I have a routine when I am home on the Island (which is not that often). I get up early and make the coffee – OK, after I turn on the computer and check my email for the latest food safety disaster. Last Friday when I was about to take my first sip, the room
The Deadly 2011 Cantaloupe Listeria Outbreak – My View Part 6 – Conclusion
Hopefully, Parts 1 through 5 showed that there was plenty of blame to go around to farmers, shippers, brokers, auditors, retailers and the government, and that with just some simple precautions and focus, this outbreak would never have occurred.
On December 8, 2011, the CDC determined that deadliest foodborne illness outbreak was officially over and
Perhaps the FSIS Inspectors just didn’t have the stomach for it?
So, really, who would even want to inspect Tripe, Feet and Uteri?
FSIS announced today that JAA Meat Products Corporation, a Maywood, Calif. establishment, is recalling an undetermined amount of meat and poultry products because they may have been produced without the benefit of federal inspection.
30-pound and 22-pound cases of the following products produced
Transparency and the Publisher
After Food Safety News broke the story that Taco Bell was the mysterious “Restaurant Chain A” linked to a Salmonella outbreak that sickened 68 people in 10 states, ABC Evening News praised Food Safety News for shining light on this story and the issue of the government’s lack of transparency when businesses make people sick.
Perhaps “Mexican-style fast food restaurant chain, Restaurant Chain A” is a person, my friend!
I got an email from an acquaintance in public health (one of few who will still admit it) suggesting why “naming, names” of companies that poison customers is less common in journals and other publications:
It is a long and “honored” custom to describe companies by anonymous designators in presentations and publications.
So, perhaps non-disclosure
What if in 1982 McDonalds had been named as the source of forty-seven sickened by E. coli O157:H7-tainted hamburger in two states?
Would the 1993 Jack in the Box E. coli outbreak ever have happened?
Over the last few weeks I have been I taking industry (well, Taco Bell) and government (well, CDC, FDA and eight states) to task for the failure to give up the name of mystery “Mexican-style fast food restaurant chain, Restaurant Chain A”
Ethanol byproducts, like WDGS – Don’t feed it to cows?
Ethanol has long been promoted (especially by farm state Senators) as a solution to greenhouse gas emissions. In 2005, Congress passed the Renewable Fuel Standard, which mandated that 7.5 billion gallons of renewable fuel be blended into gasoline by 2012. Two years later it increased this amount to 36 billion gallons by 2022. Ethanol &ndash
Towards a Policy of Secrecy or Transparency in Public Health
Is there a good reason to keep a companies name secret when it is linked to a foodborne illness outbreak?
I have a great deal of respect for Robert Tauxe, MD, MPH, Deputy Director of the Division of the CDC that is charged with prevention and control of foodborne, waterborne and fungal infections. He
What is Utah and New Hampshire Agriculture afraid of?
This past week, I read Utah’s S.B. 34 titled “Production and Sale of food in Utah Revisions,” along with its New Hampshire counterpart, H.B. 1650-FN, called “Commerce in Food in New Hampshire.” As any lawyer would, I immediately asked myself, “what are these pieces of legislation really trying to do,” and, of course, “are they
Criminal Indictments in Food Cases – “Rare as Hen’s Teeth”
Well, if asked that’s what I would have said.
Matt Campbell of the Kansas City Star reported this morning that two executives of now bankrupt, Hitchin Post Steak Co., were indicted Wednesday on charges of selling misbranded and adulterated poultry products across the country.
Craig Cunningham and Jason Cunningham indictment alleges incidents between March and