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.
Guilty pleas to violating Canada's Meat Inspection Act have now led to individual and corporate fines totaling $125,000, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency reports.Cameron Leth and Wheatland Select Organic Turkey Ltd., in a joint submission, pled guilty last Dec. 18 at Lethbridge Provincial Court to violating section 7. (b) of the Meat Inspection Act.Provincial Court Justice D.G. Redman now has...
Alan and Kristin Hudson, fourth generation Maryland chicken farmers, want to know why tax-supported law students should be allowed to represent environmental groups while they must hire their own attorney.The Waterkeeper Alliance and the Assateague Coastkeeper are suing Hudson's chicken farm for allegedly polluting a ditch that drains into the Pocomoke River. Students at the University of Maryland Law School,...
More food exports by Croatia will be safe as its consumer protection policies will be up to European Union standards.Those are among the findings of a new World Trade Organization (WTO) review of Croatia's trade policies. WTO says since its independence in 1991, Croatia has gradually been opening up its trade and investment toward its strategic goal of acceding to...
We all know there are places in these United States where, when we visit we are hit with that rich feeling. These places look rich, feel rich, and even smell rich.People who reside in these places live in bubbles. They are clueless about life on the outside. Unfortunately for about--oh the past 30 years--one of these places has been Washington,...
Raw bar patrons got a heads up from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Saturday.FDA said oysters recently harvested from Louisiana's Area 7 on the Gulf of Mexico near the mouth of the Mississippi River at Port Sulphur are responsible for an outbreak of norovirus.The federal agency is working with the states of Mississippi and Louisiana to get the...
A Wyoming, New York dairy farmer was ordered to stop selling cows for slaughter until he complies with federal law.U.S. District Court Judge Richard J. Arcara ordered Jerald P. Schumacher, who sells dairy cattle through an auction yard in Pavilion, NY to be slaughtered for human consumption, to cease doing business. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration cited a sole...
To steal a lyric or two from the late great jazz and pop singer Peggy Lee, "If that's all there is, then let's keep dancing." Three weeks ago, it looked like there would not be much time for dancing at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). In a late afternoon press conference, Dr. Margaret Hamburg, the FDA Commissioner; Dr....
America's seafood processing industry seems to still be learning about how to implement Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point plans.This week the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) released five "Warning Letters" to seafood processors that were largely about HACCP failures. The most serious violations were found in the Brooklyn-based NY Fish Company.For the third time, FDA inspectors have taken...
The U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA's) food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) is following the Food and Drug Administration in demanding that those it regulates let the agency know promptly if unsafe food is reaching consumers.The new requirement comes in new rules FSIS has published for public comment prior to implementation.According to the USDA, the proposed measures to enhance food...
The first changes in Canada's policy on Listeria monocytogenes in ready-to-eat meats since 2004 were released to the public for comment Tuesday.The goal of the new policies is to protect consumers with appropriate intervention resulting from early warning.The changes are also the first since the 2008 Listeria outbreak caused by ready-to-eat meats that were produced by Maple Leaf Foods in...
Unlike most states considering changes to their laws governing raw milk, Wisconsin's $26 billion dairy industry has some real "skin in the game."A Wisconsin Senate committee has advanced a bill that would for the first time since 1955 allow direct sales of raw milk to consumers, but only by sellers with permits that conduct testing and provide warning labels on...
Africa is getting chairs at the World Trade Organization's (WTO's) table where food safety and animal and plant health issues are decided.WTO is giving observer status to three regional organizations of African counties on its Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) Committee. WTO's new observers are the Economic Committee for West African States (ECOWAS), the Committee of the Sahel-Saharan States (CEN-SAD), and...
Another company that gets its pepper from Mincing Overseas Spice Company recalled several of its own products over the weekend for possible Salmonella contamination.Elgin, IL-based John B. Sanfilippo & Son, Inc., a publicly traded company, has recalled some of its snack mix and cashew products because they are seasoned with black pepper supplied by New Jersey-based Mincing. Mincing is one of...
Fines of $3,000 for each of two counts of violating the Canadian Meat Inspection Act were imposed last year on an Ontario company after guilty pleas were entered.The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) announced the final outcome of the case late last week. It stems from offenses that occurred on Nov. 7, 2006 by the Wei Kee Company In Scarborough,...
The U.S. Department of Agriculture's Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) announced a low health risk, second-class recall over the weekend.It involves about 10,368 pounds of fresh sweet Italian turkey sausage products from Perdue Farms Inc. in Washington, IN.The turkey sausage was recalled because it contains an undeclared allergen.The product was prepared using an ingredient blend that contained milk, a...
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