Food & Beverage Litigation & Regulatory Update

Tag: pathogen

  • APHIS Schedules Bovine TB and Brucellosis Meetings

    The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Services (APHIS) will hold meetings in four states “to provide an opportunity for stakeholders to offer their input on a new framework being developed for the bovine tuberculosis and brucellosis programs in the United States.” The May 19, 2011, meeting will be held in Lansing, Michigan;…

  • GAO Report Suggests School-Meals Safety Initiatives

    The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) has issued a report recommending how the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) could improve the safety of school meals purchased through its commodities program. The report recommends that USDA instruct the commodity program to (i) “develop a systematic and transparent process to determine whether foods offered by the program…

  • Study Examines Multidrug-Resistant Staph in Meat, Poultry

    A recent study by the Arizona-based Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGRI) has reportedly identified Staphylococcus aureus in 47 percent of meat and poultry samples obtained from retail stores, with 52 percent of the contaminated samples testing positive for multidrug-resistant S. aureus. Andrew Waters, et al., “Multidrug-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus in U.S. Meat and Poultry,” Clinical Infectious…

  • FDA Denies Hearing for Shell Egg Irradiation Rule

    The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has answered criticism of a July 21, 2000, final rule allowing “the safe use of ionizing radiation for the reduction of Salmonella in fresh shell eggs,” and denied requests for a hearing on the ground that the objections “do not raise issues of material fact or otherwise provide a…

  • FSIS to Hold Meat and Poultry Pending Test Results

    The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) has proposed a procedural change that would allow inspectors to keep meat and poultry products from commerce “until FSIS test results for harmful substances are received.” FSIS currently recommends that processors and official import establishments hold sampled products pending test results, but has evidently…

  • Agencies Seek Data on Listeria in Ready-to-Eat Foods

    The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) have announced that they are seeking comments and scientific data to update a risk assessment on the relationship between foodborne Listeria in selected ready-to-eat (RTE) foods and human health. According to the agencies, the effort is designed to evaluate reduction or prevention…

  • Companies Settle Dispute over Responsibility for 2008 E. Coli-Tainted Beef Recall

    Nebraska Beef Ltd. has reportedly agreed to settle its lawsuit against Meyer Natural Foods LLC, and a federal court in Nebraska has apparently ordered the parties to file a motion to dismiss by April 25, 2011. Nebraska Beef recalled about 7 million pounds of beef in a 2008 E. coli outbreak linked to some 76…

  • FSIS Issues New Performance Standards for Salmonella and Campylobacter

    The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) has announced new and revised performance standards to reduce Salmonella and Campylobacter incidence in young chickens and turkeys. Effective July 2011, the standards apparently draw on the FSIS Nationwide Microbiological Baseline Data Collection Programs and the recommendations of President Barack Obama’s (D) Food Safety…