Food Safety

WASHINGTON - Lawmakers vowed yesterday to press for stronger food safety laws and more money for inspections as the list of recalled peanut products surpassed 1,000 in an ongoing national salmonella outbreak. "There is an openness to putting together the strongest legislation possible," said Representative Rosa DeLauro, a Connecticut Democrat, who introduced a bill to reorganize federal food safety enforcement and make it more accountable. Meanwhile, the number of recalled peanut products approached 1,100 in what independent experts said appears to be a record for foods consumed by humans.

Abusy nutritionist might help, oh, 1,000 clients a year. Kendra Bird assists half a million — not singlehandedly, of course. The director of nutrition for the Greater Boston Food Bank oversees the safety, quality, and healthfulness of the 37 million pounds of food that pass through the Food Bank annually — goods that in turn are distributed to 549 hunger-relief agencies and 490 food pantries, soup kitchens, and shelters throughout the Commonwealth....

BEIJING - Beijing plans to ban people convicted of food-safety crimes from investing in and operating related businesses as China's government steps up action against such violations. The city will better regulate the use of edible additives in the catering industry and crack down on the illegal use of inedible substances and the mislabeling of production and sell-by dates, according to a draft amendment to regulations published on the municipal government's website. Beijing's government will seek the public's opinion until April 25, it said in a statement dated April 6. The rules reflect...

WASHINGTON - More than a year after President Obama signed a landmark food safety bill, the key provisions are hung up at a unit of the White House that is in charge of reviewing proposed policy changes. The delay at the Office of Management and Budget baffles consumer advocates and industry groups, which joined forces to lobby for passage of the legislation and press for its funding. The united front by this unusual alliance and the president's enthusiastic endorsement of the legislation in the past makes the holdup especially puzzling.

SHANGHAI -- China vowed yesterday to crack down on contaminated and sometimes deadly food and drugs after a string of revelations about the safety of Chinese products. The campaign followed a disclosure that authorities had detained managers from two companies linked to contaminated pet food that killed dogs and cats in the United States and Canada. State media, meanwhile, said the country's disgraced former top drug regulator would go on trial this month on charges of taking bribes to approve untested medicine.

WASHINGTON - Food makers must alert government officials of potentially contaminated products within 24 hours under a new rule designed to help federal regulators spot food safety issues sooner. The Food and Drug Administration yesterday unveiled a new electronic database where manufacturers must notify the government if they believe one of their products is likely to cause sickness or death in people or animals. Regulators said the database will help the FDA prevent widespread illness from contaminated products and direct inspectors to plants that pose a high safety concern.

WASHINGTON - Lawmakers reacted angrily yesterday when told that food makers and state safety inspectors are allowed to keep test results secret. That keeps federal health officials in the dark even when products have been contaminated by salmonella or other dangerous bacteria. "I'd like to see some people go to jail," Senator Patrick Leahy, a Vermont Democrat, said during a Senate Agriculture Committee hearing on a deadly salmonella outbreak linked to a Georgia peanut plant that has sickened more than 550 people and killed at least eight.

BEIJING -- China's regulatory standards chief pledged yester day to update and boost enforcement of food safety rules as the country faces intense international pressure for exporting unsafe products, from toothpaste to pet food ingredients. Chinese-made toothpaste has been rejected by several countries, while Chinese wheat gluten tainted with the chemical melamine was blamed for dog and cat deaths in North America. Other products turned away by US inspectors include toxic monkfish, frozen eel, and juice made with unsafe color additives.

WASHINGTON — The Senate passed legislation yesterday to make food safer in the wake of deadly E. coli and salmonella outbreaks, potentially giving the government broad new powers to increase inspections of food processing facilities and force companies to recall tainted food. The $1.4 billion bill, which would also place stricter standards on imported foods, passed the Senate 73 to 25. Supporters say passage is critical after widespread outbreaks in peanuts, eggs, and produce.

Some shoppers stroll to their neighborhood farmers' market because they want to support local food producers. Others are there because they are afraid of getting salmonella. The Massachusetts Department of Agricultural Resources found that food safety is one of the main reasons that people prefer to buy local produce. The department also observed that nationwide recalls of tainted foods have a negative impact on sales of the same kinds of foods that are grown locally and are entirely safe.

