PURE Bioscience, Inc., creator of a patented silver dihydrogen citrate (SDC) antimicrobial, on Jan. 28 announced progress in its development of a SDC-based antimicrobial for direct food contact. The company is testing formulations to be used as a rinse or processing aid on produce, poultry, and meats.
Researchers at Weill Cornell Medical College in New York have discovered that a toxin made by the bacterium Clostridium perfringens — responsible for a million cases of food poisoning in the U.S. each year — appears to attack the cells associated with multiple sclerosis (MS) and could be a trigger for the disease.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) today announced that it will hold two more public meetings regarding the Proposed Rule for Focused Mitigation Strategies to Protect Food Against Intentional Adulteration that is part of the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA). In addition to the previously announced meeting on Feb. 20 in College Park, MD, the FDA plans to hold public meetings on Feb. 27 in Chicago and on March 13 in Anaheim, CA.
The UK's Food Standards Agency today released its latest quarterly report on its testing of beef products for horse meat or horse DNA. The report covers 6,069 test results, none of which found horse meat/DNA at or above the one percent (1%) reporting threshold.
A federal court judge sentenced two Colorado farmers on Tuesday to six months of home detention and five years probation for their role in a deadly 2011 listeria outbreak linked to contaminated cantaloupes.
Police in Oizumi, Japan, said on Jan. 25 that they have arrested a 49-year-old plant worker on suspicion of poisoning frozen food products with a pesticide last October. Earlier this month, it was reported that several hundred people fell ill after eating food produced by Aqlifoods Co., a subsidiary of Maruha Nichiro Holdings.
U.S. lawmakers from both the House and Senate Agriculture Committees announced yesterday evening that they have reached a bipartisan agreement on a new five-year farm bill, officially known as the Agricultural Act of 2014. Final votes are expected in both the House of Representatives and the Senate later this week.
The National Resources Defense Council (NRDC) yesterday released a report, based on documents obtained from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), concluding that the FDA has allowed livestock and poultry growers to continue to use antibiotics in production even though they posed a "high risk" of exposing humans to antibiotic-resistant bacteria.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) today reported that a Royal Caribbean cruise ship ended a 10-day Caribbean cruise yesterday after 577 passengers and 49 crew members came down with gastrointestinal illness symptoms. The cause of the outbreak is yet to be determined, according to the CDC.
On Jan. 20, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) implemented a streamlined import document review process. The CFIA is removing the requirement for pre-clearance of the FSIS Form 9135-3, Certificate for Export of Meat and Poultry Products to Canada. This change will also apply to FSIS 9060-7 and FSIS 9060-18 issued for natural casings. As of Feb. 17, the implementation of this change will be complete and the CFIA will no longer process pre-clearance review requests of export certificates or documentation.
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