Sunday Edition: Forever chemicals | Food Safety News

Editor’s note: We apologize for the delay in delivery of today’s Sunday edition due to technical issues. We are responding and will return to our normal posting schedule next week.

Quick bites from the food safety realm this week

1. Food safety investigators report finding the source of botulism that contaminated ByHeart infant formula and sickened more than 50 babies across the country. The contamination came from powdered milk produced at a Dairy Farmers of America facility in Nevada.
2. Argentina has recorded nearly 100 confirmed cases of foodborne botulism over the past six years, according to data from its national surveillance system. Six people have died from consuming botulinum toxin type A.
3. For the first time, the World Health Organization (WHO) has created a center to help measure the burden of foodborne illness. The Risks and Benefits Research Group at the DTU National Food Institute in Lyngby, Denmark, will fulfill this role. The center will support research combining risk-benefit analyzes in food security and nutrition with the goal of reducing the burden of diet-related disease globally.
4. Two states are considering legislation that would make it easier to sell unpasteurized raw milk. The bills in the Michigan and Oklahoma legislatures would only apply to in-state sales because it is against federal law to sell raw milk across state lines. Research has shown that people who consume raw milk are 840 times more likely to suffer from illness and 45 times more likely to be hospitalized than people who drink pasteurized milk.
5. Michigan cherry growers credit small hawks called kestrels with helping to reduce pests in their orchards. An additional advantage seems to be lower risk of foodborne illness because birds of prey reduce the amount of campylobacter-containing songbird droppings that can contaminate fruit. Research on the effects has been published in the Journal of Applied Ecology.

Topic of the day: “Forever chemicals”

The first thing we knew about Teflon was when these “happy pans” came on the market. A cast iron pan coated with Teflon Dupont allowed cooking without sticking. What could go wrong?

Eighty-eight years after the accidental discovery that led to Dupont’s Teflon products, 3M’s Scotchgard stain removers and a host of other products show that almost everything has gone wrong, with potentially disastrous consequences for food and water safety.