Consumerist

food safety

Should Artificially Colored Meat Have A Warning Label?

By cwalters 10.2.07

Over a year and a half ago, we alerted readers to the sneaky practice of using carbon monoxide to indefinitely preserve raw meat’s red color—several stores admitted to the practice, and while the small amount of gas used does not pose a health risk, the perma-red meat can make it harder to detect spoilage. Now, in the wake of so many food and product safety scandals, the government has proposed a new mandatory warning label as part of the Food and Drug Import Safety Act of 2007. It would read:

Carbon monoxide has been used to preserve the color of this product. Do not rely on color or the ‘use or freeze by’ date alone to judge the freshness or safety of the product. Discard any product with an unpleasant odor, slime, or a bulging package.

recalls

Hamburger Recalled For E. Coli After 6 Illnesses Reported In New York

By Meg Marco 9.26.07

6 people have fallen ill due to e. coli contaminated frozen hamburger, according to the Associated Press. Three of the illnesses required hospitalization.

fda

Liveblogging The House Energy And Commerce Committee Hearing On Food Safety

By consumeristcarey 9.26.07

Starting today at 10 a.m., the powerful Chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, John Dingell (D-MI), will hold a hearing on H.R. 3610, The Food and Drug Import Safety Act of 2007, or, as we have dubbed the bill, The Poison-Free Food Act. The bill would dramatically alter the FDA’s handling of imported foods, empowering the agency to:

Issue mandatory recalls;
Limit food imports to ports clustered near FDA inspection labs;
Require a country of origin labels for food, drugs and medical devices;
Subject exporters to a strict certification program administered by the Department of Health and Human Services.

The Committee will hear from two panels: The first will see FDA Commissioners and regulators defending their agency, while the second will host a panoply of foodies, including the Coalition for a Stronger FDA, the Center for Science in the Public Interest, the Grocery Manufacturers Association, and Big Pharma.

health

Customer Catches McDonald's Refilling Milkshake Machine With "Soiled Towels Only" Bucket

By Meg Marco 9.20.07

Cellphone cameras may well be the downfall of fast food: A McDonald’s customer in Orlando witnessed employees refilling the milkshake machine from a bucket market “Soiled Towels Only” and snapped a picture with her cellphone. She sent the photo to Orlando’s WFTV.

food

Hypochondriacs Rejoice! CSPI Launches Foodbourne Illness Outbreak Database

By Meg Marco 9.19.07

Here’s a nifty little tool for you hypochondriacs, the CSPI has put together an easily browsable database of all the foodbourne illness outbreaks in the US! Did you know that lima beans caused an outbreak of Clostridium perfringens at an Illinois jail in 1996? Now you do!

health

FDA Reverses Course, Decides Now Might Not Be The Time To Close Half Its Field Labs

By consumeristcarey 8.18.07

Bowing to pressure from Congress, the FDA has decided not to close more than half of its field labs. The ill-timed plan to consolidate seven of the agency’s thirteen labs in the name of efficiency and modernization was already under review by a Presidential panel, and had raised the ire of the powerful Chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, John Dingell, who recently introduced legislation to block the reorganization.

recalls

Stephen Colbert Weighs In On Botulism, Chinese Poison Train, Subprime Lending

By Meg Marco 8.6.07

Who’s reading us now? Stephen Colbert weighs in on a bunch of Consumerist topics with more gravitas than we can muster ourselves. Sorry we missed the whole “dentist puts boar tusks in your mouth while you’re anesthetized” story. We’ll try to do better next time.

recalls

Hey, Let's Not Die Of Botulism From Eating Recalled Food

By Meg Marco 8.1.07

A reader who works at a health department has asked Consumerist to remind everyone to search their cabinets, their friend’s cabinets, the cabinets at their church and the cabinets of any kitchens at work for products included in the botulism recall.

food

House Passes Food Farm Bill

By consumeristcarey 7.31.07

Farm policy for the next five years will remain largely the same under a bill passed Friday by the House. The $286 billion measure, H.R. 2419, was approved 231-191. Despite Michael Pollan’s pleas, the farm bill never transformed into a consumer-friendly food bill; though several billion dollars will go towards conservation spending, nutrition programs, and aid to fruit and vegetable growers, a significant chunk of the bill, $42 billion, will fund subsidies to farmers and agribusiness. The Senate is expected to write its own version of the farm bill in September.

