Food Safety News: Health Law

Home -> Law Blog Directory -> Health Law Blogs

OR PHONE (866) 635-1838 for Bankruptcy Help, (866) 635-6190 for Divorce,
(866) 635-2689 for Personal Injury or (866) 635-9402 for Criminal Defense

Find a Local Lawyer

Bankruptcy (866) 635-1838
Divorce (866) 635-6190
Personal Injury (866) 635-2689
Criminal Defense (866) 635-9402

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

Ban on Milk Labeling Ruled Unconstitutional

Posted on October 04, 2010
After more than two years of litigation, a federal court last week struck down an Ohio ban on labeling dairy products as "rbGH free," "rbST free," or "artificial hormone free" if produced by cows not treated with bovine growth hormone. In what could prove to be a landmark case, the Sixth U...

Long Past Time to Pass the Food Safety Bill

Posted on October 04, 2010
It is long past time to pass S. 510, The Food Safety Modernization Act, with the amendment from senators Jon Tester (D-MT) and Kay Hagan (D-NC) folded in--at least after the election in the lame duck session.As I have wandered the halls of Congress, pushing one food safety bill or another, testifying or supporting a testifying client, I have been struck in the last dozen years how these quotes continue to ring true:"Laws are like sausages, it is better not to see them being made...

Wyoming Official Fights Homemade Exemptions

Posted on October 04, 2010
In testimony prepared for a Wyoming Legislature public hearing, one of the Cowboy State's top local health officials tells lawmakers to just say no to exemptions.Robert E. Harrington, director of the Casper-Natrona County Health Department, is urging the joint Agricultural, State and Public Land, and Water Resources Interim committee to reject three proposed measures: the Food Freedom Bill, Traditional Food Event Bill, and Raw Milk Bill...

Sewage Sludge as Fertilizer: Safe?

Posted on October 04, 2010
Using sewage sludge - one of two end products from any wastewater treatment plant (the other is effluent) - as fertilizer on food crops is a hotly debated food safety issue, but only among a very small group of people. Most likely, the majority of Americans who are even aware of the issue actually work in the sewage industry...

To access this complete feed in the blog feed reader login or register for free.

Letter From The Editor: 'The Experiment'

Posted on October 03, 2010
Choices can be difficult.Our neighbors down in "The Springs" decided a couple of years ago to nix a tax increase for many things, including keeping the lights on at night. Now Colorado Springs, Colorado's second largest city with a population of 420,000 and a footprint big enough to contain all of Boston, Miami, Minneapolis, and San Francisco, goes without any tax-supported night lighting...

Publisher's Platform: One for the Law Books

Posted on October 03, 2010
AOL and multiple Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter Andrew Schneider wrote a series of pieces this week about non-E. coli O157s and the effort to declare them adulterants--yet another of my recent projects to pull food safety out of the dark ages.Schneider also did a bit of a profile on yours truly, which, like most of the dozens published over the years, tends to waiver between "what a great guy" to "what an SOB...

NY Soybean Sprouts Recalled Due to Listeria

Posted on October 02, 2010
Essex Farm Inc. (doing business as Best Farm) in New York City has recalled packages of soybean sprouts after routine testing by the New York State Department of Agriculture and Market food inspectors found that the product was contaminated with Listeria...

Epidemiologists Search for Source of OK Salmonella

Posted on October 02, 2010
The Oklahoma State Department of Health (OSDH) continues to search for the source of a Salmonella outbreak among Mustang Public School students and other Oklahoma residents who became ill with salmonellosis in September. Laurence Burnsed, an epidemiologist with OSDH, told Food Safety News that as of Oct...

Alfalfa Sprouts Recalled for Salmonella in CA

Posted on October 01, 2010
The California Department of Public Health (CDPH) announced yesterday that Banner Mountain Alfalfa Sprouts were being recalled for potential Salmonella contamination. Consumers who have the alfalfa sprouts in their possession should discard them or return them to the place of purchase...

FDA Warns Seafood Processors Over HACCP Plans

Posted on October 01, 2010
Seafood processing facilities located in New Mexico and Ohio were found with serious violations of the federal seafood Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point (HACCP) regulations.The two companies, Above Sea Level in Santa Fe, and Rohr Fish Inc. in Toledo, received warning letters from the U...

