In the news

Radagast Pet Food, Inc. of Portland, OR recalled three lots of Rad Cat Raw Diet Free-Range Chicken Recipe because testing results indicate they have the potential to be contaminated with Listeria monocytogenes. The Company is also recalled one lot of Rad Cat Raw Diet Pasture-Raised Venison Recipe because testing results indicate it has the potential to be contaminated with Shiga Toxin-producing E. coli O121. No pet or human illnesses have been reported. The three lots of Rad Cat Raw Diet Free-Range Chicken Recipe were shipped to distributors in the US in May and June 2018. The Company discovered these lots were potentially contaminated during enhanced quality testing it conducted as a follow-up to its March 2018 recall. @ https://www.fda.gov/Safety/Recalls/ucm612737.htm

The same strain of Listeria from Hungary hit the UK.. The Food Standards Agency said the frozen vegetables may contain Listeria monocytogenes as a result 43 sweet corn-based products have been withdrawn by major supermarket supplier Greenyard Frozen UK. Own-brand products for Tesco, Aldi and Sainsbury’s are among those affected. @ https://www.bbc.com/news/amp/uk-england-44739472

According to a report published by CDC, FDA, and USDA in December of 2017 and updated in April of 2018, 58% of Listeria, 51% of E. coli O157:H7, 46% of Salmonella and 33% of Campylobacter foodborne cases are due to produce. In May 2018 9 food safety groups wrote FDA commissioner urging him to classify leafy greens as a high-risk food and to establish recordkeeping requirements to improve traceability. “We were concerned that the agency has repeatedly faced difficulty tracking down the source of contamination in outbreaks linked to leafy greens,” says Sarah Sorscher, deputy director of regulatory affairs, the Center for Science in the Public Interest, one of the groups behind the letter. Sorscher advises produce professionals to move to electronic recordkeeping, ideally with blockchain technology that offers decentralized information that is coordinated and standard between all parts of the supply chain. @ https://www.foodqualityandsafety.com/article/food-safety-groups-urge-fda-to-designate-leafy-greens-as-high-risk/

The slowness of recall of the I.M. Healthy SoyNut Butter is characteristic of the weaknesses in the nation’s food-safety system. Two months elapsed between the first person sickened by SoyNut Butter on Jan. 4 and the recall orders that began on March 3 and expanded three more times by March 10. The contamination was pinpointed on Feb. 22. The nine-day lag time in persuading the manufacturer to recall the tainted products was a significant improvement over previous lag times — which were as high as 165 days in one case, according to the inspector general. However, victims maintain that the FDA should have ordered a recall on its authority, given that a few days or even hours can make a difference in a deadly outbreak. The contaminated products remained available for months. Peter Ebb, a 59-year-old Boston attorney, has eaten the product before being notified of the recall. Six days later, Ebb was hospitalized and developed a deadly type of kidney failure. Now, he’s joining with 18 other victims to file claims against the companies responsible and call attention to the inadequacy of the nation’s recall system. “If I had heard about the problem even one week earlier and stopped then, I might have been able to avoid the disease completely, and life today would be very different,” Ebb said. @ https://www.politico.com/story/2018/07/04/fda-food-recall-failures-victims-679636