Who's Hungry?

When I heard this morning that the "inbound" delays from New Jersey were even longer than usual, it got me thinking: what happens to our food, Manhattan, while it sits in trucks on approaches from New Jersey? With delays of more than an hour at the George Washington Bridge and at the Lincoln Tunnel, vehicles waiting to get into Manhattan were forced to sit in a cold soup of exhaust. Although food transport vehicles most likely have environmental control systems, and the weather was likely cold enough to prevent anything from spoiling, what happens to all of the fumes that get sucked into the ventillation systems of these vehicles? Does it get pumped into refrigerated cargo holds? Does it then somehow penetrate the meats, poultry, vegetables, and other unprocessed foods? Can food purveyors distinguish themselves by highlighting the filtration systems used on their food transport fleet?

Granted, this phenomenon is not unique to New York -- as of 2003, the average food item in the US was purported to have journeyed 1500 miles before reaching your plate -- but idling in traffic before reaching the destination store or restaurant is something that affects anything waiting to enter Manhattan.

I think I've lost my appetite.