With Fewer Inspectors, Is US Food Safety System On ‘Brink Of Collapse’?

NPR: How Safe Is The Food Supply After Federal Cutbacks? Experts Are Worried
Paula Soldner inspected meat and poultry plants around southern Wisconsin for 38 years: "I'm talking brats, hot dogs, summer sausage, pizza." Her Department of Agriculture job required daily check-ups on factories to ensure slicers were cleaned on schedule, for example. Her signoff allowed plants to put red-white-and-blue "USDA inspected" stickers on grocery-store packages. Last month, Soldner took the Trump administration up on its offer of early retirement, joining an exodus from the Food Safety and Inspection Service that began under President Biden's reorganization of the agency last year. (Noguchi, 5/29)

CIDRAP: People's Gut Infections Often Traced To Poultry, Cattle, Turtles
A surveillance study published in Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report suggests that a lack of disease-prevention knowledge among owners of animals such as backyard poultry contributes to intestinal-disease outbreaks in the United States. "An estimated 450,000 enteric illnesses, 5,000 hospitalizations, and 76 deaths associated with animal contact occur each year in the United States," the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)–led research team wrote. (Van Beusekom, 5/28)

Newsweek: New Combination Of Drugs Could Drastically Change How We Age
Combining two cancer drugs has been found to prolong the lifespan of mice—and may help humans age better. An international team of researchers analyzed the impact of rapamycin and trametinib on rodents, showing that the pair extended the animals' lifespan by around 30 percent. (Randall, 5/28)

In covid, measles, and E. coli news —

CIDRAP: Long-COVID Symptoms In Young Kids Can Vary By Age
Babies and toddlers 2 years and under experienced different long-COVID symptoms than preschoolers ages 3 to 5 years, according to a study yesterday in JAMA Pediatrics. The study is the latest body of research to come out of the National Institutes of Health (NIH)-funded Researching COVID to Enhance Recovery (RECOVER) initiative, and was conducted by researchers at NYU Grossman School of Medicine in New York City, Mass General Brigham in Boston, and elsewhere in the United States. (Soucheray, 5/28)

The Colorado Sun: Child Hospitalized With Measles In Colorado
Colorado on Wednesday reported its sixth case of measles this year in a state resident — this time in a child who is now hospitalized, according to the state Health Department. The child, described as a toddler under the age of 5 by the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, visited the Children’s Hospital Colorado ER in Aurora on the evening of Thursday, May 22; the morning of Monday, May 26; and overnight Monday into Tuesday, May 27. (Ingold, 5/28)

The Colorado Sun: Wastewater System Failure In La Plata County Raises E. Coli Levels
Some La Plata County residents are looking for alternate sources of drinking water after a wastewater treatment system malfunctioned, sending E. coli into the local waterways. (Mullane, 5/29)

Also —

The Washington Post: Double-Dipping May Seem Gross, But It’s Not As Risky As You Think
Yes, double-dipping can transmit bacteria and viruses from your mouth to the shared bowl. And yes, in theory, those microorganisms can be spread to other eaters. But in most cases, that might not be as risky as it seems. Researchers at Clemson University discovered that there were more bacteria in double-dipped situations compared with the single-dipped. ... Pathogens that cause the common cold, influenza and covid, for instance, have not been shown to be transmitted through food, Chapman said. ... One strong exception is norovirus. (Bever, 5/28)