Hard to copy web pages undervalue their impact on the web

Making it easy to share your content is vital to effective web publishing.

The Environmental Working Group's (copyrighted & trade marked), "Clean 15", and "Dirty Dozen"


I ain't scared...


(open image link to see full size)

Source: Environmental Working Group - "EWG 2012 Shopper's Guide to Pesticides in Produce"
Executive Summary - http://www.ewg.org/foodnews/summary/

One way to share The Environmental Working Group's "Clean 15", and "Dirty Dozen" from the EWG's web site, is to take two Print Screen shots of it, edit them together - and publish the image to the web with an accurate title - like, "Environment_Working_Group_2012-Clean-15_Dirty-Dozen" ["Environment*al*_Working_Group..." would have been better. This mistake is fatal because it's in the Name of the organization.]

On a second try I use Print Screen again to publish this EWG free download in PDF format. This one is properly titled: "Environmental_Working_Group_2012_Clean-15_-_Dirty-Dozen_pdf_image"

(open image link to see full size)

Below is a copy and paste of the content. This is the html version of the top image, above. For it to render here images on the EWG's server must stay up, for example the image of the apple is coming from: http://static.ewg.org/reports/2012/foodnews/img/apple.jpg.

In this Blogger copy the CSS style elements are incorporated into each line of the code, while - in the original - the style parameters are served from a style file - so changing the size of this creation took over an hour. I changed several parameters in proportion (29 times) width, font and padding - using Sourceforge's "Notepad++" code editing software.

In making these changes I have fundimentally changed the style of that which the EWG created. This must be described as a "hack" of this 'copyrighted and trade marked' brand. This is exactly what you do not want to happen --- people slightly altering your brand.

As the code came, the default settings in my browser, and in Blogger, stacked the columns one on top of the other - as they were collectively too wide to sit side by side.

Dirty Dozen Plus^™

Buy these organic

1

Apples

2

Celery

3

Sweet bell peppers

4

Peaches

5

Strawberries

6

Nectarines
– imported

7

Grapes

8

Spinach

9

Lettuce

10

Cucumbers

11

Blueberries
– domestic

12

Potatoes

Plus

+

Green beans

+

Kale/Greens

+ May contain pesticide residues of special concern

Clean 15^™

Lowest in Pesticide

1

Onions

2

Sweet Corn

3

Pineapples

4

Avocado

5

Cabbage

6

Sweet peas

7

Asparagus

8

Mangoes

9

Eggplant

10

Kiwi

11

Cantaloupe
- domestic

12

Sweet potatoes

13

Grapefruit

14

Watermelon

15

Mushrooms

Bloggers are publishing this content any way they can. 


You can see lots of images of the EWG's graphical representations in Google Image Search under the EWG keywords for this study report. Here's a link to one I found in a quick search as I was editing this: 


Google Image Search: "Environmental Working Group 2012 clean 15 dirty dozen" Page 1, image 5: Image: http://amotherworld.com/main/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/dirty-dozen-20121.jpg from an article by "amotherworld.com" - "12 Foods You Should Always Buy Organic" - http://amotherworld.com/main/food/12-foods-you-should-always-buy-organic/


How an error in titling effect content's web presence

My error in the first image title is like my fingerprint in Image Search. I can use the error to get to my image quickly. If one does a 'high-light and Search Google' on the mistakenly titled URL I mentioned at at the top - in Google Images my image come up #1. Make the correction though, and my image is nowhere. 


If EWG wants a true picture of their copy righted and trade marked publications' penetration in the web they should make it easy to share - not hard. 


They could do this simply by publishing images of their beautifully coded html productions when publishing to the web - and have images of each important graphic on a separate page sxpressly posted to allow for easy sharing. 


Perhaps a button near the graphic design that opens a pop-up sizing widget - like Youtube's video sizing interface. A share widget attached to pieces of html graphic art you want to share - and then the user could size it to fit the places where they wanted to post it - and then copy the new code from a window and paste it in a blog.


Why did I do this?

Whenever I come across web sites that I think have content that is important to the social good - and that are publishing on the web using publishing techniques that make the content difficult to share - I go out of my way to share it with the commons.

At the same time I hope web developers will keep in mind that making content easy to share, gets the right demographic's eyes back their site very effectively.

