We know mad cow disease, also known as bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), isn’t something that happens when your beef gets angry. But what exactly is BSE?

In the latest Chew on This podcast, Dr. Ron DeHaven, chief executive officer of the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) and former administrator of the United States Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, talks about BSE and the threat it poses to our food supply. Listen now.

Recalls on everything make it hard to keep up!

With new recalls announced daily, it’s becoming more and more difficult to stay up to date on all the items being pulled from the shelves.  So many products are recalled, and it can be overwhelming to try to figure out if we have purchased these things. 

Most stores are pretty good about removing recalled items from the shelves, but unless it’s a big or expensive item that might require some form of registration, like cars, electronics or major appliances, the retailer can’t possibly track down everyone who purchased recalled products.  Congress is responding to this concern. 

The Consumer Product Safety Modernization Act (H.R. 4040) that took effect in June 2010 is a new federal law requiring manufacturers of items like cribs and high chairs to include registration cards so consumers can be directly contacted by the company if the product is recalled.  This is a great idea, but would be impossible to implement for everyday items, like groceries.

I mean, who wants to fill out a card for every single item they buy at the grocery store?  We often don’t think about monitoring our regular everyday purchases for recalls - it seems to be the large items such as recalled cars, toys and cribs that trigger the most concern.  But recalled foods can pose a danger to our families too. In fact, a recent survey indicates that 12 percent of Americans knowingly ate recalled food rather than throwing it out.  Pretty scary, right? That’s why it’s up to us, the consumer, to keep track of recalls and take them seriously.

We all know the dangers of contaminated meat, but other recalled foods aren’t exactly the safest thing on the shelves.  Everything from cereal to spinach can be recalled, and consuming these items can have costly consequences.  Remember all that peanut butter that was recalled because of Salmonella?  According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) at least 100 more people got sick AFTER the recall was issued and the peanut butter was removed from the shelves!  These little bacteria can cause major problems and even death - the peanut butter outbreak killed nine people!

As consumers it’s so important to keep an eye out for recalls on items we use, especially food we give our children.  As your friends here at Keep Our Food Safe always say, take the appropriate precautions when handling food, and especially cooking meat.  Keep up to date by checking the government recall website, downloading the smart phone application and keeping up with the news.  Tell your friends and family if you learn of recalls that could affect them, and together we can increase awareness of recalled products and continue to have safe and healthy food to eat.

100% Organic!  USDA Certified!  Grade A!  We see so many different labels on food in supermarkets, and yet most of us probably have no idea what each means. But the answer’s pretty simple, and your friends at Keep Our Food Safe are here to break it down.

We’ve talked about organic foods and all the different labels we find on them, but those aren’t the only labeled products we find in stores. Take a gander at some of the items in the deli department and you’ll notice “Inspected by the USDA” or “Grade A” stickers on some of the meat.   Ever wonder what the difference is between inspection and grading? When people think about inspection and grading, they often don’t realize how different they really are. In fact, each falls under a separate program within the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA).

Under the Federal Meat Inspection Act and the Poultry Products Inspection Act, the Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) is required to inspect all our raw meat to make sure it’s safe and healthy to eat.  Basically, inspection of meat is mandatory, and the meat can’t be sold until it has been inspected and approved. There are state and federal agencies that perform these procedures. This includes all the meat we sell in the U.S., as well as any exported products.  The USDA labels you see on meat are placed directly on the packaged product, and indicates that the meat is safe and wholesome.

Grading, on the other hand, is done after the meat is inspected for safety, and it’s totally voluntary.  Producers and processors can ask federal graders to go one step further and evaluate the food for tenderness, juiciness and flavor. Beef grades range from prime grade -- considered by some to be the best beef on the market -- to utility grades, generally used to make processed products or ground beef.  Poultry is graded from A through C, with Grade A being top notch meat with no major flaws like discoloring or broken bones. If beef or poultry has been graded, you’ll see it on the packaging. 

Next time you see someone at the meat counter struggling to understand the food labels, help them out! Remember meat inspection is required, and grading is optional.

Food production is a global issue, and groups like Heifer International stress the importance of sustainable farming. In our latest Chew on This podcast, Dr. Terry Wollen from Heifer International discusses food sustainability programs in the United States and around the globe.

Chew on This is a podcast series that focuses on food safety and protecting our nation's food supply, featuring insights from America's leading food experts. You can find more podcast on food safety here.
 

Americans consume more chicken than any other type of meat, so it’s crucial that our poultry is disease free. In our latest Chew on This podcast, Dr. Timothy Cummings, clinical poultry professor at Mississippi State’s College of Veterinary Medicine, discusses the importance of keeping our poultry healthy from farm to fork. Listen to the new podcast here.

The Deepwater Horizon oil spill continues to plague the Gulf Coast, dumping hundreds of thousands of gallons of oil each day, devastating wildlife and crippling many aspects of the region’s economy.  Among the many economic and environmental concerns posed by the spill is the impact the oil could have on our food. 

Roughly 40 percent of the seafood harvested in the United States comes from the Gulf region.  And with oil leaking at an alarming rate, public health officials are growing increasingly concerned with the spill’s potential impact on food safety.