Consumers Union is an expert, independent, nonprofit organization whose mission is to work for a fair, just, and safe marketplace for all consumers and to empower consumers to protect themselves.
USDA
Who Determines the Safety of Our Nation’s Salad? An Insider Look
Last Wednesday, I testified on behalf of Consumers Union before the USDA at a hearing to consider the adoption of a national Leafy Green Vegetables Marketing Agreement (LGVMA), a proposal put forward by the leafy green industry. Consumers Union opposes the use of voluntary marketing agreements to develop safety standards, as this mechanism allows industry Continue Reading
A Classic Fox Watching the Hen House
Consumer Reports blog post calls on the FDA to regulate salad safety standards not the industry.
Obama Administration Working Group on Food Safety
Working group releases report on what is needed.
Fresh greens go sci-fi, join irradiated foods team
Late August, the FDA issued a final rule amending previous food additive regulations to allow up to the maximum dose of irradiation (4.0 kiloGray) for fresh spinach and fresh iceberg lettuce. Although voluntary for producers, our greens can now undergo gamma rays, electron beams, and x-rays before they reach our supermarket. Sci-fi spinach could enter Continue Reading
Where’s the recalled beef?
From the Consumer Reports Safety Blog: Four days after the nation’s largest-ever beef recall, U.S. consumers still have no way of knowing whether they ate—or might have in their freezers—some of the potentially suspect meat, food safety experts at Consumers Union said Thursday.
Undercover video leads to outcry on meat safety
None of us want to eat beef infected with mad-cow disease, E. coli, or Salmonella. Nor would we feed it to our children. Unfortunately, low-income children who qualified for federal assistance under the National School Lunch Program may not have had a choice.
Open letter to Presidential Candidates
CU asks Presidential Candidates to publicly support real food safety and product safety reform.
With a little less help from my friends
One would think that the federal government would welcome any competent help to assure the safety of the nation’s food supply, but no…..
Not Now Canadian Cow
USDA is proposing a rule to further relax Canadian border restriction intended to protect U.S. consumers and our cattle market from Mad Cow disease.
Flip that bird
Thoroughly cooking chicken on both sides is sound safety advice in light of a new Consumer Reports study that found bacteria contamination in 83 percent of chicken sampled. This study represents a significant increase over Consumer Reports’ 2003 study which found 49 percent of chickens sampled contaminated with either Salmonella or Campylobacter bacteria.
