Sticky rice - Can you believe this.

Discussion in 'General chat' started by sun burn, Nov 14, 2010.

  1. sun burn

    sun burn Junior Member

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    The council (cairns/port douglas) has banned the sale of sticky rice sweets at the markets. Does this not sound like madness.

    Can anyone understand it? Of course i have written to complain about it.
     
  2. JoH

    JoH Junior Member

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    Rice in itself is actually grows bacteria very well so I guess it might have something to do with that and not being referated potentially could carry "food bourne illness".....Makes you wonder how half the world survive without all of the restrictions and government interventions "protecting" our saftey. They would probably be able to make a substitute that is processed to within an inch of its life and saturated in corn syrup then packaged into individual little plastic wrappers and then they will claim that that is better for you!! Yes, the world is going mad!
     
  3. sun burn

    sun burn Junior Member

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    If there is this potential, you'd think that people would have known more about it and that it would have happened but i've never heard of this. Have you. In the fridge, my cooked rice always gets covered in mould within a couple of days.

    I am really fed up. The other one that gets my goat is not being allowed to sell eggs. I read that about 1 in 30 000 eggs may be poisoned from salmonella.

    Then, although it doesn't affect, there is the whole cheese thing. Not to mention the milk think. it goes on and f-cking on and that's only food. I told them there was more freedom in the soviety union.
     
  4. Fernando Pessoa

    Fernando Pessoa Junior Member

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    Two easy ways around this are sell you milk as a beauty product ie bathing milk ala cleopatra,lots of people I know buy raw milk in this fashion and drink it themselves.The eggs and everything else can be sold from your house as a hobby,incomes from "hobbies"are tax exempt up to 20,000 dollars.By issuing a basic safety warming like please wash all your eggs and vegetables thoroughly before eating,you will be exercising basic due dillegence.As long as your yard and animal system is up to standard I don't see any problem for you.
    We are either under or over regulated,under if you are a major corporation over if you are a citizen,it's our fault because like lunatics in the asylum we practice the same behaviour over and over again in the hope that the result will differ.
    Best wishes fernando
     
  5. pebble

    pebble Junior Member

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    I do agree that things are being over-regulated. The problem is that there are people who want to make money from Farmer's markets and such but who don't actually have the skills and knowledge and experience to do so safely. In the past, people learnt traditional food preparation from people who knew how to do it well (family often, where there is a big incentive to not give people food poisoning). Now people are often learning from books, the internet, figuring it out for themselves, which is important but it's a different thing than what happened in the past.

    I buy raw milk from farmers that I know and trust. I'm not going to buy it from someone I don't know, for very good reasons.
     
  6. sun burn

    sun burn Junior Member

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    Back to the sticky rice. To be able to sell food at hte market you have to have your kitchen inspected by the council. These women have obviously passed inspection because they are still selling other cakes at hte markest. Its just that they are not allowed to sell sticky rice.

    I am sure that most of the people who are selling food at the farmers's markets are perfectly capable of finding out how to prepare food safely. People who have market stalls are not stupid. they are often very diligient types.

    As to the customer washing their eggs, this will not prevent poisoning. It requires the producer to clean the eggs when they are collected and then to store them appropriately. I don't wash my eggs because that washes of the protective membrane on the egg. I read that you should wipe them but its better to prevent them gettign dirty in the first place by having your hen house set up properly so that the eggs can't be shat on and don't hang about on the ground.

    It is illegal to sell eggs for human consumption. Its not about tax. Of course you can do similar to what you suggest and sell them as dog food.
     
  7. Speedy

    Speedy Junior Member

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    Imagine if these sort of STUPID regulations , suposedly in the name of food safety and also fear of litigation
    (assuming that's what the sticky rice ban is about) had been around when humans started proessing foods
    there'd be no such thing as smoked or salted meats, bread, beer, wine, all the wonderful cheeses, tempe, tape, fish sauce , shrimp paste etc etc etc.
    the list of banned foods would fill a 1000 pages.
    or more to the point these foods would never be allowed to be discovered in the first place.

