My topic is “The True Cost of Foodborne Illness.” I decided to use the Peanut Corporation of America Salmonella Outbreak from 2008 – 2009 to show the problem and walk through some solutions. (Download PDF Slides). The blank slide is a video.
The reason I have funded Real Raw Milk Facts
I am sitting in the Melbourne Airport about to board a plane to Tasmania for a few days when I saw the Denver Post article on raw milk and the toll it too on the Pierce family.
Mary Pierce and her husband, Mike, did research online before deciding to try raw goat’s milk because their
3rd Australian Food Safety Conference
Great thing about wireless on a plane traveling for 20 hours is that you can work constantly. I am just about finished with my PowerPoint for my speech on September 9th. (AUS2010) Blank slide is a video.
Food Safety Speeches 2010 and 2011
In between my day job as managing partner at Marler Clark, my evening job as blogger at Marler Blog and my middle of the night job as publisher at Food Safety News, I spend some time traveling the world pitching “why it is a bad idea to poison your customers.” Here are some
1,469 Salmonella Enteritidis Illnesses now linked to Wright County Egg
In July 2010, CDC identified a nationwide sustained increase in the number of Salmonella Enteritidis isolates with PFGE pattern JEGX01.0004 uploaded to PulseNet, the national subtyping network made up of state and local public health laboratories and federal food regulatory laboratories that performs molecular surveillance of foodborne infections. This increase began in May 2010 and
Dr. Elisabeth Hagen, new FSIS Chief speaks on non-O157 E. coli
William Neuman of the New York Times got Dr. Hagen on record this week in his article, “Beef Recall Heats Up Fight to Tighten Rules:”
Dr. Hagen has yet to say publicly what she plans to do. But in a written statement provided to The New York Times, she said, “In order to best prevent
Food Safety in the Bush and Obama years – Has there been real change?
We compiled a bit of data and some cool charts to try and see the differences between the last two years of the Bush administration and the first two years of the Obama term. Download all the slides here – Obama v Bush
Food Safety News to provide $25,000 scholarship for consumer advocacy
In less than two weeks (on September 14) the House of Representatives Committee on Energy and Commerce, headed by Representatives Dingell (D-MI), Waxman (D-CA), and Stupak (D-MI), will hold what has become an annual event–yet another hearing on the failings ofm the food industry to provide consumers safe food.
In 2007 the Committee held hearings
USDA and FSIS, it is time to act on non-E. coli O157:H7’s that cause human illness
The CDC estimates that “non-O157 STECs (like O26, O45, 0103, O111, O121, and O145) cause 36,700 illnesses, 1,100 hospitalizations and 30 deaths in America each year.” And, with the outbreak of E. coli O26 in Cargill hamburger that was announced last weekend, I frankly fail to see what more needs to be said to convince
Will the Egg Man DeCoster join Parnell the Peanut Man in the Big House?
At the PulseNet conference here in Chicago there was a lot of discussion as to what happened to Stewart Parnell, the CEO of the Peanut Corporation of America (PCA), who was responsible for 714 ill and nine deaths, which until this DeCoster Egg recall, was one of the larger Salmonella outbreaks in recent memory. Nearly two years after the PCA outbreak Stewart Parnell does not sit behind bars where many think he should reside.
Now, Mary Clare Jalonick of AP and Philip Brasher of the Des Moines Register both reported this morning that Wright County Egg and Hillandale Farms, the two Iowa farms at the center of a salmonella outbreak and massive egg recall, have been visited by federal agents – again. It is unclear whether this new investigation is the first step in a criminal probe.
The FDA has jurisdiction to investigate crimes involving adulterated food, coordinating with the Justice Department. The 483 reports released this week by the FDA show sources of contamination at both farms, including rodent, bug and wild bird infestation, uncontained manure, holes in walls and other problems that could have led to the outbreak. Positive samples of the type of salmonella linked to the illnesses have been found at both farms.
So, will the egg man DeCoster join Parnell the peanut man in the big house? Frankly, I highly doubt it given the government’s failure to prosecute Parnell. However, if they did, here are the laws that they would have to work with.Continue Reading Will the Egg Man DeCoster join Parnell the Peanut Man in the Big House?