President Obama’s announced that he is establishing a Food Safety Working Group to develop and present him with recommendations for improving the US food safety system. This new group will be co-chaired by two Cabinet members – Agriculture Secretary Vilsack and Health and Human Services Secretary (nominee) Sibelius – and will include senior officials from
Seven Shigella Cases Reported at Camillus Applebee’s – 9,000 Exposed
The Onondaga County Health Department has confirmed seven cases of food-borne illness in people who recently ate at the Applebee’s in Camillus. County Health Commissioner Dr. Cynthia Morrow says all seven people had contracted Shigellosis. The Shigella bacteria, Morrow says, is associated with consuming water or food contaminated with fecal matter.
Those who are confirmed
Hartford Health Officials Investigate E. Coli Cases Among Aetna Employees
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Hartford City health department officials are interviewing cafeteria workers at Aetna’s downtown Hartford office, where five employees have been stricken with E. coli in the last three to four weeks. The source of the outbreak has yet to be determined, and the cafeteria remains open, company spokesman Fred Laberge said today. The most recent case
Peanut Butter Provocateur
Seattle Metropolitan Magazine writer Jill Watanabe and I spoke a few weeks ago. Here is her take on the Peanut Butter Mess:
Peanut butter, meet food fighter. Seattle attorney Bill Marler just dipped his knife into your jar and, well, your salmonella secret is over.
Marler broke the story on Peanut Corporation of America’s not-so-smooth
Guest Bloggers – Wenonah Hauter, Charles Stanley Painter – U.S. food safety system too flawed for a quick fix
Our 100-year-old food inspection system is not aging gracefully. Despite a century of improvements, consumers are still playing Russian roulette when it comes to the food they eat. Even today, one in four Americans —- 76 million people —- endures a food-borne illness and 5,000 people die each year.
This year’s peanut meltdown alone has
United States Food Safety Legislation 2009 – Quite a lot to “chew” on!
I think I have pulled together all of the pending (and one missing) pieces of legislation on food safety for your reading pleasure. If the links below do not work, go to thomas.loc.gov and type in "food safety," If between lawsuits, and I have time, I will give you my thoughts on the legislation.
H.R.759: To
Marler – Talk with Phil Brasher: Safety rules burden smaller farmers?
The foodie/organic/raw/local/small farmer blogs are alive with conspiracy theories (real or imagined) about the reasons behind the moves in Congress to finally try to make our food supply safer. Some see the evil hand of Monsanto, Cargill, etc., and their minions in Congress, as trying to crush the organic, small farmer by enacting
The Perils of Ignoring History: Big Tobacco Played Dirty and Millions Died. How Similar Is Big Food?
In 1954 the tobacco industry paid to publish the “Frank Statement to Cigarette Smokers” in hundreds of U.S. newspapers. It stated that the public’s health was the industry’s concern above all others and promised a variety of good-faith
Salmonella-tainted den Dulk Poultry Farms eggs recalled from Costco, Safeway and Pack n’ Save stores throughout Northern California, the Central Valley and western Nevada
The eggs were sold at Costco stores as Kirkland Organic Brown Eggs in 18-count cartons with the following expiration and plant codes: April 1 062, 35 P1776 and April 8 069, 35 P1776.
They were sold at Safeway and Pack n’ Save stores as O Organic Grade A Large Brown Eggs in 12-count cartons with
China fires eight top regulators over milk scandal – Can anyone recall when the US did the same?
According to press reports, eight senior China food regulators were fired for "slack supervision" in a tainted milk scandal that killed at least six children and sickened over 300,000. High-ranking regulators in the country’s major food supervisory agencies, including the ministries of Health and Agriculture and the top food safety watchdog, were stripped of