Monday headline roundup 6/25

Food safety worries grow By Shelley Shelton , Arizona Daily Star
Gist: Safey of imported food, COOL
Lede:
For those who've been alarmed by recent scares involving tainted imported products, there's bad news and … moderately comforting news.
Sources: Consumer Federation of America; Lee Frankel of Fresh Produce Association of the Americas; Arizona Dept. of Health Services

His latest challenge; keeping food supply safe Q and A with FDA's David Acheson
Produce related quotes:
Q. Give an example of how a prevention focus changes FDA actions.
A How do you prevent E. coli 0157:H7 from getting on spinach? That's the bug that caused the spinach outbreak. You need to do the basic science to understand how that contamination can occur. How do you prevent it? Do you test the water on a regular basis? Do you push cattle further away? Do you need better washing strategies in the processing plants? You then educate industry on how to do that. And then, potentially down the road, verify they are doing it.
Q Is that happening now?
A No, it's not. But it's where we need to go.

Q Critics make the case for a single food safety agency with recall authority and a mandate to standardize inspections.
A Simply creating a single food safety agency, moving groups of federal employees around under a different organizational structure, frankly, I think is more likely to create a bigger hole in food safety, certainly for sure in the short term. I worry about that.

Q Is mandatory recall authority among new powers the FDA seeks?
A It's on the table as an authority that could be looked at.
Q Which other new powers would be helpful?
A [We're] looking at what the strategic plan, overall, would shape up like. What could be achieved with current authorities? What could be achieved with what you might call a tweak on current authorities? And what needs new authorities? There needs to be overall buy-in to the strategic approach . . . I don't want to jeopardize anything or preempt anything by jumping too far in front.


Tesco trains staff in generational talk This describes Tesco's training of older workers in the U.K. on the strange talk of the younger generations. Some examples:

Bad: Good (but this can also mean bad. When in doubt, just nod).
How’s it hanging?: How are you today?
Laters: Cheerio, goodbye.
Minging: Ugly, unattractive.
Phat: Wicked (in the good sense), cool.
Slammin’: Pleasing to the eye.
Talk to the hand: I’m not listening.
Wack: Weak, boring