Tag: E. coli
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FSIS Targets Traceback Measures, Food Preservatives, Misbranded Products, HACCP Plans
The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) has proposed new traceback measures to better control and prevent pathogens from triggering foodborne illnesses and outbreaks. Particularly concerned with meat contaminated with Escherichia coli (E. coli), FSIS plans to “move quickly to identify the supplier of the product and any processors who received contaminated…
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Dana Goodyear, “Raw Deal,” The New Yorker, April 30, 2012
“The new wave of American cuisine has a regressive side, wrapped up in nostalgia for an imagined past… To chefs like [Daniel Patterson], unprocessed milk does not just taste better; it is sentimental and, more important, it is pure,” claims New Yorker staff writer Dana Goodyear in this article chronicling the raw milk movement and…
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Grand Jury Indicts Distributors of Adulterated and “Washed” Cheese from Mexico
A federal grand jury in Illinois has brought criminal indictments against four individuals who allegedly distributed more than 110,000 pounds of Mexican cheese in the United States in 2007 despite Food and Drug Administration (FDA) “hold” orders and also allegedly “washed” cheese returned by dissatisfied customers by scraping off mold and fungus so it could…
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JPML Rejects Motion to Consolidate and Centralize Tainted Beef Litigation
The Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation (JPML) has denied a motion seeking to consolidate and transfer to a multidistrict litigation court three cases filed in federal courts against companies allegedly responsible for a 2009 E. coli outbreak involving contaminated ground beef. In re: Ne. Contaminated Beef Prods. Liab. Litig., MDL No. 2346 (J.P.M.L., D. Conn., decided…
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Researchers Present Rapid Salmonella Test at ACS Meeting
Researchers from Jackson State University in Mississippi have reportedly developed a rapid test for detecting Salmonella on food that uses popcorn-shaped gold nanoparticles. Presented March 27, 2012, at the 243rd National Meeting and Exposition of the American Chemical Society (ACS), the application relies on antibodies attached to gold nanoparticles that then transfer to Salmonella bacteria if…
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GAO Report Urges Preslaughter Inventions to Reduce E. Coli
The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) has issued a March 2012 report urging the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to adopt several measures to reduce Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli (STEC) in cattle before they are slaughtered. According to GAO, USDA currently recognizes bacteriophages, probiotics, vaccines, and sodium chlorate as preslaughter interventions able to control STEC,…
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New Study Allegedly Links Food Animals to Human UTIs
A recent study has reportedly suggested that some food animals, and chickens in particular, are “likely” reservoirs for the extraintestinal pathogenic E. coli (ExPEC) implicated in community-acquired urinary tract infections (UTIs) among humans. Catherine Racicot Bergeron, et al., “Chicken Reservoirs for Extraintestinal Pathogenic Escherichia coli in Humans, Canada,” Emerging Infectious Diseases, March 2012. According to…
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California Food Safety Officials Recall Raw Milk for E. Coli
The California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA) has issued a statewide recall and quarantine order for raw or unpasteurized milk products implicated in five cases of E. coli O157:H7. According to CDFA, the recall includes raw milk, raw butter, raw cream, raw colostrum, and a raw product called “Qephor” produced by Fresno-based Organic Pastures…