• Cloned meat, milk may have already entered U.S. food supply

    The FDA admits that meat and milk from the offspring of cloned mammals such as cows, pigs, goats, and sheep could very well have already entered the food supply in the United States

  • Mercury Found in High Fructose Corn Syrup

    The ingestion of mercury can have serious health consequences; too bad the high concentrations of mercury were found in fructose corn syrup, the ingredient that has replaced sugar in many American staples

  • The global consequence of a regional nuclear war

    The world should be worried about a regional nuclear war between India and Pakistan because the consequences of such a war will be anything but regional; scientists say that one billion people may starve to death around the world, and hundreds of millions more will die from disease and conflicts over food

  • USDA's IG warns about flood of genetically modified crops

    Experts expect the number of genetically modified crops and traits, and the number of countries producing them, to double by 2015, raising the risks of imports of GM crops unknown to the USDA; worry centers on countries such as China, India, and Brazil where health and safety standards are more lax

  • Honey laundering: Tainted, mislabeled honey makes it to store shelves

    Two-thirds of the honey Americans consume is imported; almost half of that comes from China; Chinese honey often contains chloramphenicol or other antibiotics which are illegal in any food; Chinese producers, government mislabel honey jars to mislead consumers

  • Kansas wins $450 million biolab

    Kansas State University outlasted four other competitors to win the $450 million DHS National Bio- and Agro-Defense Facility

  • FDA opens offices in China

    As food — and food ingredients — imports from China grow, and as China’s lax health and safety standards become more apparent, the FDA is trying to spot problems at the source by opening three offices in China

  • Biosafety Lab-Level 4 dedicated in Galveston, Texas

    The $174 million, 186,267-square-foot lab will employ 300 people; the lab is one of two approved in 2003 by NIH (the second is being built in Boston); critics question placing a BSL-4 lab on a barrier island vulnerable to hurricanes

  • China has a history of tainted milk

    The recent crisis of melamine-laced milk in China is but the latest in problem-plagued dairy industry; China’s small-scale dairy farmers — and there many of them — are hard to police, and relatively few have the capital and know-how to adhere to good dairy-farming practices

  • Briefly noted

    Global CCTV market analysis 2008-12… U.S. intelligence agencies spend $47.5 billion in 2008… Changing role for DHS in cyber security… Auditors: Private security in Iraq cost over $6 billion… China begins investigation of tainted eggs

  • CBP adds food specialists to inspect imports

    Worries about imported food, and about animal disease and the invasion of lakes and rivers by foreign species, increase; Border Protection adds food specialists for better point-of-entry inspection

  • Briefly noted

    Online “passports” to make Chinese foods safer… Top U.K. prosecutor warns against growing state power… France may buy Reaper UAVs

  • U Kentucky researchers demonstrate milk transportation safety system

    Wildcats researchers develop a milk tracking system which will dramatically improve the safety of bulk milk transport

  • EU bans baby food with Chinese milk

    Twenty-two Chinese dairies used industrial additive melamine in their products; 54,000 Chinese babies were sickened, 4 died, and more than 10,000 are still hospitalized; 27-nation EU bans baby food with Chinese milk

  • Briefly noted

    Debating whether DHS should have cybersecurity responsibilities… FDA revisits refused foods issue… DoD tests contractors’ ID cards