As we’re all getting ready to ring in the New Year, our thoughts usually turn to the resolutions for change we’d like to see in 2009. And since this is a blog about food safety, what better way to do that than by highlighting Bill Marler’s Top 10 excellent food safety challenges for us to meet head on in 2009.
Tis The Season For Food Poisoning – Even Health Department’s Are Not Immune
It turns out none of us are invulnerable from food poisoning illnesses, not even health department employees. That’s the hard lesson learned by the folks at the Lawrence County Health Department in Illinois following their holiday party this month.
Phyllis Wells, the head of the Lawrence County Health Department, was among the 42 people who
Melamine-Tainted Foods Still On US Shelves!
Winter has certainly come to the Northwest! Here in Seattle we have over a foot of snow and the temperature has yet to crack freezing level in the past week and a half. Wherever you are, now is the time of year to bundle up, take a walk, and sip on a nice cup of steaming
Musical Tribute to Food Safety
Carl Winters and the other great folks at UC Davis’s Food Science and Technology Department have put together an educational, and hilarious, musical tribute to food safety. So head on over to their website and before you know it you’ll be dancing to soon-to-be-classics like, We Are the Microbes or Who Left the Food Out!
Foodborne Bacteria Suicide
As an initial matter, I’m a lawyer, not a scientist. This recent article from Science Daily.com is therefore a bit – OK, a lot – over my head, but the short version is researchers at the University of Illinois and the University of Massachusetts at Amherst have found a way to fool a bacteria’s evolutionary machinery
Is There a MRSA and E. coli O157:H7 Connection?
Dr. Michael Millar, an infectious disease expert in the United Kingdom, certainly seems to think so.
According to a recent article published on Legal-Medical.com, Dr. Millar believes that by putting an increased focus on eradicating infections such as Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and Clostridium difficile (C. diff), other similarly dangerous bugs, like E. coli O157:H7, are
The Future Of Foodborne Pathogen Testing Is Now
I have seen the future of foodborne pathogen monitoring technology! According to a new article published by the US Department of Agriculture’s Quality and Safety Assessment Research Unit, Salmonella detection (with other possible pathogens to follow) may be possible at a level not previously seen in food pathogen testing systems.
By using nanotechnology, microscopic biological sensors can detect
FDA Warning – Botulism in Ungutted, Salt-Cured Alewives (Gaspereaux) Fish
I’m not sure how many of you out there are avid consumers of ungutted, salt-cured Alewives fish (mmm, sounds delicious, doesn’t it?), but for those of you who are you need to heed the FDA’s just-announced consumer warning!
Retailers and food service operators are being instructed not to offer for sale ungutted, salt-cured alewives (also called gaspereaux
Food Safety Still Has A Long Way To Go
It looks like Congress is about to throw Detroit a bone by infusing some taxpayer money into the cash-starved Big Three. But the area Congress should really be focusing its attention is on the US’s preparedness (or lack thereof) for health emegencies.
Trust for America’s Health (TFAH) and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) released a report yesterday that concludes
10 Tips To Avoid Foodborne Illness At Restaurants
How many times have you gone to a restaurant and ordered the night’s special meal? Or gone to the bathroom and noticed it was in less than prime condition? Niall Harbison, regular contributor at iFoods.tv, says those are just the kind of things we should be on alert for when heading out to a restaurant