2/22/14 FDA Health News: Rancher Fights FDA Over Recall - Lawsuit Against FDA Over Food Additives - Massive Beef Recall

RANCHER FIGHTS ORDER IN BLANKET 9-MILLION-POUND BEEF RECALL

If there is one steak you can trust in a marketplace dominated by factory farming, it comes from Bill Niman’s 800-acre ranch in Bolinas.  The owner of BN Ranch, Mr. Niman has toiled for decades to set the highest standards in the beef industry, verifying the source of all his cattle, spurning antibiotics and growth hormones and overseeing each animal’s slaughter and butchering.

But no matter how many precautions Mr. Niman has taken, the U.S. Department of Agriculture has condemned his meat — and the grass-fed beef from almost every ranch in West Marin — as “unsound, unwholesome or otherwise… unfit for human food” in a recall earlier this month of 8.7 million pounds of beef products. The recall treats the highest-quality beef from BN Ranch browned into a sirloin roast at Chez Panisse as a health hazard equal to ground beef from spent dairy cows blended for frozen Hot Pockets Philly Steak & Cheese. . Continue Reading

LAWSUIT BROUGHT AGAINST FDA REGARDING FOOD ADDITIVES

After agreeing to a settlement in a dispute about final rule deadlines for the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) earlier this week, the Center for Food Safety (CFS) has filed another lawsuit against the U.S. Food and Drug Administration – this time over food additives. The suit is asking the Court to vacate FDA’s 1997 proposed... Continue Reading

WHAT’S GOING ON WITH THE MASSIVE RANCHO BEEF RECALL?

More than two weeks after the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced the initial recall of beef products processed by central California’s Rancho Feeding Corporation, several questions remain unanswered regarding both the ongoing investigation into the processing plant and the recall itself. The recall involves all 8.7 million pounds of beef slaughtered at Rancho’s plant during... Continue Reading