In this month’s Recall Roundup for food and supplements, banned diet drugs make a reappearance, pork sausage has mysterious “foreign materials” in it, cat food has too much Vitamin D, and some mini donuts are possibly powdered with mold. [More]
Quality & Safety
CDC Says Its Investigation Into Blue Bell Listeria Outbreak Is Over (But People Could Still Get Sick)
By 6.10.15
While the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has issued its final report on the recent outbreak of Listeria monocytogenes linked to contaminated Blue Bell Creameries ice cream products and deemed it over, we might not be out of the woods yet: Consumers could still get sick from eating contaminated ice cream that’s hanging out in their freezers, which is something some people are apparently doing. [More]
How Recalls Work (And Don’t) And Why They’re All So Different
By 6.8.15
Manufacturers — of all kinds — usually try hard to get it right on the first try. From banana muffins to bicycle helmets, it’s in a company’s best interests to make their products perfect. Not only is it better for their reputation and their business, but it’s less expensive, in the long run, and causes less trouble. Sometimes, though, something just goes wrong. [More]
Mazda Adds 540,000 Vehicles To Takata Airbag Recall List
By 6.5.15
The roster of vehicles recalled for Takata-produced airbags found to spew pieces of shrapnel with enough force to injure or kill occupants continues to grow. This time, the list increased by nearly 540,000 Mazda automobiles. [More]
FDA Closer To Approving Twice-Rejected Female Libido Drug
By 6.5.15
Yesterday, a Food and Drug Administration advisory panel recommended that the agency approve a new drug, flibanserin, which would be marketed under the brand name Addyi. In headlines and in news reports, you see references to the drug as a “pink Viagra” or “Viagra for women.” Yet the drug works on the brain, not the genitals, and critics say that its side effects may not be worth its proven benefits. The FDA has already rejected the drug twice. [More]
How Can I Avoid Getting Sick From Listeria-Contaminated Food?
By 6.5.15
Listeria-contaminated food has been in the news lately due to massive ice cream recalls from regional companies Blue Bell and Jeni’s. Ice cream isn’t usually where you find listeria, but it’s possible to contract listeriosis from frozen treats because the bacteria can survive below-freezing temperatures, and you don’t cook ice cream. How can you avoid illness from listeria? There are no guaranteed ways to eradicate it from the food supply, but there are precautions that you can take. [More]
Apple Recalls Beats Pill XL Speakers Due To Fire Hazard
By 6.3.15
When you spend a few hundred dollars on a portable speaker, you probably assume that you’re buying a quality piece of electronics that will sound nice and not overheat and catch fire when it’s not supposed to. That is not the case for the Beats Pill XL, a signature product for the headphone company, which is now part of Apple. [More]
June Recall Roundup: Melting Mason Jars And Phantom Ovens
By 6.3.15
In this month’s Recall Roundup for consumer goods, a laptop battery recall expands, mason jar night lights melt, and a friendly toy policeman is not as friendly as he initially appears to be. [More]
Customer Finds Black Widow Spider In Grapes Bought At Target
By 6.2.15
It seems like it was just last week that we last heard about a grocery customer bringing home a venomous black widow spider on a bunch of grapes…because it was. Last week, a woman in Vermont was hospitalized after a black widow spider hiding in the grapes bit her. This weekend, a man in Illinois found one in the grapes that he purchased at Target, and headed right back to the store to return the fruit. And the spider. [More]
White House Makes Push For Private Sector To Help Curb Dangerous Overuse Of Antibiotics
By 6.2.15
Today at the White House, representatives for some 150 organizations, including Consumer Reports, and private companies gathered for a forum on how to rein in the rampant, and potentially deadly, overuse of antibiotics in everything from hospitals to farm animals. [More]
Foster Farms, Company Behind Salmonella Outbreak, To Cut Down On Antibiotics It Shoves Down Chickens’ Throats
By 6.1.15
Foster Farms is one of the country’s largest poultry, cranking out millions of birds each week. It’s also the company behind a recent outbreak of drug-resistant salmonella that sickened more than 600 people in 29 states. Today, the company has changed its antibiotics policies so that its chickens will no longer be fed medically unnecessary drugs. [More]
Dear Sonic: Please Don’t Store Any More Hamburger & Hot Dog Buns Next To The Toilet
By 5.29.15
Imagine you’re at a fast food joint and you’re taking your young child to the bathroom. Of all the possible things you could find in the lavatory, one of the least-expected would probably be whole trays of buns for hamburgers and hot dogs. [More]
3 More Toxic Salad Beetles Show Up In Canada And Texas
By 5.28.15
It turns out that fleeing to Canada won’t keep you safe from the Salad Beetle Scourge. You may remember the Iron Cross Blister Beetles turning up in organic salads and packages of leafy greens across the United States. We learned today of three more discovered in different parts of North America, two of which were in Canada. [More]
BMW, Honda & Fiat Chrysler Identify Some Additional Vehicles Affected By Expanded Takata Recall
By 5.28.15
Automakers began identifying which of their models are affected by the recently expanded Takata airbag recall Thursday, with Fiat Chrysler, BMW and Honda adding hundreds of thousands of vehicles to their already overflowing roster of cars in need of replacement safety devices. [More]
Could Takata’s Replacement Airbags Be Just As Dangerous?
By 5.27.15
Generally when consumers take their vehicles to a dealer for a recall remedy, they leave with the peace of mind that the potential safety issue has been fixed. That may not end up being the case for more than 34 million recently recalled vehicles equipped with Takata airbags, as the parts manufacturer, automakers and federal regulators struggle to determine why the safety devices have the tendency to spew pieces of shrapnel upon deployment. [More]
GM Could Face Criminal Charges Over Ignition Defect That Killed More Than 100
By 5.26.15
General Motors might be able to wriggle out of class action fraud lawsuits over the long-ignored ignition defect in multiple vehicles that ultimately killed more than 100 people, but the company could still face criminal charges from federal prosecutors. [More]
Oh, Good: Four More Reports Of Iron Cross Blister Beetles In Salads
By 5.26.15
Last week, we shared the mildly disturbing news that four different people in three states had found a particular species of potentially toxic beetle in their organic salads. Those were just the people who found their way to a bug-identification community on Reddit: how many more beetles were out there lurking in America’s salads? The answer, we learned this weekend, is at least four. [More]
Walmart To Require Meat Suppliers Provide Data On Antibiotics Use
By 5.22.15
Antibiotics used on farm animals account for more than 80% of all antibiotics sold in the U.S., and many of these drugs are medically important to the health of human beings. The overuse of antibiotics results in the development of drug-resistant pathogens, thus making the antibiotics less effective and requiring more potent drugs. Some of the nation’s biggest buyers of meat are making the switch toward purchasing antibiotic-free meat (or meat that is only given drugs not deemed medically important to humans), and today Walmart said it will begin collecting and sharing data on the antibiotics used by its meat suppliers. [More]
