A happy birthday shout-out to barfblog.com contributor Amy Hubbell, who faithfully edits my writing (eventually) and asked Wal-Mart Frank if the steaks we bought were needle-tenderized. Not bad for a French professor.

Who’s been sick? Health officials in Northeast Tennessee and Western Virginia report that 18 people came down with a potentially fatal Escherichia coli infection between May 8 and June 2.

As the death toll in the German E. coli O104 outbreak reached 48 and the sick approached 4,000, investigators have provided no clues on a key question: where did the seeds for sprouting originate? Does anyone know?

Scientists from the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) are setting up a task force to coordinate investigations to track down the source of any contaminated sprouted seeds in the European Union following an E.coli outbreak in the Bordeaux region of France which was preceded by a similar outbreak in Germany associated with sprouts.

OPELIKA, AL -- After working with the Alabama Department of Public Health for almost a week, the Splash Park at the Opelika Sportsplex and Aquatics Center is open, and children, like 10 year old Angel Fox, were excited to splash around and cool off in the water. "You just get to stand there and get wet. It's like a shower, like rain," said Fox.

The Public Health Agency (PHA) are reminding parents about the importance of supervising hand washing among their children after visiting an open farm and handling farm animals, over the summer holidays.

The Food Safety Authority of Ireland gets it right, and said this morning, don’t eat sprouts. The German outbreak of E. coli O104 that has killed 45 and sickened some 3,800 has now spread to the Bordeaux region of southern France and sickened at least 10 people.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has proposed sensible steps to cope with the dangers posed by a flood of imported food, drugs, cosmetics and medical devices. The trouble is, Congressional Republicans are determined to cut the agency’s budget when it ought to be getting an increase to deal with this worsening risk.

MUNCIE -- A food establishment was cited by the Delaware County Health Department during recent sanitation inspections for failing to prevent hand contamination of food. Several other establishments were cited for temperature violations. The potential for bacterial growth and foodborne illness is greater when food is maintained in the danger zone between 41 degrees and 135 degrees.