Food Contamination

Concern over food contaminated by radiation from areas surrounding the troubled nuclear plant in Fukushima spread beyond Japan's borders Monday morning with world health officials warning of the potential dangers posed by the tainted food and one Japanese restaurant in Taiwan serving up radiation gauges alongside its meals. World Health Organization officials told reporters Monday that Japan should act quickly to ban food sales from areas around the damaged nuclear plant, saying radiation in food is more dangerous than radioactive particles in the air because of accumulation in the human body.

Concern over food contaminated by radiation from areas surrounding the troubled nuclear plant in Fukushima spread beyond Japan's borders Monday morning with world health officials warning of the potential dangers posed by the tainted food and one Japanese restaurant in Taiwan serving up radiation gauges alongside its meals. World Health Organization officials told reporters Monday that Japan should act quickly to ban food sales from areas around the damaged nuclear plant, saying radiation in food is more dangerous than radioactive particles in the air because of accumulation in the human body.

Recent contamination episodes have prompted a federal regulatory proposal calling for revised labels on certain precooked meat products, such as hamburgers and sausage patties. If adopted, the plan will mark the first time manufacturers are required to provide information that details proper temperatures for reheating meats sold in fully or partially cooked form. The move, by the U.S.

A long-stalled food safety bill advanced in the Senate, drawing unusual bipartisan support in the wake of the largest recall of eggs in U.S. history. The Food Safety Modernization Act would increase agricultural inspections and require enhanced industry record-keeping. Wednesday's vote was 74 to 25, with all Democrats and more than a dozen Republicans in support. A final vote is expected in the coming days. Most policymakers and food safety experts agree that the regulatory system is broken, and that the bill represents the first major step in seven decades to streamline the nation's often unwieldy food safety system.

Recurring outbreaks of food-borne illness from contaminated produce are "unacceptable" in today's society, the government says. But when it comes to preventing new occurrences, the Food and Drug Administration hasn't done much of the basic research that would let it write regulations to fix the problem. Six years after the FDA first issued general guidance to the produce industry on how it might prevent contamination from microbes such as E.

Former U.S. Rep. George Hansen, paroled after serving less than half of his 15-month sentence for filing false financial disclosure statements, was released from prison Friday. Saying six months in prison was "not something I would have wanted, but something I will profit from," the Idaho Republican said he had learned a great deal first-hand about prison problems. He pledged to work "to help people who are victims of government." "My career hasn't changed," Hansen said. "I'm still in politics.

How safe is the nation's food supply? That question comes up again with yet another incident of food contamination. This time as many as 9,000 students and school employees in Los Angeles may have been exposed to the Hepatitis A virus when they consumed frozen strawberry desserts late last week. The fruit came from the same batch implicated in a hepatitis outbreak in Michigan early last month.

Citing conditions so filthy that "you wouldn't allow your pet to eat the food," Dist. Atty. Ira Reiner announced Wednesday that seven small producers of Mexican-style cheese and sausage have been shut down after a series of raids. Federal and state food investigators found that the "mom-and-pop" food producers, mostly operating out of their residential garages, were even using rusty pipes and toilet bowl brushes to stir milk being processed into cheese, Reiner told a news conference.

The number of illnesses caused by E. coli--a potentially deadly bacteria commonly found on undercooked hamburger meat--is on the rise, with 11 reported in Los Angeles County, all since April, contrasted with just nine in all of 1993. More than half of the cases, none of them fatal, have been found in the San Fernando, Simi and Antelope valleys. So far, health officials have not found a common origin of tainted food. Two of the victims were siblings, ages 2 and 3, from Lancaster.

Recent food poisonings by the E. coli bacteria have prompted Los Angeles County health authorities to now consider ground beef a "risk food" that should not be eaten unless it is thoroughly cooked. Dr.

Spanish rider Alberto Contador has been provisionally suspended for returning an "adverse analytical finding" of clenbuterol from a urine sample taken during the Tour de France, the International Cycling Union said Thursday. The cyclist, who won his third Tour de France this year, was tested during the second rest day of the race and the second B test had confirmed the presence of clenbuterol, a banned anabolic agent, the UCI said in a statement. "The rider, who had already put an end to his cycling season before the result was known, was nevertheless formally and provisionally suspended as is prescribed by the World Anti-Doping Code," the statement said.

Recurring outbreaks of food-borne illness from contaminated produce are "unacceptable" in today's society, the government says. But when it comes to preventing new occurrences, the Food and Drug Administration hasn't done much of the basic research that would let it write regulations to fix the problem. Six years after the FDA first issued general guidance to the produce industry on how it might prevent contamination from microbes such as E.

How safe is the nation's food supply? That question comes up again with yet another incident of food contamination. This time as many as 9,000 students and school employees in Los Angeles may have been exposed to the Hepatitis A virus when they consumed frozen strawberry desserts late last week. The fruit came from the same batch implicated in a hepatitis outbreak in Michigan early last month.

An illness that swept through the crew of a TV company filming a car commercial on a Hancock Park street Thursday sent 28 people to the hospital, 10 of them in serious condition, authorities said. The victims said they had just finished eating a catered meal, and some speculated that bad seafood may have caused the illness, a Los Angeles Fire Department spokesman said.

Last spring, sewage and chemical waste flushed into the Huai River and caused a big fish kill, at least the fourth in 18 months. "It was bad," a barge captain said. "There were dead fish all over the river." The bargeman, who identified himself only by his surname, Lin, doesn't worry about it. He still eats the river fish. Lin isn't alone.

The number of illnesses caused by E. coli--a potentially deadly bacteria commonly found on undercooked hamburger meat--is on the rise, with 11 reported in Los Angeles County, all since April, contrasted with just nine in all of 1993. More than half of the cases, none of them fatal, have been found in the San Fernando, Simi and Antelope valleys. So far, health officials have not found a common origin of tainted food. Two of the victims were siblings, ages 2 and 3, from Lancaster.

An illness that swept through the crew of a TV company filming a car commercial on a Hancock Park street Thursday sent 28 people to the hospital, 10 of them in serious condition, authorities said. The victims said they had just finished eating a catered meal, and some speculated that bad seafood may have caused the illness, a Los Angeles Fire Department spokesman said.

Six patrons of a Sizzler were sickened by the E. coli bacteria, prompting health authorities in Seattle to close the restaurant and attempt to pinpoint the food involved. Five women and a 5-year-old boy fell ill after eating at a Sizzler in the Northgate neighborhood between Aug. 14 and 18. None were hospitalized and all are recovering, health authorities said. E. coli contamination also sickened patrons at a Sizzler restaurant in Corvallis, Ore., in early August.

Recent food poisonings by the E. coli bacteria have prompted Los Angeles County health authorities to now consider ground beef a "risk food" that should not be eaten unless it is thoroughly cooked. Dr.