In a story last summer for Food Safety News, I looked to see if the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) recalls were biased toward any one day of the week. This inquiry followed what seemed to be several late Friday recall announcements, including a
Continue Reading Friday Recall Announcements Revisited

Marijke Schwarz Smith
Marijke Schwarz Smith graduated from the University of Washington with a B.S. in Individualized Studies - Public Health and a B.A. in Geography. She is currently a candidate for a Master's in Public Health in Epidemiology at the University of Minnesota. She has a specific interest in how the geography of a location can influence the health of the location's inhabitants. Along with a keen interest in food and cooking, Marijke has a passion for bikes and has raced at the collegiate level.
E. Coli O157 Increases Risk of Diabetes
E. coli O157:H7, the culprit in foodborne illness outbreaks linked to everything from ground beef to cookie dough, produces a Shiga-like toxin that damages the filtering part of the kidney and leads to a life-threatening complication, hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS), in 2-7 percent of all infections.
The pathogen is…
Is There a Pattern to FSIS Recalls?
Last year, after a particularly large recall of tainted meat was announced late one Friday night, marlerblog.com analyzed the recall patterns for the U.S. Department of Agriculture Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS). The question then was whether there were a preponderance of late Friday or weekend announcements and, if…
Continue Reading Is There a Pattern to FSIS Recalls?
Cargill Has a History of Meat Recalls
Cargill’s massive recall of ground turkey products last week was not the first time the industry giant had to call back potentially contaminated meat from the marketplace.
Here is a brief list of some of the past recalls and associated outbreaks of foodborne illness involving Cargill, a company that sells…
Food Safety in the Obama Years
President Obama entered office amid one of the worst times for food
safety. January through April of 2009 saw an extraordinary number of
recalls and elevated levels of illness due to the hundreds of products
that were contaminated with Salmonella-laced peanuts and, to a lesser
degree, pistachios. The number of…
Why Are There More E. coli Infections in Summer?
The number of E. coli O157:H7 infections increases during the summer months in Great Britain and elsewhere, and a paper published this year in the British journal “Environmental Microbiology” examined the links between that summertime spike, the physiology of infection, and geography.
The paper reviewed about 100 published works related…
Continue Reading Why Are There More E. coli Infections in Summer?
Relating Refrigeration to Climate Change
Along with the many environmental problems posed by global climate change, an increase in ambient temperature could have negative effects on food safety everywhere, but particularly in developing countries.
That’s the message of a 2010 study in “Food Research International,” which investigates the varied effects of climate change on the…
Assessing the Risk of Intentional Contamination
In what was the latest reminder that any nation’s food supply can be vulnerable to intentional contamination, CBS News recently reported the sketchy details of a supposed terrorist plot to slip poisons into restaurant and hotel salad bars and buffets.
Such an attack has long been considered a remote but…
Continue Reading Assessing the Risk of Intentional Contamination
Thanksgiving Potluck: Curry Kale Soup
To celebrate Thanksgiving here at Food Safety News we’re hosting our fourth virtual potluck (we’ve also held virtual picnics on Memorial Day, the Fourth of July and Labor Day).
We’ll be having turkey, of course, and for tips on how to cook a turkey, you can’t beat the Food and
Breast Cancer: Linking Chemo to Campy
During October, Breast Cancer Awareness Month, it’s important to consider the dangers posed by contaminated food and water to women undergoing treatment for what is the second-most deadly cancer in U.S. women.
Cancer patients receiving chemotherapy have suppressed immune systems, making them part of the 20 percent of the U.S.