Abstracts from a cancelled event have been issued on outbreaks in Brazil, Pakistan and Malaysia. The conference abstracts were scheduled to be presented at the International Congress on Infectious Diseases in September 2020 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, but the gathering was called off because of the coronavirus pandemic. Studies in the International Journal of Infectious Diseases supplement involve E. coli O157, Staphylococcus aureus and Brucella. The first study involves a deadly Shiga toxin-producing E. coli (STEC) O157:H7 outbreak…

A California company is recalling almost 300,000 pounds of ready-to-eat corned beef that was imported and distributed in the United States without the benefit of import re-inspection, according to the USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS). Milky Way International Trading Corp., doing business as MW Polar of Norwalk, CA, imported the corned beef from Australia on various dates. The products have various “best before” dates. The product cases are labeled with various shopping marks.…

Enthusiasm is building in Montana for a Food Freedom bill that may be fatally flawed in its major elements. The major sponsor, Sen. Greg Hertz, R-Polson, has promised to keep working on the bill to get it across the finish line. Hertz, owner, and manager of Moody’s Market in Polson, MT, is a retail grocer who says he sees demand from constituents who want to purchase fresh foods, including raw milk, directly from Montana’s farmers…

Four people have been convicted in England for making a false holiday food poisoning claim. Two men and two women from Middlesbrough were sentenced to four months in prison, after issuing fraudulent compensation claims for gastric illness against Jet2holidays. Christopher Byng, 38, Barbara Byng, 64, Linda Lane, 36, and Anthony Byng, 66, were convicted of contempt of court at Teesside Combined Court in late February after submitting false illness claims that could have resulted in a…

Editor’s note: The Food and Drug Administration uses import alerts to enforce U.S. food safety regulations for food from foreign countries. The agency updates and modifies the alerts as needed. Recent modifications to FDA’s import alerts, as posted by the agency, are listed below. Click on the table to go to the FDA page with links for specific details about various alert modifications.       (To sign up for a free subscription to Food…

A Listeria outbreak linked to soft Queso-style cheeses has turned deadly and spurred federal officials to renew their calls for consumers to throw out certain brands of cheese products. As of late Monday, 11 people across four states have been confirmed infected from Listeria monocytogenes in the outbreak. One person has died and 10 have had symptoms so severe that they had to be admitted to hospitals, according to an update posted by the Centers…

J&J Distributing of St. Paul, MN, is recalling multiple products because of potential Listeria monocytogenes contamination. The products include taco trays, platters and dips, layered dips and sandwiches. The company reports distributing the products to retailers across the country, according to its recall notice posted posted by the Food and Drug Administration. The potential contamination was found after routine testing by the company revealed the presence of Listeria monocytogenes on a utensil used to produce…