Despite all your loved ones’ best efforts to eat everything in sight, there’s still a bunch of food remaining. Now is the time to strategically pack the food away for a lust-filled reunion at a date yet to be determined. (Probably 9 p.m. or so tonight). [More]
food safety
4 Bad Cooking Habits People Need To Break
By 11.15.11
Thanksgiving is next week, meaning that even some people whose version of “home cooking” involves pressing a button on the microwave will be playing chef for the day. But there are a number of kitchen habits — some of them handed down through the generations — that home cooks need to break themselves of before they pop in that turkey (or tofurkey, if you’re so inclined). [More]
Tips For Keeping Your Food Safe When The Power Goes Out
By 8.26.11
By now, everyone from South Carolina to New England is tracking the cone of possibilities of Hurricane Irene. Will she tack west or go east? Whatever path she takes, it seems pretty certain that a lot of folks are going to get drenched and some may lose power, suffer flooding or worse. A power outage can affect the safety of your food supply but there are some things you can do now to prepare for that possibility. [More]
Government Wants Organic Small-Batch Ice Cream Maker To Stop Making Organic Small-Batch Ice Cream
By 8.15.11
Nice Cream is a small ice cream company in Chicago that does something strange and daring in the modern food landscape: they make and sell ice cream using only ingredients with names that ordinary people can pronounce. Ingredients such as “cream,” “eggs,” and “pie.” The tiny company was a classic recession success story: a laid-off teacher experiments at home with her Cuisinart ice cream maker, and with hard work and creativity creates a delicious product that’s eventually sold at Whole Foods. But the state of Illinois doesn’t really see it that way, and Nice Cream will have to shut down or make drastic changes to its products and process in order to stay legal. They’re first, and other small-batch ice cream makers could be next. [More]
USDA: You Can Eat Pink Pork Without Getting Sick
By 5.25.11
If you’ve been cooking pork chops until they’re dry and leathery in the name of safety, stop now! The U.S. Department of Agriculture has revised its pork-cooking guidelines, saying it’s OK to cook the other white meat to 145 degrees, and that the previous 160 degree recommendation was “probably overkill.” [More]
Study: 25% Of Meat Sold In Groceries Contains Drug-Resistant Bacteria
By 4.15.11
A new study claims that not only does half the meat sold in groceries harbor a nasty little bacteria called Staphylococcus aureus, but a full quarter of the beef, chicken, pork and turkey carries a drug-resistant strain of the bug. [More]
2nd Man Dies From Eating Salmonella Contaminated Pastries
By 4.11.11
A second man has died after eating pastries from the DeFusco’s bakery in Rhode Island, the result of a salmonella outbreak that has sickened 66 and hospitalized 23, reports The Providence Journal. [More]
Senate Passes Food Safety Bill That Would Increase FDA Authority
By 11.30.10
Earlier today, the Senate passed its version of a new food safety bill that would increase the authority of the Food & Drug Administration in making recalls and inspecting food processing facilities. The intent behind the bill is to proactively prevent outbreaks of tainted food instead of just dealing with the negative health and economic after effects. [More]
Some Walmart, Kroger Store-Brand Peas & Mixed Vegetables Recalled Because You Are Not Supposed To Eat Glass
By 10.18.10
On Friday, the Pictsweet Company of Bells, TN, announced a recall of some of its products containing green peas — and sold under the store brands of Kroger and Walmart — after the company learned that some of the packages may contain glass fragments. [More]
Study: Gloves No Substitute For Hand-Washing When It Comes To Food Prep
By 10.13.10
If seeing your food cooked and handled by someone sporting a pair of latex gloves gives you a sense of security, the results of a new study in the Journal of Food Protection might give you pause. [More]
USDA Knew Of Poor Sanitation At Egg Facility Months Before Recall
By 9.10.10
Unless you’ve been only been paying attention to the 24/7 Big Brother live feeds this summer, you’ve probably heard about that tiny little recall of 380 million eggs because of potential salmonella poisoning. Now the Wall Street Journal reports that USDA graders noticed problems at the source facility earlier this year but opted to wait until FDA inspectors figured things out for themselves in August. [More]
FDA Finally Inspects Tainted Egg Farms, Discovers They're Unsanitary
By 8.31.10
Conditions at the two salmonella egg farms in Iowa are so bad that you’d think they were Tylenol factories, according to recent FDA inspections. Wait, I mean the first and only inspections. [More]
Great, Now Even Flour Can Carry E. Coli
By 8.3.10
Remember that frozen cookie dough that was making everyone sick? Well, apparently the e. coli might have been in the flour. Yes, the flour. [More]
Do You Follow The 5-Second Rule?
By 7.14.10
We’ve all dropped that freshly buttered piece of golden brown toast on the floor, yes? And many of us have contemplated whether or not to just pick it up and eat it. That’s why there’s the 5-Second Rule, the completely unscientific belief that food left on the floor for less than five seconds is sufficiently ick-free. But scientists at Clemson are trying to call BS on one of western society’s core beliefs. [More]
Salmonella Recall Notices No Match For Hungry, Oblivious Consumers
By 6.19.10
Look, when the Centers for Disease Control recalls your frozen pot pie because it’s contaminated with salmonella, don’t eat it. Sure, it sounds easy, but hundreds of consumers apparently fell ill in 2007 even after ConAgra yanked millions of contaminated Banquet pies from store shelves. So just who were these sickened frozen pot pie devotees? [More]
USDA Wants To Make Sure That Organic Food From China Is Really Organic
By 6.14.10
The U.S. Department of Agriculture has banned one of the biggest food inspector groups in the nation from operating in China, reports the New York Times, because of conflict of interest concerns. It turns out the Organic Crop Improvement Association (OCIA) was using employees of a Chinese government agency to inspect Chinese government-owned farms, which sort of misses the point of independent certification entirely. [More]
Um, Shouldn't The FDA Have The Power To Recall Dangerous Food?
By 6.9.10
If you thought the FDA had the power to recall dangerous food already, you’d be mistaken. Apparently, they need to “coax” the company into it. Changing this and increasing the agency’s budget are among the changes recommended by a new report by The Institute of Medicine, says Reuters. [More]
Oily Gulf Seafood Will Literally Be Sniff Tested By Expert Smellers
By 5.27.10
Oil from the explosion of Deepwater Horizon is flooding the waters of some of the most productive coastal fishing areas in the world, says ABC News, so how will the FDA ensure that no oily fish make it into the food system? They’re gonna smell it. With their noses. [More]
