Food Law Prof Blog

E. coli Ground Beef Recall -- Cook the Meat!!

Get your meat thermometer ready.  This one is scary because there is apparently no way for consumers to know whether their ground beef came from the affected source. To protect yourself, you must make sure the inside of the meat gets up to 160 degrees F.  Here's the FSIS (Food Safety and Inspection Service) news release:

WASHINGTON, July 3, 2008 - Nebraska Beef, Ltd., an Omaha, Neb., establishment is expanding its June 30 recall to include all beef manufacturing trimmings and other products intended for use in raw ground beef produced between May 16 and June 26, totaling approximately 5.3 million pounds, that may be contaminated with E. coli O157:H7, the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Food Safety and Inspection Service announced today.

This recall is being expanded based on the ongoing epidemiological and traceback investigations of a foodborne illness outbreak.

FSIS has concluded that the production practices employed by Nebraska Beef, Ltd. are insufficient to effectively control E. coli O157:H7 in their beef products that are intended for grinding. The products subject to recall may have been produced under insanitary conditions.

The products subject to recall were further processed into ground beef at other firms, and will likely not bear the establishment number "EST 19336" on products made available for direct consumer purchase.

FSIS advises all consumers to safely prepare their raw meat products, and only consume ground beef or ground beef patties that have been cooked to a safe internal temperature of 160º F. The only way to be sure ground beef is cooked to a high enough temperature to kill harmful bacteria is to use a thermometer to measure the internal temperature.

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Raw Milk and Gray Dye

In North Carolina, raw milk can only legally be sold for animal consumption.  So a black market has developed to meet some of the demand for raw milk for humans. Here's the fun:  last September, the N.C. Board of Agriculture adopted a rule that requires raw milk to be dyed gray in order to discourage humans from drinking it.  Ugh.

Now, according to a report on Indy Week.com, the Department of Agriculture is supporting a bill that will reverse this rule.

". . . the only two dairies licensed in the state to sell raw milk for animal consumption are both certified organic, and there is no black dye approved under the National Organic Standards, meaning the rule could have effectively put both dairies out of business.

Both raw milk dairies serve the significant market for raw milk for animal consumption, including zoos, wildlife rescue organizations and especially farmers caring for orphaned animals.

I don't think I could drink gray milk, raw or pasteurized.

Country of Origin Labeling for Mississippi catfish

It's always interesting!  Julie McLemore, who works for the state of Mississippi alerted me to this bit of news.

Effective today, Mississippi restaurants offering catfish for sale must indicate the country of origin of the catfish on the menu. The law is administered by the MS Department of Agriculture and carries administrative fines for noncompliance.

The Jackson, Mississippi, Clarion Ledger website contains a slightly more complete account. I have to admit that I would have assumed catfish to be local, but The Catfish Institute has complained about imported catfish for some time, and some catfish imports have been rejected because of illegal drugs.

Here's the bill text.

CSPI: high fructose corn syrup not "natural"

  The American Medical Association recently announced its conclusion that “high fructose corn syrup does not contribute to obesity more than other caloric sweeteners.”   Not surprisingly, the Corn Refiners Association applauded this finding:

“This science-based decision by the nation’s leading medical body reaffirms that no single food or ingredient is the sole cause of obesity. Rather, too many calories and too little exercise is a primary cause,” said Audrae Erickson, president, Corn Refiners Association.

New research continues to confirm that high fructose corn syrup is no different from other sweeteners, according to Erickson. HFCS, like table sugar and honey, is natural. It is made from corn, a natural grain product.

As the Center for Science in the Public Interest is quick to point out however, there is not much natural about HFCS:

The Corn Refiners Association’s slick new advertising is deceptive in stating that high-fructose corn syrup “has the same natural sweeteners as table sugar.” HFCS consists almost entirely of glucose and fructose, but not a single molecule of sucrose. Sugar is 100 percent sucrose. It is true that adding a water molecule to sucrose and splitting it in half yields one molecule each of glucose and fructose—but that is not the same as saying that HFCS and sugar contain the same sweeteners.

Continue reading "CSPI: high fructose corn syrup not "natural""

Antibiotics for Chickens

When is an antibiotic not an antibiotic?  When it is administered "in ovo" according to Tyson Foods.

Earlier this month, Tyson Foods filed suit against USDA over the agency's ruling about Tyson's "Raised Without Antibiotics That Impact Human Antibiotic Resistance" label.  USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service has found the label misleading because Tyson administered antibiotics to chicks while still in the egg.