I find that folks using Microsoft's office related software to create their content seem to get these 'secure' type outcomes when they publish to the web. I think this is a result of all the corporate clients Microsoft almost single-handedly tooled for the internet in the 1980's and 90's. The user interfaces must steer a coarse towards these outcomes.

This is not the case with the coding at EWG. What we find there is html/css graphic art. I think it looks great ... but all the same - it's hard to recreate elsewhere.

Taking the time to create images before publishing to the web will increase a publication's documentable penetration on the web - and thus make determining it's value on the web - possible.

In the case of a non-profit like the Environmental Working Group - easy to share spreads their message, documents how widely it has spread, and effectively brings people back to the organization's site to read the original content.

Making it easy to share your content is vital to effective web publishing.


--------



Via Mother Jones - By Tom Philpott | Wed Jun. 20, 2012 3:00 AM PDT - "Which Baby Foods Contain the Most Pesticide Residue?" - http://www.motherjones.com/tom-philpott/2012/06/pesticides-baby-food-ewg-dirty-dozen

Source: "Environmental Working Group - "EWG 2012 Shopper's Guide to Pesticides in Produce" - http://www.ewg.org/foodnews/

EWG's 2012 Shopper's Guide to Pesticides in Produce, PDF link "Download guide as PDF" - http://static.ewg.org/reports/2012/foodnews/pdf/2012-EWGPesticideGuide.pdf

Image URL (full copy): https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg09qO4FsxORrel3DN-Fl9DVk_68TTw_WSf_5M9jdcy176h9vsxsLgOrddZECIhPMoyrYqBN1tikaP4JEYWhLrbS4J_tQm3Fmdjx7N46GBhHbR-Jo7-omyq4LQA4ORNvHHcouetVQQB3WIz/s1600/Environment_Working_Group_2012-Clean-15_Dirty-Dozen_Full_Copy__wide-border_EDIT-5.bmp

Copyright Act of 1976 - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyright_Act_of_1976 *

Fair use -  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fair_use *


(* Best Lawyer I can afford)



mh

Flavouring Vegetable Proteins in third week of Recalls across North America

(Update: 04/01/10 11:06 AM. A little more sleep-enhanced research this morning reveals this is actually the beginning of week five of the Hydrolysed Vegetable Proteins recall. I made changes to this post that include the first weeks recalls starting March 2, 2010)

In these types of cases, involving basic food ingredients like flavourings - as with the earlier peanut oil and gluten recalls - pathogens can end up in thousands of different brand name products. It's hard to know what to do.

The latest crisis

Below is a picture of the beginning of a list of products that have been recalled by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency because they contain HYDROLYZED VEGETABLE PROTEINS which come from specific plants in the United States, and which are probably contaminated with Salmonella Bacteria. As you can see by the scroll bar at the top right, it's a long list.



To see the whole list go to The Canadian Food Inspection Agency.

Salmonella can make you very sick and in special cases, like people who are already ill or the very young, or the very old it can cause death.

The symptoms of Salmonella poisoning are diarrhea, fever, vomiting, and abdominal cramps. Symptoms last from 4 to 7 days. An extended bout of diarrhea can become fatal to otherwise healthy individuals.

HYDROLYZED VEGETABLE PROTEINS are in EVERYTHING. They're used as a medium to spray on stir in natural and artificial flavourings in junk food. It's in snack foods big time, and in seasonings you use cooking at home.

In these types of cases, involving basic ingredients like flavourings - pathogens can end up in thousands of different brand name products - and it hard to read those tiny lists with all those five syllable words.

A history of Crisis

This is much like the salmonella peanut products crisis that was with us for most of 2009. From the Wikipedia article, "Salmonellosis":

..Peanut Corporation of America (PCA), and urged people to postpone eating commercially-prepared or manufactured peanut butter-containing products and institutionally-served peanut butter.[10] Salmonella was reported to be found in 46 states in the United States in at least 3,862 peanut butter-based products such as crackers, energy bars, and peanut butter cookies from at least 343 food companies. Dog treats were affected as well. At least 691 people in more than 46 states became sick, and the Salmonella claimed at least nine lives as of March 25.[11][12][13][14][15]

