food safety

Subscribe to food safety via RSS

To the Committee: This letter is written in support of the proposed ordinance before this committee to ban the sale of carbon monoxide treated case ready meat within the City of Chicago. The Consumer Federation of America (CFA) and Safe Tables Our Priority (S.T.O.P.) support this ordinance and urge that it be passed. The Consumer Federation of American is a non-profit association of 300 consumer groups representing more than 50 million Americans. And Safe Tables Our Priority is a national, non-profit volunteer health organization dedicated to preventing suffering, illness and death due to food-borne illness.
Continue Reading CFA & STOP letter of support

She Knows reports that year after year, we hear and read the same advice: Handle food carefully in the summer because foodborne illness — also known as “food poisoning” — is more prevalent in warmer weather. Do foodborne illnesses increase during the summer months? If so, why?
Watch out for bacteria!
Yes, foodborne illnesses do increase during the summer, and the answer appears to be twofold. First, there are the natural causes. Bacteria are present throughout the environment in soil, air, water and in the bodies of people and animals. These microorganisms grow faster in the warm summer months. Most foodborne bacteria grow fastest at temperatures from 90 to 110 degrees Farenheit. Bacteria also need moisture to flourish, and summer weather is often hot and humid.Continue Reading Foodborne illness peaks in summer – Why?

Jennifer Thomas of the Centre Daily Times reports that Kevin Kassab has visited every restaurant in State College and neighboring Patton and Ferguson Townships.
And, yes, there are hundreds.
But Kassab is not visiting the restaurants to check out the menus. A health technician for State College, he’s there to safeguard against food-borne illnesses by examining each restaurant’s inner workings, such as food temperatures and personal hygiene.Continue Reading Inspections keep watch on eateries: State, local efforts work with establishments on standards

KITV.com (HI) reports that when people complain to the state Department of Health about unhealthy practices at restaurants, the state sends a sanitarian to inspect — sometimes the same day.
In March, a customer filed a complaint against Grace’s Inn in Kaimuki at Market City Shopping Center. The complaint said the female cashier was chewing and spitting tobacco while helping customers at Grace’s plate lunch counter.
An inspector spoke to the person in charge at the restaurant, who said she would counsel the employee who was known to chew tobacco.Continue Reading State inspectors investigate complaints of food illness

Sylvia Carter of Newsday recently wrote about Marion Nestle’s book What to Eat: An Aisle-by-Aisle Guide to Savvy Food Choices and Good Eating. Nestle, the Paulette Goddard professor of Nutrition, Food Studies and Public Health at New York Univers ity and former chair of that department, has a PhD in molecular biology and a master’s in public health in nutrition, but to research her book, she used common sense as well as science and shopping the aisles.
Continue Reading Dodging grocery aisle health risks

Thana Dharmarajah of The Guelph Mercury reports that scrubbing lettuce won’t get rid of the pathogens hiding in the edges of the leaves or the pores of the vegetable, according to a University of Guelph food microbiologist.
Leafy vegetables such as spinach and cabbage, which tend to be eaten raw, have a higher risk of contamination, said Keith Warriner.
The vegetables can be exposed to contamination in the field through irrigation if the water source is contaminated with sewage, he said.Continue Reading Coming clean on washing vegetables: U of G food scientist, graduate student, have found an effective way to clean your produce

R.J. Ignelzi of the San Diego Union-Tribune reminds the public that warmer weather might be ideal for outdoor feasting, but it also provides the perfect conditions for bacteria in food to multiply rapidly and cause food-borne illness.
“People’s concerns about food safety on picnics and in warm weather are justified,” says Patti Wooten Swanson, nutrition, family and consumer adviser for the University of California Cooperative Extension Service of San Diego County. “At least 76 million people in the United States get food-borne illness each year. And 5,000 die from it a year.”Continue Reading Practice picnic food safety when feasting outdoors

Lonny Stark of the Rock River Times (Illinois) reports that scoring a severe case of food poisoning is enough to provoke an obsessive-compulsive fear of germs.
The most common bacterial culprits in foodborne illness are Salmonella, Campylobacter and a strain of E. coli referred to as O157:H7. The group of “Norwalk” viruses also contributes to…

Jenna Youngs of The Columbia Missourian (MO) reports that in the event of a potluck dinner gone bad, Missouri health officials now are more prepared to deal with a food-borne illness outbreak.
Officials from 13 county health departments and a state department met at the Callaway County Health Department office Monday to discuss ways to combat potential outbreaks.
Heather Baer, Columbia-Boone County Health Department spokeswoman, said roughly 75 people attended the drill in Fulton. Participants discussed procedures to control large-scale outbreaks such as salmonella or E. coli.Continue Reading Missouri health officials discuss ways to combat food-borne illnesses