“…for her role in the apple scare. She told me so.” [Elizabeth Whelan, National Post]
Posts Tagged ‘food safety’
Update: animal-tagging runs into Senate setback
Following an outcry from various sectors of the farm community, the U.S. Senate may have slowed or even broken the momentum toward federally sponsored numbering and tagging of farmyard animals. 
The upper house embraced “an amendment sponsored by Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont., and Sen. Mike Enzi, R-Wyo., that slashes funding for the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Animal Identification System by one-half in the 2010 agriculture appropriations bill.” [AgWeek, Drovers] NAIS, or the National Animal Identification System, has been promoted on (among other grounds) improving “traceability” of food safety problems. Earlier coverage here, here, etc.
House passes food-safety measure
The vote was 283-142. From the New York Times account, which quotes four named supporters of the bill and no opponents, you’d barely get any sense of why the bill might be considered controversial. But the San Francisco Chronicle, L.A. Times, Des Moines Register and Omaha World Herald have all reported on what the first-named called the “uproar among small farmers”. McClatchy’s summary confusingly suggests that farms “in part” are not covered by the bill (those already regulated by USDA won’t be subject to the FDA), but it does establish clearly why the main impacts of the bill are likely to be felt gradually rather than immediately:
The bill orders federal agencies to prepare certain food safety regulations. But these highly detailed regulations will be years in the making.
Notably, the bill gives the Department of Health and Human Services three years to establish “science-based standards for the safe growing, harvesting, packing, sorting, transporting and holding of raw agricultural commodities.” These standards could cover everything from manure control and employee hygiene to water quality.
Federal officials must also prepare regulations establishing a tracing system to “identify each person who grows, produces, manufacturers, processes, packs, transports, holds or sells” dangerous food.
More: Greg Conko, CEI, Carter Wood, ShopFloor; on the outcry from organic producers, Reuters and Taylor Blanchard/Charlotte Examiner.
Orange County taco trucks
And their many legal headaches (via Sullum, “Hit and Run”).
Toronto foodie culture, under the table
Maclean’s reports on the “thriving black market in Canada for borderline illegal, locally produced foods,” from raw dairy products through illicit cured meats available to those with “the right social network”. “You’ve got to hook up with someone who’s got a hook-up. It’s like buying drugs,” says food writer Chris Nuttall-Smith. “Illegal eggs taste amazing.” (& welcome Hit & Run readers).
“Denny’s Sued Over Salt Content in Food”
Denny’s as “Public Health Enemy No. 1”, over-salty food as “silent killer” — yes, they really do talk that way at the uber-nannyish (and litigious) Center for Science in the Public Interest [AOL Slashfood, Consumer Law and Policy, Greg Conko/CEI “Open Market”]
There’s a latex finger cot in my food
Every time a headline comes up along the lines of “Man sues eatery after claiming to find a condom in his soup” — and they come up fairly regularly — I am put in mind of the existence of “finger cots”, small objects made of latex or similar material and often worn by food handlers over individual fingers as an anti-contamination measure. If I were a journalist covering such a dispute, I’d want to ask both sides whether they had ruled out for sure the possibility that the object in dispute was a food handler’s finger cot. Wouldn’t you?
Suit demanding warnings on hot dogs
The Newark Star-Ledger covers a publicity stunt by the animal-rights group that calls itself Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine. Patrick at Popehat engages in a bit of naming and shaming. Others to have written on the group in question include Newsweek in 2004 (“Less than 5 percent of PCRM’s members are physicians”), the American Council on Science and Health, and the food-industry-defense Center for Consumer Freedom.
P.S. L.A. Times gets the best line, from Susan Thatcher of Irvine: “Vegans complaining about hot dogs is like the Amish complaining about gas prices.”
Tearing up the farm, in safety’s name
Eye-opening account by Carolyn Lochhead in the San Francisco Chronicle of some of the collateral damage in the farm-safety panic. For fear of bacterial contamination, farmers are now increasingly obliged to act rigorously against any sign of wildlife, whether frogs, squirrels, birds or mice:
…ponds are being poisoned and bulldozed. Vegetation harboring pollinators and filtering storm runoff is being cleared. Fences and poison baits line wildlife corridors.
Even organic techniques of surrounding crops with hedges of pest-resistant vegetation are being foiled by buyers’ demands that an entirely sterile ring be installed instead.
Auditors have told [farmer Ken] Kimes that no children younger than 5 can be allowed on his farm for fear of diapers. He has been asked to issue identification badges to all visitors.
Full article here.
House panel clears sweeping food-safety overhaul
Per CQ Politics, “A House committee approved a sweeping food safety overhaul bill Wednesday after tweaking it to address most remaining GOP concerns, including the bill’s effect on small food producers. …Republicans had expressed concerns about the effect of [a provision increasing frequency of inspections] on small producers, but were assuaged by language adopted as part of a manager’s amendment that would allow the FDA to modify that inspection schedule for some producers at its discretion.” An annual fee per establishment has also been cut from $1000 to $500. More: WSJ. Earlier here, etc.