A contentious trade bill passed the U.S. Senate on Wednesday and is headed to the president’s desk. The Senate voted 60-38 to renew Trade Promotion Authority (TPA), which gives trade deals a “fast track” through Congress where lawmakers would only get an up-or-down vote without being able to add amendments. TPA passed the House in a stand-alone bill last week by a 218-208 vote. Most Democrats in both chambers opposed TPA because of concerns about the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) currently under negotiation, while Republican lawmakers sided with President Obama. Critics such as Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-CT) argue that TPP will lower wages and send American jobs overseas, and that TPA means Congress can’t prevent that without voting against the entire deal. They also say it could impact other realms such as finance, energy and food safety. Some food safety advocates are concerned TPP will result in the “harmonization” of food processing standards in different countries so that they’re deemed equivalent, even though one country might actually have higher standards than another.
Lydia Zuraw is a graduate of Northwestern University with a bachelor's from the Medill School of Journalism. She was born and raised in the suburbs of Baltimore and lived in Illinois, Scotland and Washington state before returning to the East Coast.
The European Commission is consulting on plans to introduce cereulide limits for infant formula.
Proposals cover dried infant formula, dried dietary foods for special medical purposes intended for infants under
Nearly all of the public argument about this bill has been about food chemicals: dyes, PFAS, the GRAS loophole. That is where the fight started, and it is where the coalition backing the bill would prefer the fight to stay.
Four farming unions in the United Kingdom have renewed calls for a ban on imports of Brazilian meat to align with European restrictions.
In a letter to Angela Eagle, Defra
As part of its enforcement activities, the Food and Drug Administration sends warning letters to entities under its jurisdiction. Some letters are not posted for public view until weeks or
Editor’s Note: Food Safety News Washington D.C. correspondent Lydia Zuraw for the past two and one half years will after today be found reporting for nonprofit Kaiser Health
The increasing global attention to the threat of antibiotic resistance has spurred research and development of antimicrobial alternatives. Once such alternative is bacteriophages. Bacteriophages are viruses that infect and kill
It’s impossible to say what will be the big food safety story of 2016. The ultimate unpredictable is what foodborne outbreaks will dominate the headlines and how they may
This year saw dozens of well-publicized foodborne illness outbreaks. While many of them were found to have sickened a handful of individuals, a few stood out as especially wide