Slaughter Says Military at Risk from Superbugs

Posted on October 01, 2010
U.S. Rep. Louise Slaughter (D-NY), chairwoman of the House Rules Committee, submitted testimony on the threat to the U.S. military posed by antibiotic-resistant pathogens.Slaughter, who has called for limits on dispensing antibiotics to food animals, testified before the House Armed Services Committee hearing "Fighting Superbugs: DOD's Response to Multidrug-Resistant Infections in Military Treatment Facilities...

EFSA Keeps Current Limits for BPA in Place

Posted on October 01, 2010
A European Food Safety Authority panel said yesterday that after reviewing the new science on controversial bisphenol-A, the agency will not be changing current daily intake limits.The panel, which re-reviewed the issue at the request of the European Commission, concluded that there was no new evidence that would lead them to change the current daily Tolerable Daily Intake (TDI) for BPA, which currently sit at ...

In Australia, Margarine is Better Than Butter

Posted on October 01, 2010
Butter has, on average, 20 times the trans fat levels of most Australian margarines, according to an investigation done by the Australian Heart Foundation and published in the October issue of the food safety journal Food Australia."Butter is mostly made of the fat that raises your bad cholesterol levels--saturated fat at around 50 percent and trans fat at more than 4 percent," said Susan Anderson, the Heart Foundation's National Director Healthy Weight...

Growth of USDA Organic Not Without Speed Bumps

Posted on October 01, 2010
Twenty years after Congress put the federal government in the business of promoting pesticide and chemical free agriculture, USDA's Organic label is now a trusted symbol.Few consumers, however, are aware of the scrambling that goes on behind the scenes by producers and handlers to meet the organic standard...

DeLauro Bill Would Require Labels on GM Fish

Posted on September 30, 2010
As a federal regulatory panel mulls over whether to approve genetically modified salmon for human consumption, a new effort to require labeling for the engineered fish is afoot.Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-CT), chairwoman of the House committee that controls the U...

'Smash Your Food' and Other Apps Top Competition

Posted on September 30, 2010
In "Food Buster," players try to stack as much food as they can without breaking a virtual scale and learn that the fewer the calories, the greater their chance of success. If they bust the scale, well, they lose--not weight, of course, but the game...

Bean Sprouts Cause of S. Bareilly Outbreak In UK

Posted on September 30, 2010
The Salmonella bareilly outbreak in the United Kingdom is now all but certain to be stemming from the consumption of raw or under-cooked bean sprouts, the UK's Health Protection Agency said Wednesday. It has infected at least 129 people.Health officials said they have now confirmed 106 S...

Oz Pesticide Warning Untrue, Says Produce Industry

Posted on September 30, 2010
If your kids were looking for reasons not to eat their fruits and vegetables, you better hope they were not watching the popular daytime TV show "Dr. Oz" last Friday. Dr. Mehmet Oz, a cardiac surgeon from Cleveland, turned his Friday show into a warning about pesticides, labeling apples, spinach and peaches as among the "dirtiest fruits and vegetables...

Keeping the Kids Food Safe

Posted on September 30, 2010
As a mom, I feel like I always have food on the brain! Whether I'm preparing meals, encouraging my kids to eat their veggies, or grocery shopping for the week, my life revolves around mealtimes. This is a good thing--my thoughts around meal- and snack time mean my family gets the nutrition that they need from infancy to adulthood (yes, your health is important too, Mom and Dad!)...

USDA Pushes Forward on Several Food Safety Fronts

Posted on September 30, 2010
CHICAGO--The U.S. Department of Agriculture is poised to move forward on a number of hot-button food safety issues in the next year, according to a top USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service official.Non-O157 strains of E. coli, test-and-hold, the labeling of mechanically tenderized meat, and food safety plan validation are all on the agency's list of policies to tackle in the coming months, said Daniel Englejohn, assistant administrator for FSIS' Office of Policy and Program Development, before a meat industry conference this week...

It's Alive! Reid Files Cloture on Food Safety Bill

Posted on September 30, 2010
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) filed cloture on the food safety bill late yesterday, a move that will ready the measure for a vote after the midterm election, an aide told Food Safety News.The FDA Food Safety Modernization Act has stalled in recent weeks despite heightened concerns about food safety following a nationwide outbreak of Salmonella linked to eggs...

