food safety

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China Kept Tainted Milk Scare Secret for Year

Public wasn't notified after melamine-laced products found

(Newser) - China took nearly a year to close down a Shanghai dairy after authorities found contaminated milk in the latest melamine scare, according to state media. An investigation was launched several months ago, but it was kept secret until last week after the Shanghai Panda dairy was shut down and three...

China Recalls Milk in New Poison Scare

Melamine contamination feared in 7 provinces

(Newser) - China is recalling milk in a new melamine scare a year after thousands of infants were sickened by the poison that contaminated milk and infant formula. The recall so far is limited to products from a single Shanghai dairy. But it involves milk distributed throughout seven provinces amid renewed concerns...

Slim-Fast Recalls Ready-to-Drink Shakes

Canned products may be contaminated with bacteria

(Newser) - Put down the Slim-Fast, folks; it might make you sick. Unilever is issuing a voluntary nationwide recall of all Slim-Fast canned, ready-to-drink products—regardless of flavor, "best by" date, lot code, or UPC number. The company fears the product may be contaminated with Bacilus cereus bacteria, which can cause...

Vaccine Tested to Prevent E. Coli-Tainted Beef

Cattle vaccine could curb strain of deadly bacteria

(Newser) - New vaccines are being tested that could make tainted beef scandals a thing of the past. The vaccines—currently undergoing large-scale trials after decades of bureaucratic delays—make cattle immune to the strain of E.Coli that kills dozens and sickens thousands of Americans every year. Scientists believe the combination...

Houses Passes Sweeping Food Safety Bill

(Newser) - The FDA would gain broad new powers to oversee food safety under a far-reaching bill passed by the House yesterday, the Washington Post reports. The measure—representing the first major changes to food safety laws since the 1930s—would give the agency vastly increased oversight of the nation's food chain...

Domino's Workers Fired for Gross-Out Video

Employees filmed doing worse than anything than the Noid ever dreamt up

(Newser) - Domino's Pizza is struggling to contain the damage after a video of disgusting antics in one of its kitchens surfaced on YouTube, Advertising Age reports. A male employee is filmed wiping his bare butt with a sponge he then uses to wipe a pizza pan, farting on pepperoni, and stuffing...

'Piegate' Nabs Homemade Treats
'Piegate' Nabs Homemade Treats
Apr 10, 2009 10:47 AM CDT

'Piegate' Nabs Homemade Treats

Pa. food inspectors crack down on sale of non-commercial goods

(Newser) - Homemade pies are under siege in Pennsylvania, as state inspectors crack down on commercial goods not baked in approved kitchens. The "piegate" affair started at a small-town fish fry, where the desserts are part of the Catholic parish's Lent fundraiser, reports the Wall Street Journal. Safety codes require use...

Peanut Plant Slapped With Record $14.6M Fine

Multiple safety violations found at plant linked to salmonella outbreak

(Newser) - A Texas peanut plant owned by the company blamed for a nationwide salmonella outbreak has been ordered to shell out $14.6 million for safety violations, AP reports. State officials levied the fine—the largest ever in Texas—for violations including unsanitary conditions, product contamination and operating without a license...

US Food Safety Not Improving: Feds

CDC shows plateau in food sickenings over the last three years

(Newser) - The safety of the US food supply from disease or contamination has not significantly improved in recent years, the New York Times reports today. A survey by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that occurrences of major illnesses from tainted food have held steady for the past 3...

Obama's FDA Cracks Down on Food Industry

Sweeping pistachio recall rejects slow pace of peanut crisis

(Newser) - Under President Obama, the Food and Drug Administration is taking on a tougher, more preventative role, the New York Times reports, leading, for example, to product recalls before anyone’s been sickened. The change is evident in the agency’s handling of the pistachio scare: It warned against eating them...

Obama Promises Food-Safety Overhaul

Cites 'public health hazard,' names FDA picks

(Newser) - President Obama announced a food-safety overhaul in his weekly radio address today, describing a new panel that will review the issue and naming his choices for FDA heads, the New York Times reports. “In the end, food safety is something I take seriously, not just as your president, but...

Wild Shrooms Kill Calif. Man
 Wild Shrooms Kill Calif. Man 
Mar 13, 2009 12:40 PM CDT

Wild Shrooms Kill Calif. Man

82-year-old had a passion for mushroom foraging

(Newser) - A California man’s passion for collecting and eating wild mushrooms has cost him his life, the LA Times reports. The 82-year-old ate a generous portion of a deadly variety and died of poisoning a week later. His family had long warned him of the risks, but the man had...

Food Hazards Elude Private Inspectors

Food poisoning outbreaks traced back to dangers cut-price auditors missed

(Newser) - The job of monitoring America's food plants is falling more and more to private inspectors who often miss hazards, a New York Times investigation finds. Plants hire such auditors to reassure customers and reduce liability, but the companies often pick the cheapest and least rigorous audits available. Some of the...

China Health Ministry: Food Security 'Grim'

Regulatory system due for overhaul months after milk scandal

(Newser) - It’s been months since a tainted-milk scandal sickened 300,000 children, but “China’s food-security situation remains grim with high risks and contradictions,” the country’s health ministry said today. With an eye on improving the regulatory system that failed to contain the milk trouble, officials fast-tracked...

Dead Rodents Trigger Recall at Texas Peanut Plant

(Newser) - Texas has ordered a recall of all products ever shipped from a Peanut Corp. of America plant in Plainview amid a nationwide salmonella outbreak. The order came from the Department of State Health Services, which says "dead rodents, rodent excrement, and bird feathers" were discovered yesterday in a crawl...

Congress Shames the Peanut Man
Congress Shames the Peanut Man
OPINION
Feb 12, 2009 10:03 AM CST

Congress Shames the Peanut Man

Salmonella hearing makes an example of Fifth-taking exec

(Newser) - Congress knew it wasn’t going to get any answers out of Stew Parnell, the man whose company's peanut butter is suspected of killing eight people. Parnell doggedly took the Fifth on even the simplest questions, but it didn’t matter. Parnell was summoned only so he could be chastised,...

Peanut Corp Execs Refuse to Testify to Congress

Plead the Fifth, decline to eat their products

(Newser) - Peanut Corp execs had little to say today to a congressional panel curious about the salmonella outbreak that sickened 600 people, reports the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Invoking the Fifth Amendment, PCA president Stewart Parnell and plant manager Sammy Lightsey refused to answer any questions—including on whether they would be willing...

Peanut Corp Closes Texas Plant
 Peanut Corp Closes Texas Plant 
Feb 10, 2009 10:56 AM CST

Peanut Corp Closes Texas Plant

Firm linked to salmonella outbreak suspends operations at 2nd facility

(Newser) - The peanut company at the center of an investigation into a deadly national salmonella outbreak said today that it has suspended operations at a second processing plant. Peanut Corp. of America said in a statement that it was voluntarily suspending operations at its Plainview, Texas, plant while state and federal...

Salmonella Outbreak Bares Lethal Flaws in Oversight

Preplanned inspections, loose oversight kept company in business

(Newser) - Angry salmonella victims and their families are asking how the government missed the Peanut Corporation of America's flagrant health violations that killed eight people, reports the New York Times. The company and government inspectors overlooked rodents, leaky roofs and lukewarm roasters, while minimum-wage temporary workers paid little attention to health...

Worker Told Bosses: We Need to Clean This Place

'I did see roaches and rodents,' employee says

(Newser) - At least one employee alerted management to the sanitation problems at a Georgia peanut plant linked to the deadly salmonella outbreak, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports. “I used to tell them all of the time, ‘We need to shut down and really clean this place,’” said Anne...

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