food

Candy From Denmark Not As Filthy As Previously Reported

By consumeristcarey 7.31.07

Remember when we said exports from countries not named China were also tainted and filthy? It turns out the exports aren’t as tainted and filthy as the New York Times originally reported. The Times explains that a “methodology problem was discovered” after the Danish Embassy complained that their candy was refused by FDA inspectors only 82 times, not 520, as the Times claimed. From the Gray Lady:

When the data was re-analyzed, it showed that the number of candy shipments rejected from Denmark had not been higher than the number of seafood shipments rejected from China, as the article stated. The number of shipments rejected from China was also misstated; it was 331, not 391.

starbucks

Starbucks Prefers Not To Make You Ill

By Meg Marco 7.30.07

Reader Patrick sent us this photo of a Starbucks that was unwilling to poison its customers. He says, ” Hurray for having a conscience!”

recalls

Cans Infected With Botulism Are Exploding!

By Meg Marco 7.27.07

Remember the botulism recall? The infected cans are now exploding, according to the FDA.

food

What's For Dinner? Mutant Rice

By consumeristcarey 7.23.07

The FDA retroactively approved a strain of genetically modified rice that infiltrated our supermarkets after escaping from a 2001 experiment. Six years ago, Avenits Crop Science introduced Liberty Link, a transgenic rice strain resistant to Liberty, an Aventis weed killer. The Liberty Link experiment ended abruptly when StarLink – a transgenic corn strain made by Aventis that was approved only for use in animal feed, not for human consumption – was found in Kraft taco shells. The ensuing public relations disaster led to Aventis’ sale to the German pharmaceutical company Bayer, which immediately discontinued Liberty Link’s production. Yet somehow, the transgenic rice survived…

fda

China To US: Fix Your Own Food Supply Issues First

By Meg Marco 7.20.07

China says the US should fix its own food supply issues and stop picking on China. The Chinese government issued a statement saying that they are trying to fix food export issues but that the US should fix its own issues first.

safety

Tainted Exports Also Come From Countries Not Named China

By consumeristcarey 7.14.07

Remember the Washington Post’s analysis of FDA Refusal Reports? The New York Times double-checked the Post’s work and found that China isn’t the only country exporting filthy salmonella-infested goods. Exports from India, Mexico, and the Dominican Republic have all been stopped at the U.S. border for failing to meet basic sanitary requirements.

Salmonella was the top reason that food was rejected from India, and it was found in products like black pepper, coriander powder and shrimp. “Filthy” was the primary reason food was stopped from Mexico, and the rejections included lollipops, crabmeat and dried chili.

recalls

Lawsuits: Tyson Ground Beef Sold by Walmart Put Me In The Hospital

By Meg Marco 7.5.07

A woman has filed a lawsuit after ground beef made by Tyson and sold by Walmart put her in the hospital for 3 weeks, she says. From KOTV:

Melinda Pierce says she bought some Tyson hamburger meat at the Muskogee Wal-Mart on June 4th and made enchiladas with it two days later.

china

U.S. Companies Start Testing, Screening Chinese Products

By consumeristcarey 7.1.07

U.S. companies are developing new safety measures in response to the continued rumbling of the Chinese Poison Train. The measures, along with renewed federal interest in food safety, suggest that we may be in the midst of a food safety revolution similar to the one that reformed the meatpacking industry after the publication of Upton Sinclaire’s “The Jungle.”

For the companies, the problem is two-fold: figuring out exactly what to test for and maintaining control over their network of suppliers, even as they turn to China for vast quantities of imports at lower prices.

Three companies are trying three different strategies to cope with the uncertain quality of China’s exports:

recalls

Beef Recall Expanded To Eleven Western States

By consumeristcarey 6.11.07

5.7 million pounds of beef distributed by United Food Group may be infected with E. coli. The beef bears sell-by dates from April 6-April 20; though the beef won’t be found on supermarket shelves, it might still be in your freezer.

The recalled products were shipped to stores in Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, Washington and Wyoming. They were sold under the brand names Moran’s All Natural, Miller Meat Company, Stater Bros., Trader Joe’s Butcher Shop, Inter-American Products Inc. and Basha’s.

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food safety