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.
After a series of USA Today exposes in 2009 found staggering gaps in school food safety, many in food policy circles thought food safety would be addressed in the Child Nutrition Act (CNA) reauthorization process this year. USA Today found the leading fast food companies had higher food safety standards than the Agriculture Marketing Service (AMS), which purchases food for...
U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) officials, academics, and fruit and vegetable growers are engaging in discussion across the country on what new produce safety regulations should look like.In an ongoing effort to formulate effective produce safety policies, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the FDA are inviting the discussion and encouraging public comment to inform the rulemaking process....
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), along with several state agencies, issued an alert yesterday warning the public about an outbreak of campylobacteriosis associated with drinking unpasteurized milk. At least 12 confirmed illnesses have been reported in Michigan.According to the FDA, federal public health officials are collaborating with the Michigan Department of Community Health (MDCH), the Illinois Department of...
Senator Jon Tester (D-MT) introduced a bill yesterday to overhaul the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) protocol for tracing contaminated meat back to the source to protect public health and hold "the right people accountable when something goes wrong." Tester's bill, the Meat Safety and Accountability Act, would require the USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) to "design and...
U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack spoke to an audience of over 700 food safety education experts yesterday, emphasizing the Administration's commitment to overhauling the food safety system and shifting towards more preventative regulatory strategies. "Preventing foodborne illness is a top priority for President Obama and USDA. We want to make sure parents never put their children at risk because...
With the heated--and at times downright uncivil--political debate over health care reform in Washington, discussion over some of the finer details buried in the 2,500-page health care bill President Obama signed into law yesterday have been drowned out. Among them is a new requirement for all major restaurant chains to post calorie information prominently on their menus.The health bill contains...
Michigan State University recently launched a comprehensive, multidisciplinary program to address an all too common and often ignored food policy issue: food fraud.According to the university, "the Anti-Counterfeiting and Product Protection Program (A-CAPPP) is the first and preeminent academic body focusing upon the complex global issues of anti-counterfeiting and product protection of all products, across all industries, in all markets...
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) could improve transparency and recordkeeping on key decisions on irradiation petitions, according to a new report conducted by the Government Accountability Office (GAO).This report was produced in response to a Congressional request for information on food irradiation. According to the GAO, there were two objectives to the study the agency conducted. To determine...
This week, more than 600 public health professionals, health care providers, industry representatives, and food safety experts will take part in the 2010 Food Safety Education Conference in Atlanta. The event, which is jointly hosted by the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture (USDA) and the nonprofit, public health organization NSF International, will focus on identifying communication and education strategies to increase...
The U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA's) oversight of organic food has been lax since the agency's organic program was launched in 2002, according to a recent Inspector General report. The findings, published earlier this month by the USDA's Office of Inspector General (OIG), confirmed what organic watchdogs had been saying for years--that the enforcement of federal laws governing organics is...
Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) is becoming the newest food safety champion in the Senate. Gillibrand, the first New Yorker to serve on the Agriculture Committee in almost four decades, introduced a comprehensive food policy platform in the fall, which includes plans to improve inspection, recall response, and public education. In addition to co-sponsoring the pending FDA Food Safety Modernization Act,...
China will reopen its market to American pork exports, almost a year after banning the products over H1N1 fears, U.S. officials announced Thursday."This resolution is excellent news for American hog producers," said Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, in a U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) statement. According to Vilsack, his visit to China with U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk in October "laid...
Next week, waitstaff at restaurants across the country will invite patrons to donate a dollar for their tap water to help UNICEF provide clean water to children across the globe.Waterborne illness remains the second leading cause of death for children under the age of five--4,100 children die every day from water-related illnesses. Almost 900 million people lack access to clean...
The timing of legislation that would overhaul the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's (FDA's) authority and capacity to regulate the food supply has been in question since the House passed its version of the bill last July.Though the measure enjoys broad bipartisan support, and is backed by key industry, public health, and consumer groups, the FDA Food Safety Modernization Act...
Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) introduced a bill Monday that would set more specific guidelines for disseminating food recall information to consumers and health care providers, and it appears Democratic leaders have agreed to advance part of the proposal as part of the pending food safety bill.Gillibrand's proposal, the Consumer Recall Notification Act, would require notices be posted on grocery store...
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