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8 GENERAL NEWS GOURMET NEWS FEBRUARY 2014 www.gourmetnews.com Trade Show Buzz National Fiery Foods & Barbecue Show Returns to Albuquerque this February The 2014 National Fiery Foods & BBQ Show is preparing to set mouths ablaze Feb. 28-March 2 at the Sandia Resort and Casino in Albuquerque, N.M. The National Fiery Foods & BBQ Show, now in its 26th year, is the largest and most visited show featuring spicy foods and barbecue in the world. Held each March in Albuquerque, the show features over 200 exhibitors showcasing more than 1,000 different products. Last year's show attracted an all-time record crowd of 20,500 trade and general public attendees from all over the world. Exhibitors planning to attend this year's National Fiery Foods & BBQ Show produce everything from hot sauces and seasoning blends to chilis and soups to beef jerky to cocktail mixers. The one thing unifying these disparate companies is their collective love of heat. Show attendees will have the opportunity to meet and sample products from Arizona Rub, Lusty Monk, Casa de Benavidez, The PuckerButt Pepper Company, Nectar of the Vine and many more. "The Fiery Foods Show has been great for us, with lots of returning customers each year," said Kris Monteith, co-owner of Lusty Monk Mustards, after exhibiting at the 2012 show. "We also met great vendors and made fabulous in and out-ofstate contacts." Perhaps the biggest draw of the National Fiery Foods & BBQ Show is the annual presentation of the Scovie Awards. The 2014 Scovie Awards judging panel of top culinary experts honored dozens of companies as among the best when it comes to producing spicy and savory foods. Competition for this year's Scovie Awards was tougher than ever, with a new record of 864 total entries. In all, 105 companies walked away with at least one award. Show attendees will have the opportunity to sample and purchase Scovie Award-winning products. For trade attendees, the National Fiery Foods and Barbecue Show has set aside special "Trade Only" hours, where food industry personnel can meet with exhibitors and arrange to sell or distribute their fiery products. Tickets for trade hours are available only to those who are part of the Fiery Foods & Barbecue In- dustry. Interested trade personnel are required to provide credentials upon check-out and will be asked to bring credentials with them to the show. However, the show is also open to the general public, and all lovers of everything spicy will have a good time perusing the booths and sampling fiery marinades, salsas, mustards and more. Tickets are available online or at the door for $15 (adult) or $5 (children aged 6-18). Children under 6 get in free. For more information on the 26th National Fiery Foods and Barbecue Show, to register as an exhibitor or to purchase tickets, visit www.fieryfoodsshow.com. GN Antibiotics drug resistant bacteria. "Our tests show consumers who buy chicken breast at their local grocery stores are very likely to get a sample that is contaminated and likely to get a bug that is multi-drug resistant. When people get sick from resistant bacteria, treatment may be getting harder to find," said Urvashi Rangan, a toxicologist and Executive Director of the Consumer Reports Food Safety and Sustainability Center. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, each year 48 million Americans are sickened by food poisoning, including 1.3 million made ill by salmonella. Last year, the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced a 10-Point Action Strategy for tackling salmonella in the U.S. poultry industry. The plan included modernizing the nation's poultry slaughtering facilities, improving inspections of these facilities and enhancing salmonella sampling and testing programs. The department estimates that once implemented, at least 5,000 cases of salmonella will be avoided each year. Critics of the USDA's action plan immediately zeroed in on what they see as its greatest weakness: its inability to tackle the issue of multi-drug resistant salmonella. These critics argue that the nation's salmonella problem will not be addressed until limits are placed on the amount of antibiotics that can be fed to poultry and livestock. Currently, 80 percent of all antibiotics produced in the United States by weight go directly to animals being raised for food. The U.S. agriculture industry relies on feeding antibiotics to poultry and livestock as a means of controlling the proliferation of bacteria among animal stocks and promoting animal growth. However, an unintended result of this regimen is the proliferation of stronger, more harmful antibiotic-resistant bacteria. It appears that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has been listening to this criticism, as the agency has taken its first steps toward eliminating the overuse of antibiotics in U.S. agriculture. The FDA released its "guidance" on the topic in December, urging the industry to gradually phase out the use of antibiotics as standard food production practice. The guidelines are voluntary, and farmers are being given three years to comply. Still, despite the FDA's commitment to tackling the problem of the overuse of antibiotics in U.S. agriculture, many worry that the agency simply is not doing enough. According to Stephen McDonnell, CEO of organic meat and cheese producer Applegate, cooperation with the FDA's new standards for antibiotic use is entirely too voluntary, and the time frame for making the change is too far away. "The FDA is moving in the right direction by acknowledging that there is a problem, but it's not one we'll be able solve by relying on self-regulation and voluntary compliance," said McDonnell. "The industry has always had the opportunity to voluntarily stop using antibiotics. But instead, antibiotic use in animal agriculture has increased, despite warnings that this practice leads to antibiotic resistance in humans." Meanwhile, many in the poultry industry take an opposing view, arguing that the FDA is going too far in its efforts to curb antibiotic use by the U.S. agriculture industry and pointing out that chicken is eaten safely in this country every single day. According to the National Chicken Council, 99.9 percent of chicken sold in the United States is completely safe to eat. In addition, the group states that although entirely eliminating bacteria from poultry is not feasible, the industry has been able to reduce the incidence of salmonella by 55 percent in the past five years. "No legislation or regulation can keep bacteria from existing," said Mike Brown, President of the National Chicken Council. "The only way to ensure our food is safe 100 percent of the time is by following science-based procedures when raising, growing, handling and cooking it. Right now, we're at 99.9 percent but we're going to keep working to reach 100." As the USDA, the FDA and the U.S. agriculture industry continue their work to eliminate salmonella from meat and poultry sold in this country, food scientists are hard at work developing new ways to protect meat-eating consumers. The latest development was announced late last year by Netherlands-based Micreos. Micreos has developed Salmonelex™, a recently FDAand USDA-approved food processing aid that works to eliminate salmonella from food without altering its taste, texture or appearance. The substance is sprayed topically or added to chill water, completely removing salmonella from the product. Companies like Micreos are becoming increasingly invaluable actors in the fight against salmonella, as each new outbreak is sending more and more Americans to the hospital. As multi-drug resistant salmonella takes hold of U.S. meat and poultry, the "superbug" that is feared by so many may be in danger of becoming an omnipresent reality. GN Continued from PAGE 1 contaminated with enterococcus bacteria, 65.2 percent with E.coli, 43 percent with campylobacter, 13.6 percent with klebsiella pneumonia, 10.8 percent with salmonella and 9.2 percent with staphylococcus aureus. In addition, the publication evaluated every bacterium to determine if it was antibiotic resistant, finding that half of all chicken samples tested positive for multi-

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