Political ramifications are coming in from two events in the past week involving the meat industry.
The first event was a July 12 forum sponsored by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration on issues surrounding the cultured meat grown from in vitro animals cell culture.
A big newsmaker at that event was Dr. Michael Hansen,…
Consumer Reports, published by the 7 million-member nonprofit Consumers Union, last week reported on survey results showing the public expects laboratory-produced meat from cultured animal cells to be clearly labeled. The results show the public favors different language that those pushing the new products.
“By an overwhelming margin, our survey found that consumers want clear…
There’s no indication yet that anyone is the least bit embarrassed about the failure to yet identify the precise source of an E. coli O157: H7 outbreak involving at least 32 states and four Canadian provinces. But nine consumer and food safety groups have stepped forward to demand that FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb add regulations…
The USDA is today publishing a notice in the Federal Register to further delay and reconsider new mandates for handling and transporting livestock and providing avian “living conditions” for poultry raised as organic food.
Without the action, the new requirements under the National Organic Program would have taken effect today. Meat and poultry products labeled…
Each side has just the congressional recess left to practice its hyperbole for the coming Senate fight over how regulations will be used across government. It’s going to get nasty. And confusing. The practice of giving the other side’s bill a dirty name is now a common tactic.
Since the Regulatory Accountability Act passed the…
Enough went into the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) to make the food industry queasy, but the new law’s limited reliance on third-party auditors is still enough to make consumer advocates feel about the same way — at least for a while. The FSMA’s final rule on Accredited Third-Party Certification means the private auditors that…
Seven well-known consumer groups acting together as the Safe Food Coalition are petitioning USDA’s Food Safety and inspection Service for a revised safe handling instruction label for meat, poultry and catfish. The petition calls upon FSIS to continue to require that labels include information about the potential risk of pathogenic contamination in USDA-regulated meat and…
Only Chipotle and Panera get an A grade on antibiotics policies and sourcing practices, and most other fast food chains fail, according to a report by the Friends of the Earth, Natural Resources Defense Council, Keep Antibiotics Working, Consumers Union, Center for Food Safety, and Food Animal Concerns Trust. Chick-fil-a gets a B, while Dunkin’…
Despite decades of efforts to control contamination rates, Salmonella has long been the most common illness-causing bacteria in food, and it remains the leading cause of death and hospitalization from foodborne illness in the U.S. Today, Salmonella is still one of the top food safety concerns for the food industry, government regulators, and consumer advocates,…
If food safety put catfish under USDA inspection, can shrimp be far behind? That question is coming into focus this week after one of USDA’s top two food safety officials told a gathering of food policy wonks on Tuesday that the final rule for the agency’s takeover of catfish inspections is coming “a little into…