Peanut butter and peanut paste manufactured by PCA were distributed to hundreds of firms for use as an ingredient in thousands of different products, such as cookies, crackers, cereal, candy and ice cream, all of which were recalled. Some products were also sold directly to consumers in retail outlets like dollar stores[10]

Earlier, in 2007, melamine (that stuff they make kitchen counter tops out of) got into glutamate stocks which are used as thickeners for all kinds of foods. In America's experience the crisis killed or adversely effected the quality of life of millions of family pets. From the Wikipedia article, "2007 pet food recalls":

By the end of March, veterinary organizations reported more than 100 pet deaths amongst nearly 500 cases of kidney failure,[1] with one online database self-reporting as many as 3,600 deaths as of 11 April.[2][3] The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has received reports of several thousand cats and dogs who have died after eating contaminated food, but have only confirmed 14 cases in part because there is no centralized government records database of animal sickness or death in the United States as there are with humans (such as the Centers for Disease Control).[4][5] As a result, many sources speculate that the actual number of affected pets may never be known and experts are concerned that the actual death toll could potentially reach into the thousands.[6][7]

Through the quick action (or a cover up), the FDA prevented the melamine tainted glutens from getting into the human food supply chain. So things like soups, TV dinners, or those instant gravies you buy that makes giving a Thanks Giving turkey dinner easer, were not affected.

What to do?

In this case, the HYDROLYZED VEGETABLE PROTEINS salmonella contamination, there are potentially millions of places the tainted flavouring could end up. You can't check every snack food - so just don't eat snack food until:

• The government traces the contamination point and fixes it.
• All the recalls have been properly carried out.

This is going to be a bigger problem than usual - the public should be on guard about the results of these recalls - they are voluntarily carried out by the stores and the manufacturers and the wholesalers. Although these type of voluntary recalls have worked in the past, this case is special - most foods that have a best before date maybe two months ahead - which ensures that after a short time all the recalled products are out of circulation - snack foods and instant foods on the other hand have best before dates sometimes years down the road.

So until this is resolved, carefully check the best before dates and ingredient lists against the CFIA recall lists on stuff like;

• black pepper
• chips
• cheesy puffs
• flavoured corn chips
• tortilla chips
• soup mixes
• flavoured seeds & nuts
• seasoned popcorn
• all chip dips
  
• flavoured pretzels
• flavoured onion rings
• flavoured rice cakes
• all purpose vegetable seasoning
• seasonings you use at home to cook with

The take home message: Flavouring BAD. Try spices and herbs - grow your own in a flower pot or your back yard - this is going to last for some time.

..and get on Canadian Food Inspection Agencies email notification list - the list will expand daily like it has for the last four weeks.

The recall started on March 2, 2010. Here's a copy and paste of the first four notices from the CFIA.

From the CFIA list of related updates (my emphasis):

# 2010-03-07 - Various Foods Containing Hydrolysed Vegetable Proteins (HVP) Recalled by Basic Food Flavors Inc. May Contain Salmonella Bacteria
# 2010-03-03 - Tim's Cascade Snacks Recalls 'Hawaiian® Kettle Style Potato Chips - Sweet Maui Onion' and 'Hawaiian - Sweet Maui Onion Rings' Because of Possible Health Risk
# 2010-03-02 - HAWAIIAN KETTLE STYLE POTATO CHIPS, SWEET MAUI ONION, may contain Salmonella bacteria
# 2010-03-02 - Certain T. MARZETTI brand veggie dips may contain salmonella bacteria

Note it took five days for the FDA and CFIA to isolate the problem to Hydrolysed Vegetable Proteins. Over the next couple of days the FDA and the CFIA tracked the problem down to two wholesalers of flavourings:

• Basic Food Flavors Inc.
• Mincing Overseas Spice Company

The list of companies that these two wholesalers ship to must be immense, I can't count all the brands listed so far. You should go and take note of your favourite brands that are on the list.

This next screen shot represents pretty effectively the expanding list.



The CFIA has the complete list of related alerts, by date issued, and with links to the press releases starting 03/02/10.

To sign up to get automatic Recall and Allergy notifications to your email via the CFIA.

The FDA recall data base has a much better user interface, you can search brand or generic names within a subject heading (like Hydrolysed Vegetable Proteins recall).

