James Andrews is a Seattle-based reporter covering science, agriculture and foodborne illness outbreaks. He holds degrees in Environmental Journalism and English and has previously worked as a science writer for the National Park Service. His reporti
Long-planned efforts to place a label on mechanically tenderized beef may be delayed another two years — until 2018 — if they are not finalized by the U.S. Department of Agriculture
Today, 15 percent of America’s food supply is imported from other countries, including 80 percent of seafood and 50 percent of fresh fruit. An increasing amount of that food
As a trained chef, Matthew Eierman doesn’t have a lot of forgiveness for health inspection violations at restaurants. As a diner, he’d prefer to avoid establishments with poor
In the first half of 2013, Europe dealt with three simultaneous outbreaks from the hepatitis A virus. Knowing that at least two of those outbreaks were connected to frozen berries,
A widely held belief among food safety experts is that the U.S. beef industry has made enormous strides in the past two decades to reduce outbreaks and recalls associated
In 2011, an outbreak of E. coli O157:H7 in Oregon killed one person and sickened more than a dozen people. The outbreak was eventually traced back to organic strawberries
Consumers have grown accustomed to the routine of food safety recalls: A food company announces a recall after releasing a product into the market that later turns out to be
The World Trade Organization (WTO) has ruled in favor of Canada and Mexico in an ongoing dispute with the United States over country-of-origin labeling (COOL) on meat. The latest U.
After 11 years at the helm of California-based poultry producer Foster Farms, Ron Foster announced last week that he was stepping down as president and CEO of the company his
In 2010, Listeria monocytogenes was estimated to infect 23,150 people worldwide. It killed 5,463 of them, or 23.6 percent, according to a new study by European researchers
(Editor’s note: This article has been updated to reflect a communication from the Kentucky Department for Public Health.) The four Kentucky children hospitalized in an E. coli outbreak earlier
September has proven to be a tragic month in terms of E. coli infecting children. At the beginning of the month, two young girls in the Pacific Northwest died from
