A: If they are sold under the label “Parkers”, Listeria!

Yummm, recall fun. Good luck with that one Big Food.

Looks like Rep. Peterson stripped out the provisions to cover farms under the new regulations of the Food Safety Enhancement Act.  While it is troubling that we’re not going to have any safety “enhancements” on our nation’s farms, there is a positive to this.  There was a concern that the new changes would be unfairly burdensome to small farmers, so this should take that issue off the table for now.  However, this bill will do nothing to provide new and badly needed standards for the mega factory farms.

On the bright side, the bill does increase inspections and fines for violation for food processing facilities.  This would be a huge step forward and address some the contamination issues we’ve seen in the past year such as the multiple ground beef recalls and the peanut butter contamination.

The fines actually look like they have real teeth, from CQ:

The bill imposes both criminal and civil penalties for individuals and companies that violate food safety laws. For individuals who knowingly violate food safety laws, the measure allows for a prison term of up to 10 years.

• For unintentional violations involving individuals, the measure imposes a fine of $20,000 per violation, not to exceed $50,000 in a single proceeding.
• For unintentional violations involving companies, the bill imposes a fine of $250,000 per violation, not to exceed $1 million in a single proceeding.
• For intentional violations with respect to individuals the fine would be $50,000 per violation, not to exceed $100,000 in a single proceeding.
• For intentional violations involving companies, the fine would be $500,000 per violation, not to exceed $7.5 million in a single proceeding.

Update: meat and poultry are exempt. Sigh. OK this bill is not so good.

From Congressional Quarterly, the House is scheduled to vote today on this (no link, subscription required):

Food Safety — HR 2749, Food Safety Enhancement Act, is scheduled for House consideration today under suspension of the rules. The bill overhauls food safety regulations for farms and food processing facilities, requiring more frequent inspections at food facilities and giving the FDA authority to impose criminal and civil penalties. The measure generally exempts farms from registration requirements and fees, although the bill does establish new regulations for the farming practices for fresh produce. The FDA would have authority to impose mandatory quarantines on geographic areas which are concluded to be the source of contaminated food posing a serious threat to humans or animals. The House will take up a version of the bill that has been modified as a result of talks between leaders of the Energy and Commerce and Agriculture committees to address concerns of agricultural interests about the role of the FDA in regulating farm activities. The compromise bill was released this morning.

Just one last day in the week, and it was looking so good for eaters across America.  But not quite.  The USDA warns that ground beef produced between May 23 and June13 and are labeled “Est. 6250″ may be contaminated with salmonella. Yes, that does mean that the USDA did inspect this meat, it was sold to the public and it is in fact contaminated.

The meat was sold in the mountain west and central plains through King Soopers and City Market stores.

More Recall!

Recall fun this week - alfalfa sprouts in North Carolina.

Raleigh, NC– Solar Farms Inc. of West Columbia, S.C., is voluntarily recalling Solar Farms Alfalfa Sprouts after tests by the NC Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services confirmed the presence of Listeria monocytogenes in product samples, Agriculture Commissioner Steve Troxler announced Wednesday.

The recalled alfalfa sprouts are sold in 4-ounce containers with the code “Sell By:072209.” These alfalfa sprouts were sold at Food Lion stores and distributed to N.C. food service establishments through Sysco of Charlotte.

Listeria - haven’t seen that one in a while.  Good of them to mix things up a bit. Last time it was salmonella.

The SF Chronicle has a sprawling article on the extreme and unscientific safety measures being taken by some produce providers. Fun things like pumping out poison gas to kill mice and squirrels, banning children under the age of 5 from farm visits, and bulldozing ponds used for irrigation recycling.

The strangest part of all this craziness is that the produce buyers refuse to divulge what these new directives are that they are handing down to their farmers.  Considering all of these mandates are in response to food recalls and the lawsuits that followed, one would think that they would want to shout their new and supposed improved guidelines from the rooftops. Yet, instead, they are hiding behind a curtain.

I’m not sure how dry mlk gets contaminated with salmonella, but it turns out that there isn’t a food product in existence that can’t be tainted.  The product description was kept rather vague.

The recalled prepackaged meals were not available for sale to consumers, but were sent to nutrition service providers and distributors across the U.S.

What do you think?  Was the contaminated meals destined for poor people, the sick, or the elderly?

It’s true - more recall is never as good as MORE COWBELL.  But there it is, in dry milk.  How the heck does salmonella get in dry milk?

Yay! More fun with recalls!  This time its 41,000 pounds of beef from Greely, CO. The E. Coli contaminated meat came from the JBs USA meat packing plant. Here’s where it went:

According to the USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service, the products were produced on April 21 and 22, and were shipped to distributors and retail establishments in Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota, Nebraska, Oregon, South Carolina, Tennessee, Utah and Wisconsin.

Anyone up for grilling this weekend?

Remember that pistachio recall last month?  The company in question recalled the nuts - then repackaged and resold them.

The alway earnest Nicholas Kristof reviews Food, Inc. And reminds us not to eat that cookie dough.

There’s been another big step forward for the Food Safety Enhancement Act. A key House panel, the Energy and Commerce Committee, approved the legislation, and will move forward to the House floor for a vote.

The bill passed yesterday by the Energy and Commerce Committee would give the Food and Drug Administration the power to force recalls of tainted foods, require food facilities to be inspected as often as once a year, and give the FDA expanded authority to impose civil penalties on scofflaw companies.

The legislation, approved on a voice vote, would also require companies to keep better records of their activities to make it easier for federal authorities to trace the origins of outbreaks of food-borne illnesses. Food importers would have to register with the government.

