The Washington State Department of Agriculture is about to find out if appeasement works with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
In 2018 the FDA stopped sharing nonpublic information with the state department (WSDA), and a top state official says the action “had a significant negative impact” on food safety.
Continue Reading Exemptions added to state public disclosure act to get FDA to resume sharing information
The Food and Drug Administration found multiple sanitation issues during a 2016 inspection of the Caito Foods fresh produce facility that prepared pre-cut melon products currently implicated in a Salmonella outbreak.
According to the Indianapolis company’s website, Caito specializes in fresh produce distribution and fresh food processing, selling to to
Continue Reading Caito Foods sanitation problems extend back to at least 2016
Toxic levels of vitamin D in Hill’s Pet Nutrition (Hill’s) canned pet foods and Sunshine Mills (Sunshine) dry pet foods could have been prevented, had both companies followed their own food safety plans.
According to information obtained by Food Safety News in response to Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests,
Continue Reading Lax testing practices resulted in vitamin D overdoses in Hill’s and Sunshine Mills pet food
A class action lawsuit was filed May 1 in Northern California against Big Heart Pet Brands Inc. on behalf of consumers and businesses who bought pentobarbital-contaminated dog food manufactured by the company.
Big Heart is owned by the J.M. Smucker Co.
The lawsuit, referred to as a master consolidated complaint,
Continue Reading Consumers’ cases against Gravy Train maker consolidated
Stockholders’ attorneys say Chipotle Mexican Grill and federal officials knew about multiple foodborne illness outbreaks linked to the restaurant chain in 2014-15, but did not inform the public.
Using Freedom of Information Act requests, the attorneys representing the Chipotle stockholders pressed the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for details
Continue Reading Chipotle stockholders’ suit says company, CDC kept secrets
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
Before the federal Centers for Diseases Control and Prevention went public with the first announcement of a multistate outbreak of E. coli O157:H7, the boss let everyone working on foodborne diseases know there was one “notable thing” about the brewpub chain involved.
“Advance notification that ’tis the season again,” said
Continue Reading One more look at lessons unlearned in raw burger outbreak
Privacy was the winner in a Court of Appeals case a few days ago in the 8th U.S. Circuit with a unanimous ruling against the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. 
A three-judge panel ruled against EPA’s practice of collecting private information from farmers and ranchers and then turning it over to
Continue Reading Farmers and ranchers get their privacy back
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
Continue Reading Appeals Court Hears Arguments Tomorrow on Blocked Chicken Info
Internal emails from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) made public earlier this month tell some of the story behind the agency’s attempt to recall Foster Farms products linked to an outbreak of Salmonella Heidelberg in the months before it finally did so in July
Continue Reading FSIS Emails Reveal ‘Snapshot’ of Foster Farms Investigation
