When it comes to food safety transparency, how much company information can you pry out of government agencies by using the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA)? On Wednesday, a panel of judges from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in San Francisco will hear arguments on both sides of that question in…
FDA Enlists NC State to Chart Transmission Routes for Salmonella
A plan to chart the routes of transmission for Salmonella species is the reason for a new cooperative agreement between the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and North Carolina State University (NC State). 
Beginning in September, FDA’s Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition (CFSAN) will begin working with NC State’s Prestage Department of…
FDA Puts Out First Egg Guidance Since 2009 Egg Safety Rule
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued new guidance Monday to help clarify its 2009 egg rule, which outlined steps egg producers must take in order to reduce Salmonella Enteritidis in shell eggs. FDA uses guidance documents to share its “current thinking” on how to best comply with its food safety regulations. This is the…
FDA Publishes Final Guidance for New Egg Rule
The Food and Drug Administration has published the final guidance to help egg producers comply with the new FDA egg safety rule.
The “Guidance for Industry: Prevention of Salmonella Enteritidis in Shell Eggs During Production, Storage, and Transportation” was initially published as draft for comment on August 12, 2010 — just days before the nationwide …
Top Food Safety Stories of 2011: No. 6
Although the government has a new priority of reducing Salmonella Enteritidis (SE), inspectors are still finding unsanitary conditions at big egg farms, which made egg regulations 2011’s 6th most important food safety story.
A year after nearly 2,000 SE infections were linked to Iowa eggs and a half billion table eggs were recalled, some of …
FDA Enlists States to Finish Egg Rule Inspections
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is going to require a big finish, but it apparently remains on target to complete new egg rule inspections of all 517 American egg producers with 50,000 or more laying hens by Dec. 31.
In a recently released summary of its progress, FDA disclosed that it has more …
Salmonella Lurks From Farm to Fork: Part 1
Two-tenths of a penny per dozen. That’s what it costs Pennsylvania farmers to make eggs safer. By disinfecting henhouses, trapping rodents and regularly testing for harmful bacteria, the state’s egg farmers have cut the presence of Salmonella by more than half.
But egg producers in much of the rest of the country haven’t followed suit. …
Egg Rule Violations Cost Sparboe its McDonald's Account
None of the 300 million dozen shell eggs produced annually by Sparboe Farms are being sold anymore under those Golden Arches. And Target stores began pulling Sparboe eggs from its store shelves late Friday.
Just before the ABC News Magazine 20/20 aired a segment Friday night on the alleged 13 food safety violations at Sparboe …
New Egg Rule Trips Up Minnesota Egg Producer
Another major egg producer is having trouble complying with the federal government’s new egg rule.
Forsman Farms, producer of Mae’s Eggs, in Cokato, MN, received an Aug. 30 warning letter from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) after its shell eggs were found to be adulterated, as defined by law, during an April 12-15, …
New Egg Rule Inspections Show Problems Persist
A year ago, the national media, spurred on by information from activists organizations, were quick to paint the recall of more than a half billion shell eggs as the work of just one man –agricultural business baron Jack DeCoster, who has had one regulatory run-in after another in the multiple states where he operates.
DeCoster …