"The Food and Drug Administration will not reduce food inspections because of budget cuts, despite warning earlier that it could be forced to eliminate thousands of inspections by Sept. 30."
More infoThe Food and Drug Administration is detaining imports of cucumbers from a Mexican company after they were linked to salmonella illnesses in 18 states.
More info"Twenty-two weeks. That’s how long it took federal health officials to determine the contaminated food source after the first person was infected in a 2011 outbreak of salmonella that swept across 34 states, sickened 136 people and led to one of the largest national recalls of ground turkey."
More infoAn examination of a Salmonella Heidelberg outbreak linked to ground turkey illustrates that health authorities must be more aggressive in their efforts to detect and respond to foodborne illnesses, according to a new report by The Pew Charitable Trusts, titled “Too Slow: An Analysis of the 2011 Salmonella Ground Turkey Outbreak and Recommendations for Improving Detection and Response.” In all, the contaminated food sickened a reported 136 people in the United States, hospitalized 37 and killed one, according to government data.
More info"Six years ago, Bend resident Chrissy Christoferson's ten-month-old son suffered a ten-day struggle with what first appeared to be a touch of the flu."
More info"Portlander Joe Day tearfully recalled the year his family spent Thanksgiving in a hospital cafeteria, as his sister, suffering from e coli, fought for her life several floors above."
More info''Several hundred farmers, regulators and consumers from Alaska to North Dakota to California gathered in Portland on Wednesday to listen to federal plans to overhaul the food safety system."
More infoThe Obama administration has taken an important step by releasing the draft rules central to implementing the FDA Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA), but it must do more. Important draft regulations focused on the safety of imported foods are still awaiting release. These rules are especially important since about two-thirds of fruits and vegetables and 80 percent of seafood consumed in the United States come from abroad.
More infoIt is estimated that one in six Americans will get sick from food poisoning this year. That's 48 million people. And the grim reality: some will suffer the rest of their life and others will die. The Food and Drug Administration wants to stop foodborne illness at the source with proposed changes to the way food is grown and processed . In Chicago Monday and Tuesday, the public is invited to weigh in.
More info"Several months ago, my life was changed forever when I fell severely ill after eating imported ricotta cheese contaminated by the dangerous bacteria Listeria. Protections in a new U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) law could help prevent infections, like mine, from harming other Americans. But they need to be fully implemented to help anyone."
More infoA federal grand jury indicted four former employees of a peanut company linked to a 2009 salmonella outbreak that killed nine people and sickened hundreds, leading to one of the largest recalls in history.
More infoA Missouri man is applauding the government for setting up a plan to prevent a significant national health risk he says killed his father. One in 6 people — about 48 million Americans — get sick every year and about 3,000 die because of food-borne diseases, according to the Food and Drug Administration.
More infoThe family of a girl who nearly died six years ago is feeling a sense of victory after the FDA announced it will release new guidelines to make food safer.
More info"The announcement earlier this month of proposed federal food safety regulations certainly took long enough — the authorizing legislation, the Food Safety Modernization Act, was passed two years ago with bipartisan support. Between then and now, the nation has seen a number of incidents (the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has identified 15 multistate outbreaks) in which thousands of people took ill, even died, because of illness carried in contaminated food."
More info"America hasn't made major changes to its food-safety laws since the 1930s, so it probably should come as no surprise that - once a decision was finally made to update them - it took two more years to generate new regulations. But the Food and Drug Administration's menu for reform is now mostly assembled, and that's welcome news. For decades, federal regulators have reacted to outbreaks of foodborne illnesses rather than working aggressively to prevent them."
More infoPresident Obama signed sweeping food safety legislation into law more than two years ago, but full implementation is not yet complete.
Erik Olson
Senior Director, Food Portfolio
The Pew Charitable Trusts
Sandra Eskin
Director, Food Safety
The Pew Charitable Trusts
Copyright(c) 1996-2012 The Pew Charitable Trusts. All Rights Reserved.
[+] Feedback PHG.PRODUCTION.1.20130430.1322 (PEWSUWVMWAPP02)
