Horrible Day For Food Safety

Not a great for people who enjoy product safety in their foodstream. Why? Well here's two horrible cases from the day's news. 

1) Orange Juice: Alarming news out of Brazil today where random tests found orange juice produced in the South American country contained elevated levels of a fungicide that raises the risk of liver rumors in animals. Yeah, that's pretty bad. The FDA has banned importing orange juice until more testing can be done. One out of every six bottles of orange juice comes from Brazil and Americans consumed more than 1.2 million gallons from the 2009-2010 harvest. 

“Carbendazim is widely accepted for other crops, including apples, which are consumed fresh,”  Flavio Viegas, head of Brazil’s citrus growers association, said by phone from Bebedouro, Brazil. “I don’t understand what’s the deal with frozen concentrated orange juice.”

Initial tests from Canada were negative for the fungicide. Coca-Cola, which owns Minute Maid, called the situation an "industry problem." 

2) Venison: Well, this incident occurred in 2009, but was only just reported. More than 29 students from a Minnesota high school were sickened from E. Coli tainted venison kebabs. The situation was especially unusual because the students participated in the killing and preparation of the meat. The incident shows that bacterial infection can also come from local meat sources. 

The report ultimately blamed the temperature of the cooked meat (medium rare) and the hand washing (or lack thereof) practices for the contamination.