    It shits me when this sort of stuff is imposed on people when I see some of the crap served up in the the likes of fast 'food' 'restaurants' as being 'ok' cause it was done under 'hygenic conditions' and passed by the food inspector.

    I do understand, as most people dealing with food do,
    safety and hygeine around food is important,
    and there are some places I probably wouldn't buy food from, but i'd like to make a choice.

    this all seems like just more of the ridiculous widespread hygiene hypercondria that seems to be overtaking the world.:mad:::mad::

    yeah right, wash yer kids in Dettol cause they just got some dirt on them...
    antibacterial this an that in the kitchen ...
    and kill all those nasty lil invisible germies (or 99.99% of them as they say) in the toilet too
    just in case they decide to creep out and get you while you're asleep...:devil:


    when I saw this I just needed to have a bit of a rant

    Ok, I've calmed down now...:blush:
     
  8. JoH

    JoH Junior Member

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    I think that the immnity issue is a worry too Speedy. You need germs to make antibodies. Please dont get me wrong. I am not advocating poor heigeine however I do have concerns about all the antibacterial products around. I would love to know A) how long after you wash your hands in dettol it takes for the bacteria to re multiply to pre - washing levels (not long I am sure). B) if we are making more strains of "bad bugs" resistant. 3) What the effect long term on children's ammunity and allergy levels surare from being bubble wrapped and disinfected. 4) If you bought a street kid from india to live in the west - would they be healthier than a "sterilised" western child. 5) what is the effect on the soils, water systems etc of the waste water mixed with antibacterial soaps and cleaners. The marketing companies are doing such a great job because so many people buy them.
     
  9. pebble

    pebble Junior Member

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    I can't find anything online about the sticky rice ban. Do you have a link sun burn?
     
  10. sun burn

    sun burn Junior Member

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    ban is not really the correct term. What is it is that you have to have a license to produce it. The stallholders at the markets who were making and selling it didn't have a license but they had had their kitchens inspected and so continue to produce other types of cakes.

    Rice is considered not a low risk food because it can harbour microbes and cause food poisoning like chicken etc. Apparenlty there's been cases of people getting sick from rice dishes. ... And then i go yes but that would be unlikely to happen with a sticky rice sweet sold at the markets. Its just that the authorities don't make a disctinction.

    Here at hte markets the stallholders have been selling sticky rice sweets for years. It seems some inspector came around recently and told them they couldn't sell it now.
     
  11. pebble

    pebble Junior Member

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    ok, thanks. Why would market sellers be safer than anyone else?
     
  12. DonHansford

    DonHansford Junior Member

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    On the issue of antibacterial handwashes et al:

    From betterhealth.vic.gov.au
    "Summary:
    The overuse of antibacterial products may be producing strains of multi-antibiotic-resistant bacteria. Antibacterial cleaning products are no more effective at preventing infection than good personal and household hygiene using ordinary soap, warm water and plain detergent.
    "

    Also from abc.net.au health & wellbeing section:
    " Infectious diseases expert Dr Michael Whitby says no 'reputable research' has found that using antibacterial products to clean surfaces – such as bench tops, bathroom sinks and toilets – will cut sickness. (Much of the research into bacteria in the home is funded by the companies that make the antibacterial products.)

    "I'm not saying that inanimate surfaces don't spread disease. What I'm saying is that in the close relationship of a household, a lot of it [disease] is spread person to person, and cleaning the inanimate surfaces with an antibacterial cleaner is not going to help," Whitby says."


    And from tga.gov.au (Therapeutic Goods Administration)
    "Regulation of antibacterial hand washes:
    Question: I would like to import an antibacterial hand wash to sell in Australia. What regulations do I have to meet in order to do this?
    Antibacterial hand washes are currently regulated as medicines by the TGA. However, one of the recommendations in the report Regulation of Cosmetic Chemicals: Final Report and Recommendations, published in November 2005 and available on the NICNAS website is that antibacterial skin washes be regulated as cosmetics.

