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

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

rare.hamburgerBefore 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