Bailee Henderson

California has declared a state of emergency as the current outbreak of Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza H5N1 (HPAI H5N1) continues to sweep North American dairy herds.

To assist interpretation of test results generated by UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) microbiology laboratories, UKHSA has published new guidelines for assessing the microbiological safety of ready-to-eat (RTE) foods placed on the market.

The Government of Canada has amended the Food and Drug Regulations (FDR), making changes to the regulatory framework for food compositional standards, affecting certain regulations concerning food additives and compositional standards, microbiological criteria, and methods of analysis for food.

Following the high-profile, fatal listeriosis outbreak linked to Boar’s Head ready-to-eat (RTE) deli meats that prompted an internal review of USDA-FSIS processes, the agency has announced several new steps to strengthen its oversight of RTE facilities, including expanded Listeria rule requirements and stricter state-federal cooperative inspection agreements.

This episode of Food Safety Five covers a recent amendment made to the EU microbiological criteria for managing Listeria monocytogenes in certain ready-to-eat foods. Also discussed are recent pressures put on FDA to ban red dye 3 in foods.   

The latest UK Food Security Report (UKFSR) has been published by the UK Government. A trend noted in the report is that, despite Campylobacter causing the most foodborne illnesses, outbreak detection is hindered by the lack of a required national typing scheme.

Salmonella illnesses in the U.S. in 2022 were attributed to a wide variety of foods, while Escherichia coli and Listeria monocytogenes infections were mostly linked to two or three food groups, according to the Interagency Food Safety Analytics Collaboration’s (IFSAC’s) latest foodborne illness source attribution report.   

The U.S. Poultry and Egg Association’s latest Antibiotic Stewardship report showed significant decreases in antibiotic use for broiler chickens and turkeys between 2013 and 2023, with the proportion of broiler chickens receiving antibiotics in hatcheries dropping from 90 percent to less than 1 percent.

Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ) recently published its Annual Report 2023–2024 outlining the agency’s food safety regulatory work throughout the past year, including the management of food safety incidents, standards development, surveillance, and other efforts. 

A report by the European Court of Auditors has identified “notable gaps” in the EU legal framework around food labeling and enforcement of regulations, and offered recommendations for improvement.