A recent report out of Canada claimed that testing of Subway’s chicken revealed that the meat was only 50% chicken with the rest made from soy. Now the sandwich chain is countering that report with science of its own, saying that two independent tests confirm that Subway’s chicken is… well, chicken. [More]
labs
Feds Impose Sanctions On Blood-Testing Startup Theranos And Its Founder
By 7.8.16
Lab testing startup Theranos started from a revolutionary idea: performing blood tests quickly and inexpensively using only a drop of blood. The idea may have been more revolutionary if the technology actually worked yet, and if its lab in California had been operating up to current standards. Now the federal government has imposed sanctions on the company, which include being unable to bill Medicare or Medicaid for its services, and its founder and CEO can’t own or run a laboratory for the next two years. [More]
Keep Your Hands On Your Urine If You Go To LabCorp
By 3.29.10
Mike was sent to LabCorp for some routine medical tests last week, and what he found was an understaffed, overcrowded dump where patients were arguing that their urine samples were missing, or in one instance stolen while the patient watched. This could just be one badly managed lab, but the Internet is swimming in LabCorp complaints around the country that all repeat the same problems. [More]
Obama Announces Plans To Make Food Safe For Human Consumption
By 3.15.09
President Obama this week declared war on the Chinese Poison Train, announcing that the FDA will receive $1 billion in new funds for modern testing labs and additional food safety inspectors. Inspecting less than 5% of our food processing plants is apparently a “hazard to public health, and “it is unacceptable.” So what’s really behind the new policy shift? No, it’s not those melamine murders or salmonella outbreaks. It’s seven-year-old first daughter Sasha Obama!
How Unscrupulous Food Manufacturers Manipulate Lab Tests
By 1.29.09
In yesterday’s Peanut Corp. post, our commenter microguy07828 left a detailed explanation of how food manufacturers sometimes play dirty when it comes to getting the lab results they want on a product. We though it deserved more visibility in light of yesterday’s accusation that the Peanut Corp. of America knowingly shipped tainted peanut butter. As microguy07828 puts it, it “happens more often than you would think.”
Quest Says Nearly 10% Of Its Vitamin D Tests Were Inaccurate
By 1.9.09
Last October, Quest Diagnostics contacted “thousands of doctors” around the country to notify them that one or more of their patients might have received “questionable” results on vitamin D tests performed over the past two years. It’s offering free retests to anyone who was affected.
CenterPoint Energy Thinks Your Fish Tank Is A Meth Lab, So Police Kick In Your Door
By 4.30.08
You’d think between the reactionary CenterPoint…
FDA Reverses Course, Decides Now Might Not Be The Time To Close Half Its Field Labs
By 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.
