Outbreak of Human Trichinellosis — Arizona, Minnesota, and South Dakota, 2022
"Among eight persons who shared a meal that included the meat of a black bear harvested in Canada and frozen for 45 days, six trichinellosis cases were identified. The meat was grilled with vegetables and served rare; two cases occurred in persons who ate only the vegetables. Motile freeze-resistant Trichinella nativa larvae were identified in remaining meat frozen for >15 weeks."
5 Apr 1695: George Savile, MP and later Marquess of #Halifax, opponent of James II, d. #otd from a rupture caused by vomiting after eating an undercooked chicken (NPG) #foodsafety
Proposed Changes to Food Regulation: Share your views
Ensuring the food we buy to eat in the shops is safe to do so is regulated. Things like food additives and flavourings for example. In the past, when we were members of the EU it was that body who authorised the standards that keep us safe. Food Standards Scotland (FSS) and the Foods Standards Agency (FSA) now have that task and they have launched a joint consultation of changes they wish to make which they say will…
@fionaorkneynews ah great, now the brexiteers want to remove food safety standards. If you don't object to this you'll end up only being able to buy adulterated unsafe food, and the minister in charge won't have to stand up and say they authorised that, thus avoiding doing their job, as always, when their job is literally to keep food safe.
Cook your bacon, yessiree
Eat it extra crispy, just ask me
Don't eat soggy, uncooked bacon plain
or you may get a tapeworm in your brain
Little larvae in your head
Giving you headaches while you're in bed
It's a nasty business, this bacon stuff
Heck, better go vegetarian, I've had enough
USDA: Salm Partners, LLC, Recalls Johnsonville Polish Kielbasa Turkey Sausage Products Due to Possible Foreign Matter Contamination
"Salm Partners, LLC, a Denmark, Wis., establishment, is recalling approximately 35,430 pounds of Johnsonville turkey kielbasa sausage that may be contaminated with foreign materials, specifically pieces of rubber, the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) announced today."
Hundreds of American children were poisoned last year. Records show how, time and again, the contamination went unnoticed across borders.
by Will FitzgibbonandChristina Jewett
February 27, 2024
"Cinnamon-flavored applesauce pouches sold in grocery and dollar stores last year poisoned hundreds of American children with extremely high doses of lead, leaving anxious parents to watch for signs of brain damage, developmental delays and seizures.
"The U.S. Food and Drug Administration, citing Ecuadorian investigators, said a spice grinder was likely responsible for the contamination and said the quick recall of three million applesauce pouches protected the food supply.
"But hundreds of pages of documents obtained by The Examination, in collaborations with The New York Times and El Universo, along with interviews with government and company officials in multiple countries, show that in the weeks and months before the recall, the tainted applesauce sailed through a series of checkpoints in a food safety system meant to protect American consumers.
"The documents and interviews offer the clearest accounting to date of the most widespread toxic exposure in food marketed to young children in decades. Children in 44 states ate the tainted applesauce, some of which contained lead at extraordinarily high levels.
"Time and again, the tainted #cinnamon went untested and undiscovered, the result of an overstretched FDA and a food safety law that gives companies, at home and abroad, wide latitude on what toxins to look for and whether to test.
"'It’s amazing in a bad sense what a catastrophic failure this was,' said Neal Fortin, director of the Institute for Food Laws and Regulations at Michigan State University. 'Largely, the food supply regulatory system is based on an honor system.'
"The cinnamon originated in #SriLanka and was shipped to #Ecuador, where it was ground into a powder. It was probably there, the FDA has said, that the cinnamon was likely contaminated with #LeadChromate, a powder that is sometimes illegally used to tint or bulk up spices.
"The ground cinnamon was then sold, bagged and sold again to a company called #Austrofood, which blended it into applesauce and shipped pouches to the United States. It was sold under the brand name #WanaBana and various generic store labels.
"Austrofood never tested the cinnamon or its tainted applesauce before shipping it to the United States. The company said it relied on a certificate from a supplier saying the cinnamon was virtually lead free, records show. In a statement, the supplier, Negasmart, did not discuss that certification but said it had complied with all regulations and quality standards.
"The FDA can inspect overseas food companies that ship to the United States, but even as food imports soared to record levels in 2022, international inspections fell far short of targets set by law.
"American inspectors had not visited Austrofood in five years, records show.
"'Companies have the responsibility to take steps to assure that the products they manufacture are not contaminated with unsafe levels of heavy metals,' Jim Jones, the top FDA food official, said in a statement. 'The agency’s job is to help the industry comply and hold those who evade these requirements accountable, as appropriate.'
"The FDA says it has no authority to investigate far down the international supply chain. Records show that the Ecuadorian government had the authority but not the capacity. Ecuadorian regulators had never before tested cinnamon for toxins and, when the FDA called looking for help, nearly half of the government’s lab equipment was out of service, said Daniel Sánchez, the head of Ecuador’s food safety agency.
"Private safety audits commissioned by American importers are supposed to provide another layer of protection. But audits typically look only for the hazards that the importers themselves have identified.
