"purity" news and stories

The SteriPEN is a portable, hand-held water purifier that works by beaming ultraviolet light into your possibly unsafe water. Powered by four AA batteries, the SteriPEN can apparently purify a liter of water with about 90 seconds of stirring. According to the manufacturer, SteriPEN destroys "99.9999% of bacteria, 99.99% of viruses and 99.9% of protozoa." They get extra points for using the phrase "levels of destruction" in reference to water purity standards. It retails for about $150 at REI.

[Via Cooking Gadgets]

Yesterday, The Fanatic Cook featured a good post with some highlights from a large-scale, bottled-water analysis done by the National Resources Defense Council a few years ago. One of the better details that TFC pulled from the report was how a bottled water called Spring Water, labeled with a majestic mountain lake, was actually sourced from an industrial parking lot next to a hazardous waste site. Fun, and probably not that uncommon. TFC also points out this handy chart with comparisons of tests run on hundreds of different bottled waters to check their levels of arsenic, fluoride, etc.

Brewers in Europe may soon have to provide complete lists off ingredients on their beer bottles, according to a recent BBC News story. The European Commission hopes to have reworked many labeling standards, including those for alcoholic beverages, by the end of the year. While this might not be a big deal to breweries in Germany, where beer can legally only contain water, hops (right), yeast and malted barley or wheat, plenty of other breweries use chemicals that, while safe, may sound less than appealing to consumers. Propylene glycol alginate, for example, is a chemical derived from algae, used to maintain a thicker head on a beer. Personally, I'd be glad to know a little more about what else is in my beer. I'm sure others would too.