The lobbyists representing U.K. butchers have called government proposals to keep raw and cooked meat products separate, “draconian.” The Food Standards Agency (FSA) issued the new guidance following two serious outbreaks of E. coli in Scotland in 1996 and Wales in 2005.

RANDOLPH CENTER, Vt. -- Federal regulators are considering tightening the laws concerning cheese that's made with unpasteurized milk known as "raw cheese." If tighter laws were to go into affect, some cheesemakers around the region said it could put a lot of the smaller creameries in the area out of business.

The American Meat Institute decried the Obama administration's proposal in the fiscal-year 2012 federal budget of user fees for basic inspection services and for repeat inspections prompted by non-compliance. According to the proposed budget, the user fees would generate $11 million in 2012, AMI noted.

New roles for third-party certification of food safety standards are straight ahead for both domestic and international fruit and vegetable suppliers. Michael Taylor, deputy commissioner for foods for the Food and Drug Administration, addressed the Global Food Safety Conference Feb, 17 in London.

Salmonella infection rates are skyrocketing across the ACT where more than 200 cases were officially notified in each of the past two years. The ACT is the Australian Capital Territory, which is sorta like Washington, D.C. in the U.S. Canberra is the federal seat where lots of the federal food safety folks are located. Apparently they’re barfing with salmonella.

The producers of Bravo's Top Chef have me pegged as their target audience. Tonight's episode featured the Sesame Street characters Telly, Cookie Monster, and Elmo (who were hilarious judges), and new ads for Target featuring former Top Chef cheftestants and Padma. It's an entertaining episode that left me with a bad taste in my mouth.

A new doctoral thesis shows that heavy rain and average temperatures over 6°C during the breeding period increase the risk of broilers becoming infected by Campylobacter bacteria.

The Agency has been notified that meat has entered the food supply from an Over Thirty Month (OTM) cow imported from Switzerland that had not been tested for BSE.

A Maryland sprout processor has ceased operations while federal health-types report that 140 people were sickened in the salmonella-in-sprouts-served-at-Jimmy-John’s outbreak. The two items are unrelated, except they both involve sprouts.