The unofficial beginning of summer is recognized on the last weekend in May with the first official summer holiday, Memorial Day, and wistfully ends with its bookend holiday, Labor Day, in the fall. Both are three-day weekends, and Americans have found plenty of ways to pack in maximum fun, with an extra day barely able to contain it all. On Memorial Day weekend, graduation ceremonies, holiday celebrations, barbecues and pool openings juggle for a spot on the calendar.

Even though an argument could be made for the relaxing summer season to have a holiday all its own, the origins and meaning of Memorial Day are steeped in tradition that proud Americans carry out each and every year.

According to Wikipedia, the day was first known as Decoration Day. A Northern general thought that if Americans could decorate the graves to honor the casualties of the recent Civil War, it might be a way to heal the wounds between the still divided North and South. A day in May was chosen because it was not the anniversary of any particular Civil War battle, which might dredge up animosity, and flowers were likely to be blooming all across the country in May. Over the years, the name evolved into Memorial Day and is now set aside to honor all the soldiers who have died in service to the United States, not just those during the Civil War. The holiday was permanently renamed Memorial Day by Congress in 1971, and the observation date was moved to the last Monday in May.

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After Ranbaxy agreed to $500 million in damages in a US court for manufacturing certain adulterated drugs, there has been speculation about larger ramifications on India’s generic drug market. D G Shah, secretary-general of the Indian Pharmaceutical Alliance, an industry body, tells Rupali Mukherjee that Indian manufacturers do need to improve standards and enforcement procedures to bolster goodwill for the industry.

What are your views on the penalty to Ranbaxy and do you believe the $500 million payout was too harsh?

It’s unfortunate. The company lost over $500 million in business opportunities, which may be the highest for any generic company, but the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) penalty has been higher for many global leaders, like GlaxoSmithKline (British) which signed a consent decree in 2005 to post a penal bond of $650 million for violation of manufacturing standards .

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The Tiruchirapalli Municipal Corporation will start training members of the city’s community groups on food safety and hygiene. V P Thandapani, the corporation’s commissioner, said this at a valediction of the state-level training programme on detection of food adulteration, co-organised by the Concert Trust (a voluntary organisation) and the Union ministry of consumer affairs.

“It is essential that people are sensitised on the need to prevent adulteration in food products and ensure hygiene. The corporation has formed community groups to take up the maintenance of public toilets and other assets. Training on food safety will be imparted to the members of these groups in association with the Concert Trust,” he added.

It was noted that although the Food Safety and Standards Act (FSSA) has been in existence since 2006, the expected impact of the law has not been felt, owing as much to oppositions from certain sections of the society as to the lack of awareness about the safety of food products. It is widely believed that the World Health Organisation (WHO) laid too much emphasis on food safety.

R Santhanam, former secretary, consumer protection, opined, “In India, which has a low per capita income, people tend to look only at the price and not the quality. Even the affluent are done in by attractive packaging and pricing, and do not enquire about the quality of products. There are several ways to check the adulteration of food, but people are not aware of them.”

The speakers at the function concurred that although the country has always had laws in place to curb adulteration in food, their enforcement has not been strict. However, laws alone would be insufficient to keep the malpractice in check. It is imperative to raise awareness among the people. The absence of information, and not technology, is a constraint in checking adulteration.

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Traces of pork have been found in halal burgers served in schools in Leicester, prompting Muslim groups in the UK to consider legal action. 

Leicester City Council said the tests were carried out as a result of the horsemeat scandaland now the frozen burgers have been withdrawn from schools in the East Midlands city. 

“The community will be extremely shocked and distressed to learn of the contamination that has taken place,” said a spokesperson from the (FMO). 

“The FMO is working closely with the local authority and calling on them to take legal action in respect of this contamination and would urge the local authority to instigate criminal proceedings against the company involved under the Food Safety Act. 

“The FMO feel that such a prosecution would be in the public interest and would send a clear message to all businesses in this sector that contamination will not be tolerated,” he added. 

The test batch of frozen burgers were manufactured by Doncaster-based Paragon Food Limitedin January and the company has not commented on the scandal so far. 

“I am appalled by this situation. It is disgraceful that none of us can have confidence in the food we eat,” assistant city mayorVi Dempster, adding that letters had been sent to 6,000 families that could have been affected.

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The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) will not reduce food inspections because of the automatic sequestration budget cuts, despite warning last week it could be forced to eliminate thousands of inspections by September 30.
“Our goal is to absorb the cuts without a risk to public health. We are working to manage the budget reductions through other mechanisms,” FDA spokeswoman Shelly Burgess said.
Commissioner Margaret Hamburg has stated that FDA originally had feared it could be forced to cut as many as 2,100 inspections because of the mandated budget reductions. The numbers shifted so drastically because FDA reconfigured its money to avoid cutting inspections, focusing instead on decreasing travel and training, said Michael Taylor, FDA’s deputy commissioner for foods. Just figuring out where the agency stood took time, he said. “These sound like simple questions, but in the budget world of the federal government they’re not.” FDA was also helped by an infusion of $40 million to fund the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA).
Exactly how the budget will play out is still being worked out. Overall, FDA came out better in 2013 than 2012 in terms of FSMA but “eroded a little bit” when it comes to food safety, Taylor said. “It’s not like there’s no effect, but it’s not like we’re going to turn off one big chunk of program and stop doing things.”

