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In an interview on The Leonard Lopate Show (the audio of which can be heard below), food author and flexitarian Mark Bittman shares a concern about getting sick from prepared, bagged produce that most of the public would naturally have after hearing of the outbreaks of illnesses over the years. Although he recommends a salad a day, he’s not so sure that salad should come from a bag.

“My only concern with the bagged stuff is whether or not it’s going to poison you or not. The convenience of cut up vegetables…what could be more convenient than that, as long as you’re not going to get salmonella from that. And I can’t answer that. I’d like to see our food safety system in a place where if people want to buy more conveniently prepared vegetables, they could do so without worrying about it.”

The convenience of bagged fruits and veggies have not come without consequence. There’s the occasional found frog leg in the frozen vegetables. The inedible glass pieces found in frozen peas. However, it’s usually contamination with e. coli or salmonella that leads to widespread sickness and fear of eating things good for you. Just when you thought it was okay to eat bagged spinach again, Consumer Reports recently conducted tests of 16 brands commonly found in stores and found, in the sanitation and contamination levels, there’s room for improvement.

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Lisa Edelstein “House” Away From Home Isn’t Vegetarian Friendly

Written by Vegetarian Star on Monday, October 25th, 2010 in Actresses, Film & TV, Food & Drink.

As a vegetarian for 28 years, Lisa Edelstein has been through times when it was difficult to get something meatless while away from home. But who would have thought that in 2010, it would be hard to find something vegetarian on the set of House?

As Edelstein explained to Popeater, the producers of the show don’t have a large budget for food, and she often ends up bringing her own food to the set because “food is sort of crappy.”

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You know exactly who you are.

You never went vegetarian or vegan because you hated the taste of meat. The smell of Thanksgiving turkey still makes you salivate and walking past the steakhouse gives you fantasies that make you feel a bit naughty.

However, there’s no reason to feel guilty about a craving you never give into. And because you know there’s such an abundance of fake meat out there, you never will.

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Giveaway Grand Prize–Veggie Patch Spinach With Three Cheese Bites

Written by Vegetarian Star on Friday, October 22nd, 2010 in Business, Food & Drink, Giveaways.

For the final day of the Veggie Patch giveaway, we’re extending the deadline to enter through the weekend!

So from now until Monday Morning you may enter to win the grand prize of Veggie Patch’s Spinach with Three Cheese Bites.

These vegetarian snacks feature spinach mixed with ricotta, mozzarella and feta cheese, wrapped into a breaded crust. Containing absolutely no trans-fats, Veggie Patch Spinach with Three Cheese Bites also provide a good source of fiber, Vitamin A and Vitamin C.

To enter to win, you may do the following:

* For 1 chance to win, leave a comment on this post saying why you want Veggie Patch Spinach With Three Cheese Bites.

* For 2 chances to win, leave a comment on this post saying why you want Veggie Patch Spinach with Three Cheese Bites AND RT this post on Twitter (e.g. RT@vegetarianstar Giveaway Veggie Patch Spinach with Three Cheese Bites. If you’re Re-Tweeting this post, you must also include your Twitter handle in the comment. If you’re Re-Tweeting this post and you also want to win a coupon for Veggie Patch Spinach with Three Cheese Bites, you must leave a comment too.

Contest ends on Monday, October 25th and winners will be notified via email. Please check your spam box (cough, cough Yahoo users) because if you don’t respond in 48 hours, we’ll pick another winner.

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After nine years of vegetarianism, singer Sade has announced she has no problem eating Mary the little lamb.

“I hate to say this,” she said in an interview with All About Jazz, “but when I saw these lambs gamboling through the field and I started to salivate and I thought I should get to the tandoori shop quick before I pull a leg off one of the lambs. It’s weird. I just thought the natural thing to do right now was to eat meat. I went through the whole veggie period thinking that was a good thing, and maybe it was for that time.”

It’s funny how Sade thinks it’s “natural” to eat lamb, when raising the animal is actually quite an unnatural process.

Lamb is sheep meat that is less than a year old and most lamb arrives at the market around 6-8 months of age. Instead of weening for a normal time period, the babies are quickly introduced to a diet consisting of corn, barley and milo.

The animals are also sentient beings. According to the Humane Society, sheep remember and recognize faces of their flock after years of separation.

Photo: PR Photos

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Temple Grandin Helps U.S. Chicken Companies Switch To Gas Killing

Written by Vegetarian Star on Friday, October 22nd, 2010 in Animal Issues, Business, Food & Drink.

Temple Grandin, a scientist who’s contributed to reducing stress on slaughter animals, has consulted with two U.S chicken companies who worked with a business, Anglia Autoflow, that designed a system to allow them to kill chickens using carbon dioxide, considered a more humane alternative to electrical stunning used by most American chicken producers.

Bell & Evans in Pennsylvania and Mary’s Chickens in California are making the switch to putting chickens to sleep using the gas before they are turned upside down to have their throats slit and will have the first such chickens slaughtered available for purchase in April and June, respectively.

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Alice Waters “Sexy” Michael Pollan Halloween Costumes

Written by Vegetarian Star on Friday, October 22nd, 2010 in Fashion, Flexitarian, Food & Drink.

Still in need of adult costume ideas for Halloween? Chow has put together a few ideas for foodies looking to impersonate their favorite food activists and chefs.

On the left, you have your Alice Waters costume, which, according to Chow, will require you to invest in items such as a “handmade purple hat” and “basket of organic vegetables”

Next to Alice is “sexy” Michael Pollan. Besides a bald cap, you’ll need “a book, organic vegetables and some hos [sic].” Ahem. We’re sure the typo was an honest mistake and Pollan’s just a gardening enthusiast.

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Michelle Obama Sweet Potato Picking From White House Garden

Written by Vegetarian Star on Friday, October 22nd, 2010 in Children, Food & Drink, Gardening, Recipes.

First Lady Michelle Obama holds a sweet potato as she participates in a fall garden harvest with students from local D.C. schools in the White House Garden in Washington on October 20, 2010. UPI/Kevin Dietsch Photo via Newscom

Michelle Obama invited local school children to harvest vegetables from the garden when she was caught holding a prized possession from the patch.

The sweet potato was picked at the beginning of prime season (October through January) and this Thanksgiving favorite in the U.S. is sure to please White House guests in some dish soon.

Sometimes mistaken for yams, sweet potatoes are actually an entirely different vegetable, a root of the vine in the morning glory family that dates back to 750 B.C. in Peruvian records.

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