Most Americans eat meat, but that doesn’t mean that they want the animals destined for their plates to suffer a painful death. Yet U.S. Department of Agriculture records show that every year, almost a million birds are plunged into boiling water by accident because of small failures within the largely mechanized slaughter process. [More]
Government Policy
Reser’s Fine Foods Listeria Recall Now Includes 22,800 Pounds Of Lunch Meats
By 10.28.13
Mmm, listeria! Last week, Reser’s Fine Foods recalled 109,000 cases of refrigerated ready-to-eat salads, dips, slaws, and other items that you generally serve cold and don’t reheat enough to kill off all bacteria. Now they’ve expanded that recall to include meat-containing products like chicken and ham salad and baked beans with beef. [More]
Spoiler Alert: Kraft Recalls 735,000 Cases Of String Cheese Because It Might Go Bad Early
By 10.28.13
Kraft Foods Group isn’t stringing anyone along — pun intended, obviously — with a voluntary recall of certain varieties of Kraft and Polly-O String Cheese and String Cheese Twists. The problem is that no one likes eating processed cheese that’s past its time, and about 735,000 cases might be doing just that. [More]
FDA Suggests Tightening Access To Painkillers Like Vicodin
By 10.25.13
Yesterday the U.S. Food and Drug Administration recommended that the rules regarding drugs with hydrocodone, which is often in painkillers like vicodin, be a lot tighter. It suggests that the drug be reclassified along the level of other opioid painkillers like oxycodone and morphine. [More]
Crate And Barrel Recalls 19K Hanging Lamps Because No One Wants Fire To Rain From Above
By 10.24.13
The Consumer Product Safety Commission has announced a Crate and Barrel recall of 19,000 of its hanging lamps. The thing is, it’s great to have light shining down on whatever you’re doing but it’s not so nice when that light is coming from a fiery light fixture hanging above you. [More]
Surprise: Attendance At Six Flags Over Texas Down After Woman Killed On Roller Coaster
By 10.24.13
In news that will shock absolutely no one, in the months after a visitor to Six Flags Over Texas was killed on one of the park’s rides, attendance and revenue declined. What’s that? You close one of the park’s signature rides after a rider is killed, and people don’t want to come to the park anymore? [More]
Should An FDA Advisory Committee Chair Be Giving Drug Companies Tips On How To Get Approved?
By 10.24.13
It would be generous to label federal regulatory approval processes as merely byzantine, as some agencies require multiple layers of vetting, along with years of sitting around and waiting. Knowing how to navigate these waters is helpful information for anyone hoping to make it through in a timely fashion. But should those currently working for a federal agency like the FDA be actively giving advice to businesses about the best way to work the approval system? [More]
Former FCC Chair Urges Cable Companies To Hurry Up & Implement Data Caps And Usage-Based Pricing
By 10.24.13
Former FCC chair turned cable-industry frontman Michael Powell thinks that, in spite of the fact that delivering data to consumers continues to get less expensive, cable companies should be rushing to put caps on data usage and implement usage-based, metered broadband service. [More]
Aaron’s Agrees To Stop Snooping On Customers Via Rented Computers
By 10.23.13
In Sept. 2012, Aaron’s was one of several rent-to-own retailers caught using software to illegally snoop on customers who rented computers. Yesterday, the Federal Trade Commission announced that Aaron’s has agreed to settle these charges and make sure franchisees cease the spying. [More]
Tax Season Will Start Late This Year Due To Government Shutdown
By 10.23.13
Those 16 days the government spent shut down will have far-reaching consequences into the future. Basically the Internal Revenue Service just can’t get those two weeks back, and as such it’ll be delaying the start of the 2014 tax filing season by one to two weeks. [More]
October Recall Roundup: Never Trust An Ant
By 10.22.13
The federal government shutdown meant that our friends over at the Consumer Products Safety Commission weren’t diligently posting recalls to their website as usual, but that doesn’t mean that there were no dangerous products recalled since our last Roundup in September. Nope. [More]
We Are In The Era Of “Nightmare” Bacteria And Nobody Seems To Care
By 10.22.13 — Updated: 7.17.14
On March 5, 2013, the Centers for Disease Control issued a press released titled “Lethal, Drug Resistant Bacteria Spreading in U.S. Healthcare Facilities.” The warning that followed was dire. Drug-resistant organisms called carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae, or CRE, were not only spreading more rapidly through U.S. hospitals, they were becoming more resistant to so-called “last-resort” antibiotics. “CRE are nightmare bacteria,” said CDC Director Dr. Tom Frieden. How nightmarish? According to data from the CDC, 1 in 2 patients who contract a bloodstream CRE infection will die. That’s an ominous statistic, but it might not even be the scariest fact about CRE. [More]
FDA Needs Help Solving Outbreak Linked To Jerky Treats That’s Sickened Thousands Of Pets
By 10.22.13
There’s been a recent spate of pet deaths and illnesses connected to jerky treats made in China in the last few years — with almost 600 pets killed and 3,600 more sickened as of now — but federal animal health officials say they’re puzzled over exactly what’s actually causing the illnesses. [More]
Air Marshal Admits To Taking Photos Up Women’s Dresses During Boarding Process
By 10.18.13
It’s bad enough when your run-of-the-mill bad consumer takes advantage of public situations and films what shouldn’t be filmed, but it feels even ickier when someone whose job it is to protect people does it. An air marshal arrested yesterday admits that he took cell phone pics up women’s dresses and/or skirts while they boarded a Southwest Airlines flight in Nashville. [More]
EPA Finds Soup Can From 1997 In Fridge (Which Means No One Stole Guy’s Lunch 16 Years Ago)
By 10.18.13
No one likes cleaning the refrigerator — all those weird coagulations of gunk and crusty debris at the bottom of a seemingly bottomless chasm in between drawers are enough to put off even the most stalwart cleaners. The Environmental Protection Agency is back to work cleaning up the world, but even it has realized it’s been avoiding a nearer cleaning task after finding a 16-year-old can of soup in a fridge at its D.C. headquarters.
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Getting Ahead On Paying Down Student Loans Is A Good Plan, But Not Without Problems
By 10.16.13 — Updated: 5.14.15
For people looking to get out from under student loan debt before they have grandchildren, paying more than is owed each month has traditionally been an option. But according to a new report from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, questionable practices and a lack of transparency at loan servicing companies have resulted in prepayment causing undue headaches. [More]
When A Real EBT Outage Hits, Customers Freak Out And Don’t Get To Buy Food
By 10.16.13
This weekend’s 17-state EBT glitch was a disturbing lesson in human nature, with customers at one Louisiana Walmart cleaning off shelves when their cards showed no limit, and abandoning entire carts when their transactions didn’t go through. Reader N. works at a retailer somewhere in the Midwest, and reports that a much smaller government benefits system outage on Monday had very distressing results at her store. [More]
Don’t You Dare Compare Products That Aren’t Champagne To Champagne
By 10.11.13
Have you ever referred to something that’s really great as “the champagne of _____?” Be grateful that you haven’t been sued. You can’t just slap the name “Champagne” on any old sparkling white wine unless it was made in a specific region in France, so you’re completely on your own if you even try to compare something that isn’t even an alcoholic beverage to The Almighty Champagne. [More]
