Lab helps ensure safety of food supply
The Anchorage Daily News reports that cardboard box was rushed to Anchorage's new Environmental Health Laboratory on Thursday. It's urgent cargo: nine geoducks.
Divers on Wednesday had plunged 40 feet down near Sitka to harvest the giant clams with bulging brown bodies. They packaged the mollusks, refrigerated them and shipped them by air to Anchorage. Here, a team of lab technicians went to work to determine if they were contaminated by the toxin that causes paralytic shellfish poisoning in humans. People who eat tainted shellfish can develop dizziness, numbness, breathing problems, nausea and vomiting.
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Jane Zhang of the Wall Street Journal reports that More Americans are eating their vegetables. But the healthy trend comes with a risk: Illnesses traced to fresh produce are on the rise..jpg)
Macleans reports that contrary to popular belief, vegetables and fruit -- not chicken and eggs -- are the top causes of large salmonella outbreaks, according to a U.S. study. And produce-related outbreaks tend to be larger than poultry-related outbreaks and sicken more people..jpg)
According to the New Mexico Environment Department, since 2002, reported cases of Salmonella in New Mexico have decreased from 338 cases to 288 cases through 2004, the most recent year for which data is available. That decrease represents a drop in the incidence of Salmonella of about 14.8 percent to 15.1 cases per 100,000 people. The New Mexico Environment Department (NMED), which regulates the food service industry, has been working to increase awareness of food-borne illnesses by emphasizing regulatory public health issues during inspections, providing free food handling and preparation training classes throughout the state, working in conjunction with the Department of Health to assist investigating food-borne illness outbreaks. 
Per an FDA Media Release the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is seeking a permanent injunction against Pacific Shellfish, Inc., a seafood processor located at 5040 Cass Street in San Diego California, and Judd J. Brown, its President. An injunction is a court order to stop a firm from manufacturing, distributing, processing, or shipping a product. The government's complaint, filed on January 24, 2006 by the U.S. Department of Justice in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California, charges the defendants with violating the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act by permitting ready-to-eat fish held and processed in Pacific Shellfish's facility to become contaminated.
Shanna Shipman of the Pekin Times reports that local parents and students can breathe - and eat - easier, following assurance from Aramark Food Service that the tortilla shells suspected to have caused illness among District 150 students are not used in other local schools.
The Canadian Press reports that federal agriculture inspectors are looking into the possibility of another case of 
CBC.CA News reports that federal inspectors are testing an animal that is suspected of having mad cow disease, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency says.
David Smith of Journal and Courier reports that food-borne illness comes from consuming food or beverages that have been contaminated with a pathogen, such as a virus, a bacterium or a parasite. 
GI Smith of the Zanesville Times Recorder says when it came time to replace some of his farming equipment two years ago, local grower Mike Siegrist decided to buy something that would ensure his produce reflected his high standard of quality and the agriculture industry's growing concern with food safety.
