Amy’s brother got married in Vietnam. I don’t think there were any food issues, but diarrhea at a wedding doesn’t sound good, what with the white dresses and all.
Unfortunately for guests at a wedding feast in Bac Ly commune in Ly Nhan District, 47 of them developed acute diarrhea. Health workers are trying to monitor an additional 63 guests, while determining if the source was food.
An ermerging trend in several mainstream media stories of the past year is that some of the biggest food suppliers – Costco, Wal-Mart, McDonald’s, Burger King – have the best food safety requirements. Quality is a different issue and largely 
based on personal preference and lifestyle choices. Cool. But there are some microbiological basics that food safety types have to pay attention too.
Frank ‘food safety culture’ Yiannas, vp for food safety at Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. said today the company will implement additional beef safety measures designed to further protect customers against foodborne illnesses.
The new process controls standards and goals are additions to a food safety program that already requires ground beef suppliers to test for E.coli O157:H7 and achieve prevention-based certification against one of the Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI) internationally recognized standards.
Yiannas said,
“In light of recent beef recalls, we determined it was prudent to require an additional layer of protection for our customers.”
The new program requires Walmart and Sam’s Club beef suppliers to implement controls that would significantly reduce potential contamination levels and validate that the measures they’ve implemented are effective through specialized testing.
Suppliers who do not operate slaughter houses must be in compliance with the new standard by June 2011. For beef slaughterhouse suppliers, there is a two-step approach with the first step to be completed by June 2011 and the second by June 2012.
Walmart and Sam’s Club will work closely with beef suppliers to ensure that the new requirement is implemented without additional cost to customers.
I try to tell my four daughters – five counting Sorenne but at 15-months-old she’s not on Facebook yet — don’t put everything on Facebook, someone may actually read it.
They ignore me, which is the bane of every parent, but I can at least blog about it and then be able to say, it’s all fun and games until someone reads your Facebook page.
A Burger King employee in the Detroit metro area likely regrets making his Facebook messages public after recently warning everyone to stay away from the store he works at because "we spit in your food for sh*ts and giggles."
"I’m guessing it’s cause he was really stressed out, having a bad day at work," said Nick Klingensmith, who works alongside his 21-year-old brother at Burger King.
He said his brother was just joking.
"I think he’s more scared, he’s worried about what’s going to happen to him, he don’t wanna lose his job," Klingensmith said.
Customer Carolyn Stevens said,
"Even if he’s joking around if I’m eating something that someone spit in, even if they’re joking, I don’t want to take that chance."
I went on a date with my wife last week.
Not like that new movie, Date Night, which looks horrible, but at 1 p.m., when we have a babysitter. Anything later than that is too tiring to contemplate.
Being in Kansas, I ordered the mussels from Prince Edward Island (that’s in Canada) and the featured white wine from Australia, which, to our ultimate surprise, cost $15 a glass. The extent to which restaurants will go to rip people off, especially in a crappy economy, apparently knows no bounds. I take responsibility, but won’t be going back.
I’m also not alone.
The Washington Post reported yesterday that the expensive "sheep’s milk" cheese in a Manhattan market was really made from cow’s milk. And a jar of "Sturgeon caviar" was, in fact, Mississippi paddlefish.
Some honey makers dilute their honey with sugar beets or corn syrup, their competitors say, but still market it as 100 percent pure at a premium price.
And last year, a Fairfax man was convicted of selling 10 million pounds of cheap, frozen catfish fillets from Vietnam as much more expensive grouper, red snapper and flounder. The fish was bought by national chain retailers, wholesalers and food service companies, and ended up on dinner plates across the country.
"Food fraud" has been documented in fruit juice, olive oil, spices, vinegar, wine, spirits and maple syrup, and appears to pose a significant problem in the seafood industry. Victims range from the shopper at the local supermarket to multimillion companies, including E&J Gallo and Heinz USA.
Such deception has been happening since Roman times, but it is getting new attention as more products are imported and a tight economy heightens competition. And the U.S. food industry says federal regulators are not doing enough to combat it.
That’s the way to celebrate a life.
The mother was the matriarch of the Weisbender family, 96-year-old Violet, who died March 21, 2010.
She had nine kids, many who stayed in Manhattan (Kansas). Amy and I have become friendly with a few of those kids as they improved our house, informed us on local politics and hosted the annual Labor Day fish fry where Violet was a fixture and we got introduced to the extended family of, according to latest estimates, 96.
