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March 10 (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert Kennedy Jr. directed the Food and Drug Administration on Monday to revise safety rules to help eliminate a provision that allows companies to self-affirm that food ingredients are safe. SNIP"For far too long, ingredient manufacturers and sponsors have exploited a loophole that has allowed new ingredients and chemicals, often with unknown safety data, to be introduced into the U.S. food supply without notification to the FDA or the public," he said in a statement.Currently, the FDA strongly encourages manufacturers to submit notices under a rule known as Substances...

A New Hampshire woman was arrested on Friday after police found footage of her urinating on food products at a local grocery store among a trove of online videos documenting similar disgusting acts dating back four years. Kelli Tedford, 23, allegedly tainted a slew of products at Monadnock Food Co-op in New Hampshire with her urine — costing the grocery store roughly $1,500 for the ruined products and cleaning expenses, the Keene Police Department said in a press release. The grocery store also had to issue a recall for its organic quinoa, cornmeal, polenta, coconut shreds and raw walnuts after...

“Ultraprocessed foods.” That sounds really bad. In fact, not just really bad, but really, really bad. Bad on a level with, maybe, “assault rifles” or “cis-heteronormativity.” Definitely, with a condemnatory name like that, “ultraprocessed foods” would be something that no sensible person would ever eat, or at least certainly not in large quantities. The term “ultraprocessed foods” has been in usage for a while, but the frequency seems to have exploded everywhere in the past few months. Perhaps that has resulted from the naming of Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. to be the next Secretary of Health and Human Services. Kennedy...

The future of food is definitely at stake, and uber wealthy “philanthropists” influence food systems in concerning ways. Let us be clear—consuming insect-based foods comes with potential health risks. These risks are primarily related to food safety and the presence of allergens or toxins in some insects. The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) highlighted several food safety issues associated with edible insects, including: Pathogens. Insects can harbor bacteria, viruses, and parasites, which can risk human health if not properly handled or cooked. Allergens. Some insects contain allergens that can cause allergic reactions in sensitive individuals. Toxins. Certain insects may contain...

Legislators in Tennessee and Arizona appear to be preparing their states for the addition of vaccines to their food supply. Though they come from different states, the two bills were introduced only weeks apart. Neither of the bills prohibit vaccines from being added to food. Rather, they accept the addition as inevitable. Tennesee A new Tennessee bill would make it a Class C misdemeanor to sell or distribute food containing vaccines without clearly labeling them as such. The bill was filed for introduction on January 5, 2023. The bill defines “vaccine or vaccine material” as a “substance intended for use...

...**Avoiding unseen food hazards is the reason people often check the dates on food packaging. And printed with the month and year is often one of a dizzying array of phrases: “best by,” “use by,” “best if used before,” “best if used by,” “guaranteed fresh until,” “freeze by” and even a “born on” label applied to some beer. **

Workers at an Upper Manhattan Chipotle restaurant say they’ve been fighting a losing battle against hordes of hungry rats — and a management team that let the infestation get so bad that four staffers have been bitten by the massive rodents. The besieged fast-casual Mexican joint on Broadway near West 169th Street in Washington Heights closed to customers indefinitely late last month, but only after rats chewed through the wiring of a computer system that handled orders, two employees told The Post. In the meantime, those workers are still going into the store to clean, in an effort to keep...

Sheetz will be making changes to how customers will be able to shop at its convenience store. On Monday, Sheetz announced that it would be stopping self-serve coffee and other drink machines, as well as stopping the availability of self-serve pastries in its bakery. “Sheetz is doing everything we can to prioritize the health and well-being of our team members, customers and the communities we serve as the situation around COVID-19 continues to evolve,” Sheetz President and CEO Travis Sheetz said in a press release. “These changes are in the best interest of our customers and employees as we remain...

Even with all the media attention on coronavirus, we're missing the really big story: Those disgusting hot food bars and salad bars at various supermarkets and food courts near you. People put their hands on the lettuce. They cough on the olives. Multiple hands touch the ladles and spoons. And government does nothing. Consider that video that went viral before the coronavirus outbreak. It was of a man at the hot food bar at a grocery store, slurping cream of broccoli soup from the ladle. He put his lips and tongue all over that ladle. Then he put the ladle...

Don’t wash your raw chicken! Washing can spread germs from the chicken to other food or utensils in the kitchen. https://go.usa.gov/xmTqz The agency recommended placing raw chicken in a disposable bag before placing it in the shopping cart or refrigerator, washing hands with soapy water after handling it, using a separate cutting board to handle it, and never placing cooked food or fresh produce on the same surface as uncooked chicken.

