Food News

Cargill Beef Recalled Again, This Time For Salmonella

11:25 am EST December 7th, 2009 | News | 1 Comment

cargill Your food is not as safe as it should be.

Beef Packers Inc., owned by Cargill, announced the recall Friday. It covers 22,723 pounds of ground beef products that were sent to stores in Arizona and New Mexico.

The Arizona Department of Health Services has linked two illnesses to the ground beef, made at the Beef Packers plant on Sept. 23. The beef was ‘repackaged into consumer-size packages and sold under different retail brand names,’ according to a news release issued by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service.

2007: Cargill recalls one million pounds of ground beef

Cargill, getting reacquainted with the Enemy

In 1995 Cargill announced the “End of E. coli” in the pages of the New York Times. Now, 12 years later it has recalled nearly 2,000,000 pounds of hamburger (that is nearly enough to give every New Yorker a quarter pounder) in October and November recalls.

Despite Food Scares, FDA Cuts Inspections

Between 2003 and 2006, FDA food safety inspections dropped 47 percent, according to a database analysis of federal records by The Associated Press.

Thanks again, President Bush.

Topic: Food

A Working And Rigorous FDA = Good Economy

12:34 am EST March 6th, 2009 | News | 3 Comments

Think about it this way. If the FDA had done its job with that peanut plant, people wouldn’t be scared that peanut butter can kill them, then purchases of peanut butter wouldn’t drop off then the peanut industry wouldn’t have to spend p.r. cash on telling people peanuts are safe and instead could do what their core business is: selling peanuts.

Topic: Economy, FDA, Food, Peanut

Salmonella Peanuts Had Metal Fragments In Them. Yep, We Should Totally Let The Free Market Handle It.

5:02 pm EST January 30th, 2009 | Uncategorized | 16 Comments

Jeez Louise.

The government acknowledged Friday that a shipment of peanuts from the plant linked to a salmonella outbreak contained a “filthy, putrid or decomposed substance” later identified as metal fragments. The shipment was returned to the U.S. in April, months earlier than reflected in a federal tracking database.

The rejected shipment — coming across a bridge between New York and Canada — was logged by the Food and Drug Administration but never tested by federal inspectors, according to government records. The computer records show a mid-September date, just weeks before the earliest signs of the outbreak.

…

“The FDA failing to follow up after this incident, does that mean that products that are not good enough for a foreign country are still good enough for the USA?” asked Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman Tom Harkin, D-Iowa. “That’s a double standard that has deadly consequences for our citizens.”

Topic: FDA, Food, Health Care

Remember, We Should Always Let Companies Police Themselves

12:04 pm EST January 28th, 2009 | News | 12 Comments

The free market fairies will take care of everything.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said at least 12 times over the past two years the Peanut Corporation of America has knowingly sold products that had tested positive for salmonella.

The FDA also claimed the company did nothing to improve its manufacturing and sanitation practices after salmonella was found in its plant, and that is a clear violation of the law.

Consumer advocates are outraged at the new revelations.

‘This kind of lab-shopping is absolutely shocking, and it really shows that the FDA’s program is inadequate to protect American consumers,’ Sarah Klein said, who works for the Center for Science in the Public Interest.

Topic: FDA, Food, Regulation, Salmonella

Subway Doesn’t Sell Swiss Cheese Anymore

12:59 pm EST October 30th, 2008 | News | 35 Comments

Most days I go to Subway near my office and pick up a sub. Whether meatball or ham, I always get Swiss cheese – my favorite cheese – to go with it. All of a sudden they stopped stocking swiss. So I went to another Subway, assuming this was localized to just the one store. Turns out Subway has stopped stocking Swiss cheese, period.

What the hell?

Has anyone heard about this? Outrage! I’ll be taking my business to Quizno’s.

UPDATE: So I contacted the Subway people and they responded this way:

In order to consistently provide satisfaction to our customers by offering high quality food with exceptional service that is a good value, we must continuously review our menu and the ingredients that we use.

Occasionally, we find that some items are not popular, some have declined in overall popularity, some are in short supply or are difficult to work with. In order for us to make room on our menu and in our restaurants for new and exciting foods, we must sometimes choose to not offer or discontinue items from the national menu. Some locations may continue to offer discontinued items as a local item.

We understand that this sometimes makes a customer’s favorite food
unavailable. Please be assured that there are still many other great tasting items at your local SUBWAYR restaurant. Perhaps one of them may be your new favorite.

I apologize for any inconvenience and appreciate you taking the time to
contact us. SUBWAYR looks forward to your continued visits.

Topic: Food