Amy and Sorenne and I paid our respects down at the Veterans’ Club earlier this evening, dining on pulled pork and beans provided by the Cox Brothers and maintained at a proper temperature.
Good food, friends, lots of kids.
Son Russell gave us the blanket that Sorenne is now permanently bonded with. Son Tim, who provided the quote in the headline, also made our day yesterday, by dropping off this handmade sign which now graces our house in Manhattan (Kansas). Notre maisonette en ville — our cottage in the city.
Thank you.
My parents are set to return today from their latest cruise out of Florida.
Hopefully their experience was better than that of the 1,987 passengers and 
765 crew members aboard the Vision of the Seas, operated by Royal Caribbean International, who were ordered by health officials in Brazil to remain aboard after some 310 people suffered "some kind of food poisoning.”
The ship was allowed to leave Buzios Thursday afternoon and was expected to arrive in Santos around midnight. An agency spokeswoman said passengers who showed no symptoms would be free to leave. Those still ill would be taken to hospitals for treatment, with expenses paid by Royal Caribbean.
One of my daughters is planning a trip to the Dominican Republic with a bunch of her friends to celebrate the end of high school.
.jpg)
I told her she had to get vaccinated for hepatitis A, and to be careful with what she ate.
The Northampton Chronicle & Echo reports this morning that piles of vomit, cockroaches in bedrooms and inedible food are among a litany of allegations raised by a group of Northampton (U.K.) holidaymakers in a High Court claim against tour operators First Choice.
Five groups from the town are suing the firm over an alleged "holiday from Hell" in the Dominican Republic, which they say led to them suffering food poisoning.
More than 400 holidaymakers are claiming about £3 million in damages in total, with allegations including faeces in the swimming pool, "stone-cold" food, flies and birds being allowed to pick at the buffet, and a hotel which smelt of sewage.
Claimants allege they suffered acute gastroenteritis following their stay at the all-inclusive four-star Bahia Principe Hotel in San Juan in the summer of 2007.
What better way to celebrate World Cat Day on Feb. 17 (tomorrow, who knew?) than to suggest recipes to prepare the other white meat for deliciousness.
ANSA.it is reporting that the co-host of a popular Italian daytime cooking show was suspended on Monday for extolling the delights of cat meat during an episode last week.
Beppe Bigazzi, a food expert on La Prova del Cuoco (The Cooks’ Challenge), enraged animal rights experts around the country when he gave advice on preparing ”tender, white cat meat” in a portion of the show usually reserved for advice about nutrition.
The Italian Animal Protection Agency said they were ”satisfied” with the timeliness of Bigazzi’s suspension in view of World Cat Day on February 17.
While cat meat is illegal in Italy, it is a popular winter dish throughout China and much of Southeast Asia.
Some punk in Calgary may be running around with, as the Edmonton Sun says, “a box of pins and a brain half as sharp” after the Calgary Co-op brought in 
police for the second time in a month over what appears to be food tampering.
Oscar Chaves of New Bedford, Mass., claims he ended up in hospital after allegedly biting into a metal needle in the middle of his Burger King Double Whopper.
Food service and retail is a tough business, one that is prone to fraud, allegations and errors.
The man with the Whopper called Burger King to ask them to pick up the more than $15,000 in medical bills that he accrued. He says someone told him that they’d get back to him in two days. That was more than a year ago, and he’s still waiting.
In mid-Jan., the Co-op found sewing needles, pins and buttons found in juice bottles, cheese and bread. This time, it’s a tub of margarine with a pin-sized hole pierced straight through the lid, plastic safety film and deep into the food inside.
Rigorous food safety programs, verification and even video documentation can help anyone in the farm-to-fork food safety system improve their operations and defend against malicious attacks.
Celebrity chef, author and TV host Anthony Bourdain is sorta interesting, but then gets sorta boring — Hunter S. Thompson-lite.
Everyone’s gaga that he got thespian Bill Murray to sit down for lunch in front of the cameras in a show broadcast last week (I didn’t see it). The promo below has enough teasers.
But what’s really got the foodies going is that Bourdain is launching a setellite radio show Sirius XM’s Martha Stewart Living Radio, with one of the stated goals to see how uncomfortable he can make co-host and chef friend Eric Ripert, all while expanding America’s notion of food porn.
"We’re going to be doing a segment that we call food porn," he said in a telephone interview, referring to the excessively sumptuous and sometimes sexualized words and photography often used in food media.
"We’re going to challenge each other to describe in as purple a language as possible some food we’ve had. I’m trying to see whether we can expand the food porn genre into radio. And I think we can do it."