The US Department of Agriculture bought dozens of cats from Chinese meat markets, butchered the felines — and then fed their parts to healthy kittens at a Maryland lab for twisted experiments, according to a disturbing new watchdog report. The experiments, which took place as recently as 2015, were aimed at studying toxoplasmosis, a common parasitic infection that causes food-borne illness.

On Aug. 18, 2016, the Lakewood location of Mi Cocina, a popular upscale Tex-Mex chain, faced one particularly unhappy visitor: a Dallas health inspector. The food safety report filed that day graded Mi Cocina at 60 points out of 100. The details weren’t pretty. Flies in the kitchen. No hot water for washing dishes. Cooked chicken sitting out at room temperature. In summary, the report concluded, Mi Cocina “fails to meet City of Dallas Food Protection and Education sanitation standards. 10 day follow-up inspection required.” That follow-up inspection never took place. Mi Cocina’s next health inspection came 221 days later,...

Cincinnati-based John Morrell and Co. is recalling approximately 210,606 pounds of ready-to-eat hot dog products under the “Nathan’s” and “Curtis Beef Master” brands that may be contaminated with metal, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) announced Friday. The beef franks were produced on January 26, 2017. The following products are subject to recall: 14 oz. sealed film packages containing “Nathan’s SKINLESS 8 BEEF FRANKS,” with a Use By date of Aug. 19, 2017. 16 oz. sealed film packages containing “Curtis BEEF MASTER Beef Franks,” with a Use By date of June 15, 2017. The products...

Among the many things New Yorkers pride ourselves on is food: making it, selling it and consuming only the best, from single-slice pizza to four-star sushi. We have fish markets, Shake Shacks and, as of this year, 74 Michelin-starred restaurants. Yet most everything we eat is fraudulent. In his new book, “Real Food Fake Food,” author Larry Olmsted exposes the breadth of counterfeit foods we’re unknowingly eating. After reading it, you’ll want to be fed intravenously for the rest of your life.

Chipotle is shutting down all its stores nationwide for a few hours next month to hold staff meetings about food safety. The meeting will occur on February 8.

President Barack Obama wants to create a new government agency dedicated to keeping the nation’s food safe. The proposal in the president’s budget released Monday comes after outbreaks of illnesses linked to chicken, eggs, peanuts and cantaloupe in recent years. More than a dozen federal agencies oversee food safety, and consumer advocates have long called for bringing all those functions together in a single home. […] The budget proposes consolidating the Agriculture Department’s Food Safety and Inspection Service and all of FDA’s food safety oversight into one new agency within the Department of Health and Human Services. The new agency...

NEWPORT BEACH (CBSLA.com) — Investigators with the Orange County Health Department were working Friday to determine what may have caused several people to get sick after eating at an upscale Newport Beach restaurant. KNX 1070’s Ron Kilgore reports authorities say six diners came down with the intestinal bacteria Shigella after eating at the True Food The self-billed healthy living restaurant was shut down on Aug. 28 for two days over what county inspectors labeled an “imminent health risk” due to at least one confirmed case of Shigella. Following the closure, True Food reopened after the entire restaurant was sanitized and...

(Reuters) - A U.S. food safety summit in Maryland earlier this month has become a cautionary tale after more than 100 attendees came down with suspected food poisoning. Most of those affected complained of diarrhea, the Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene said in a statement. Local health officials have heard from about 400 of the 1,300 attendees and are at a loss as to the exact cause of their illness. The April 8-10 meeting at the Baltimore Convention Center included representatives from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and food...

Thanks to our Change.org petition (307,000-plus signatures and rising), millions of Americans have learned that the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is about to allow U.S chickens to be sent to China for processing and then shipped back to the U.S. for human consumption. This arrangement is particularly alarming given China’s appalling food safety record and the fact that there will be no on-site USDA inspectors in those plants. In addition, American consumers will never know that chicken processed in China is in foods like chicken soup or chicken nuggets because there’s no requirement to label it as such. One...

The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) recently announced that four Chinese poultry processors have permission to begin shipping meat to the U.S. The nightmare for U.S. consumers? The Chinese-processed chicken will be labeled as ‘made in America!’ Even though the Chinese poultry processors are only allowed to ship cooked meat from U.S.-raised chickens, many in the United States are alarmed that our leaders would allow such a deal to go down in the first place. After all, China is notorious for its food safety problems. Concerns among the public are warranted when you consider that the CDC estimates 325,000 Americans...