Europe Demands the Best American Milk

Posted on September 29, 2010
American milk quality may be improving, as U.S. dairies get ready to comply with tighter European standards for somatic cell counts (SCC).Somatic cells are white blood cells and their number increase in response to pathogenic bacteria such as the mastitis-causing Staphylococcus aureus...

Conference Shared Ways to End the Obesity Epidemic

Posted on September 29, 2010
"The status quo cannot remain," implored Sam Kass, senior policy advisor for Healthy Food Initiatives and White House chef, during his keynote address that kicked off the 33rd Annual National Food Policy Conference last week. Sam Kass, who got his start in the food industry while working at a Chicago restaurant, has spearheaded First Lady Michelle Obama's food policy agenda...

Three Pennsylvania Dairies Sold Drugged Animals

Posted on September 29, 2010
Three Pennsylvania dairy farms are abusing penicillin, neomycin, and flunixin--all drugs used to treat animals, according to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).In warning letters to Reddick Dairy, Trout Brothers Farm, and Rohrer Dairy Farms, FDA said it has found residues of those drugs at unsafe levels in the edible tissues of animals sold for slaughter for human consumption by the dairy operations...

FDA Finds Violations at Tribal Food Warehouse

Posted on September 29, 2010
Significant violations of federal food regulations were found during an inspection of a food commodity warehouse owned by the Quinault Indian Nation located on Washington state's Pacific Coast.The Quinault Indian Nation consists of the Quinault and Queets tribes and descendants of five other Pacific Coast tribes: Quileute, Hoh, Chehalis, Chinook, and Cowlitz ...

Senators Ask FDA to Halt GM Salmon Consideration

Posted on September 29, 2010
Eleven senators are asking the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to halt the pending approval of genetically modified salmon produced by AquaBounty Technologies, which would be the first GM animal approved for human consumption.The group of senators, including several from coastal states, sent a letter to the FDA yesterday requesting the agency "halt all proceedings" related to the approval of the hybrid salmon, which adds genes from a Chinook salmon and an eelpout to Atlantic salmon to halve the time needed to grow the fish to full size...

California Food Handlers Must Get Safety Training

Posted on September 29, 2010
In a move industry insiders say could mark the beginning of a national trend, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed new legislation requiring nearly all of the more than one million food handlers in the state of California to be certified in safe food handling procedures...

Cut Salad Greens: How Cold is Cold Enough?

Posted on September 29, 2010
When Anne Schwartz, co-owner of Blue Heron Farm, a 20-acre organic farm in Western Washington, talks about the cut salad greens she sells at local farmers markets, she uses the term "real estate.""They're very popular," she said. "People love them. They occupy an important piece of real estate on my table...

FTC Files Complaint Against POM Wonderful

Posted on September 28, 2010
POM Wonderful has upset another government agency by being way too enthusiastic about its products.After 19 months of investigation, the Federal Trade Commission Monday charged POM Wonderful LLC in an administrative complain with making deceptive disease and treatment claims...

Punitive Damages Added to Salmonella Egg Lawsuits

Posted on September 28, 2010
Information brought to light during hearings before the U.S. House Committee on Energy and Commerce has led to punitive damages being added to lawsuits against Quality Egg/Wright County of Iowa.The amended lawsuits were filed Monday by Marler Clark and Wandro, Baer, and McCarthy...

Previous | Next

Related Law Bulletins

2007 Dallas Morning News Texan of the Year: The Illegal Immigrant
The Dallas Morning News came up with a surprise today -- the newsp...

BREAKING NEWS - NJ Supreme Court's Decision in Mt. Laurel v. MiPro
Today, the New Jersey Supreme Court issued a decision in Mount Lau...

Consumer Product Safety Commission Reports Increase In Nursery Products-Related Infant Deaths
The Consumer Product Safety Commission has issued a report that st...

Medical Malpractice News Roundup
From the Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, a summary of recent de...

Autism Case has CDC Scrambling to Reassure Vaccine Safety
Washington, DC: Since Edward Jenner's Cowpox in the 1800's that wa...