For me, this brought home the necessity for manufacturers and the government to take responsibility for keeping hazardous substances out of the marketplace. We cannot be totally effective gatekeepers for our own families.

So, what's a person to do, short of get her Ph.D. in chemistry? (I know that you readers are massively smart and accomplished, and some of you may take that challenge seriously). You don't need to -- consider this your cheat-sheet.

Modern advances in food science, both in how we produce and deliver food, have become key battlegrounds in the science versus fear-mongering debate.