After the passing of Senator Dianne Feinstein on September 29, we recognize her legacy for supporting the establishment of an FDA Center for Food Safety at UC Davis’ Western Institute for Food Safety and Security.
The Western Center for Food Safety—a joint effort between UC Davis’ School of Veterinary Medicine and the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences—will join several other California organizations to launch a multi-year study to improve food safety through enhanced understanding of the ecology of human pathogens in the environment that may cause food-borne illness outbreaks, according to a U.S. Food and Drug Administration announcement today.
Livestock grazing could be beneficial for organic farming systems. To see if the practice poses any food safety risks, university, government and nonprofit partners - including the school's Alda Pires - will receive a nearly $1 million U.S. Department of Agriculture Specialty Crop Multistate Program grant to study the impacts of livestock grazing of cover crops on bacterial population dynamics, soil building and environmental health.
CDC officials, along with the FDA, are still searching for the source of E. coli-contaminated romaine lettuce, which has sickened 84 people across 19 states over the past two weeks. But in reality, we should probably be a little wary of lettuce all the time — not just when there’s a big E. coli outbreak.
