Food Safety
Melamine has pervaded U.S. food system. It's added to fertilizer and accumulates in the farm fields. Last year, millions ate chicken that had been fed tainted gluten from China; Tyson Foods butchered hogs that had eaten tainted feed too. Meat was not recalled. China melamine scandal is opportunity for U.S. to pass fertilizer standards and to test for chemical.
By James E. McWilliams
The New York Times 2008-11-17 (entry)
Panel, in highly critical report, recommends that FDA redo its risk assessment of BPA, the leaching chemical in food can linings, hard plastic baby bottles. Favorable draft report used flawed methods and ignored evidence linking bisphenol A to cancer, diabetes, possibly brain development in infants, advisory board said.
By Annys Shin
The Washington Post 2008-10-28 (entry)
Congress must ensure that FDA has budget for transparent assessments of genetically engineered animal products. New standards, which require producers to show that inserted genes do not harm animal's health and that any food from genetically engineered animal is safe to eat, are far more rigorous than agency's current oversight of biotech crops and cloned animals.
The editors
The New York Times 2008-10-03 (entry)
American food supply is flawed but China's present is our past. Tainted milk scandal mirrors New York's in the mid 19th century, when up to 8,000 babies died each year. Large-scale adulteration requires fast-growing get-rich-quick economy coupled with regulatory vacuum. Scandals are symptomatic of a deep failure of politics.
By Bee Wilson
The New York Times 2008-09-30 (entry)
Attempt at black humor over listeriosis outbreak keeps health crisis an issue in Canada campaign. Political opponents, some relatives of victims want food safety official fired after he made joke about death by a 'thousand cold cuts.'
By Ian Austen
The New York Times 2008-09-19 (entry)
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Food safety becomes election issue after Canada's deadly listeria outbreak; Liberal Leader calls for resignation of agriculture minister. One issue is new rules requiring inspectors to spend more time going over records of tests and tasks at processing plants, which leaves too little time on physical inspections, union leader says. And: Meat slicing machines likely source of contamination (click 'See also').
By Bill Curry, Jane Taber and Rheal Seguin
The Globe and Mail (Canada) 2008-09-05 (entry)
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There's too much we don't know about what we eat, and food industry is largely to blame. After 9/11, food industry spent $2.6 million lobbying against stronger food safety rules that would have required source tracing. Bush administration backed business; this season, tomato growers alone lost $250 million so far in salmonella outbreak.
The editors
Reno Gazette-Journal (NV) 2008-07-28 (entry)
Salmonella outbreak suspected in salsa ingredients shows it's time to put existing technology to work, tracing foods from the fields to the dinner table. Congress must protect our food supply by linking traceability with mandatory recall authority in current globalization bill under consideration.
The editors
The Washington Post 2008-07-08 (entry)
Ancient food safety system endangers U.S., new report finds. Gaps include old laws, poor use of resources, and inconsistencies among agencies, leaving 76 million sick each year. Report recommends one food safety agency which would inspect foods throughout the entire food chain, update inspections as needed; establish standard practices for recall and penalties, and improve inspection of imported foods.
By Steven Reinberg
U.S. News & World Report 2008-04-30 (entry)
Despite bipartisan claims that America's food is the 'safest in the world,' other countries say the same, and USDA last year struggled with record number of e.coli-related recalls. Most foodborne illnesses go unreported, so government agencies must come up with estimates. The World Health Organization is studying the prevalence of food-borne illness worldwide, with results due in 2011.
By Philip Brasher
The Des Moines Register 2008-04-20 (entry)
To improve food safety, House panel wants all produce labels to show country of origin. It also wants food manufacturers to publicly identify origin of all ingredients. Lawmakers say all food facilities should be inspected once every four years; grocery industry lobbyist questions whether Congress should 'arbitrarily increase the price of food.'
By Kevin Freking
The Associated Press 2008-04-17 (entry)
Congressional subcommittee plans to compel Hallmark/Westland executive to testify about beef recall. If committee authorizes subpoena, Steve Mendell will be called to testify on Wednesday, March 12, at a hearing titled 'Regulatory failure: must Americans live with unsafe food?''
By Dena Bunis
The Orange County Register 2008-03-03 (entry)
Canada confirms case of mad cow disease; slaughterhouse executive skips congressional hearing on food safety. Hallmark/Westland beef recall continues. General Mills recalls 35,000 cases of Progresso Italian wedding soup; Nestlé Prepared Foods Co., recalls 49,000 cases of Hot Pockets sandwiches. Farmer John's, a Hormel subsidiary, will be recalling hot dogs and cotto salami.
