Foodborne Disease

(CIDRAP News) – The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said today that green onions (scallions) from three Mexican firms have been implicated in hepatitis A outbreaks that occurred in September, but the source of the current outbreak in the Pittsburgh area has not yet been identified.

(CIDRAP News) – Leaders of the US beef industry last week released sets of recommended "best practices" for eliminating Escherichia coli O157:H7 contamination at slaughter plants and in grinding operations.

(CIDRAP News) – The Food and Drug Administration has advised the public to consider avoiding raw or lightly cooked green onions (scallions) in the light of evidence linking them to recent hepatitis A outbreaks.

(CIDRAP News) – The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) today released a 15-page set of guidelines for the public on food safety and security.

Titled "Food Safety and Food Security: What Consumers Need to Know," the booklet covers topics ranging from safe cooking temperatures and product recalls to spotting and reporting possible food tampering.

(CIDRAP News) – A study from the Netherlands confirms that food-handling practices play an important role in the spread of noroviruses (Norwalk viruses), which have been blamed for many outbreaks of intestinal illness on cruise ships and in institutions in recent years.

(CIDRAP News) – In an effort to ensure that sick cattle are kept out of the food supply, the Senate last week approved a measure to bar the Department of Agriculture (USDA) from approving the use of "downed" animals for human consumption.

(CIDRAP News) – Cattle that were vaccinated against Escherichia coli O157:H7 in trials the past 2 years showed significant reductions in prevalence of the pathogen, according to a Canadian company that hopes to market the vaccine as a food safety measure.

(CIDRAP News) – The US Department of Agriculture's (USDA's) Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) plans to hold a meeting Nov 13 to get the public's thoughts on how it analyzes risk.

Editor's note: This story was updated from its original form to include additional details about the FDA guidelines and comments from a pharmaceutical industry representative.

(CIDRAP News) – The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has released a guide to help the drug industry assess the risk that antimicrobial drugs intended for use in food animals will spawn resistant bacteria that could ultimately harm human health.

(CIDRAP News) – A painstaking analysis of the risk of Listeria infections associated with ready-to-eat (RTE) foods shows that proper refrigeration and limiting storage time could reduce the risk by more than 50%, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced today.