Dr. Elisabeth Hagen left the USDA in December of 2013, leaving the position of the USDA’s Undersecretary for Food Safety vacant and President Obama chose not to fill it for the remainder of his term.
Trump got Ted McKinney in as the USDA’s Undersecretary for Agriculture Trade and Foreign
Continue Reading One heck of a way to run a government
Editor’s note: Since its inception a decade ago, commentary in the from of guest opinion-editorial, or Op-Ed, content has been an important part of Food Safety News. Hundreds of contributors have found a place in Food Safety News for their voice when they’ve had something important to say about
Continue Reading Re-visiting 2018 food safety Op-Eds
For those marking time, waiting for a new USDA Under Secretary for Food Safety, today is something of an anniversary. It was four years ago today that Dr. Elisabeth Hagen stepped down from the post.
The top food safety job in the federal government remains vacant.
Neither President Barack Obama
Continue Reading Letter from The Editor: The shameful vacancy at USDA
Editor’s note: This guest opinion column by Dr. Richard Raymond was originally publish on MeatingPlace.com and is republished here with permission.
The U.S. Codex Office is moving from USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) to USDA’s Trade and Foreign Affairs Office and that may not be such a good
Continue Reading Moving Codex out of FSIS will boost trade, not food safety
The Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) wants the Food and Drug Administration to release the names and locations of supermarkets and other retailers who sold papayas now subject to a nationwide recall because of a Salmonella outbreak.
But FDA won’t do it, even though another federal food
Continue Reading FDA faces appeal for failing to reveal retailers in papaya outbreak
One of the nation’s past top food safety officials might be named Secretary of Agriculture by President-elect Donald J. Trump.
Cuban-born Texan Professor Elsa Murano, who served as U.S. Under Secretary of Agriculture for Food Safety in the administration of President George W. Bush from 2001 to 2004, is a
Continue Reading Food safety expertise could trump ho-hum ag appointment
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?
In a recent Consumer Reports article entitled, “The high cost of cheap chicken,” CR stated, “our tests reveal that superbugs can be found in about half of the chicken we tested.” Consumer Reports is claiming that a bacterium resistant to three or more antibiotics is a “superbug,” but nothing could
Continue Reading Superbugs and Other Nonsense
In both 2011 and 2012, the National Institute for Animal Agriculture held symposia on antibiotic use in food animals that may have calmed the industry but did little to dial back the movement to strictly regulate animal drug use. For 2013, they are taking a new tack by inviting their
Continue Reading Animal Ag Group Wants to Talk Antibiotic Resistance
For most of the past decade, “downer” cattle were kept out of the food supply because of concern that most were older cows, which are thought to be more susceptible to disease, especially Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy, or Mad Cow Disease. That policy is spelled out in Food Safety and Inspection
Continue Reading Humane Society Getting Its Way on "Downed" Veal Calves
