The Missouri Department of Agriculture’s Meat and Poultry Inspection Program has stopped custom exempt processing operations at Hilty’s Custom Meats in Bowling Green. A routine inspection on February 5, 2013 found violations relating to “selling uninspected meat products to the public.” This type of processing is used for livestock owners and hunters for their own … Read more
The USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) has published a notice in the Federal Register that it made a major change to the way it inspects countries that are eligible to export meat, poultry, and egg products to the U.S. The notice is Ongoing Equivalence Verifications of Foreign Regulatory Systems, Docket No. FSIS-2012-0049. Food … Read more
Houses Butchering LLC in Ohio is recalling 444 pounds of sliced bacon and 55 pounds of summer sausage because it was packaged without a food safety plan. The products are also misbranded. There have been no illnesses or complaints reported in association with the consumption of these products. The products were sold from January 1, … Read more
Food & Water Watch released USDA inspection records this week from foreign meat plants that reveal problems of how deregulated meat inspection regimes can put US consumers at risk. The organization filed a Freedom of Information Act with the USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) for foreign establishment audit checklists for all audits the … Read more
Humphrey’s Market in Illinois is recalling about 2,764 pounds of frozen ready to eat and raw poultry products that were produced without the benefit of inspection. The products were also misbranded and may contain soy, wheat, and milk that are not declared on the label. The following ready to eat products are recalled. Cryovac packages … Read more
Food & Water Watch has sent a letter to Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack about the equivalency status of Australia’s privatized meat inspection program and the USDA program. Last year, the USDA decided to make the two programs equivalent, despite discoveries of contaminated meat imported from Australia. Wenonah Hauter, executive director of Food & Water Watch, … Read more
Food & Water Watch has released a report covering their concerns about the Obama administration’s “Beyond the Border” initiative, that will reduce regulatory requirements to facilitate trade between the United States and Canada. The organization has extreme reservations about some of the policies in that initiative, especially the elimination of the border inspection program at … Read more
Food & Water Watch, a nonprofit watchdog organization, is criticizing the USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service actions on the Canadian firm XL Food’s ground beef recall. That product was recalled for possible E. coli 0157:H7 contamination. The recall has been expanded six times, and Canadian inspectors found several problems at the XL Foods plant. … Read more
The Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development (MDARD) is starting an online food establishment inspection report system called MiSafe. Consumers can just type in the establishment name, street address, and city and see more than 19,000 inspection reports. The reports cover grocery and convenience stores, food processors, and food warehouses. Those facilities are inspected … Read more
A retired Chicago public health inspector who took almost $100,000 in bribes was sentenced to two and half years in federal prison last week. Maryanne Koll who taught food service sanitation classes and administered state certifications is alleged to have accepted at least $96,930 in bribes in exchange for fraudulently arranging to provide 531 people … Read more