Salmonella

Amid the sour partisan rancor in Washington, there is a glimmer of sweet hope. The FDA Food Safety Modernization Act stands a good chance to pass the Senate on Monday night. The bill, which increases the Food and Drug Administration's authority over the food supply, has been worked on by Republicans and Democrats for two years. The finished product, while not a four-star creation, is certainly palatable. The bill would give the FDA mandatory recall authority — a power it oddly now lacks — as well as the authority to test widely for dangerous pathogens and trace the outbreaks back to their source.

Federal health regulators have linked a recent salmonella outbreak in several states, including 11 people infected in Maryland, to yellowfin tuna produced at a California company. Moon Marine USA Corp. of Cupertino, CA. , has voluntarily recalled more than 58,000 pounds of tuna labeled Nakaochi Scrape, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration said Friday.  Nakaocho Scrape is tuna backmeat with a ground up appearance that is scraped from the bones of the fish. The product isn't sold to individual consumers, but may have been used to make sushi, sashimi, ceviche and other dishes available at grocery stores and restaurants.

Q: Should I pay attention to my wife when she says that we should not order Caesar salads in restaurants?A: The easy answer is to tell you that you should always listen to what your wife says. She may not be right on every occasion, but it is true that Caesar salad dressing, made with raw eggs, has been responsible for many outbreaks of gastrointestinal illness due to contamination of eggs with Salmonella bacteria. These bacteria pose no threat when eggs are properly cooked, but Salmonella may infect the intestine if you eat foods containing raw or under-cooked eggs.

Eight people in Maryland are among 93 across the country who have been sickened by a salmonella outbreak with a possible link to sushi, according to state health officials. The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention began investigating the outbreak in January, and the first Maryland cases were discovered last month, said Alvina Chu, an epidemiologist and chief of the division of outbreak investigation at the Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. The strain being investigated is salmonella bareilly , and infections have been reported in 19 states and the District of Columbia.

Millions of turtle eggs exported from the United States to be hatched and the turtles sold as pets may harbor strains of salmonella bacteria that are resistant to antibiotics and could pose a serious international health threat to young children, U.S. and Canadian health officials say.Salmonella carried by healthy reptiles and livestock can infect people and cause severe abdominal cramps, nausea, diarrhea and vomiting. The condition is rarely fatal in adults, but in young children it can require hospitalization.

WASHINGTON - Turf struggles, bad communication and weak leadership undermined the federal response to a recent salmonella outbreak that cost the tomato industry huge losses, witnesses told a House of Representatives subcommittee yesterday. Lawmakers joined farmers in a wholesale attack on the Food and Drug Administration's performance, potentially laying the political foundation for a regulatory overhaul and multimillion-dollar compensation package. "We have been the primary injured party," Reginald Brown, the executive vice president of the Florida Tomato Growers Exchange, told the House panel, "and we look forward to Congress addressing that in the future."

Fresh from celebrating her roommate's birthday at a cozy Baltimore restaurant, the 20-year-old Loyola College student retired contentedly for the night. The piquant flavor of Caesar salad lingered as a pleasant memory. She drifted into sleep.With a start, she awoke a few hours later with knife-like stomach pains. Then came a cascading series of symptoms: intense vomiting, diarrhea, muscle pains, and alternating fevers and chills that left her too weak to climb stairs without help.After three days of escalating misery, she checked into the hospital, where doctors found her blood pressure dangerously low and her kidneys verging on failure.

The state medical examiner ruled yesterday that the death of a St. Mary's County woman was caused by eating salmonella-tainted food at a church supper.Dr. John E. Smialek released a statement confirming suspicions that the death of Grace Oatley, 81, of Chaptico was due to the Nov. 2 outbreak.She died the evening of Nov. 4.Nearly 750 people became ill after they ate a ham-and-turkey dinner at Our Lady of the Wayside Church in Chaptico.Health officials said a Baltimore woman who died after eating food from the supper was likely a heart attack victim.

One person has died and more than 30 others were hospitalized in what the state health department says is one of the largest instances of salmonella poisoning in state history.All told, 118 people got sick at a Korean wedding reception in Columbia Aug. 29. They ate contaminated food that guests had brought to the reception from as far away as New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania, according to Tory Leonard, health department spokeswoman."We're not sure how they handled the food or if they had proper food care," she said.

The outbreak of intestinal illness among people who attended a church supper in St. Mary's County is a sobering reminder of the risk posed by salmonella -- the leading cause of foodborne sickness in the United States.And the death of an elderly woman -- who was among the 143 people who reportedly got sick after the dinner -- illustrates the fact that the aged are particularly at risk for serious and even fatal complications of the bacterial infection.Health officials in St. Mary's County do not know what caused the disease, but are leaning toward turkey as a possible culprit.

