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Health Law

Food Safety News

Daily online newspaper dedicated to reporting on issues surrounding food safety.
By Dan Flynn and Suzanna Schreck

Post Frequency: 31.2/day

Last Entry: March 31, 2011 at 06:59:07

Salmonella Forces Recall of Barbecue Pork

Posted on October 21, 2010
The Murphy House, a North Carolina processing plant for barbecue meats Wednesday issued its third recall for the year. This time, the problem is Salmonella contamination in 4,920 pounds of ready-to-eat (RTE) pork barbecue products.Earlier in 2010, on Feb...

Chefs and Students Harvest White House Garden

Posted on October 21, 2010
It was drizzly and dreary in Washington, DC Wednesday, but the clouds parted just in time for First Lady Michelle Obama's seasonal Kitchen Garden Harvest on the White House South Lawn."I've got treasure! I'm rich!" shouted one student from local Bancroft Elementary, as he unearthed large sweet potatoes and showed them off to the press pool...

Texas Closes Produce Plant Linked to Five Deaths

Posted on October 21, 2010
Deadly chopped celery contaminated with Listeria monocytogenes was traced back Wednesday to Sangar Fresh Cut Produce in San Antonio, and the company was ordered to stop processing food and recall all products shipped since January.The order came from the Texas Department of State Health Services, which acted under a Lone Star state law that gives DSHS the power to take such action when there is "an immediate and serious threat to human life...

Probiotics Again Fail to Pass Scientific Scrutiny

Posted on October 20, 2010
Independent scientists advising the European Union have for the sixth time found no cause-and-effect relationship between probiotic products and improved immune systems.The Panel on Dietetic Products, Nutrition and Allergies, part of the European Food Safety Authority, yesterday posted its assessment of 800 health claims, including some from manufacturers whose products include so-called functional ingredients like probiotics--food additives they claim can stimulate the immune system to aid digestion or inhibit pathogens...

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Japan Considers Relaxed Restrictions on U.S. Beef

Posted on October 20, 2010
Japan, which used to be the largest export market for U.S. beef before the 2003 mad cow scare halted imports, is reportedly reviewing the safety of American beef in an effort to break down trade barriers. Currently, Japan only accepts U.S. beef from cattle aged 20 months or younger because older cattle are thought to be at higher risk for mad cow, or bovine spongiform encephalopathy...

Sanitation Problems Found at Wisconsin Fishery

Posted on October 20, 2010
Catfish and carp being processed by Wisconsin's Blum's Spring Lake Fisheries is adulterated and misbranded, according to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).Located in Potosi--Catfish Capital of Wisconsin---Blum's received an Oct. 14 warning letter from FDA, stemming from an inspection last April and May...

SF Fast Food Toy Ban Too Hot for Pre-Election Vote

Posted on October 20, 2010
San Francisco's efforts to restrict the use of toys to promote fast food for children has been pushed back a couple of weeks. Why? Depends upon whom you talk to.The city's 11-member board of supervisors moved Tuesday to postpone a vote on the controversial measure until Nov...

Catfish Farmers Air Commercials to Pressure Obama

Posted on October 20, 2010
Whether they are truly motivated by their concern for food safety, or whether they just want to erect a trade barrier, U.S. catfish farmers are methodical in keeping pressure on.Catfish Farmers of America want the Obama Administration to quit dickering and implement language in the 2008 Farm Bill that requires the Department of Agriculture to inspect catfish just as it now regulates beef, pork, poultry and eggs...

Coalition Questions Tester's Small-Farm Exemptions

Posted on October 20, 2010
Congress may be on recess, but food safety politicking is in full swing. A coalition backing the pending food safety bill sent an email to Senate offices Tuesday, soliciting support for the upcoming cloture vote. The email also asks for support in modifying the Tester amendment, a popular provision that would exempt small farmers from certain regulations...

Tracking Food Back to the Field

Posted on October 19, 2010
On today's grocery shelves, it's commonplace for produce from all over the world to be displayed side by side, regardless of the season. It's not unusual, in fact it's expected, to see lettuce or tomatoes from California in New England grocery stores even as the snow begins to fall...

Indonesia Tests Instant Noodles, Says They're Safe

Posted on October 19, 2010
Health authorities in Jakarta yesterday said a laboratory confirmed that Indonesian-made instant noodles were not a danger, the Jakarta Globe newspaper reported.Ten days ago, the sale of Indomie-brand instant noodles was halted in Taiwan, after the health department there said the product contained excessive levels of the preservatives methyl p-hydroxybenzoate, as well as a parahydroxy benzoate...

White House Chef Predicts Nutrition Bill Will Pass

Posted on October 19, 2010
The Child Nutrition Reauthorization bill that stalled last month still has a chance, according to White House Assistant Chef Sam Kass.Yesterday, Kass, who also serves as the senior policy adviser on Healthy Eating Initiatives, told a conference of 400 chefs and children's health/anti-hunger advocates that the White House remains excited and optimistic about the bill's prospects during the next session in November...

UK's Food Safety Rating May Soon Be Mandatory

Posted on October 19, 2010
Increase the number of local inspections by combining food safety and health and safety inspectors, and then make the Food Standards Agency's public rating system mandatory.Those are among the food safety recommendations presented to the Prime Minister on Oct...

DeCoster Gets Warning, Hillandale Sales OK'd

Posted on October 19, 2010
In the official documents piling up over the nationwide outbreak of Salmonella, Austin J. "Jack" DeCoster, who may be the nation's No. 1 egg producer, is getting only the obligatory warning letter from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.Meanwhile, Gary Bartness at Hillandale Farms got a much nicer letter from FDA, one that gives permission to resume distribution of eggs for the table market...

