Food & Beverage Litigation & Regulatory Update

Tag: E. coli

  • Russia Sues McDonald’s for Alleged Contamination and False Nutritional Information

    The Russian consumer protection agency, Rospotrebnadzor, has reportedly announced that it filed a claim alleging that McDonald’s has misrepresented the nutritional information of several hamburger and ice cream menu items and that two restaurant locations showed traces of E. coli contamination in their salads and Caesar wraps. Although Rospotrebnadzor said it filed a lawsuit on July…

  • USDA Rejects Petition Seeking Adulterant Designation for ABR Salmonella

    The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA’s) Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) has denied the May 2011 petition filed by the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) seeking an interpretive rule declaring certain antibiotic-resistant (ABR) strains of Salmonella to be adulterants when found in raw ground meat and raw ground poultry. Additional information…

  • Antimicrobial Edible Films Inhibit Pathogens in Meat

    Researchers at Penn State University’s College of Agricultural Sciences have purportedly found that edible films made from pullulan—a transparent polymer produced by the fungus Aureobasidium pulluns, silver nanoparticles, zinc oxide, and oregano and rosemary essential oils—can inhibit foodborne pathogens on meat products. Mohamed K. Morsy, et al., “Incorporation of Essential Oils and Nanoparticles in Pullulan…

  • USDA Terminates National Leafy Green Marketing Agreement

    The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has terminated proceedings on a proposed marketing agreement that sought to regulate the handling of fresh leafy green vegetables in the United States. Modeled after a 2006 initiative pioneered by California growers in the wake of an E. coli outbreak linked to fresh spinach, the National Leafy Green Marketing…

  • USDA Criticized for Proposed Changes to Poultry and Hog Inspection

    The Government Accountability Office (GAO) recently issued a report finding that the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA’s) Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) did not adequately evaluate the impact of proposed poultry and hog inspection changes that would replace some USDA inspectors on slaughter lines with plant personnel tasked with ensuring quality and safety standards.…

  • DeLauro Targets Failure of USDA’s Computerized Sampling System

    U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.) has sent an August 23, 2013, letter to U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Under Secretary for Food Safety Elisabeth Hagen about “the ongoing problems with the Public Health Information System (PHIS) used by the Food Safety [and] Inspection Service (FSIS).” Citing reports that PHIS recently experienced a system-wide shutdown that…

  • NYT Reports “Shipping Continued After Computer Inspection System Failed at Meat Plants”

    A recent New York Times report has claimed that the failure of a new computer system used by meatpacking and processing plant inspectors did not stop untested shipments of beef, poultry, pork, and lamb from reaching consumers. According to an August 17, 2013, article by Ron Nixon, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) acknowledged the…

  • EFSA Recommends Improvements to Meat Inspection Procedures

    The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) recently published its recommendations for improving meat inspection procedures in the European Union (EU) after a previous assessment found that “traditional practices… are not always suitable for detecting the main meat borne hazards such as Campylobacter and Salmonella or contamination by chemical substances.” Billed as “a major piece of work…