For lovers of the ocean, the impact of some of our modern human behaviors is a cause of grave concern. Not only are we polluting the marine environment with our chemical run-off, trash, acidification and rising sea levels through climate change and more, but we are also removing its denizens at an alarming rate. From […]
Category Archives: food safety
09
Apr
Apr
Last year Berkshire wrote about Soylent. “The new cult beverage that’s swept the U. S. and is now gaining traction across The Pond in the U. K., is aimed less at weight watchers and more at those who simply do not have the time, capacity, or perhaps the imagination to prepare chewable meals.” So what […]
27
Mar
Mar
Armenian composer and philosopher G I Gurdjieff once admonished his audience to ‘Live a life of friction. Let yourself be disturbed as much as possible, but observe.’ In terms of personal development, this can indeed be a useful maxim, but for contamination control and manufacturing little may be further from the truth. Friction is actually […]
06
Mar
Mar
At the end of a long day or an even longer week, something a lot of us enjoy is an ice-cold beer or fruity glass of wine to help us relax and ease into the evening or weekend. Beer has been around seemingly since time immemorial and viticulture – the growing and transformation of grapes […]
20
Feb
Feb
When thinking about our neighbors to the north, Canada, what springs most readily to mind? Take a moment to mull it over – we’ll wait. Is it the frigid winter temperatures? The potential for epic roadtrips to see the Northern Lights? The abundance of that sweet delicacy maple syrup? Or what about the national game, […]
24
Jan
Jan
In the face of the inevitable annual flurry of resolutions in the New Year surrounding health, diet, and exercise, we at Berkshire are going against the flow and providing you, our diet-beleaguered readers, with respite from the onslaught of accusatory finger wagging. Far be it from us to promulgate the miserable ‘New Year, New You’ […]
05
Dec
Dec
They are arguably the most vulnerable consumers of commercial food products, yet also the least likely to effectively articulate distress caused by contaminated products. Who are they? Newborns and infants – the most fragile customers and the least able to guarantee themselves protection from food-borne illness. And in this new era of a global market […]
16
Oct
Oct
In the modern American chicken ‘processing plant’ (a euphemistic term for the slaughterhouse), the ‘New Poultry Inspection System’, a set of regulations drawn up by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) in 2014, allows up to 175 chickens to be killed per line, per minute. Doing the rudimentary math, that’s almost 3 animals per […]
02
Oct
Oct
Meal Replacements for the Zombie Apocalypse? Wherever you find yourself parted from your shopping dollars today – be it the homogenized grocery store or the specialist vitamin shop – you will be assured of a veritable feast of foods. And we don’t just mean the healthy, natural, rainbow-hued, compost-flecked items from the organic produce aisle. […]
18
Sep
Sep
What’s cold enough to burn your insides and ephemeral enough transform you into a fire-breathing dragon? Liquid nitrogen, the new darling of festival and fair food, turns out to be an additive that we need to treat very carefully. With the new craze for Dragon’s Breath cereals sweeping the carnival-going community, how concerned should we […]
