Food Safety NewsDan Flynn is a Denver-based writer and editor with more than ten years of food safety experience. As a public affairs professional, he worked with government and regulatory agencies at the local, state, and federal levels. His career as a journalist included working for newspapers throughout the West, from the Black Hills to Seattle. His on-scene reporting on the collapse of the Idaho’s Teton Dam and the suicide bombing at Washington State University’s Perham Hall was carried by newspapers around the world and was recognized both times regionally by the Associated Press for Best Reporting on a Deadline. Most of the disasters he attends these days involve food illnesses.
The food industry -- including dairy, livestock, poultry and eggs and all food processing -- spent about $40 million on lobbying the federal government last year, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.Yet more than half of the 60 food businesses asked last week by U.S. Rep. Louise M. Slaughter (D-NY) to release details about their policies on antibiotics in...
Four years ago, undercover video recorded workers on forklifts forcing "downer" cows into slaughter at the Hallmark and Westland meat plant in Chino, CA, which at the time was a top supplier to the National School Lunch program.The sting, by the Humane Society of the United States, put Hallmark and Westland out of business. When USDA saw the undercover video,...
America's biggest cantaloupe fields are found in central California -- 1,300 miles away from the area of Colorado where a small, seasonal crop last year became contaminated with deadly Listeria.But California and Arizona cantaloupe markets were devastated after those Colorado Rocky Ford-brand cantaloupes contaminated with Listeria were distributed to 28 states, infecting 146 people and causing at least 33 deaths. Half...
Bon Secour Fisheries Inc., located east of Alabama's Mobile Bay, was one of the first to sue BP after 2010's Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill. Today, Bon Secour was to get its day in court along with an estimated 116,000 other plaintiffs suing BP, represented by 340 attorneys from 90 law firms.But in a Sunday conference call, the court agreed to a...
I personally had never heard of Jimmy John's Gourmet Sandwiches until four years ago. Several University of Colorado sorority women were ill; specifically they were hurling like sailors getting off a winter patrol on the North Atlantic.I was asked to investigate. Since then I've been paying attention.Jimmy John's is largely a franchise operation. It has more than 1,000 units in...
USDA recently disclosed criminal, civil, and administrative actions taken to enforce the federal meat and poultry inspection acts during the last three months of last year.In a 47-page enforcement report for the period that marks the first quarter of the federal fiscal year, USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) slices and dices all its regulatory actions into data for...
A bill to protect livestock farms from "frivolous lawsuits" is advancing in the Indiana General Assembly.House Bill (HB) 1091 already passed the Indiana House on a 57-to-39 vote and is awaiting action in the Senate. The measure resembles other recent attempts in farm states to impose criminal sanctions for defaming agricultural products or extend commercial privacy to prohibit undercover farm...
Michael Taylor, with major accomplishments in food safety for two Democratic Presidents, is nevertheless finding himself the target of a petition seeking his removal.And as if the old adage needed more proof that political movements always end up eating their own, Mr. Taylor's nemesis is MoveOn, the left-of-center group that got its start trying to retain President Clinton after his...
Or is the fifth "sproutbreak" in four years the reason?Jimmy John's Gourmet Sandwich franchise owners and customers are being told the chain is permanently dropping sprouts from the menu.Jimmy John's restaurants are currently associated with a five-state outbreak of the rare O26 strain of E. coli. It is the fifth outbreak involving sprouts traced back to Jimmy John's franchises...
Jimmy John's Gourmet Sandwich franchises like to be known for "freaky fast delivery," promising customers quick response.But the promise does not apply to the news media after foodborne illness outbreaks involving Jimmy John's. Since the February 15 report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) about a five state outbreak of the rare O26 strain of E. coli...
There are no words that cause raw milk advocates more heartburn than these: "The Congress shall have Power ...To regulate Commerce with foreign nations, and among the several States, and with Indian Tribes."It was this section of the United States Constitution - the Interstate Commerce Clause - that as recently as this week tripped up an Amish dairy farmer who was legally...
Brown rice syrup used in many organic foods as a substitute for the often-chastised high fructose corn sugar is causing problems of its own with high arsenic levels.That means danger for those consuming such products as "organic" infant milk formula, cereal bars or high energy foods that contain the organic brown rice syrup (OBRS) as an ingredient, according to a...
The order of a federal judge has finally shut down Rainbow Acres Farm, the raw milk dairy located near Washington D.C. in Pennsylvania's Amish County.It ends a nasty confrontation between Dan and Rachel Allgyer, Amish dairy farmers with operations based in Pennsylvania where commercial sales of raw milk are legal, and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), which caught...
The heartland states of Iowa and Indiana are entertaining changes to their raw milk laws, but with far differing approaches.In Iowa, which is bordered by Minnesota, Illinois, Missouri, Nebraska and South Dakota, lawmakers are considering allowing on-farm sales to make the state's approach more consistent with its neighbors.The Indiana Assembly meanwhile is on the verge of adopting House Bill 1129,...
Foods regulated by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) were recalled 50 percent more in the fourth quarter last year and affected over 80 percent more units when compared with the previous period, according to the ExpertRECALL ™ Index.The quarterly ExpertRECALL™ Index was released Tuesday, showing 2011 ended with a surge of food recalls led by undeclared allergens, which...
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