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How a Penniless Consumer Advocate Took on a Billion Dollar Empire
When I walk into the Association of American Feed Control Officials (AAFCO) conference hall, packed wall to wall with the world’s biggest names in the pet food and animal feed industry along with state feed officials and federal regulators from both the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Centers for Veterinary Medicine (CVM), I wonder: How did I…
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The FDA answers pet parents top questions about pet food and animal drugs
Confused about cat food, perplexed by your pet’s puke, freaked out about pet foodborne illness, need the dope on animal drugs? Thankfully, our friends at the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) Center for Veterinary Medicine (CVM) have been hard at work creating a fab new webpage for frazzled pet parents. It’s important that you get your answers straight from the…
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FDA asks our association to weigh in on the new proposed pet food safety rules
UPDATE: I have no association with Susan Thixton of Truth About Pet Food, either personally of professionally, or the Association for Truth in Pet Food. Yesterday Susan Thixton and I were honored to be asked by Dr. Daniel McChesney, director of the Office of Surveillance and Compliance at FDA’s Center for Veterinary Medicine, on behalf of the Association for Truth…
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White House Guts Food Safety Modernization Act, Testing Nixed
News of cuts in the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s draft food safety rules the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) stunned food safety advocates when it was revealed this week that the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) gutted the FSMA on the q.t. Food Chemical News broke the story that cuts made by the OMB to the FSMA…
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FDA Announces Final Rule on Administrative Detention of Food
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) today announced a final rule amending the criteria for administrative detention to prevent potentially unsafe food from reaching the marketplace. Evidence vs. Belief Under the new criteria, FDA can order an administrative detention if the agency has reason to believe that an article of food is adulterated or misbranded. Before the passage of…
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Diamond pet food plant up and running, despite sickening report
The Diamond plant responsible for the largest pet food recall since 2007 is back in business today. The FDA gave it the thumbs up after Diamond gave it a good scrubbing. Diamond Pet Foods resumed production at its troubled Gaston, S.C., plant after conducting a cleaning and testing operation at the facility, according to a U.S. government spokeswoman. “It’s my…
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Is it possible to safely handle contaminated pet food in the home? The FDA wants you to try (VIDEO)
Unsettling Assumptions An unsettling video released today by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s Center’s for Veterinary Medicine cautions consumers of the health dangers associated with pet food: foodborne illness and disease. The most troubling aspect of the message is that they are warning consumers to assume that all pet food is probably contaminated and should be handled accordingly: With…
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Pet Food Petition Struggles Under the Weight of the Creaky Ol' Broken-Down White House Petition Site
Update: Susan Thixton’s valiant petition to reform the pet food industry practices is croaking on the fatally flawed, incomprehensibly confounding WhiteHouse.gov “We The People” petition website. Sadly, many other worthy petitions are suffering a similar fate.Their prognosis a grim one, non-profit groups by the droves are abandoning the White House website for more favorable locations. In response to the hundreds…
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FDA Unveils New PETNet System to Track Pet Food Related Incidences: FAIL
FDA Moves at Glacial Speed to Assist Pets A plan, 4 years in the making, finally came to fruition with the FDA’s announcement of the creation of PETNet, Pet Event Tracking Network, a warning system designed to help State and Federal agencies communicate with each other. Yup, that’s right, they didn’t know how to communicate to each other before the…
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Safe Animal Feed PSA Video from the FDA/CVM
In this informative, if somewhat bland, video produced by the FDA/CVM in September 2010, the host outlines the importance of feed safety and how it affects the health of animals and the safety of our food. I thought I would include it in my blog as it briefly mentions aflatoxins in poultry and cows milk as well as touching on…
