Meat And Poultry

For food safety questions call the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Meat and Poultry Hotline, 1-800-535-4555, between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m.

Maryland hospitals are buying more food locally, according to a new analysis. Forty hospitals in Maryland, the District of Columbia, and Northern Virginia are now purchasing locally grown fruits and vegetables regularly during the growing season and nine are consistently purchasing meat or poultry produced by local farmers who use sustainable agricultural practices, according to Maryland Hospitals for a Healthy Environment. “Incorporating more local and sustainable foods requires a modification of the traditional purchasing practices of hospitals,” said Louise Mitchell, the organization's sustainable foods program manager.“Leading hospitals in this region deserve a lot of credit for their persistence, determination and strategic thinking on how to make it work.” The hospitals spent nearly $30,000 on local foods in one week during the Buy Local Challenge last July, twice the amount purchased during the same week in 2010 and translating to at least $60,000 of positive impact on the local economy.  Highest purchases for the week included Union Hospital of Cecil County at $5,482, Meritus Medical Center at $2,187 and Civista Medical Center at $1,841.

Because of incorrect information provided to The Sun, the safe cooking temperatures for red meat and poultry were reversed in yesterday's Tidbits column in the A La Carte section. Ground beef should be cooked to 160 degrees, and whole poultry should be cooked to 180 degrees.The Sun regrets the error.Pub Date: 8/28/97

Within the poultry industry, company dealings with the farmers they contract with have been one-sided for at least the past 20 years. It's been a long, hard battle for contract farmers to try to gain any fairness in that relationship; I can't count the times in those 20 years that I've traveled to Washington, D.C. to speak with our illustrious politicians about the issue. The U.S. Department of Agriculture's Grain Inspection Packers and Stockyards Administration (GIPSA) has the authority to write and publish rules to protect farmers from unfair and/or deceptive practices.

Fresh sausage made from beef, pork or lamb should b cooked to an internal temperature of 160 degrees, according to the USDA's Meat and Poultry Hotline (800-535-4555); sausage made from poultry should be cooked to an internal temperature of 165 degrees.Pub date 11/1/98@

For the first time since the federal government began regulating the safety of the American food supply, the Department of Agriculture announced yesterday that it would require all raw meat and poultry sold in bulk and at retail outlets to have labels with cooking and handling instructions.The outline for the new regulations were included in a legal document settling a lawsuit brought against the department by a consumer group and others.Such labeling of meat and poultry has been under consideration for several years, but the issue was brought to a head this year when the deaths of three people and the illnesses of more than 350 others were attributed to hamburgers served at a fast-food chain in Washington State.

THE LIKELIHOOD of getting salmonella through shell eggs at home is small. For safety's sake, however, the Department of Agriculture's Meat and Poultry Hotline advises taking these precautions when handling and cooking eggs:* Buy only clean, uncracked eggs from refrigerated cases. If you find a cracked egg in the carton, throw it out.* Keep eggs refrigerated and use in three to five weeks. Do not let eggs sit at room temperature for more than an hour.For optimal safety, both the white and the yolk of eggs should be thoroughly cooked.

Have a cooking question? Call a hotline.Duncan Hines has baking experts standing by at 1-800-DH-MOIST. This year-round hotline, open 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday, can supply baking tips and recipes.Fleischmann's Yeast Baker's Hotline has bread baking information; 1-800-227-6202. Weekdays, 9 a.m. to 7 p.m.Food safety questions can be answered by calling the U.S. Department of Agriculture Meat and Poultry Hotline 1-800-535-4555. Weekdays, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Wonder how much fat you're chowing down in that hot dog or in the packaged, breaded frying chicken you picked up at the supermarket?It's pretty hard to tell with many meat products because the majority carry no nutritional labeling.But it looks as if that's going to change. The government is gearing up to require nutritional labeling for much meat and poultry, and expects to have a preliminary proposal ready for public comment by March 31.Nearly 60 percent of meat and poultry products today provide no nutritional labeling, according to a survey released March 6 by the consumer group Public Voice for Food & Health Policy.

