Fall fair season is fast approaching, and more than ever, promoters are proactively and publicly saying, this is what we do to reduce the risk of food safety problems, this is what we do to reduce the risk of problems with petting zoos.Pennsylvania's Centre County Grange Encampment and Fair published an extensive list of risks and steps to reduce risks yesterday

... but it's what Toronto's restaurant inspection disclosure system looks like -- the infamous red, yellow, green.Columbus, Ohio, has apparently decided to adopt a similar system. Barnet D. Wolf of The Columbus Dispatch reports that,"The inspection process has received more attention since the board instituted a color-coded food-safety sign system for restaurants, markets and other retail food businesses

First it was the Brits, now the Kiwis are jumping into the jingoism wars.AgResearch New Zealand senior microbiologist Guill le Roux was quoted as telling the Waikato Times, "Eat it (meat) and enjoy it; we have the safest meat in the world. But for goodness sake, prepare and cook it properly."le Roux was further quoted as saying, "In general, we are better than most other places in the world

Kim Severson writes in the New York Times today that the connection between what she puts in her body, the land around her and the miracle of things that grow makes her feel as if she's part of something bigger.Fair enough. Severson explains that local has become the new organic, helped in large part by a growing concern over the environmental impact of transporting food thousands of miles

Journalism basics, something I'll be teaching at Kansas State beginning next week and something the ever-evasive Canadian Food Inspection Agency dances around.This time it's a warning that Los Angeles Salad Company Baby Carrots may be contaminated with Shigella. The release says there have been four reported illnesses associated with the consumption of this product

In a press release that would leave Pasteur guffawing, Autumn Valley Farm of Worcester, N.Y. has declared that it will be resuming sales of raw milk.Co-owner Lori McGrath was quoted as saying, "… everyone understands that the state has to be pacified because the Agriculture Department is deathly afraid that any kind of an outbreak will hurt the commercial milk industry

The Ontario Farm Animal Council and the Canadian National Exhibition (CNE) today announced that they are challenging members of the media to be farmers for a day.Ron Douglas, CNE Farm Superintendent and farmer, was quoted as saying,"We are challenging the media to milk a cow, feed chickens, shear sheep and plant crops at this years’ CNE

… is give LOX a chance.That's low oxygen meat packaging, a system which preserves the quality, bolsters the safety, maintains the color and extends the shelf life of fresh meat products.Dr. Randy Huffman, vice president of scientific affairs for the American Meat Institute Foundation (AMIF), writes to South Dakota's Yankton Daily to explain the technology and outline how the opposing PR campaign is funded by a company that stands to lose with the adoption of LOX

Food safety lawsuits continue to pile up, at home and abroad.In Jordan, the family of a man who died after falling ill from eating a shawarma in a restaurant in Jordan has filed lawsuits against the restaurant’s owner and a hospital doctor who dealt with him before his death.Bilal Jarwan, 23, was one of hundred of people struck down with salmonella poisoning after eating chicken shawarmas from a restaurant in the Baqaa refugee camp near Amman

Michael Doyle (pictured), director of the University of Georgia Center for Food Safety told Georgia's Lakefront Hartwell that the food safety problem isn't where the food comes from, but how it's grown or processed before it reaches American soil."The centuries-old tradition of using human excreta on farmland is widespread in East Asia, especially in China and Vietnam