A good chicken sausage is a nice mix of meat, seasonings, and the occasional vegetable in a casing. What is not supposed to be part of that blend of ingredients are shards of plastic, which are harmful to your teeth and don’t taste very good. Sausage sold under the Trader Joe’s house brand and the Al Fresco brand been recalled because it may have that problem. [More]
Quality & Safety
59,203 Pounds Of Trader Joe’s And Al Fresco Chicken Sausage May Be Seasoned With Plastic Shards
By 4.21.15
Blue Bell Creameries Recalls All Products After More Ice Cream Samples Test Positive For Listeria
By 4.21.15
It has not been a great couple of weeks for Blue Bell Creameries, and it’s just gotten worse: A month after the company issued a recall of certain ice cream treats believed to be linked to an outbreak of listeriosis — a recall that kept expanding — the company is now pulling all products off the shelves after two more ice cream samples tested positive for listeria. [More]
Beech-Nut Nutrition Recalls Baby Food That May Contain Pieces Of Glass
By 4.15.15
That last thing a parent wants to imagine is inadvertently feeding their child a small piece of glass. Unfortunately, that issue was all too real for one baby food manufacturer recalling nearly 2,000 pounds of baby food. [More]
Tobacco Companies Sue FDA Over Cigarette Packaging Guidelines
By 4.14.15
For more than 5 years, the FDA has had authority to regulate tobacco products, and last month, the agency issued guidance to the tobacco industry about when cigarette makers must seek FDA approval on changes to packaging. The country’s largest tobacco businesses now believe the FDA is overstepping its authority and violates their rights to free expression. [More]
FDA To Health Food Companies: The Word ‘Healthy’ Has An Actual Meaning
By 4.14.15
Kind bars are quite tasty, but are they healthy? Sure, they’re made from ostensibly healthy ingredients like nuts and dried fruit, but some bars also have ingredients like chocolate and peanut butter. The Food and Drug Administration sent the company a warning letter about their use of the word “healthy” to describe their snacks on the label. [More]
Egg Executives Sentenced To Three Months In Jail For Role In 2010 Salmonella Outbreak
By 4.14.15
Last year, an Iowa egg company linked to a 2010 salmonella recall that sickened more than tens of thousands of people agreed to fork over $6.8 million in fines for shipping old eggs under false labels. Now, two former executives at Quality Egg have been sentenced to three months in prison, after facing up to a year for the parts they played in the outbreak. [More]
Makers Of SmartCandy Warned About Possibly Misleading Nutrition Claims
By 4.13.15
The Attorney General’s office for the state of New York is cautioning the company behind “vitamin infused snack” SmartCandy that its advertising may run afoul of state and federal regulations, according to a letter obtained by Consumerist. [More]
FDA: Antibiotic Use In Farm Animals Grew In Spite Of Regulation
By 4.10.15
Back in 2012, the FDA banned “extra-label” non-medical use in animals for the cephalosporin class of antibiotics, which are commonly used to treat humans for pneumonia, urinary tract infections, and other maladies. Not only did this restriction fail to curb the use of cephalosporins, but a new FDA report shows that the drug use increased following the ban. [More]
Sabra Recalling 30,000 Cases Of Classic Hummus Over Listeria Fears
By 4.9.15
Whether you like to dip pita chips or veggies, pretzels or just your fingers, check that hummus package before you go snacking: Sabra is recalling 30,000 cases of its classic flavor of hummus sold nationwide over fears that the product could be tainted with listeria. [More]
Blue Bell Expands Recall Again After Tests Find Listeria Bacteria In Additional Products
By 4.8.15
It appears that grocers who removed all Blue Bell Creameries’ products from their shelves earlier this week may have had the right idea, as the ice cream company once again expanded the scope of its recall after further testing found a link between additional products and an outbreak of listeriosis. [More]
Researchers Find That Some Breast Milk Sold Online Contains Cow’s Milk
By 4.6.15
Many parents choose to buy breast milk to feed their babies, for various reasons, but those folks are under the belief that the stuff is coming from humans. Researchers published a report into the online breast milk industry that said despite the expectation that the milk comes from women, some samples tested positive for cow’s milk. [More]
Sam’s Club, Kroger & H-E-B Remove All Blue Bell Ice Cream Products Amid Contamination Concerns
By 4.6.15
Two weeks after Blue Bell Creameries expanded the recall of products linked to an outbreak of listeriosis that resulted in three deaths, several major grocery chains have taken things a step farther by removing all of the company’s products from the ice cream aisle. [More]
Jury Orders Chrysler To Pay $150M After Jeep Fire Kills Four-Year-Old
By 4.3.15
Two years after Chrysler reluctantly recalled millions of Jeeps that could catch fire after being rear-ended the company has been ordered to pay $150 million to the family of a four-year-old boy who was killed in one of hundreds of related accidents. [More]
Court Awards Pizza Hut Customer $2,400 For Denture Damaged While Eating “Excessively Hard Croutons”
By 3.31.15
While the human mouth gets to have all the fun of tasting, chewing and eating delicious food in all its various incarnations, it can also be the portal to pain when something isn’t right. In the case of a man who said he broke a partial denture at Pizza Hut, the weapon of destruction came in the form of “excessively hard croutons.” [More]
White House Acknowledges Health Risk Of Antibiotics Overuse; Critics Say It Fails To Fully Address Problem
By 3.27.15
In a new White House report on antibiotic resistance, the Obama administration acknowledges the serious public health risk posed by the over-prescription and overuse of antibiotics, and details multi-agency plans to combat the problem. However, many critics of the report say that these plans fail to close a loophole that will allow farmers to continue using medically unnecessary antibiotics on farm animals (who consume 80% of all antibiotics sold in the U.S.) primarily for the purpose of growth promotion. [More]
Family Suing Publix Claims Boy Allergic To Nuts Died After Eating Cookie Worker Said Was Safe
By 3.26.15
The family of an 11-year-old boy allergic to nuts who died in June 2014 is suing Publix, claiming that his death was caused by a severe allergic reaction after eating a cookie a grocery store worker allegedly deemed safe. [More]
Feds Investigating Lumber Liquidators Over Formaldehyde Allegations
By 3.25.15
In the wake of a primetime news report alleging that some flooring sold by Lumber Liquidators contained excessive amounts of formaldehyde, federal regulators at the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission have confirmed the agency is investigation the lumber company. [More]
Organic Spinach From Meijer, Target, Wild Harvest, And Cadia Recalled For Possible Listeria
By 3.25.15
It’s not always fun when our predictions come true, especially when that prediction is about how contaminated food from a single vendor is about to trigger recalls in a variety of places across the food supply. On Monday, we predicted more organic spinach recalls to come, and we were right. Packages of frozen organic spinach from four additional brands have now been recalled due to possible contamination with Listeria bacteria. [More]
