Food Safety & Nutrition | The Pump Handle

Food Safety & Nutrition A new kind of guide for restaurant diners: do the employees have sick leave, living wages?

December 1, 2011 Celeste Monforton, DrPH, MPH

The worker-led organization Restaurant Opportunities Center United released this month a new type of diners’ guide, one that focuses on working conditions for the employees at 180 restaurants nationwide. The US restaurant industry employs 10 million individuals and is the fastest growing sector in the economy. More than half of restaurant workers, however, earn less […]

Food Safety & Nutrition IOM recommends simple nutritional labeling system

October 21, 2011 Liz Borkowski, MPH 7Comment

The Institute of Medicine has released a report recommending that the Food and Drug Administration and the US Department of Agriculture consider “a fundamental shift in strategy” when it comes to nutrition labeling.” While the recommendation for a “front-of-package” (FOP) labeling system is not new, the IOM authors don’t just want the usual nutrition facts […]

Food Safety & Nutrition Starving in Somalia

October 17, 2011 Liz Borkowski, MPH 1Comment

The kidnapping of two aid workers from the Dadaab refugee camp on the Kenya-Somalia border is a grim reminder of the crisis situation in the region, especially Somalia. Al-Jazeera’s Peter Greste has some numbers: [I]n Somalia alone, four million people are still starving nationwide; three million of those live in the South. Of these, 750,000 […]

Food Safety & Nutrition Listeria and public health infrastructure

October 11, 2011 Liz Borkowski, MPH

Last Friday, CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report included a report on the listeriosis outbreak associated with Jensen Farms cantaloupe (the grower is recalling the melons; look for “Rocky Ford” on the label). So far, 84 cases have been confirmed in 19 states, and 15 of these victims have died. The number of cases may […]

Food Safety & Nutrition Salmonella in chicken: Multiple missed opportunities for prevention

October 5, 2011 Liz Borkowski, MPH 3Comment

The Center for Public Integrity’s iWatch News has put together an excellent – and alarming – story on salmonella in chicken. Jeffrey Benzing, Esther French and Judah Ari Gross outline the problem this way: Salmonella is found in a range of food products, including meat, produce and eggs. Chicken is the single biggest source of […]

Food Safety & Nutrition Hazards of the harvest: Children in the fields

August 8, 2011 Elizabeth Grossman 4Comment

By Elizabeth Grossman While the rest of the country has been experiencing an epic heat wave, in the Pacific Northwest where I live, thus far the summer has been unusually cool. One consequence of the cool weather is a slow-to-appear local tomato crop, made evident to consumers by some remarkably high prices. A pint of […]

Food Safety & Nutrition Ground Turkey Recall and Antibiotic-Resistant Salmonella

August 4, 2011 Liz Borkowski, MPH 3Comment

A strain of salmonella, Salmonella Heidelberg, has sickened at least 77 people in 26 states and killed one in California. The outbreak has been linked to ground turkey produced at an Arkansas plant, and Cargill Meat Solutions Corporation has announced a recall of about 36 million pounds of the meat. The meat is sold under […]

Food Safety & Nutrition Refugees flee famine in Somalia; aid groups struggle to meet huge needs

July 28, 2011 Liz Borkowski, MPH 2Comment

Months of a severe drought in East Africa have led to famine in two regions in Southern Somalia. According to the UN’s definition, famines can only be declared under the following conditions: At least 20 per cent of households in an area face extreme food shortages with a limited ability to cope; acute malnutrition rates […]

Food Safety & Nutrition What’s so big about the US government?

July 18, 2011 Liz Borkowski, MPH 6Comment

As debt-ceiling negotiations continue and members of both parties express a desire for “leaner” government, James Kwak at The Atlantic offers an important reminder: Measuring the size of the US government by how much money it spends can be misleading. Social Security and Medicare, both of which are extremely popular, account for a huge chunk […]

Food Safety & Nutrition More Misguided Budget-Cutting: WIC Nutrition Assistance

July 14, 2011 Liz Borkowski, MPH 1Comment

Sharon Astyk at Casaubon’s Book has a great post up about the Women, Infants, and Children nutrition program, or WIC, which is now on the budgetary chopping block. The Center for Budget and Policy Priorities estimates that an appropriations bill approved by the House would result in WIC turning away 300,000 – 450,000 low-income women […]