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA)’s Food Safety Inspection Service, which oversees all meat and poultry slaughterhouses and packing plants, dodged the sequester bullet entirely. USDA was supposed to get hit with $52.8 million in cuts. Dr. Elisabeth Hagen, undersecretary for food safety, said on March 13 that the cuts would require shutting down meatpacking and slaughter plants one day a week until the end of September, reducing meat production by 20%. Faced with that prospect, Congress voted on March 22 to give the USDA $55 million to keep inspectors on the job.

BALTIMORE — Integration was a recurring theme at the 12th annual Food Safety Summit where produce professionals, government officials and non-governmental organization leaders repeatedly said collaboration at all levels will be the key to success.

Will Daniels, senior vice president for operations at Earthbound Farm, San Juan Bautista, Calif., called for cooperation and transparency. He said Earthbound corporate leaders feel so strongly about encouraging collaboration that they will soon open their facilities to competitors to share food safety techniques.

Daniels also called for produce companies to “stop thinking government is out to get us and start working with them.”

“I believe most in government are public servants who want to help,” Daniels said. “I believe government has recognized the need for change.”

Several government officials and leaders of non-governmental organizations discussed that need for change during summit sessions.

“The most important need and challenge is to truly integrate food safety systems in the United States,” said Joseph Corby, executive director of the Association of Food and Drug Officials, York, Pa. “It is the only way to truly make a difference. We need to knock down barriers and change the culture that has kept us from integrating the food safety system.”

Corby was one of three panelists at a question-and-answer session May 2.

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The Food and Drug Administration will not reduce food inspections because of budget cuts, despite warning earlier that it could be forced to eliminate thousands of inspections by Sept. 30. “Our goal is to absorb the cuts without a risk to public health. We are working to manage the budget reductions through other mechanisms,” FDA spokeswoman Shelly Burgess said.

Commissioner Margaret Hamburg told USA TODAY editors and reporters on April 25 that the agency feared it could be forced to cut as many as 2,100 inspections — 18% of the annual total — by Sept. 30 because of the mandated budget reductions called the sequestration. The agency has been working to decrease the needed cuts for months, she said. FDA oversees food safety for almost everything but meat and poultry.

“The commissioner was clearly working off a worst-case scenario,” said Caroline Smith DeWaal, food safety director with the Center for Science in the Public Interest in Washington, D.C. “It’s certainly a relief to hear that that scenario will likely not take place.”

The numbers shifted so drastically because FDA reconfigured its budget to avoid cutting inspections, focusing instead on decreasing travel and training, said Michael Taylor, the FDA’s deputy commissioner for foods. Just figuring out where the agency stood took time, he said. “These sound like simple questions, but in the budget world of the federal government they’re not.”

The FDA was also helped by an infusion of $40 million to fund the Food Safety Modernization Act, the 2011 act hailed as the most comprehensive food-safety law in generations. Food safety advocates fear that sequestration will delay implementation of the law.

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Gerald Wojtala, executive director of the International Food Protection Training Institute (IFPTI), will speak at this year’s Food Safety Summit.
The three-day expo and conference, scheduled for April 30 to May 2 at the Baltimore Convention Center, will feature food safety experts from around the country, representing the public sector, industry, academia, and international organizations.
Wojtala will speak at a workshop titled “Industry, Local and State Food and Drug Officials – How They Can Effectively Work Together.” The session will cover surveillance, regulation and inspection and include a discussion on alliances formed as part of the U.S. Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA).
“At IFPTI, we work with individuals from across the food sector to provide career-spanning training and capacity building to food protection professionals,” said Wojtala. “Effective collaboration between all food safety stakeholders is the best way to ensure the safety of the global food supply.”

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The debate over importing Australian tomatoes which have been zapped with radiation has been driven by fierce trans-Tasman rivalry rather than legitimate food safety concerns, growers across the ditch say.

New Zealand growers have raised concerns that supermarkets could be stocking irradiated Australian tomatoes and capsicums as early as next month.The chemical-free treatment, which is used to kill pests like the devastating Queensland fruit fly, was approved by trans-Tasman regulator Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ) last month.

Final approval is still needed from Food Safety Minister Nikki Kaye and her Australian counterparts – but that is likely to go ahead, with Ms Kaye yesterday saying she would be prepared to eat an irradiated tomato. The Greens have called for a halt to imports of irradiated tomatoes, while Tomatoes NZ chairman Alasdair MacLeod has said while the process was safe, he would not eat an irradiated tomato. The comments have drawn criticism from Australian vegetable industry group Ausveg, whose public affairs manager William Churchill said the debate had been fuelled by trans-Tasman rivalry.

