Sunland, Inc. – the company whose peanut butter was the source of a Salmonella outbreak that sickened 41 people this year – has a history of sanitation problems dating back to 2003, according to government reports released Wednesday. Inspectors from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration noted a string of unsanitary conditions at the company’s… Continue Reading
A pizza vendor operating at a Seattle farmers market was shut down this weekend after a health department inspection revealed multiple sanitation violations at the facility. The Veraci Pizza, Inc. stand at the Ballard Farmers Market in Northwest Seattle closed Sunday when health officials from the King County & Seattle Health Department found that employees… Continue Reading
Opinion
We practice at least two types of journalism here. Mostly we do daily journalism, finding out what we can and bringing it to you in the same news cycle. We are also are able to do some investigative reporting, also known as enterprise journalism, that requires more time to produce. Usually, the subject of investigative… Continue Reading
Citing worker safety and food safety concerns, a mix of health, labor and consumer groups is asking the U.S. Department of Agriculture to withdraw a proposal to scale back the physical inspection of poultry. In a letter to Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, 23 groups and 16 individuals on Thursday lodged a number of criticisms of… Continue Reading
Food service establishments in Ottawa, Ontario that repeatedly fail health inspections will be required to enroll employees in mandatory food safety training if a proposal set to be discussed next week becomes law. The proposal – submitted to the Ottawa Board of Health by public health officials – would make food handler training mandatory for… Continue Reading
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s annual report to Congress, released this week, offers an overview of what the agency has been up to over the past year. In FDA’s latest report, which is required by the 2011 Food Safety Modernization Act, one thing is immediately clear: FDA has an enormous food safety mandate. The… Continue Reading
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is reminding consumers that the Burch Farms cantaloupe recall was greatly expanded over the weekend. As of last week, 189,000 cantaloupes had been recalled, but the company has now extended their recall to include this growing season as well as honeydew melons after investigators found Listeria monocytogenes in the… Continue Reading
The Government of Canada put up a new single approach to food inspections for public comments late last week. If enacted, it would apply to all food commodities whether made in Canada or imported and it would replace the eight different inspection systems the Canadian Food Inspection Agency now operates, according to the government statement…. Continue Reading
It does not meet all that often, but USDA plans on keeping the National Advisory Committee on Meat & Poultry Inspection. USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service DSIS) Tuesday published notice in the Federal Register, saying the Meat and Poultry Inspection group will continue for two more years. Established in 1971, the purpose of the… Continue Reading
A conversation with USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service Administrator Al Almanza on the agency’s recently-launched Public Health Information System, which centralizes plant inspection data and makes it accessible in real time. Q: How is the Public Health Information System (PHIS) an advance over the old system? A: This is one of the most important… Continue Reading
Just before the 2012 Summer Olympics, restaurants in London are publicly posting their inspection ratings for the first time. It’s not an A-to-F letter grade like those now seen in many locations in the United States including New York City. Instead, England is using the 1-to-5 scale of its Food Hygiene Rating Scheme (FHRS). The… Continue Reading