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by making some changes in our kitchens, we can help alleviate this fear and can bring many of these people, who have abandoned dining out, back into the joy of restaurant culture simply by being responsible and empathetic hosts to customers with food allergies.
Beautiful letter about “the moment a corporation had the audacity to make social need more important than profits.” [url]http://t.co/vFslVaoonu[/url]
the term cross-contamination, as it is associated with things like the E. coli bacterial transfers, makes it sound like the kitchen in question is an uncleanly mess of disease. So, by and large, using the term cross-contact is a better PR term for the restaurant.
One of the goals noted in a leaked EU position paper was for parties to “engage in such cooperation without unnecessary restrictions, including any institutional, statutory or other barriers/ inflexibilities.” It also calls for the creation of a Regulatory Cooperation Council (RCC) to have oversight in the regulatory systems of the U.S. and the EU.
The charges against Austin "Jack" DeCoster and his son Peter DeCoster, along with their company, come on the heels of criminal charges by federal regulators against two Colorado cantaloupe farmers tied to a listeria outbreak in 2011 and officials and the owner of a peanut processing plant in Georgia that was linked to a deadly salmonella outbreak four years ago.
The risk of today’s consumers dropping a product if they believe the company is not doing what it takes to protect them and their families is not something to take lightly.
The risk is too high to “assume” an ingredient from a supplier is always safe or that the supplier to the supplier of his supplier has an effective, verified and validated food safety system in place.
Among other points, the film aims to show similarities between the food and tobacco industries, emphasizing the view that food manufacturers are in business to make money rather than improve people’s health.
Japanese authorities have set up a panel of experts to study how to inform restaurant customers about allergy-causing ingredients in prepared food - a category not subject to existing labelling regulations.
The draft guidance covers new rules on food allergen labeling and the provision of food allergen information which will apply across the European Union, including the UK, from Dec. 13, 2014.
It was a close call. On a recent night at chef Bryce Gilmore's new seasonal American restaurant Odd Duck in Austin, general manager Jason James discovered mid-service that the mole had been made with peanuts that day, a departure from the usual recipe.
"I know a chef, I'm not going to mention his name, but he has been quoted, 'Hey, if you have peanut allergies, don't come into my f-ing restaurant'"
Internet food warriors are promoting an unscientific approach to food safety, based upon the naturalistic fallacy, chemophobia, the demonization of foods and ingredients, and a misapplication of the precautionary principle.
“As a consequence, chemicals with highly toxic properties may legally be used in the production of food contact materials, but not in other consumer products such as computers, textiles and paints even though exposure through food contact materials may be far more relevant,” according to the authors of the study.
Restaurants, cafés and schools are being forced by the EU to identify and list 14 potential allergens in their food.
What about large multinational food corporations operating in China?
Shuanghui International, China’s biggest meat products company (which purchased Smithfield Foods last year for $4.7 billion), has been plagued by constant reports here in this country of meat infested with maggots, customers succumbing to food poisoning, and random testing that shows illegal levels of bacteria and illegal additives such as clenbuterol in their meat.
“The 1993 event opened people’s eyes and made restaurants and retailers realize that they were responsible for the safety of the food their suppliers gave them,” says Theno, now retired from Jack in the Box and a principal of Gray Dog Partners Inc., a food-safety consultancy based in the San Diego area.
Given the size and complexity of America’s food industry, it’s a wonder it took so long to adopt the guiding principle of Chicago’s long-gone City News Bureau: “If your mother tells you she loves you, check it out.”
Traceback litigation usually follows one of two events—a recall or consumer-launched lawsuit.
In both situations, the litigation involves a hunt for the source of contamination, which in turn involves the interplay of epidemiology (and other disciplines) and the law.
“Currently, the complexity of following food through a global supply chain makes the process of traceability slow and inefficient in times of crisis,” said Brian Sterling, managing director of the Global Food Traceability Center, one of the authors of the report. “This is why it’s imperative that traceability requirements and regulations be harmonized across the globe.
In a different era, a stern letter from an angry customer might be answered by a corporate form letter, and that would be the end of it. But now consumers can leverage hundreds of thousands of like-minded people in a short amount of time, and companies are finding that it’s smart business — and politics — to respond quickly and decisively.
