Nice to have a father who cares about others kids

President Obama wants to be sure his kids have safe peanut butter to eat. He does not want to worry. Neither do most of us. The last administration chose to not staff the FDA food inspectors, instead choosing to reduce the number of inspectors.

That's why it is so nice to have a caring parent in the White House - one who sees his own children as reflective of all nations' children - deserving and needing untainted food.

Here is the FDA update list - just for the peanut-related recall - it's very long! http://cli.gs/ZjeYTe

Salmonella - an Update

Salmonella has been reported in 43 states. Here is a CDC update.

As of 9pm EDT, Thursday, January 15, 2009, 453 persons infected with the outbreak strain of Salmonella Typhimurium have been reported from 43 states. The number of ill persons identified in each state is as follows: Alabama (1), Arizona (9), Arkansas (4), California (60), Colorado (10), Connecticut (8), Georgia (6), Hawaii (1), Idaho (10), Illinois (5), Indiana (3), Iowa (1), Kansas (2), Kentucky (3), Maine (4), Maryland (7), Massachusetts (40), Michigan (25), Minnesota (33), Missouri (8), Mississippi (1), Nebraska (1), New Hampshire (11), New Jersey (18), New York (18), Nevada (5), North Carolina (4), North Dakota (10), Ohio (57), Oklahoma (2), Oregon (5), Pennsylvania (13), Rhode Island (4), South Dakota (2), Tennessee (8), Texas (6), Utah (4), Vermont (4), Virginia (20), Washington (13), West Virginia (2), Wisconsin (3), and Wyoming (2). Among the 437 persons with dates available, illnesses began between September 08 and December 31, 2008. Patients range in age from <1 to 98 years; 47% are female. Among persons with available information, 23% reported being hospitalized. Infection may have contributed to five deaths.

It's so wide-spread make sure you read the advice to consumers and let's make sure that the new administration places a high priority on protecting our food! the last one did not...because money and appeasing stockholders were more important than the people consuming the products.

More bad toys - sad

This in the news today:

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Mattel Inc.'s Fisher-Price division is recalling almost 1 million toys made in China because their paint may contain too much lead, marking the latest in a string of recalls that have fueled U.S.-China tensions over the safety of Chinese products.

Mattel said the 967,000 plastic toys, which include popular preschool characters like Elmo, Big Bird, and Dora, were made by a contract manufacturer in China using a non-approved paint pigment containing lead, which is in violation of its standards.

Full article HERE

Why are all these dangerous products still coming in? We have had bad pet food, bad people food and bad children's toys. No one seems able to stop them because no one is monitoring our safety! We have few person who do the actual inspections - in fact there are fewer food safety inspectors than back in 2002 and we import more and more stuff - with fewer and fewer inspections!

This from an administration that pretends to be concerned with public safety - when they are in reality more concerned with scare tactics and keeping people afraid.

After all - Fear is good for republicans...

Expanded pet food recall [mid April]

Seems you need to check this link almost daily http://www.menufoods.com
as the list of tainted pet food just keeps growing.

"This has exposed that the safety standards for pet foods are not in place in any significant way and the kind of drumbeat, day after day, of recalls has shaken consumers' confidence in the pet food industry's adherence to food safety standards," said Wayne Pacelle, president and chief executive officer of the Humane Society of the United States.

And of course it's not clear where else the bad stuff is:

The FDA has there is no evidence so far to suggest any of the rice protein went to companies that make human food, said Michael Rogers, director of the agency's division of field investigations. But the FDA has not accounted for all the imported ingredient. [emphasis mine]

FDA link: http://www.fda.gov/oc/opacom/hottopics/petfood.html

I only know what I read in the news but it sure is scary to know that our current administration has cut back no food inspectors

More re pet food and lack of FDA inspectors

Another f..ing unbelieveable!

They knew about the bad pet food on February 20th!

From the CBC website: full story HERE

The investigation is focusing on wheat gluten used at two U.S. plants as the likely source of contamination.

The FDA first learned of a potential problem after receiving complaints on Feb. 20 and followed up by feeding the "cuts and gravy" product to 40 to 50 cats. Of those, seven animals died, said Stephen Sundlof, the FDA's top veterinarian. He added the contamination appeared more deadly to cats than to dogs.

I love my pets and my food is not on the list - and I don't feed pouches and/or wet food to them.

Turns out the the bad stuff most likely comes from two US plants - not the Canadian manufacturer..interesting?

We live in a country where people food is bad and pet food is bade...any connection to an administration that has curtailed inspections of food? Hmmmmm

More that needs investigating - but we know that democrats can multitask and do more than who-knows-how-many investigations at the same time.

From the AP FEBRUARY 27


FDA food-safety inspections steadily decreasing

By Andrew Bridges and Seth Borenstein

The Associated Press

WASHINGTON — The federal agency that has been front and center in warning the public about tainted spinach and contaminated peanut butter is conducting just half the food-safety inspections it did three years ago.

The cuts by the Food and Drug Administration come despite a barrage of high-profile food recalls.

"We have a food-safety crisis on the horizon," said Michael Doyle, director of the Center for Food Safety at the University of Georgia.

Between 2003 and 2006, FDA food-safety inspections dropped 47 percent, according to a database analysis of federal records by The Associated Press.


Full article HERE

Guess we should start asking who knew about all this bad food and when did they know it?