It's fair and festival season.  For the past 25 years, the last weekend of July has marked the Hillside Festival, a weekend-long outdoors concert at Guelph Lake.  I've never been.  I've had lots of friends attend and have often felt like I've missed out on hearing some great bands.  Part of the reason is that I'm not a huge camping fan; it always seems to rain when I camp

While others bitch, whine and moan -- and armchair quarterback -- about the investigation into the outbreak of Salmonella Saintpaul, Elizabeth Weise of USA Today decided to spend a couple of days in the shoes of an epidemiologist. Or two.There are the pit bulls, chained and unchained. The scary-looking guy with bloodshot eyes

Neil Rumbaoa, director of communications at the Shangri-La Hotel in Dubai, told The National that hamburgers served anything less than well-done come with a legal waiver.“We just want to make sure that we serve the best quality food and the safest. And so if it’s rare, obviously there are factors that will contribute to how safe the food is

I am planning on going to Yellowstone Park next weekend. I read this story and got a little worried.About 30 people came down with symptoms consistent with the norovirus infection at the Tuolumne Meadows Lodge and High Sierra camps in the area, said Shane Sims, a specialist in the safety office at Yosemite National Park…The hiker camps are particularly vulnerable to the spread of norovirus illness, because people enjoying the outdoors aren't always careful about hygiene, Sims said

The produce industry in the U.S. deserves better leadership. Or at least better writers.At least that’s my take-home message after reading the screed by Bryan Silbermann, president of the Produce Marketing Association, Newark, Del., and Tom Stenzel, president of the United Fresh Produce Association, Washington, D

I’m not a fan of third-party food safety audits. Sure, there’s lots of good people out there, especially the ones who can coach and assist, but straight audits of food producing facilities – beginning on the farm and through to the fork – can be fraught with inadequacies.And too often, it’s about the paycheck, not the food safety (and that comes from years of working with farmers and others and watching various auditors show up and not knowing too much)

Croydon Today in the U.K. reports,The See and Tell service, launched this month, enables people to text the Croydon Council's food safety team with concerns about food safety or labelling issues - in restaurants, shops or takeaways. There are 2,600 food businesses in Croydon, from takeaways to supermarkets

Andrew Stormer (right, pretty much as shown) tells me his parents went to the farmers’ market yesterday and bought some buffalo meat.Stormer, a student who works with me but is spending the summer as an intern in the 38C (100F) heat of Salina, Kansas, says,“The person selling the meat said that their buffalos were not fed grain and therefore, E

The New York Times reported last week that in 2006, “the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene inspected restaurants using the sous vide method, in which food is vacuum-sealed in plastic for slow cooking at low temperatures. Because of concerns about bacteria growth in the sealed pouches, restaurants were told to stop using vacuum-sealing machines until they filed plans detailing their processes

I read this story yesterday …many super foods like blueberries are popular because they allow you to enjoy health benefits without skimping on taste. They're not alone: Super food lists widely vary, but here's a list of 10 that show up on many nutritionists' lists and on various Web sites.The list included: acai, salmon, swiss chard, cherries, green tea, walnuts, blueberries, kefir, brown rice, ground flax seed