Elliott’s interim report highlighted the need for a zero tolerance approach to food crime that puts consumer interests first. He highlighted the importance of intelligence gathering, surveillance, tougher industry checks and tighter Government controls as well as the need to give policy responsibility for food standards back to the FSA.
The day may not be too far off when consumers and food manufacturers will be able to detect the presence of E. coli, Listeria or Salmonella by visual changes in a polymer-based “smart label” now being developed by engineering professors at the University of Alberta.
Over the summer, more than 100 members of Congress called for repeal of country-of-origin labeling (COOL) if the World Trade Organization (WTO) ruled against the U.S. in its trade dispute with Canada and Mexico.
Depending on whom you ask, Foster Farms may be either an industry leader hit with a run of bad luck, or a company with a track record of sickening consumers and withholding information on its efforts to control Salmonella.
Welcome to the second installment of the history of food safety in the U.S. This time we’ll take a look at food policy and legislation over time. As discussed in Part 1, the collection of foodborne illness data is relatively new.
The film’s thesis, that sugar has caused the obesity epidemic, is not well supported by evidence. It is a partial truth that the filmmakers have dogmatically represented as the whole truth, with nary a hint of nuance. And it’s not fair to demonize the food industry.
We must share the responsibility for their shortcomings, because their less healthy offerings were created in response to public demand, and large numbers of people have chosen to buy those products because they don’t know any better.
On Tuesday night, PBS aired FRONTLINE’s two-part documentary exploring the increasing prevalence of antibiotic resistance. The first half of “The Trouble with Antibiotics” focused on the science and politics behind the widespread use of antibiotics in food animals, presenting the history of the practice and attempts to link human illnesses back to animal antibiotics.
The World Trade Organization (WTO) has ruled in favor of Canada and Mexico in an ongoing dispute with the United States over country-of-origin labeling (COOL) on meat.
Why do we hear more about food safety issues today than in the past? Are these issues something we really need to worry about or just a bunch of media hype? What incredibly difficult questions to answer.
Earlier this week, the Food and Drug Administration passed a sweeping new law that will require a wide range of food establishments to post calorie counts alongside menu items
Domino's sounded particularly disingenuous when it said its stores would have to post 34 million signs because that's the number of topping combinations available.
Whether your product is delivered to retailers, wholesalers and/or distributors, foodservice or direct to consumers, whether your raw materials come from single or multiple sources, domestic and/or imported, the increasingly complex food supply chain means many moving pieces for any company to juggle to achieve the quickest, most accurate lot tracking and recalls.
Meanwhile, some owners and operators of European food establishments are reportedly confused about how to implement the new rules, and it apparently hasn’t helped that some EU members, such as Italy and France, haven’t yet adopted their own guidelines about how to do it.
In reading FDA’s analysis of both regulations, it is interesting to note that their proposals include not only scientific nutritional analysis but also studies of human behavior.
Calculating precise nutrition information for a food product that can and does vary in some respect between plants, between lots, between each batch of ingredients and over time becomes extremely difficult. Calculating that information in the world of restaurant food is close to impossible.
The findings prompted a number of questions that Food Safety Magazine (FSM) presented to a distinguished panel of industry experts aimed at identifying the key elements of an effective allergen control plan as well as building awareness, and sharing and promoting best practices to help direct the food supply chain to consistently and effectively implement best practices for allergen management
The food product industry faces an escalating barrage of lawsuits—for both alleged mislabeling and safety violations. In response to these attacks, food product companies have increasingly sought to limit their risk by passing it up the supply chain to their copackers and suppliers through indemnification clauses. Not surprisingly, copackers and suppliers are pushing back.
Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) is proposing legislation
The Meat and Poultry Recall Notification Act would give USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) mandatory recall authority for meat, poultry and some egg products currently under USDA jurisdiction.
Such advocates have not won over the skeptics. Doug Powell, a former professor of food safety at Kansas State University and the publisher of the barfblog.com, said creating a single agency might ultimately provide less protection than the administration or lawmakers like Ms. DeLauro want to admit.
Scientific understanding of the risk from food allergens has grown over the last 20 years and continues to develop. Food allergies and intolerances are now well recognised as a food safety issue, which must be managed. Understanding of the risk from allergenic foods remains inconsistent across the industry.