Food Safety
CDC: 316 Ill in Multistate Outbreak Linked to Sushi Tuna
Salmonella infections reported in 26 states and Washington D.C.
The number of confirmed cases of Salmonella poisoning from frozen raw tuna used primarily to make sushi has jumped by 58 to 316, and two more states have reported cases related to the outbreak, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported Thursday.
The outbreak is now spread over 26 states and the District of Columbia, with Colorado and Vermont each for reporting tuna-linked illnesses for the first time. Onset of the most recent confirmed case was May 3, the CDC said.
According to this latest
update on the investigation, tests conducted by public health labs in Connecticut, Maryland, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, South Caroline and Wisconsin isolated Salmonella from 53 (96 percent) of 55 samples taken from intact packages of frozen yellow fin tuna distributed by Moon Marine USA Corp. or from sushi prepared with the tuna product, which is known as “scrape.”
Scrape appears to be chopped or minced tuna. Traditionally, however, it is bits of tuna scraped from the backbone after a fish has been filleted.
Nearly 59,000 pounds of Nakaochi Scrape were recalled on April 13 by Moon Marine, which is located in Cupertino, CA. The product, imported from India, had been shipped in boxes labeled “To be cooked before consumption.” The U.S. Food and Drug Administration says those shipments may have been broken down into smaller lots for further sale, possibly without new labeling.
‘Show Me’ State Compromises on Ag-Gag
With the clock ticking down to adjournment today, the Missouri Senate pulled a surprise late Thursday by not bringing up the so-called “ag-gag” bill but instead passing an omnibus agriculture law with some changes in law that look like an ag-gag compromise.
After a long day in Jefferson City, the Senate voted 25-5 for final passage of “a House substitute to the Senate substitute of substitute Senate Bill 631,” a grab-bag bill containing a couple dozen separate agricultural measures.
In the new law, Missouri requires anyone with pictures or video of animal abuse or neglect to share them with law enforcement within 24 hours. The originals remain as property of the owner, who does not have to give them up.
Existing law on trespass is also made a little tougher in the bill, which might represent a deal between animal rights advocates and Missouri agriculture.
Salmonella Confirmed in Two Dogs Fed Recalled Pet Food
Two dogs can be added to the list of clinically confirmed infections in the
Diamond Pet Foods Salmonella Infantis outbreak, according to FDA’s Laura Alvey, Deputy Director, Communications Staff at the agency’s Center for Veterinary Medicine.
Both dogs lived in the same house as an outbreak victim, and were fed one of the recalled dry dog food products.
At last report (May 11, 2012), there are 15 outbreak-related confirmed human cases of Salmonella infections in the USA and one Canadian case. Five people have been hospitalized.
California Growers Unanimously Support Mandatory Cantaloupe Safety Regs
Commodity boards and marketing orders have long been serious business in California, but until now they have not been in the food safety business.
That changed earlier this week when, in a statewide referendum, California cantaloupe handlers unanimously voted to support a mandatory food safety program that will be implemented by a state commodity board.
Commodity boards and marketing orders are not new to California. The California Milk Advisory Board, now promoting competition for non-alcoholic milk shake shooters, and the Almond Board for California, encouraging almonds in cookies, are just two quick examples of commonplace activities by these boards.
Figs, olives and table grapes are but a few of the other commodities that have their own board and marketing orders to help promote and police prominent California products.
Only the California Cantaloupe Advisory Board, however, has turned a state commodity board and associated marketing orders into a food safety agency, albeit one targeted only to cantaloupes.
While California-grown cantaloupes have never been associated with a foodborne illness outbreak, product safety has for years been on the board’s agenda. Going back two decades ago when imported cantaloupes were found to be contaminated with Salmonella, the advisory board launched research to keep it from happening in California.
Organic Watergate: Fed agencies allow GMOs in ‘USDA-certified organic’
By Cornucopia
The Cornucopia Institute is challenging what it calls a “conspiracy” between corporate agribusiness interests and the USDA that has increasingly facilitated the use of questionable synthetic additives and even dangerous chemicals in organic foods. In its new white paper, The Organic Watergate, Cornucopia details violations of federal law, ignoring congressional intent, that has created a climate of regulatory abuse and corporate exploitation.
When Congress passed the Organic Foods Production Act of 1990 it set up an independent advisory panel, the National Organic Standards Board (NOSB) that, uniquely, has statutory power. Any synthetic input or ingredient used in organic farming or food production must be reviewed by the NOSB to assure that it is not a threat to human health or the environment.
