— OPINION —
The Department of Government Efficiency has cut staff at the Food and Drug Administration, including employees in food safety roles.
Following the cuts, Deputy Commissioner for Human Foods Jim Jones resigned his post citing the cuts as being indiscriminate and endangering the lives of the American public.
Continue Reading Food safety leaders express concerns about recent cuts in FDA workforce
— OPINION —
For nearly a decade and a half, food safety advocates like me have recited CDC’s 2011 foodborne illness estimates: 3,000 deaths. 128,000 hospitalizations. 48 million illnesses (1 in every 6 Americans).
At long last, CDC has provided us with an update to these estimates, or they
Continue Reading A new foodborne illness benchmark, just in time for ‘shock and awe’
Maybe these aren’t mysteries but food science problems that will be quickly solved like all the others.
Or not.
The Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI) is a highly contagious disease and often deadly in poultry and now other animals.
It is all leaving behind the feeling of mystery.
In
Continue Reading Keeping another pandemic at bay is now the job of food science
— OPINION —
The spread of bird flu to dairy cows, along with the discovery of viral fragments in 20 percent of retail milk samples, has turned an outbreak that long vexed poultry farmers into a source of stress for consumers. The situation is fraught with uncertainty as researchers’
Continue Reading Avian flu: Time to rethink on-farm surveillance?
Eleven organizations that work closely with the Food and Drug Administration are asking bipartisan congressional leaders to work with them on “several pressing food safety issues this year.”
The eleven who’ve written congressional leaders include:
–Steven Mandernach, Executive Director, Association of Food and Drug Officials
–Donna Garren, Executive Vice President
— OPINION —
Today the public comment period will close on a USDA Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) rulemaking that, if all goes as planned, should increase the price of organic eggs. With food prices up 8.2 percent since September of last year, why would AMS do such a thing? And
Continue Reading Time for a new label on ‘organic’ eggs?
Four years ago, Thomas Gremillion of the Consumer Federation of America petitioned USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) on behalf of the Safe Food Coalition. The petition sought an FSIS rulemaking to revise the regulations that prescribe mandatory safe handling instruction (SHI) labeling for raw and partially cooked meat
– OPINION –
This past week, USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) announced that it will begin publishing genetic data on the pathogens that federal inspectors find in poultry slaughterhouses. The policy is long overdue. While a relatively modest reform, the disclosures will make the industry more accountable
Continue Reading An important step toward safer poultry
Editor’s note: Guest opinions columns and editorials or what we call “op-eds” are an important part of Food Safety News. Since we got our start more than a decade ago, we’ve published hundreds of such submissions. Many have been penned by the most influential people in food safety. We look
Continue Reading Food safety voices heard during 2019
In public policy, as in life, learning from past mistakes is a cardinal rule for success. That is why it was disappointing to see Thomas Gremillion from the Consumer Federation of America advocate for the reinstatement of mandatory country-of-origin labelling (MCOOL) for beef and pork in a recent guest opinion
Continue Reading Country-of-origin labeling has no place in NAFTA 2.0
