Restaurant Law Group

The notorious NY Health Department shut down over 1700 restaurants in 2009, 27 percent more than in 2008. According to the Daily News, it wasn’t because more restaurants were violating the rules, it was because the Health Department actually got around to inspecting almost all of them.
Apparently not so concerned with trans fats and calorie [...]

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The FDA has approved the use of irradiation to kill potentially harmful bacteria on iceberg lettuce and spinach, according to the Washington Post. Though the agency does allow the irradiation of meat, this is the first time it has approved it for produce. The measure is meant to stem the chances of foodborne illnesses.

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According to an AP story that interviews several former high-ranking officials with the FDA, the food industry has itself to blame for the FDA’s recent problems tracking the source of salmonella saintpaul.
The industry lobbied hard against provisions in an anti-terrorism bill that required food processors to keep much more detailed records of food sources and [...]

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With an astounding eight percent of consumers surveyed saying they would never eat tomatoes again, even if it’s discovered that the fruit had nothing to do with the recent salmonella outbreak, the produce industry is looking to the FDA to help them make some changes.
The changes being sought would make it easier to traceback the [...]

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A House Subcommittee has subpoenaed the records of companies that analyze “the most dangerous foods” entering our food supply from other countries.
The private labs have not been willing to turn over their results voluntarily because they were afraid that their importer-clients would not be happy.
It appears to be routine practice to either keep testing [...]

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Right now, the Food Safety Act of 2007 is under consideration in the House. (The fact that it’s well into 2008 is not that surprising, but thanks for noticing.) The Act gives the FDA and the USDA the power to issue a mandatory recall of contaminated food. What’s missing from the act, according to an [...]

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The FDA has announced that it is about six months behind the Congressionally mandated directory of all tainted food incidents. It was supposed to be up in September, a year from when the law was passed. The FDA says that because of its software, it won’t be up until next Spring.
The “Reportable Food Registry” was [...]

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Ed Schafer
Secretary of Agriculture Ed Schafer has called for a regulation that would get rid of all exceptions to the downed cattle law, thereby prohibiting the slaughter of any cattle that go down after they pass pre-inspection.
Schafer is calling for the clarification of the ban, “to maintain consumer confidence in the food supply, eliminate further [...]

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It’s hardly news that the FDA needs help to do its job, and the way to spell that kind of help is m-o-n-e-y. After the drug Heparin killed more than 80 people, Congress wanted to know what happened. Apparently, the imported ingredients (from, guess which major Asian power) that were contaminated looked just like the [...]

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Moved primarily by the drastic drop in its exports to Japan as well as worldwide embarrassment for the frequency of its unsafe food exports, the government of China has overhauled its food-safety regulations.
Superceding any local enforcement variations, the national law imposes harsh financial penalties, life in prison, and even the death penalty for certain infractions.

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