At the NOSB meeting in Savannah, Georgia last year, a giant Dutch-based multi-national conglomerate, Royal DSM N.V./Martek Biosciences, partnered with the nation’s largest dairy processor, Dean Foods, to muscle through approval of DHA/ARA synthetic nutrient oils. The additives, derived from genetically mutated algae and soil fungus, are processed with petrochemical solvents, grown in genetically engineered corn, and formulated for use in infant formula, dairy and other products with a myriad of other unreviewed synthetic ingredients.
“All these elements of the Martek Biosciences products, along with outstanding safety and efficacy concerns, made them inappropriate and illegal in organics,” said Charlotte Vallaeys, Director of Food and Farm Policy for Cornucopia. “So after witnessing this travesty, we decided to take a closer look at how other synthetic additives have been approved for use in organic foods in the past.”
What The Cornucopia Institute investigation found is disturbing to many organic industry stakeholders. The Cornucopia report charges the USDA with “stacking” the NOSB with agribusiness executives that all too often have “sold out” the interests of organic farmers and consumers.
“The organic community came together and actually asked the government, in order to maintain a level playing field and organic integrity, to regulate our industry,” said Mark A. Kastel, Codirector of The Cornucopia Institute. “How many other industries have ever asked the federal government for tough regulations and enforcement?”
In order to placate concerns of federal involvement in the nascent organic industry, Congress specifically earmarked the majority of the 15 seats on the NOSB for farmers, consumers, scientists and environmentalists as a way to balance the power of commercial interests involved in organic food manufacturing, marketing and retail sales.
“Many in the industry generally thought this system of shared power, with regard to synthetics in organics, was working until we received a wake-up call at the NOSB’s meeting late last year in Savannah, Georgia,” Kastel noted.
Read Full Article Here
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Recalls
Fewer Food Recalls in First Quarter This Year
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recorded 142 food recalls during the first quarter of 2012, down 19 percent from the previous quarter and down 20 percent from the same period of 2011.
More than 130 companies initiated at least one recall during the quarter, and nine companies were involved in more than one. Food recall totals were included in the Stericycle Expert RECALL ™ Index released on May 14.
The quarterly index shows 7 million food units were recalled during the first three months of 2012, a 90 percent decrease over the last quarter of 2011 and the smallest unit count in three quarters.
Samosas With Uninspected Halal Beef Recalled
Raj Foods of Houston, TX is recalling approximately 3,300 pounds of Halal beef samosa products because a meat ingredient may have been produced in a facility that is not federally inspected, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) announced Wednesday.
The problem was discovered by FSIS during a routine food safety assessment.
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Allergen Alert
Allergen Alert: Lamb Koftis With Undeclared Milk
August Foods of Downington, PA. is recalling approximately 20,520 pounds of lamb koftis because the product contains milk, an allergen not listed on the label, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) announced Thursday.
The problem was brought to the company’s attention by a consumer who suspected the product contained milk because of a minor reaction after tasting the product, the company said.
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Articles of Interest
More Empty Recommendations on Junk Food Marketing to Children
Institute of Medicine Gives Big Food Another Deadline — or else!
Opinion
Last week, the nation’s top public health experts gathered at a much-trumpeted obesity conference hosted by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention called
Weight of the Nation. (A quick glance at the
agenda reveals nothing that would even begin to challenge the food industry.)
Released at this bland event was an equally uninspired
report from the Institute of Medicine (IOM, an advisory arm of Congress) called, Accelerating Progress in Obesity Prevention: Solving the Weight of the Nation. The irony of the report’s title gets lost among the 478 pages that aim to solve “this complex, stubborn problem” with “a comprehensive set of solutions.”
One of the
recommendations intended to speed things up is for the food industry to “take broad, common, and urgent voluntary action to make substantial improvements” to marketing aimed at kids. This is certainly important, as advocates have for years been sounding the alarm about the intractable problem of junk food marketing to children and its connection to poor health. But another
part of the IOM dictate sounded vaguely familiar:
If such marketing standards have not been adopted within two years by a substantial majority of food, beverage, restaurant, and media companies that market foods and beverages to children and adolescents, policy makers at the local, state, and federal levels should consider setting mandatory nutritional standards for marketing to this age group to ensure that such standards are implemented.
Spartanburg SC, Where All The Restaurants Are Above Average
In Garrison Keillor’s fictional hometown, Lake Wobegone, all the women are strong, all the men are good looking and all the children are above average. In Spartanburg, S.C. it’s the restaurants that are all above average including the one that is the source of an E.coli outbreak that has sickened 11 people and hospitalized two. Because all 452 restaurants in Spartanburg have a letter grade of A from the South Carolina Department of Health an Environmental Control’s (SCDHEC) restaurant rating system.
Earlier this week, when Food Poisoning Bulletin asked how residents in Spartanburg could make safe choices without knowing the name of the restaurant at the source of the outbreak, a SDHEC spokesman said there was not an ongoing threat and they would be OK eating at any of the area restaurants that had a good letter grade.
