The CDC reports: Shigellosis is a nationally notifiable diarrheal illness caused by gram-negative bacteria. Shigella infection is spread through fecal-oral transmission and sexual contact. Although most infections are self-limited, antibiotics are indicated for severe illness or to reduce transmission in settings with high risk for spread. Since 2015, a growing proportion of cases has been caused by […]
My bet to the chagrin of some 200 California restaurants, Kern County published a list today of the the restaurants that received the tainted eggs from Wright County Eggs and Hillandale Farms. You must wonder if the restaurants will be asking a few more questions of their suppliers in the future? Here is the Salmonella […]
After my speech today at the 3rd Annual Australian Food Safety Conference, several people approached me trying to understand the scope of 550,000,000 eggs being recalled in the US and some 1,500 people sickened with Salmonella Enteritidis. They asked politely (as Australian’s do) if it was true that the “farms” had never been inspected by […]
Thinking I had to be up at 4:30 AM this morning to participate in a phone conference (it is actually Friday morning – I’m a day ahead here in Australia), I awoke at 3:30 AM to Mary Clare Jalonick’s article about Stewart Parnell’s new job – consulting for the peanut industry – REALLY? Her best […]
In the morning we will petition the Iowa Federal Court for entrance to the Iowa egg farm responsible for the massive egg recall and nationwide outbreak of Salmonella. A ‘Rule 34’ inspection – named for its position in the civil code – is a request for entry into a facility for purposes of inspection and […]
When Cargill Meat Solutions and the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) recalled approximately 8,500 pounds of ground beef products that was contaminated with E. coli O26 just after midnight on August 28, 2010, I was convinced that it was a plot to get bad news out when no one was […]
Although food poisoning is a prevalent issue in Australia and New Zealand, both countries have taken major legislative efforts over the past decade to better regulate and enforce food and hygiene standards. Although both have similar food regulations, they have different legal regimes that treat food poisoning cases differently. In Australia, food law is dealt […]
My topic is “The True Cost of Foodborne Illness.” I decided to use the Peanut Corporation of America Salmonella Outbreak from 2008 – 2009 to show the problem and walk through some solutions. (Download PDF Slides). The blank slide is a video.
I am sitting in the Melbourne Airport about to board a plane to Tasmania for a few days when I saw the Denver Post article on raw milk and the toll it too on the Pierce family. Mary Pierce and her husband, Mike, did research online before deciding to try raw goat’s milk because their […]
Great thing about wireless on a plane traveling for 20 hours is that you can work constantly. I am just about finished with my PowerPoint for my speech on September 9th. (AUS2010) Blank slide is a video.
In between my day job as managing partner at Marler Clark, my evening job as blogger at Marler Blog and my middle of the night job as publisher at Food Safety News, I spend some time traveling the world pitching “why it is a bad idea to poison your customers.” Here are some upcoming trips: […]
In July 2010, CDC identified a nationwide sustained increase in the number of Salmonella Enteritidis isolates with PFGE pattern JEGX01.0004 uploaded to PulseNet, the national subtyping network made up of state and local public health laboratories and federal food regulatory laboratories that performs molecular surveillance of foodborne infections. This increase began in May 2010 and […]
William Neuman of the New York Times got Dr. Hagen on record this week in his article, “Beef Recall Heats Up Fight to Tighten Rules:” Dr. Hagen has yet to say publicly what she plans to do. But in a written statement provided to The New York Times, she said, “In order to best prevent […]
We compiled a bit of data and some cool charts to try and see the differences between the last two years of the Bush administration and the first two years of the Obama term. Download all the slides here – Obama v Bush
In less than two weeks (on September 14) the House of Representatives Committee on Energy and Commerce, headed by Representatives Dingell (D-MI), Waxman (D-CA), and Stupak (D-MI), will hold what has become an annual event–yet another hearing on the failings ofm the food industry to provide consumers safe food. In 2007 the Committee held hearings […]
The CDC estimates that “non-O157 STECs (like O26, O45, 0103, O111, O121, and O145) cause 36,700 illnesses, 1,100 hospitalizations and 30 deaths in America each year.” And, with the outbreak of E. coli O26 in Cargill hamburger that was announced last weekend, I frankly fail to see what more needs to be said to convince […]