Hi John, I'm sorry to hear about the Crohn's disease. My cousin has that condition.

You're not far off the mark. Generally you want a university with a Food Science program. Land Grant institutions in states with a strong agricultural heritage are your best bet.

It will vary from state to state, so it may be you'll be directed to another state or Extension service for your particular interest. For example, Oregon State has a strong Food Science program, but its specialties are enology (wine), brewing (beer), seafood and dairy.

Are you in the "Show Me" state? If so, here's a link that might help. You might be able to hook up with a grad student who needs a research project. Good luck and let us know how it goes.

Carol

Here is a link that might be useful: University of Missouri Food Systems and Bioengineering

John, I have an autoimmune issue with CIDP (Chronic Inflammatory Demylinating Polyradiculuneuropathy) where the antibodies attack the peripheral nervous system. With MS, them pesky antibodies attack the central nervous system, and with Crohns, they attack the gut. I find that home fermented, living foods help tremendously, your situation may be completely different.

Asking folks who are charged by law and gummit funding to informing the lowest common denominator, the 'public' about food safety, inevitably they are going to try to sterilize what ever "the public" eats down to a 0.01% statistical certainty of "this food won't infect you with any bug" level of safety.

Which is why they say to BWB tomatoes for 45 minutes, and so on. Note the hesitant entries on this forum from elsewhere in the world where they use a 0.05% statistical norm and the boiling times are less.

This topic, naturally-fermented foods and their beneficial/maybe-not-so-beneficial effect on a persons health affects me directly, and I pursue the subject with a lot of interest. I should mention that my doctor, who treats my condition as well as all of my family, routinely puts in an 'unofficial' order for the sauerkraut, the Kefir Hatch green chili, and everything else I grow and ferment in crocks, and think that naturally fermented foods are the way to go. Ghengis Khan didn't conquer the world on gasoline and diesel, he did it on mares, cows, Kefir and Yogurt. Imagine if he had tasted the famous '52 fermented chili sauce - we'd all be running around pillaging.

My experience, (and my wife as well works in the research field of the area), and speaking with autoimmune specialists, is the incidence of this genre of disease has 3 main significant correlations: radioactivity, 'industrial agriculture' (read pesticides), and mining, which gets the person exposed to just about everything. It's an up and coming disease spectrum of the 'modern, industrialized, world'.

That would be the first place to look, I would think, and not your fabulous fermented concoctions.

Still enjoying your garlic in chili, btw, and will do my own batch soon. Thanks once again.

You hang in there, and never let them get you down.

david, interested in your figures
0.01% US and 0.05% rest of world. Is this commentary or fact? Got any references I can persue?
Kay

Kay, I spent my career working overseas, often working with European scientists, and on several occasions this difference came up. Pharmaceuticals, for example, in Europe have a far longer expiration date than the same medicine would in the US. The expiration dates on canned and packaged foods also are considerably longer. It was explained to me then, and confirmed by my brother who works overseas for a Pharmaceutical company, that this difference was the result of different statistical confidence levels.

But that doesn't answer you question about finding sources, and I am having trouble doing so. The EEC seems to be worrying about GM crops and mad cow, which is all well and good, and I'm not finding confirmation with the USDA sources.

I'll keep looking, I may be proven wrong, but I'll start another thread should I find anything out.

Then there is ITP. Idiopathic thrumbocytopenia perpura, where your antibodies attack your platelets. That was what I went through and had my spleen removed, which didn't correct the problem. Many months of high doses of steroids a weight loss of almost 70 pounds and some specific chemotherapy was needed. That was some years ago, and my hospital stay was nearly 4 months, with internal bleeding issues, PCP phneumonia, and antibotics of every imaginable kind. I thought I was a goner when my parents came into the ICU and I was being given last rites.

david ... I strongly suspect your numbers are right. I also strongly suspect that you won't get anything definitive out of any government agency. Just a lot of CYA legalese.