poultry
Cereal, baked goods prices flat in 2014, pork to ease in ’15
Prices for cereal, flour and bakery items will finish the year unchanged from 2013, an indirect effect of record wheat crops worldwide, according to government forecasts, and pork prices will fall by 15 percent in the new year after soaring this year. "Many items in the center aisles of grocery stores/supermarkets have seen lower than average inflation or even deflation year-over-year," said USDA in its food price report.
Hong Kong bans poultry meat from Oregon county
Food safety officials in Hong Kong banned imports of poultry meat and products from Douglas County, Oregon, where avian influenza was found in a backyard poultry flock, said Xinhua.
Bird flu found in second state in Pacific Northwest
The highly pathogenic H5N8 avian influenza virus was confirmed in a backyard poultry flock in Winston, Oregon, said USDA in a "stakeholder announcement."
Canada quarantines four poultry farms for bird flu
Four turkey and chicken farms in the Fraser Valley east of Vancouver, British Columbia, are under quarantine for avian influenza, says the Toronto Globe and Mail.
Bird flu confirmed in more countries
Along with discovery of two strains of avian influenza in Washington state, bird flu was reported for the first time in Italy this week, says the ThePoultrySite.com.
Bird flu in Europe is significant threat to poultry industry
The new H5N8 avian influenza confirmed in Germany, the Netherlands and Britain "poses a significant threat to the poultry sector, especially in low-resourced counties situated along the Black Sea and East Atlantic migratory routes for wild birds", said two...
Bird flu confirmed in England and Netherlands
The first case of avian influenza in England in six years was confirmed on a duck farm in Yorkshire, authorities said, a day after a highly contagious strain of bird flu was discovered at a poultry farm in the Netherlands, said the BBC.
Four Chinese poultry plants approved to ship to US
USDA said it certified four processing plants in China's Shandong Province to cook and ship poultry meat to U.S. customers, the latest step in a decade-old proposal.
Don’t let “ridiculously large” chickens get your goats
Broiler chickens, destined for the dinner table, are four times bigger than half a century ago, says Vox, which summarizes a paper in Poultry Science with the headline "Chickens have gotten ridiculously large since the 1950s."
CSPI petitions to classify salmonella as meat adulterant
The consumer group Center for Science in the Public Interest re-filed a petition that calls for USDA to classify four strains of antibiotic-resistant salmonella bacteria as a food adulterant.
Poultry firms use more antibiotics in feed than thought
After examining feed tickets for five major poultry companies, Reuters says U.S. poultry producers "are administering antibiotics to their flocks far more pervasively than regulators realize, posing a potential risk to human health." The FDA launched an initiative last year to end the practice of mixing small amount of antibiotics into livestock rations to encourage food animals to gain weight.
Consumer group sues to block USDA poultry plan
The consumer group Food and Water Watch filed suit in federal court to stop USDA from implementing new poultry inspection rules. USDA says the new rules will modernize inspection and let meat inspectors spend more time looking for and preventing microbial contamination of meat. Food and Water Watch says the plan, which allows plants to run slaughter lines are higher speeds, abdicates USDA's responsibility to identify meat that is not wholesome.
U.S. poultry meat may feel Russia counter-sanction
Russian President Putin says his country should retaliate against economic sanctions imposed by the West in the crisis over Ukraine, steps that could affect...
USDA revamps poultry inspection, consumer groups cry foul
The government revamped its poultry inspection system so USDA inspectors devote more time to preventing pathogen contamination of meat while processors have more responsibliity for finding quality defects.
Appeals Court upholds country-of-origin meal labels
A U.S. appeals court upheld USDA rules that require cuts of beef, pork and poultry to carry labels listing where the meat was born, raised and slaughtered, says the AP. Meatpackers challenged the 2013 regulation as a violation of free speech. The meat industry says the labels are bookkeeping headache and drive up costs.
Beef has 10 times environmental impact as pork or poultry
Research into the grain, water and other material needed to produce food says that eating beef is 10 times more costly to the environment as other food derived from animals, such as pork or poultry, says the Weizmann Institute of Science, based in Israel. "Cattle require on average 28 times more land and 11 times more irrigation water, are responsible for releasing 5 times more greenhouse gases, and consume 6 times as much nitrogen, as eggs or poultry," says the Institute in a statement.
US food price increase steady at 3 pct
In a monthly update, the Agriculture Department stuck to its forecast of a 3 pct annual increase in food prices this year.
Foes get second chance at COOL in US appeals court
A federal appeals court says it will hear arguments on May 19 before the court's full panel of judges in a challenge by the meat industry to U.S. meat-labeling rules, says Canadian Press.
Reports of three new human cases of bird flu include California child
Arizona health officials said two workers employed at poultry farms have recovered from mild cases of bird flu while the public health agency in Marin County, north of San Francisco, said it was investigating a possible bird flu infection of a child. If confirmed by the CDC, the U.S. total for bird flu infections would rise to 61 people in eight states this year.