Posts by ruth

For several weeks an outbreak of Salmonella Newport is casing illnesses in numerous states in the US and Canada. The FDA and CDC had difficulty identifying the source. However, the research showed that the outbreaks in the US and Canada have a genetic fingerprint closely related to each other. Earlier Friday, the Public Health Agency of Canada announced a recall by Sysco of its red onions, imported from the US because traceback work showed them to be related to the outbreak in Canada. Based on the Canadian information, and epidemiologic data on the US outbreak from CDC, and the FDA’s...

The FDA announced the coming of a new era of smarter food safety. The technologies mentioned included blockchain, novel sensor technology, the Internet of Things (IoT), and artificial intelligence (AI). These technologies are likely to be more prevalent in the food industry soon. One interesting use of AI is to predict food safety risks using social media sources such as Twitter, Facebook, and Yelp as well as restaurants (Chick-fil-A), and suppliers (Amazon) to generate information about food that should be recalled. AI and ML can detect and predict potential safety issues before they occur and optimize time between cleaning and...

Beef, pork, and poultry processing plants across the US have emerged as dangerous new hot spots for COVID-19. Many plants have been forced to temporarily stop operations due to very high numbers of cases and fatalities. According to a CDC 4,913, of meat and poultry workers in meat plants tested positive for the virus, with 20 coronavirus related deaths. In meat processing plants, the percentage of workers diagnosed COVID-19 ranged from 0.6% to 18.2%. The problem is not confined to the US but seen worldwide. Measures recommended by the CDC and adopted by the meat industry did not solve the...

The concerns about the integrity of the meat supply are increasing as more meat plants are forced to close due to COVID-19. Three of the largest pork processors in the US had closed indefinitely. The 3 plants account for approximately 15% of US pork production. The plant closures and production reductions decrease the national pork production by 25% and beef production by 10%. President Trump has, by an Executive Order, placed the American meat industry under the Defense Production Act (DPA) to prevent meat shortages. The order would designate meat processing plants as essential infrastructure, thereby keeping them open despite...