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With the sweltering heat bogging you down, you might just be tempted to lay your hands on an ice-cream or a glass of juice ready to be served to you by a roadside vendor or a food joint.

However, officials of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) have a word of caution to share – watch out before you reach for these soothers. It could be infected with invisible germs that could make you sick to the gut.

Over the last ten days, FDA officials have spanned across the twin-township of Pimpri-Chinchwad and parts of Pune as part of a special drive to check food quality of cold beverages, iced gola’s and ice-creams which has maximum demand during the summer.

And the experienced eyes of the food safety inspectors have been drawing at least two samples on a daily basis which are suspected of being ‘sub-standard’ food item.

So far, 20 such samples of juices, ice candy, cold beverages, mango pulp, ice-creams etc have been drawn.

“However it takes at least 14 days for the food safety laboratory to send us the analysis report and hence we are yet to take any action,” said assistant commissioner (food), SS Desai.

When asked about the reason for drawing the samples out of hundreds of outlets, Desai said that it could be a variety of reasons from non-maintenance of hygiene, suspicion in raw material used to storage of food items that could lead to contamination.

“For example, if the juice is too sweet then it could also be an indication that saccharine is used and not sugar. If a vendor is serving kulfi, but the metal mold that it was prepared in has got rusted, it can lead to health problems. There are many such reasons which draw our attention,” said Shashikant Kekare, joint commissioner (food), FDA Pune.

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While headlines highlight terrorism, gun control, federal budget woes and on-again-off-again Saturday mail delivery, another law moving more quietly through the legislative process has the potential to change the food industry — especially the local food movement.

Earlier this year, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration released a draft Produce Safety Rule that will institute major changes on many farms. Farmers will be required to run more water tests, take steps to prevent wild animals from contaminating their crops, clean their equipment and tools regularly, ensure that their employees practice good hygiene — and perhaps most importantly, keep written records of much of what they do.

A companion piece, the Preventative Controls Rule, will require food processing and distribution facilities to develop detailed food-safety plans outlining how they will minimize risk, manage allergens, maintain sanitation and issue product recalls.

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The public will have even longer to give feedback to the Food and Drug Administration about three food safety rules proposed at the beginning of the year.

The Obama administration said the 120-day delay is a result of receiving requests to extend the comment period, which was originally set to end May 16.
All three proposals were released on Jan. 16 as part of the administration’s implementation of the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA), a sweeping overhaul of the nation’s food safety system that was passed by Congress in 2011.
Produce and other food trade groups say they’re having trouble sifting through all the new regulations, which came out six months after the deadline set by the legislation.
Earlier this month, United Fresh Produce Association and more than 80 other groups sent a letter to FDA Commissioner Margaret Hamburg asking the agency to put off setting a deadline until other still-awaited regulations from the FSMA are released, so the comments can reflect a full analysis of the rules.

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About 1 in 6 people in the United States gets sick from eating contaminated food, a rate that has not declined in seven years.

Despite some improvements in food safety, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports that progress in reducing foodborne illnesses have stalled.

In the latest issue of the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, researchers analyzed data from FoodNet, a system for tracking food-related illnesses, and found that although the number of infections acquired from food are lower than they were in the 1990s, over the last few years little progress was made in reducing exposure to foodborne pathogens even further.

The FoodNet program tracks infections with nine commonly found bacteria in food: campylobacter, cryptosporidium, cyclospora, listeria, salmonella, E.coli 0157 (including both the variety that produces shiga toxin and the strain that doesn’t), shigella, vibrio and yersinia. The database monitors illnesses among 48 million people from Connecticut, Georgia, Maryland, Minnesota, New Mexico, Oregon, and Tennessee, and selected counties in California, Colorado, and New York — about 15% of the total U.S. population.

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A coordination committee, appointed by the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI), has picked about 100 food joint owners and their employees in nine food markets of Ahmedabad to train them in preparing and serving food to their clients in a safe and hygienic way. They were imparted training at the New West Zone office of the municipal corporation here and given two weeks’ time to show improvement.

Commissioner of Food and Drug Control Administration Dr H G Koshiya on Sunday said the vendors from the markets included the ones from Vastrapur, Kankaria, Akhbarnagar, Khokhra, Manek Chowk and Law Garden among others. “Our teams had visited these markets before calling them for the training and observed and photographed their way of operations. We imparted them training as per our programme and gave them complimentary kits of hand gloves, aprons and caps,” he said.

“The FSSAI authorities were impressed by our efforts in the last one year. Their chairman, K Chandramauli, who visited the city, asked other states to follow suit,” Koshiya said. “Till now, study teams from Bihar and Haryana have already visited the state and training has been started in some states already,” he added. He said that in the later phases of training, the authorities will include non-vegetarian food markets like Jamalpur, Teen Darwaja and Juhapura.

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