Food Safety NewsHelena Bottemiller is a Washington, DC-based reporter covering food policy and politics for Food Safety News. Helena first delved into the world of food safety while writing her thesis on the U.S. Food and Drug Administration at Claremont McKenna College in Los Angeles. At Food Safety News, she has covered Congress, the White House, the Supreme Court and several high-profile food safety stories, including the half-billion Salmonella egg recall and the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Helena has appeared on BBC World and been featured in USA Today and her work is widely cited by mainstream and niche media. She tweets about food and agriculture policy at @hbottemiller.
House lawmakers are pressing Kellogg's Co. for more information on the company's recent 28 million box recall of Corn Pops, Honey Smacks, Fruit Loops, and Apple Jacks cereals.Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA), Chairman of the Committee on Energy and Commerce, and Bart Stupak (D-MI), Chairman of the Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, sent a letter to Kellogg's this week asking a...
Overturning a lower court decision, the District of Columbia federal appeals court ruled yesterday that a group of California almond farmers have the right to challenge a U.S. Department of Agriculture regulation requiring the pasteurization of almonds. Initiated in September of 2007, the pasteurization rule was in response to a string of Salmonella outbreaks linked to almonds in 2001 and 2004....
As waters reopen for fishing in the wake of the Gulf oil spill, BP's chief operating officer Doug Suttles offered a public confidence boost for the local seafood industry saying on Sunday he would "absolutely" eat Gulf of Mexico seafood. Louisiana state authorities recently reopened 2,400 square miles of local waters for fishing federal officials reopened approximately a third of...
With the expiration date on the child nutrition program quickly approaching, First Lady Michelle Obama is again calling on Congress get moving on the pending reauthorization bill. Mrs. Obama penned an op-ed in the Washington Post yesterday, A Food Bill We Need, asking Congress to act "as soon as possible" on the legislation. "Right now, our country has a major...
As waters reopen for fishing in the Gulf of Mexico, federal public health officials are maintaining confidence in the safety of seafood harvested in the region. Just days after the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration reopened one-third of all previously closed federal waters, the state of Louisiana reopened a major chunk of closed local waters late last week for finfish...
Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT), Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, introduced legislation late last week that would stiffen the penalties for companies that knowingly violate food safety standards. According to Leahy's office, the Food Safety Enforcement Act would increase the sentences prosecutors can seek for people who "knowingly contaminate the nation's food supply and endanger Americans' lives." "Current statutes do not...
Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro (D-CT), a longtime advocate for more stringent food safety laws, introduced a bill yesterday with the "goal of completely eradicating the dangerous Shiga toxin-producing E. coli bacteria."The E. coli Traceability and Eradication Act would set stricter testing procedures for meat companies and establish a tracking procedure to allow the U.S. Department of Agriculture to implement faster recalls...
Standing alongside key lawmakers, child nutrition advocates, and elementary students dressed as grapes, apples, carrots, and bananas, Senate Agriculture Committee Chairwoman Blanche Lincoln (D-AR) yesterday urged the Senate to pass the pending child nutrition reauthorization bill.With time running out before August recess, Sen. Lincoln has turned up the heat on Senate leaders to get the bill moving. In recent days...
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) said Tuesday he hopes to pass pending food safety legislation and the child nutrition reauthorization, two major food bills, before August recess. Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL), the primary sponsor of the FDA Food Safety Modernization Act, which was unanimously voted out of committee in November, told POLITICO's Pulse yesterday he feels better about...
FDA Says New System Helped Identify Over 100 Food Safety Problems in First 7 Months The U.S. Food and Drug Administration released a report yesterday on the agency's new Reportable Food Registry. According to FDA, over 100 food safety reports were electronically submitted by industry in the first seven months."The FDA's new reporting system has already proven itself an invaluable...
The House of Representatives is starting to move legislation that would fundamentally overhaul chemical laws for the first time in over three decades.The Toxic Chemicals Safety Act, H.R. 5820, introduced last week by Reps. Bobby L. Rush (D-IL) and Henry Waxman (D-CA), seeks to reform the federal Toxic Substances Control Act, enacted under President Ford in 1976. According to the...
Eric Schlosser, author of best-selling Fast Food Nation and co-producer of Oscar-nominated Food, Inc., penned an op-ed in last Sunday's New York Times urging the Senate to move on pending food safety legislation.Schlosser describes the public health impact of contaminated food. "[T]he number who are killed annually by something they ate is roughly the same as the number of Americans...
When Beans Were Bullets, an exhibit of food and agriculture posters from World Wars I and II is on display at USDA's National Agricultural Library in Beltsville, Maryland through August 30. The featured posters--which delve into a wide variety of issues, ranging from food rationing to food safety--examine the evolution of poster styles, propaganda messages, and advertising history during the...
In an effort to bolster an embattled Gulf coast economy, First Lady Michelle Obama joined the chorus of Administration officials assuring the safety of Gulf seafood in a speech Friday."We're all relieved that the leak appears to have been stopped for now," said Mrs. Obama during an event to christen a Coast Guard Cutter in Pascagoula, Mississippi. "Today, I can...
A new report from Exponent Inc.'s Center for Chemical Regulation and Food Safety is adding new fuel to the debate over catfish import safety. According to the report, eating contaminated catfish imported from Vietnam and China could have "serious long-term human health consequences."The report cites "major hazards" associated with aquaculture fish, including pathogenic microorganisms, antimicrobial drug residues and environmental chemicals.Senator...
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