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Health Law

Food Poison Blog

Surveillance and analysis on food poison news and outbreaks.
By Marler Clark

Post Frequency: 17.6/day

Last Entry: April 01, 2011 at 12:57:03

FDA On Hunt For Melamine Contaminated Infant Formula

Posted on September 21, 2008
The tainted baby formula that has been blamed for killing four infants and sickening 6,200 in China since the scandal broke last week. About 1,300 babies, mostly newborns, are in hospitals and 158 of them are suffering from acute kidney failure...

One Federal Judge Is Not Sour On Raw Milk Farmers

Posted on September 10, 2008
We really cannot explain this one. We do know that federal Magistrate Judge Karen Stromborn went the the University of Wisconsin Law School, so maybe she still gets weak knees around dairy farmers. Whatever, the reason, Judge Stromborn took the old term "slap on the wrist" to a new, much lower level in sentencing Woodland raw milk pushers Anita and Mike Puckett to--get this--$25 in court fees after both plead guilty to federal Class A misdemeanors for spreading the raw milk that made 18 people sick in 2005...

Check Out This Look At Food Radiation

Posted on September 05, 2008
U.S. News & World Report just issued a "fair and balanced" article looking into irradiation of food. It's found under the headline: The Basics on the Foodfight Over Irradiation: Should you look for the "radura" symbol? Check it out here and do not forget to read the comments...

Food Micro 2008 Conference Going On This Week

Posted on September 02, 2008
Britain's best known food safety expert, Professor Hugh Pennington, will be speaking to almost 850 delegates from 50 countries - including many leading scientists - attending Food Micro 2008 which is exploring a huge range of microbiological issues surrounding the safety and quality of food...

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Are Technical Fixes Just PR Stunts By FDA?

Posted on August 25, 2008
Stephen J. Hedges of the Chicago Tribune's Washington Bureau weighs in with a story questioning whether the new ruling by the U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA) to allow irradiation of some fresh produce is a public relations stunt. Hedges writes: The FDA's irradiation decision is the latest attempt to find a technical fix to what has become a near-epidemic food safety problem...

FDA Final Rule Favors Radiation Of Fresh Lettuce & Spinach

Posted on August 22, 2008
Someone we learned much from about government taught us that, for better or for worse, there are certain periods of time when things happen in near silence. At the end of every year, from Thanksgiving through New Year's, many decisions without much notice or attention...

Attorney Denis W. Stearns Questions USDA Policies

Posted on August 18, 2008
Guest Blog by Denis W. Stearns: On October 3, 2002 I submitted a petition to the USDA in which I asked the agency to explicitly clarify whether a USDA policy that appeared to allow the deadly pathogen E. coli O157:H7 on so-called “intact meat” applied to meat sold to retail outlets like grocery stores and restaurants...

Adnan Sami Victim of Food-borne Illness: Making Recovery

Posted on August 16, 2008
We always try and note when famous people become victims of food-borne illnesses. Bollywood News and Gossip is reporting that singer, composer, pianist Adnan Sami is recovering from severe food poisoning after being rushed to a hospital. According to Bollywood: Bubbly singer-cum-composer-cum-pianist Adnan Sami was recently rushed to the hospital as he suffered from severe food poisoning...

FDA Warns Consumers Not to Eat Certain Mussel Products from Bantry Bay Seafood

Posted on August 16, 2008
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is warning consumers against eating certain frozen cooked mussel products made by Bantry Bay Seafoods, imported from Ireland, because they may be contaminated with azaspiracid toxins, a group of naturally occurring marine toxins known to cause nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, and stomach cramps...

William Marler: American Food Safety System a "Train Wreck"

Posted on August 07, 2008
SEATTLE--(BUSINESS WIRE)--In just a year and a half, the American meat industry has experienced a whiplash of beef recalls. 40 million pounds of meat tainted with highly toxic E. coli O157:H7 has been publicly recalled, up by a staggering factor of two hundred from the 2006 amount of only 181,900 pounds...

