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U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) this week announced the re-chartering of the National Advisory Committee on Microbiological Criteria for Foods (NACMCF) and named who exactly will be serving on the advisory committee. The committee provides recommendations to both Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack and Secretary of Health Kathleen Sebelius, who…
Letter From The Editor: New Years Resolutions
I wrote a few imaginary New Year’s resolutions for some of our newsmakers that we haven’t gotten around to publishing until now. As the great Willie Nelson would say: “Funny how time slips away.”
Truth be told, some of my colleagues thought I was being too harsh on the government this year. I don’t think…
Obama Re-election Does Not Mean Everyone Is Staying for a Second Term
Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack Tuesday saw his boss re-elected as President of the United States, but his wife defeated in her run for Congress. What does that mean for Vilsack, the former governor of Iowa? When asked about his future before the election, Vilsack reportedly responded by saying, “I love my job.” But Washington D.C.…
Officials Unite on Food Safety Message
Key food safety officials at the U.S. Department of Agriculture and U.S. Department of Health and Human Services emphasized the need for stronger food safety laws last week before back to back food policy conferences in Washington, DC.
Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack, Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius, Commissioner of the U.S. …
The Seven Most Powerful In Federal Food Safety
When looking at a maze of federal agencies, be it the “intelligence community” or our nation’s food safety mechanism, it is easy to forget that it is the individuals that actually count. Multiple agencies housed across different departments are characteristics of both the intelligence and food safety bureaucracies. In every administration, however, there is only…