Five books on the safety of America's food supply

For the Christian Science Monitor, Rebekah Denn named five books that help to place the salmonella scare and egg recall in context.

One item on her list:

“What to Eat” or “Safe Food,” by Marion Nestle

Nestle, a professor in the Department of Nutrition, Food Studies, and Public Health at New York University, clearly explains the intersection between policy, politics, and the plate, delivering practical advice on every corner of the grocery store. (The sort of sweetened yogurt most of us eat? It’s a dessert, she alerts us, not a health food.) She speaks her mind, always backing it with solid evidence.

On her blog, Nestle has been tracking the recent egg recalls, writing tartly, “Preventing Salmonella should not be difficult. The rules require producers to take precautions to prevent transmission, control pests and rodents, test for Salmonella, clean and disinfect poultry houses that test positive, divert eggs from positive-testing flocks, refrigerate the eggs right away, and keep records. These sound reasonable to me, but I care about not making people sick.”

Read about the other books on Denn's list.

The Page 99 Test: Marion Nestle's Pet Food Politics.

--Marshal Zeringue