The USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) has published a notice in the Federal Register, asking for comments about changes to its procedures for Salmonella sampling of raw beef products. FSIS is going to begin sampling for Salmonella in all raw beef that it collects for Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli (STEC) analysis. Deadline for … Read more
Just as the US is rolling out a pilot program to fast-track inspections on meat from Canadian producers, XL Foods of Edmonton, Alberta announces a massive recall and then expands it three times over the course of three days. Fluke or foreshadowing? US consumer groups say the latter and they want the program ended immediately. “Canada’s … Read more
This week’s edition of Food Safety Bloopers is all about Rachael Ray. If you’re interested in food safety, you probably already heard about this. Ms. Ray has just released a new book called The Book of Burger. She appeared on The View on Wednesday, June 6 to promote the book and made burgers for the … Read more
Dr. Elisabeth Hagen, USDA’s Under Secretary for Food Safety, announced in a press conference on May 2, 2012 that the government is changing its traceback policy for contaminated beef that test positive for shiga-toxin producing E. coli bacteria (STEC). “Our keys goals are to strengthen our ability to protect consumers and to bolster prevention-based public … Read more
When University of California-Davis food safety researcher Dr. Christine Bruhn set out to observe 200 households as they prepared burgers and a salad at their home, there was no way to hide the fact that their movements were being watched. Despite the videotape intrusion, consumers in the observational study were extremely prone to engage in … Read more
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Food Safety and Inspection Service issued three notices about beef inspection this week that provide instruction on: sampling raw beef for the National School Lunch Program, selecting raw beef trim for test samples and for receiving, inspecting and slaughtering live cattle imported from Mexico. National School Lunch Program The … Read more
Despite repeated warnings about consuming undercooked ground beef, a survey by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), published by the Journal of Food Protection found that millions of Americans still like medium or medium-rare burgers. Based on the recent outbreaks of Salmonella food poisoning from ground beef, this survey is disheartening. Ground beef is often … Read more