Subject: Food Safety

• FDA about to get "smack-down" power

  After the peanut recall, the spinach recall and the swine flu, it looks as if members of Congress are finally serious about overhauling the FDA. The Food Safety Enhancement Act of 2009, introduced by powerful Congressmen Henry Waxman and John Dingell, would fix many of the problems that have plagued the agency for the past eight years. Among other things, the bill would give the FDA more quarantine power to prevent food from traveling across geographic areas, a problem in the peanut butter salm

  June 1, 2009

• Breakfast Buffet: Tuesday, 9/30

  September 30, 2008

• FDA assures public it's almost, nearly, pretty sure salmonella caused by peanut butter

  The FDA botched the last big outbreak of salmonella when it issued a huge warning to avoid tomatoes based on the fact that people who'd eaten salsa were getting sick. Turns out salsa was indeed making people sick -- but that's because the jalapenos in it were alive with the salmonella bacteria, not tomatoes. The tomato industry was nearly crippled and people continued to get sick off of jalapenos. The FDA is well on its way to messing up another food supply with this latest salmonella outbreak i

  January 16, 2009

• Don't touch that peanut butter cracker!

    Until yesterday, I had never even thought of calling the Kellogg Consumer Response Center (but in case you do, it's 888-314-2060). But two days ago, that Michigan-based Kellogg's announced it was "taking the precautionary measure" of putting a hold on some of its best-selling snack crackers: those cellophane-wrapped Austin brand and Keebler brand Toasted Peanut Butter Sandwich Crackers, Peanut Butter and Jelly Crackers, Cheese and Peanut Butter Crackers, and Peanut Butter-Chocola

  January 16, 2009

• Barf and then feel better

  As much as peanut butter and salmonella and the FDA and food poisoning have been in the news, you would think I'd have known that the eminent food-safety blog in the country is based about an hour from Kansas City in Manhattan, Kansas. Barf Blog is run by a Kansas State associate professor of food safety named Dr. Douglas Powell. Of course, it makes sense that Kansas State has an excellent food safety blog, because it is home to the equally excellent and influential International Food Safety Net

  January 27, 2009

• Three Dog's treats are safe

  Barf Blog has a post about an elderly Georgian dog (Ozzie) being one of the salmonella outbreak's casualties. While the owner believes the bacteria was passed from peanut butter crackers meant for humans, plenty of doggie treats use peanut butter as an ingredient. The FDA says throw this dog food away. "Product recalls now include some pet food products that contain peanut paste that was made by [Peanut Corporation of America] PCA. While the risk of animals contracting salmonellosis is minimal,

  January 28, 2009

• Salmonella scare at local schools

  Flickr: WhizchickenonbaumLast night, parents with children in Shawnee Mission high schools received a scary phone call. Principals left a recorded message saying their schools had received a possibly salmonella-tainted product from one of its suppliers, US Food Services.As soon as the schools received word, they threw away all of their Wells' Blue Bunny Nutty Sunday ice cream cones, which had never been distributed as part of normal lunches but were only served in the cafeteria's lunch a la cart

  February 24, 2009

• The newest nut crisis: pistachio panic?

  Flickr: Lolo_ Many radio and TV broadcasts this morning led with this story: a major recall of roasted pistachios because of fears of potential salmonella contimation. The good news: No illnesses have been reported, thus far, due to a reported salmonella strain discovered during routine tests by Kraft at a California food processing plant. But the peanut crisis, earlier this year, has food manufacturers going nuts over the possibility of potential lawsuits. The tainted peanut problem that

  March 31, 2009

• A big helping of worry at the dinner table

  This excellent story in today's New York Times poses a thought-provoking question: Is it becoming more dangerous to eat? America supposedly has one of the safest food supplies in the world, yet NYT writers Andrew Martin and Gardiner Harris point out that in the past few weeks, a college coed in Washington State "became gravely ill after eating a salad in her school cafeteria." An Ohio man became temporarily paralyzed after eating chili dogs and -- more terrifying -- a California woman spent

  May 11, 2009

• Canada the great hope of food safety?

  Canada has more than just draft-dodgers and affordable health care. It has a food regulation system that works better than ours. That's according to Campbell Soup CEO Doug Conant, a Jersey native. In a speech he gave at the Canadian Embassy in Washington D.C., Conant said the Canadian Food Inspection Agency is more efficient than similar agencies in the United States. The FDA is in charge of most food safety issues but the USDA also plays a role, mostly with meats. Because the two agencies are s

  June 11, 2009

• Is IBM the future of food safety and management?

  We've heard a lot of debate about free markets in this country lately. And while we're likely to be saturated with government-vs.-market arguments about health-care reform, IBM is quietly starting another free market battle of its own.The company has been running "smarter planet" advertisements for several months, talking about smarter cities, smarter retail, smarter this and smarter that. The oversimplified gist is that IBM has the ability and technology to solve (or help solve) problems normal

  June 29, 2009

• Considering the safety of free-range eggs

  ​Given the current move to vilify the food industry and growing concerns about food safety, we here at Fat City are glad that, when we need the truth, we can count on the BarfBlog.Kansas State University professor Doug Powell and other BarfBloggers from the world of food safety and public health break down news stories and new findings in an effort to determine how to keep us safe from the food we eat. Their (sometimes gross) revelations are usually designed to debunk the latest fads in favor

  July 29, 2009

• Green onion recall

  ​Another week, another produce recall. Iceless green onions have been voluntarily recalled by two California-based produce shipping companies after testing positive for traces of salmonella during a routine U.S. Department of Agriculture test. Both Steinbeck Country Produce and Ocean Mist Farms have recalled specific product lots that originated with an onion farm in Mexicali, Mexico, and were supplied by Circle Produce in Calexico, California. Steinbeck, which recalled 3,360 cartons, distribu

  September 10, 2009

• A closer look at beef inspection

  ​Ground beef is one of the few foods that can make me uneasy because I can't divorce the delicious joy of eating burgers from the very real fear of E.Coli contamination. While the odds suggest that a severe infection or death are highly unlikely, our current food safety system makes me weigh the benefits and risks in the same way I'd check to see whether a bungee cord operator really cares about whether I'm strapped in tightly.  This results in a binge-dieting-like approach to burger cons

  October 6, 2009

• Foods that are like roulette

  ​We rank everything else, so why not the riskiest foods? The Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) has ranked the top 10 foods that carry food-borne illnesses, as reported by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. The list focuses on seafood, eggs, dairy and produce -- the four categories of food regulated by the FDA. Meat, monitored by the United States Department of Agriculture, is not included among the riskiest foods. CSPI stressed the study was not designed to condemn

  October 8, 2009

• Keeping your take-out food safe

  ​Since we're tackling food labels today, it seems apropos that the Barf Blog again raises the issue of proper food safety stickers on take-out containers. The stickers could be designed with information on when a prepared food was packaged and the proper guidelines for storing, heating and consuming. SuperMarket Guru believes that food safety labels could give supermarkets a competitive advantage, but could also be used to make people aware of potential food allergies.   Based on how tak

  October 26, 2009