Posted Tue, March 09, 2010
Filed under: S.T.O.P. in the News
**S.T.O.P. members, Melissa and Grant, as well as Executive Director mentioned below.**
Beef-shy after the 1993 Jack in the Box E. coli outbreak that claimed the lives of four children, Melissa Achenbach never ate red meat outside the house nor allowed her two children to order burgers. So when her son Grant fell sick a few years ago, at first both she and the doctor thought it was the flu. Grant's fever shot up to 105 and he reported his legs felt strange; emergency room doctors termed it a sinus infection brought on by flu. Only after he returned to the emergency room two days later when his fever still hadn't broken did a doctor conduct some tests. On the day his infection was diagnosed as salmonella, Grant's fever finally broke -- 18 days and 9 lost pounds after it started.
Grant's experience is not unique. Each year an estimated 76 million people -- or one in four -- experience a food-borne illness. In some instances, illnesses occur because of unsafe food practices in the home. But in many more, they stem from a food system that offers many opportunities for contamination...
...The FDA Food Safety Modernization Act, being considered in Congress, would allow the Food and Drug Administration to require food facilities to have food-safety plans and inspect facilities more frequently than every 10 years. It also would create better means of tracking foods to help identify problem produce or meats and give the FDA mandatory recall ability.
The legislation recognizes that there's only so much that individual consumers can do to keep their food safe.
"We don't think consumers should have to control this in their kitchens. You're never going to get to zero," says Donna Rosenbaum, executive director of Safe Tables Our Priority, a group formed in the wake of the Jack in the Box outbreak.How reliable are pop-up timers in poultry as an indication of safe internal temperatures?
Commonly used in turkeys and roasting chickens since 1965, the "pop-up" temperature device is constructed from a food-approved nylon. The inside contains a stainless steel spring and firing material. The firing material is made of an organic salt compound or an alloy of metals commonly used in other thermo-sensing devices. The tip of the stem is imbedded in the firing material until it melts, releasing the stem, which is then "popped up" by means of the spring. This indicates that the food has reached the final temperature for safety and doneness. Pop-up timers are reliable within 1 to 2 °F if accurately placed in a food; however, checking the temperature of other parts of the food with a conventional food thermometer is recommended.
Posted Mon, March 08, 2010
Filed under: S.T.O.P. in the News
**S.T.O.P. members, Robin and Brian, mentioned below.**
POTOMAC, Md. - A new study says food poisoning could be costly for more than just your health. It can also cost you financially.
Brian Dimock of Potomac drank some bad apple juice 15 years ago and almost died.
"I had something called 'HUS' from E. coli," said Dimock. "It pretty much shuts down your blood, makes your organs fail. I had kidney failure."
He still struggles with memory loss, learning issues and chronic back pain.
"Our family went through...a lot," said mother Robin Strosnider. "How can you send your little child off with his lunch bag to school and worry about what's in there?"
The cost of food-borne illnesses in everything from spinach to eggs to peanut butter is staggering. 76 million Americans a year get sick from tainted food. Five thousand of them die.
The cost in medical bills and lost productivity is $152 billion. That figure is more than four times the government's earlier estimates.
Part of the problem is that the current Food and Drug Administration food safety law is more than 100 years old.
"The problems in those days are not the same today. You have a law that's very reactive. What we want to see is a law that is preventive," stated Food Safety Campaign Director Sandra Eskin.
A bill passed by the House and now before the Senate includes such reforms as:
- a mandatory system to trace illnesses back to a food's origin,
- more frequent FDA inspections of food processing plants (they now only average one every 10 years)
- and giving the FDA authority to order food recalls.
Brian Dimock, who supports the new laws, drinks orange juice now instead of apple juice.
This article taken from: http://www.wjla.com/news/stories/0310/712249.html?ref=em
Posted Wed, February 24, 2010
Filed under: S.T.O.P. in the News
**S.T.O.P. Executive Director, Donna Rosenbaum, quoted below.**
By Helena Bottemiller
Two school districts in California recently served potentially contaminated meat to schoolchildren, according to KGET in Bakersfield.
According to the local news station, Tejon School District in Lebec and Frazier Park and Bearsley School DIstrict in Oildale, California each served pre-cooked and packaged burritos on the recall list in their cafeterias just days before the recall was announced.
The meat in question was part of an expanded recall recently announced by the U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA's) Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) over E. coli O157:H7 concerns.
FSIS announced in mid-February it was adding 4.9 million pounds of beef and veal products to the mid-January recall of 864,000 pounds of meat processed by southern California-based Huntington Meat Packing, Inc.
Huntington is not a supplier to the National School Lunch Program, according to the Food and Nutrition Service (FNS), the agency at USDA charged with running the federal nutrition programs.
In this case, the school districts purchased the meat in the commercial market, explained FNS spokeswoman Jean Daniel.
"We're doing what we do for all recalls, whether they are USDA products or not," added Daniel. "We alert the states and they roll the information down the rapid response system."
Though there have been no reports of illness from children or staff who ate the recalled products, the incident raises concerns about the safety mechanisms in place to prevent contaminated food from reaching school lunch trays.
"This is another reason why mandatory recall authority is important," said Donna Rosenbaum, executive director of Safe Tables Our Priority (S.T.O.P), a non-profit dedicated to preventing foodborne illness. "Recall authority would help get information out earlier."
According to Rosenbaum, there have been several occasions where recalled products have made it to schools. Rosenbaum said S.T.O.P. is "very concerned" about the slow trickle of recall information to schools.
"You trust the system to deliver safe food kids," added Rosenbaum, who said it was unacceptable for the system to have lag time in relaying formation to school districts.
This article continues at: http://www.foodsafetynews.com/2010/02/schools-in-ca-served-recalled-meat/
Posted Wed, February 24, 2010
Filed under: S.T.O.P. in the News
**S.T.O.P. member, Erin, quoted below.**
WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. (WGHP) - A Winston-Salem woman is pushing for stronger food safety rules after she and her daughter barely survived a serious case of food poisoning while she was pregnant.
Erin Stadler was at her baby shower when she at a piece of brie cheese that was contaminated with Listeria. The disease made Stadler and her unborn child deathly ill.
"You don't think about eating one piece of cheese and almost dying. That's basically, what happened for both of us," said Stadler.
The disease came as a surprise to Stadler in 1997 because up until her baby shower, she had a normal, healthy pregnancy. However, shortly after the party, she began to feel the symptoms of the disease.
"It basically made me feel like I had the flu," said Stadler. When Stadler went to the hospital, doctors immediately delivered baby Allison. She was premature at 33 weeks and weighed just 4 pounds, 33 ounces. Allison was in the hospital for two more weeks for additional tests when doctors realized how ill both Erin and Allison were.
According to the CDC, Listeria causes nausea, convulsions and is sometimes deadly for a pregnant woman and the child.
Stadler will be traveling to Washington D.C. next week to talk with senators about passing tougher food regulations.
"She's a miracle. She's my blessing. We do everything for her and wit her, I can't thank God enough for protecting her. She's what's made our family," said Stadler. Allison, now a healthy 13-years-old girl will travel to Washington with her mom to discuss a proposed bill called S-510.
"I don't want someone to have to lose a pregnancy and realize that child is not there with them. Hopefully we can get this bill passed and make it safe for everyone," said Stadler.
This article taken from: http://www.myfox8.com/wghp-story-mom-regulaions-100223,0,5484219.story
Copyright © 2009 S.T.O.P.