We are going to have a birthday.

Food Safety News began on Sept. 14, 2009.

That’s our birthday.

So this Tuesday, we will be one year old.

We’ve talked among ourselves and decided not to celebrate.

Not yet, anyway.

As it turns out, Tuesday is going to be a big day in food safety even without our celebrating.   

The big event is the hearing being held by the U.S. House Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigation into the 550 million-egg recall and Salmonella outbreak.

The subcommittee does the best job on the Hill of taking wrongdoers to the wood shed.  It is set for Tuesday, Sept. 14, 2010 at 11 a.m. in room 2123 of the Rayburn House Office Building.

It will be interesting to see who shows up.   The subcommittee of the powerful House Commerce and Energy Committee has invited:

  • Austin DeCoster, qwner, Wright County Egg

  • Orland Bethel, president, Hillandale Farms of Iowa

  • Michael R. Taylor, deputy commissioner for Foods, Food and Drug Administration

Tuesday is also the fourth anniversary of the 2006 outbreak of E. coil O157:H7 in fresh spinach, a time when we want to look at the progress being made to keep leafy greens free from pathogen contamination.

So we’ve opted to “observe” the birthday of Food Safety News a little bit later.  We are now thinking about dedicating the weekend of Oct. 1-3 to our celebration.

A few weeks back, we noted the contribution of our summer interns to our efforts.  We’re very pleased to add Claire J. Mitchell of the University of Arkansas School of Law to our lineup.  We are looking forward to the benefit of her legal and research skills.

Welcome Claire!