#Food Safety

#Food Safety

Nestle has announced a widespread recall of several key infant nutrition products across Europe, including its SMA, BEBA, and NAN infant and follow-on formulas. The move comes amid concerns over potential contamination with a toxin that could induce nausea and vomiting in infants. The recall, which began on a smaller scale in December, affects products sold in Austria, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Norway, Switzerland, and Britain.

Commonly canned fish, like salmon, sardines, anchovies, and mackerel all contain little bones that are safe, even enjoyable, to eat. During the canning process, the fish is pressure-cooked at high temperatures, which softens the bones to the point that they become tender and brittle. In canned salmon, the pale vertebrae often flake apart easily and are rich in calcium. Sardine and anchovy bones are even smaller and usually go unnoticed, disintegrating with mastication.

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency has suspended the Safe Food for Canadians licence of Goodfood a Montreal-based meal kit and grocery delivery service. There is no recall associated with this suspension, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) said in a news release published on Wednesday. Under the Safe Food for Canadians Regulations, food businesses that manufacture, process, preserve, or package food to be sent across provincial or territorial borders are required to hold a licence.

Nothing beats the whimsy of a beautiful gingerbread house. Yet, these decorations raise an important debate. Should we be eating our meticulously crafted creations? Or keeping them for show? There's a definite "point of no return," but I've been eyeballing my own masterpiece, and cannot decide when that is. According to the USDA, cookies can last up to three weeks at room temperature. Frustratingly, though, I can't find any gingerbread-specific guidance.

Where raw milk is concerned, the issue is not one of product branding but one of consumer safety, as raw milk isn't pasteurized. Pasteurization kills harmful bacteria that can cause food-borne illness, including Campylobacter, E. coli, Listeria, and Salmonella. During the pasteurization process, milk is heated to a temperature high enough to neutralize dangerous pathogens and held at that temperature long enough to get the job done

When it first reaches you, the idea of seafood is one of cleanliness. Maybe it's the associated freshness of the ocean, or its reputation as a healthy food. However, underneath upscale presentations or coastal dreaming, there is a complex and opaque part of the global food system at work, and it's not always at the front of mind when shopping for fish and seafood.

Nobody's perfect, and that's as true for restaurants as it is for people. Google your favorite restaurant right now and odds are you will find at least one review so negative it makes you wonder if the reviewer visited the same restaurant. Every restaurant gets bad reviews now and then, but something appears to be wrong at Sirloin Stockade, the eight-location steakhouse buffet that is routinely criticized for the same issues across four states.

Regulations are becoming stricter, customers expect the highest quality, and even small mistakes can have serious consequences, from product recalls to delivery delays. Transporting liquids or powdered substances requires particular care, as contamination at any point can create major problems. A solution that has proven effective in practice is the use of certified ibc containers.

You can do everything you're supposed to do when it comes to keeping your cutting board clean, but all too often, unseen residue from different foods remains on the surface. Even juices can slip into the fibers of a wood cutting board. This not only means you're getting unwanted flavors mingling together, which can taint an entire meal; it also means the bacteria of various foods can cross-contaminate one another.

'A lot of people will typically just either put a fish on a plate and Saran-wrap it ... or they'll just Saran-wrap the fish,' Le explains. 'What I like to do is wrap my fish in a paper towel; it absorbs all the moisture.' Le adds that the moisture released by the fish will start to degrade it over time.

Vega Farms Inc., based in Dixon, issued the recall on Dec. 5 for its branded eggs sold in 12-count cartons and 30-count flats, CPDH officials said in a notice. The affected products, sold in the Sacramento and Davis areas, carry the handler code 2136 and include items supplied to restaurants and farmers markets. The recall covers cartons and flats marked with Sell By dates of Dec. 22, 2025, and earlier.

Deciding which snacks to pack when you're planning a road trip is essential. Hunger pangs can strike when the next rest stop is still miles away, so having something to snack on in the car is imperative. Even once you arrive at a rest stop, finding appropriate food for the whole family can be tricky and expensive. Planning ahead and packing snacks that you can eat when you stop is a good idea, too.

It's the focal point of any festive gathering - but the responsibility of providing Christmas dinner can trigger monumental stress. From securing the Brussels sprouts, crafting a timeplan and basting the turkey, it takes military-level planning. Even working out when to buy all of the ingredients can cause a headache - as you don't want any of the essentials to spoil before the 25th.

Under a decades-old testing programme, the government checks around 3,000kg of food each year for traces of chemicals, purchased from a range of sources including supermarkets. Campaign group PAN UK, a non-profit organisation based in Brighton, then analyses the annual reports. This year, it found a total of 123 different chemicals in the 17 types of fruit and vegetables tested, including 42 pesticides with links to cancer.

The main thing to check for with vintage cookie cutters is rust. Cookie cutters can be made from a variety of materials, and while modern ones are often plastic, others might be aluminum, tin, or stainless steel. Neither one of those rusts easily, but aluminum can tarnish and stainless steel can rust if it has not been cleaned and stored properly.

The New Jersey-based company acknowledged violations in September 2025, admitting its Napoleon, Ohio canning plant illegally dumped wastewater more than 5,400 times from April 2018 to December 2024, breaking federal water pollution laws. Environmental groups sued Campbell's in March 2024, alleging repeated exceedances of effluent limits of pollutants were released into the Maumee River, which feeds into Lake Erie. A trial to determine penalties and cleanup requirements is scheduled for 2026.

Bird flu, or avian influenza, is a naturally occurring disease among wild birds, including ducks and geese, that can also infect domesticated birds, such as chickens and turkeys. The U.S. has been battling flu outbreaks in commercial poultry flocks since 2022. After a summer lull, cases are rising again. Because avian flu spreads quickly and is untreatable in animals, if even one bird in a flock is infected, the entire flock is culled.

Refrigerator drawers are always working, collecting sticky, pigmented leaks from berry cartons, questionable runoff from thawing shrimp, condensation from humidity settings, and cursed bags of forgotten greens breaking down into a fetid bisque. As the busiest, dampest quadrant of the fridge, they deserve more tending-to than a twice-a-year swipe. But how often should you clean your refrigerator, drawers included? A seasonal deep clean is a good routine to get into.

Costco makes it easy to return and get a refund on just about any product, even without a receipt. But this warehouse retailer has its limits. Some items, like electronics, have shorter return windows, and others you can't return at all, like alcohol or tires, even if you used them just once. And when it comes to food returns, some items have extra rules.