Here's a new twist on chicken:The fat content of chicken meat is the same whether you cook it with the skin on or off, according to Eric Hentges, director of research for the National Livestock and Meat Board.Mr. Hentges is part of the team that developed the meat Nutri-Facts posters that could appear in your grocery store in late November. Fresh meat and poultry labeling is the second installment of that same Nutrition Labeling and Education Act that required Nutrition Facts labels on virtually all processed foods now in grocery stores.

We have weathered the food pyramid, the fascination with oat bran and the embrace of low-fat fare. Now, as is its habit, the federal government is giving us more advice on what to eat. A fresh set of federal dietary guidelines, a five-year update issued by the departments of Agriculture and Health and Human Services, were announced last week. Happily, there seemed to be less nagging in this go-round than in prior years. Indeed, the phrase "enjoy your food" was part of the government 's message.

Gov. Parris N. Glendening's environmental policies have hardly endeared him to Maryland's poultry industry. His pared-down diet isn't helping. Quietly, for about two years now, the governor has abstained from meat and poultry, says his spokesman Michael Morrill. He eats seafood, but not other animals. "It's for personal dietary reasons," Morrill says. "Doctors give people his age specific advice on how to improve their diet, and he's taken up a lot of their advice." Glendening, 58, is markedly slimmer than before he started the new regimen.

Fresh sausage made from beef, pork or lamb should b cooked to an internal temperature of 160 degrees, according to the USDA's Meat and Poultry Hotline (800-535-4555); sausage made from poultry should be cooked to an internal temperature of 165 degrees.Pub date 11/1/98@

Because of incorrect information provided to The Sun, the safe cooking temperatures for red meat and poultry were reversed in yesterday's Tidbits column in the A La Carte section. Ground beef should be cooked to 160 degrees, and whole poultry should be cooked to 180 degrees.The Sun regrets the error.Pub Date: 8/28/97

IN JANUARY 1993, the same month Bill Clinton became president, three children died after eating hamburgers at a fast-food outlet and some 500 persons became ill from ingesting the virulent E. coli 0157: H7 bacterium. The national outcry drew promises that the new administration would do something. Now, after an early false start, the president has announced the most significant changes in meat inspection rules in 90 years.Though understandably skeptical, Americans can take comfort that even some consumer-watchdog groups have welcomed this initiative.

WASHINGTON -- President Clinton announced yesterday the most sweeping changes in the government's meat inspection system since it was created nearly a century ago, outlining new rules that would, for the first time, impose scientific tests for disease-causing bacteria.The new rules call for more inspection and controls by the meat- and poultry-processing industry itself and new testing by the Department of Agriculture.Drafted over the past two years, the rules will be final upon their publication in the Federal Register this week.

WASHINGTON -- Congressional critics and former top officials say the Agriculture Department does a poor job and should be stripped of its power to police meat and poultry safety. Their testimony was to come at a congressional hearing today.Witnesses set to advocate the reorganization include a veteran insider -- the man who headed USDA's food safety agency until 1991 -- and the senior food safety specialist for the General Accounting Office, an investigative arm of Congress.The Clinton administration also has endorsed the idea of consolidating food safety enforcement outside USDA, citing the need to prevent outbreaks like the undercooked hamburger tragedy in which three children died and 500 people were sickened in Washington state last January.

*The USDA Meat and Poultry Hotline: (800) 535-4555, 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Monday through Friday.*Land O' Lakes toll-free Holiday Bakeline: (800) 782-9606, 9 a.m.-7 p.m. until Dec. 24.*The Butterball help line: (800) 323-4848, for English- and Spanish-speaking callers, or (800) TDD-3848, for hearing- and speech-impaired cooks, 9 a.m.-9 p.m. weekdays until Wednesday; 9 a.m.-7 p.m. today; and 7 a.m.-7 p.m. Thanksgiving Day. From Friday until Dec. 23, the hours are 8 a.m.-6 p.m. weekdays.

Washington -- TWO YEARS ago, we were all outraged -- and frightened -- when three children died and hundreds of people fell ill in the Northwest from bacterium in tainted hamburger meat.The victims, most of whom had eaten at Jack-in-the-Box restaurants, were infected with E. coli O157:H7, a newly discovered, nasty little microbe that thrives in the intestines and feces of mammals and can cause diarrhea, abdominal pain, kidney and heart failure or death.The cry went up for the federal government to improve the country's system of meat and poultry inspection to protect the public from such tragedies.