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Carl Custer

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FSIS: More testing not preventing

By Carl Custer on April 17, 2022

– OPINION-

This column addresses Docket No. FSIS-2019-0023 “Changes to the Salmonella Verification Testing Program: Proposed Performance Standards for Salmonella in Raw Comminuted Pork and Intact or Non-Intact Pork Cuts and Related Agency Verification” For …
Continue Reading FSIS: More testing not preventing

control

Education, food safety and issues

By Carl Custer on January 21, 2022

– OPINION –

We need more than education
We need pathogen control
Hey Congress, we can’t do it alone
With apologies to Pink Floyd

The theater building at Texas A&M College had an inscription…
Continue Reading Education, food safety and issues

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The problem of salmonellosis and politics

By Carl Custer on November 2, 2021
Opinion

During the past half century the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s annual reports show that salmonellosis has been the leading cause of foodborne death. Salmonellosis is caused by virulent serotypes of the bacterium…
Continue Reading The problem of salmonellosis and politics

Meat industry wants more comment time for ‘most significant policy change’ in decades

By Dan Flynn on March 23, 2020

Food safety attorney Bill Marler’s petition to ban meat from containing any of 31 Salmonella outbreak serotypes “would be one of the most significant policy changes affecting the meat and poultry industries in decades,” according …
Continue Reading Meat industry wants more comment time for ‘most significant policy change’ in decades

catbird

The petition perspective from one catbird seat

By Coral Beach on January 26, 2020
Opinion

Julie Larson Bricher recently wrote an article on MeatingPlace.com outlining a petition that asks the USDA to declare 31 Salmonella serotypes as adulterants in meat and poultry. The move would make what is now…
Continue Reading The petition perspective from one catbird seat

Blackboard with Performance Metrics wording

Salmonella and campylobacter performance standards a ‘good idea’ but . . .

By Carl Custer on April 26, 2019
Opinion

Not all Salmonella are alike. Camplyobacter likely similar.

Preharvest economic incentives haven’t eliminated STEC but imagine what the data would be like if there were none. Leafy greens anyone? Scandinavia has accomplished a lot…
Continue Reading Salmonella and campylobacter performance standards a ‘good idea’ but . . .

devil angel money

Reality of our world: Money trumps altruism in the quest for safer poultry

By Carl Custer on November 13, 2018
Opinion

Editor’s note: This is the second of a two-part opinion piece. To read part one, please click here.


In the previous article, I wrote about the decades-old public health problem of poultry-borne salmonellosis.
Continue Reading Reality of our world: Money trumps altruism in the quest for safer poultry

Treating virulent strain of Salmonella as adulterant in largest beef recall in history

By Dan Flynn on October 5, 2018

Yesterday’s big beef recall is the largest in history for possible Salmonella contamination, according to an online discussion involving retired USDA microbiologist Carl Custer. 

Custer responded to comments to the industry newsletter Meatingplace that included…
Continue Reading Treating virulent strain of Salmonella as adulterant in largest beef recall in history

Vinegar can help home cooks battle bacteria on leafy greens

By Carl Custer on April 16, 2018

The most recent outbreak from Escherichia coli O157:H7 in romaine lettuce spurred me to pull up an old draft, trim it and post it in an attempt to promote public health. Enjoy. 

In the Spring…
Continue Reading Vinegar can help home cooks battle bacteria on leafy greens

Slaughter practices more significant than poultry line speeds

By Carl Custer on January 15, 2018

Editor’s note: This opinion column offers a differing view from that presented by guest columnist Brian Ronholm in “Eschewing obfuscation on poultry slaughter line speed.” 

Poultry slaughter would flunk HACCP 101. The primary…
Continue Reading Slaughter practices more significant than poultry line speeds

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Letter from the Editor: An independent food safety board is far better than anything FDA Commissioner does on his own

By Dan Flynn on January 29, 2023

Publisher’s Platform: Putting the F — Food — back into the FDA

By Bill Marler on January 27, 2023

30 years of food safety standouts

By Guest Opinion on January 26, 2023
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