I asked our AI friends – What are the pros and cons of replacing FDA Commissioner Makary with me – here is the response? This is a very timely question — Makary resigned as FDA Commissioner today, May 12, 2026, amid reports of internal tensions and policy clashes, with the vaping dispute reportedly being a […]
Here is the most current information that I have on hamburger recalls due to E. coli O157:H7 or antibiotic-resistant Salmonella for 2009. The pounds recalled come from FSIS (you should also check on the amount that they actually get back). The sicknesses and deaths are from several sources, CDC, State and Local Health Departments and […]
Elizabeth Weiss and Peter Eisler of the USA Today continue on this month’s hard look at the school lunch program in this morning’s “Schools could learn lessons on food safety.” It is a good read. It is concerning, however, that the fast food industry is held up as a model of food safety for our […]
I always feel a bit better when I know that the big national papers, like the Washington Post, are weighing in on something that I have been blogging about since Christmas Eve. Lyndsey Layton posted online an hour ago – “E. coli-tainted beef infects 21 people in 16 states.” Unfortunately, even being inside the beltway, […]
Today the FSIS published the RETAIL CONSIGNEES FOR FSIS RECALL 068-2009. This was the recall of 312 pounds of Canadian Ham by Associated Grocers of Maine. The recall consisted of 16-ounce packages of "SUPER TRIM, Shurfine, IMPORTED, COOKED HAM, WATER ADDED, 98% FAT FREE." Each package bears the establishment number "141" inside the Canadian seal […]
According to State Health Department officials in six States, as of Monday there were reports of 1 illness each in Washington, Michigan, Iowa, Kansas and Colorado and 2 in South Dakota linked to the National State and Poultry E. coli O157:H7 beef recall linked to “mechanically-tenderized” steaks. The 1 ill person in Washington ate the […]
Thankfully Kim Archer of the Tulsa World Herald is adding to the slow roll of information on this outbreak and recall – “Owasso beef linked to E. coli.” Here is some clarified and newer information: Nineteen sickened, so says the CDC The E. coli outbreak — considered a Class 1 recall because the health risk […]
Today, National Steak and Poultry has confirmed that the recall is for beef products "sold primarily" to Moe’s, Carino’s Italian Grill, and KRM Restaurants (KRM Restaurant Group operates Jeremiah Johnson’s and nine locations of the 54th Street Grill). I have confirmation from state health departments of 1 illness each in Iowa, Kansas and Colorado and […]
According to recent press reports, a statement from National Steak and Poultry and discussions with various state health officials, Colorado has confirmed that at least one person in that state was sickened there in November but wasn’t hospitalized. Iowa and Kansas each confirmed one illness. A Washington State resident, a woman in her 60s, was […]
1. New York Times reporter Michael Moss introduced readers to Stephanie Smith, a children’s dance instructor from Minnesota who is partially paralyzed from E. coli O157:H7. In Moss’s Oct. 4 story, it was this paragraph in particular that made readers burn: "The frozen hamburgers that the Smiths ate, which were made by the food giant […]
After the events of the last few days, I am thinking twice about traveling to Europe and the Middle East in a month to speak at a food safety conference. Not that I am particularly concerned about being a target of foreign terrorism myself, although I do find the process that you have had to […]
On Christmas Eve the United States Department of Agriculture’s (USDA’s) Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) Recall 248,000 “beef products” from Oklahoma-based National Steak and Poultry. The recall was issued because the mechanically tenderized, non-intact steaks, were contaminated with E. coli O157:H7 and therefore, like hamburger contaminated with the same pathogen, considered adulterated by FSIS. […]
The Christmas Eve Recall of E. coli-tainted steaks by National Steak and Poultry, that have sickened people in several states in yet as unnamed restaurants, made me think a bit more about the problems the meat industry and the FSIS has had over the last sixteen years (post JITB) in dealing with E. coli O157:H7 […]
Associated Grocers of Maine, importing firm, a Gardiner, Maine, establishment, is recalling approximately 312 pounds of ham products that may be contaminated with Listeria monocytogenes, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) announced today. The following products are subject to recall: 16-ounce packages of “SUPER TRIM, Shurfine, IMPORTED, COOKED HAM, WATER […]
According to an FSIS Press Release, National Steak and Poultry, an Owasso, Okla., establishment, is recalling approximately 248,000 pounds of beef products that may be contaminated with E. coli O157:H7, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) announced today. FSIS became aware of the problem during the course of an investigation […]
I travel an awful lot, domestically and internationally, both suing companies who poison their customers and speaking of food safety, so I suppose Alison Young’s article should not have come as much of a surprise that "[a]irport restaurants … have been cited in the past year for hundreds of food safety violations, local health department reports […]