Health Law

Meat Trade News Daily misses only a couple

By Drew Falkenstein

The Meat Trade News Daily misses only a couple major food safety issues (i.e. outbreaks) in yesterdays summary of ten major food stories in 2009.  In the blog post, titled "USA - Food Safety a Bloody Disgrace," MTND includes: 

1.  Stephanie Smith's E. coli O157:H7 and HUS illness from eating a contaminated Cargill ground beef patty.  Stephanie has sued Cargill for $100,000,000.

2.  Linda Rivera's E. coli O157:H7 and HUS illness from eating contaminated Nestle cookie dough.

3.  Peanut Corporation of America's Salmonella Typhimurium outbreak, remarkable for a lot of things, not least of which the depth of its seemingly utter disdain for the wellbeing of consumers.

4.  The Salmonella Newport (an antibiotic resistant strain) outbreak linked to Cargill ground beef.

5.  President Obama's failure to nominate somebody, despite having served for almost a year--a year marked by, well, see above and below--for the position of Undersecretary of Food Safety at the USDA.

6.  The Milan, Illinois McDonald's Hepatitis A outbreak, lacking only an ounce of intent in its comarability to the actions of PCA and Stewart Parnell.

7.  The Organic Pastures E. coli O157:H7 outbreak linked to raw milk.

8.  The E. coli O157:H7 outbreak linked to JBS beef.

9.  A Chinese court's acceptance of the first lawsuit to arise from the 2008 melamine scandal linked to tainted milk, which killed 6 babies and sickened about 300,000.

10.  The "food fight" sparked by the Center for Science in the Public Interest's report on the ten riskiest foods regulated by the FDA.

A good list.  I would add many more if there was room in a list of ten, but two are certainly worthy of emphasis:

1.  The E. coli O157:H7 outbreak, announced in a Christmas Eve press release, linked to tenderized beef products produced by National Steak and Poultry.

2.  The large Salmonella Saintpaul outbreak from January through April linked to contaminated sprouts.  Ultimately, at least 228 people were sickened in the outbreak from 13 states.

Full post as published by Food Poison Blog on January 01, 2010 (boomark / email).