkets have said it is too early to forecast the impact of the virus. Sales of poultry on mainland Europe plunged by 80 per cent in the weeks after cases of avian flu were discovered in Turkey. France said last month its poultry industry, the largest in Europe, was losing £27m a month.

The risk of catching the disease comes from being in close contact with live poultry that have the disease, and not through eating poultry or eggs. Poultry can include chicken, duck, goose, turkey and guinea fowl and the like. An article in the Guardian states The government's chief scientific adviser has insisted that Britain is better prepared than any other country to cope with bird flu.

If you're an Indian food freak like me, then you're probably already familiar with the bright yellow, woodsy, pungent spice, turmeric, a relative of ginger. And if you've been reading slashfood, you already know that turmeric is now being studied for its medicinal value, possibly preventing and treating diseases like Alzheimer's, arthritis, cystic fibrosis, and various forms of cancer.

Turmeric's active ingredient, curcurin, is what reserachers believe fights disease by disabling a protein that promotes an abnormal inflammatory response in the body. In addition, turmeric is believed to have antioxidant properties as well as the ability to lower cholesterol. It is abnormal inflammation and oxidation that contribute to diseases like Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, arthritis and cancer.

To take advantage of what could possibly be a great disease-fighting ingredient, check out some of these favorite food blogs that spotlight Indian foods: Mahanandi, Mental Masala, My Dhaba, and The Cook's Cottage, In Praise of Sardines, and Hooked on Heat.

A study was done recently that concluded that obesity might be contagious. This conclusion was extrapolated from data that showed an increase in the weight of chickens who had been exposed to the human adenovirus Ad-37. Adenoviruses can cause colds and other illnesses in humans. The reasoning seems to follow this line of thought: Chickens, when exposed to a particular, contagious human virus, got fat . Since it is a human virus, humans who catch this virus will get fat. Since the virus is contagious, it follows that obesity is contagious.

So is obesity only contagious when the carrier of the virus has a cold? Can you catch it from sitting next to someone on an airplane? To say that this line of reasoning is flawed is an understatement. It is simply incorrect.

Simply because a cold can cause a chicken (or a human, for that matter) to gain weight does not mean that all weight gain is caused by colds in general or this virus in particular. Nor does it mean that because colds are contagious, so is weight gain. Someone needs to retake their deductive reasoning courses.

Global health authorities say that there is currently no bird flu in the Western Hemisphere and the most likely way for it to enter the United States would be through birds smuggled in as pets or for cockfighting, or else from migratory birds, particularly ducks and geese. Nearly every chicken consumed in the US is raised here. Commercially bred chickens, including many "free range" birds, are raised inside giant airplane-hangar sized complexes and almost never see the light of day. Outdoor-raised chickens are usually kept away from wild birds with netting. The birds that are most at risk are unconfined birds and home raised birds, which may mingle with wild or migratory birds that carry the disease.

Almost all US chicken farmers have joined a program to test chicken flocks for the deadly H5N1 bird flu virus, which has already killed millions of birds in Asia and 76 humans. The producers who have joined the USDA's program - under which chickens from every flock will be tested approximately two weeks before slaughter - account for 90% of the US chicken production. Should an infection be detected, the flock will be destroyed and all flocks in a two mile radius will be held for further testing. State and national officials strongly recommend that even privately raised birds be brought in for testing on a regular basis.