Food Safety

10 Million Pounds of Frozen Snacks Recalled

Ten million pounds of frozen pizza and other snacks have been recalled due to contamination with a rare strain of E. coli, according to the Food and Drug Administration. Buffalo, N.Y.-based Rich Products Corp. is recalling all items produced by at its Waycross, Ga. plant with "Best By" dates rangi ... More >>

[Updated] Bumble Bee Recall Expands to 3 Million Cans

Updated March 8, 2013, 10:03 a.m. The Bumble Bee tuna recall has expanded to over 3 million cans and now includes Chicken of the Sea products as well, USA Today reports. The 659,784 recalled cans of Chicken of the Sea tuna were canned at Bumble Bee's California plant. The Chicken of the Sea recall ... More >>

[Updated] Whole Foods Recalls Smoked Salmon

Updated: 1/30 1:54 p.m. Whole Foods is recalling an additional lot code (for a total of two lot codes) of Whole Catch Wild Alaskan Sockeye Salmon (4 oz.), UPC code 0 99482 40880 0, cold smoked and sliced, because it may contain listeria. The second lot code is 7425A2297A. The recall has also expande ... More >>

FDA Proposes Tough New Food Safety Rules

The Food and Drug Administration on Friday proposed new food-safety rules aimed at preventing foodborne illnesses at the source -- food processors and farms, Reuters reports. The new rules are a requirement of the Food Safety Modernization Act, which President Barack Obama signed into law two years ... More >>

Smoked Salmon Recalled for Listeria

Put down that lox. It might be loaded -- with bacteria. A Seattle-based company is recalling 371 cases of ready-to-eat smoked salmon because the fish may be contaminated with Listeria monocytogenes, Food Safety News reports. Ocean Beauty Seafoods LLC issued a voluntary recall of its Nathan's Brand ... More >>

Trader Joe's Butter Chicken Recalled for Listeria Risk

We're still fond of you, TJ's, and we're hoping we can work this out, but your empty promises about caring for our health and safety are beginning to make us sick (literally). Coming on the heels of recalls this year of barbecue chicken salad (Listeria, July) and peanut butter (Salmonella, Septemb ... More >>

Nesquik Recalled for Salmonella

If you were thinking of making yourself a nice comforting cup of cocoa to deal with last Friday's spinach recall, you might want to try a glass of wine instead. Glendale-based Nestle USA has recalled Nesquik, also for possible Salmonella contamination. (That Salmonella seriously gets around.) The f ... More >>

Peanut Butter Recall Expands to Just About Everything

The peanut butter recall that began innocently enough with one Trader Joe's brand has expanded exponentially and now includes everything from crackers and cookies to gelato and tahini, according to the Food and Drug Administration. Almost 300 products have now been recalled in what the FDA is callin ... More >>

[Updated] Mexican Mangoes Recalled Due to Salmonella Romaine Recalled Due to Listeria

Updated: Aug. 31, 3:17 p.m.: Mango distributor Splendid Foods has expanded their recall to as many as 1 million mangoes that may carry Salmonella bacteria, UPI reports. The FDA says the mangoes are likely to blame for a multistate cluster of salmonella, as well as cases in Canada. Splendid said the ... More >>

Another Cantaloupe Outbreak Kills 2, Sickens 141

In a fatal rerun of the 2011 outbreak, two people have died and 141 have been sickened since July 7 after eating cantaloupes, the Wall Street Journal reports. But unlike last year's Listeria outbreak in cantaloupes, this year's deadly melons contain Salmonella, according to the Centers for Disease C ... More >>

U.S. Prosecutors Probe Deadly Cantaloupe Outbreak

The U.S. Attorney's Office in Colorado is looking into dropping the hammer on Jensen Farms, the cantaloupe processor linked to a Listeria outbreak last year that killed at least 30 people. The company is now the subject of a criminal investigation by the federal government, Businessweek reports. B ... More >>

Rates of Foodborne Illnesses Rising, CDC Reports

In the wake of the massive Trader Joe's salad recall comes a new government report that says the U.S. is falling short of its goals to reduce foodborne illness outbreaks, Bloomberg reports. According to preliminary Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data for 2011, the foodborne pathogens Sal ... More >>

Meatball Co. Recalls 325,000 Pounds of Frozen Meat

New Jersey-based meatball-maker Buona Vita Inc. is recalling nearly 325,000 pounds of frozen, ready-to-eat meat and poultry products due to possible Listeria contamination, CBS News reports. The U.S. Department of Agriculture's Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) announced Saturday that the r ... More >>

Umami Burger's Fancy "Pink Slime" Burger

This morning the mad meat scientists over at Umami Burger announced their most Frankenstein creation yet: a gourmet "Pink Slime" burger that will debut at the Taste of the Nation Los Angeles on June 10. In fact, this particular specimen above was whipped in founder Adam Fleischman's home kitchen. Yu ... More >>

Baby Spinach and Bagged Salads Recalled

Two greens producers in Salinas have recalled their products due to bacterial contamination. Taylor Farms is recalling their organic baby spinach, and River Ranch is recalling its bagged salads, Food Safety News reports. Random testing by the U.S. Department of Agriculture found Salmonella on a fi ... More >>

