– 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 more information, or to comment on the docket, click here. Comments close on April 18.
Continue Reading FSIS: More testing not preventing
– OPINION –
The theater building at Texas A&M College had an inscription “Ignorance Is the Curse of God,. Knowledge Is the Wing Wherewith We Fly to Heaven.
Continue Reading Education, food safety and issues
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 Salmonella enterica. The sources include undercooked meat or poultry, cross contamination from raw meat or
Continue Reading The problem of salmonellosis and politics
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 to the powerful North American Meat Institute (NAMI).
Citing both the significance of the policy
Continue Reading Meat industry wants more comment time for ‘most significant policy change’ in decades
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 legal against the law. Bricher’s piece has generated a lot of comments.
Today I write
Continue Reading The petition perspective from one catbird seat
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 and could do more if tourists would stay home.
Ideally, the best place to eliminate
Continue Reading Salmonella and campylobacter performance standards a ‘good idea’ but . . .
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. This article will propose declaring the virulent strains that are pathogenic to humans as adulterants
Continue Reading Reality of our world: Money trumps altruism in the quest for safer poultry
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 this one: “Never such a massive recall on ground beef related to Salmonella,” “Not saying
Continue Reading Treating virulent strain of Salmonella as adulterant in largest beef recall in history
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 of 2017 while sprinkling balsamic vinegar over chopped romaine lettuce, I wondered if anyone had
Continue Reading Vinegar can help home cooks battle bacteria on leafy greens
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 hazards from raw poultry are the pathogens Salmonella and Campylobacter spp. FSIS visible poultry inspection
Continue Reading Slaughter practices more significant than poultry line speeds
