FDA's Searchable Widget for Fraudulent H1N1 (Swine) Flu Products
Ken has previously blogged about liability issues relating to H1N1 flu, also known as swine flu. Today, the FDA has issued a widget to allow employers, consumers and others to browse and search fraudulent H1N1 influenza products and report suspected fraud. The widget can be copied onto any other Web site or blog. The FDA had previously issued a similar widget for the peanut butter recall. Additional information can be obtained from the FDA's swine flu page or flu.gov.
This is the widget:
The Pistachio Industry Follows the Peanut Industry
When the peanut butter recall hit, the American Peanut Butter Council issued a list of the items that were not affected by the recall, which was isolated to the products of now-defunct Peanut Corporation of America.
The similar, though less-publicized, pistachio recall has also been isolated to pistachios from a single company, Setton Farms. And the Western Pistachio Association has developed a website, pistachiorecall.org, dedicated to listing products unaffected by the recall. According to the FAQ on the site, the products listed on the unaffected products list are those that producers and distributors indicated on a signed affidavit did not include pistachios from Setton Farms.
Setton Farms International Inc. and Setton Pistachio of Terra Bella, Inc. did finally put the news of the recall on their website, along with messages to their wholesale customers. The differences between the pistachio and peanut outbreaks come down to two things, which bode well for Setton Farms' future. First, there have not only been no reported deaths from pistachios, there have been no cases of salmonellosis. Second, an inspection of Setton Farms' other plant, in Commack, New York, by New York State authorities, indicated no presence of salmonella.
Finally, the FDA has a pistachio widget, too.
FDA's Searchable Widget for Peanut Product Recall
UPDATE to the Salmonella-driven peanut product recall: as the number of peanut products recalled continues to rise, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has created a Web widget that allows users to search for peanut-containing product recalls (see below). The FDA updates the list as it receives new information from companies that have recalled products. As discussed in an earlier article, a list of products that are unaffected by the recall is also available.



