Free Republic

Be sure to wash those foods or cook them thoroughly... About 1 in 5 illnesses were linked to leafy green vegetables — more than any other type of food. And nearly half of all food poisonings were attributed to produce in general, when illnesses from other fruits and vegetables were added in... Many of the vegetable-related illnesses come from norovirus, which is often spread by cooks and food handlers. So contamination sometimes has more to do with the kitchen or restaurant it came from then the food itself...

Garlic may be the best weapon against a type of bacteria responsible for millions of cases of food poisoning in the United States every year, according to a new study. Researchers from Washington State University discovered that a compound found in garlic was 100 times more effective than antibiotics at killing Campylobacter, most common cause of food-borne bacterial illness in the United States. The compound, diallyl sulphide, which is responsible for the garlic smell that sticks to your hands when you cook, worked better and faster than the common antibiotic treatments for Campylobacter, erythromycin and ciprofloxacin. Eating massive quantities of...

-excerpt- ... the culprit of a 2009 multi-state E. coli outbreak was none other than the ready-to-bake prepackaged cookie dough found in most grocery stores. At the time of the outbreak, 77 people from 30 states became ill from the bad batter. About half of those people got so sick they had to be hospitalized. After a thorough investigation, researchers at the Centers for Disease Control still have yet to fully pinpoint the ingredient in the cookie dough that caused the outbreak, but CDC study author Dr. Karen Neil said researchers believe the problem was in the flour. Raw flour...

<p>London – The World Health Organization said Thursday that the E. coli bacteria responsible for a deadly outbreak that has left 18 dead and sickened hundreds in Europe is a new strain that has never been seen before.</p> <p>Preliminary genetic sequencing suggests the strain is a mutant form of two different E. coli bacteria, with lethal genes that could explain why the Europe-wide outbreak appears to be so massive and dangerous, the agency said.</p>

f First Lady Michelle Obama has her way, every public school cafeteria across this great nation will have a salad bar full of lettuce, carrots, and communism. The First Lady's Let's Move Salad Bars To Schools program aims to put 6,000 kid-sized salad bars in schools. Each salad bar costs $2,500, and the whole program costs $15 million. So on top of promoting a vegetable-y socialist agenda, they're also expensive! (Schools are being encouraged to raise part of the money themselves.) Big government run amock! The goal of course is to hoodwink children into eating their vegetables. >>> The goal...

SAN DIEGO — Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele canceled a highly anticipated appearance before a group of journalists scheduled for Friday afternoon in downtown San Diego. Steele could not make the talk because of a case of food poisoning, according to the National Association of Black Journalists. NABJ officials said they learned Friday morning that Steele fell ill while traveling to the event. They quoted a statement from the RNC that said Steele “is disappointed to miss the opportunity to take part in this valuable dialogue and looks forward to engaging with NABJ in the very near future.” The...

Why do many food plants contain cyanide? In murder mysteries, the detective usually diagnoses cyanide poisoning by the scent of bitter almonds wafting from the corpse. The detective knows what many of us might find surprising — that the deadly poison cyanide is naturally present in bitter almonds and many other plants used as food, including apples, peaches, apricots, lima beans, barley, sorghum, flaxseed and bamboo shoots.There's a reason that cyanide exists in all these plants, and it is — to paraphrase Sherlock Holmes — evolutionary, suggests Kenneth M. Olsen, PhD, an assistant professor of biology in Arts &...

For nearly two decades, Public Enemy No. 1 for the food industry and its government regulators has been a virulent strain of E. coli bacteria that has killed hundreds of people, sickened thousands and prompted the recall of millions of pounds of hamburger, spinach and other foods. But as everyone focused on controlling that particular bacterium, known as E. coli O157:H7, the six rarer strains of toxic E. coli were largely ignored. Collectively, those other strains are now emerging as a serious threat to food safety. In April, romaine lettuce tainted with one of them sickened at least 26 people...

Big Brother says elderly visitors to federally funded meals at a Georgia senior citizen's center aren't allowed to pray to that absurd, dangerous Christian God of theirs. Obama's Big Brother government contends that since it has paid for their meals the government has the right to slam its iron boot heel down on the necks of those seasoned citizens that dare to engage in such an apostasy toward the state. Seem absurd? Well it is but that is what happens when the feds roll into town and begin to hand out money. They feel the right to dictate what everyone...

5 Muslim US Army soldiers have been arrested at Fort Jackson in Columbia, South Carolina. They stand accused of attempting to poison the Army food supply at Fort Jackson, and they are now supposedly being referred to as “the Fort Jackson five.” These 5 muslim soldiers worked as Arabic translators for the US Army. Details of the situation are not clear, as this is still an ongoing investigation; and it is not yet known whether the “suspects” are still in custody.

CBN Exclusive: Five Muslim Soldiers Arrested at Fort Jackson in South Carolina CBN News has learned exclusively that five Muslim soldiers at Fort Jackson in South Carolina were arrested just before Christmas and are in custody. The five men were part of the Arabic Translation program at the base. The men are suspected of trying to poison the food supply at Fort Jackson. A source with intimate knowledge of the investigation, which is ongoing, told CBN News investigators suspect the "Fort Jackson Five" may have been in contact with the group of five Washington, DC area Muslims that traveled to...

