In an increasing era of transparency, the FDA, along with its food safety partners at the CDC and FSIS, have for the last several months been listing and announcing investigations of foodborne illness outbreaks – even if a source is not determined – and may never be found.
The
Continue Reading Publisher’s Platform: FDA is letting more sunshine in — outbreak table available
Every week I pore over the warning letters the Food and Drug Administration has sent to food firms. These letters are sent to food companies in the U.S. and companies importing into the U.S. They list violations based on findings from FDA inspections.
The recipients are given 15 days
Continue Reading Transparency is (redacted)
Federal officials today confirmed another E. coli outbreak that they had previously not revealed to the public. Specific details were not available from the CDC or the FDA, but at least four states have been reported with confirmed patients.
The most likely source of the E. coli O157:H7, reported by
Continue Reading Feds again withhold information about E. coli outbreak; restaurant chain implicated
Posting recall No. 23 for beef because of the risk of E. coli infections, Canadian officials continue to repeat vague information about the situation that now includes 875 individual products.
The Canadian Food Inspection Agency also continues to report that it has not received any information about confirmed illnesses in
Continue Reading ‘Industry’ recalls more mystery meat because of risk of E. coli
At the risk of beating this issue to death, I found yet another blog post I did several years ago on the issue of transparency in how public health deals with the public’s right to know.
Is there a good reason to keep a company’s name secret when it
Continue Reading Publisher’s Platform: My last ode for Transparency – at least for this weekend
A not so public public outbreak of E. coli infections linked to romaine lettuce sickened people in a dozen states from July through early September, but U.S. officials did not release any information about it until Halloween.
Both the FDA and CDC investigated the outbreak of infections from potentially deadly
Continue Reading FDA hid romaine-related outbreak from public view for more than 6 weeks
Canadian officials won’t release any information about an E. coli investigation involving beef despite the fact that more than 860 products have been recalled. The CFIA has warned five countries about the recalled meat.
The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) posted the first recall related to the investigation on Oct.
Continue Reading Canadian officials remain mum on details about beef investigation amidst 21st recall
Citing efforts to improve transparency and public access to information about approved antibiotics for animas, the Food and Drug Administration’s Center for Veterinary Medicine (CVM) has published certain medicated feed information, including information about Blue Bird labels, lists of licensed medicated feed mills, and Veterinary Feed Directive (VFD) distributors.
AnimalDrugs@FDA
Continue Reading FDA begins posting additional information about antibiotics for animals
The public doesn’t need to know which turkey plants have been found to be contaminated with a deadly strain of Salmonella that has infected people in 35 states, federal officials said yesterday in a strongly worded statement.
Also, organizations such as Consumer Reports and the Center for Science in the
Continue Reading USDA won’t name turkey plants, despite 164 illnesses and 1 death
The FDA has an opportunity now to update its recall disclosure policy to provide consumers critical information they need and want to protect themselves during an outbreak. The agency can, and should, begin routinely identifying which retailers and individual store locations sold recalled food. This information will motivate consumers who
Continue Reading FDA should choose public safety over corporate confidentiality
