Tag Archives: food safety

Fourth Case of Mad Cow Disease Confirmed in the U.S.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture has confirmed a case of Mad Cow disease in a dairy cow in Fresno, California. The dead animal tested positive for the disease and experts are now completing an investigation to ensure no other cows have been infected. Thus far, no sign of the disease has been detected in the cow feed, which is a positive sign.

Mad Cow, also known as bovine spongiform encephalopathy or BSE – is a fatal disintegration of the brain and nervous system. Although it’s most commonly found in cows, it can also infect humans if they ingest the meat of a cow with the disease.

One such instance occurred in the U.K. close to 30 years ago, when nearly 200 hundred people were infected with the disease after an outbreak. One extreme case left one man blind, deaf and immobile from 2001 until his death in 2024.

More than 4.4 million cows were slaughtered in the 1980s to control this outbreak after close to 180,000 cows were found to have the disease.
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Posted on April 25, 2024 by Dana

New Research Hopes to Detect and Prevent Food Fraud

As if fish identity swapping wasn’t concerning enough, new research published in the Journal of Food Science has identified the top seven foods with commonly altered ingredients as olive oil, milk, honey, saffron, orange juice, coffee, and apple juice, proving food fraud is alive and well; and unfortunately, flourishing.

In light of growing concerns regarding food safety, the U.S. Pharmacopeial Convention (USP) has compiled a public database with reports on food fraud and economically-motivated adulteration of food, which is the first of its kind. Researchers behind the database say getting this information published was key in giving the study credibility so that food fraud can become a more important and valid public concern.

The database provides information necessary to properly assess the risks of certain products, with a list of 1,305 records of food fraud instances from 66 scholarly, media and other public reports. The database also includes potential adulterants – or substances that corrupt, debase, or make impure by the addition of a foreign substance –  that could reappear in the supply chain for particular ingredients, as well as analytical testing strategies to detect food fraud. (more…)

Posted on April 9, 2024 by Dana

New Technology from Picarro Reveals What’s Really in Your Food

If there was a machine that could detect whether your hamburger was really grass-fed like the label says it is, would you use it? Picarro – the company behind a piece of technology that’s capable of doing so – hopes you’d say yes. Because they think you’d be surprised to find out what’s really in your food.

Based in Silicon Valley, Picarro is a highly reputable company that specializes in carbon and water cycle measurements. They’ve developed an instrument that’s capable of detecting isotopes in food called an ‘optical stable isotope analyzer.’ And although it sounds complicated, the way it works is actually quite simple.

According to Picarro Business Director Iain Green – whom we contacted via email –  carbon dioxide (CO2) and water (H2O) are the same molecules that plants photosynthesize to create the sugars, oils and other organic material. And since isotopic signatures vary around the world, so do crops. And depending on the plate type and region it’s grown, crops absorb different ratios of these molecules and therefore have unique isotopic signatures.

An example of this? Sugar cane grown in Hawaii has a different ‘signature’ than sugar grown from corn in the Midwest. And cocoa grown on the Ivory Coast has a different ‘signature’ than cocoa grown in Ghana. And Picarro can tell the difference after one little test. (more…)

Posted on April 5, 2024 by Dana

Taiwan Trashes US Meat Over Livestock Drug

Ractopamine, ever heard of it? Probably not. However, this feed additive is rather controversial and is causing international waves.

Ractopamine is fed to American livestock in order to promote lean meat. Currently, it is fed to about 60 to 80 percent of the pigs in America and as a result, there have been numerous reports of dead and sickened pigs. No other livestock drug has caused such high numbers of death and illness according to an investigation by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

Since the drug was introduced, over 218,000 pigs on ractopamine have been reported to show very adverse effects. Since March 2024, the drug has caused the majority of problems in pigs even though other livestock animals are on the drug. Pigs are suffering from hyperactivity, trembling, broken limbs, the inability to walk, and death.  These results were gathered from a FDA report that was released under a Freedom of Information Act request. Even though these disturbing things are happening to the livestock, the FDA says the data can’t determine that the drug caused these effects.