State health officials are warning Marylanders that baby rabbits, turtles, chicks, ducklings and other animals popular around the Easter holiday can spread salmonella and other harmful bacteria to people. Since September 2001, six people in Maryland have contracted bacterial infections from baby turtles, or those with shells less than four inches wide, according to the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. Five of the cases required hospitalizations. U.S. Food and Drug Administration rules don't allow the sale of baby turtles, but in three of the cases the turtles were bought from a neighborhood baby turtle vendor.

Giant Food said today it is recalling vegetable snack packages made by Mann Packing that contain celery, carrots and tomatoes. The grape tomato ingredient in the packages may be contaminated with Salmonella. The packages impacted have best if used by dates ranging from May 9, 2011 – May 16, 2011. The packages are 8.75 oz and have the code: UPC 71651901501 Giant Food has received no reports of illness associated with consumption of this product. Customers who have purchased the product should bring any unused portions or their purchase receipt to any store for a full refund.

Amid the sour partisan rancor in Washington, there is a glimmer of sweet hope. The FDA Food Safety Modernization Act stands a good chance to pass the Senate on Monday night. The bill, which increases the Food and Drug Administration's authority over the food supply, has been worked on by Republicans and Democrats for two years. The finished product, while not a four-star creation, is certainly palatable. The bill would give the FDA mandatory recall authority — a power it oddly now lacks — as well as the authority to test widely for dangerous pathogens and trace the outbreaks back to their source.

Marylanders were fortunate to dodge the latest salmonella scare. The tainted eggs that came from two Iowa egg producers did not find their way into Mid-Atlantic markets. Last week, the Maryland Department of Agriculture said that its inspectors had found none of the affected eggs in the state. Still, it is disconcerting that, as reported by The Washington Post, an Iowa egg farmer in the center of the current recall, Austin " Jack" DeCoster, ran a troubled egg operation in Kent County in early 1990s.

McCormick & Co. announced a recall of four processed foods Friday afternoon because of possible salmonella contamination of an ingredient. The Sparks-based company recalled packages of French onion dip mix, vegetable dip mix, onion gravy mix and corn bread stuffing mix, all of which contained hydrolyzed vegetable protein manufactured by Basic Food Flavors of Las Vegas. Another manufacturer, a Basic Food Flavors customer, detected the contamination and reported it to the FDA. That company is recalling all the hydrolyzed vegetable protein produced since Sept.

McCormick & Co. announced a recall of four processed foods Friday afternoon due to possible salmonella contamination of an ingredient. The Sparks-based company recalled packages of French onion dip mix, vegetable dip mix, onion gravy mix and corn stuffing mix, all of which contained hydrolyzed vegetable protein manufactured by Basic Food Flavors of Las Vegas, Nev. According to the Food and Drug Administration, no one has gotten sick thus...

Agriculture Department officials say they are discussing the possibility of easing their new standards for preventing salmonella contamination in ground beef used for the nation's school lunch program. The reconsideration, provoked by criticism from the food industry, has angered consumer advocates. Since June, the department, which provides 70 percent of the ground beef used in schools, has required that every batch it buys be free of salmonella, bacteria responsible for about 600 deaths and 1.4 million illnesses last year.

WASHINGTON - The peanut company at the center of the nationwide salmonella scare has filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy protection and will begin liquidating its assets as a crush of legal claims pile up against Lynchburg, Va.-based Peanut Corp. of America. "Given that PCA is under criminal investigation, I'm not surprised they've gone bankrupt," said Bill Marler, a Seattle-based lawyer representing 47 clients who are suing the company, including family members of two victims who died after reportedly consuming peanut products tainted with salmonella.

WASHINGTON - The salmonella outbreak that has killed as many as nine people and sickened hundreds nationwide has created what advocates say is an unprecedented opportunity to reform the way America safeguards its food supply. "You've had the consumer community, the expert community clamoring for this for over a decade," said Michael R. Taylor, a former deputy commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration. "What's happened with this outbreak is it has just elevated the intensity of the political focus and the demand or expectation that something be done."

WASHINGTON - The peanut company at the center of the nationwide salmonella scare has filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy protection and will begin liquidating its assets as a crush of legal claims pile up against Lynchburg, Va.-based Peanut Corp. of America. "Given that PCA is under criminal investigation, I'm not surprised they've gone bankrupt," said Bill Marler, a Seattle-based lawyer representing 47 clients who are suing the company, including family members of two victims who died after reportedly consuming peanut products tainted with salmonella.