food safety

See the following -

A Dangerous Week For Food: 4 Major Recalls

Nina Lincoff | Healthline | May 23, 2014

There have been three major human food recalls this week, as well as one recall that affects man’s best friend...

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A Few Ways The Government Shutdown Could Harm Your Health (And The World’s)

Maryn McKenna | Wired | October 1, 2013

There’s going to be a lot — a lot — of coverage today on the federal shutdown, what it means and how long it might go on. I thought it might be worth quickly highlighting how it affects the parts of the government that readers here care most about: public health, global health, food safety and the spread of scary diseases. Read More »

Almost Three Times The Risk Of Carrying MRSA From Living Near A Mega-Farm

Maryn McKenna | Wired | January 22, 2014

In the long fight over antibiotic use in agriculture, one of the most contentious points is whether the resistant bacteria that inevitably arise can move off the farm to affect humans. [...] So whenever a research team can link resistant bacteria found in humans with farms that are close to those humans, it is an important contribution to the debate. Read More »

Animal Health Institute Statement On FDA Final Guidance 213

Press Release | Animal Health Institute (AHI) | December 11, 2013

The Animal Health Institute (AHI) issued the following statement in response to the Food and Drug Administration’s publication of the final Guidance 213 and proposed VFD rule implementing the policy of extending veterinary oversight and eliminating  the subtherapeutic use of medical important antibiotics in animal agriculture. Read More »

Antibiotic Resistance Ups Salmonella Hospitalizations: CDC

Steven Reinberg | Philly.com | October 9, 2013

Because of antibiotic resistance, 42 percent of patients stricken with salmonella tied to a California chicken farm have required hospitalization, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported Wednesday. Read More »

Antibiotic Use In Chickens: Responsible For Hundreds Of Human Deaths?

Maryn McKenna | Wired | August 9, 2013

In the long back and forth between science and agriculture over the source of antibiotic resistance in humans — Due to antibiotic overuse on farms, or in human medicine? — one question has been stubbornly hard to answer. If antibiotic-resistant bacteria do arise on farms, do they leave the farm and circulate in the wider world? And if they do, how much damage do they do? Read More »

Antibiotic-Resistant 'Superbugs' Creep Into Nation's Food Supply

Mark Koba | CNBC | April 18, 2013

Antibiotic-resistant bacteria—often called "superbugs"—are entering the nation's food system and endangering consumers at an alarming rate, according to researchers who analyzed data from the federal government. Read More »

Antibiotics Creating "Bacterial Monsters"

Lindsay Tanne | TakePart | June 24, 2013

The next time you’re contemplating flushing your prescription medication down the toilet, you may want to consider the “bacterial monsters” they have the potential to spawn. Read More »

Bracing For A Battle, Vermont Passes GMO Labeling Bill

Eliza Barclay and Jeremy Bernfeld | The Salt | April 24, 2014

The Green Mountain State is poised to become the first to require food companies to label products containing genetically modified ingredients. Read More »

Breeding Bacteria On Factory Farms

Mark Bittman | New York Times | July 9, 2013

The story of antibiotic-resistant bacteria in farm animals is not a simple one. But here’s the pitch version: Yet another study has reinforced the idea that keeping animals in confinement and feeding them antibiotics prophylactically breeds varieties of bacteria that cause disease in humans, disease that may not readily be treated by antibiotics... Read More »

Cantaloupe vs. al-Qaeda: What's More Dangerous?

Michael Meurer | Truthout | September 15, 2013

[An important revelation] is the exposure of a nearly lunatic disproportion in threat assessment and spending by the US government. This disproportion has been spawned by a fear-based politics of terror that mandates unlimited money and media attention for even the most tendentious terrorism threats, while lethal domestic risks such as contaminated food from our industrialized agribusiness system are all but ignored Read More »

CDC Calls Back Staff To Handle Salmonella Outbreak

Cole Petrochko | MedPage Today | October 8, 2013

An outbreak of Salmonella Heidelberg has spread to 18 states and has sickened nearly 300, prompting the return of some 30 CDC staffers furloughed during the government shutdown to work on the case. Read More »

CDC Threat Report: Yes, Agricultural Antibiotics Play A Role In Drug Resistance

Maryn McKenna | Wired | September 17, 2013

The grave assessment on the advance of drug resistance, released Monday by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, contained some important observations about the relationship between antibiotic use in agriculture and resistant infections in humans. [...] Read More »

CDC Unable To Conduct Lab, Detection Work On Salmonella Outbreak

Tom Sullivan | Government Health IT | October 9, 2013

For all those Americans crossing fingers that no communicable disease, influenza or foodborne illness outbreaks would happen during the government shutdown, exactly that has occurred. Read More »

CDC: Foodborne Illness In The U.S. Not Getting Better

Maryn McKenna | Wired | April 17, 2014

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention today released their annual survey of foodborne illnesses in the United States, and the news is, well, not great. In the words of the press announcement they sent out to announce the data release: “limited progress.” Read More »