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Hot Topic: Food Safety

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention "estimates that 76 million people get sick, more than 300,000 are hospitalized, and 5,000 Americans die each year from food borne illness". We turn on the evening news and hear about E. coli in our spinach, salmonella in our peanut butter, even rat poison in Fido's cuts and gravy. We're warned about mercury in our tuna and concerned about hormones in our beef. Just how safe is our food supply? What is being done to protect it? What can we, as consumers, do to protect ourselves?

Below you will find a list of articles, books, and web sites to help you answer these and other questions about the safety of the food we eat.

Sacred cow, mad cow: a history of food fears
Madeleine Ferrières ; translated by Jody Gladding.
New York : Columbia University Press, c2006
616.39/FERRIERES

The HACCP food safety training manual
Tara Paster.
Hoboken, N.J. : John Wiley & Sons, 2006
664.00289/PASTER

How to prevent food poisoning : a practical guide to safe cooking, eating, and food handling /
Elizabeth Scott, Paul Sockett.
New York : J. Wiley, c1998 363.1926/SCOTT

Naturally dangerous: surprising facts about food, health, and the environment /
James P. Collman.
Sausalito, Ca: University Science Books, c2001. 363.1926/COLLMAN

Safe food: bacteria, biotechnology, and bioterrorism
Marion Nestle.
Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, c2003.
363.1926/NESTLE

A food fix for a sick produce industry Nancy Luna. Knight Ridder Tribune News Service. Washington: Mar 20, 2007. p. 1 (ProQuest Newspapers)

U.S. food imports outrun FDA resources Julie Schmit. USA Today, Mar 19, 2007; (AN J0E358122570807) (MasterFILE Premier)

FDA seeks safety checks for fruits, veggies: Critics call voluntary testing 'meaningless'; [Chicagoland Final Edition] John Schmeltzer.Chicago Tribune. Chicago, Ill.: Mar 13, 2007. p. 1 (ProQuest Newspapers)

Government Offers Guidelines to Fresh-Food Industry Marian Burros. New York Times (Late Edition (East Coast)). New York, N.Y.: Mar 13, 2007. p. A.17 (ProQuest Newspapers)

Food safety loses out in a regulatory stew Robert Cohen. Newhouse News Service. Washington: Mar 5, 2007. p. 1 (ProQuest Newspapers)

FOOD SAFETY / Yet another reason to watch what you eat / Oversight agency has halved number of inspections over the last three years; [3 STAR , 0 Edition] Andrew Bridges, Seth Borenstein. Houston Chronicle. Houston, Tex.: Feb 27, 2007. p. 1 (ProQuest Newspapers)

New inspections to start in April at food plants vulnerable ... Elizabeth Weise USA Today, Feb 23, 2007; (AN J0E104306042407) (MasterFILE Premier)

Federal Oversight of Food Safety: High-Risk Designation Can Bring Needed Attention to Fragmented System: GAO-07-449T. David M. Walker. GAO Reports, Feb 8, 2007, p1, 19p; (AN 23986956) (MasterFILE Premier)

FDA Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition:
http://www.cfsan.fda.gov

FDA Recalls, Market Withdrawals and Safety Alerts:
http://www.fda.gov/opacom/7alerts.html

The International Food Safety Network at Kansas State University:
http://www.foodsafety.ksu.edu

National Agricultural Library Food Safety Information Center:
http://foodsafety.nal.usda.gov

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: Foodborne Illness:
http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dbmd/diseaseinfo/foodborneinfections_g.htm

Educating consumers about safe food handling from the Partnership for Food Safety Education:
http://www.fightbac.org