It's US consumer market place, so you won't recognize some brands and the manufacturers of those brands may not ship into Canada. To get info on the Canadian situation you have to go to the CFIA website.

At the FDA site I typed in "Humpty Dumpty Potato Chips" - just to try it out - no recall.

Next I tried "Potato Chips" and got this (cut and paste):

--------------------------------------------

Searched for 'Potato Chips' in Hydrolyzed Vegetable Protein Containing Products Recalls.

Sort by date / Sort by relevance

List of Snack and Snack Mix Products from Brand Hawaiian

... Kettle Style Potato Chips - Sweet Maui Onion, Tim's Cascade Snacks, 1 ounce bags, Code dates: MAR 09 10 up to and including JUN 07 10, 1159400116, http://www.fda ... www.accessdata.fda.gov/.../scripts/HVPCP/brand_list.cfm?brand=Hawaiian&cat=Snack%20and%20Snack%20Mix - 24k - Cached

[MS EXCEL] Sheet1

... 10, Soup/Soup Mix and Dip/Dip Mix, Great Value, Ranch Chip Dip, T ... 13, Snack and Snack Mix, Hawaiian, Kettle Style Potato Chips - Sweet Maui Onion, Tim's Cascade ... www.accessdata.fda.gov/scripts/HVPCP/HydrolyzedVegetableProteinProductsList2010.xls - Text Version [ More results from www.accessdata.fda.gov/scripts/HVPCP ]

--------------------------------------------

Every time I go to a us.gov site, they get better; at gov.ca - well, it's functional...



mh

Latest Pet Food Recall LIst

Up-dated and revised, daily information links.

Menu Foods Revised pet food recall list

FDA Pet food Recall list daily updates.

These are Brand Names as of April 11, 2007, that may have Melamine. Melamine is not a food product and can cause kidney failure and death if eaten. The thread consumers should be watching, is to avoid any product that has ChemNutra Wheat Gluten in it. So far, Canada's own Menu Foods; Tennessee's Sunshine Mills, Inc.; Nestlé Purina PetCare Company; Hills Pet Nutrition; and Del Monte Pet Products; are the mills the poison seems to have been shipped to.

The shipper of the Melamine was a chemical company in China. Since this article was first published, the link has failed; I am working on it.



mh

Latest Menu Foods Recall List

Latest Cat & Dog Food Recalls from Menu Foods

Cat Food Recalls:

Look For Date on The bottom of Can or back of Pouch

'Authority'

Nov/20/09
Nov/21/09
Adult Sliced Chicken/Sauce Formula 3oz Can UPC: 37257-37359


'Nutro Max Cat Gourmet Classics'

Nov/21/08
Nov/22/08
Pouch Kitten Chicken/Tomato 3oz Pouch UPC:79105-36263

Nov/21/08
Nov/22/08
Pouch Senior Whitefish/Crab 3oz Pouch 3UPC:79105-36265


'Pet Pride'

Nov/21/09
Nov/22/09
Flaked Tuna 3oz Can UPC:11110-80472

Nov/20/09
Nov/21/09
Sliced Chicken/Heart/Liver 3ozCan UPC:11110-86261

Nov/20/09
Nov/21/09
Sliced Turkey/Gravy 3ozCan UPC:11110-86257

Nov/20/09
Nov/21/09
Sliced Beef/Gravy 3ozCan UPC: 11110-86264


'Sophistacat'

Nov/21/09
Nov/22/09
Flaked Chicken/Tuna 3ozCan UPC: 37257-01287

Nov/20/09
Nov/21/09
Sliced Beef/Gravy 3ozCan UPC: 37257-01243

Nov/20/09
Nov/21/09
Sliced Chicken/Heart/Liver 3ozCan UPC:37257-01285

Nov/20/09
Nov/21/09
Sliced Salmon/Chicken 3ozCan UPC: 37257-01286


'Science Diet Feline Savory Cuts Can' (see qualifier)

