A letter from 39 public-interest groups and academics urges the National Academy of Sciences to correct the imbalance in its taxpayer-funded study of genetically engineered crops, noting at least six of 13 committee members have financial conflicts with industry, four of them undisclosed.
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Biological
Biological hazards in food: bacteria, viruses and contamination.
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Biological
Clones and GE Foods head to the Dinner Table
After the FDA approved the AquAdvantage salmon in late 2015, this piece surveys other engineered food animals in the works: Roslin Institute chickens laying eggs containing interferon, and pigs engineered to produce their own omega-3 fatty acids.
Biological
Is US Venison Safe To Eat? Not Necessarily
Chronic wasting disease now affects deer in at least 22 states. Officials say no evidence shows it infects people, but the piece cites a 2002 CDC report on three young CJD patients who ate deer or elk and 2006 Science papers finding prions in deer muscle and saliva.
Biological
The Future of GMO Activism after H.R. 1599 - Jeffrey Smith video
A video commentary in which Jeffrey Smith lays out strategy for non-GMO activism after the House passed H.R. 1599, which the Institute for Responsible Technology calls the DARK Act, together with a donation appeal for the group.
Biological
Unhygienic Egg Production Behind Devastating Bird Flu in US
Bird flu has broken out in high-volume US egg operations, with 5 million birds to be killed in Iowa and the National Guard readied in Wisconsin. The piece blames crowded, intensive conditions: one worker per 250,000 hens, high ammonia, and debeaking a veterinarian says causes intense pain.
Biological
Listeria: What you need to know
Listeria grows even at refrigerator temperatures and turns up in deli meats and hot dogs, raw milk and soft cheeses made from it, refrigerated pates and smoked seafood, and raw sprouts. Incubation runs 3 to 70 days, and prompt antibiotics can cure it and protect a fetus.
Biological
Sneaky Salmonella: It’s Common, Costly, and Preventable
A CDC division director writes that Salmonella causes more than a million illnesses a year, more hospitalizations and deaths than any other foodborne germ, and $365 million in direct medical costs, and that infections have not declined in 15 years.
Biological
Can bovine leukemia virus cause cancer in humans?
Bovine leukemia virus infects most U.S. dairy herds and passes into raw milk. Sensitive assays found 39 to 44 percent of human samples positive for BLV antigens, and the virus can replicate in some people, but how humans acquire it and whether it causes disease remain unknown.
Biological
Meat Plant Previously Passing USDA Audits Now Implicated in Chinese Food Safety Scandal
Food & Water Watch has asked Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack to halt the equivalency process for Chinese poultry imports, noting that Shanghai Husi Foods, now at the center of an expired-meat scandal, passed USDA audits in 2004 and 2010 with no food safety issues found.
Biological
Preventing foodborne illness, naturally -- with cinnamon
Washington State University researchers report Cinnamomum cassia oil killed the top six non-O157 Shiga toxin-producing E. coli strains, with roughly 10 drops per liter of water working within 24 hours, and suggest it could serve as a natural antibacterial in the food industry.
Biological
Antibiotic resistance in foodborne germs is an ongoing threat
CDC's 2012 NARMS data show multidrug-resistant Salmonella declining over a decade, but quinolone resistance in typhoid-causing Salmonella Typhi rose to 68%, and about 1 in 5 Salmonella Heidelberg infections resisted ceftriaxone, a drug that matters most in children.
Biological
Is the U.S. Beef Supply Really Free of Mad Cow Disease?
The writer argues US officials have recast mad cow disease as something that just happens: a fourth US death from variant CJD and a recall of 4,000 pounds of possibly contaminated organic beef drew little notice. Prions survive cooking, bleach and radiation, she notes.
Biological
Confirmed Variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (variant CJD) Case in Texas
Autopsy tests confirmed variant CJD in a patient who recently died in Texas, the fourth case reported in the United States. CDC says the patient's extensive travel to Europe and the Middle East supports the likelihood that infection occurred outside the country, as in the three earlier cases.
Biological
Are You Eating These Eggs? Egg Czar Accepts Plea Deal For Salmonella-Tainted Eggs
Austin "Jack" DeCoster and his son Peter are expected to plead guilty to introducing adulterated food into interstate commerce over the 2010 salmonella outbreak that prompted a half-billion-egg recall. Quality Egg has agreed to pay $6.8 million in fines.
Biological
Norovirus is the leading cause of disease outbreaks from contaminated food in the U.S.
A CDC Vital Signs report finds most foodborne norovirus outbreaks start in food service settings, often when infected workers touch ready-to-eat food with bare hands. Cruise ships account for about 1 percent of reported outbreaks; roughly 20 million people get sick each year.
Biological
PERES Portable “Electronic Nose” Analyzes Spoilage Levels of Food to Determine if Safe for Consumption (PR)
ARS LAB launched an Indiegogo campaign for PERES, a handheld device it calls the world's first electronic nose. Four sensors read volatile organic compounds and ammonia given off by beef, pork, poultry or fish, adjust for temperature and humidity, and send a freshness reading to a phone app.
Biological
How is Meat Kept Free From Bacteria? You Don't Want to Know.
The piece describes methods U.S. processors use against salmonella, E. coli and listeria that never appear on labels, starting with the chlorine baths for poultry that the EU has refused since 1997, and links routine livestock antibiotics to resistant infections.
Biological
Salmonella poisoning - what you need to know
A consumer explainer on Salmonella: the bacteria bring diarrhea, fever, cramps and vomiting 12 to 72 hours after exposure and clear within 4 to 7 days without treatment in healthy people. Antibiotics matter only if the infection reaches the bloodstream.
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