We miss our dogs. The cocker spaniel is chasing down rabbits in Nebraska, and the Heinz-57 shorthair Aussie shepherd in herding cattle in Kansas. So, not as much interest in the doggie dining stories. But if we move to Los Angeles, the dogs would be welcome at many restaurants under a new policy announced Monday.

Caleb Whittier may not be the poster boy for Kidney Health Month in Canada but he'd make a strong candidate. In 2003, Caleb, then two, contracted E-coli. His kidneys were scarred and for an extended period of time they would remain the size of a 21-month-old.

Norovirus is a major cause of acute gastroenteritis in Europe. The virus is readily transmitted from person to person so outbreaks can easily become large, as shown in the outbreak that occurred in a Dublin Hotel just before Christmas. In this instance, around 580 people reported illness after attending events in the hotel.

Teys Australia, a joint venture partially owned by Cargill, has installed closed-circuit cameras in six of its slaughterhouses to reassure the public that it is meeting animal welfare standards.

George Da Pont, president, Canadian Food Inspection Agency,writes regarding, Food import checks la Expert, by Sarah Schmidt, Postmedia News, Feb. 16, to say that the rules and requirements underpinning Canada's food safety system apply equally to domestic and imported foods. Assertions that foods from abroad are held to a different food safety standard are simply false.

(although imperfect) Those words, in parentheses, are the most important in a paper by CDC-types about self-reported consumption of pink beef, and impair the conclusions.

NATO has dismissed a claim by the Taliban that it killed five ISAF soldiers by poisoning their food. While there was evidence of a "suspected attempt to tamper with food items" at a base in eastern Afghanistan, it was discovered before any troops could be affected.

The former big cheese at CFIA says the most significant food safety development in the last decade has occurred outside public law — the extraordinary growth in the role of private-sector traceability systems characterized by third-party audits.

New regulations would reduce existing compliance costs while guarding health, writes Kate Wilkinson, Food Safety Minister. The Food Bill has attracted a lot of attention of late, some of it misinformed.