10 Sickened by Raw Milk in California

Ten California residents have come down with food poisoning -- Campylobacter bacteria infections, to be exact -- after consuming raw milk produced by Fresno County-based Organic Pastures. Raw milk, raw skim milk (non-fat), raw cream and raw butter produced by the dairy have been recalled and are s ... More >>

Best Food Poisoning Remedy May Be Garlic

For garlic-lovers, there's a new reason to love those cloves even more, and it doesn't have much to do with flavoring your food. A study out of Washington State University found that garlic is 100 times stronger than antibiotics when it comes to killing bacteria that causes food poisoning. Garlic co ... More >>

Twitter Feud of the Week: Tom Colicchio vs. Dan Moody

It seems that a few weeks ago we missed a classic tweet-off between Top Chef judge Tom Colicchio and local chef Dan Moody, a former LudoBites sous chef who has spun off several pop-up of his throughout Southern California, including a recent stint at Culver City's Batch. Moody called out Colicchio ... More >>

Sushi Alert: Spicy Tuna Rolls Linked to Salmonella Outbreak

Dubbed the pink slime of the sea, nearly 59,000 pounds of yellowfin tuna have been recalled after a salmonella outbreak. According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, the outbreak has been reported in 20 states and 12 people have been hospitalized. The product is called Nakaochi Scra ... More >>

Uproar Over 'Pink Slime' in School Lunches

Remember pink goo? Let us refresh your memory. Pink goo, aka pink slime, is scraps of meat and connective tissue swept up from slaughterhouse floors that are doused with a pink chemical to kill dangerous pathogens -- since they've been, you know, on the floor -- then blended together into a substanc ... More >>

Taco Bell Implicated in 10-State Salmonella Outbreak

When there was a multistate outbreak of Salmonella enteritidis in October, the Centers for Disease Control would identify the culprit only as "Mexican-style, fast-food Restaurant Chain A." Turns out, that's longhand for Taco Bell. At the time, the CDC refused to name the restaurant chain, saying the ... More >>

Activists Call for Food Safety Czar's Ouster

Occupy cornfields! Support is growing for a petition calling for the ouster of Michael Taylor, a senior adviser for the FDA who formerly served as vice president of Monsanto, the controversial agricultural multinational at the forefront of genetically modified foods, the Washington Post reports. Pre ... More >>

The Year in Food Recalls

It was a bad year for orange fruit (papayas, cantaloupes) and leafy greens (especially romaine). Ground turkey took a big hit (36 million pounds recalled), and raw milk products were pulled from shelves. Here's a look back at 2011 in food recalls, a year of E. coli conundrums, Listeria hysteria and ... More >>

Study Suggests Flour the Culprit in Cookie Dough Illnesses

Flickr/WonderlaneMake sure you cook your cookies​ Last week we reported on a new study that implicated raw chocolate chip cookie dough as the cause of a large outbreak of E. coli in 2009. Researchers said it was the first time an outbreak of food poisoning caused by the dangerous Shiga toxin-p ... More >>

U.S. Still a Dumping Ground for Crappy Honey, Study Finds

Flickr/Joelk75​ They're calling it "honey laundering." More than three-fourths of the honey sold in U.S. grocery stores is filtered to the point where it contains no pollen -- which would make it flunk the quality standards set by most of the world's food safety agencies, according to testing ... More >>

Listeria Update: 23 Deaths Since September

clayirving​A listeriosis outbreak first reported last month has now resulted in 23 deaths, making this the deadliest outbreak since 1985, when 52 people died from the Listeria strain contracted via Mexican-style soft cheese. The sad food story began last month when a Colorado produce company i ... More >>

Frozen Tuna Recall: Histamine Illnessess From Frozen Ground Tuna Grocery Sushi

sushi from AFC​ Another day, another food recall. The latest is of frozen tuna that has been linked to illnesses caused by elevated histamine levels. According to Food Safety News, the FDA found evidence of food decomposition and elevated histamine levels in frozen tuna packed by Osamu Corpora ... More >>

Listeria Hysteria: Romaine Lettuce Recalled Over Contamination Fears

Flickr/MuffetCalifornia's True Leaf farms has recalled their romaine​ Stop! Put down that salad fork! No, not because you're using the wrong fork. California's True Leaf farms is recalling 2,498 cartons of chopped romaine lettuce because it may be contaminated with listeria bacteria, although ... More >>

Is the War on Food Terror Useless?

