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."
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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."
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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.
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U.S. regulators shut down a New Mexico nut-processing facility Monday after the plant was linked to an outbreak of salmonella earlier this year.

The Food and Drug Administration's decision to suspend the registration of the Sunland Inc. plant in Portales, New Mexico, comes after health officials traced the June outbreak to nut butter produced at the facility. In a statement announcing the move, the agency said it would reinstate the company's food facility registration "only when FDA determines that the company has implemented procedures to produce safe products."
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The United States Department of Agriculture's Food Safety and Inspection Service announced Friday that Black Earth Meat Market Inc. is recalling approximately 99 pounds of beef tongue products because they may not have had the tonsils completely removed.
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Nestle is recalling more than 200,000 canisters of its chocolate drink mix Nesquik because of possible contamination of salmonella.

Nestle said the problem occurred on batches of the the mix produced in October. The bottom of the canister says it is best to use by October 2014. The size of the canisters affected are 40.7 ounces, 21.8 ounces, and 10.9 ounces. The two smaller containers have a promotion for the current Disney movie "Wreck-It Ralph" on the side of the container and the words "Be a Hero" across the bottom.

Nestle said the problem was caused by ingredient supplier, Omya Inc. that it has issued a recall of certain lots of its ingredient, calcium carbonate. Linda Pleiman, an Omya spokesperson, said that it had notified its other customers of the problem but was not aware of any other recalls at this time.
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The Food and Drug Administration is collaborating with the New York State Department of Health, the New York State Department of Agriculture and Markets and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to investigate an outbreak of 16 E. coli infections believed to be tied to a blend of organic spinach and spring mix sold at the Wegmans chain of supermarket.
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The worst of Superstorm Sandy's wrath may have passed, but in towns where the power has gone out, it may leave an unpleasant reminder for days or weeks to come. No matter how diligently you've been about discarding spoiled food and cleaning up after, foul odors can linger.

The Food Safety and Inspection Service offers these tips for ridding refrigerators and freezers of rank smells from flood waters and rotten food:
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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 report released Wednesday.

Tainted cantaloupe, unsafe mangoes, meat and the recent peanut butter recall - which so far has infected 25 people, mostly children, in 19 states - has left consumers struggling to keep up with the dizzying list of ever-changing toxic edibles.
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The United States Food Safety and Inspection Service announced that 2,310 pounds of ground beef products from Utah and 4,100 pounds of ground beef products from Hawaii are being recalled on fears that they may be contaminated with E. coli O157:H7.
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