Commentary – Cider Rules

Roadside stands and small farms are great places to enjoy the colors and tastes of fall. Yet Great Lakes Radio Consortium commentator Tom Springer is afraid that food safety regulations may threaten this tradition:

Transcript

Roadside stands and small farms are great places to enjoy the colors and tastes of fall. Yet Great Lakes Radio Consortium commentator Tom Springer is afraid that food safety regulations may threaten this tradition.


Enjoying a sweet glass of fresh cider is one of the simple pleasures of autumn. Since my wife’s Uncle Dayton owns a fruit farm a few miles away, we always have a ready supply.


The cider that Dayton makes is unpasteurized. That means it hasn’t been cooked to kill off all the microorganisms. Dayton’s done it this way for 35 years and has never had any problems.


Yet for the government, that may no longer be good enough. In 1996, a one-year-old girl died from drinking unpasteurized apple juice that was contaminated with E. coli bacteria. Since then, regulations have grown tighter. In 1998, the FDA required unpasteurized cider to carry a label that warns of its health risks to children, the elderly, and people with weak immune systems.


In most states, farms that sell unpasteurized cider must have regular inspections. They can no longer make cider from apples that have fallen to the ground. Each year, Uncle Dayton says, the inspectors who visit his orchard become more aggressive. As a small operator, he fears that more regulation will force him out of the cider business.


Perhaps I should be grateful that the government’s looking out for my safety. But there’s something about their logic that escapes me. In my state of Michigan, there’s never been a single reported case of anyone becoming ill from drinking unpasteurized cider. And no matter where you live, the chances of a healthy adult getting sick from fresh cider are statistically miniscule.


Yet my biggest gripe about pasteurized cider is its taste – or lack thereof. Fresh cider is a living organism, an organic mixture of molds and yeasts. Fresh cider has a wine-like subtlety, and each blend has its own flavor and aroma. Fresh cider is gold and sparkling, like fine amber from the Baltic Sea.


By comparison, most pasteurized cider has a coarse and waxy taste. Its muddy
appearance resembles the rusty fluid that leaks from old radiators.


What I’m saying here, is “Give me a choice.” The warning labels for fresh cider are a good idea. But there’s no need to over-regulate this healthy product. In America, 450,000 people die each year from heart disease. Yet no one’s suggested that we limit the sale of cheesy fries or half-pound monster burgers.


Last week, I stopped by a new supermarket that’s 3 miles from Uncle Dayton’s farm. We bought some FDA-approved juice boxes for my 2-year-old daughter. And here, I saw a label that was truly frightening. “This carton,” the juice box read, “may contain apple juice from the U.S.A, Argentina, Chile, Germany, or Austria.” In other words, we have only the vaguest idea where your food came from. But if there’s a problem, we can narrow it down to three of the seven continents.


I’ll take my chances with Uncle Dayton’s fresh cider any day. I know it comes from 80 acres of apples that he’s planted and tended with his own hands. For me, that’s assurance enough. Because a life with zero risk is a lot like pasteurized cider – it offers little color and even less flavor.