Opinions

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Oct 14, 2011

''Invest in What We Eat''

"Cantaloupe is the latest food contamination scare for American consumers. With at least 23 deaths from listeria linked to Colorado cantaloupes, it is the deadliest U.S. outbreak of foodborne illness in a quarter century."

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Food Hazards
Sep 30, 2011

''Lessons of the Listeria Outbreak''

"The deaths caused by listeria bacteria on cantaloupe is a warning that both the food industry and the government need to do more to protect the public."

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Food Hazards
Sep 16, 2011

''Killing Jobs and Making Us Sick''

"'In January, Mr. Obama signed a food safety law that provides broad new authority to the Food and Drug Administration,' wrote Robert Pear in Friday’s Times, in an article about the Congressional appropriations mess. But House Republicans, he added, had voted 'to cut the agency’s budget.'

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Food Hazards
Sep 4, 2011

''Congress must maintain funding for food safety''

"My 3 year old daughter Aly ate E. coli contaminated food in the summer of 1999 and died as a result. Her story is proof that deadly pathogens lurk in the foods we eat every day."

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Food Hazards
Aug 16, 2011

''Putting politics into food safety''

"A civilized, educated nation that embraces lax food safety regulations is a nation willing to accept the consequences of contaminated food. That willingness can be deadly. That’s not the path the United States should take."

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Food Hazards
Aug 6, 2011

''Our View: Food safety program cuts mindless, shortsighted''

"For the last month we have heard more than we needed to know about the nation's debt, and our government's inability to bring spending under control."

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Food Hazards
Jun 28, 2013

''Congress Shouldn't Weaken Food Safety Laws''

"Being a Minnesotan, Jeff Almer searched for a polite term to describe how he feels about a congressional push to roll back the new food safety laws his family fought for when his elderly mother died after eating ­salmonella-laced peanut butter in late 2008."

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Food Safety
Jun 10, 2013

''For Our Kids' Sake, Food Safety Must Be a Priority''

As a pediatrician, my No. 1 concern is to keep children safe and healthy. Inside the walls of my office, I can provide services and counseling to help do just that, whether by giving an infant her first childhood vaccine, providing a mental health screening to an adolescent patient or counseling parents about how to keep their homes as safe as possible. Unfortunately, there are some threats to children's health that are beyond my control, including the food they consume.

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Food Safety
Apr 8, 2013

''Pew Report Shows Flaw in Tracing Food-Safety Lapses

"Twenty-two weeks. That’s how long it took federal health officials to determine the contaminated food source after the first person was infected in a 2011 outbreak of salmonella that swept across 34 states, sickened 136 people and led to one of the largest national recalls of ground turkey."

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Food Safety
Mar 26, 2013

Mr. President: Make Imported Food Safe

The Obama administration has taken an important step by releasing the draft rules central to implementing the FDA Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA), but it must do more. Important draft regulations focused on the safety of imported foods are still awaiting release. These rules are especially important since about two-thirds of fruits and vegetables and 80 percent of seafood consumed in the United States come from abroad.

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Food Safety
Mar 11, 2013

''FDA Must Ensure Safety of Imported Food''

"Several months ago, my life was changed forever when I fell severely ill after eating imported ricotta cheese contaminated by the dangerous bacteria Listeria. Protections in a new U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) law could help prevent infections, like mine, from harming other Americans. But they need to be fully implemented to help anyone."

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Food Safety
Jan 16, 2013

''Improving Food Safety Essential''

"The announcement earlier this month of proposed federal food safety regulations certainly took long enough — the authorizing legislation, the Food Safety Modernization Act, was passed two years ago with bipartisan support. Between then and now, the nation has seen a number of incidents (the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has identified 15 multistate outbreaks) in which thousands of people took ill, even died, because of illness carried in contaminated food."

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Food Safety
Jan 16, 2013

''Time to Move on New Food Rules''

"America hasn't made major changes to its food-safety laws since the 1930s, so it probably should come as no surprise that - once a decision was finally made to update them - it took two more years to generate new regulations. But the Food and Drug Administration's menu for reform is now mostly assembled, and that's welcome news. For decades, federal regulators have reacted to outbreaks of foodborne illnesses rather than working aggressively to prevent them."

