USDA Inspector General Phyllis Fong testified today before the House Agriculture Appropriations Subcommittee concerning, among other things, the inadequacy of Food Safety and Inspection Service’s testing program for E. coli O157:H7 on beef trim, which is used in the production of ground beef:
We recently completed an audit that assessed how the Food Safety Inspection
Phillip Brasher of the Des Moines Register reported yesterday that an egg producer from Ohio received a warning letter from the FDA for “selling eggs from a contaminated farm.”
The firm goes by the name “Ohio Fresh Eggs.” The FDA states that Ohio Fresh Eggs “shipped 798 cases of eggs from the farm last October
Strange that the 2006 spinach E. coli outbreak is getting so much coverage today: (1) Casper Star-Tribune ran a story this morning on Ruby Trautz and her family (Ruby died in the spinach outbreak); (2) i’m preparing for a presentation to the Canadian Food Processors Association tomorrow, where the spinach outbreak, as an incentive for
Taylor Farms Pacific, a California company, recalled certain broccoli products yesterday because tests by the Washington State Department of Health revealed contamination by Listeria monocytogenes. Today, several other food producers who had used the recalled broccoli in other products, issued their own recalls. The recalled products were sold under multiple brand names:
A new study showed that fecal bacteria could be found on a majority of shopping carts. The study was conducted by researchers at the University of Arizona, in Tucson. The carts were sampled in four different states. According to this report, of the 85 carts examined, 72 percent turned out to have a marker
The E. coli O157 outbreak linked to Dole baby spinach is still known as “The Outbreak” amongst producers in America’s salad bowl–a.k.a the Salinas Valley, California. It caused more than 200 severe illnesses, more than 30 cases of hemolytic uremic syndrome, and killed 5 people–although the CDC only acknowledges 3 deaths.
Ken and Polly Costello