• Improving inspections of agricultural products

    Agricultural goods crossing into the United States are subject to Agricultural Quarantine Inspection (AQI) by DHS’s Customs and Border Protection (CBP); current practices call for inspecting 2 percent of the items in a container; a new study says that applying decision-making theory to inspections would improve them and make them more effective

  • NSF international marks Food Safety Education Month

    NSF, founded in 1944, is a veteran in the food safety business; September is U.S. National Food Safety Education Month, and NSF highlights its different activities aiming to improve food safety

  • FDA requires faster food safety reporting

    FDA unveiled a new electronic database where manufacturers must notify the government, within 24 hours, if one of their products is likely to cause sickness or death in people or animals

  • China promises new food safety standards

    The Chinese press reports that, stung by last year’s avalanche of bad news about China’s food safety standards, the government has formulated new, tough policy on food safety

  • Canada recalls some Sprouts Alive products

    Canadian food inspection agency warns Canadians about salmonella contamination of Sprouts Alive products

  • Food safety moves up on Americans' agenda

    The problem of food safety has been very much on the minds of Americans this summer; the government and the private sector are doing more to address the problem

  • Making sense of food safety legislation

    The U.S. Congress is moving toward making food supplies safer; the House bill is modeled on a preventive approach called Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points, or HACCP, which experts say is a sensible way to go

  • Sweeping food safety bill passes House

    House passes new, sweeping food safety bill requiring more government inspections and imposing new penalties on those who violate the law

  • G8 leaders address food security

    In last week’s meeting in Italy, leaders of the G8 pledged $15 billion over the next three years to increase food security in developing countries by investing in food production and distribution infrastructure

  • Humans may infect pigs with swine flu

    Researchers find that the strain of influenza, A/H1N1, which is currently pandemic in humans has been shown to be infectious to pigs and to spread rapidly in a trial pig population

  • Minnesota company recalls two years of food products

    Plainview Milk Products Cooperative is recalling two years of food products — instant non-fat dried milk, whey protein, fruit stabilizers, and gums— due to possible salmonella contamination

  • Chatham creates School of Sustainability and the Environment

    Two trends — globalization and the centralization of food production — have pushed food safety issues to the fore; Chatham University launches a new degree program designed to provide students with “a deep understanding of the issues surrounding food such as the environmental costs of food production and distribution, cultural issues, sustainability of communities, and safety of the food supply”

  • New security measures on passenger planes may hurt cherries growers

    About a quarter of the cherries grown in Washington state — some 1.3 million 20-pound boxes — are flown in the cargo hull of passenger planes to Pacific Rim countries like Japan and Korea; growers of highly perishable crops like cherries worry that a new requirement that all cargo on U.S. passenger flights undergo a security scan could create lengthy delays, leaving crops to rot in hangars as they await inspection

  • Food poisoning outbreaks prompt oversight efforts, II

    President Obama had an organic vegetable garden planted at the White House, and his nominees to the FDA are pushing a more aggressive approach to food safety; many are are pinning their hopes on the Food Safety Modernization Act, which would essentially split the FDA, creating a separate agency to focus on food safety