As the result of political and economic pressures, FDA will likely not have the resources it needs to carry out its responsibilities under the FSMA. What this means is that more responsibility will be placed on the food industry to self-govern. The various industry initiatives will need to expand to make up the difference.
Some of…
Third party audits of produce are relatively new phenomena. Fueled primarily by the retail sector’s demands for safe year-round supplies of fresh fruits and vegetables, there is a serious industry-led effort underway to evaluate primary production and the resulting supply chain.
While the third party audit model has some similarities with regulatory inspections, there are …
Being an avid reader and researcher of all things food safe, I cannot help but notice a trend. The pattern of reported large scale multi-state outbreaks every few weeks or months seems to be changing to a pattern of small scale but almost daily outbreaks at the local level.
Coincidentally there seems to be a shift from …
Se Bill Marler’s blog, where one of his clients in the DeFusco Bakery Salmonella crises in Rhode Island tells it like it is on TV.
http://www.marlerblog.com/legal-cases/the-civil-justice-system-and-the-media-in-action/
Thankfully, we have a functioning tort system in the US. It stands in the gap for the decrepit and often ineffective regulation of facilities by our disconnected health authorities. While this…
As a person ages, one tends to think about how their life’s work will be evaluated by future generations. Most people would want to be remembered for some accomplishment and hope that in the future, mistakes they made along the way will be forgotten.
For some, however, whatever they may have accomplished in life will be overshadowed by some spectacular…
Cantaloupes are again the vehicle for Salmonella. Such instances should be closely investigated to determine the root cause. Typical contamination sources in growing cantaloupes would include irrigation, run off, human waste, animal intrusion and infected workers.
The problem of contamination and potential growth of bacteria on melons is a difficult one. Normally, with a product that can…
Join me here as I go deep inside a food safety reporter’s home and kitchen and uncover the lurking, ever present microbes. Wendy Ryan and Tampa Bay’s Channel 9 really made this entertaining and educational, tough to do, we can take a few tips from these media/communication masters.
The hazaelnut outbreak may spur FDA to move in its new powers.
Here we see the packinghouse that packed the hazelnuts refusing to cooperate with officials after nuts it shipped sickend several people with E coli O157:H7. (Note the very soiled hands in this picture this would not be an acceptable level of cleanliness for a
A Boston.com site discusses a recent effort to make raw milk more available.
Bad idea. Its not that raw milk sanitation cannot be improved but to make it perfectly safe is probably not possible without pasteurization.
See Why to Pasteurize