FDA Budget is Cut While Millions in U.S. are Still Sickened by Food

There is little surprise that there can be a disconnect in Washington D.C. when it comes to perception and reality. Take for instance the House of Representatives’ 2011 vote to cut the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) food safety budget because House Republicans had argued, “our food system is 99 percent safe.” Let’s look…

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports there have been 72 people nationwide sickened with four strains of Listeria monocytogenes in 18 states including Florida. The illness began showing up after July 31, 2011 and was traced back to a farm in Granada, Colorado that grew the Rocky Ford type of cantaloupe, named…

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Sunday, July 23, notified the public of a massive recall of papayas from Agromod Produce, Inc. of McAllen, Texas, because of a link to the bacterial contamination Salmonella, which can cause fatal infections in people with an underdeveloped or compromised immune system. Symptoms of Salmonella sickness are fever,…

The report is stomach turning. Chicken manure piled high, rodents and wild birds carrying salmonella living near chickens that lay eggs for consumers. Chickens crowded in small cages with infections and broken bones. This NPR article contains details too sickening to describe. That is part of the Food and Drug Administration’s report on the half-billion egg…

An outbreak of Salmonella-infected eggs traced to two Iowa farms has sickened more than 2,000 individuals around the country, including as far east as Georgia. The Salmonella strain in question is Enteritidis (SE). As many as 2,000 people may have been sickened in 17 states, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. So…

The United States Department of Agriculture issued a June 2 statement regarding S.P. Provisions, a Portland, OR company and their product recall of nearly 40,000 pounds of ground beef products. The products were recalled due to concerns of potential E. coli contamination. The recall includes five- and ten-pound bags of ground beef as well as…