Jun/19/08
Jun/20/08
Sliced Beef/Gravy 3oz Can UPC: 52742-44120

Jun/19/08
Jun/20/08
Sliced Chicken/Grvy 3oz Can UPC: 52742-44110

Jun/19/08
Jun/20/08
Sliced Oceanfish/Sauce 3oz Can UPC: 52742-44010

Jun/19/08
Jun/20/08
Sliced Senior Chicken/Gravy 3oz Can UPC: 52742-46000



Dog Food Recalls:
Look For Date on the bottom of Can or Back of Pouch


'Grreat Choice'
Nov/14/09
Nov/15/09
London Grill Cuts 13.2ozCan UPC: 37257-37002


'Pet Pride'

Nov/28/08
Nov/29/08
Pouch Chicken Teriyaki/Gravy 5.3ozPouch UPC: 11110-84172

Dec/01/08
Pouch With Stew 5.3ozPouch UPC: 11110-88124


'Springfield Prize'
Nov/14/09
Nov/15/09
Chicken Cuts/Gravy 13.2ozCan UPC: 41380-13901


'Stater Brothers'
Nov/14/09
Nov/15/09
Chicken Cuts/Gravy 13.2ozCan UPC: 74175-12240

Food Recalls, Mario Saroli Sales Inc. and the CFIA.

On Decmber 1, 2006 The Canadian Food Inspection Agency announced a food recall that may involve botulism, distibuted by a little known food Wholesaler in Ontario. Which food Retailers are involved is not being disseminated and thus consumers don't have enough information to protect themselves against this deadly toxin.

Transparancy in food quality situations should be the guiding philosophy of companies and the CFIA. Instead big retailers and government seem to be afraid of the consumer. By approaching this situation with a Need-To-Know Mind Set, the Government of Canada and corperations are complicating a deadly situation for consumers.

To be clear, SAROLI BRAND GREEN BELLA DI CERIGNOLA OLIVES, sold in 1 litre containers bearing UPC 7 79390 00404 1 and the lot code 075/6, imported to Canada by Mario Saroli Sales Inc. are being removed from the market, "because the product may be contaminated with Clostridium botulinum (that)... may cause botulism, a life-threatening illness." says The Canadian Food Inspection Agency(CFIA) which is over seeing the voluntary recall. No updates have to this time, been released as to the effectiveness of the recall.

Botulism is amoung the most deadly of food toxins, most dangerous because it is colourless and odourless and thus impossible for consumers to detect.

What retail companies recieved these foods from Mario Saroli Sales Inc.? Why don't consumers know?

Granted it's probably not Mario Sarolis' fault that the olives may contain the precursors of botulism; and understood by consumers that Mario Saroli Sales Inc. dosn't want to injure the reputations of their retail clients, but fault and reputation pale in relation to the deadly nature of the contaminent in question.

The situation demands more transparancy from corperations and government.

The consumer is left with the burden of checking each package of olives at every retailer they may shop at. We're left relying on the store manager at our neighbourhood stores who may be stressed-out this week because of all the recalls, or the increased volume of shoppers at this time of year; what if a low wage stock person misses aome packages?

If Loblaws was listed as one of the companies involved in the recall, and I shop at my local 'Loblaws Market Store', I'd pobably print out the info noted above on my way to my 'Loblaws Market Store' next Friday. As it is I don't know where I should be looking, Sobeys, Dominion, Value Mart, at the small delicatessen I like to go to for that extra special Christmas thing? Or at the corner grocer I occasionaly visit on my way home? Because it's so difficult I'll probably decide not to buy olives this month; thus further injuring the industry at a time when it can least absorb the shock.

Transparancy is the best policy. Are big retailers afraid of the consumer? By being opaque, approaching this Deadly situation with a need-to-know mind set, the Government of Canada and corperations are just complicating the situation for consumers.

Companies like Mario Saroli Sales Inc. who have very little presence in the market place or on the web, (just a brief public listing in www.profilecanada.com.), should ask the CFIA to publish a supply chain 'tree' diagram showing exactly what went where when - in the CFIAs' press release.

Creating Transparancy through Real Time tracking should be our long term goal; rather than worrying that retailers brand names may suffer if pertinent information is made available to consumers.

The up side for retailers and governments alike, is a sence of trust that will develop among shoppers as we all work together to protect our food security through information sharing.

You can recieve e-mail press releases from the CFIA at this LINK

Telephone CFIA at 1-800-442-2342, 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. local time Ottawa, Canada, Monday to Friday.