Tag: pathogen
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USDA Grants Produce Safety Program Temporary Reprieve
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has reportedly agreed to fund produce safety inspections through the end of 2012 despite the government’s failure to include the agency’s Microbiological Data Program (MDP) in next year’s budgets. According to media sources, neither the Obama administration nor Congress allocated resources for the 11-year-old program, which coordinates with local…
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FDA Collaborates on Public Foodborne Bacteria Genome Database
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) will take part in a collaborative effort to create a public database that will contain 100,000 foodborne pathogen genomes to help facilitate the identification of those responsible for outbreaks involving bacteria such as Salmonella, Listeria and E. coli. Called “The 100K Genome Project,” the undertaking will apparently be a…
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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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FDA Rejects Objections and Request for Hearing on Food Irradiation Rule
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has determined that it will neither conduct a hearing nor make any changes to its final rule on the use of irradiation in processing and handling food. According to the agency, “the objections do not justify a hearing or otherwise provide a basis for revoking the regulation,” issued in…
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CDC Links Human Salmonella Outbreak to Tainted Dog Food
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 14 people in nine states have purportedly been stricken with a Salmonella strain identical to that found in “multiple brands of dry pet food produced by Diamond Pet Foods at a single manufacturing facility in South Carolina.” CDC’s May 3, 2012, announcement indicates that the strain,…
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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…