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May 2009

  • Posted: May 31st, 2009 - 2:48pm

    At least 11 people have contracted a mystery illness after attending an event Thursday night for S.C. Congressman Henry Brown. The illness, which causes sudden stomach upset, is being tracked by the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control, but hasn't yet been linked to the Thursday event, said DHEC spokesman Tom Berry.

    Date Published: 
    30.may.09
    Norovirus  |  Comments
  • Posted: May 31st, 2009 - 2:47pm

    Sidney Chang of Whatley, Mass.-based Chang Farm said his company followed all U.S. Food & Drug Administration guidelines leading up to the voluntary recall of about 15,000 pounds of bean and soy sprouts May 28. The recall came about after a sample of product from Chang Farm tested positive for listeria monocytogenes at a New York retail store.

    Date Published: 
    29.may.09
    Listeria  |  Comments
  • Posted: May 31st, 2009 - 2:46pm

    Brian Saari wasn't thinking about the safety of the hamburger and cheese curds he bought Friday at the Rothschild-Weston Lions Club stand outside the Wal-Mart Supercenter in Rib Mountain. "I've never had a problem with the quality" or the safety of the food he's consumed at such stands, the Mosinee man said.

    Date Published: 
    31.may.09
  • Posted: May 31st, 2009 - 2:45pm

    KUALA LUMPUR -- The Health Ministry is expected to submit a memorandum to the Cabinet on a proposal to set up a national Food Safety Agency by year end, said its minister Datuk Seri Liow Tiong Lai. He added that the setting up of such an agency quickly was important to increase food safety and quality of imported food in the country.

    Date Published: 
    31.may.09
    Food Safety Policy  |  Comments
  • Posted: May 31st, 2009 - 2:44pm

    CUMBERLAND -- The Allegany County Health Department found 22 licensed food service establishments with zero violations during the latest inspection period.

    Date Published: 
    31.may.09
  • Posted: May 31st, 2009 - 2:43pm

    Manufacturers of cans for beverages and foods and some of their biggest customers, including Coca-Cola, are trying to devise a public relations and lobbying strategy to block government bans of a controversial chemical used in the linings of metal cans and lids.

    Date Published: 
    31.may.09
    Food Safety Policy  |  Comments
  • Posted: May 31st, 2009 - 2:42pm

    Influenza experts are acknowledging that they were almost completely surprised by the way the current swine flu outbreak unfolded, so much so it is forcing the world to rethink what a pandemic is and what pandemic preparedness means.

    Date Published: 
    31.may.09
    Animals  |  Comments
  • Posted: May 31st, 2009 - 2:41pm

    Manure has a PR problem. Mention it and everyone gets squeamish because they associate it with contamination and disease. But it's not manure that's the problem, it's our attitude toward it, says George Lazarovits, a senior research scientist for Agriculture Canada.

    Date Published: 
    29.may.09
    Animals, Plants  |  Comments
  • Posted: May 31st, 2009 - 2:40pm

    There is a new study out that contends fish feel pain. A professor at Purdue and his Norwegian graduate student attached small foil heaters to goldfish. Half of the goldfish were injected with morphine, half with saline, and then the researchers turned on the attached micro-toasters.

    Date Published: 
    29.may.09
    Animal Welfare  |  Comments
  • Posted: May 31st, 2009 - 2:39pm

    Bayer CropScience unveiled two new InVigor® canola hybrids that it will launch during this fall’s booking period for the 2010 growing season. Trials indicate one of them is on track to set yet another yield record for canola, while the other brings the signature InVigor yield performance to another specialty oil hybrid.

    Date Published: 
    28.may.09
  • Posted: May 31st, 2009 - 2:38pm

    COLUMBIA, Mo. -- A plant's immune system protects the plant from harmful pathogens. If the system overreacts to pathogens, it can stunt plant growth and reduce seed production. Now, University of Missouri researchers have identified important suppressors that negatively regulate the responses of the immune system in the plant species Arabidopsis thaliana.

    Date Published: 
    27.may.09
    Plants  |  Comments
  • Posted: May 31st, 2009 - 10:10am

    WICHITA -- Officials at the Sedgwick County Zoo in Wichita are getting rid of blue sno-cones after a mix-up involving commercial degreaser. Four people became ill Thursday when a zoo employee poured a degreasing agent into the sno-cone machine instead of flavored syrup.

    Date Published: 
    30.may.09
    Wacky and Weird  |  Comments
  • Posted: May 31st, 2009 - 10:09am

    A new self-service buffet is making a pig’s breakfast of infection control at Coventry’s University Hospital, angry staff claim. The help-yourself spread was unveiled at the hospital’s main restaurant last week and is open to workers, patients and visitors. Shocked hospital workers say they were only warned about the change days earlier when a sign went up.

    Date Published: 
    29.may.09
    Norovirus  |  Comments
  • Posted: May 31st, 2009 - 10:08am

    Considering that 18 months is a quick turnaround in the cookbook world, it’s startling to imagine that editors in the Kobe-and-caviar-foam days of 2007 foresaw that selling Americans on canning and pickling, curing their own bacon, charring meat and baking something called a grunt was a good way to boost sales.

    Date Published: 
    31.may.09
    None  |  Comments
  • Posted: May 31st, 2009 - 10:05am

    A documentary about intensive pig farming due to be screened at the Guardian Hay festival on Sunday is facing a legal threat from one of the companies it investigates. Pig Business criticises the practices of the world's largest pork processor, Smithfield Foods, claiming it is responsible for environmental pollution and health problems among residents near its factories.

    Date Published: 
    29.may.09
    Animals  |  Comments
  • Posted: May 31st, 2009 - 10:03am

    When you think of cattle feed very few of us probably imagine chicken manure. Certainly it would be the last thing that would enter the mind of most of us from farmers to eaters. Some time ago the NFU was approached about the possible practice of feeding chicken litter to cattle in the United States, and potentially in other nations that export their beef to Canada.

    Date Published: 
    30.may.09
    Animals  |  Comments
  • Posted: May 31st, 2009 - 10:02am

    To most of us, animals are harmless companions. But what happens when a disease jumps across species from animals to humans? This process – known as zoonosis – is more common than you may think. Many of the infectious diseases that have caused major sickness and deaths in humans worldwide originated from animals.

    Date Published: 
    31.may.09
    Animals  |  Comments
  • Posted: May 29th, 2009 - 4:43pm

    U.S. President Obama went to another burger shop in Washington for lunch today, ordering up a cheeseburger with lettuce, tomato, jalapeno peppers, and mustard – not the fancy Dijon mustard. He also ordered a cheeseburger for Brian Williams, anchor for NBC. The network was filming a day-in-the-life program at the White House.

    Date Published: 
    29.may.09
    Thermometers  |  Comments
  • Posted: May 29th, 2009 - 4:43pm

    HOMESTEAD, Fla. -- Last summer’s salmonella scare sent tremors through the U.S. produce industry. South Florida avocado grower-shippers, like their fruit and vegetable counterparts, kept a close watch on the developing crisis and worked to make sure such a traumatic experience that devastated the U.S. tomato industry wouldn’t happen to them.

    Date Published: 
    29.may.09
    Salmonella  |  Comments
  • Posted: May 29th, 2009 - 4:41pm

    Dawn Drzal, who has written about food, travel and fiction for The Times and other publication, writes in this book review set to appear Sunday that in 1950, only 9 percent of American homes had a television set, and the target food audience was “the hausfrau hankering to keep hubby happy with her scullery art,” as one male reviewer put it.

    Date Published: 
    31.may.09
    None  |  Comments