Food and Drug Administration

FDA Shuts Down Sunland Peanut Butter Plant

The FDA flexed its muscles on Monday, suspending the food-facility registration of Sunland Inc., the company that manufactured peanut butter linked to an outbreak of salmonella that has sickened 41 people in twenty states. The suspension effectively prevents Sunland from producing any food products ... More >>

Bagged "Hearts of Romaine" Salad Recalled

A busy summer for recalls continues. While the salmonella outbreak linked to cantaloupes has garnered the most attention for the number of reported cases (approaching 200 at last count), listeria has been the reason for numerous recalls over the past few months, including one announced just yesterda ... More >>

Cantaloupes, Frozen Bacon Cheeseburgers Recalled

Put down that cantaloupe! Or, you know, at least check the sticker before you slice it open. Burch Equipment of North Carolina has recalled 188,902 of its Athena variety cantaloupes due to a risk of contamination by listeria monocytogenes. (This is separate issue from the multiple recalls connected ... More >>

Put Down That Dried Bream, Friend -- It Wants to Kill You

Albert Pujols will always play first base for the Cardinals. Today will always defeat Good Morning America in the ratings. Your dried bream will always be properly eviscerated and botulism-free. No, it hasn't been a good year for the eternal verities. Via the FDA comes an announcement from Euphori ... More >>

Bagged Salad Recall Expands Nationwide

OK, so maybe you shrugged your shoulders at yesterday's news about the FDA's warning on Korean shellfish. Fair enough. Not exactly an everyday purchase around these parts. Bagged salad, on the other hand... The FDA has announced that River Ranch Fresh Foods of Salinas, California, has expanded its ... More >>

FDA Warns on Korean Shellfish

The FDA has removed shellfish from Korea -- the official press release says Korea, not South Korea, in case you were wondering -- from its Interstate Certified Shellfish Shippers List (or the ICSSL, as all the cool kids call it). Though noting that Korean molluscan shellfish "represents only a sma ... More >>

Fie! Dolor! Footlong Sandwiches Recalled

First, Gut Check apologizes for lodging a certain advertising earworm in your head. (any any any) Second, Gut Check passes along word from the FDA -- which is providing way too many news updates for us this week, frankly -- that M.E. Thompson Inc. has expanded a previously announced voluntarily r ... More >>

Q&A With Fast Food Nation Author Eric Schlosser, Win Tickets To See Him Speak

Eric Schlosser has taken on a variety of writing subjects in his time, from illegal immigration to marijuana to pornography, but he's best known for his sharp criticism of the fast food industry in his 2002 book Fast Food Nation. A proponent of the slow food movement, Schlosser tours the country sev ... More >>

Raw Yellowfin Tuna Linked to Salmonella, Recalled

A California company has voluntarily recalled 58,828 pounds of frozen raw yellowfin tuna associated with an outbreak of salmonella. According to the FDA, as of Friday, April 13, this oubtreak has sickened more than 100 people across twenty states and Washington, D.C., including Illinois (ten cases) ... More >>

World's Awesomest Wine Goblet Recalled

Gut Check has always scoffed at those dedicated oenophiles who buy stemware that has been designed for one or two specific kinds of wine, like this Riedel beaut for Burgundy -- or, pardon us, for Burgundy grand cru -- which will set you back a cool $125 each. Can this "beautiful monster" truly "tak ... More >>

Cilantro Recalled for Possible Salmonella Contamination

Image via​Pacific Marketing International, a California firm, and the FDA on Friday announced a recall of cilantro for possible contamination with Salmonella. No illnesses have been reported as of yet, but a sample of the Pacific-branded cilantro did test positive for Salmonella.The FDA has yet to ... More >>

Black Licorice Threat Explained Via Taiwanese Animation

Robin WheelerBlack licorice whips of death and doom. ​Are your children dizzy today? Prone to fainting? Gasping for breath, clutching their chests or too weak to brush the fecal-looking smears of chocolate from their mouths? It might not be the plain ol' post-Halloween sugar crash. If your n ... More >>

Salmonella Outbreak Linked to Mexican Papayas

Ninety-seven cases of salmonella in 23 states have been linked to Mexican papayas, according to the Food and Drug Administration. Missouri has reported three cases of the illness, and Illinois' reported seven. The suspect papayas were sold whole before July 23 under the brand names Yaya, Blondie, M ... More >>

3 Reasons Why Medical Marijuana is Junk Science, According to Feds

Medical marijuana: You're outta here!​On Friday the U. S. Department of Health and Human Services at long last responded to an 11-year-old petition that asked the federal government to reconsider its stance on the use of medical marijuana. The ruling last week likely won't encourage Missouri to jo ... More >>

Summer Treats and Meats Recalled

fda.govDole Italian Blend salad recalled for possible contamination.​It's been a busy few days at the FDA and USDA, recalling lots of potentially contaminated goods. It's salad season! Unless you've got a potentially-tainted bag of salad in your fridge. Some 2,880 cases of Dole Italian Blend ... More >>

Poll: Which New FDA Cigarette Warning is Most Disgusting?

