Entries tagged with 'food safety'
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While there's a saying that advises against eating shellfish in months without the letter "r," targeting May through August, the New York Times says commercial shellfish aren't any more likely to be toxic in the summer than during the rest of the year....
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With salmonella outbreaks slowing down, the FDA reported yesterday that tomatoes are in the clear, but fresh jalapeño and serrano peppers still need attention. The tomato industry estimates more than $100 million in losses, but according to the FDA, every type of tomato in stores and fields today is safe (and happy). The outbreak peaked between May 20 and June 10 when about 33 people became ill a day, but dropped to an average of 19 people a day between June 11 and June 20. How can two different types of produce get contaminated with the same rare strain of Salmonella Saintpaul? According to FDA food safety chief Dr. David Acheson, a large farm was perhaps growing tomatoes in one...
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First the CDC and the FDA told us that tomatoes were the likely culprit of the salmonella outbreak that has affected nearly a thousand people since it was first reported on April 10. Now, after tomato growers and distributors have lost hundreds of million of dollars destroying and throwing out supposedly tainted product, there are reports that the CDC thinks jalapeños might be the culprit. Then again, the government is saying it could be one of a half dozen ingredients used to make salsa. It seems to me that the only thing we can definitively conclude from this episode is that our food safety system is irretrievably broken. According to the Wall Street Journal, "Health officials said the evidence linking...
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"For lunch today I was forced to order a BLB sandwich, which is bacon, lettuce, and more bacon. I'm thinking of ditching the lettuce too, just to be safe." During last night's monologue on Jimmy Kimmel Live!, Jimmy Kimmel gives his thoughts about the halt in tomato use and sales due to the recent Salmonella outbreak. Don't miss the helpful PSA from the Broccoli Council at the end! Watch the clip after the jump....
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You know something is news when it graces the cover of the New York Post. The main focus of the story is that the burger chains have stopped serving tomatoes on their burgers, and people are upset. At the Mickey D's on Sixth Avenue between 21st and 22nd streets, Beata Royzman, 17, a La Guardia HS senior, winced as she bit into a cheeseburger that didn't have tomatoes. "It's disgusting," she groaned. "It would be much better with tomatoes... Previously: Salmonella Scare Halts Tomato Sales...
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These tomatoes may be safe, but others may give you Salmonella poisoning. Beware. Bountiful grape tomatoes still populate Mickey D's "premium salad," but you're out of luck if you want a tomato slice on your burger. Reuters reported today that McDonald's and Wal-Mart stores have stopped selling certain tomatoes. Chipotle and Target are also nixing tomatoes to play it safe. On Saturday, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration warned U.S. consumers that the Salmonella outbreak—145 reported cases, including at least 23 hospitalizations since mid-April—is linked to raw red plum, red Roma, and red round tomatoes. The FDA says that it is safe to eat cherry tomatoes, grape tomatoes, tomatoes sold with the vine still attached, and tomatoes grown at home....
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Slate lets us know it's safe to eat pork brains, but inhaling them would be a bad idea....
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Eat chicken in China and you might fail a steroids test. Because of issues with tainted food in China, the United States Olympic Committee has made arrangements with sponsors like Kellogg's and Tyson Foods to ship 25,000 pounds of lean protein to China for the Olympic games. Local vendors and importers will be used to obtain other foods and cooking equipment....
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"No. Overall, the dangers of not eating fish [including tuna] outweigh the small possible dangers from mercury. The recommended amount for adults is to eat one or two servings of fish per week — but probably only 10% to 20% of the population in the U.S. eats sufficient fish. The real danger in this country, the real concern, is that we're not eating enough fish. That is very likely increasing our rates of death from heart disease." Thanks goes to Time for its straightforward Q&A with Dr. Dariush Mozaffarian, assistant professor of medicine and epidemiology at Harvard Medical School and the Harvard School of Public Health, on the potential dangers of eating mercury-rich fish. The National Fisheries Institute has also...
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According to the New York Times' Marion Burros, a study by the international conservation group Oceana also found unacceptably high, potentially unhealthy levels of mercury in tuna samples taken from stores and restaurants around the country. Burros writes that "Oceana is asking the FDA to require warnings at seafood counters, to add fresh tuna to its 'do not eat' list and to increase the frequency of its testing of fish."...
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