7/31/14 Health News; BILL INTRODUCED TO TAX SUGAR-SWEETENED BEVERAGES ♦ Labels detect contaminated meat ♦ RAW MILK SEIZURE ♦ Tainted meat scandal bites McDonald's

DELAURO INTRODUCES BILL TO TAX SUGAR-SWEETENED BEVERAGES NATIONWIDE

On Wednesday, Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-CT) introduced the Sugar-Sweetened Beverages Tax (SWEET) Act — a tax on drinks such as sodas, energy drinks, sweet teas and sports drinks that she first announced at the National Soda Summit in Washington, D.C., on June 5. The SWEET Act would institute an excise tax of 1 cent per... Continue Reading

Smart labels detect contaminated meat before it hits shelves

Have you ever worried about getting salmonella or E. coli poisoning from meat? Researchers at the University of Alberta are working on a new way to spot spoiled meat before it hits grocery-store shelves. Anastasia Elias and Dominic Sauvageau, professors in the Department of Chemical and Materials Engineering, are developing smart materials to detect harmful microbes that cause … continue reading

RAW MILK SEIZURE STIRS DEBATE IN MICHIGAN

Michigan farmers and some of their downstate customers are still talking about an enforcement action taken two weeks ago by the Michigan Department of Agriculture. The incident has prompted hundreds of comments on local newspaper and Facebook pages. A delivery truck from Standish, MI-based My Family Co-Op was making its run south on Interstate 75... Continue Reading

Tainted meat scandal bites McDonald's

The fast food chain's Japanese unit said Tuesday that it will fall short of profit and sales targets for the year, after a longtime meat supplier was shut down last week by authorities for unsanitary practices. As meat from the supplier has been pulled out of circulation, McDonald's outlets in China, Hong Kong and Japan have stopped selling items such … continue reading

Foster Farms Cited 12 Times for Fecal Matter on Chicken

Foster Farms was cited 12 times between Jan. 1 and Sept. 27 for fecal material on poultry carcasses and was found to have "poor sanitary dressing practices, unsanitary food contact surfaces and direct product contamination."

Three letters, known as a Notice of Intended Enforcement, were sent Monday and threatens to close three Foster Farm facilities deemed to be the origin of the outbreak. The company has until Thursday to respond with a plan.

The California-based poultry producer must deliver plans to the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Food Safety and Inspection Service to fix the problems that USDA inspectors have uncovered at three of its four production facilities — namely, evidence of Salmonella Heidelberg. This strain  of salmonella is drug resistant to several commonly used antibiotics

The outbreak has sickened 280 people in 18 states, with 42 percent of those who got sick hospitalized.. Most of the infected people are from California.

The most common symptoms of salmonella infection include: diarrhea, abdominal cramps and fever within 8 to 72 hours. Other symptoms would include nausea, vomiting, chills, headache, muscle pains and blood in the stool. All these symptoms can last four to seven days.

Since salmonella infection can cause dehydration, the focus of the treatment would be to replace the fluids and electrolytes. Severe cases might require hospitalization and intravenous intervention. In addition to that, the doctor might recommend the patient to take anti-diarrhea and antibiotics. Anti-diarrhea such as Loperamide can help to relieve the cramping.

Foster Farms released a statement on its website saying that as soon as the company was alerted to concerns over salmonella, "we brought in national food safety experts to assess our processes and have reinforced our processes with new technologies proven to be effective." The note came from Ron Foster, president of Foster Farms, who pledged to resolve the issues.

Foster Farms Sent a plan to resolve these issues as of noon today

And now, FSIS officials "will start the evaluation process to ensure that [Foster Farms is] taking the necessary steps to prevent the persistent recurrence of Salmonella in their facilities,"

On Capitol Hill, representatives Louise Slaughter, D-N.Y., and Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., are calling on Congress to take action on what they describe as a problem of overuse of antibiotics in agriculture.

A statement released by Slaughter says antibiotics are routinely given to healthy animals, often to promote growth: "As a result, bacteria become resistant to these overused antibiotics."