Most people think of foodborne illness outbreaks as spanning a few days or weeks. But, with current technology, disease detectives can find patients of a single outbreak spread across several years and multiple states.
That is the case with an ongoing outbreak of Listeria illnesses linked to fresh peaches that
Continue Reading High technology is the key to detecting foodborne outbreaks over space and time
Researchers from North Carolina State University have recently conducted a study revealing the safety of sucralose. Sucralose is marketed under the brand name Splenda and is the nation’s leading sugar substitute. It is also added to many products and identified as Sucralose on product labels.
The study, published in the
Continue Reading New study raises concerns about safety of commonly used artificial sweetener
No cows needed for this milk. But we’re not taking about products such as almond milk or soy milk. We’re talking about actual milk complete with dairy proteins. But not a cow in sight.
How could this be?
No easy accomplishment for sure. It’s taken 15 years of research at
Continue Reading Cow-free proteins signal possible new day for dairy
With its stock price in the toilet, its fourth-quarter earnings dwindling, and more of its customers becoming outbreak victims, Chipotle Mexican Grill decided last week was a good time to announce a new food safety initiative. Believe it or not, there is precedent for that. Today is not as dire
Continue Reading Letter From the Editor: Mansour to the Rescue
The former USDA Undersecretary for Food Safety, Dr. Richard Raymond, lives just down the road a piece. He’s always good for pointing out something we’ve missed, or setting us straight, or both. He recently called out the latest Food Demand Survey conducted by Food and Agriculture Economist Jayson Lusk at
Continue Reading Letter From the Editor: Ban Deoxyribonucleic Acid and Dihydrogen Monoxide?
A common disclaimer supplied by public health officials while in the midst of a foodborne illness outbreak investigation goes something like this: “We’re doing our best to find the food source of the outbreak, but it’s important to remember that the majority of outbreaks are never traced back to a
Continue Reading Whole-Genome Technology Solving More Outbreak Investigations
It sounds like something straight out of agricultural science fiction: a liquid solution containing unique bits of DNA that gets sprayed on foods in order to easily identify information about where it came from and how it was produced in the event of an outbreak or recall. DNATrek, a Bay
Continue Reading DNA Spray-On Technology Could Revolutionize Food Traceability
If the world’s food safety scientists act now, they have the opportunity to create a global network of microbial data that will dramatically improve the ability to track and combat disease outbreaks of all sorts, including foodborne illness outbreaks, significantly tackling the spread of disease worldwide. That was the argument
Continue Reading Global Microbe Genome Database Represents ‘Some Exciting Science’
A Salmonella detection technique developed by Minnesota-based conglomerate 3M has been determined to be as effective or more effective than standard methods of detecting Salmonella in seafood and vegetable products, and in environmental samples taken from food processing sites, the Paris-based AFNOR CERTIFICATION expert committee has found. This follows AFNOR
Continue Reading 3M Salmonella Detection Gains Worldwide Certification
Agricultural ministers meeting in Brussels this week agreed that criminal activity stretching across the European continent is behind the horsemeat scandal. In response, they’ve called for still more DNA testing of the continent’s meat and meat products. The accompanying infographic provided by the Australian Food Safety Institute shows the
Continue Reading Infographic Shows Horsemeat Stats, Scandal Timeline
