Feature Channels: Food and Water Safety

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Flint's 100,000 residents were exposed to lead-tainted water for more than 18 months. Virginia Tech's role in uncovering the problem has been widely reported around the world. Here are the details.

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Food imported into the United States from countries with low GDP poses higher safety risks, suggesting the need for food safety management reforms, according to a new analysis of federal import violations data.

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Heather Murphy’s research in Canada could be helpful in Pennsylvania and elsewhere.

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Amid concerns about student access to affordable and healthy food, activists from several University of California campuses are sponsoring the second annual California Higher Education Food Summit. The three-day conference will feature workshops and speakers addressing food justice on California college and university campuses. The food justice movement aims to ensure equal access to nutritious, locally sourced food and living wages for all food system workers.

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The FDA’s Food Safety Modernization Act covers produce safety, preventive controls for human and animal food and foreign supplier verification.

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While Dungeness crab captured headlines, record levels of the neurotoxin domoic acid were found in a range of species, and the toxin showed up in new places.

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Researchers at the University of Georgia found that pathogens, like salmonella, can survive for at least six months in cookies and crackers. The recent study was prompted by an increased number of outbreaks of foodborne diseases linked to low-water-activity, or dry, foods.

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Inspired by the natural water purification systems of the roots of the mangrove plant and the human kidney, a team of researchers from the National University of Singapore (NUS) Environmental Research Institute (NERI) has engineered a novel biomimetic membrane that can purify water at low pressure, thus reducing energy costs. This new technology can potentially reduce water purification costs by up to 30 per cent.

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Scientists have discovered new details about how "cloaking" proteins protect the toxin that causes botulism, a fatal disease caused most commonly by consuming improperly canned foods. That knowledge and the cloaking proteins themselves might now be turned against the toxin -- the deadliest known to humankind.

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The labeling and in-store promotion of both healthy foods and healthier, low-sodium, low-fat, or lower-sugar-content food choices can increase sales of promoted food items. The findings suggest an economically feasible model for promoting healthier food purchases.

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On Thursday, the Food and Drug Administration announced that it has approved the first genetically modified food animal, the genetically engineered salmon. According to the FDA press release, "the AquAdvantage Salmon is as safe to eat as any non-genetically engineered (GE) Atlantic salmon, and also as nutritious." Experts needed.

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Wondering what to do will Thanksgiving leftovers? A Kansas State University Olathe food safety expert offers several storing and safety tips that are designed to keep Thanksgiving leftovers filled with flavor rather than a foodborne illness.

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More than 4,000 fires occur annually on Thanksgiving Day as celebrants deep-fry or roast turkeys, boil potatoes, bake pies and more. The autumn holiday brings double the number of home cooking fires than an average day, according to the U.S. Fire Administration.

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A Kansas State University food safety expert shares some food preparation tips for home cooks that will ensure guests pile their plates with safe food dishes and forgo a side of food poisoning.

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In a recent study funded by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, University of Georgia researchers found produce that contained bacteria would contaminate other produce items through the continued use of knives or graters—the bacteria would latch on to the utensils commonly found in consumers’ homes and spread.

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You’re about to feast, give thanks, watch football and, maybe, take a nap. But as you head into the Thanksgiving holiday, how do you make sure you’re preparing your food properly and, then after dinner, how to you ensure your food stays safe to eat?

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Food scientists and farmers alike are keenly interested in boosting crop yields and shortening harvest times, without affecting food safety. A team of researchers led by plasma engineer Kazunori Koga, an associate professor at Kyushu University in Japan, has now developed a new technique to safely achieve both goals using a non-thermal plasma -- a type of partially ionized, low-temperature gas currently used in a wide variety of applications including decontaminating ready-to-eat foods and their packaging, sterilizing medical instruments, reducing pollutants in exhaust gas, and even for wound healing and cancer therapy.

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As part of the annual Mind of the Food Worker study, the CRPP polled more than 1,200 food workers at all stages of the food supply chain, including farms, processing plants, cafeterias, restaurants, and grocery stores across the U.S. and Canada. The independent survey was commissioned by Alchemy Systems, which works with companies and organizations across the food system to improve safety and operations.

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As part of an multi-disciplinary study, a team of Baylor researchers found that climatic changes, an increase in agricultural land use and population growth in the Himalaya Mountain basins could have negative impacts on water availability, further stressing a region plagued by natural disasters and food insecurity.

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A newly studied class of water contaminants that is known to be toxic and hormone disrupting to marine animals is present likely due in part to indirect effects of human activity.