Meat from Swedish stockpiles dating back to the Cold War has been sold to Poland to be served in restaurants, according to a report in the Svenska Dagbladet (SvD) newspaper. The Swedish state phased out its stockpiles of tinned meat at the end of the 1990s. The Swedish Board of Agriculture then sold 1.5 million kilograms of the meat, which dates back up to 27 years, to a Swedish trading company. The meat was offloaded on the condition that it could only be sold as food outside of the European Union. Within the EU it could be classified only as...

Food poisoning is a common, usually mild, but sometimes deadly illness according to eMedicineHealth. Typical symptoms include nausea, vomiting, abdominal cramping, and diarrhea that occur suddenly (within 48 hours) after consuming a contaminated food or drink. Depending on the contaminant, fever and chills, bloody stools, dehydration, and nervous system damage may follow. These symptoms may affect one person or a group of people who ate the same thing (called an outbreak). The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that in the United States, food poisoning causes about 76 million illnesses, 325,000 hospitalizations, and up to 5,000 deaths each...

Eat fish, have painful sex? That’s what happened to six unlucky people in North Carolina who got food poisoning with a very rare side effect, the CDC reported Thursday in its weekly Morbidity and Mortality Report. The six were guests at a dinner party in June 2007 where amberjack fish from a local fish market was served. The fish they ate had been caught in the Florida Keys. Like all predatory ocean-going fish in that region, amberjack can sometimes contain a naturally occurring toxin called ciguatera which comes from local algae and is bio-accumulated up the food chain. Ciguatera fish...

Franklin County deputies accused of tampering with inmate's food Tuesday, March 24, 2009 7:40 AM THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH Two deputies assigned to the Downtown Franklin County jail are being investigated after being accused of tampering with an inmate's food. According to sources at the jail, the deputies fed a sandwich to an inmate after having another inmate touch the sandwich with his penis. Sources also said that the deputies used a cell phone to take pictures of the incident. The Franklin County sheriff's office confirmed that the deputies are being investigated and have been reassigned to the control center, where...

LONDON (Reuters Life!) – British health officials said on Friday they were investigating 400 potential cases of food poisoning linked to top-rated Fat Duck restaurant, run by celebrity chef Heston Blumenthal. The award-winning restaurant in Bray, Berkshire, is known for its chemistry-inspired dishes such as bacon and egg ice cream and snail porridge, with many courses frozen in liquid nitrogen. Blumenthal voluntarily closed the restaurant last month after around 40 diners complained of diarrhea and vomiting. The Health Protection Agency said the number had risen to 400 after media coverage of its investigation. "This is a very complex outbreak," said...

The Chinese melamine scandal is expected to claim more lives after the country’s courts sentenced two people with alleged involvement in last year’s contamination to death and imprisoned an industry executive, say news reports. Tian Wenhua, who until last year headed Sanlu, one of the country’s leading dairy producers, faces life in prison for her role in allegedly turning allowing the sale of dangerous and substandard products, the Reuters news agency reported. Sanlu, which is partly owned by New Zealand-based cooperative Fonterra and has filed for bankruptcy as of this month, was one of a number of groups, including Arla...

Family wins $40,000 over food tainted with urine by North Platte Bulletin Staff - 7/14/2008 A police officer from Sidney and his family won $40,000 from a restaurant that served them food tainted with an employee’s spit and urine. Officer Keith Andrew and his wife said in the lawsuit that a Taco Bell employee urinated and spit in food served to them and their children in October 2005. The owner of the restaurant is North Platte’s Mid-Plains Food and Lodging, owner of a KFC and Taco Bell here too. The jury sided with the Andrews July 11. In the lawsuit,...

Inuit oral stories could solve mystery of Franklin expedition Randy Boswell, Canwest News Service Published: Wednesday, June 25 More than 150 years after the disappearance of the Erebus and Terror - the famously ill-fated ships of the lost Franklin Expedition - fresh clues have emerged that could help solve Canadian history's most enduring mystery. A Montreal writer set to publish a book on Inuit oral chronicles from the era of Arctic exploration says she's gathered a "hitherto unreported" account of a British ship wintering in 1850 in the Royal Geographical Society Islands - a significant distance west of the search...

ALBUQUERQUE (AP) — Salmonella food poisoning first linked to uncooked tomatoes has spread to 16 states, federal health officials said Saturday. Investigations by the health departments of Texas and New Mexico and the federal Indian Health Service have tied 56 cases in Texas and 55 in New Mexico to raw, uncooked tomatoes. “We’re seeing a steady increase,” said Deborah Busemeyer, the communications director for the New Mexico Department of Health. An additional 50 people have been sickened by the same salmonella infection in Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Oklahoma, Oregon, Utah, Virginia, Washington and Wisconsin, the federal...