(This article was originally posted here and is reposted with permission.) Few jobs are busier than being a food server during peak eating hours. And for many waiters and waitresses, the job includes more than just taking orders and delivering food. It also includes busing tables, taking money to the cashier, and some minor food…
USDA: U.S. Foodborne Illnesses Cost More Than $15.6 Billion Annually
New data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA’s) Economic Research Service attempt to put a price on the cost of major foodborne illnesses in the United States. 
Rather than interpreting the data, USDA’s economic unit has released spreadsheets for 15 major pathogens in the U.S. that are together responsible for more than 95 percent…
Denver Cracks Down on Food Safety Violations Among Edible Marijuana Manufacturers
If the overdosing and concentrations in Colorado’s edible marijuana foods don’t get you, maybe the pathogens will. In a sweep of the new marijuana food manufacturers, the Denver Department of Environmental Health has found 58 critical violations at 24 establishments. More than 50 of these edible businesses have opened statewide since recreational pot sales became…
NSF Lists 5 "Germiest" Items in the Kitchen
When people think of where germs lurk in the kitchen, the blender and can opener are not likely to be the first two places that come to mind. But these two cooking tools, along with the meat and vegetable trays in the refrigerator and rubber spatulas, top the list of the “germiest” items in the…
How Do Pathogens Get Into Produce?
Leafy greens, lettuce, cantaloupes, mangoes and strawberries. These are just some of the foods that have sickened or even killed people when they were contaminated with foodborne pathogens such as E. coli, Listeria and Salmonella. Amidst the confusing swirl of information about these and other produce outbreaks, the question arises: Were some of…
USDA, EPA Launch Tool to Better Assess Pathogen Risk
The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced today that they have jointly developed a new tool to help “improve the quality of data collected and used to protect consumers from pathogen-related risks in food and water.”
The Microbial Risk Assessment (MRA) Guideline will help…
Letter From The Editor: Movie Murders & Cantaloupe Deaths
By now there’s hardly a person on the planet that does not know the name of the Century 16 movie theaters in the hardscrabble city of Aurora, Colorado. It was there in the first minutes of Friday morning that 70 movie goers were shot, causing at least 12 deaths and 58 injuries among an audience…
USDA Makes Progress on Alternatives To Antibiotics
USDA scientists at College Station, TX have discovered that providing sodium chlorate in the drinking water or feed of livestock will reduce the intestinal concentrations of bacteria harmful to humans.
The research is significant because it may lead to alternatives to antibiotics in animal agriculture now used to reduce or eliminate disease-causing pathogens.
The findings …
Letter From The Editor: Blood
Big Fresh has the blood on its hands.
The big fruit and vegetable lobby managed to kill a little food safety program that cost this $3 trillion government a grand total of $5 million annually. Chump change.
Big Fresh meanwhile has its snout so far up the 2012 Farm Bill trough that it’s going to …
FDA Releases Second Edition of the ‘Bad Bug Book’
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition just published the second edition of the Bad Bug Book, which now includes a separate “consumer box” for each chapter to provide more non-technical explanations.
The book provides current information about the major known agents that cause foodborne illness, according to FDA. …