What we are seeing now in the latest peanut butter recall and the problem with hazelnuts is this continued change in illness patterns from animal derived foods, to plant derived foods. See Bill Marler’s blog on the topic.
The situation is fueled by increased consumption, scrutiny, better detection methods and more industry testing. Small…
I do not agree that one food safety agency is better. Such a behemoth will be bound by a morass of red tape. The agencies have evolved over the last 100 years, They have their own culture and hierarchy. The turbulence caused by any drastic change will hurt the public health mission of all the…
Schools are skipping out on thier responsibility to prepare food safety plans.
Under the Richard B. Russell School Lunch Act of 2004, all schools were to have HACCP plans in place years ago.
www.fns.usda.gov/cnd/governance/…Policy…/2005-01-10.pdf
Here below is a perfect example of why. Schools that do not have a monitoring system in place are in default…
While tomatoes were identified early as an outbreak vehicle, subsequent investigation revealed Serrano and jalapeno peppers as the common food item in later outbreaks. I agree with Dr. Acheson that the epidemiological association is only an approximation and there will be a potential for things to occur by chance alone and confounders, but the relationships…
I have now been involved in over 60 investigations of foodborne illness as an expert, on the sides of both plaintiffs and defendents, some reflections:
1. Most outbreaks that result in lawsuits have evidence of multiple major sanitation deficiencies
2. Most have pest problems as part of the documentation
3. Many have serious time and temperature issues
4.
Food safety auditing and inspection is a complex world thanks to the prevalence of food hazards and the repeated nature of outbreaks where some type of inspection or audit was a feature. As I spend about 40% of my time doing this type of work, I would like to spell out what I see as…
Doug Powell below writes in his Barfblog about the delay in CDC notifying the public about the source of the current SE outbreak in eggs. The CDC went public in mid August when apparently sufficent information existed in late July to implicate Iowa’s Wright Egg Farms.
Other outbreaks in the recent past had the same scenario, a…
The FDA is investigating a nationwide outbreak of Salmonella in shell eggs.
http://www.emergencyemail.org/newsemergency/anmviewer.asp?a=578&z=34&ref=fem
While many believe that contaminated water and feed and rodents are to blame, if you go further back into the causation you will find that the egg is contaminated because of the absence of salmonella pullorum in the gut of the chicken.…
Florida presses on its reckless path of destroying public health and continues its sinking spiral of deregulation. Here is another story about how political pressure by industry and lack of public outrage whittles away our safety net. All of this is occurring at a point in time where federal efforts are strengthening public health agencies to protect the food
…
8-4-10
An Open Letter to Carol B. Dover of the Florida Restaurant Association.
Dear Ms Dover:
In reply to your recent Tampa Tribune article
,http://www2.tbo.com/content/2010/aug/04/na-food-inspections-strong/
you failed to mention several important facts about your involvement in food safety and inspections in Florida. From an historical perspective, I have personally seen…