This week in safety

Jan 30, 2009 4:15 PM

Two of the week's top news stories have been salmonella and the Super Bowl. Naturally, that got us thinking about food safety. Next to Thanksgiving, Super Bowl Sunday is the highest day of food consumption in the U.S. The game is long—interspersed with all those jazzy commercials and the halftime performances—and that gives party food time to go bad if it's been sitting out for hours.

In the spirit of the game, the U.S. Department of Agriculture is offering four football-inspired food safety messages as part of its Be Food Safe program. They are:

Avoid illegal use of hands. Always wash hands with soap and warm water for 20 seconds before and after handling food.
Off side penalties. Keep raw meat and poultry separate from cooked foods. Wash cutting boards.
Heed the Red Zone. Use a thermometer to make certain food items are safely cooked.
Use pass protection. Keep cold foods cold and hot foods hot and refrigerate leftovers promptly

Here's what else was in the news this week:

AP Exclusive: Bad peanuts found before outbreak
The Washington Post
The government disclosed new details Friday about the discovery of contaminated peanuts sent abroad by the same plant linked to a national salmonella outbreak, acknowledging a shipment containing a "filthy, putrid or decomposed substance" was returned to the U.S. in April—months earlier than reflected in a federal tracking database. Read more ...

Congress to hold hearings on peanut product recall
Newsday
Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.), chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, will conduct the hearings into the cause of the salmonella outbreak the week of Feb. 11, The Associated Press reported. Read more ...

Q&A: The new toy safety rules and you
The Washington Post
Congressionally mandated toy safety rules that take effect Feb. 10 have left freecyclers and resellers of children's products scrambling to understand the law and how it affects them. The result has been word-of-mouth back and forth of truths and rumors about the law. Read more ...

Letter from Nader to Obama: Restore consumer protection
The Register Citizen
"Dear President Obama: Underneath many of our country’s economic problems is the thirty-year collapse of consumer protection—both of the regulatory kind and of the self-help kind known as proper access to justice." Read more ...

Opinion: Who should pay costs of unsafe imports?
Mercury News
Between lead-laced toys, melamine-spiked baby formula and poisoned pharmaceuticals, the costs of globalized production have never been higher. While labels may bear the names of venerable U.S. companies, when production is outsourced abroad, consumer safety may pay the price. Read more ...

Product recalls at record high in Europe
Financial Times
Product recalls and notifications of dangerous merchandise reached record levels in the European Union last year, with the number of suspect goods reported more than double that in the U.S. Read more ...

Study: Plasticizer related to lower hormone levels in men
Environmental Health News
Adult men with average amounts of phthalates in their urine had lower levels of two important hormones—testosterone and estrogen—in their blood. The hormones are necessary for normal sperm production and function. Read more ...

Safety news from the CR Blogs