Bipartisan Group of Senators Led By Harkin Floats Food Safety Reform Bill

Posted on August 03, 2008
Congress is taking its usual summer recess and there is precious little real legislative time left before they leave town for good to campaign to get their jobs back. Nevertheless, it is not unusual to have the concepts and support for legislation to come together now and become spring-loaded for advancing through the new Congress that will convene in January...

Do Not Eat Tomalley In Maine Lobsters, Warns FDA

Posted on July 30, 2008
Just in time to ruin your summer vacation to Bar Harbor and other locations on the beautiful Maine coast comes this warning from our friends at the U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA): Avoid eating tomalley in American Lobster (Maine Lobster), regardless of where the lobster was harvested, because of potential contamination with dangerous levels of the toxins that cause Paralytic Shellfish Poisoning (PSP)...

Food Safety in the United States - A Letter to Congress

Posted on July 26, 2008
Here is a letter that I sent to all members of the US Senate and House Agriculture CommitteesRE: Food Safety in the United StatesDear U.S. Congress Member:I am writing to you because the American people are losing confidence in the U.S. government’s ability to keep our food supply safe...

E. coli O157:H7 is a powerful and deadly bacterium

Posted on July 21, 2008
You cannot see it, taste it, or smell it. 250,000 E. coli O157:H7 (E. coli) bacteria will fit on the head of a pin. Ten to 50 will kill your child or your grandmother. More likely due the expertise of Children’s Hospitals, and other top medical centers around the country, deaths at times are avoided, however, often not before Hemolytic Uremic Syndrome (HUS) nearly kills...

Why Late Friday Aftenoon Treatment For Great Policy Change By Secretary Schafer?

Posted on July 13, 2008
Every once in a while, we do have to wonder what the folks who run the public affairs section at the United States Department of Agriculture are thinking. The latest example of where they poorly served both the public and their boss, US Secretary of Agriculture Ed Schafer, came late Friday when a real improvement in recall policy was announced too late to get much attention...

FDA & CDC Now Hot After Hot Peppers As Outbreak Investigation Mounts New Charge

Posted on July 09, 2008
The U.S. Food & Drug Administration(FDA) and the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC) held a joint media conference call this afternoon. It came shortly after CDC posted new numbers of culture confirmed cases of Salmonella Saintpaul...

Tomatoes, Jalape�os and Cilantro on Suspect List for Salmonella Saintpaul

Posted on July 08, 2008
The CDC reports this evening that "fresh tomatoes, fresh hot chili peppers such as jalapeños, and fresh cilantro are the lead hypotheses. However, at this point in the investigation, we can neither directly implicate one of these ingredients as the single source, nor discard any as a possible source"...

Tomatoes, Cilantro, Jalape�o Peppers, Serrano Peppers, Scallions and Bulb Onions Now Being Investigation in Salmonella Saintpaul Outbreak - nearly 38,000 sickened

Posted on July 05, 2008
Really? According to the CDC, for every one person who is a stool-culture positive victim of salmonella in the United States, there a multiple of 38.5 who are also sick, but remain uncounted. (See, AC Voetsch, “FoodNet estimate of the burden of illness caused by nontyphoidal Salmonella infections in the United States, ”Clinical Infectious Diseases 2004;38 (Suppl 3):S127-34)...

Be Careful Out There! Eating on 4th Could Be More Dangerous Than Fireworks!

Posted on July 02, 2008
As Americans go into the 4th of July weekend, they will not be getting a break. Fear the hamburger. Pass on the tomatoes. Fireworks, but better skip the salsa. We are experiencing another year just like the last one, awash in food-borne illness...

Nevada Added To List Of States With Salmonella Saintpaul Cases

Posted on June 25, 2008
The Centers for Disease Control & Prevention today added Nevada to the list of states with confirmed cases of Salmonella Saintpaul. It is the 34th state to be included in the tomato-related outbreak, which also includes the District of Columbia...