By Jane Zhang, Janet Adamy and David Kesmodel
The Wall Street Journal (may require subscription) 2008-02-27 (entry)
Hallmark/Westland beef recall becomes flashpoint in debate over meat safety and quality of USDA school lunches. Lawmakers begin hearings this week. To show fitness for food supply, cows must walk up an inclined serpentine 90-foot chute before being killed, but video footage showed workers using electrical-shock devices, forklifts and high-pressure water hoses to make sick or injured cattle stand.
By David Kesmodel and Jane Zhang
The Wall Street Journal (may require subscription) 2008-02-25 (entry)
Representative Rosa DeLauro hopes that sustained public outcry over 'collapsed food safety system' will advance her Safe Food Act - legislation that would establish a new federal department for food safety, combining work of 15 current agencies into one. Others argue that a new bureaucracy isn't the answer; Congress should fund existing inspection programs.
By Jesse A. Hamilton
The Hartford Courant 2008-02-21 (entry)
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Food safety and agriculture promotion and/or sales are mutually exclusive goals; USDA should be stripped of food safety oversight, says lawmaker. Citing beef recall after cow-abuse video at slaughterhouse that supplied school lunch program, Rosa DeLauro, who chairs House panel that oversees USDA funding, calls for single food safety agency.
By Jacob Adelman
The Associated Press; Star-Telegram (TX) 2008-02-20 (entry)
Lawmakers, consumer advocates call for better meat inspection standards after largest meat recall in history. Critics say the failure points up problems with both food safety and animal welfare, as well as USDA's rigid and antiquated inspection system. Beef was recalled after Humane Society secretly filmed workers abusing sick cows at Hallmark/Westland slaughterhouse that supplies school lunch program.
By David Kesmodel, Lauren Etter and Jane Zhang
The Wall Street Journal (may require subscription) 2008-02-19 (entry)
Mad cow scare of 2003 sped development of a system for tracking U.S. livestock from birth to slaughter (plus vet trips and county fairs). But many resent heavy-handedness of states and USDA with "voluntary" program; family farmers complain that they must pay to track each cow while factory farms track herds; privacy advocates compare invasiveness to Big Brother.
By Nicole Gaouette
Los Angeles Times 2008-01-14 (entry)
With no clear source of 2006 e.coli outbreak in spinach, California's leafy greens farmers desperately seek guidance on providing clean produce. They are caught between food safety concerns and environmental sensitivity. Do they improve washing regimen? Erect barriers and destroy wildlife habitat? Or remove themselves from nearby cattle feedlots?
By Carl Nagin
California Coast & Ocean; San Francisco Chronicle 2007-08-23 (entry)
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The Bush administration, responsible for safety of our food, has instead spent years mollycoddling that industry. Now, as endless recalls erode trust at the grocery store, suspicion grows that agencies charged with our wellbeing have been whittled to incompetence. Congress must press for overhaul of consumer protection system.
The editors
The New York Times 2007-11-26 (entry)
After North Carolina decides to dye raw milk gray to discourage human consumption, a legislator begins work on a bill that would halt the plan; new bill would follow one that would legalize dairy shares, which allow customers to buy part ownership in a milk-producing animal so they can have raw milk.
By Suzanne Nelson
The Independent Weekly (NC) 2007-10-31 (entry)
Bill requiring labels for cloned meats and milk is a small step in the right direction; FDA's movement toward no-label approval based on part, from biotech company data, is a slippery slope toward other questionable biotech products including human genes.
By Osagie K. Obasogie and Pete Shanks
San Francisco Chronicle 2007-10-05 (entry)
Latest proposal to safeguard safety of food would close hundreds of ports to entry, siphoning edibles through only 13 sites; grocery industry, importers and exporters predict trade disruption and soaring grocery prices.
By Andrew Bridges
The Associated Press; Washington Post 2007-09-26 (entry)
With imports flooding the borders and FDA food safety staff winnowed away over the last decade, agents can sometimes only provide a cursory inspection of a listed import; they inspect less than one percent of actual products.
By Stephen J. Hedges
Chicago Tribune 0000-00-00 (entry)
Cholera epidemic, possibly from a sewage-poisoned well, hits northern Iraq, with nearly 4,000 cases suspected; Sulaimaniya juice bars shut down and restaurants told to stop serving vegetables that may have been washed in polluted water.
By Sherko Raouf
Reuters; Scientific American 2007-08-29 (entry)
Genetically modified sugar beet seed designed to resist Monsanto herbicide is gaining popularity among growers and processors, including American Crystal Sugar Co.; Wyoming Sugar Co., and Minn-Dak Farmers Cooperative; farmers must pay $60 premium per acre, and GMO sugar won't carry special label.
Associated Press; CNN 2007-08-22 (entry)
