Once again, San Francisco is poised to become the first city in the nation to take a legislative stand on a controversial topic. Its Board of Supervisors is set to vote tomorrow on an ordinance to require disclosure about the use of antibiotics by meat and poultry producers.
The proposed ordinance does not, however, require…
On Saturday, Oct. 10, 2015, California Gov. Jerry Brown signed Senate Bill 27, which will make the Golden State the first in the nation to require a veterinarian’s prescription for therapeutic antibiotic uses in livestock, ban other uses (including low-dosage levels used to prevent diseases), and require that data be collected on antibiotic use.…
Last week, officials at Subway said that the fast-food chain plans to switch to chicken raised without antibiotics by next year, but antibiotic preservationists are frustrated by the lack of details from the company. The Natural Resources Defense Council, Keep Antibiotics Working, U.S. PIRG, Center for Food Safety, Food Animals Concern Trust, Consumers Union and…
A 38-page petition was filed Wednesday with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) calling for a total ban on eight synthetic flavorings that may currently be used in minute amounts in baked goods, candy and ice cream. Petition sponsors say the substances have been known to cause cancer in lab animals and should be…
Last year, the Food and Drug Administration agreed to finalized its rule for the process of determining food substances as “generally recognized as safe” (GRAS). Now, a coalition of consumer advocacy groups has submitted an 80-page regulatory comment to the agency requesting that FDA make changes to the rule before it becomes final. FDA’s 1997 …
Fast-food giant McDonald’s announced Wednesday that, within two years, all of the chicken served at its 14,000 U.S. restaurants will come from farms which raised the birds without medically important antibiotics. The move could help limit the overuse of antibiotics in agriculture which contributes to an increase in antibiotic-resistant bugs that sicken humans. “Our customers…
Food Safety News wrote a lot about antibiotic resistance this year — particularly the debate surrounding the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) plan to phase out the use of certain antibiotics in food animals, introduced in December 2013, and conversations sparked by the 16-month outbreak of multi-drug-resistant Salmonella Heidelberg linked to Foster Farms-brand chicken that…
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has agreed to finalize its rule for the process of determining food substances as “generally recognized as safe” (GRAS). The decision is part of a settlement agreement with the Center for Food Safety (CFS), which sued the agency last February, seeking to vacate FDA’s 1997 proposed rule…
Nine consumer and environmental health groups petitioned the Food and Drug Administration this week seeking a ban on the use of certain chemicals in food packaging. The petitions target perchlorate, which is added to sealing gaskets for food containers and to reduce static in dry food packaging, and a family of chemicals known as long-chain…
Last week, the Pesticide Action Network North America (PANNA) and the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) sued the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), asking the court to ban chlorpyrifos, an insecticide that can interfere with the brain development of fetuses, infants and children. Chlorpyrifos can cause nausea, dizziness and confusion, and, at very high exposures,…