"None of the importers would say whether they considered lead a risk or tested for it and it is unclear what, if any, steps they took. But none blocked the applesauce. Records show one auditor gave the applesauce maker an A+ safety rating in December, as American children were being poisoned.
"The FDA has the power to test food arriving at the border. There is no indication that anyone tested the applesauce when it arrived at ports in Miami and Baltimore. Inspectors conduct about half as many such tests as they did a decade ago.
"The FDA said it planned to analyze the incident and whether it needs to seek new powers from Congress to prevent future outbreaks."
"U.S. rice exports to Haiti, which account for the bulk of supplies of the country's key food staple, contain unhealthy levels of arsenic and cadmium, heavy metals that can increase risks of cancer and heart disease, according to a recent study by the University of Michigan.
Haiti is among the United States' top buyers of rice...and cheap imports are more affordable than local options in the Caribbean nation..."
Cereals are harming Americans' health bc CEOs allowed toxic chemicals to taint their products. General Mills, PepsiCo, other food brands, & the growers are responsible for the harmful chem.
Last Week Tonight did a big food safety episode in its most recent season. LWT pointed out how jurisdictional gaps between FDA and USDA cause problems. And how underfunding is a big problem. Congress has been slashing budgets for decades.
When food safety affects children, society tends to pay more attention than when it affects adults. So regular media has been doing follow-ups on the lead contamination in applesauce.
After #Brexit many fear our new food safety regime is too weak, but even that is being undermined by #DEFRA's 70% cut in funding for Dover Port inspectors that will be made in April.
Less stringent restriction + less inspections; as the state steps back it clear for the Tories, the principle of caveat emptor is ever more relevant.
They see 'freeing' us from the constraints of the regulatory state as a good thing, but here its dangerous madness.
"Plasticizers—the most common of which are called #phthalates—show up inside almost all of us, right along with other #chemicals found in #plastic, including #bisphenols such as #BPA. These have been linked to a long list of #health concerns, even at very low levels...
In our new tests, we checked a wider variety of foods to see how much of the chemicals Americans actually consume. The answer? Quite a lot."
Quaker Canada today announced a voluntary recall of granola bars and Harvest Crunch cereals due to the potential exposure of salmonella. This is the direct result of a recall initiated earlier today in the United States by the Quaker Oats Company. This action is being taken in Canada out of an abundance of caution and commitment to the wellbeing of our Canadian consumers.
Worried about plastics leaching into your food and beverages from the plastic containers they're in? Some ideas:
Contact the company and say you want them to go back to glass or cardboard. It can help if companies hear directly from consumers.
a) Do an internet search for the company name + corporate to get contact details.
b) If you're still on Twitter, do public tweets, with @ attached to their name. Just say you're concerned about the safety of plastic and that you'd like to see a return to glass. It can help if companies hear directly from consumers.
Transfer frozen meals into microwave-safe glassware before heating. There is apparently some possible leaching of plastic during heating.
If you transfer contents from the plastic bottle/jar into a clean glass container, find a safe way to do this. (Start with looking up canning instructions on how to sterilize the containers and lids. You don't want to introduce contamination).
NOTE. Companies switch to plastic for 2 key reasons:
Plastic containers are lighter and significantly reduce shipping costs.
Plastic containers are super cheap to mass produce. A switch back to glass means prices will go up. To mitigate this, suggest they help push for a return and refund program (and maybe standardization of the glass containers).
"Food safe" plastics are supposed to be inert and not interact with our cells or biology. Lots of $ was put into research to develop plastics believed to be safe. Companies don't want to poison people (bad for business), so their switching to plastics was based on the current science of the time. their thought was 'it's safe, so why not switch to something that will save money'.
HISTORY. Sodas/pop/carbonated beverages used to come in #glass. Bottles were refundable. But the industry switched to #plastic containers in the late 1970s because of breakage, costs and a few bottles that exploded (leading to different safety concerns). Many fruit juices came in glass until the 1990s. So, there is lots of precedent for glass containers. #CARDBOARD. Did you know that up to the early 1970s, frozen vegetables and fruit were sold in small, waxed cardboard boxes?
Quaker Oats Granola Bar Recall. "The Quaker Oats Company announced the recall of specific granola bars and granola cereals because they have the potential to be contaminated with Salmonella.
The products impacted are sold in outlets throughout the United States. Consumers should check their pantries for any of the products listed below and dispose of them. " #granolabar#granola#recall#FoodSafety#snackbarshttps://www.quakergranolarecall.com/
I do love my granola bars
Eat them outdoors, inside, driving cars
Though the chewy ones are not so great
Particularly not as of late
It seems those chewy Quaker granola treats
Have got a problem I must repeat
You will not want to eat or even lick
Those granola bars--they'll make you sick
Some have Salmonella, a nasty bug
That'll make you barf all over the rug
You know when you read about some fuckup in China where toxic waste was dumped, and ended up poisoning a town or whatever? You know how you think “man, “they” should do something about that!”. Well “they” in the United States is the EPA, and EPA does do something about, which is why most of us have clean water and food for our kids.
House Republicans just voted to gut the EPA. They are voting to make your kids less safe.