Campbell Soup Company is recalling 15 million pounds of SpaghettiO’s® with meatballs, the USDA reported late Thursday evening. A cooker malfunctioned at one of the company’s plants in Paris, Texas leaving beef and noodles “underprocessed.”
What does that mean?
To make a can of pre-cooked SpaghettiO’s®, the meat, sauce and noodles are first cooked separately, then canned and sealed.
Last, all the cans go through giant cookers, where they are heated until they reach what is called “commercial sterility.”
Commercial sterility, also called shelf-stability, is when the cans… Continue Reading

Aug. 18, 2010 – A diet rich in omega-3 fish oil or healthy monounsaturated fats found in oils such as olive and canola may be beneficial for people with metabolic syndrome.
Metabolic syndrome is a cluster of risk factors known to increase risk for heart attack and diabetes. Features of metabolic syndrome include high blood pressure, insulin resistance, high cholesterol levels, and abdominal fat. The new findings appear in the September issue of the Journal of Nutrition.
In the study, 117 people with metabolic syndrome were placed on one of… Continue Reading

Aug. 19, 2010 — As the nationwide egg recall expands, the FDA has activated its emergency command center to direct its “extensive” investigation.
So far, some 380 million eggs have been recalled — a number that is “evolving,” Sherri McGarry, emergency coordinator for the FDA’s Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition, said today at a joint FDA/CDC news teleconference.
“We would certainly characterize this as one of the largest shell egg recalls in recent history,” McGarry said.
Through July 17, the CDC has received some 2,000 reports of illness… Continue Reading

FDA & Avandia: An 11 Year Odyssey
1998. Nov. 25. SmithKline Beecham (SB) submits an application to FDA for Avandia, a drug that helps control blood sugar in people with Type 2 diabetes.
1999. April 22. FDA reviewers report cardiovascular risks in Avandia.
May 25. FDA approves Avandia for sale.
2000. January. SB merges with Glaxo Wellcome to become GlaxoSmithKline (GSK).
2001. October. Internal GSK study shows added risk of heart attack when Avandia is taken with other diabetes drugs.
2002. April. FDA requires warning labels Avandia and cardiovascular health.… Continue Reading

Sept. 16, 2010 — An FDA advisory panel rejected the latest weight loss drug to make a bid for the U.S. Market.
The panel of experts voted 9 to 5 to urge the FDA not to approve lorcaserin. The drug — know by the brand name Lorqess, is made by Arena Pharmaceuticals.
The FDA doesn’t have to follow the panel’s recommendation, but it usually does. The vote is the latest blow to the drug industry’s effort to develop safe and effective weight loss drugs.… Continue Reading

Nov. 22, 2010 — Children whose parents divorced grow up to have twice the stroke risk of adults whose parents stayed together, a Canadian study finds.
The association between childhood experience of parental divorce and stroke cannot be explained by other factors linked to stroke risk: education, household income, obesity, smoking status, alcohol use, inactivity, mental health, or adverse childhood experiences such as abuse.
So what’s the explanation? That’s what University of Toronto gerontologist Esme Fuller-Thompson, PhD, and colleagues would like to know.
“We can only say there is an… Continue Reading

Caffeine Intake Among Children Equivalent to Nearly 3 Cans of Soda a Day
Dec. 16, 2010 – Three-quarters of children aged 5 to 12 consume caffeine, and it may be keeping them up at night, according to a new study in the Journal of Pediatrics.
Children aged 5 to 7 took in about 52 milligrams of caffeine per day, and children aged 8 to 12 had about 109 milligrams, the equivalent of nearly three 12-ounce cans of soda per day. That’s much higher than… Continue Reading

Sprouts, Parsley, Cilantro, Pastry, Cheese in Separate Recalls
By Daniel J. DeNoon
Dec. 28, 2010 — A nationwide recall of curly parsley and cilantro is the latest in a year-end flurry of food warnings and outbreaks of food-borne illness.
In the two most serious of these outbreaks:
At least 89 people in 15 states fell ill with salmonella infections after eating contaminated Alfalfa Sprouts and Spicy Sprouts from Tiny Greens Organic Farm of Urbana, Ill. Many of… Continue Reading