wfn.org | Church kitchen helps FDA make holiday meals safer

["NewsDesk" <NewsDesk@UMCOM.ORG>]

Nov. 21, 2003 News media contact: Tim Tanton7(615)742-54707Nashville, Tenn. 
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NOTE: A television report is available at www.umtv.org.

By Nancye Willis*

BELTON, Mo. (UMNS) - Unlike cooks across the United States who roast turkeys
and bake pies for the approaching holidays, the chefs of CrossRoads United
Methodist Church know no one will eat what they cook.

That's not because their dishes aren't tasty, but because their cooking
efforts have a greater purpose than just stuffing a few faces. For 15 years,
the church kitchen has doubled as a Food and Drug Administration laboratory,
preparing common grocery-store products and submitting them to an FDA lab for
testing. 

"The program is set up to prepare foods that are bought in local grocery
stores all across the country," says the FDA's Kevin Cline. "We test it for
pesticides and heavy metals, and it's just like if you were going to the
store yourself."
 
CrossRoads cook Martha McKarnin agrees. "Generally," she says, "everything is
just like we'd do it at home."

The difference between this and home cooking is that the women don't get to
eat what they prepare - nor does anyone else. After they prepare the food,
they bottle and tag it and send it to a Kansas City lab, one of several
state-of-the-art FDA facilities strategically located nationwide, for
testing. 
 
"It's quite an operation when you think about it," says Martha Twente,
another of the women who cook at CrossRoads.
 
The FDA operates more than 90 research projects around the development of
test and sampling methodology, according to an agency report. The FDA-wide
effort involves scientific experts on staff as well as partners like
CrossRoads in strategic research. 

The CrossRoads test kitchen reflects the FDA's increasing concern over
identifying sources and preventing outbreaks of food-borne illness. In the
late '90s, in the wake of several severe food-borne outbreaks, the FDA
stepped up its efforts to monitor the safety of the U.S. food, developing
faster methods to detect adulterated foods.

The women at CrossRoads understand that their efforts are helping guard the
health of U.S. citizens, but for most of the participants, the excuse to get
together is enough to motivate them to show up 16 times a year to cook. "I
enjoy the fellowship," says Dovie Lanos. "We have a good time doing this."

They contribute most of their FDA earnings to support the kitchen or
church-sponsored missions around the world.

In a bulletin, the FDA is warning that "because holidays present a number of
unique food safety challenges, consumers should take appropriate precautions
in handling, preparing and cooking foods." The bulletin, including a list of
tips to reduce the risk of food-borne illnesses, is available at the FDA Web
site at http://www.cfsan.fda.gov/~lrd/tpholid.html.

More information on CrossRoads United Methodist Church is available at
http://www.crossroads-umc.com/.

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*Willis is editor for the Public Information Team at United Methodist
Communications in Nashville, Tenn.

 
 

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United Methodist News Service
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