The power of mandatory recall is the key piece here - the FDA has no power to do anything but beg Big Food not to kill anymore people well after an outbreak hits consumers.  So this is great, great news.  But like anything else, there is always a caveat:

The House bill does not apply to meat, poultry, eggs, or other products regulated by the Department of Agriculture.

Guess this legislation is just another reason to go veggie.

Jill has the Consumer Union’s response to the bill.

It appears that the FDA is waking from a long slumber. Already this week, the FDA issued a warning on the use of Zicam, which apparently can cause some people to permanently lose their sense of smell.  Layer on top of that the warning the FDA put out on the popular weight loss supplement Hydroxycut:

This month, the Food and Drug Administration warned consumers to stop using Hydroxycut, a line of herbal dietary supplements marketed as an aid to weight loss, body sculpting and athletic performance.

The warning prompted Hydroxycut’s maker, Iovate Health Sciences Inc. of Ontario, Canada, to recall 14 of its products. The FDA has linked these products to 23 known cases of liver damage (including one death), four reports of seizures and 46 reports of cardiovascular events — from palpitations to heart attack — since 2002.

For too long, dietary supplements have been an easy way for companies to sneak untested products on to pharmacy shelves.  They were able to do so because the FDA was heavily defanged during the Bush year.  Maybe these events are an indication that the FDA is putting some muscle back on.

Of course we shouldn’t get too excited - Zicam is claiming that there is nothing wrong with their product and is refusing to do a voluntary recall.  And, pathetically, there’s not a whole lot that the FDA can do about that.

The agency issued its consumer alert even though Matrixx refused to recall its products, a highly unusual event. In a news release, Matrixx said it had suspended shipments of Zicam and would reimburse customers who wanted a refund.

“Matrixx Initiatives stands behind the science of its products and its belief that there is no causal link between its intranasal gel products and anosmia,” the release said. “For this reason, Matrixx Initiatives believes that the F.D.A. action is unwarranted and will seek a meeting with the F.D.A. to review the company’s product safety data.”

Matrixx had $101 million in sales last year, of which $40 million came from Zicam products. Because Matrixx has called Zicam a homeopathic product, the company was not required to seek agency approval before selling it.

The F.D.A. does not have the power to order product recalls but must rely on manufacturers to do so voluntarily. Bills now moving through Congress would give the agency that power. Bush administration appointees said the F.D.A. did not need mandatory recall authority because companies always withdrew unsafe products when asked.

Those Bush administration appointees were funny guys.  Always joking around. Now its time for the grownups.

Today the House Energy and Commerce Committee is marking up the Food Safety Enhancement Act. This bill has some really strong initiatives, the most important being:

1. Traceability - Food suppliers are required to track of where their food comes from and where it goes.
2. Inspections - Mandates regular inspections every 6 to 18 months for high risk entities.  Right now inspections average once every 10 years.
3. Recall Authority - The FDA FINALLY will have the authority to mandate a recall when necessary.

When I first mentioned this 2 weeks ago, I was very concerned about a provision that requires all food producers to register with the FDA (good) and pay a yearly fee of $1000 (not so good).  For a part time farmers who may only bring in a few thousand dollars a year, there goes his profit right out the door.  A sliding scale where the bigger guys shouldered more of the cost seemed to make more sense.

I tossed the idea to Jill over at La Vida Locavore and she wrote back:

Saw your post about the food safety bill… it took a lawyer friend of mine a while to poke around the U.S. code and figure this out, but it seems the $1000 user fees do not apply to farms or restaurants. But that still doesn’t make it fair or right, because I would assume that the small businesses that sell at my farmers market (jam, home made salami, artisan cheese, and garlic dip, for example) will still get nailed by the $1000 fine. Would be nice to see them exempted or a sliding scale put in place, as you say. And what’s more - a friend pointed this out that perhaps it’s not a good idea for the FDA to get its funding from the very companies it is supposed to regulate. It’s not politically convenient to suggest paying for anything new with tax dollars, but as far as I see it, if we can afford wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, we oughta be able to afford safe food and a functional FDA.

Jill has an extended post up on DKos about the bill and actions people can take.

Actually, this is one of the better guys.  They issues a recall for just 75 lbs of meat.  Good for them for catching it and calling it while its still small time. We all need to appreciate the occassional somewhat decent action by the meat industry. Snow Creek Processing of SC has recalled 75 lbs of trimming.  And I’m OK with that. At least compared to the 100s of thousands of pounds of meat that has been recalled recently.

I generally consider myself to be a champion of the little guys - the community gardens, farmers markets, local food coops and particularly the small independent farmers.  So I find it very surprising that I find meself agreeing with the statements made by the Grocery Manufacturers Association in the Wall Street Journal today:

“We are not opposed to all fees,” said Scott Faber, vice president of federal affairs at the Grocery Manufacturers Association, representing the $2.1 trillion food, beverage and packaged-products industry. “We are concerned that a poorly designed fee to finance inspections and enforcement would create an inherent conflict of interest. That would erode rather than enhance consumer confidence.”

This is a serious conflict of interest, no different than a lot of the issues we saw in the financial sector due to investment firms paying ratings companies for their ratings.  Any entity will be beholdant to their revenue stream in some manner, so its best to try and create as much distance between the ratings/inspectors and those they rate/inspect.  I would much prefer to see a junk food sales tax than for the farmers and processors to pay the FDA. The GMA had this suggestion:

Mr. Faber of GMA said the food industry supports fees to cover costs of repeat inspections as well as certification fees for U.S. exporters as well as fees for product recalls, an idea included in Senate legislation sponsored by Sen. Dick Durbin (D., Ill.).