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Researchers are reporting in ACS' Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry the development of a portable, inexpensive device that can quickly and easily screen freshly caught shellfish for marine toxins that can cause diarrhetic shellfish poisoning (DSP).

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A team of researchers at the University of Delaware has received funding from two agencies to investigate the use of biochar for management of stormwater runoff and pollutants.

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Peter Vikesland, an expert in the optimization of drinking water disinfection practices and a professor of civil and environmental engineering at Virginia Tech, is the principal investigator for a new five-year $3.6 million Partnerships in International Research and Education (PIRE) grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) that is aimed at mitigating the global public health threat of antibiotic resistance that affects drinking water.

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A new UW study that tested 65 wines from America's top four wine-producing states -- California, Washington, New York and Oregon -- found all but one have arsenic levels that exceed U.S. drinking water standards. But health risks from that naturally-occurring toxic element depend on how many other high-arsenic foods and beverages, such as apple juice, rice, or cereal bars, an individual person eats.

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A new science called Neurogastronomy brings chefs and neuroscientists together to improve quality of life for patients with taste & smell deficits. The inaugural International Society of Neurogastronomy symposium is November 7, 2015, featuring internationally-renowned chefs, scientists, and food technologists.

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Understanding the role of freshwater lakes and reservoirs in the global carbon cycle is central to the work of Kevin Rose, who recently joined the faculty at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI).

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A new study of more than 300 women suggests that exposure to certain phthalates — substances commonly used in food packaging, personal-care and other everyday products — could be associated with miscarriage, mostly between 5 and 13 weeks of pregnancy.

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Female mice exposed in utero, or in the womb, to low levels of arsenic through drinking water displayed signs of early puberty and became obese as adults, according to scientists from the National Institutes of Health. The finding is significant because the exposure level of 10 parts per billion used in the study is the current U.S. Environmental Protection Agency standard, or maximum allowable amount, for arsenic in drinking water. The study, which appeared online August 21 in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives, serves as a good starting point for examining whether low-dose arsenic exposure could have similar health outcomes in humans.

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The trace amounts of toxic substances used to make plastics don’t contaminate the food or beverage products they contain at a significant level and pose no immediate threat to consumers, according to recent Iowa State University research. But the plastics may create environmental problems years after they’ve been used.

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Human consumption of bacterially contaminated water causes millions of deaths each year throughout the world—primarily among children. A researcher at the 250th National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society today will discuss an inexpensive, simple and easily transportable nanotechnology-based method to purify drinking water. She calls it The Drinkable BookTM, and each page is impregnated with bacteria-killing metal nanoparticles.

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Cross contamination in commercial processing facilities that prepare spinach and other leafy greens for the market can make people sick. But researchers are reporting a new, easy-to-implement method that could eliminate or reduce such incidences. The scientists will present their work at the 250th National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society, the world’s largest scientific society.

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Tomato lovers rejoice: Adding or rearranging a few simple steps in commercial processing could dramatically improve the flavor of this popular fruit sold in the grocery store, according to researchers. They will present their new work on the topic in Boston at the 250th National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society, the world’s largest scientific society.

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As Americans settle into their new fall routines with sending kids back to school and returning to work after relaxing vacations, they are packing more lunches for both school and work in an effort to save money. In this economy, packing your lunch or your child’s can save your family money, and ensure a safe and healthy meal.

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This little black box could change how we study one of the world's biggest water quality issues. Our Michigan Tech team joined up with the Nitrate Elimination Company to create this this new nitrate test kit.

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The Water Resources Center and CASNR Water Center help promote water quality research through collaboration to preserve the region’s fresh water sources.

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One teenager is tackling serious water quality issues that threaten the health of rivers, streams and groundwater. When she was just 14 years old, Maria Elena Grimmett was the youngest person published in the Journal of Environmental Quality. Now at 16, she has just put the final touches on her research of a plastic adsorbent that removes pharmaceutical drugs from water sources.

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Healthy soils mean healthy food, protects human health

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Rose Caraway recently returned from Cuba after witnessing the opening of the U.S. Embassy in Havana. It’s a moment the Iowa State University assistant professor of religious studies has hoped for ever since she first traveled to Cuba 12 years ago.

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A new study released just days after the U.S. House passed a bill that would prevent states from requiring labels on genetically modified foods reveals that GMO labeling would not act as warning labels and scare consumers away from buying products with GMO ingredients.