Public Health Seattle King County has announced a hepatitis A outbreak that has sickened at least 6 people, all adults, in the Snoqualmie Valley. Although there is no official word about the source yet, a prime suspect in any cluster of hepatitis A illness is that it was caused by contaminated food.
If so, lawsuits
SEATTLE–An outbreak of Hepatitis A in the Snoqualmie Valley has county health authorities asking people to get vaccinated. Matias Valenzuela, public education coordinator with the county’s public health department, said his office has responded to six confirmed cases in the Valley, all in adults. No word yet on the source of the outbreak.
Hepatitis A
On the heels of the Marler Clark retail chicken study, researchers from Wayne State University will publish an article in the June edition of Emerging Infectious Disease on contamination of retail meat. In this study, investigators sampled retail meat in and around Detroit:
We collected 289 raw meat samples (156 beef, 76 chicken, and 57 turkey) from
Food safety regulation in the U.S. can draw criticism over issues of cost, bureaucracy, and effectiveness. But what are the alternatives? An interesting article from Sharon LaFaniere in yesterday’s New York Times may have shed some light on that question while taking stock of food safety in China.
LaFraniere reports:
a stomach-turning string of food-safety scandals this spring, from
The troubling findings of a recent study of bacterial contamination in retail poultry were being reported today at Aol News. Food safety attorney Bill Marler funded a study that was conducted in Seattle by the Institute for Environmental Health, a national network of food safety laboratories.
The study was based on sampling conducted on 100 packages of
Absolutely not. Bill Marler penned the following article today for Food Safety News. Look forward to seeing the results of the 2011 chicken study next week.
Most consumers would be surprised that USDA/FSIS’s website explains chicken inspections:
All chickens found in retail stores are either inspected by USDA or by State systems, which have standards
The Hawaii State Health Department reported at least 42 ill people in an outbreak of norovirus, according to KITV-4. All of the illnesses are connected to a restaurant in the North Shore Oahu town of Haleiwa.
Symptoms of norovirus infection generally include nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, and abdominal pain. Headache and low-grade fever may also
A recall is just a recall unless its an outbreak. We thought we were dealing with “just a recall” last year when Veron Foods, a Louisianna company, recalled 500,000 pounds of head cheese products due to potential contamination by Listeria monocytogenes. 7 months later, the CDC has announced that the Veron recall was more than
China has had its fair share of food safety issues over the past several years (remember the 300,000 kids sickened and at least 6 killed by melamine-tainted milk?), resulting in a global negative perception over the safety of Chinese-made food products.
In response to concerns over the safety of its food supply, it
The Wisconsin Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics (WIAAP) issued a press release today to “again voice[s] its opposition to pending legislation that would legalize the sale of unpasteurized (“raw”) milk.”
WIAAP states that “Raw milk is known to expose consumers to food-borne illnesses caused by bacteria capable of causing numerous illnesses and even