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FDA food-safety alerts go electronic
By Kim Campbell Thornton
September 9, 2009
Two years after multiple food recalls, including the massive pet food recall, brought the safety– or lack thereof — of the U.S. food supply to people’s attention, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has launched an electronic food registry that will permit speedier reports by companies of potential food-borne illnesses. A story in today’s Wall Street Journal says food facilities must alert the FDA within 24 hours of finding that a product contains a contaminant that could severely sicken or kill people or animals. All food and animal feed companies must send the reports.
What I want to know? How could it possibly take this long to implement such a thing? Read the rest here.
And now, a plug for a project I’ve been working on: If you’ll be in the White Plains, New York, area on Friday, November 20, you may want to come hear food-safety expert Marion Nestle. She’ll be speaking at the Cat Writers Association conference on the pet food recall and its implications for general food safety. Registration is open to the public.
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The FDA should get a twitter account.
Comment by Amanda — September 9, 2009 @ 3:20 pm
I’ll see you in White Plains, Kim!
Comment by Susan — September 9, 2009 @ 3:36 pm
Guess I should hurry up and make flight reservations.
Comment by Kim Thornton — September 9, 2009 @ 4:12 pm
Behold:
http://twitter.com/FDArecalls
http://twitter.com/FDA_Drug_Info
Comment by Eucritta — September 9, 2009 @ 4:45 pm
This is the one I use:
http://twitter.com/foodrecalls
Comment by Kim Thornton — September 9, 2009 @ 5:37 pm
Has anyone heard anything lately about the status of the objections filed against the settlement?
Comment by Sherrod — September 9, 2009 @ 6:46 pm
Oh, fancy. I wasn’t sure if there was an official one.
Comment by Amanda — September 9, 2009 @ 8:04 pm
This is indeed a long awaited first step as one of my two deceased kitties might still be here today if this had been enacted in early 2007 but it still seems to allow “honesty” and “integrity” in the mix….sigh….
Comment by Carol V — September 10, 2009 @ 6:58 am
There is also a new website on Food Safety that is a joint effort of FDA and USDA. It has links to sign up for the recall alerts as well. http://www.foodsafety.gov/
Comment by Moira — September 10, 2009 @ 9:04 am
This is a great step, but it still doesn’t give me comfort in the quality and processing of commercial pet foods. Thankfully, I found Life’s Abundance, which I feed my dogs and cats.
It’s a holistic pet food created by veterinarian Dr. Jane Bicks. She has her own stand-alone manufacturing facility, so there is no worry about cross-contamination of equipment by other pet-food manufacturers using lower-quality ingredients. She makes the food in small batches and quality control tests every one.
Bicks uses only human-grade ingredients, and no corn, wheat or soy products. No preservatives or dyes. The foods are fast-cooked to retain the maximum amount of nutrients, and she refuses to sell the product via stores because she doesn’t want it sitting on store shelves (because of the absence of preservatives). So you order it online through a registered agent, and it ships to your door! The best part is that she encourages customers to call into a monthly conference call she does and ask questions about the food. Can’t do that with Iams or Science Diet!
The registered agent I use to buy my food through is my local no-kill shelter. Their site for Life’s Abundance is http://www.HumaneSocietyPetFood.com My shelter gets a portion of the proceeds, so if you’re going to order, please use the above web site! (Yes, a shameless plug to help my local shelter!)
Each each 40-lb bag of kibble contains approximately 160 cups. Each cup of dog food has 483 kcal/cup. Check whatever food you’re using now, because this is very nutritionally-dense food and most people find they need to feed much less of it to maintain their pets’ weights. I cut my 70-lb pointer back from 2 cups twice a day to 1.3 cups twice a day. My heeler gets half a cup twice a day.
My 15-year-old cat has gained a pound and all of his hair has grown back. Great stuff.
Catherine.
Comment by Catherine — September 15, 2009 @ 7:02 am