Currently browsing posts about: Food-safety

The safety of pet food matters because we have one and only one food supply.  If pet food is unsafe, our safety is at risk.

You don’t believe me?  Try this: Darwin’s raw pet food linked to human case of E. coli O157:H7 in four-year-old child

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is advising the public not to feed certain lots of Darwin’s Natural Pet Products raw food to their pets after a four-year-old child became ill with E. coli O157:H7…The child was hospitalized, and developed a severe case of hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS), requiring dialysis. He spent a total of six weeks in hospital and is at risk of permanent injury to his kidneys.

The world of people who care about this sort of thing and demand that authorities do something about it is a small one.  I learned about this from Phyllis Entis, author of  TAINTED. From Farm Gate to Dinner Plate, Fifty Years of Food Safety Failures and TOXIC. From Factory to Food Bowl, Pet Food Is a Risky Business.

She learned about it from food safety advocate Bill Marler.  As the food alert explains,

The contamination came to light after food-safety attorney, William Marler, initiated third-party testing of an previously unopened package of BioLogics All-Natural and Grain Free, Beef Recipe for Dogs found E. coli O157:H7 in the raw, frozen product. Whole genome sequencing (WGS) confirmed that the strain found in the pet food was a match for the strain recovered from the child…when Marler reviewed the files once more, he noted that the family had a dog, and…learned that the dog exclusively ate Darwin’s pet food, and had begun vomiting one day before the child fell ill…Marler arranged for an accredited third-party laboratory to test the sealed packages of food that were still in the family’s freezer.

Marler has plenty of work to do.  He now asks: After Listeria, Salmonella and E. coli positive samples, and HUS in a child, why no mandatory recall by the FDA?

In less than one year Darwin’s Natural Pet Products have been found to be contaminated with Listeria, Salmonella (three times) and E. coli O157:H7.  This year Dawin’s pet food has been epidemiologically and genetically linked to kidney failure in a young child in Utah.

Yet, although Darwin’s has refused voluntary recalls in both instances, the question must be asked, why has the FDA not used its mandatory recall authority?

Comment: It’s great that Bill Marler took lthis on but shouldn’t this be the FDA’s responsibility?  Producers are supposed to produce foods safely—by law.  The FDA is responsible for making sure they do.  Its responsibilities apply to pet foods and well as human foods.  Raw pet food is uncooked and potentially risky; it requires vigilant attention to prevention controls.  This line of pet foods is not getting needed attention to food safety.  The FDA should be enforcing food safety rules, vigilantly, and yes for pet foods too.  What happened to this child and his family was entirely preventable.

Note to dog lovers: if you feed your pet raw food, you are taking a risk, and not only to your animal.

Forthcoming November 11, 2025

For Information and Pre-Orders, click here

One of the underfunded and understaffed FDA’s major responsibility is to ensure the safety of the food supply.  Here’ are the actions the Trump Administration’s FDA is announcing lately.

I.  RUF Releases Produce Safety Roadmap: A Call for Action

The Reagan-Udall Foundation (RUF) for the FDA released its Roadmap to Produce Safety: Summary Report of the Produce Safety Dialogue…the report makes two primary recommendations:

• Implement a shared responsibility approach

• Form a structured, stakeholder-led collaboration

In line with the RUF recommendation, the FDA is calling on growers, buyers, sellers, and federal and state regulators to form a sustainably funded stakeholder collaboration that includes academia and consumer advocates and actively improves conditions and practices to reduce contamination and prevent foodborne illness.

Comment: The RUF is an independent group created by Congress to support the FDA.  Produce safety is a huge issue for the FDA, complicated because oversight is split between it and the USDA.  Produce becomes unsafe when it is exposed to pathogenic organisms spread by animal waste.  Yes, everyone involved in the food chain shares responsibility for safety.  By law, everyone who produces food is supposed to do it safely.  In practice, everyone points fingers at everyone else.  Collaboration would be nice.  But calling for enforcement of existing laws makes more sense.

