The Honorable Bill Cassidy, M.D., ChairmanThe Honorable Bernie Sanders, Ranking MemberCommittee on Health, Education, Labor, and PensionsUnited States Senate428 Senate Dirksen Office BuildingWashington, DC 20510 Re: Finish what the Senate started — botulism in infant formula, the shared milk and powdered-milk supply behind two outbreaks, and the case for hearings and parent testimony Dear Chairman Cassidy, […]
Like many interested in food safety, I keep hoping to see S. 510 move to a vote on the Senate floor. Politico reports: Senate Democrats say they are on the brink of passing a sweeping food safety overhaul the House approved more than a year ago — but Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) is blocking a […]
Chairman Henry A. Waxman and Subcommittee Chairman Bart Stupak today sent a letter to Austin DeCoster, the owner of Wright County Egg, regarding records obtained by the Committee indicating that the company tested positive for Salmonella contamination in its Iowa facilities prior to the recent widespread outbreak of Salmonella-related illnesses. In the letter, the Chairmen […]
I will be heading back to the States on Tuesday a 1:00 PM from Auckland and will arrive in Seattle on Tuesday at 11:00 AM (I was going to go straight to Washington D.C., but that has been put off for a week). Prior to my at the NZ Food Safety Authority’s national conference, I […]
Good Saturday from New Zealand. This just dropped into my inbox from the CDC: • From May 1 to August 31, 2010, approximately 1,519 illnesses were reported that are likely to be associated with this outbreak. • FDA identified Salmonella with PFGE patterns indistinguishable from the outbreak strain in egg farm environmental samples. • Don’t […]
Senator Grassley was quoted in the Wall Street Journal today – “Just because food safety isn’t ‘my job’ doesn’t mean it should be ignored.” I may not agree with him on most things, but on this one, he and I seem to see eye to eye. I just may stop putting my money on the […]
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: […]