Beasley, Allen, Crow, Methvin, Portis & Miles, P.C.

Responding to a sharp increase in the number of illnesses linked to contaminated eggs, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has introduced tougher safety requirements for large-scale egg producers. The agency says that the new rules can eliminate nearly 80,000 illnesses and save 30 lives every year. The measures target the spread of Salmonella Enteritidis bacteria throughout egg producing facilities. The salmonella bacteria frequently contaminate eggs and the products in which they are used.

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Despite the efforts of the federal government to keep America’s food supply clean, every year nearly 80 million people in the United States fall ill after eating food contaminated with dangerous bacteria such as salmonella, listeria, and E. coli. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that approximately 5,000 Americans inflicted with food poisoning die every year.

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The U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced another massive recall of fresh produce last week, this time for 1,715 cartons of bunched spinach that tested positive for salmonella bacteria in a random test conducted by the USDA. Alarmed by the frequency of foods recalled over bacterial contamination fears, many consumer advocacy groups and legislators have indicted the federal government’s food inspection system, calling for an overhaul of the FDA and USDA systems currently in place. But in an age of mass production and processing that makes cross contamination ever more likely, it’s wise for the consumer to take certain measures to mitigate the risk of becoming sick from tainted food.

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This week the House of Representatives passed legislation representing what would be the largest overhaul of the food safety system in American history. The measure passed the House 283 to 142 with nearly all Democrats and about half of Republicans voting in favor. The Senate is expected to review the bill in the fall after its recess.

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Following an outbreak in October 2007 of salmonella poisoning linked to Banquet brand chicken pot pies, ConAgra, the manufacturer of the pies, immediately began talking food safety. But instead of assuming responsibility for manufacturing a contaminated product that sickened as many as 15,000 people, ConAgra suggested that killing any salmonella bacteria in its products before eating them was ultimately the consumers’ responsibility.

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The U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued a warning today advising consumers to immediately stop using Hydroxycut diet products manufactured by Iovate Health Sciences, Inc. The agency has received 23 reports of serious health problems in people using Hydroxcut products, including varying degrees of liver damage ranging from jaundice to liver failure requiring a transplant, and death. Others reported having seizures, cardiovascular abnormalities, and rhabdomyolysis, a form of muscle damage that often leads to other serious health disorders such as liver failure.

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Neither the U.S. Food and Drug Administration nor state health agencies require food manufacturers to test the safety of their products before they enter the market. Inspectors periodically visit the factories where food is processed to make sure their operations are up to code, but as we have seen in the recent past, even those rules can be insufficient and lax.

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This week, Food and Drug Administration officials issued an alert warning consumers to avoid eating pistachios and food containing pistachios while it investigates the source of another possible salmonella outbreak.

The FDA announced that Setton International Foods, Inc., a division of Terra Bella Inc., would voluntarily recall approximately 2 million pounds of roasted pistachios that have been shipping since last fall. The investigation and recall come after two people contacted the FDA complaining of symptoms of salmonella poisoning after eating the nuts. Although the link has not yet been confirmed, the plant where the pistachios were processed temporarily shut down last week.

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Last month, inspectors from the Food and Drug Administration visited the Plainview, Texas, peanut processing plant owned and operated by the Peanut Corporation of America. The inspection was ordered after investigators linked a salmonella outbreak that sickened nearly 700 people in nearly every state to the Peanut Corp’s plant in Blakely, Georgia. Shortly after the outbreak, news broke that the company’s sister plant in Texas plant actually operated unlicensed and uninspected for years. Inspectors rushed in.

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Peanut Corporation of America has filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Virginia following the recall of peanut products produced in the company’s Blakely, Georgia, and Plainview, Texas, facilities.

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