Dairy Gave 'False Guaranty' About Drug Residues

Posted on October 18, 2010
An Indiana dairy farm signed a "Livestock Owner Certificate" promising buyers that animals it sold would be free of illegal levels of drug residues. Now, however, USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service has found that at least one cow the dairy sold for slaughter came with penicillin residues at higher levels than are allowed by the U...

Standards Panel Wants to Retain Honey Toxin Levels

Posted on October 18, 2010
Like many foodborne illnesses, toxic honey poisoning can be a killer.Symptoms include vomiting, delirium, giddiness, increased excitability, stupor, coma, and violent convulsions. And it can be a quick tipping point from illness to death. As little as a teaspoon can have a severe effect on the human nervous system...

Rapid Recall Exchange Celebrates First Year

Posted on October 18, 2010
After its first year of operation, the Rapid Recall Exchange, an online service that aims to speed up notice of recalls and the withdrawal of recalled food and products from store shelves, has signed up 500 members.The end of September marked the first anniversary for the 24-hour communication network, which connects product suppliers and distributors...

Glass Fragments Prompt Frozen Vegetable Recall

Posted on October 18, 2010
Packages of frozen vegetables sold at Walmart nationwide and Kroger in the Southeast were recalled over the weekend because they may contain glass fragments. Tennessee-based Pictsweet Co. initiated the recall of approximately 24,000 pounds of frozen peas and mixed vegetables on Friday...

Source of Oklahoma Outbreak Remains a Mystery

Posted on October 18, 2010
Oklahoma Health Department investigators finished interviews and data evaluation without identifying the source of a Salmonella outbreak that infected 17 people in three counties, NewsOK, the Oklahoman newspaper's online news service, reported over the weekend...

Can a Sustainable Walmart Change the World?

Posted on October 18, 2010
In what some say could be a game-changing initiative, Walmart Stores last week announced that it will focus on smaller, globally sustainable agriculture to revitalize rural communities and reduce the impact farming has on the environment.According to the press release the company issued on Thursday, the retail giant plans to "help small and medium sized farmers expand their businesses, get more income for their products, and reduce the environmental impact of farming, while strengthening local economies and providing customers around the world with long-term access to affordable, high-quality, fresh food...

Letter From The Editor: "Inspected By USDA"

Posted on October 17, 2010
I was standing outside a John Morrell plant waiting for my candidate, who was campaigning inside, when I first heard it. It was such a simple and efficient food safety enforcement tool.If USDA did not like what was going on inside the plant, its inspectors could just pick up their inspection stamps and walk out the front door...

Publisher's Platform: Trying to Do Some Good

Posted on October 17, 2010
Food Safety News and the Foodborne Illness Outbreak Database turned a year old a few weeks ago. Like most of the things I do in life, both of them began out of an attempt to do good deeds that fortuitously also became good marketing. What do I mean by that? Let me give you a peek into my philosophy of life and work...

Lead Found in Salted Plum Candy from China

Posted on October 16, 2010
Consumers are being warned not to eat "Candy El Pecas Saladitos con Chile" and "Candy El Pecas Saladitos con Limon," salted plum candy imported from China, after the California Department of Public Health (CDPH), discovered elevated levels of lead in the product...

New York Beverage Company Recalls Juices

Posted on October 16, 2010
A beverage company in Bronx, New York has recalled carrot, carrot beet, carrot lime and cucumber juices because the products were inadequately processed and may contain foodborne pathogens, the New York State Agriculture Commissioner reported Friday.The products from Pats Exotic Beverages Inc, 2919 Tiemann Ave...

Synergistic Toxicity of Pesticides Hurts Salmon

Posted on October 16, 2010
Pesticides--all the insecticides, weed killers and fertilizers spread on yards and farms--aren't the only problem contributing to the decline of the wild Pacific salmon.It's the people who carelessly (or unknowingly) overuse these chemicals, says Prof...

Restaurant Highchairs Dirtier Than Toilet Seats?

Posted on October 15, 2010
A company that makes antimicrobial products, including highchairs and baby changing tables, says it found restaurant highchairs that were harboring more bacteria than public toilet seats.London's Daily Mail reported that Microban, which produces products with built-in microbial protection, took swab samples from highchairs in 30 restaurants and also from toilets...

Berkeley Center Wants Schools to Rethink Lunch

Posted on October 15, 2010
Each year 5.5 billion lunches and 2 billion breakfasts are served in schools in the United States, and The Center for Ecoliteracy sees each one of them as an opportunity to improve childhood nutrition.The Berkeley, CA-based center, a nonprofit dedicated to education for sustainable living, has proposed an endeavor called "Rethinking School Lunch," 10 ways (or pathways, as it refers to them) in which parents, educators or concerned citizens revamp local school meal programs, depending on resources or interests...

Front-of-Package Labels Push Products, Not Health

Posted on October 15, 2010
The Institute of Medicine (IOM) released its first Front-of-Package (FOP) labeling report Oct. 13. Phase I is a tough, detailed examination of about 20 of the existing FOP schemes along with some recommendations about what such schemes ought to do...

Guidelines Issued on Meat Industry Video Monitors

Posted on October 15, 2010
The U.S. Department of Agriculture yesterday issued draft guidelines intended to help meat and poultry firms that wish to implement in-plant video monitoring, a tool that has been lauded by food safety and humane handling experts. According to the USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service, the purpose of the guidance is to make sure firms know they have the option of using video monitoring as a tool to improve their operations...

Eight Salmonella Victims Attended Team Dinner

Posted on October 15, 2010
Salmonella sickened eight people who attended a function at Clearview High School in Lorain, Ohio, according to the Lorain County General Health District.Health Commissioner Kenneth Pearce said an Ohio Department of Health laboratory analysis confirmed that all were positive for Salmonella B...

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