James Andrews is a freelance writer and graduate of Western Washington University, where he majored in Environmental Journalism and English. He has worked as a science writer for the National Park Service.
Raw milk and raw milk products are 150 times more likely than their pasteurized counterparts to sicken those who consume them, according to a 13-year review published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Tuesday. States that permit raw milk sales also have more than twice as many illness outbreaks as states where raw milk is not sold.The...
The Food and Drug Administration published a new update on Thursday to its ongoing testing of imported orange juice for the fungicide carbendazim, a compound restricted from agriculture in the United States.Since January 9, the FDA has tested samples from 104 shipments of orange juice and orange juice concentrate. Out of those, the agency found 24 shipments that contained at...
An additional five confirmed infections have brought the total number of Campylobacter illnesses to 76 in an outbreak linked to raw milk from Your Family Cow dairy in Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, the Pennsylvania Department of Health said Wednesday. At least 9 people have been hospitalized.Four of the new cases surfaced in Pennsylvania, while another appeared in Maryland. The new breakdown of...
The Pennsylvania Department of Health on Tuesday added another six cases to the ongoing Campylobacter outbreak linked to raw milk from Your Family Cow dairy in Chambersburg, PA, bringing the number of confirmed infections to 71. At least 9 individuals have been hospitalized.The current age range of those sickened is from 2 to 74 years old, with 24 of the...
The 2011 outbreak of Listeria monocytogenesis in cantaloupe sparked a heightened level of interest in efforts to make cantaloupe safer, with fruit and produce trade associations developing safety guidelines and California cantaloupe growers pushing to set safety goals.Bassam Annous, Ph.D., a microbiologist at the U.S. Department of Agriculture, might just have the solution the cantaloupe industry seeks. Since 2005, Annous has been...
The number of confirmed Campylobacter illnesses linked to raw milk from Your Family Cow dairy in Chambersburg, PA has risen to 60, according to the latest report Friday from the Pennsylvania Department of Health.Since Food Safety News last reported on Tuesday that the dairy had resumed production after passing a state health inspection, an additional 17 people have been confirmed ill...
On Monday, in response to a Freedom of Information Act request from Food Safety News, the Michigan Department of Community Health released documents again naming Taco Bell as the mystery Mexican-style fast food chain linked to an outbreak of Salmonella infection from October and November 2011. Michigan has become the second state to release documents implicating Taco Bell as the restaurant likely involved...
Concentrated plasma beams can effectively kill pathogens on raw chicken, according to a proof-of-concept study published in the January Journal of Food Protection by food safety researchers at Drexel University.In the study, plasma eliminated all or nearly all bacteria from raw chicken -- both skinless and with skin -- when the bacteria were present in low concentrations. On chicken with...
On Wednesday, Food Safety News editor Dan Flynn broke news of the identity of "Restaurant Chain A" as Taco Bell in the 10-state outbreak of Salmonella enteritidis that sickened at least 68 individuals in October and November 2011. The disclosure came from officials at the Oklahoma State Department of Health's Acute Disease Service, who responded to a records request from...
As Food Safety News continues to investigate the identity of 'Restaurant Chain A,' the "Mexican-style fast food chain" linked to a 10-state outbreak of Salmonella enteritidis infection in October and November 2011, the issue has received mounting attention from a variety of media outlets and blogs, including the Huffington Post and Marion Nestle at Food Politics. JoNel Aleccia of msnbc.com spoke...
Dietary levels of acrylamide, the chemical compound and known carcinogen naturally produced from cooking food, cannot be shown to pose any health risk to humans, according to an expert panel organized by the International Food Information Council (IFIC) for a press web presentation on Thursday.Since its discovery in cooked food in 2002, acrylamide has prompted questions from governments, health organizations...
Citing food safety concerns, national restaurant chain Jason's Deli has announced it will not serve sprouts in its 230 locations for the remainder of 2012 and possibly 2013. The announcement, reported by The Packer's Mike Hornick on Tuesday, follows years of recalls and foodborne illness outbreaks associated with sprouts from alfalfa, beans, clover and other produce.Since 2000, sprouts have been...
Small, harmless doses of the metallic element manganese may completely defend cells against the effects of Shiga toxin, the deadly poison produced by harmful strains of E. coli and Shigella that can induce severe diarrhea, intestinal complications and hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS) in infected individuals. That is according to a study published in Science on January 20 by two Carnegie...
Between August 2010 and June 2011, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) counted 109 people in 38 states infected with a commercial strain of Salmonella Typhimurium most commonly found in microbiology laboratories. On Tuesday, the CDC released its final report on the outbreak, which Food Safety News first reported on in April 2011.The outbreak, which hospitalized 13...
As of Jan. 1, 2012, egg-laying hens across many European countries will live with fewer discomforts: The European Commission has officially implemented its ban on battery cages, the notoriously cramped cages used by many egg farmers and criticized by animal rights proponents and veterinarians who call them cruel and harmful to the birds' welfare.The law, finalized in 1999, comes after...
Copyright © Marler Clark
Seattle, Washington
