Jun 30 (CIDRAP News) As federal agencies near the Aug 12 deadline for full enforcement of the food security provisions of the 2002 Bioterrorism Act, authorities say the food industry is getting better at following the new rules.
(CIDRAP News) A substance that was smeared on dairy cows near Seattle, killing three and sickening seven others, was a chromium compound, but the episode did not endanger consumers, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said late yesterday.
(CIDRAP News) The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has proposed shifting about $55 million in biodefense funds from ongoing state preparedness programs to several new programs, focusing largely on efforts in 21 major cities.
(CIDRAP News) The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) today issued a final rule spelling out its procedures for detaining food suspected of being hazardous because of intentional or accidental contamination.
(CIDRAP News) The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) last week announced it would spend $18.8 million to begin a three-stage process for setting up a national animal identification system to help contain animal disease outbreaks.
Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman said the goal of the effort is a system to identify farms and other sites exposed to foreign animal diseases.
(CIDRAP News) The University of Minnesota and Texas A&M University will receive a total of $33 million to set up centers to research food contamination threats and foreign animal diseases, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced today.
(CIDRAP News) The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) yesterday announced the opening of a new high-security food safety laboratory in Athens, Ga.
The $1.65 million lab is designated as biosafety level 3 (BSL-3), the second highest of four biological security ratings, the USDA said in a news release. It will be operated by the Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS).
(CIDRAP News) Canadian officials said today that 19 million poultry in southwestern British Columbia's Fraser Valley would be destroyed in a vastly expanded campaign to stop highly pathogenic avian influenza.
Meanwhile, the World Health Organization reported today on cases of H7 influenza in two poultry workers who had contact with infected birds in the outbreak area. The two patients both had conjunctivitis and have recovered, the WHO said.
(CIDRAP News) The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is delaying the implementation of food security rules that would require most food businesses to keep detailed records on their handling of food products and would allow the FDA to hold potentially contaminated food.
(CIDRAP News) A new government-wide effort to sustain the cutting-edge life sciences research for which the United States is known but to also guard against misuse of the knowledge and technologies growing from this research was announced today by Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Tommy Thompson.
