Foodborne Disease

(CIDRAP News) – Recent studies suggest that an ethanol production byproduct that is widely fed to cattle may make cattle more likely to shed deadly Escherichia coli O157, possibly contributing to the surge in beef contamination cases in 2007.

(CIDRAP News) – A British woman who died of a brain disease suggestive of variant Creutzfeld-Jacob disease (vCJD) had a genetic marker not seen in any previous vCJD patients, raising the possibility that her illness represented a new form of the disease that could signal a new wave of infections, according to a recent research report.

(CIDRAP News) – The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) yesterday issued a public health alert about ground beef products that may be contaminated with a multidrug-resistant form of Salmonella that has sickened 38 people in four western states.

(CIDRAP News) – Under a food safety agreement announced today by US officials, the Chinese government pledges to register exporters of food to the United States, inspect shipments before they leave China, and set up a system to trace food products through the production system.

(CIDRAP News) – Safety inspectors still write their reports by hand, food processing plants are inspected once every 10 years at best, only two people work full-time on pet-food safety, and critical information is locked up in piles of warehoused paper documents.

(CIDRAP News) – The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) says it is returning its inspections and testing of Canadian meat and poultry products to normal levels after finding no problems during expanded monitoring over the past 2½ weeks.

(CIDRAP News) – Sick restaurant workers, including one who vomited in the kitchen, and inadequate cleaning products contributed to a norovirus outbreak at a Michigan restaurant in 2006 that sickened at least 364 customers, the US Centers for Disease Control (CDC) reported today.

(CIDRAP News) – The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) has modified its program of increased testing and inspection of Canadian meat, after finding no problems in the first week or so, a USDA official said today.

(CIDRAP News) – ConAgra Foods announced recently that it resumed production of pot pies brands that were linked to a nationwide Salmonella outbreak in October after making some changes that were prompted by an investigation by the US Department of Agriculture (USDA).

(CIDRAP News) – Starting tomorrow, US inspection and testing of imported Canadian meat and poultry products will roughly double and will include a category of beef products that has not previously been subject to testing, the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) said today.