As if on cue, the lone human being standing in the way of the first meaningful change in food safety laws in decades, Senator Tom Coburn, will have a Salmonella outbreak to confront when he gets back home to Oklahoma during the legislative recess (the Senate’s legislative session ended today). KOCO.com reports:
School officials in
A list was recently compiled of the 10 foods, under the regulation of the FDA, most often associated with food poisoning. The FDA does not have jurisdiction over poultry or beef, so those foods are excluded from possible exclusion. The list is based on data compiled over the past 20 years –
1990 to present. The
Thanks to Senator Reid for continuing to try to bring the Food Safety Modernization Act (S 510) to the Senate floor for a vote. Yesterday, he filed "cloture" on the bill. I confess to googling the term to get a better idea of the procedure that Reid’s action will invoke. Wikipedia says:
In parliamentary
I found this file photo while perusing the latest headlines on food safety. I’d like to report that it was taken today, signaling some top line action on food safety, even if just pressure brought to bear on members of congress, but it’s not. It’s from November 2009. The caption under the photo, re-released today, bears
The momentum seems to be bulding for action by the USDA-FSIS on strains of E. coli that produce shiga-toxins, which cause HUS, other than E. coli O157:H7, the most notorious strain of the bug. Last week, after a meeting with Bill Marler, John Munsell (a former meat packer), and Nancy Donley (who’s son
Senator Coburn’s Ensuring Greater Food Safety Act, introduced yesterday, asks the USDA and FDA to do a better job and communicate more. Laudable goals, but that’s about it for substance, excluding the requirement that the Government Accountability Office referee the hoped-for improved relationship between the two regulatory bodies.
Shouldn’t fiscal conservatism, and the fact that Senator
Senator Coburn is wrong. The Senate needs to pass meaningful food safety legislation immediately, not keep it on the backburner through the lame duck session so that it can start from scratch again next term. He has raised legitimate questions of cost, but even his estimated costs of implementing S 510 (Food Safety Modernization Act)
A news study published in the Journal of Food Science is highlighting the food safety importance of keeping leafy greens, such as packaged lettuce salads, at temperatures below 41 degrees F. Commonly thought to be only a freshness issue, the research shows that cold temperature maintenance for leafy greens also significantly reduces the ability for
Evidence continues to surface that the Salmonella problems at Wright County Egg’s facility in Iowa were not isolated incidents. Today, there is a report on the recurring presence of Salmonella enteritidis on egg farms in Maine owned by Mr. DeCoster, who also owns Wright County Egg: "In
Maine, eggs are an 80 million dollar a
Jack DeCoster has a lot of problems right now. Literally, right now, as he is in front of the Energy and Commcerce Subcommittee on investigations. I wish I could be there to hear his side of the story, but no matter how eloquent his apology and/or explanation, it will be difficult to revive an image