food safety

Ninety percent of tortillas tested by researchers from the National Autonomous University of Mexico contained traces of genetically modified corn, said the site Mexico News Daily. The lead researcher said the results were striking because “cultivation of genetically modified corn in open fields is not allowed in Mexico.”

As the Trump administration spars with North Korea with threats of nuclear attacks, Americans are turning to so-called prepper businesses to stock up on food, water, and other supplies, reports The New York Times. 

Where your yellowfin tuna was caught can dramatically change the level of pollutants in its flesh, say researchers at the University of San Diego’s Scripps Institute of Oceanography, after testing 117 yellowfin tuna from 12 locations in a first-of-its-kind global study.

The parent company of ABC paid $177 million to Beef Products Inc. to settle a defamation suit filed by the South Dakota meat processor over news stories aired in 2012, said CNN Money. A lawyer for BPI told CNN the settlement was larger than the figure listed by Walt Disney Co. in a quarterly earnings report, leading the network to say "the rest will presumably be covered by insurance."

The world's largest meat company, JBS, entwined in a corruption scandal in its home country of Brazil, hired as its global food security Al Almanza, who just retired as head of USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service. The Organization for Competitive Markets, which focuses on agricultural antitrust issues, called the hiring "the latest of the scandalous job swapping between government and the meat industry."

A study published in the journal Environmental Research Letters estimates that 139,000 square miles of cropland in or near urban areas rely heavily on untreated wastewater for irrigation, says Modern Farmer. That's far larger than a 2004 assessment that pegged the total at 77,200 square miles.

Nearly three weeks into a jury trial, ABC News and Beef Products Inc. reached a settlement on the meat processor’s suit seeking $1.9 billion in damages for reporting that referred to its “lean finely textured beef,” made from beef trimmings, as “pink slime.”

In less than four months, USDA inspectors rejected 1.9 million pounds of fresh beef from Brazil, a worrisome 11 percent of shipments from that country during that time. Now Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue has suspended all Brazilian beef imports, saying, “My first priority is to protect American consumers.”

Following the first shipments of U.S. beef to China in 14 years, the U.S. Dairy Export Council says the United States and China have signed a memorandum of understanding “on dairy trade assurances that will allow more exports from the United States.” At the same time, a consumer group said the United States should not allow China to ship poultry products to America.

Jury selection starts this week for a lawsuit filed by Dakota Dunes-based Beef Products Inc. in 2012 against ABC News and correspondent Jim Avila over “pink slime.” BPI is seeking $1 billion in defamation charges, claiming that ABC made its product — beef that has had the fat removed and then ammonia gas added to kill bacteria — seem unsafe to consume.

More and more states are allowing the sale of unpasteurized milk, a trend that raises public health concerns, according to research published in the CDC journal Emerging Infectious Diseases.

Ahead of the enforcement date for its catfish inspection program, USDA said it will inspect catfish plants once per shift rather than its original plan of having inspectors in the plant whenever it was in operation. In a Federal Register notice, USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service said catfish plants are more like processing plants than slaughterhouses, which by law cannot operate unless an inspector is present.

The vomitoxin fungus, which sickens livestock, is being found in corn sent to processors in the Midwest this spring, says Reuters. So far, discoveries are concentrated in Indiana, Wisconsin, Ohio, Iowa and parts of Michigan and the scope of the problem is not fully known.

President Trump will sign an executive order today for a government-wide review of regulations, policies and laws "that hinder economic growth in agriculture," said White House agriculture adviser Ray Starling. Ag groups typically regard USDA as their advocate in the federal government and generally say their problems come from other agencies, EPA most prominently.

A Commerce Department agency has authorized up to 20 permits for deep-water aquaculture in the Gulf of Mexico that eventually could double the finfish output of the gulf. Fish farming in the ocean would help satisfy the growing world appetite for seafood, but it also is a formidable challenge, writes Virginia Gewin. The story, produced in partnership with FERN, was published in Ensia.

Brazil's environmental regulator says that meatpacking giant JBS "for years knowingly bought cattle that were raised on illegally deforested land," says Reuters. JBS denied the allegation, which comes at the same time the Brazilian meat industry is reeling from a meat-inspection scandal.