How safe is our food supply? Each year the media report what appears to be growing concern related to illness caused by the food consumed by Americans. These food borne illnesses are caused by pathogenic microorganisms, pesticide residues, and food additives. Recent actions taken at the federal, state, and local levels in response to the increase in reported incidences of food borne illnesses point to the need to evaluate the food safety system in the United States. This book assesses the effectiveness of the current food safety system and provides recommendations on changes needed to ensure an effective science-based food safety system. Ensuring Safe Food discusses such important issues as: What are the primary hazards associated with the food supply? What gaps exist in the current system for ensuring a safe food supply? What effects do trends in food consumption have on food safety? What is the impact of food preparation and handling practices in the home, in food services, or in production operations on the risk of food borne illnesses? What organizational changes in responsibility or oversight could be made to increase the effectiveness of the food safety system in the United States? Current concerns associated with microbiological, chemical, and physical hazards in the food supply are discussed. The book also considers how changes in technology and food processing might introduce new risks. Recommendations are made on steps for developing a coordinated, unified system for food safety. The book also highlights areas that need additional study. Ensuring Safe Food will be important for policymakers, food trade professionals, food producers, food processors, food researchers, public health professionals, and consumers.

And it answers such questions as: "Are 'organic' foods worth their extra cost?" "Can acupuncture cure anything?" "Will vitamin B[subscript 12] shots pep me up?" "Can diet cure arthritis?" "Will spinal adjustments help my health?" "Will amino acids 'pump up' my muscles?" "Where can reliable information be obtained?" and "What's the best way to get good medical care?" Even if the answers to some of these questions seem obvious, the details in this volume, written in an informative, highly readable, and easy-to-understand style, will astound you. Quackery often leads to harm because it turns ill people away from legitimate and trusted therapeutic procedures. However, its heaviest toll is in financial loss not only to those who pay directly, but to everyone who pays for bogus treatments through taxes, insurance premiums, and other ways that are less obvious.

This handbook has been prepared as a procedural guide for the compliance testing of net contents statements on packaged goods. Compliance testing of packaged goods is the determination of the conformance results of the packaging, distribution, and retailing process (the packages) to specific legal requirements for net content declarations. This handbook has been developed primarily for the use of government officials; however, it should also be useful to commercial and industrial establishments in the areas of packaging, distribution, and sale of commodities. In conducting compliance testing, the conversion of quantity values from one measuring system to another (e.g., from the metric system to the avoirdupois system) should be handled with careful regard to the implied correspondence between accuracy of the data and the number of digits displayed. In all conversion, the number of significant digits retained should ensure that accuracy is neither sacrificed nor exaggerated. For this edition of Handbook 133, all dimensions for test procedures, devices, or environments have been rounded to two significant digits (e.g., 2.5 cm to 1.0 in) or to a precision level applicable to the test equipment (e.g., 200 kPa for 25 psi and 35 MPs for 5000 psi).

Dicklitch challenges the dominant discourse of neo-liberalism which places NGOs and civil society at the forefront of democratization and development in Africa. Based on nine months of field research in Uganda, the study draws on evidence from the 'successfully' liberalizing country and shows how NGO potential for democratization and development has been subverted by state directives, structural and historical conditions, as well as the internal limitations of NGOs.