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Posted on March 14, 2024 by Lacy

BHA is Lurking in Your Cereal, but is it Safe?

By Lauren O’Connor, MS, RD for Nutri-Savvy.

You may tread on it, wear it, and yes, even ingest it! The same chemical used in making tires and the make-up you wear may be found in a wide variety of common, everyday food products.

Butylated hydroxyanisole (BHA) is a synthetic chemical found in petroleum, rubber, cosmetics, animal feed, and food packaging. Because it prevents oxidation, it is also used to “preserve freshness” in food products. It works by retarding rancidity and eliminating odors in fat and oil-containing foods. Though an “antioxidant,” this widely-used substance may be cause for concern.

The exposure to BHA in foods increased nearly two-fold from the 1970s to the early eighties, with US annual usage rising from 170,000 kg to 300,000 kg. The additive may be found in butter, meats, cereals, chewing gum, baked goods, snacks, nut products, dry beverage mixes, active dry yeast, dehydrated potatoes and beer! And let’s not forget the environment: If you work around livestock or in the cosmetics, rubber or petroleum industries, you have increased exposure. Fast-food employees who cook and serve fried, oily foods are also more exposed. (more…)

Posted on February 5, 2024 by GuestBlogger

Reconditioning: The FDA’s Really Dirty Secret is Out

Did you know our government says companies can sell us food with an average of 225 insect fragments? Or that 4.5 rodent hairs per 8 ounces of noodle products is acceptable? Swallow this: the FDA also says that an average of 20 or more maggots is permitted per 3.5 ounces of drained canned mushrooms, or that an average of 15 percent is OK for the mold content in canned cranberry sauce. Our government has a lot of rules about “bad” or “tainted” food that I was pretty shocked to learn about, one of which is reconditioning.

Recently a school lunch supplier, SnoKist Growers, repackaged moldy applesauce into fruit cups and canned goods. Even though the public outcry has caused the FDA to re-inspect, this is not an illegal practice. The company, per FDA standards, is allowed to run the food through a heat process to kill the contaminant. This process then renders the food safe and shelf ready. This same process was used in 2024 when over 177 products were recalled from Basic Food Flavors, Inc., a hydrolyzed vegetable protein, or HVP, producer. Salmonella was found in their HVP, a very popular flavor enhancer, and thus the company heat-treated the HVP and it was reconditioned, distributed, and sold.

FDA officials say they expect some contaminants to in products, simply because a zero-tolerance threshold would be impossible to for manufacturers to meet. As the consumer, I’d like to know if my rice was re-sifted because a month ago to remove bug parts. I really want to know if the applesauce I buy for my son was full of mold weeks prior. However, the FDA does not require a label or notification or even a price reduction to shoppers, nor is it going to any time soon. I doubt anyone would buy rice with a label stating, “Contained bugs last month.” (more…)

Posted on November 29, 2023 by Lacy

Majority of Honey on Grocery Store Shelves is Not Actually Honey

According to a test run by Food Safety News, a vast majority of the honey lining grocery store shelves may not actually be honey.

Results of the study showed that the pollen typically found in honey is often filtered out through a high-tech procedure called ultra-filtering. Without this pollen, it’s difficult to identify where the honey in question originated from and whether it is in its purest form. From plastic bears to jugs and jars, it can be a real challenge to identify which products are your best bet. To help you out, here are a few guidelines to help you select real honey every time:

What you need to know

With a vast majority of our honey being ultra-filtered, it’s important to know what that means. In some instances, it may mean that there is indeed very minimal amounts of real honey present within the product; however, in most cases it most likely means that the purity of the honey isn’t as clear cut as you thought it might be. According to the study done by Food Safety News, most of the honey lining our grocery store shelves have had their pollen removed. In fact, 76-100% of the samples retrieved from some of America’s biggest grocery store chains tested negative for pollen.