CDC Updates Confirmed Cases of Salmonella Saintpaul

Posted on June 24, 2008
Information updated as of 5 pm June 23, 2008 Massachusetts Latest State Since April, 613 persons infected with Salmonella Saintpaul with the same genetic fingerprint have been identified in 33 states and the District of Columbia. These were identified because clinical laboratories in all states send Salmonella strains from ill persons to their State public health laboratory for characterization...

HHS Secretary Leavitt Wants To Move FDA South of Border Full-Time

Posted on June 23, 2008
We are not sure if he is suited up and ready for some lab work, but Michael Leavitt, Secretary of Health and Human Services, is in Mexico with the U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA) team that is looking for the source of the tomatoes carrying Salmonella Saintpaul...

Salmonella Tomatoes Strike Florida, Georgia, Missouri, New York, Tennessee, Vermont, Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Michigan, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Oregon, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Washington and Wisconsin

Posted on June 12, 2008
According to the CDC, Florida, Georgia, Missouri, New York, Tennessee and Vermont with 61 ill persons were added to the prior list of Arizona (12 persons), California (2), Colorado (1), Connecticut (1), Idaho (2), Illinois (27), Indiana (7), Kansas (5), Michigan (2), New Mexico (39), Oklahoma (3), Oregon (3), Texas (56), Utah (1), Virginia (2), Washington (1), and Wisconsin (3) - bringing the number of ill persons to 228 and affected states to 23...

Raw Milk Isn't Cheap, That's For Certain

Posted on June 10, 2008
Got Raw Milk? It ran on American Public Media. Pointed out one thing we didn't know. Raw milk sells for $12 a gallon! Check it out here. It is fair and balanced.

MRSA Found In Pigs & Farmworkers By University of Iowa

Posted on June 09, 2008
Andrew Schneider, Senior Correspondent for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, ruined many a breakfast this morning---that’s if any of his Emerald City readers still eat bacon with their eggs. You see Schneider put in his newspaper today what had already been on his Seattle P-I's "Secret Ingredients" blog: that Tara Smith, an assistant professor at the University of Iowa Department of Epidemiology, and her graduate researchers found MRSA in more than 70 percent of the pigs they tested on farms in Iowa and Illinois...

Salmonella Saint Paul Tainted Tomatoes in Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Oregon, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Washington, and Wisconsin.

Posted on June 08, 2008
The Food and Drug Administration has expanded its warning to consumers nationwide that a salmonellosis outbreak has been linked to consumption of certain raw, red tomatoes. At this time, FDA is advising consumers to limit their consumption of tomatoes to the following types of tomatoes...

Deadly Form of Tuberculosis Linked To Raw Cheese

Posted on June 06, 2008
Raw Milk's first cousin Raw Cheese is bringing death to San Diego in the form of a disease most Americans think no longer exists in the United States. Doug Irving, writing in the Orange County Register, yesterday reported: Researchers have found a potentially deadly strain of tuberculosis infection spreading through Latino communities in Southern California and suspect the disease is being imported from Mexico in unpasteurized cheese...

South Dakota Recalls Unpasteurized Milk

Posted on June 04, 2008
South Dakota is recalling milk for a potential health risk due to improper pasteurization. We are wondering if the "dirty dairy" bill passes in California if states that discover unpasteurized milk could in the future just send it to the Golden State where it could be mixed into the "bacteria cocktails" for sale by retailers like Whole Foods...

"Dirty Dairy" Bill Introduced In California Senate

Posted on June 02, 2008
Let’s call it what it is: the “dirty dairy” bill. California has always been silly about its organic movement. Yet, it’s usually been serious about food safety and public health. Raw milk is NOT pasteurized. According to the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention, more than 1,000 people got sick from raw milk and raw cheese between 1998 and 2005...

Pennsylvania Department of Health Views Raw Milk As "Inherently Unsafe"

Posted on May 31, 2008
We've been wondering if we'd ever hear anything from the public health side of Pennsylvania government. The state or more specifically its Ag department issues licenses to dairy farms that want to sell raw milk. Pennsylvania tests raw milk and when those tests show the raw milk has gone bad, it does issue warnings and recalls...

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