Okay. About contamination in the f & b industries as you positively stated, there's usually the major contamination coming during distribution. I'm aware 'sterile' packaging was made to combat this, but even the safest vacuums found in cans or what have you, when not properly stored (time factor, humidity, light [ultraviolet radiation]), can become infected. Bacteria are really hardy creatures, the most adaptible on the planet, and the less complex their genomes are, the hardier they are. One vegetative cell in that 'sterile' can of peas and that's it. Usually storage, handling, transportation..those are the hot points of infection.
It's also troubling to note that, even during the production phase itself, contamination isn't entirely exclusive. HACCP at least gives the manufacturer up to an 80% certainty. This is usually prevelant in the brewing industry.
Then, obviously, you have the rogue companies that skip HACCP altogether, at least at some point or when the laws regarding standards maintenance are not enforced, just to save as much funds at the detriment of the public.
That's why the FDA exists, for example. Here in Nigeria we have NAFDAC and even SON. They are INCREDIBLY important.
The matter of 'organic' produce (straight from the farm) is a totally different ballgame. Most of the outbreaks happen here, because regulation is less tight. And it's supposed to be the other way around since, unlike industrially packaged consumables, there are less bacteriocidal/bacteriostatic/antimicrobial measures taken to ensure safety. Then the handling, storage, and of course, the cleanliness in the farms that produce....
Additives may supposedly be onco- and proto-oncogene stimulators, but they usually become much of a threat in vast quantities that haven't been fully excreted by the body. There are several types of mutation on a cellular level, and 'innocent' chemicals added to tomato sauce, for example, as a fixative, can actually act as dimers, base analogues, or alkyating agents hence triggering cancer behaviour when the cell starts to code for oncoproteins instead. But it doesn't happen frequently if those chemicals are in minute doses, below a well-established LD50. There are regulators and repressors as well as other genetic 'control stations' in the case of protein biosynthesis...
). Same goes for tar, so even weed or crack smoking is obviously dangerous.