A warning we like to call "Ol' Zipper Chest."​If you haven't heard yet, yesterday the FDA announced new health warnings that will cover approximately half of all cigarette packaging beginning in September 2012. The warnings range from the emotional -- images of babies surrounded by smoke and peopl ... More >>

Comment of the Day: Cigarette Warnings Need More Pop

Today's comment comes in response to our poll asking readers to pick the most disgusting new FDA warnings on cigarette packaging. None of the labels scared reader Douche McGee who writes: These will do nothing to stop smoking. The only way to stop smoking would be to have random packs explode, and ... More >>

Grape Tomatoes, Canned Seafood Get Nasty

Gray's Harbor Public Market​ Who doesn't love a good seafood salad with tangy little grape tomatoes? The human gastrointestinal tract, that's who, especially if that salad's made with the canned seafood the FDA's just recalled. Quinault Tribal Enterprise in Washington State has recalled al ... More >>

More Restrictions on Reproductive Health Move Forward in the House

Not if the pharmacist doesn't want you to have them.​Today in Jefferson City, Missouri representatives added language to a bill that places more hurdles in front of women seeking legal abortions, in addition to fettering their access to emergency contraception.The bill, HCS HB 28, first came befor ... More >>

Circuit Court Ruling Puts Raw Milk Cheesemaker Out of Business

image viaThe Cheese House at Morningland of the Ozarks is no more.​The battle over raw-milk cheese has come home to Missouri. On Tuesday the Howell County Circuit Court upheld a ruling by the Missouri State Milk Board that Morningland of the Ozarks, a dairy in Mountain View, would have to dest ... More >>

Video: A New Food Rule from the FDA

From the new show based on The Onion, via Eater, an FDA official has some helpful advice (NSFW language, though bleeped):

Sprout Recall Hits Illinois Farm Despite Lack of Evidence.

The Los Angeles Times reports yet another alfalfa sprout salmonella contamination scare. This time the sprouts are from Tiny Greens Organic Farm in nearby Urbana, Illinois. Farm owner Bill Bagby Jr. said that samples tested from his farm were clean. The FDA's results are the same, but interviews wit ... More >>

Are The 10 Riskiest Foods Worth the Risk?

Image viaDelicious! Deadly?​The Center for Science in the Public Interest has released a new report ranking the ten "riskiest" foods regulated by the FDA (link PDF) based on the number of outbreaks linked to each particular food. Those who have followed all the salmonella, E. coli and other outbre ... More >>

The Morning Brew: 4.8

The government thinks the FDA needs to step up food inspections. Despite a rash of recalls in the past six years, the FDA has inspected less than half of the organizations it regulates with the number dropping annually. The food safety legislation currently in Congress would provide more resources ... More >>

The Morning Brew: 3.31

Yep, the morning brew's tardy again. Can you say "dentist appointment"? Can you say it with Novacain Mouth? Let's just get started, shall we? Even as Eat Me Daily reports that a Wisconsin legislative committee has approved a bill that would legalize the sale of raw milk, the Wall Street Journal wr ... More >>

The Morning Brew: Friday, 10.23

​ White wine is bad for teeth and in vitro fertilization. (BBC, The Telegraph)So long, cashiers. British grocery chain introduces self-service store. (The Daily Mail)Microbrewery beats big beverage company in court. (WCAX-TV)Oregon soy company in trouble with FDA. (The Oregonian)The worst re ... More >>

The Morning Brew: Thursday, 5.7

The FDA isn't keeping up with its audit of state-level food-safety inspections. (USA Today)KFC wasn't prepared for the onslaught of customers with coupons from Oprah for free grilled chicken -- but there were no "riots." (AP)ABC News claims to have identified our favorite "recession foods."

The Morning Brew: Friday, 4.3

The FDA looks at a New York processing plant in the pistachio salmonella case. (AP)In spite of multiple problems involving peanuts, the FDA still hasn't strengthened its safety requirements for the legume. (Washington Post)A new study from Johns Hopkins suggests that drink calories are harder to she ... More >>

The Morning Brew: Tuesday, 3.10

A Minnesota company is the first to sell an E. coli vaccine for cattle. (Minneapolis Star-Tribune)The FDA wants a better way to find the source of salmonella outbreaks. (AP)U.S. consumers are changing how they shop for meat, looking for sales and stocking up. (Supermarket News)

CDC Goes New-Media Crazy over Salmonella Outbreak

www.cdc.gov Regular Gut Check readers know that the recall of peanut-butter products possibly contaminated by salmonella has dominated the food-news headlines these past few weeks. Now the CDC, FDA and the Department of Health and Human Services are turning to so-called new media to convey the lates ... More >>

FDA: Don't Eat That Peanut Butter!

The FDA today advised consumers not to eat peanut butter or products containing peanut butter unless they are certain that it did not come from the Peanut Corp. of America, which has been linked to a salmonella outbreak that has sickened over 400 and may be responsible for six deaths. (CNN)

The Morning Brew: Thursday, 1.8

In today's news: a salmonella outbreak, listing food additives made from bugs and the restaurant scene in New Orleans.

The Morning Brew: Wednesday, 10.29

The Morning Brew: Friday, 9.19

The Morning Brew: Monday, 6.30

The Morning Brew: Monday, 6.16

The Morning Brew: Tuesday, 6.10

The Morning Brew: Tuesday, 4.22

Today's Food News

The Morning Brew: Wednesday, 1.30

The Morning Brew: Tuesday, 1.15

The Morning Brew: Wednesday, 10/10

The Morning Grog: Wednesday, 9/19

FDA and FTC Tell Monsanto to Quit Bellyaching (Part 2)

The Morning Brew: Thursday, 8/9

Food Safety Update

Small Plates: Monday, 7/30

Small Plates: Friday, 6/29

rBST and Monsanto: The Corporate Teat

Hold Those Cheers for the FDA

The drug we should stop using "immediately" has been questioned for decades