food safety
For first time, FDA orders a food recall
The FDA ordered a mandatory recall of powdered kratom products manufactured by a Nevada company because salmonella bacteria were found in the herbal supplement, said the Washington Post.
The cattle farmer who became the newest U.S. senator
The Senate is in recess so it will be another week before cattle farmer Cindy Hyde-Smith, a veteran of state politics, formally succeeds Thad Cochran as U.S. senator from Mississippi. She already has a Republican challenger in the November special election to serve the final two years of Cochran's term, and had a get-acquainted meeting with top White House officials last week.
Report touts upside, refutes downside of hedgerows
A two-year study by University of California researchers says that hedgerows, the strips of vegetation along the edges of fields, take up so little space that they are not a shelter for rodents or a source of food-borne pathogens.
French dairy giant recalls 7,000 tons of baby formula
Lactalis, the biggest dairy company in France, has recalled over 7,000 tons of baby formula and powdered milk products across 80 countries, reports the New York Times. The recalls, which were implemented over the course of several weeks, amounted to one of the biggest such recalls in history. At least 38 children were sickened by salmonella found in the recalled products.
FDA, USDA pledge greater coordination on food safety
The leaders of the USDA and the FDA, which together oversee the U.S. food supply, signed a formal agreement at the White House to reduce regulatory overlap and improve the efficiency of the federal food safety system.
USDA will allow more poultry plants to run at faster line speeds
Poultry processors will soon be able to ask the USDA’s meat safety agency for permission to run slaughter lines at up to 175 birds per minute, an increase from the current limit of 140 birds.
There’s a lot of work to do at USDA during a shutdown
An estimated three-fourths of USDA employees would be furloughed in a federal shutdown, but officials said major activities will continue, such as food stamps, meat inspection and support for the NAFTA negotiations scheduled to resume on Tuesday. Over the weekend, Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue sent a series of 12 tweets, most of them illustrated with topical photos, that formed a comprehensive list of ongoing activities.
USDA proposes new inspection system for market hogs
In order to modernize its work at slaughter plants, the USDA proposed a new inspection program that allows "innovation and flexibility" at plants slaughtering young and generally healthy market hogs. The consumer group Food and Water Watch called the proposed New Swine Inspection Sytems an attempt to privatize meat inspection and to speed up line speeds.
USDA proposes rule to modernize food-safety systems at egg facilities
Under a new rule proposed by the USDA’s Food Safety & Inspection Service, facilities that process egg products will have to develop and implement “hazard analysis and critical control point (HACCP) systems” in an effort to modernize safety processes in the egg industry.
FDA sniffs at snortable chocolate
Nutrition professor and food author Marion Nestle says the FDA dropped the hammer on the promoters of “snortable Coco Loko ... cocoa powder infused with caffeine, ginkgo, taurine, and guarani.”
Brazil meatpacker believes U.S. will allow imports soon
The chief executive of a large Brazilian meatpacking company says the United States is expected to re-open its borders to fresh beef from Brazil in early 2018, reported Reuters. Shipments were shut off in June.
Researchers confirm that E. coli can lurk in raw flour
A well-known cause of food-borne illness is the E. coli bacteria, usually associated with moist foods, such as meat or bagged salad leaves. In solving a food illness mystery of 2016, researchers determined that Shiga-producing E. coil bacteria can survive in raw flour, an arid host, according to an article published in the New England Journal of Medicine.
‘Big Chicken’ shows government regulators were slow to act on ABX resistance
Antibiotic-resistant infections — everything from gastrointestinal illnesses to recurring urinary tract infections and staph — are among the most menacing issues in public health today, sickening 2 million people a year and killing at least 23,000, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. So perhaps it’s not surprising that government has begun to take steps to limit antibiotics in animal agriculture, where many of these infections arise, before they wreak further havoc in humans.
Brown vetoes bill to regulate meal-kit delivery companies
California Governor Jerry Brown vetoed a bill that would have required employees at meal-kit delivery companies, like Blue Apron, to obtain food-handler cards for dealing with unpackaged ingredients, reports the LA Times. The bill was sponsored by the companies’ competitors, including the California Grocers Assn. and United Food and Commercial Workers State Council.
Massachusetts bakery gets no love from FDA
In a letter released Tuesday, the FDA instructed the Nashoba Brook Bakery in West Concord, Mass., that it needed to remove "love" from the list of ingredients for its granola, Bloomberg reports. “Your Nashoba Granola label lists ingredient ‘Love,’” the agency wrote in the letter, which was dated Sept. 22. “‘Love’ is not a common or usual name of an ingredient, and is considered to be intervening material because it is not part of the common or usual name of the ingredient.”
Critics say Perdue putting trade ahead of food safety
Farm groups applauded when Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue changed USDA's organizational tree to create the post of undersecretary for trade. Now, Perdue is hearing complaints about his decision to give the undersecretary control over the Codex Alimentarius office — Latin for "Food Code" — that speaks for the United States in setting international food safety rules, says Politico.
San Francisco grocers may have to disclose antibiotics used in meats they sell
The San Francisco Board of Supervisors is expected to vote next Tuesday on an ordinance that would require large grocers in the city to report on antibiotics used in producing the meat they sell, says the San Francisco Examiner. The information would be made public in an effort “to use the power of the consumer to force marketplace change.”
Brazil beef exports rebound after scandal; U.S. reopening at hand?
The return to fast-paced beef exports indicates that Brazil’s cattle producers and meatpackers may avoid lasting damage from the bribery scandal that rocked the country early this year, said Agrimoney. It cited an estimate by the U.S. agricultural attache in Brasilia that the country would export 1.91 million tonnes of beef in 2018, the fourth year in a row of larger shipments.
Trump picks Kennedy, vaccine skeptic, for health secretary
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. will head the Department of Health and Human Services in the new administration, said President-elect Donald Trump on Thursday. “For too long, Americans have been crushed by the industrial food complex and drug companies who have engaged in deception, misinformation, and disinformation when it comes to public health,” said Trump in announcing the nomination.