"food recalls" news and stories

We've all been there: You hear a snippet about a recall on television or the radio, but don't catch the batch number or where the product was sold. Now you're left wondering, are those turkey meatballs in your freezer deadly?

Thanks to the Food Safety Modernization Act, you now have a helpful new tool to find out. As mandated by the updated law in January, the Food and Drug Administration has cleaned up its recall directory site, making search for recalled foods a little easier on the consumer.

Launched on Monday, the new site clearly displays every product recalled since 2009. Items are listed in a chart by date, brand name and product name. The chart also includes photos, the reason for the recall, if the recall is still in effect and a link to the original FDA press release.

The site includes all FDA-regulated products under recall, including drugs, veterinary products, medical devices -- and a few million eggs.

By Pervaiz Shallwani
We're big proponents of buying local when possible and just spied some curious data about 5,500 iPhone users buying a $3 Locavore app (created by a Slashfood friend) in a mere month. It tells iPhone addicts what's in season, what's en route and where nearby farmers' markets are located.

Whoa. We wondered what other yummy things we could do if we got with the times and finally embraced an iPhone for our foodie needs. Boy, were we shocked. There are hundreds of free and paid downloads including one for beer, one for soda and a fast-food meal calorie counter.

Not only are food nerd darlings Serious Eats, Food Network and Yelp at our fingertips, so is the FDA with food recall news (though their freebie Twitter also works), a guide to finding cheap or free kids' meals at nearby eateries and Twecipe, which matches the dregs of those fridge contents to a recipe.

All this edible ammo available at the touch of a button makes us wonder whether Googling our munching needs is becoming just so 2008 and whether we should cave to the iFeed – er, iPhone -- trend. Have you?

Ever learn about a food recall half an hour too late? There's nothing worse than finding out that there's been an e. Coli outbreak in the tomato crop right after finishing a nice, big plate of tomatoes and basil or discovering that the pistachio crop is tainted while in the midst of devouring a giant bag of the tasty little morsels.

Thanks to FoodRecalls, a new Twitter site, the latest food alerts can be delivered to your computer or cell phone in the blink of an eye. From the recent pull of Lian How brand spices to Sconza Candy Company's recall of its trail mix, you won't have to wait for the five o'clock news to tell you what you needed to know at noon!

The FDA itself has a Twitter page. However, while their recalls often come a half hour to an hour faster than Food Recall's, they do not seem to be as comprehensive as the private site. Furthermore, they aren't accompanied by Food Recall's endearing image of Winston, the "kitten with a paw over its eyes."

While we're on the topic, which recall do you reckon Winston is related to?

With so many food recalls recently, wouldn't it be nice to have that information sent to you rather than just happening across it?

If you're a reader of food blogs, you probably don't have to look too hard for information on the latest out break of food borne illness. The Michigan Department of Agriculture (MDA) has got something better for you. You can sign up to receive email alerts for any new Class I food recall, which is one where food has been determined to be the cause of human illness and is therefore unfit for consumption. According to MDA, there was a 56% rise in Class I recalls from 2006 to 2007 that affected Michigan consumers.

You can sign up for the email alerts here. I'm pretty sure the alerts will be geared toward Michigan's citizens, but there doesn't seem to be any restrictions on the sign-up page. Something like this could definitely be worth it. Do you think this should be offered nationally?

Some thieves got away with a bounty of beef -- 14,800 pounds of it, to be exact. But who gets the last laugh? The beef may have been contaminated with E.Coli, so the thieves didn't get much right?

Wrong.

Timothy Biela, Chief Food Safety and Quality Assurance Officer for the company that produced the beef, says they are concerned, not for consumers who purchase beef through normal channels, but "for the safety of those people who may be persuaded to buy beef products under questionable circumstances. We do not know how this product has been handled since it left our control. The stolen truck had only a limited supply of refrigeration fuel."

The beef was produced by Fort Worth-based American Fresh Foods. The company had set the trailer of beef away to eventually be removed from commercial sale. After the trailer was stolen, the USDA issued a public health alert and is now working with local and state law enforcement authorities to recover the stolen product and vehicle.

Source