Yesterday, Chipotle restaurants didn’t open until 3 PM so 50,000 or so restaurant employees could sit in hotel conference rooms or movie theaters to watch a live-streamed company-wide meeting about food safety. The future of the chain is at stake, and their task is to prove to the public that they’re not trying to make us all sick. [More]
Quality & Safety
4 Reasons Tribal Lands Lack Better Access To The Internet
By 2.4.16
According to the latest data from the FCC, more than two-thirds of people living in rural tribal lands currently lack access to decent Internet, nearly 30 percentage points higher than the rate for the rest of rural America. So what is it about these tribal lands that makes connecting so difficult? [More]
Underwriters Laboratories Will Start Testing, Certifying Hoverboards For Safety
By 2.3.16
If hoverboard manufacturers are going to slap counterfeit safety marks on their products, Underwriters Laboratories figures it might as well start testing and certifying the scooters, a function it previously did not perform. [More]
Federal Government Rolls Up Another Subpoena, Serves It To Chipotle
By 2.2.16
While the good news for Chipotle is that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have closed their investigation into the burrito eatery’s multi-state E. coli oubreak, late last week the company was served with a federal subpoena demanding more information about an earlier outbreak of norovirus in California that sickened 200 people. [More]
Microsoft Officially Recalls 2.25M Surface Pro Power Cords That Can Overheat, Catch On Fire
By 2.2.16
Nearly two weeks after rumors swirled that Microsoft would replace the AC power cords for older-model Surface Pro, Surface Pro 2, and Surface Pro 3 tablets sold in the U.S. and Canada before March 2015, the Consumer Product Safety Commission officially recalled the chargers. [More]
7 Things We Learned About Food Safety Oversight From A Foodborne Illness Expert
By 2.2.16
Foodborne illness outbreaks have dominated the news in recent months: E. coli and norovirus at Chipotle, listeria in prepackaged Dole salad mixes, and salmonella in cucumbers. These outbreaks have sickened — and in some cases killed — consumers, and one food safety expert says that inadequate safety oversight is at least partly to blame. [More]
Mazda Recalls, Stops Sales Of CX-5 Vehicles Over Fuel Leak Concerns
By 2.1.16
If you’ve got a 2014-2016 Mazda CX-5 sitting in the driveway — or you were planning on buying one anytime soon — here’s some bad news for you. The carmaker has recalled and stopped the sale of more than 260,000 of these vehicles over fuel leak concerns. [More]
CDC Reportedly Set To Close Book On Chipotle’s 9-State E. Coli Outbreak
By 2.1.16
While federal investigators have yet to pinpoint the cause of an E. coli outbreak that sickened more than 50 Chipotle customers in nine different states, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is expected to announced today that the outbreak has come to an end. [More]
President Obama Signs Bill That Will Require Child-Resistant Packaging For Liquid Nicotine
By 1.28.16
Whether you’re an enthusiast or a detractor of e-cigarettes, everyone agrees that it’s a bad idea for children to drink flavored, nicotine-laden liquid. That’s why safety advocates applauded President Obama’s signing of the Child Nicotine Poisoning Prevention Act today, a law that will require refill containers for liquid nicotine products to have child-resistant packaging. E-liquid without nicotine and vaping systems that use sealed cartridges would not be included. [More]
People Are Still Getting Sick From Cucumber Salmonella Outbreak
By 1.27.16
When the strain of Salmonella making people sick was traced to batches of cucumbers imported from Mexico back in September, it seemed that the cucumber outbreak was solved. Only people are still getting sick with that same strain, suggesting either that people keep cucumbers around for a while or that there’s another food source still out there infecting people. Since we last updated you, hundreds of more people have become sick, and authorities reported three more deaths. [More]
New York City Bans Hoverboards On Buses, Trains
By 1.27.16
If you live in New York City and plan to ride the subway or hop on a city bus, you better leave your “hoverboard” at home. The state’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority announced Wednesday that it is banning the self-balancing scooters from public transportation over fire safety concerns. [More]
Family Finds Free Lizard Inside Bundle Of Salad Greens, Brings It To Live At School
By 1.26.16 — Updated: 12.30.16
The tale of Green Fruit Loop the anole lizard is an epic one, as tales about lizards go. GFL began life somewhere in the southern half of the country, apparently as a wild lizard. She made the amazing journey from being a wild lizard hanging out in a field to living in a reptile habitat in an elementary school science lab. [More]
Whole Foods Recalling Frozen Pork Pepperoni Pizzas For Masquerading As Beef Pepperoni Pizzas In New England
By 1.26.16
Labels are very important when it comes to food, considering most of us do not have X-ray vision that allows us to scan products with our eyes and know exactly what ingredients those items contain. That’s why Whole Foods is recalling a bunch of frozen pizzas on the East Coast: some pies labeled as containing “uncured beef pepperoni” are actually covered in pork pepperoni. [More]
Wendy’s Customer Says She Found Bugs In Baked Potato; Restaurant Says They Are Sprouts
By 1.25.16
Yet another fast food customer is claiming she was served up a little unwanted something extra with her meal, while the restaurant says it only looks like she was served up some bugs with her order.
Dole Withdraws Potentially Listeria-Laden Salad Greens From Stores
By 1.25.16
Beginning back in September, 12 people in six different states have become sick with the same strain of Listeria. The common link between the patients was that they had recently eaten bagged salad. When routine state government testing of lettuce from a Dole packaging plant in Ohio turned up the same strain of Listeria, the answer was clear. Now, Dole has withdrawn affected greens from the market. [More]
CDC Investigating Possible Listeria Outbreak In Dole Salads
By 1.22.16
Since the beginning of July, there have been twelve people who became so sick from a specific strain of Listeria that they were hospitalized. One of them died. Public health authorities know that the cases are linked because of genetic analysis of the bacteria, and have finally been able to link the illnesses to one Dole packaging plant for salad greens in Ohio. [More]
Cheese Company With Leaky Roof, “Uncleanable Surfaces” Pleads Guilty To Selling Listeria-Tainted Food
By 1.22.16
Perhaps you’d like to think that your shrink-wrapped ready-to-eat cheese was made in something resembling a science-fiction movie — stark white walls, spotless machines, a few doctor-like employees supervising the sterile process behind surgical masks. You certainly don’t imagine the conditions that got one Delaware cheese company shut down. [More]
Britax Recalls 71,000 Car Seats For Fall Hazard, 49,000 Stroller Arms Over Choking Danger
By 1.21.16
When carrying precious cargo, you likely do everything in your power to make sure it doesn’t fall and break. Those precautions likely go double when that precious cargo is your child. To that end: Britax announced today that it would recall about 71,000 car seats equipped with handles that can break, leading the carriers to unexpectedly fall. [More]