II.  FDA Releases 2025 Human Foods Program Guidance Agenda

The FDA’s Human Foods Program published their proposed 2025 guidance agenda…These topics are a priority for the agency’s Human Foods Program to complete during 2025. New topics include:

• Action Level for Opiate Alkaloids on Poppy Seeds: Draft Guidance for Industry
• Food Colors Derived from Natural Sources: Fruit Juice and Vegetable Juice as Color Additives in Food; Draft Guidance for Industry
• New Dietary Ingredient (NDI) Notifications and Related Issues: Identity and Safety Information About the NDI: Guidance for Industry

Other guidance documents

• Fact Sheet: FDA Good Guidance Practices
• Human Foods Program Regulations Under Development | FDA
• FDA Guidance Documents
• What Does FDA Regulate

Comment:  The list of items under regulatory development is long and involves this one among many others: Current Good Manufacturing Practice, Hazard Analysis, and Risk-Based Preventive Controls for Human Food Proposed Rule.  I think preventive controls are extremely important in ensuring food safety.  I looked up this one.  It’s written in FDA-speak:

This proposed rule would remove certain requirements that currently apply when a manufacturer/processor of human food has identified a hazard that requires a preventive control, but does not control that hazard. Although that manufacturer/processor would still be required to provide documentation that the food has not been processed to control the identified hazard, that manufacturer/processor would no longer be required to obtain written assurance from the commercial customer that the identified hazard will be controlled.

This post from food safety lawyer Bill Marler got my attention: 20,400,000 Salmonella tainted Cage Free, Organic Eggs recalled after 79 Sickened: According to the FDA, California-based August Egg Company of Hilmar is recalling 1,700,000 dozen brown cage-free and brown certified organic eggs due to potential contamination. A total of 79 people infected with the outbreak strain of Salmonella have been reported from seven states. Illnesses started on dates ranging from February 24, 2025, to May 17, 2025. Twenty-seven… Continue Reading

The FDA’s report of its investigations is here.

The FDA and CDC, in collaboration with state and local partners, are investigating illnesses in a multistate outbreak of Salmonella Enteritidis infections linked to brown cage free eggs and brown certified organic eggs supplied by August Egg Company, Hilmar, CA.

The CDC’s account of this investigation  is here.

The CDC notes:

The true number of sick people in this outbreak is also likely much higher than the number reported. This is because many people recover without medical care and are not tested for Salmonella.

Comment

To endlessly repeat: Salmonella in eggs is preventable, but nobody is making egg producers do what they need to do to prevent hens from getting infected.  If 79 cases and 21 hospitalizations doesn’t get you upset, ask yourself why you are inured to such information.  One more time: these are preventable illnesses and hospitalizations.  And no, organic and cage free conditions do not prevent hens from carrying Salmonella .  And how could they?  I’ve been to industrial organic egg production faciltities and have seen thousands of hens on top of each other in crowded barns.  We have the laws.  They need to be enforced.

Bill Marler keeps insisting that we put him out of business.  Let’s do that.

Food Safety News did a piece on raw milk worth reading as a reasonable summary of risks and benefits.

For starters, it polled readers on their concerns.  The results:

• 🦠 Pathogen risks – Raw milk can harbor dangerous bacteria (64%)
• ⚖️ Lack of regulation – Insufficient oversight of raw milk production (12%)
• 🧑‍🌾 Misinformation – Claims about raw milk benefits are misleading (17%)
• 🥛 Not worried – I think raw milk is safe if handled properly (7%)

Raw milk is a big issue right now, with the Secretary of Health and Human Services filmed downing shots of raw milk at the White House, where he was recording a podcast with Paul Saladino.

Saladino — who goes by the moniker Carnivore MD — posted a teaser for the upcoming episode, in which a cameraman presents Kennedy with shots of raw milk mixed with glyphosate-free honey. “I strongly believe diet is the biggest lever you can pull to heal and improve your health,” Saladino wrote in the caption for the clip, which shows him and the secretary for Health and Human Services chugging a product that the CDC warns “can expose people to germs such as Campylobacter, Cryptosporidium, E. coli, Listeria, Brucella, and Salmonella.”

What to say about all this?

Raw milk is generally safe until it isn’t, but when it isn’t, it is very unsafe.

As Food Safety News summarizes, “From 1998 to 2018, the CDC recorded 202 raw milk outbreaks, causing 2,645 illnesses and 228 hospitalizations, with many affecting children.”

Pasteurization has been highly effective in preventing transmission of illness from milk; it is one of the great public health achievements of the 20th century.

If you want to drink raw milk, you are taking a risk, and one not readily predictable.

You can reduce the risk by drinking raw milk only from farmers you trust to produce it with:

• Rigorous hygeine and safety procedures (diligently followed)
• Frequent testing (although safety experts say milk can never be tested too often)
• Separation of cows (milk from one cow is less likely to be unsafe than milk pooled from many)

Is raw milk worth the risk?

I don’t think so but that’s just me.

