Food Safety
Mad Cow No. 4 Found In U.S. Cattle Herd
After six years, bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) has again been discovered in the U.S. cattle herd.
A dairy cow in central California dairy was recently diagnosed with BSE, commonly called mad-cow disease, according to USDA Chief Veterinary Officer John Clifford.
The carcass of the animal is being held by the state of California at a rendering facility, where it will be destroyed. In a
statement issued Tuesday, Clifford said the animal was never presented for slaughter as food for human consumption and that BSE cannot be transmitted via milk.
Ban, Testing Helped in Discovery of 4th Mad Cow
Luck may have also played a role
A six-year span without any bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) cases in the U.S. is over as the prion disease has again been discovered in the nation’s cattle herd.
A dairy cow in a central California dairy has been diagnosed with atypical BSE — mad-cow disease — according to both state and federal officials. It is the fourth such infected animal discovered since 2003.
But “there is no public health threat due to the discovery of BSE in a dairy cow,” said Dr. Ron Chap
Colorado Changes Its Cantaloupe Growing Practices
The few Colorado farmers who grow the same brand of cantaloupe implicated in last year’s Listeria outbreak — the most deadly outbreak of foodborne illness in the U.S. in decades — are falling into line with growing and packing reforms that originated in California.
The California-centered U.S. cantaloupe industry is bending other growing areas to its will without anything more than the powers of persuasion.
John Salazar, Colorado’s commission of agriculture, has enlisted Colorado’s growers who want to carry on the “Rocky Ford” brand of cantaloupes into a new $150,000 state program. The money will go for enforcement and marketing.
The growers have formed the Rocky Ford Growers Association and, for the first time since melon growing began along the Arkansas River in the 1880s, they’ve trademarked the name “Rocky Ford Cantaloupe.”
More importantly, Colorado cantaloupe growers will accept twice-a-year safety audits to be conducted by state agricultural inspectors.
The first state inspection will be announced, and designed to help growers connect their procedures with the new standards. Some time in the middle of the harvest season, the second audit will be unannounced and aimed at ensuring compliance.
Colorado State University is working with “Rocky Ford” growers to make sure cleaning and cooling practices do not bring about the sort of Listeria growth that went on at Jensen Farms last season.
Jensen Farms is 100 miles east of Colorado’s cantaloupe center — the small town of Rocky Ford. The Food and Drug Administration said both equipment and cantaloupes in Jensen Farms’ packing shed were contaminated with Listeria. The firm was blamed for a Listeria outbreak that sickened at least 146 in 28 states. There were 36 known deaths.
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Recalls
In Canada, Health Hazard Alert for Fesikh Expanded Again
The Canadian Food Inspection Agency has expanded the health hazard warning for fesikh, a salted and cured fish product that may be contaminated with Clostridium botulinum. Whole fesikh shad has been added to the warning.
Read Full Article Here
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Articles of Interest
Health Conscious in Line for (Some) Fast Food
The research firm Scarborough, a joint venture of the ratings barons Arbitron Inc. and The Nielsen Company, has profiled healthy consumers and then peeked into their dining habits.
It found that health-conscious consumers were dining at the same fast food outlets as the rest of us — just not in quite as great numbers. But pretty close.
Scarborough attributes this to the success of “healthy menu options,” which the consumers researchers say have caught on at what they call quick service restaurants.
For example, Scarborough found that while 43 percent of all adults in the U.S. have patronized McDonald’s in the last 30 days, so too have 36 percent of all health-conscious consumers.
A Call for Nutritional Unity
Opinion
Every day I spend on social media, I am reminded of a growing epidemic that worries me — dietary tribalism. I’ve made up this term to refer to the many fractionated groups with conflicting dietary views who, for the most part, don’t realize just how much they have in common.
This
recent piece in the the New York Times, about the “challenge” of “going vegan,” perfectly encapsulates the problematic way in which we tend to discuss food and nutrition. First, the article frames the eschewing of all animal products as a “challenge.” Loaded lens, anyone? Transitioning from omnivorism to veganism is certainly an adjustment, but if done over the course of several months or even a year, it is certainly easier than attempting it cold turkey or via a “30 day challenge.” And, after a while of eating in that manner, it becomes “the norm.” Riding a bicycle was surely a challenge to most people the first few times, but it eventually becomes an action that feels like second nature.
The article also repeats a familiar, yet inaccurate, idea: that one either is “a vegan” or eats an entire cow in one sitting. This is particularly troubling because it inevitably forces people to “take sides” (i.e.: “vegan is the only way to health” and “veganism is unhealthy”). All this mud-slinging detracts from a more important conversation: Americans need to eat more plant-based foods, less processed food, and be more mindful of where their food comes from, how it is grown, how those who grow it are treated, and how dietary choices affect the environment.
These days, dietary tribalism is rampant. You have, just to name a few, the Paleo folks, the vegans, the raw vegans, the low-carbers, and the fruitarians. While there is certainly something productive and empowering about engaging and connecting with like-minded individuals, these groups often turn into echo chambers where everyone tends to agree with everyone else and, occasionally, point out how “the other group” has it all wrong. Meanwhile, Big Food continues churning out highly processed junk, children as young as four years of age are developing Type 2 diabetes, genetically modified crops are seemingly everywhere, and
food injustice issues are only worsening.
In all our “no, but I have THIS mountain of research to back me up” statements, we easily overlook one critical unifying point — we all are seeking out the same goal: health.
Judge Rules In Favor of Jimmy John’s Fired Workers
On April 20, 2012, National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) Administrative Law Judge Arthur Amchan found that MikLin Enterprises, Inc, a franchisee that owns 10 Jimmy John’s sandwich shops in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area, unlawfully fired six workers last year when they protested a sick leave policy.
The charge, tried in February 2012, claimed that the restaurant fired the workers after they posted flyers stating customers may get sick eating at Jimmy John’s because the restaurant does not offer paid sick leave. In fact, employees were disciplined if they called in sick and could not find a replacement.
According to the NLRB charge, Jimmy John’s Rule #11 in the 2010 employee handbook states: “Find your own replacement if you are not going to be at work. We do not allow people to simply call in sick! We require our employees and managers to find their own replacement! NO EXCEPTIONS!”
In March 2011, employees asked MikLin Enteprises to provide paid sick leave and change the policy; the company refused. After that refusal, the flyers were posted. Two days later, six employees who posted the flyers were fired.
The company claimed that a “new” policy began in March 2011, which said employees are “expected to be at work on time or find a suitable replacement for their scheduled shifts.” Judge Amchan ruled that this was not a substantial policy change.
Read Full Article Here
Congressmen Want USDA Chief to Campaign in Support of ‘Pink Slime’
One week has passed since 30 members of Congress sent a joint letter to United States Department of Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack asking for an explanation of what the USDA has done to correct what the representatives described as widespread misinformation about lean finely texture beef, also known as “LFTB” or “pink slime.”
Vilsack has mentioned the letter in at least one public appearance, thanking the delegation for joining the USDA in defending the use of beef trimmings in mainstream food products. But there has been no publicized, official response from the secretary or the USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service — the agency that regulates the meat industry.
The April 18 letter said a misinformation and smear campaign against LFTB has recklessly stifled demand for the product, caused job losses and will lead to higher consumer prices for beef. The House members wrote to Vilsack that the attacks against the quality of LFTB are coming from “a few overzealous individuals in the media.”
Read Full Article Here
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