    Pending legislative underpinning of these recommendations, interim arrangements are in operation under NICNAS, the cosmetics regulator. This means that businesses introducing an antibacterial skin wash can choose to either remain regulated as a medicine by the TGA or apply to NICNAS under interim arrangements to have the product regulated as a cosmetic. This provision is available for antibacterial skin products other than those used for:
    Prevention of the transmission of disease; or
    Specifically for use in clinical/surgical settings.
    Forms and guidance on interim arrangements, including further explanation of these exclusion criteria, are available on the NICNAS website.
    "

    So even the agency tasked with ensuring these things meet some form of standard, aren't quite sure what to classify them as :shake:
     
  13. Grahame

    Grahame Senior Member

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    I can believe it. It is just another example of how this whole society is Fubar and probably at this point way beyond self-redemption.

    I'm not convinced you can fight the system with the system, it's all set up to protect itself. I'm not really that interested in changing the system anyway - I'm more interested in scraping it altogether. It seems to me to have too few redeeming features. Nothing will change until we change ourselves. And we are unlikely to change ourselves - so few ever do.
     
  14. pebble

    pebble Junior Member

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    I feel similarly. If we make small changes in the system, it's still the system that's wrecking the place. I do think it's important that the people with the passion and energy for it make the changes though. It's all important.
     
  15. sun burn

    sun burn Junior Member

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    Well yes i think its important to do whatever one can. Changing oneself or trying to is always important. You can ditch the system in your own life but that won't make it go away. No one believes in revolutions and overnight change anymore. Its been tried and seen to result in a worse set up. Its seems to me that the best way to change things is to chip away. I don't know if i've got the strength to do much myself but at least I will consider doing something. If you are interested Graham my point is made by a wonderful book called White Man's Burden by a guy called William Eastman i think that's his name. Its about the Wests efforts to help the rest of the world - What works and what doesn't.

    Pebble, why would market sellers be safer than anyone else. Well i think market sellers selling sticky rice would be safe because its unlikely that they would make the stuff much more than a day before the market. The sweets are fresh at the market. The problem with sticky rice could only come form cooking the rice early and keeping it in the fridge too long. Small time jam makers might thin down the fruit quantity in their jams but i can't see what a sticky rice maker would do to ruin their food. I won't by home made jams anymore. I've had too much that's poor quality. Unless i can taste it first that is. The thing is, its always the big producers who are behind these health scares and stories of food poisoning, the odd restaurant also. When people rely on repeat customers they are not going to ruin their product.

    Mostly what i say is a belief but its a belief i hold deeply. It seems to me that the women who have the get up and go to make food for markets are usually pretty resourceful and serious and care about what they are doing. I have a friend who used to make things for the markets and now she has her own cafe. When i lived with her i was amazed that she religiously cleaned out her entire fridge every week. Even when i am in my most industrious domestic phases i don't clean out my fridge weekly. But if i was selling food at the markets that i made at home, i very well might do that. Just to be organised.

    Now what is all that that Don has posted...I am not sure where antibacterial handwashes came in to the discussion but anyway. I am sometimes shocked when i meet people who start talking about the need to carry around that stuff and wipes and and so on and so forth. I mean i like a clean place as much as anyone but people have gone a bit overboard with hygiene in recent years and to the point of it being unhealthy. I think because i was allowed to play in the muck on the farm that is the reason why i have such good immunity now. One of the reasons anyway. My sister too.
     
  16. sun burn

    sun burn Junior Member

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    Changing the topic rather

    lol Don. I'd say its neither a medicine or a cosmetic. What do they classify soap as? A cosmetic, then its a cosmetic. If not i reckon it should be classified as whatever soap is. It attempts to do the same thing pretty much doesn't it.

    Antibacterial hand washes are meant for situation when you don't have access to soap and water or even jsut water such as when you are camping in Ladakh which is when i found it useful. Otherwise i just take a small bar of soap around with me for handwashing when i am in india that is. I don't need to do that in oz because there's nearly always soap in the bathrooms.
     
  17. sun burn

    sun burn Junior Member

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    ACtually pebble the distinction I was trying to make about the sticky rice was that sometimes eateries serve old rice dishes but I can't imagine anyone doing that at a weekly market with sticky rice sweets.
     

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