The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced Thursday that 73 cases of Salmonella Saintpaul have been reported across 18 states, believe to be linked to exposure to infected cucumbers. The cucumbers were supplied by Daniel Cardenas Izabal and Miracle Greenhouse of Culiacán, Mexico and distributed by Tricar Sales, Inc. of Rio Rico, Arizona.

27% of reported cases required hospitalization and no deaths have been reported. The youngest person sickened was under one year of age.
FULL POST

Despite food safety measures, the threat of foodborne illness remains in meat and produce - and some types of illness are on the rise, recent reports say.

About 48 million people contract some form of food poisoning each year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Salmonella remained the top cause of foodborne illness last year, according to the CDC's 2012 report card on food poisoning, issued Thursday. However, the overall instance of Salmonella was unchanged from the 2006-08 data, the agency said. The report card is based on reports from 10 U.S. regions, representing about 15% of the country.
FULL POST

When you shop for turkey burgers for dinner tonight, you may be buying more than meat.

A recently released FDA report found that of all the raw ground turkey tested, 81% was contaminated with antibiotic-resistant bacteria.
FULL POST

UPDATE: The recall has been expanded from 196,222 pounds to over 10.5 million pounds. A full listing of the affected products is available at the USDA's website.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced Friday that 24 cases of E. coli O121 have been reported across 15 states, with at least one linked to the consumption of Farm Rich brand frozen meals and snacks. One third of the cases have required hospitalization and no deaths have occurred.

Illness related to this outbreak's strain have been reported in Alabama, Arkansas, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Mississippi, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Washington and Wisconsin. 78% of those sickened are under the age of 22.

Rich Products Corporation recalled approximately 196,222 pounds of Farm Rich Mini Quesadillas, Philly Cheese Steaks, Mini Pizza Slices and Mozzarella Bites produced from November 12-19, 2012 after being informed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture of potential contamination of these products.
FULL POST

Food recalls are coming in fast and furious and it's often hard to keep track. In this series of recall round-ups we share the most up-to-date information on the foods you should be scrutinizing right now.

IKEA Meatballs
Doing a bit of shopping and snacking abroad? You might wish to grab lunch before you go to IKEA. The Swedish furniture chain has pulled 1675 pounds of meatballs from the menus of some of its in-store cafeterias across Europe after tests in the Czech Republic revealed the presence of horse meat in some samples.
FULL POST

If you are what you eat, you might be having an identity crisis.

A new study on food fraud was released Wednesday morning by U.S. Pharmacopeial Convention (USP), a scientific nonprofit organization that helps set standards for the "quality, safety and benefit" of foods and medicines. The group runs a searchable online database of food fraud reports at foodfraud.org and nearly 800 new records were added as part of the study - a 60% increase from last year.

Food fraud, as defined by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), is the adulteration, dilution or mislabeling of goods. USP further defines food fraud in the study as "the fraudulent addition of nonauthentic substances or removal or replacement of authentic substances without the purchaser's knowledge for economic gain to the seller."
FULL POST

Despite sweeping reform of food safety laws intended to make what we eat less dangerous, the number of Americans falling ill or dying from contaminated food has increased 44% in the past two years alone, according to a recent report by the U.S. Public Interest Research Group.
FULL POST

The U.S. Department of Agriculture's Food Safety and Inspection Service announced today that 60 days from now producers will for the first time be required to hold shipments of non-intact raw beef and all ready-to-eat products containing meat and poultry until they pass the agency's testing for adulterants that are known to cause food-borne illnesses such as E. coli, salmonella and listeria.

USDA Under Secretary for Food Safety Dr. Elisabeth Hagen said in a statement, "This new policy will reduce food-borne illnesses and the number of recalls by preventing contaminated products from reaching consumers."
FULL POST

Aliya's Food Limited, a Canadian exporter of Indian food products, announced Monday that it has issued a recall of 4,865 pounds of frozen butter chicken and rice products on fears of listeria contamination.

Following suit, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) announced a public alert because affected products were imported to the United States and sold at the Trader Joe's chain of grocery stores in Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Massachusetts, Maine, Maryland, North Carolina, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Virginia and Washington D.C.

The tainted products are: "12.5 oz boxes of "Trader Joe's Butter Chicken with Basmati Rice" with product code "2012-10-31" and lot code "30512."
FULL POST

An analysis in the January 2013 issue of Consumer Reports magazine revealed 69% of pork chops and ground pork that the organization sampled from around the U.S. tested positive for Yersinia enterocolitica, a bacteria that, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), can result in fever, abdominal pain and diarrhea.

Consumer Reports also found 3-7% of the samples harbored salmonella, staphylococcus aureus or listeria monocytogenes, other common pathogens for foodborne illness. Twenty-three percent of the samples contained none of the tested bacteria.

Of the 198 samples, the organization found other alleged complications with the "other white meat." The sampling also claims that some of the bacteria were resistant to typical antibiotics that are used to treat foodborne illnesses, such as amoxicillin, penicillin, tetracycline and streptomycin. Of the 132 samples with Yersinia enterocolitica, 121 of those were resistant to one or more antibiotics.

"The frequent use of low-dose antibiotics in pork farming may be accelerating the growth of drug-resistant 'superbugs' that threaten human health," said Consumer Reports.
FULL POST