I have been litigating foodborne illness cases for nearly two decades. The key to my success has been to find a quick, reliable method of distinguishing between legitimate food poisoning claims and suspect ones. In my experience, the food industry, from farmer to retailer to restaurant, tends to over-emphasize the specious claim and under-value the
USDA Urged to Prohibit Antibiotic-Resistant Salmonella in Ground Meat and Poultry
Dangerous Strains Make Foodborne Illnesses Harder to Treat, Says CSPI
Ground meat and poultry found to contain antibiotic-resistant strains of Salmonella should be recalled from the marketplace or withheld from commerce, according to a regulatory petition filed today by the Center for Science in the Public Interest. The nonprofit food safety watchdog group wants the
Pork’s Minimum Safe Cooking Temperature Lowered To 145 °F By USDA
Today the USDA announced that the minimum safe cooking temperature for pork has been lowered from 165 °F to 145 °F. In addition, a 3 minute resting period after removing the meat from the grill has been added to the recommendation. The new lower temperature recommendation and resting period comes after several years of
Food Safety Is On Everyone’s Plate
By JEFF BENEDICT The Hartford Courant
When I left Connecticut with my family four years ago, we settled into a rural Civil War-era farm in Virginia. I never intended to farm — I was just happy to find an affordable historic home with a few acres around it.
But after settling in, we converted our
Personal Responsibility For Foodborne Illness – A Novel Concept
The Ukranian Prime Minister, Mykola Azarov, announced recently that the regional heads of state administrations would be held personally responsible if any violations lead to food poisoning of children at this year’s summer camps. The regional heads are those tasked with oversight of youth summer camps. The camps host nearly 18,000 children during the summer
CDC Expert Commentary – Got Milk? Don’t Get Raw Milk! A Cautionary Tale
Not so long ago, milk was this country’s number 1 food safety concern. Before milk was routinely pasteurized beginning in the 1920s, it regularly caused large outbreaks of deadly diseases. Now in 2011, raw, unpasteurized milk has made its way back into some Americans’ diets and is once again causing
Michigan State – Raw Milk: A Risk Worth Taking? — Update 2011
John Partridge, Dept. of Food Science and Human Nutrition.
Introduction
Since writing the original article found in Michigan Dairy Review in 2005 (1), there have been few changes in the debate over the benefits of consuming raw milk. However, there have been some important developments in the information available and discussion of the topic. In
Of Recycled Buns, Food Safety in China, and the Jabberwocky of Political Debate
From the pen of Denis Stearns:
“I am no longer eating steamed buns, a 65-year-old Shanghai man who gave his last name as Chen, declared in front of a supermarket window emblazoned with the motto “No fake goods in Hualian.”
“None of them are reliable,” he spat. “They really have no morals. They will do anything for money.”[1] — New York Times, May 7, 2011
Today Bill Marler forwarded a link to me that led to an article in the People Daily’s Online on the ongoing food quality and safety challenges in the Chinese market for food.[2] Reading the article, one section quickly stood out for me, particularly in its use of an interesting metaphor for unsafe food:
Tainted melamine milk powder, salted duck eggs containing cancer- causing dyes, artificial honey, fake wine, donkey-hide gelatin, waste oil, sulfur steamed ginseng, plaster tofu, dyed bread … the list goes on.
Sadly, many people estimate that the list will get longer. Every day we worry about the next food time bomb exploding, we just do not know where the site of the blast will be.
I had never before imagined adulterated food as a kind of bomb waiting to explode as soon as someone buys the food and eats it, and consumers as casualties of a kind of economic warfare in which profit motives are controlling. But what an apt metaphor it is, especially in describing the vulnerability of the consumer to the financial motives of food sellers who, as the article puts it, “have individual rationalizations, if the illegal gains exceed the costs, it will be worth it.” The article continues, concluding as follows:Continue Reading Of Recycled Buns, Food Safety in China, and the Jabberwocky of Political Debate
Consumers warned to avoid eating oysters from area 1642 in Apalachicola Bay, Florida Due to toxigenic Vibrio cholerae serogroup O75
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is advising consumers, restaurant operators, commercial shippers and processors of shellfish not to eat, serve, purchase, sell or ship oysters from Area 1642 in Apalachicola Bay, Fla. because the oysters may be contaminated with toxigenic Vibrio cholerae serogroup O75.
Nine persons have been reported with illness. For eight, the
Food Safety and the Future of Food
I attended the Future of Food Conference in Washington D.C. this last week and was amazed by the speakers that author, Eric Schlosser, and the Washington Post put together. From Lucas Benitez, Co-Founder, Coalition of Immokalee Workers to Michael R. Taylor, Deputy Commissioner for Foods at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, Wendell Berry, Author