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Food Safety
Jan 16, 2013

''Editorial: An Unconscionable Delay''

"After two frustrating years of delay, the U.S. Food and Drug administration should soon have the power to prevent food-borne outbreaks rather than merely reacting to them."

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Food Safety
Jan 16, 2013

''FDA: Plain Sense is the Key for New Food Safety Guidelines''

"The new food safety guidelines proposed for the people who supply the nation's food, including farmers and manufacturers, are a good preventative step toward a healthy America."

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Food Safety
Jan 11, 2013

Editorial: ''New FDA Food Safety Rules Are a Huge Step Forward''

"At long last, after seven frustrating and sometimes deadly decades of inaction, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has the power it needs to recall tainted foods and require common-sense safety measures for farmers and food manufacturers. But the new food safety rules announced last week won't do much good if there's no money to enforce them, and therein lies the rub."

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Food Safety
Jan 10, 2013

''Editorial: Late Better Than Never for New Food-Safety Rules''

"The Food and Drug Administration has proposed the most sweeping changes in food-safety rules in decades. The changes being made under the Food Safety Modernization Act, which became law in 2011, are long overdue and should be implemented as soon as possible."

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Food Safety
Jan 7, 2013

''Safer Food Is on Its Way''

On Friday, the new law moved a step closer to reality with the FDA’s announcement of proposed rules in two major areas: produce safety and food processing. The new rules will, if adopted, set standards for equipment, tools, buildings, water, soil and other sources of possible contamination.

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Food Safety
Dec 22, 2012

''Prevention Matters More Than Peanuts''

An opinion editorial by Sandra Eskin, director of the Food Safety Campaign at the Pew Health Group, about the Food Safety Modernization Act and prevention of foodborne illness.

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Food Safety
Dec 4, 2012

''Looking for More Food Regulation Success''

"All Americans, even those who rail about government’s regulatory overreach, would agree it’s critical to keep our food supply safe. That’s why it’s heartening that the Food and Drug Administration for the first time took action to shut down a peanut butter plant in New Mexico after it failed to clean up its act. At least 41 people nationwide have been sickened by the salmonella-tainted organic peanut butter."

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Food Safety
Nov 29, 2012

''Safe Peanut Butter, And Beyond''

"Citing the conditions at Sunland as well as its history of health violations, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration put at least a temporary hold on those plans Monday, suspending operations at the plant and exercising for the first time its new authority to shut down potentially dangerous food facilities. Luckily for consumers, this was made possible by the Food Safety Modernization Act, signed into law nearly two years ago — and long overdue even then. But other, much more sweeping changes required by the law haven't yet been implemented."

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Food Safety
Nov 26, 2012

''Editorial: White House Dallies on Food-Safety Law''

''The Obama administration continues to drag its feet on a landmark consumer-protection law that could have made this week's Thanksgiving feast, leftovers and snacks considerably safer to eat.''

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Food Safety
Oct 15, 2012

''Release Food Safety Rules''

"President Obama signed the FDA Food Safety Modernization Act into law in January 2011, hailing the first comprehensive overhaul of the nation’s food safety regulations in seven decades. Yet the rules remain mired in the Office of Management and Budget at the White House. The president should direct that the new food safety rules be finalized before millions more Americans fall victim."

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Food Safety
Oct 11, 2012

''Save Lives Now: Implement Food Safety Rules''

Paul Schwarz's father was a World War II veteran and double Purple Heart recipient. Tragically, he was killed by lethal bacteria listeria that he received from a cantaloupe. In order to get better food safety regulations implemented, Schwarz has a clear message for Washington. 

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Food Safety
Oct 10, 2012

''Letter: Keep Our Food Supply Safe''

In a letter printed in The Detroit News, Neogen Corp. CEO James Herbert applauded the FDA Safety and Innovation Act and stressed the need for bold leadership to help ensure that the food we put on our tables is safe. Neogen Corp. has been involved in food safety testing for 30 years, developing diagnostic tests and products for food allergies and pathogens.

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Food Safety