If the mad cow found in California has you wondering about food safety, well, there are plenty of problems that pose serious risks to the food supply. But mad cow disease shouldn't be high on the worry list. Just in the past few months, Americans have been sickened by contaminated sprouts, raw milk and sushi. Thirty people died last year from bacteria-tainted cantaloupe. And when it comes to hamburger, a dangerous strain of E. coli that can lurk in ground beef sickens thousands of people every year.

A South Carolina county's deputies say a McDonald's employee spit in two customers' cups of iced tea after the drinks were returned because they weren't sweet enough. Authorities say 19-year-old Marvin Washington Jr. was arrested Wednesday and charged with malicious tampering with food. Greenville County investigators say surveillance video caught Washington leaning over the cups before he filled them Saturday at the Simpsonville restaurant. Authorities say the customers discovered phlegm when they removed the lids of the drinks to add...

BEIJING - Beijing plans to ban people convicted of food-safety crimes from investing in and operating related businesses as China's government steps up action against such violations. The city will better regulate the use of edible additives in the catering industry and crack down on the illegal use of inedible substances and the mislabeling of production and sell-by dates, according to a draft amendment to regulations published on the municipal government's website. Beijing's government will seek the public's opinion until April 25, it said in a statement dated April 6. The rules reflect...

A total of 93 people and counting, including four in Massachusetts, have become sickened from an outbreak of Salmonella that appears to be linked to their consumption of sushi and other raw fish, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The bulk of the cases have been reported in New York, though residents of Connecticut, Rhode Island, and 15 other states and the District of Columbia have been affected. So far, government officials haven't traced the outbreak to a particular food distributor or restaurant.

Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter wants to ban community organizations from feeding the hungry and homeless in city parks. Nutter says he wants the homeless to eat indoors, where mental health and medical services can be provided. But organizations that already serve meals outdoors say the ban is a ploy to get the homeless out of high-traffic areas, like the Benjamin Franklin Parkway, home to many of the city's museums. Nutter says the true aim is to offer better and safer food to the hungry.

Polish health authorities have ordered the withdrawal from the market of more than 230,000 kilograms (500,000 pounds) of pickles, bread and other food suspected of containing industrial salt, the latest development in a scandal raising fears about food safety. Laboratory tests have found that the amounts of dioxins and heavy metals in the salt are minimal and unlikely to harm human health. Nonetheless, health inspectors ordered the removal as a precaution, officials said Friday.

BEIJING — A father who organized a support group for other parents whose children were sickened in one of China’s worst food safety scandals was convicted and sentenced yesterday to 2 1/2 years in prison for inciting social disorder, his lawyer said. Zhao Lianhai had pushed for greater official accountability and compensation for victims and their families after the 2008 scandal that shocked China. His sentence appeared particularly severe because the case related to a public safety situation the embarrassed leadership had pledged to tackle in a bid to restore consumer...

The U.S. Department of Agriculture has unveiled a free online tool aimed at helping farmers lower their risk of contamination on the farm by generating customized food safety plans. How farmers grow, pack, and trace produce has become a major concern following numerous deadly foodborne safety illness outbreaks in recent years. The new tool was developed with consultation from small and large farmers. It lets users input details about how they grow and handle fruits and vegetables.

CAMBRIDGE - Milk is our first and most basic food. For years, there's been a contentious and emotional debate over how we are allowed to consume it. Raw milk, unpasteurized and whole with its purported health and taste benefits, is on one side of the argument. On the other is pasteurized milk, the modern heavyweight champion of food safety. Raw milk proponents have been portrayed as oblivious hippies who are tempting bacterial fate. Defenders of pasteurization, in turn, are cast as nanny-state corporatists with unsophisticated taste.

> Why did you give up your job as CEO of the company you cofounded, New Hampshire-based Stonyfield Farm? I've been in the business for half of my life, and now there are some other things pulling at me. We've got a very serious national debate going on about labeling genetically modified foods. > What is different about these foods? The first genetically engineered crop to have been allowed into the commercial market for human consumption – sweet corn – has an insecticide built into its DNA. Biotech had said this insecticide...