FSIS originally gave Tyson until June 18 to stop using the label.  (FSIS statement, June 3, 2008.)  According to the Wall Street Journal, however, the deadline has been extended to July 9.

Since Tyson seems to be challenging the government's interpretation of the word "raised" I was curious about where the word is used -- statute? regulation?  So I poked around a bit.  Here's what I learned.

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FDA to open post in Latin America?

According to the Associated Press, the FDA may open an office in Latin America to better monitor the safety of imported foods.  Over the weekend, FDA has been in Mexico investigating some farms believed to be possible sources of the recent Salmonella StPaul outbreak.  From the FDA:

June 20 -- The FDA is now working to narrow the investigation. As part of this, the agency is sending teams of multi-disciplinary experts to both Mexico and Florida this weekend to conduct joint inspections of the farms and other critical points on the supply chain where the tomatoes may have become contaminated.

The FDA investigators will conduct joint inspections with regulators in Mexico and Florida at the farms and other distribution points. Meanwhile, the FDA will continue to collect samples of tomatoes and conduct traceback activities.

In an article in the International Herald Tribune, the Associate Press reports that

"Inspectors . . . have cleared [Mexican] tomato exports from all but the three states that are being inspected. . . .

[HHS Secretary, Michael] Leavitt said the main goal of the planned FDA office would be to ensure that food and other products from Latin America are safe for consumption or use."

Read the AP article

Go to the FDA website on the salmonella st paul outbreak

BSE (Mad Cow) case confirmed in British Columbia

Canadian Food Inspection Agency news release:

June 23, 2008 - The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) has confirmed bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) in a cow in the Province of British Columbia. This case poses no risk to human or animal health since Canada’s stringent BSE safeguards prevented any part of the animal’s carcass from entering the human food chain or any potentially infective parts of the animal’s carcass from entering the animal feed chain.

The animal was detected through Canada’s national BSE surveillance program. The CFIA has launched a comprehensive investigation in an effort to determine the birth farm of the animal.

Canada’s enhanced feed ban, introduced last summer, virtually eliminates the potential spread of BSE through the animal feed chain and places Canada on an accelerated path to eliminate BSE. As the level of BSE continues to decline, the periodic detection of a small number of cases is fully expected in line with the experience of other countries. Concurrently, Canada’s food safety system maintains the highest levels of human health protection.

The national surveillance program, which targets the highest risk animals, has tested more than 220,000 cattle since 2003. The program continues to benefit from very strong producer participation.

The detection of this animal does not affect Canada’s status as a BSE controlled risk country as recognized by the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE).

As has been done with previous cases, the CFIA will update information as it becomes available through the ongoing investigation.

Link to CFIA website

Kroger Recalls Ground Beef because of possible E. coli

Bill Marler (Marler Blog) has been asking when this would happen.  Kroger grocery company is voluntarily recalling ground beef because of the possibility of E. coli O157:H7 contamination.  USDA news release:

WASHINGTON, June 25, 2008 – The Kroger Co., a Cincinnati, Ohio, retailer is recalling an undetermined amount of ground beef products that may be contaminated with E. coli O157:H7, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service announced today.

The products subject to recall include all varieties and weights of ground beef products bearing a Kroger label sold between May 21 and June 8 at Michigan and Columbus and Toledo, Ohio Kroger retail establishments. These ground beef products also include a sell-by date between "05/21/08" and "06/08/08."

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Rising food prices and land use

Interesting column by Ross Clark at Timesonline.co.uk this morning -- We Can Feed the Word: Just Look at All the Space.  Clark suggests using Google Earth to get a sense of how much space there is and how little of it is being used for agriculture.

Globally, less food is being produced on even less land than was the case in the early 1990s.

Read the article here

Ross Clark is the author of How to Label a Goat: the Silly Rules and Regulations that are Strangling Britain

More on raw milk from NPR

From NPR.org The Bryant Park Project.  "The NPR website has an audio clip as well as the rest of the following article.

Raw Milk: Panacea or Poison? by Dan Pashman

Rick and Julie Vreeland opened Freedom Hill Farm last year as a place for kids, but quickly found themselves fielding an unexpected request: The people who came wanted to buy raw milk.

more

Thanks to Laura Honan, WMCL Library, for bringing this piece to my attention.