If you choose to drink raw milk,

• Choose it carefully
• Understand and be willing to deal with the potential consequences.

_________________

Published today!  Information is here.

I’m hoping the Making America Healthy Again includes keeping us safe from food pathogens.

Four items relevant to food safety.

I.  Food Safety News: Salmonella outbreak sickens over 100; Animal operations blamed for leafy greens risk.

II. And the FDA is investigating yet another outbreak.

Cucumbers grown by Bedner Growers, Inc., and distributed by Fresh Start Produce Sales, Inc., to retailers, distribution centers, wholesalers, and food service distributors from April 29, 2025, to May 19, 2025. Cucumbers distributed before this timeframe should be past shelf life and should no longer be available on the market…FDA has posted a list of additional recalls being conducted by retailers that may have received potentially contaminated recalled cucumbers from Bedner Growers, Inc. This list includes recalls conducted by companies that further processed the cucumbers by using them as ingredients in new products or by repackaging them.

III.  The Journal of Food Protection just published this article: An Overview of Farm Investigation Findings Associated with Outbreaks of Shiga Toxin-Producing Escherichia coli Infections Linked to Leafy Greens: 2009 – 2021

These investigations showed that the outbreak strain can be found throughout the lifespan of leafy greens products, from the agriculture water used for the leafy greens, sediment from irrigation reservoirs, manure in nearby land, to retail product.

The contaminants come from animal manure leaching into water and soil.  Leafy greens should not be grown near CAFOs (concentrated animal feeding operations).

IV.  And what are FDA (plants) and USDA (animals) doing about all this?  The budget cuts are unlikely to help.

The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) recently laid off approximately 6,000 employees of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). Additionally, the Trump administration has proposed almost $40 million in budget cuts to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and a $1 billion decrease in the USDA budget, which recently resulted in workforce cuts and the suspension of services such as milk quality tests…The budget cuts and layoffs are partially intended to lessen federal government oversight and to shift many of the responsibilities to the state level. However, some states simply do not have the resources to serve as equally effective replacements.

This could have significant impacts on food safety and quality assurance.

How’s that for an understatement?

[Personal note: my graduation address today at Hopkins has been rain-postponed to 1:00 EDT .  It will be streamed here.]

Food safety is always a difficult topic because nobody wants to talk about it.

• We expect the food we buy to be safe (a quite reasonable expection, in my view).
• Food companies, by law, are supposed to produce foods safely.
• Regulators are supposed to make sure they do.

Any breakdown in rules and regulations causes problems.  Three troubling examples:

I.  Sentient Food: Federal Inspectors Found Antibiotics in Beef ‘Raised Without Antibiotics.’ They Took No Action

These letters, recently obtained by the advocacy group Farm Forward through a Freedom of Information Act request, reveal that the world’s largest meat producers — JBS, Cargill, and Tyson — raised cattle that tested positive for antibiotics prohibited under USDA-approved labels advertising the beef as free of antibiotics…These findings were announced last August, but the names of the companies which tested positive for antibiotics were not made publicly available until recently, as part of a new report released by Farm Forward questioning the validity of this popular label.

II.  Phyllis Entis: Manufacturer repeatedly shipped pet food after presumptive-positive pathogen test results

During the 2024 calendar year, Morasch Meats, Inc. (Portland, OR) sold dozens of batches of Northwest Naturals raw pet foods and pet treats after the finished products tested presumptive-positive for Salmonella or Listeria monocytogenes.

Instead of confirming the presumptive result as required by the test kit manufacturer, the company repeated the same rapid test on fresh samples. When the repeat test did not find the pathogen, Morasch released the production batch for sale.

III.  Food Safety News:   Intent or impact? New rules redefine food safety justice

On May 9, President Trump signed Fighting Overcriminalization in Federal Regulations, an executive order directing agencies like the FDA and USDA to limit criminal charges for food safety violations unless companies knowingly break the law. The executive order discourages criminal charges for unintentional violations…while deliberate acts, like falsifying tests, remain subject to prosecution…Critics, including consumer advocates, warn that the executive order, combined with reported cuts to FDA and USDA staff, could weaken deterrence against food safety violations.

Comment: When it comes to food safety, enforcement regulation is essential.  History tells us that unwatched food companies sometimes tend to let safety measures slide.  FDA and USDA food safety inspectors need to be on the job.  FDA inspectors have been cut.  USDA staff cuts undoubtedly will affect meat inspections.   None of this bodes well for the safety of the US food supply.

