Internal injuries from ingestion of wire grill-cleaning bristles are well documented. In a single hospital system, 12 patients with injuries due to ingestion of wire bristles were reported between July 2009 and June 2012. The severity of injury ranged from puncture of the soft tissues of the neck, causing severe pain on swallowing, to perforation…
Publisher’s Platform: Will Whole Genome Sequencing Solve More Outbreaks?
“No illnesses have been reported to date.” How many times have we read a food recall notice posted on either the FDA or FSIS websites and written by the companies recalling the product who use that self-serving statement? I would say most of the time. In the past few months the CDC has reported three…
Publisher's Platform: It is Time for a Sarbanes-Oxley Act for Food Safety
Food safety programs are the crazy uncles of corporate food production – everyone has one, but no one really wants to talk about it.
Corporate management on average is far more interested in sales and profits and would just as soon ignore those people who talk incessantly about a “culture of food safety,” or “food…
Publisher's Platform: Townsend Farms Class Letter
I know lawyers suffer from an image problem. Most people think we spend our weekend on fancy golf courses or driving jet boats around tropical isles. I actually like driving jet boats at high speed. I had one once. But I don’t have any time anymore, especially in the aftermath of each of these continued…
Publisher's Platform: McDonald's and E. coli, 30 Years Later
A few weeks ago I was giving a talk at the Association of Health Care Journalists conference in Boston. My talk was primarily an overview of where food safety has come since the Jack in the Box E. coli O157:H7 outbreak in 1993. At one point I introduced an article I found in 1993 at…
Publisher’s Platform: Perhaps No Need for Private A.G?
This is somewhat of a reprint of an Op-ed of a few years ago. However, in light of this week’s 76-count indictment of Stewart Parnell and four others, I thought a reprint was in order. Everyone seems to hate government nowadays. From being afraid the FDA “food police” will try to steal your seeds, to…
Publisher’s Platform: All About Hepatitis A
In a continuing effort to keep current on those bugs that are bad for us, we have updated www.about-hepatitis.com.
Exposure to the hepatitis A virus can cause an acute infection of the liver that is typically mild and resolves on its own. The symptoms and duration of illness vary a great deal, with many…
Publisher’s Platform: Tracking Cantaloupe Outbreaks
The Outbreak Database has come in handy to track just how often cantaloupes – and other foods – have caused problems. Here is a sample platter of outbreaks linked to cantaloupe with links to citations:
Marler Clark is proud to sponsor both the Outbreak Database and underwrite Food Safety News.
Publisher’s Platform: Ode to the Microbiological Data Program
I was going to take a weekend off from Publisher’s Platform. It has been a long couple of weeks of long days, and more than a few late nights, working on putting the cases together of the 22 injured people and the families of 20 who died in the 2011 Listeria cantaloupe outbreak that I…
Publisher’s Platform: MMWR – Food for Thought
Several years ago I started following the CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR). It used to come weekly in the mail (perhaps it still does), but it is a bit easier to see it online and it can be quickly downloaded. Given my profession, I tend to quickly pass over some…