BEIJING (AP) — Fourteen people in southern China have been poisoned after eating pig organs suspected of containing an animal-feed additive, state media said Thursday, the second such outbreak this month.
The 14 fell sick after eating pig’s liver at a dinner party in Guangzhou, in southern Guangdong province, the official Xinhua News Agency said.
They were all hospitalized with stomachaches, diarrhea, vomiting and headaches, it said.
A doctor at the hospital did not give a reason for the poisoning, but said that it could be from clenbuterol, a chemical used to prevent …

The salmonella outbreak in peanut butter that has killed nine people and sickened more than 600 has earned the dubious distinction of being the biggest foodborne outbreak in American history, and it’s still ongoing. U.S. News talked with Robert Tauxe, deputy director of the Division of Foodborne, Bacterial, and Mycotic Diseases at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, about why this outbreak is raising such loud alarms. Edited excerpts:
As one of the nation’s top epidemiologists, you’ve investigated many outbreaks. Why is this one different?
One of the really striking things …

DAHLONEGA – The Smithsonian Traveling Exhibit, Key Ingredients: America By Food, will open at North Georgia College & State University on Feb. 28 and explore the connections between Americans and the foods they produce, prepare, preserve, and present at the table. Key Ingredients is a provocative and thoughtful look at the historical, regional and social traditions that merge in everyday meals and celebrations. In 2008, it traveled to more than 150 locations nationwide.
The exhibit will open with a public ribbon cutting ceremony and reception at the university’s Library Technology Center …

Associated British Foods PLC said it expects adjusted operating profit for the first half to be slightly lower than last year as it reported good growth in Sugar and Ingredients with a better than forecast result in Agriculture and that budget chain Primark will again deliver excellent results.
It reiterated its forecast for full-year adjusted earnings to be broadly unchanged.
In a pre-close trading update for the six months to February 28 2009, AB Foods said the Grocery business will show a decline on last year with a substantial margin reduction …

Almost everyone is feeling the penny pinching their pocket in this economy, but one thing people cannot completely take out of their budget is food.
“People cut down on travel and people cut down on this and that, but people are always going to eat,” shopper Brandi Staniec said.
Shoppers have been zoning in on the frozen and canned food aisles, which usually holds products filled with tons sodium and preservatives.
“We’re definitely buying more of the things like macaroni and cheese and things like that, and a lot of it is because …

Natural and powerful defenses in a normal human body make cancer impossible; a normal healthy body cannot and will not develop cancer. With a diet of healthy, rich organic food these diseases can be reversed. Charlotte Gerson, daughter of Dr Max Gerson and founder of the Gerson Institute says nutrition alone is not the solution; we also need to remove the poisons.
All chronic diseases are the result of a dual problem, namley deficiency and toxicity. Let’s look at deficiency. One of the major problems is what we do to …

We all have different criteria for what we consider risky. However, numerous studies have suggested that we tend to perceive familiar products and activities as being less risky and hazardous than unfamiliar ones. If something is familiar, the thinking goes, it is comfortable and safe. But how do we know if something is familiar? We often rely on a simple shortcut: If it is easy to perceive, remember or pronounce, we have probably seen it before. If so, will a product’s name and how easy it is to pronounce, affect …

DEAR DR. BLONZ: Please explain why roasted whole peanuts and peanut butter are being recalled. I had thought that these would be safe and that only raw peanut products were dangerous. — I.D., Piscataway, N.J.
DEAR I.D.: Assuming it is done correctly, any salmonella contamination of a peanut should be completely eliminated during the roasting process, whether it s an oil roast or a dry roast. Oil roasting and dry (oven) roasting take place at temperatures well above the temperature needed to destroy this organism. It has to be done right, …

Until this week, I had never eaten my fill of whitefish salad. At a deli or bagel shop you get a little dish or tub with, what? maybe half or three-quarters of a cup of the stuff? Even if I don’t have to split that with anybody, by the time it’s gone, I’m just getting warmed up.
Costco (450 10th St) to the rescue: the other day, I spotted this two-pound tub of Blue Hill Bay whitefish salad ($7.99). The Parve stamp and Brooklyn address seemed promising, as did the ingredient …

Sorbic acid is a natural, organic preservative frequently used to maintain the freshness of a variety of human foods, drugs, and cosmetic products. Potassium sorbate and sorbic acid possess antifungal, and to a lesser extent antibacterial, properties.
Sorbic acid reacts with other chemical compounds to make what are known as derivatives. Such derivatives include calcium sorbate, potassium sorbate, and sodium sorbate.
Sorbic acid was first made by the hydrolysis of oil distilled from unripe mountain-ash berries in 1859. In 1900, the first synthesis or sorbic acid was performed by Doebner. Sorbic acid …