http://www.foodsafetywatch.com/public/department38.cfm Our editors thoughts on food safety issues of the moment en-us webmaster@foodsafetywatch.com http://www.foodsafetywatch.com/public/department38.cfm?ID=83 Last week I wrote about the need to develop a culture of building food safety into the entire production process from farm to fork. Today I find myself compelled by events to return to that same subje http://www.foodsafetywatch.com/public/department38.cfm?ID=82 Food safety news has been pretty scarce for the last few weeks - much of Europe puts up 'closed' signs in August - but there is little doubt about which story is attracting the most coverage. From the http://www.foodsafetywatch.com/public/department38.cfm?ID=81 There is no escaping the big food story this week, at least in the UK. It seems that meat from two bulls, both the offspring of a cloned cow, has entered the food chain and is likely to have been eate http://www.foodsafetywatch.com/public/department38.cfm?ID=80 Last time I wrote about the uncertainty over the future of the UK Food Standards Agency and the possible implications for funding important research projects. Since then, much of that uncertainty has http://www.foodsafetywatch.com/public/department38.cfm?ID=79 This week the UK Food Standards Agency announced a planned new research programme on Campylobacter, which it has identified as one of the most important food safety threats for British consumers. This http://www.foodsafetywatch.com/public/department38.cfm?ID=78 Back in May, I wrote a piece about the folly of over-using important antibiotics in agriculture and how such profligacy might jeopardise the health of the next generation as more and more antibiotic-r http://www.foodsafetywatch.com/public/department38.cfm?ID=77 A story getting attention from the US media this week is the recall of canned 'SpaghettiOs with Meatballs' by the Campbell Soup Supply Company in Texas, because of "possible under-processing." On the http://www.foodsafetywatch.com/public/department38.cfm?ID=76 Even ten years ago it could be quite difficult to find free-range eggs in some supermarkets. Today you are more likely to find free-range eggs than the battery variety on the shelves in many stores, e http://www.foodsafetywatch.com/public/department38.cfm?ID=75 It is the annual Food Safety Week here in the UK. Each year the Food Standards Agency gets together with the food industry and various professional organisations and picks a theme for a week of activi http://www.foodsafetywatch.com/public/department38.cfm?ID=74 A question that has long puzzled me is why established food safety practice focuses almost exclusively on one particular type of E. coli. You would think that O157:H7 was the only serotype that was ev http://www.foodsafetywatch.com/public/department38.cfm?ID=73 This week we have reported -- somewhat reluctantly -- a new study from a group of Canadian researchers looking at the microbial populations to be found in bottled water. They found, to their apparent http://www.foodsafetywatch.com/public/department38.cfm?ID=72 This week saw the publication of a report from the Netherlands describing the investigation into an outbreak of hepatitis A virus (HAV) infection that occurred in January and February this year. The o http://www.foodsafetywatch.com/public/department38.cfm?ID=71 Most of us are much too young to remember a time before antibiotics were available to the medical profession, but until the 1940s there weren't too many options for treating infections. Even minor cut http://www.foodsafetywatch.com/public/department38.cfm?ID=70 The European Food Safety Authority, or EFSA as it is more often known, comes in for criticism occasionally, especially from food manufacturers who have had their health claims turned down. As an organ http://www.foodsafetywatch.com/public/department38.cfm?ID=69 At the end of last week the CDC FoodNet surveillance program for foodborne infections reported its latest set of preliminary data for 2009. The publication of the figures was greeted in the US media w http://www.foodsafetywatch.com/public/department38.cfm?ID=68 Bisphenol A (BPA) is a rather useful chemical, first synthesised more than one hundred years ago and used in materials for food and drink packaging and storage for around 50 years. Its main applicatio http://www.foodsafetywatch.com/public/department38.cfm?ID=67 In my last posting I was getting a little hot under the collar about celebrities dismissing established food safety measures as unnecessary and encouraging consumers to ignore them. Specifically I cit http://www.foodsafetywatch.com/public/department38.cfm?ID=66 It may just be the result of mild paranoia, but I can't help noticing that a number of what ought to be considered essential food safety measures are being increasingly questioned. The culprits are us http://www.foodsafetywatch.com/public/department38.cfm?ID=65 Dried herbs and spices are not the first things one might think of when drawing up a list of food ingredients with a high risk of Salmonella contamination. Nevertheless, food poisoning outbreaks assoc http://www.foodsafetywatch.com/public/department38.cfm?ID=64 Here in the so-called 'developed world' we tend to get very concerned about all manner of food safety issues that seem terribly serious, but often turn out to be more of an economic or regulatory prob