News about the recall of Peanut Corporation of America products and recriminations for the companies caught with suspect products continues to make headlines this weekend. While much of the reporting is retracing well-covered ground, heath.newsbios did spot some fresh, engaging articles.
- Some recalled peanut butter snacks still in stores -- By Craig Schneider and Doug Nurse (2/8), The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
“It’s so confusing,” said Shelly Awl, a clerk at a gas station on Cheshire Bridge Road in Atlanta. “I wish they would communicate better what is safe and what is not.”
Awl said she spent Thursday morning sorting through the snacks trying to determine what was safe. She had removed some Frito-Lay and Lance snacks that are not on the recall list.
Still there on the shelf, however, were two boxes of recalled Austin brand Toasty Crackers with Peanut Butter.
She threw them out when informed by a reporter that they were on the recall list.
Awl said she spent Thursday morning sorting through the snacks trying to determine what was safe. She had removed some Frito-Lay and Lance snacks that are not on the recall list.
Still there on the shelf, however, were two boxes of recalled Austin brand Toasty Crackers with Peanut Butter.
She threw them out when informed by a reporter that they were on the recall list.
- Peanut recall clears food banks' shelves -- By Francesca Jarosz (2/8), Indianapolis Star
Now Gleaners [Food Bank of Indiana] and other charities that provide food for the needy are scrambling to find a replacement for a staple source of protein just as demand for food is skyrocketing.
Throwing food away "makes us sick," said Pamela Altmeyer, president and chief executive officer of Gleaners. "But better that we would be sick at heart than someone be sick in their body."
Also of Note:
- Opinion: Food Safety Mustn't Be Left In FDA's Hands -- By U.S. Representative Rosa L. DeLauro, D-New Haven (2/8), The Hartford Courant
To truly fix inherent problems in our food safety system, we must fundamentally restructure the food safety bureaucracy at the FDA. Today, food safety is divided among multiple, separately managed units at the FDA — the Office of the Commissioner, the Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition, the Center for Veterinary Medicine, the field force (Office of Regulatory Affairs) and the National Center for Toxicological Research. As a result, there is no one single individual to be held accountable for food safety at the FDA or anywhere else at the federal level.
Separating food safety regulation from drug and device approvals would go a long way toward restoring the balance that has long been missing at the federal Department of Health and Human Services, and give food safety the attention it deserves. By establishing a Food Safety Administration within Health and Human Services, headed by its own commissioner, we can give food safety experts and researchers the room and the resources to do their jobs.
- Editorial: Questioning Food Safety -- The Plain Dealer (2/7)
FDA inspectors noted in September that they refused to let adulterated nuts from the Georgia plant back in the United States after a Canadian importer rejected them. Yet it appears that FDA inspectors did not visit the suspect plant.
Such incompetence is incomprehensible, a sign that the nation's food inspection system is flat out broken.
- Editorial: The FDA - Making Us Sick -- The Philadelphia Inquirer (2/7)
It says much about the depth of our food-safety crisis that, before the feds could get around to any other sanctions against Peanut Corp., they had to stop doing business with it.
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