The Meat Trade News Daily misses only a couple major food safety issues (i.e. outbreaks) in yesterdays summary of ten major food stories in 2009.  In the blog post, titled "USA – Food Safety a Bloody Disgrace," MTND includes: 

1.  Stephanie Smith’s E. coli O157:H7 and HUS illness from eating a contaminated Cargill ground beef patty.  Stephanie has sued Cargill for

The recall of over 826,000 pounds of ground beef, produced by Beef Packers Inc (aka Cargill), due to Salmonella contamination has resounded loudly in the food biz . . . but unfortunately not because a recall linked to ground beef is such a rarity.  It most certainly is not.  This recall has been big news, in large part, because the contaminant is antibiotic resistant Salmonella Newport, which only increases the public health nightmare associated with an already dangerous foodborne pathogen.  

In trying to understand why E. coli O157:H7 is an adulterant according to the USDA-FSIS, but other very common (and very lethal) pathogens are not, one can’t help but be impressed by the rather common-sense argument that these bugs just aren’t good for people; and as a result, they should be considered nothing if not an adulterant on any food product.  Continue Reading Is Salmonella Newport an adulterant?: I wonder what World Health would say?

 In 1999, several states reported clusters of Salmonella Newport, an antibiotic resistant strain of the bug, with an indistinguishable PFGE pattern and the same anti-microbial resistance pattern.  The states reported to PulseNet, the national database for foodborne disease surveillance, which prompted an investigation into the cause of the outbreak.

In the investigation, health officials found that