Read Full Article Here
Anonymous E. Coli Outbreak in South Carolina Frustrated Locals
After much criticism, El Mexicano restaurant names itself in 11 person outbreak
When public health officials in South Carolina announced last week they were investigating an E. coli O157:H7 outbreak linked to a Spartanburg-area Mexican restaurant, residents at the epicenter of the outbreak were left with more questions than answers.
Last Friday, Department of Health and Environmental Control (DHEC), the centralized health and environmental protection agency in South Carolina, said that a single restaurant had been linked to 11 illnesses, but officials did not name the restaurant because the agency did not believe the public was at risk. After much criticism from the local community, El Mexicano restaurant in Spartanburg on East Main Street voluntarily agreed to release its name to the public, DHEC announced Wednesday.
According to public health officials, all 11 ill were “associated with the facility” but DHEC spokesman Adam Myrick did not specify whether they were workers or diners.
Of those sickened, one is lab-confirmed, two have developed hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS), a serious complication that can lead to kidney failure, and the 8 others with diarrheal illness are hypothesized to be part of the outbreak because of their link to the restaurant, Myrick told Food Safety News.
On Tuesday Myrick said it is typical for DHEC to not name an establishment linked to an outbreak, though he said that if officials needed more information from consumers or they needed to get the word out about throwing away leftovers, then the agency would be more specific.
“We don’t have any reason to believe that there’s any ongoing transmission or public health risk,” he said, adding that DHEC inspected the restaurant May 11, the facility received a 94 out of 100.
Read Full Article Here
Consumers Advised to Discard Pasteurized Ice Cream Containing Raw Milk
According to a press release obtained by Food Poisoning Bulletin, the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture issued an advisory about ice cream sold at Dutch Valley Bakery & BBQ in Spring Mills, Centre County.
The ice cream was produced by Spring Bank Acres of Rebersburg in Centre County. The advisory states, “Spring Bank Acres produced an ice cream mix to which raw milk was added after pasteurization, potentiallly presenting a food safety risk. The product was representated as pasteurized ice cream and sold as ‘homemade’ by Dutch Valley Bakery & BBQ.”
Samantha Krepps of the Ag Department told us that “no illnesses were reported” linked to this product. Dutch Valley Bakery & BBQ sold the ice cream as-in and made it into milkshakes. While it’s legal to sell raw milk with a permit in Pennsylvania, the sale of raw milk ice cream is illegal.
Read Full Article Here
Healthy Foods Are Not Expensive, Government Study Finds
The old theory that healthy foods are a luxury that a tight budget can’t afford is just that – an old theory – according to a government
study released Wednesday.
Researchers at the Department of Agriculture’s Economic Research Service (ERS) analyzed more than 4,000 retail foods and found that when measured in price per edible pound, fruits, vegetables, grains and dairy were cheaper than most proteins and foods high in saturated fat, added sugars and sodium.
These findings are positive for people trying to meet the national dietary guidelines, which call for an increase in consumption of fruits, vegetables, whole grains and low fat milk.
“This is great news for all of those who are trying to get by with a limited food budget,” said USDA’s Under Secretary for Food, Nutrition and Consumer Services Kevin Concannon at a press conference Wednesday. “You don’t have to compromise on food nutrition just because money is tight.”
That goes for people enrolled in nutrition assistance programs such as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) too, he noted. For the millions benefiting from these 15 programs, the commonly held belief that wholesome foods are out of reach is “not necessarily the case,” he said.
Egg Baron “Jack” DeCoster: Focus of Criminal Probe
Austin “Jack” DeCoster, son Peter DeCoster, and Patsy Larson, chief financial officer for Quality Egg, are targets of a federal criminal investigation, the Bangor Daily News reported Wednesday.
The newspaper, quoting defense lawyers, said the trio would likely invoke their rights against self-incrimination if called before a federal grand jury in Iowa.
Quality Egg (Wright County Egg) and Hillandale Farms, which together recalled more than a half billion-shell eggs between Aug. 13 and 20, 2010, are blamed for 1,939 Salmonella Enteritidis illnesses that occurred between May 1 and Nov.30, 2010.
Five foods you would never eat if you really knew what they were
By S. D. Wells,
(NaturalNews) What if when you were seated at your favorite restaurant, they handed you a menu which listed all of the REAL ingredients in every dish, without any fluff or “pretty” names for the food you might opt out of eating otherwise? It seems as though the United States is one of the most talented countries at ruining a good thing, and over the past 20 to 30 years, food and beverages are no exception. “May I tell you about our specials?” “Yes, please.” Today we are featuring one of…
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