The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Services (APHIS) will hold meetings in four states “to provide an opportunity for stakeholders to offer their input on a new framework being developed for the bovine tuberculosis and brucellosis programs in the United States.” The May 19, 2011, meeting will be held in Lansing, Michigan; the May 24 meeting will be held in Atlanta, Georgia; the June 1 meeting will be held in Bozeman, Montana; and the June 6 meeting will be held in Amarillo, Texas. The agenda includes discussion of topics included in a draft regulatory framework developed by federal, state and tribal governments, involving such matters as herd management and epidemiological investigations, animal importation, indemnity, and approval of diagnostic tests and laboratories. Written comments on meeting topics are requested by June 20. See Federal Register, May 6, 2011.
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The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) has issued a report recommending how the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) could improve the safety of school meals purchased through its commodities program. The report recommends that USDA instruct the commodity program to (i) “develop a systematic and transparent process to determine whether foods offered by the program require more-stringent specifications related to microbial contamination, including steps to: identify pathogens, strains of pathogens, or other foods that merit more stringent-specifications; document the scientific basis used to develop the specifications; and review the specifications on a periodic basis”; and (ii) “share information with school districts in a more explicit form regarding the foods covered by more-stringent purchasing specifications related to microbial contamination to enable districts to make more informed choices.”
A recent study by the Arizona-based Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGRI) has reportedly identified Staphylococcus aureus in 47 percent of meat and poultry samples obtained from retail stores, with 52 percent of the contaminated samples testing positive for multidrug-resistant S. aureus. Andrew Waters, et al., “Multidrug-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus in U.S. Meat and Poultry,” Clinical Infectious Diseases, April 2011. According to a summary of the study, which received funding from the Pew Charitable Trusts, researchers collected 136 samples of ground beef, chicken breasts and thighs, ground pork and pork chops, and ground turkey and turkey cutlets from 26 retail stores in Chicago, Washington, D.C., Fort Lauderdale, Los Angeles, and Flagstaff. The results purportedly indicated that S. aureus contaminated “a substantial portion of samples from all meat and poultry types (37-77%), with a notable 52% of isolates being multidrug resistant” to antimicrobials such as tetracycline, ampicillin, penicillin, and erythromycin, among others. “The…
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has answered criticism of a July 21, 2000, final rule allowing “the safe use of ionizing radiation for the reduction of Salmonella in fresh shell eggs,” and denied requests for a hearing on the ground that the objections “do not raise issues of material fact or otherwise provide a basis for revoking or modifying . . . the regulation.” FDA evidently received 26 submissions contesting the final rule, which permits the irradiation of fresh shell eggs at doses not to exceed 3.0 kiloGray (kGy), but only one letter from Public Citizen raised specific issues within the rule’s scope. The April 13, 2011, Federal Register notice responds to Public Citizen’s claims that FDA misrepresented irradiation’s efficacy and its effect on vitamin A loss and egg yolk carotenoids; that FDA raised the dose allowance to 3.0 kGY without properly updating its analyses; and that FDA failed…
The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) has proposed a procedural change that would allow inspectors to keep meat and poultry products from commerce “until FSIS test results for harmful substances are received.” FSIS currently recommends that processors and official import establishments hold sampled products pending test results, but has evidently concluded that his voluntary measure has allowed adulterated shipments to enter the market. “Therefore, FSIS is announcing its tentative determination not to apply the mark of inspection until negative results are available and received for any testing for adulterants,” stated the agency, which will accept comments on the proposal for 90 days after publication in the Federal Register. FSIS has argued that a mandatory “test and hold” requirement will “substantially reduce serious recalls for meat and poultry.” Along with the agency’s new and revised performance standards to reduce Salmonella and Campylobacter incidence in young chickens and…
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) have announced that they are seeking comments and scientific data to update a risk assessment on the relationship between foodborne Listeria in selected ready-to-eat (RTE) foods and human health. According to the agencies, the effort is designed to evaluate reduction or prevention strategies of Listeria exposure to RTE foods, such as “the impact of changing refrigerated time and temperature storage prior to consumption.” The agencies specifically request comments or data on areas including (i) Listeria “contamination in different RTE foods sampled at retail or in the processing plant,” (ii) Listeria “survival and growth dynamics in RTE foods,” (iii) “the relationship between the dose of Listeria monocytogenes ingested with food and the frequency of Listeria,” (iv) “current food consumption practices in the United States” relating to RTE foods, and (v) storage times and temperatures that may affect Listeria growth during…
Nebraska Beef Ltd. has reportedly agreed to settle its lawsuit against Meyer Natural Foods LLC, and a federal court in Nebraska has apparently ordered the parties to file a motion to dismiss by April 25, 2011. Nebraska Beef recalled about 7 million pounds of beef in a 2008 E. coli outbreak linked to some 76 illnesses. According to a news source, some of the meat came from cattle that the defendant purchased and sent to Nebraska Beef’s plant for processing. While the terms of the settlement have not been disclosed, Nebraska Beef, which contends the contamination did not originate at its facility, had been seeking a declaration that it was not required to indemnify Meyer for legal claims related to the recalled meat filed against Meyer. See Fremont Tribune, March 26, 2011.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) has announced new and revised performance standards to reduce Salmonella and Campylobacter incidence in young chickens and turkeys. Effective July 2011, the standards apparently draw on the FSIS Nationwide Microbiological Baseline Data Collection Programs and the recommendations of President Barack Obama’s (D) Food Safety Working Group. According to a March 21, 2011, Federal Register notice, “The standards will be applied to sample sets collected and analyzed by the Agency to evaluate establishment performance with respect to requirements of the Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points (HACCP) Rule.” FSIS has estimated that, after two years, the combined Campylobacter and Salmonella standards will prevent approximately 25,000 illnesses annually. “While the industry has made significant strides in recent years, far too many Americans continue to fall victim to these foodborne illnesses,” said Under Secretary for Food Safety Elisabeth Hagen in a March…
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has denied requests to delay a final rule amending food additive regulations “to provide for the safe use of ionizing radiation for the control of Vibrio species and other foodborne pathogens in fresh or frozen molluscan shellfish.” According to FDA, it has reviewed opposition to the final rule and requests for a hearing, but concluded that objections filed by groups such as Public Citizen and the Center for Food Safety did not “justify a hearing or otherwise provide a basis for revoking the regulation.” In particular, the agency’s latest decision dismisses allegations that (i) FDA failed to consider evidence indicating “harmful effects from consumption of irradiated molluscan shellfish”; (ii) the final rule does not ensure a product “that is microbiologically safe”; (iii) there is no reasonable certainty of no harm; (iv) FDA failed to consider “several factors that could make irradiated molluscan shellfish unsafe”;…
Finding no clear state precedent, a federal court in Ohio has certified to the state supreme court a question arising in a case involving insurance coverage for Listeria-contaminated meats that led to the destruction of 1 million pounds of meat products in 2006. HoneyBaked Foods, Inc. v. Affiliated FM Ins. Co., No. 08-1686 (N.D. Ohio, order entered March 3, 2011). The question certified is as follows: In light of the Supreme Court of Ohio’s opinion in Anderson v. Highland House Co., 93 Ohio St. 3d 547 (2001), does the reasonable-expectations doctrine apply to a commercial general liability “all-risk” insurance policy, so that coverage, which otherwise would be excluded under the terms and conditions of the policy, is afforded, provided the trier of fact determines that the insured reasonably expected, when purchasing the policy, that the policy would cover the loss at issue. HoneyBaked Foods claimed a loss of approximately $8 million under…
