The St. Petersburg Times reports that the House passed the bill (H.R. 4167) and the Senate will considered it in coming weeks. Don’t be fooled by the bill’s innocuous title, the National Uniformity for Food Act. “It’s about more than food labeling,” Aller said. “It pre-empts state food adulteration laws.”
The bill has the backing of the powerful Grocery Manufacturers Association, the lobbying arm of such heavyweights as Archer Daniels Midland, Campbell Soup Co. and Del Monte Foods. The group’s stated goal is to give consumers “the best, science-based food safety standards and information available to them regardless of where they live.” But the bill does just the opposite.Continue Reading Fooling with food safety
Beware: 13 foods that kill
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Debra Holtzman, JD, MA, for eDiets.com reports that according to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), about 76 million Americans will suffer from food-borne illness, and at least 5,000 will die this year. Children, the elderly and those with compromised immune systems are at the greatest risk.
Symptoms of food-borne illnesses include diarrhea, abdominal cramping, fever, blood or even pus in the stool, headache, vomiting and severe exhaustion.Continue Reading Beware: 13 foods that kill
Senators vow to kill House bill
San Francisco Chronicle staff writer Edward Epstein reports that California’s two senators vowed Wednesday to go all out to block House-passed legislation that critics say would gut the state’s voter-approved Proposition 65, which requires food manufacturers to list any cancer- or birth-defect-causing substances in their products.
The legislation, strongly backed by food manufacturers, hasn’t even come before a Senate committee yet, but Democratic Sens. Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein said they are mobilizing opposition now to try to ensure its defeat. On Tuesday, Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger released a letter disclosing his opposition to the bill, which advocates say is necessary to set a single national standard for food safety.
The senators and Schwarzenegger also said the proposal is another assault on California’s right to set consumer protections greater than those provided in other states or by the federal government. Already, the state’s financial privacy laws have been rolled back through congressional action undertaken at the behest of industry.Continue Reading Senators vow to kill House bill
Meatpacking-A new jungle?
Sharon Cohen of the Associated Press reports that Martin Cortez works in a world of long knives and huge saws, blood and bone, arctic chill and sweltering heat. This is life on the line as a meatpacker.
It’s no place for the squeamish. Some workers can’t stomach the gore — chopping up the meat and bones of hundreds of cattle, day after day. Cortez has been at it more than 30 years. It also can be very dangerous. Some workers have been slashed, burned or scarred. He has not.
Even so, Martin Cortez, a soft-spoken man with sad eyes, doesn’t recommend the work. The thrashing animals, the heavy lifting … all that goes into putting steak and hamburger on America’s dinner tables, he says, makes for a backbreaking day on the killing floor.Continue Reading Meatpacking-A new jungle?
Revised labelling required for poultry products
Ahmed ElAmin of Food Production Daily reports that by next month food companies will be required to have more explicit instructions that uncooked, breaded or boneless poultry products need to be cooked.
The new requirement was sparked by a recent food recall due to consumer confusion over whether such products needed to be cooked. The product led to a number of people falling sick from Salmonella enteritidis.Continue Reading Revised labelling required for poultry products
Food safety information society: attack those bacterial hot spots in your kitchen
CCNMatthews reports that many of the spots in your home most contaminated with bacteria can be found not in the bathroom but in the kitchen. Research done at the University of Arizona found places in the kitchen contaminated with staggering numbers of harmful bacteria. Topping the list were sponges followed by dishcloths, sink drains, faucet handles and refrigerator handles.
Reducing the numbers of those potentially harmful bacteria is easy, say the food safety experts that staff the toll free consumer line operated by the Food Safety Information Society. Start by mixing 1 tsp (5 mL) unscented bleach with 3 cups (750 mL) water. Put this mixture into a spray bottle for quick use on cutting boards, sinks and counter tops.
Get rid of those dirty sponges or dip them in the bleach mixture after every use and boil them in water for three minutes each week. Include them in the dishwasher with each load of dishes. Replace sponges every few weeks.Continue Reading Food safety information society: attack those bacterial hot spots in your kitchen
Protect yourself from dirty supermarkets: Food safety expert advises how to avoid foodborne illnesses
Jane Weaver of MSNBC reports that on Sunday, “Dateline NBC” reported on a yearlong investigation of sanitary and other health-related conditions in the nation’s supermarkets. The episode, Supermarket Sweep, provided further proof that we shouldn’t assume our grocery stores are as clean as they should be.
How can you protect yourself from dirty supermarkets? Food safety expert Jeffrey Nelken offers advice on keeping you and your family safe from food-borne illnesses while shopping and at home. Nelken, based in Woodland Hills, Calif., was featured in Sunday’s “Dateline” and accompanied the show’s producers on some of their shopping expeditions.Continue Reading Protect yourself from dirty supermarkets: Food safety expert advises how to avoid foodborne illnesses
Picnic safely with your food
Bev Walpole of the St. Thomas Times-Journal reports that as summer approaches and we begin to think of picnics, there are several things we should keep in mind so that we don’t have to add a bout of food poisoning to our memories of the event.
When planning your menu, choose foods that are less perishable, such as washed, fresh fruit, vegetables, breads, processed cheese or boxed drinks. Keep perishable foods like potato or macaroni salad, hot dogs, lunchmeat, cooked beef or chicken on ice packs in a cooler.
Avoid bringing hot foods. If you plan to barbecue at your picnic, keep raw meats separate from cooked foods, preferably in another cooler. Make sure all meats are well cooked. Be sure to bring enough utensils and trays so you don’t have to use the same ones that touched raw foods to handle cooked food. Most meat is cooked at 74 C.Continue Reading Picnic safely with your food
Restaurant Inspections
Gary White of The Ledger reports that Barbara Whitman’s 63rd birthday was unforgettable — and not in a good way. Whitman’s two sisters took her out to one of her favorite Lakeland restaurants the night before her birthday last August. She indulged in a crabmeat appetizer and her usual entree, mahi mahi, both of which she found delectable.
Later that night, though, Whitman awoke to a sensation of extreme nausea. The misery carried though her birthday, ruining a home-cooked dinner her sister, Angela Akins, planned for Whitman and their mother, whose birthday was three days later.Continue Reading Restaurant Inspections
Consumption of risky foods declines
According to the American Society for Microbiology, Americans are eating safer. The number of people who reported eating one or more foods associated with an increased risk of foodborne disease declined by a third from 1998 to 2002, according to survey results released today at the International Conference on Emerging Infectious Diseases.
“Overall we are seeing a decline in risky food consumption and that may be attributable to published media reports of foodborne outbreaks and outreach efforts by the public health community,” says Erica Weis of the California Department of Health Services, the lead author on the study.Continue Reading Consumption of risky foods declines