A recent Knight-Ridder Tribune editorial said when consumers reach for a package of meat at the supermarket, they shouldn’t have to wonder whether the product they’re about to take home and cook for their families has been treated to keep it looking fresh. Especially if it isn’t.
Treating packaged meat with carbon monoxide to maintain its marketable red color apparently is a widespread practice in the meat industry, but one we feel needs to be reconsidered.
Carbon monoxide is a poisonous gas but supposedly is not dangerous in the minute quantities injected into meat packages. The gas reacts with the meat to keep it from turning brown and thus less attractive to shoppers. Industry spokesmen say the process saves the high cost of disposing of meat that is still perfectly safe but doesn’t look good, although some consumer advocates argue persuasively that it could mask dangerous spoilage.Continue Reading Fresh should mean fresh
Food and Drug Administration seeks injunction against Pacific Shellfish, Inc.
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.
Continue Reading Food and Drug Administration seeks injunction against Pacific Shellfish, Inc.
Food-Safety Agencies Mince Their Meats
Cindy Skrzycki of the Washington Post reports that after years of trying to sort out who should regulate such culinary delights as the bagel dog, the Food and Drug Administration and the Agriculture Department may be coming to a resolution.
On Dec. 15, the FDA and the Agriculture Department’s Food Safety and Inspection Service, the nation’s two federal agencies with primary responsibility for food safety, will hold a public meeting on jurisdictional issues that affect the regulation of foods containing meat and poultry.
Despite the nearness of the holidays, turkey is not on the menu.
The two agencies say their goal is “consistency and predictability”
with respect to who regulates what. Right now, if you manufacture frozen cheese pizzas, the FDA is your regulator. But if there is meat on them, the FSIS is the overseer. And, if you make both kinds, you could have both regulators in your plants.Continue Reading Food-Safety Agencies Mince Their Meats
FDA Bans Use Of Antibiotic In Poultry
Anna Wilde Mathews and Zachary Goldfarb of the Wall Street Journal report that fearing that the animal drug Baytril — used to fight infections in chickens — could pose health risks to humans, the Food and Drug Administration decided to ban its use in poultry.
The decision yesterday to restrict the Bayer AG antibiotic, which takes effect Sept. 12, marks the first time that the agency has ended the use of an animal drug because of worries that it could lead to antibiotic-resistant pathogens in humans.
“We made the determination that the drug was not safe,” said Stephen Sundlof, director of the FDA’s Center for Veterinary Medicine, which first asked for the drug’s removal in 2000. The FDA’s top official “has confirmed our original decision.” The FDA’s standard is that food from animals that have taken a particular drug must carry a “reasonable certainty of no harm,” and the agency didn’t feel that poultry treated with Baytril met that standard, he said.Continue Reading FDA Bans Use Of Antibiotic In Poultry