Food safety

A Single Lab Tweak Stopped 270,000 Food Poisoning Cases a Year

Twenty years ago, a change was made to how we did food poisoning testing. That change prevented over a quarter of a million cases each year, and it may also suggest how we could stop more cases in the future. The CDC just finished an evaluation of their PulseNet program—a system that links national labs…

Another Chipotle Closes After Employees Get Sick—Is It Finally Qdoba’s Chance?? 

Chipotle’s reputation for food safety took a dive recently after a high-profile E.coli outbreak. The fast-food chain even closed all of its locations for a nationwide food safety meeting last month, but that hasn’t stopped continued problems—a Boston-area Chipotle closed down Tuesday after employees were diagnosed with a norovirus. The restaurant will be “fully sanitized,”…

The FDA Just Found Widespread Salmonella Contamination in Spices

What’s in your spice cabinet right now? Some paprika, turmeric, and a little bit of cardamom, perhaps? How about salmonella? The FDA first started looking into the issue of salmonella in your spice cabinet back in 2013. After two years and more than 7,000 spice batches tested, the agency reported on Friday that spices are…

Chipotle Blames Outbreak on Its Own Sick Employees

Chipotle’s E. coli outbreak is a mystery—and will likely always be one. But in their food safety meeting today, Chipotle has reportedly identified the culprit in its other norovirus outbreak: sick Chipotle employees. CNBC just reported the update from inside the nationwide restaurant meeting that shutdown all Chipotle’s simultaneously today. But just what does Chipotle’s…

You Can’t Have Lunch at Chipotle Today

Happy Super Bowl hangover! I hope you like Qdoba. Chipotle’s pre-planned, nationwide shutdown for a food safety meeting will delay the opening of over 400 restaurants. That means that your local Chipotle will open at 3pm instead of the normal 11am. Though Chipotle scheduled the meeting in mid-January, the timing is quite fortuitous. Exactly one…

Here’s How Many People Stopped Eating at Chipotle During Their E. Coli Outbreak

Although the cause still remains a mystery, Chipotle’s E. coli outbreak has been declared officially over by the CDC. But just what does an unexplained, months-long food poisoning outbreak do to the line of customers waiting at your counter? The company’s new numbers are out, and from the beginning of last October to the end…

Is It Safe to Eat Snow?

Quick! Something white, cold, and flaky is falling from the sky. Should you start eating it, perhaps by the spoonful? Maybe—but, more likely, maybe not. Certainly there are some advocates for snow-eating: The Romans drizzled honey on top of snow for a (disappointing-sounding) dessert. A more modern alternative is offered by this recipe for basic…

The Real Reason Chipotle Hasn’t Been Able to Solve Its E. Coli Problem

Chipotle announced it will be closing up shop nationwide for a few hours as part of its attempt to halt its ongoing E. Coli outbreak. But why hasn’t the company been able to stop the outbreak, or even find the source yet? The answer isn’t in the restaurant chain—it’s in the bacteria. To understand the…

Chipotle’s E. Coli Problem Scares Me

I’m afraid of food poisoning. So the never-ending news of nationwide E. coli outbreaks linked to Chipotle is terrifying. But it’s not just the fear of bacteria-laced burritos that’s scary. It’s the faulty farming system that Chipotle’s pioneered. Update 1.15.2015: Chipotle just announced that it would be closing every single store for a food safety…

Chipotle’s Outbreaks Are Now the Center of a Criminal Investigation

Chipotle has been at the center of a number of outbreaks of food-related sicknesses this year—and now one of them may be about to land them in court. The AP revealed that the FDA and California’s US Attorney’s Office had launched a criminal investigation into Chipotle and subpoenaed a host of information from them. The…

Stop Freaking Out About Human DNA in Hot Dogs

A startup calledClear Labs has genetically tested a bunch of hot dogs, and the results are about as weird as you’d expect. Pork DNA in the turkey dogs. Chicken DNA in the veggie dogs. But then, there was this little surprise: human DNA! Human DNA in hot dogs! And from the way the press is…

It took over four years, but the FDA has finalized sets of rules for both human and animal foods, requiring manufacturers to have plans in place to prevent contamination before it happens, rather than dealing with it after the fact. The two rules are just the first of an anticipated seven.

Stop Refrigerating Your Butter

Do you keep your butter in the refrigerator? You do? Stop it. Stop it right this second. You’re ruining your butter experience and making your toast taste like failure. Let me tell you why. Butter is a wonderful substance. Made by churning cream until it separates into buttermilk and fat globules, butter is not only…

America’s Food Safety Issues Will Make Your Stomach Turn

“We need bodies in the streets before we get it.” Yikes! That’s never what you want to hear from a food safety expert—but in a new episode of Retro Report, we learn just how realistic that statement is when it comes to food contamination in the US. The report outlines the shocking-but-not-surprising history of food…

How Much [X] Could You Eat Before It Would Kill You?

Toxicologists have a saying that “the dose makes the poison,” meaning that anything and everything can kill you in large enough quantities. So here we take five incredibly common (and usually benign) foods and household items to their illogical conclusion. Ever contemplated eating 480 bananas? Don’t do it. While we’re on that note, this isn’t…

Fireball Whisky contains an antifreeze ingredient

Fireball is a ragingly popular, sickly sweet elixir that’s taken America by storm. Fireball is also made with propylene glycol, a common ingredient in some antifreezes. That’s an unsettling fact, so unsettling that Norway, Sweden, and Finland just recalled the booze. But it’s not necessarily as unsettling as it sounds. Propylene glycol is actually a…

Smart Chopsticks That Test Your Food For Contamination

Recently, Stephen Colbert lampoonedgadgets that track what you drink and other seemingly inane metrics. But the trend may have just found its ideal market. The Chinese search giant Baidu just introduced a pair of “smart chopsticks” designed to alert users to the presence of “gutter oil,” or the illegal use of oil dredged up unsavory…

Oh good, there’s a Salmonella outbreak while the government’s shut down

With many of America’s federally employed food-safety personnel on furlough (thanks, government shutdown), it’s a good thing there isn’t a major foodborne-illness outbreak unfolding across the country! Oh, wait. Above: Color-enhanced scanning electron micrograph showing Salmonella typhimurium. The strain implicated in the current outbreak is Salmonella Heidelberg, the nation’s third most common strain of the…

How Long Is the Food in Your Fridge Safe to Eat After the Power Goes Out?

If you’re one of the millions who lost power during Hurricane Sandy, you’re probably wondering how long all that food in your refrigerator will last before it spoils. According to the USDA, if the power has been out less than four hours, refrigerated food is probably fine. But since it’s likely that this storm will…