Associated PressThis California farmer was given money from the Department of Homeland Security to buy a lock for his dairy barn.​ A report released by the Associated Press yesterday, September 13th, found that the post-9/11 plan to protect the American food supply is mostly ineffective and u ... More >>

36 Million Pounds of Ground Turkey Recalled

Flickr/Social Mediarts​The U.S. Department of Agriculture has recalled 36 million pounds of ground turkey in the wake of a multi-state outbreak of antibiotic-resistant Salmonella linked to the death of a California man, the Chicago Tribune reports. Seventy-seven people in 26 states reported b ... More >>

Tomato Recall Alert: Grape Tomatoes in California Packaged Salads

Flickr/smcgeegrape tomatoes​ Your food recall alert of the day. (Getting tired of these yet? Right.) A specific lot of grape tomatoes grown by a Florida grower has been recalled by the FDA for possible salmonella contamination, prompting a larger recall of packaged salads. Six L's of Immokale ... More >>

Self Preservation: Master Food Preservers Confront Food Safety Issues

Felicia FriesemaMaster Food Preserver Ernest Miller teaches about jar inspection at the UC Cooperative Extension​ Ernest Miller, Executive Chef at Farmer's Kitchen and Master Food Preserver (MFP) Instructor for the UC Cooperative Extension (UCCE) (also we love that their website is ucanr.org), ... More >>

California Merchant Recalls 64,000 Pounds of Chicken, Pork Products

Flickr/Tony Austin​ A Tracy, California, food supplier has recalled 64,000 pounds of chicken and pork products because some broccoli in the products was found to be contaminated with Listeria, the Associated Press reports. The 10 varieties of premade foods, which include "Raley's" rice bowls ... More >>

The FDA Weighs Tightening Regulations on Raw Milk Cheese

Adam Kuban/FlickrA Tomme de Savoie​ Somewhere in a smoke-filled boardroom, the Whey and Curds Committee is hunched over a heap of runny rounds with washed rinds, trying to figure out whether or not the Federal government ought to clamp down on cheeses made with unpasteurized milk. A recent Ne ... More >>

Food Safety Bill Passes in House; Heads to Obama for Signature

After a year in legal limbo and what looked like certain defeat only weeks ago, the House this afternoon passed the Food Safety Modernization Act (a.k.a. S. 510), paving the way for the first overhaul of America's food safety system in seven decades. The vote was 255-144 mostly along party lines (D ... More >>

[Updated] Senate Votes on Sweeping Food Safety Bill

Flickr/graymalkna farm in Northern California​ Updated: Yesterday evening the Senate passed the Food Safety Bill, otherwise known as the FDA Food Safety Modernization Act, or S.510. The bill passed on a 73-25 vote. It now goes to the House, which is widely expected to pass it, and then to Pre ... More >>

GOOD Infographic Clears Up the Cost of Food Safety

Posted on September 29th, this GOOD infographic ably breaks down the cost of keeping Americans safe from foodborne illnesses. Some--industry lobbyists and their political allies, for starters--say expenses associated with implementing the Food Safety Bill (around $1.6 billion, according to Oklahoma ... More >>

California Restaurant Association Backs Food Safety Law

Flickr/LWY​ The California Restaurant Association is giving two freshly scrubbed thumbs up to the enactment of SB 602, landmark food safety legislation written by Sen. Alex Padilla (D-Pacoima) and signed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. The new law requires that all employees who handle food in ... More >>

Safe Food-Handling Bill Is Sent to Governor

Flickr/stevendepolo​ A bill that requires that restaurant workers be trained and certified in proper food handling was approved by the California state Senate on August 27th. The legislation, which seeks to reduce the incidence of food-borne illnesses in the state, has already been approved ... More >>

Egg Watch Continues: More Recalls, New Safety Rules

Flickr user Muy YumPoached egg from Bottega Louie​ Our egg problem is still going strong. MSNBC is reporting that over a half-billion eggs have been recalled, and even more could be on the horizon. Meanwhile, the Wall Street Journal is reporting that new egg safety rules were only recently pu ... More >>

Check Your Eggs: Millions Recalled Due to Salmonella

Flickr/stevendepolo​An outbreak of salmonella in eggs has prompted a nationwide recall and lead to hospitalizations in counties across the U.S., including in California, the San Jose Mercury News reports. Since May, at least 266 people across the state have become ill after eating contaminated ... More >>

Good Tweets: The Top 25 Who's Who of Food Safety on Twitter

​Thanks to a tweet from @marionnestle (that would be Marion Nestle, Paulette Goddard Professor in the Department of Nutrition, Food Studies, and Public Health and Professor of Sociology at New York University, author of What to Eat and other books, and of the Food Politics blog, to those who d ... More >>

The 10 Foods Most Likely to Make You Barf, According to the CDC

​ With recent food-borne illness outbreaks linked to alfalfa sprouts and romaine lettuce, the Center for Science in the Public Interest has re-released its list of what the group calls the top 10 riskiest foods regulated by the FDA, based on cases of illness reported to the Centers for Diseas ... More >>

Where the Elite Meet to Turn You Off Meat

Fresno-based Beef Packers, Inc. Issues Beef Recall Due to Salmonella Outbreak

Photo credit: KSEE24Beef Packers, Inc.​Beef Packers, Inc., a Fresno meat-packing plant, is recalling almost 900,000 pounds of ground beef products due possible salmonella contamination. The U.S. Department of Agriculture's Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) announced the recall today. ... More >>

It’s Weird Out There

Politicians provide comic relief from election madness