The USDA announced last week that it is withdrawing its proposed framework for reducing Salmonella in raw poultry.  Oh great.

Why?

FSIS received 7,089 comments on the proposed framework…from a variety of stakeholders that included poultry and meat industry trade associations, small poultry producer and processor trade associations, large and small poultry processing establishments, consumer advocacy organizations…The issues that generated the most comments…[were] the proposed Salmonella levels and serotypes for the final product standards…the scientific and technical information used to support the proposed framework, the potential economic impacts of the proposed framework, and the potential impact of the proposed framework on small poultry growers and processors. Several comments also suggested alternative approaches other than the proposed framework for addressing Salmonella illnesses associated with poultry products.

While FSIS continues to support the goal of reducing Salmonella illnesses associated with poultry products, the Agency believes that the comments have raised several important issues that warrant further consideration.

Consumer Reports, which has for years been pushing the USDA to do something about Salmonella contamination in poultry, is not happy with this move, not least because its investigators found large numbers of poultry plants to be heavily contaminated with Salmonella. contamination.

The proposed rule was intended to help reduce the number of salmonella infections in the U.S. Of the estimated 1.35 million illnesses that occur each year from food tainted with the bacteria, nearly 200,000 of them are due to chicken, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “And instead of declining, salmonella infections are increasing and expected to continue to grow…This move, along with the steep budget and staffing cuts at the USDA and FDA, appears to be part of an overall effort to weaken food safety oversight,” says director of food policy at Consumer Reports.

Comment

This is an extremely disappointing decision.  The poultry industry argues that Salmonella contamination is normal.  They don’t need to do anything to prevent chickens getting contaminated.  It is your responsibility to store and cook your chicken properly.

Safety advocates (like me) argue that Salmonella is not normal, contamination is preventable, and the industry ought to be doing that.  The USDA’s 2021 proposal to declare Salmonella an adulterant was a major step in making food safer.

This decision is a major setback.

Resources

What the USDA says about Salmonella

What the USDA says today about reducing Salmonella in poultry.  The web page displays USDA’s 2021 announcement that it would be “mobilizing a stronger and more comprehensive effort to reduce Salmonella illnesses associated with poultry products.”

It’s not easy to figure out what’s happening on the food front in DC these days, but a lot of it does not sound good.  Here are a bunch from last week.

I.  Food Bank Support. USDA stops $500 million worth of shipments of food to food banks.

Food banks across the country are scrambling to make up a $500 million budget shortfall after the Trump administration froze funds for hundreds of shipments of produce, poultry and other items that states had planned to distribute to needy residents.

The Biden administration had slated the aid for distribution to food banks during the 2025 fiscal year through the Emergency Food Assistance Program, which is run by the Agriculture Department and backed by a federal fund known as the Commodity Credit Corporation. But in recent weeks, many food banks learned that the shipments they had expected to receive this spring had been suspended.

II.  Line speeds in meat processing plants.  USDA announces “streamlined” meat processing.  This is USDA-speak for increasing line speeds in processing plants, something terrifying to anyone who cares about worker safety and food safety.  As Food Safety News puts it, this is unsafe at any speed—again.

Once more, policymakers are making the same catastrophic mistake. Once more, industries are downplaying risk while lives hang in the balance. Once more, we are choosing efficiency over responsibility…It’s a reckless increase in processing speeds that threatens to overwhelm the very safeguards meant to protect both workers and consumers.

III.  Food safety rules.  FDA puts food safety rule on hold

In an announcement on March 20, the Food and Drug Administration said it intends to publish a proposed rule “at a later time.” The rule has already been published and approved and was set to go into effect Jan. 1, 2026. The rule was mandated by the Food Safety Modernization Act, which Congress approved in 2010.

The food industry has been pushing back against the rule since before it was written, citing expenses. Industry groups applauded the FDA’s postponement of enforcement of the rule.

IV.  Seed Banks.  DOGE is trying to fire staff of the USDA’s National Plant Germplasm System, which stores 62,000 seed samples.

Comment

I’m not seeing much about Making America Healthy Again, beyond encouraging the elimination of artificial colors and trying to do something about the GRAS loophole, which lets companies essentially self-determine whether additives are safe.  Those are both worth doing, and have been a long time coming.  I still want to see this administration take strong action on:

• Ultra-processed food
• Food Safety
• School meals
• Support for small and medium farms

The cancelling of funding for the Diabetes Prevention Program, a 30-year longitudinal study, seems at odds with MAHA.  I hope the funding gets restored quicky.