Abstract:  The FDA recently approved irradiation treatment of leafy greens such as spinach up to 1 kGy; however, it is important to reduce the dose required to decontaminate the produce while maintaining its quality. Thus, the objectives of this study were: (1) to assess the radiation sensitivities of Salmonella spp. and Listeria spp.

This is sorta cool – unless you contract a subset of listeria and have heart problems. Listeria is everywhere, as Michael McCain of Maple Leaf Foods likes to remind everyone, but Nancy Freitag, from the University of Illinois, Chicago, reports in the Journal of Medical Microbiology that some listeria strains had modified surface proteins that helped target the heart.

I got a phone call about this story about 10 days ago while visiting family in Minnesota. I checked it out, thought there was merit, but there were also many agendas at play. The N.Y. Times apparently got the same phone call, checked it out, and is running with a story tonight about government and industry and antibiotic residues in culled dairy cattle.

The Ministry of Health yesterday urged hawker food vendors and food market peddlers to help promote the healthy lifestyle and ensure food safety and hygiene standards for customers. Acting Director-general of General Services Hjh Norsiah Hj Johari said food sellers have a "social responsibility" to serve clean food to customers.

Abstract

Last week, Stephen Colbert announced a recall of his fictional cookbook,  "I Eat America (And So Can You!)" due to a production error beyond his control (right).

Apparently drawing on outbreaks of salmonella and campylobacter involving raw, frozen, breaded chicken thingies, Colbert said his recipe for Chicken Col-Don Bleu may actually need to be cooked.

Old question. I don’t need no stinkin’ iPhone, I haul my 17-inch MacBook Pro computer to the bathroom, as some started football quests observed on Sunday. Been doing it for a decade (thank you, wireless). When Chapman first got a blackberry in 2005, he e-mailed me and proudly proclaimed, “I’m in the bathroom” (but not exactly like that).

In time for tonight’s annual Burns Supper honoring the birth of the Scottish poet Robert Burns, government types have once again invited U.S. regulators to revise a decades-old ban on haggis. The iconic Scottish dish is been barred in the U.S. because its food safety department prohibits the use of sheep lungs in food products.

LAWRENCE, Mass., Jan. 25, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Ian's is voluntarily recalling specific lot numbers of two products due to a risk of contamination with Listeria monocytogenes.  Listeria monocytogenes is an organism that can cause serious and sometimes fatal infections in young children, frail or elderly people, and others with weakened immune systems.