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Posted on November 9, 2023 by Kati

Pine Nuts Recalled Due to Salmonella Outbreak

Just when you thought your food was safe from foodborne illnesses, another salmonella outbreak hits! This time, the food in question is Wegmans Food Markets Inc.’s Turkish Pine Nuts which have been linked to the latest outbreak causing at least 43 people to become ill in seven states. No deaths have been reported at this time.

The pine nuts were sold in the Wegmans New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Virginia, and Maryland based stores  between July 1st and October 18th and were found in unlabeled bulk containers and may be present in foods prepared at Wegmans including some baked goods, pesto, and salads.

According to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Wegmans has voluntarily recalled over 5,000 pounds of their pine nuts to prevent further illness. The pine nuts are suggested to be contaminated with Salmonella Enterditis, an organism that can cause serious and sometimes fatal infection in populations considered to be at high risk. Children, the elderly, pregnant women, and individuals with a compromised immune system are all considered to be at higher risk for infection. Individuals who are relatively healthy typically experience fever, diarrhea, nausea, vomiting, and abdominal pain after eating something with salmonella bacteria present in high levels.

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Posted on October 29, 2023 by Kati

The Four Rules of Food Safety

Food safety isn’t a very glamorous topic; however, amid the more recent food recalls, being food safe is incredibly important.

For most individuals, food safety means washing your hands – a lot! Yet there is much more to food safety than simple hand washing procedures. As the holidays rapidly approach, getting food safe can be a critical component in keeping your loved ones healthy and happy. Don’t let them be one of the hundreds of thousands of people who get sent to the hospital each year due to food poisoning.

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Posted on October 8, 2023 by Kati

Velveeta Shells and Cheese Cups Recall Caused by Wire Bristle

My kids are huge lovers of macaroni and cheese. I’ve tried to get them hooked on homemade, healthier versions, but they still beg for the boxed, orange dust variety. Even more than the regular cups, though, they love the microwaveable single serve cups, and I will buy them once in a while. They aren’t a great source of nutrition; in fact, I don’t equate them with a healthy choice at all, but I’d rather they eat a cup of pasta and cheese than a bag of chips. Today’s recall might be enough to change my mind, however.

Alaska state officials have announced the recall of three varieties of Velveeta Shells & Cheese microwaveable cups due to the fact that they might contain small bits of wire bristle.

Kind of gives the idea of “iron-fortified” a new meaning, doesn’t it?

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Posted on October 4, 2023 by Carmen

Help Your Child go Back to School Safely with a Peanut Allergy

My son has a severe, life threatening allergy to peanuts and tree nuts. We discovered this food allergy when he was two years old and we just could not figure out why he had severe asthma, requiring multiple emergency room visits, steroids and the like. He also randomly developed enormous hives all over his body and had difficulty breathing when the hives occurred. We took him to an allergist who tested him with both a skin test and a blood test, and we learned of the severity and breadth of the allergies.

Food allergies are different from food intolerances. A food intolerance can cause stomach upset, gastric distress, and possibly digestive issues in the form of diarrhea and constipation. Many people claim that they have a food allergy when a food does not agree with them, and this diminishes the severity for those with a true, life threatening allergy. A food allergy is defined as an abnormal response to a food triggered by your body’s immune system, and is most often triggered by the so called “Big 8”.  These eight foods account for 90% of all food reactions and are milk, egg, peanut, tree nut, shellfish, sesame, wheat and soy.

You may hear of a person outgrowing their food allergies, but peanut and shellfish most often remain as lifelong allergies. A food allergy affects the breathing and heart and can, if not stopped in time, lead to death. People who have been diagnosed with a food allergy are often prescribed an epi-pen, an auto-injector of epinephrine that must be injected into the upper thigh to stop the reaction.

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Posted on August 19, 2023 by Carmen