Food and Drug Administration

Dairy Industry Aims to Use Aspartame Secretly

The International Dairy Foods Association (IDFA) and the National Milk Producers Federation want to be able to use aspartame without having to include it on product labels, as is currently required by law. The FDA has been ignoring the petition, which was filed in 2009. Until now. The agency is co ... More >>

E-Cigarettes: Danger or Healthy Alternative?

Minimum Age Requirement To Purchase Energy Drinks?

We all know that chugging down can after can of Monster, Red Bull, or Rock Star ain't exactly healthy, yet some of us chug down multiple doses of energy drinks every day.An adult endangering his or her health is one thing, but how about a kid? Energy drinks have become a very popular drink among tee ... More >>

Florida Announces Food Code and Restaurant Inspection Updates

The Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation, the state agency that's in charge of inspecting all Florida restaurants for cleanliness and food safety, announced updates to the statewide Food Code.The  new code, which goes into effect January 1, 2013, will improve the inspectio ... More >>

Florida Man Regularly Returned Used Enemas to CVS

Enemas are decidedly something no one should buy second-hand, yet customers at a Jacksonville CVS might have done just that unknowingly. Employees at the store caught a man who repeatedly returned used boxes of enemas. The probe, no pun intended, is now being led by the federal Food and Drug Adminis ... More >>

New Dirty Dozen: Apples, Celery Most Pesticide-Contaminated. Mushrooms Okay.

Lettuce samples contained 78 different pesticide residues. Domestic blueberries tested positive for 42 pesticides. And 98 percent of apples were found to be contaminated by pesticides. And 92 percent of certain baby foods were pesticide-tainted. (These levels were measured in "conventional," or non- ... More >>

FDA Reviewing Genetically Modified Mosquitoes for Potential Release in Key West

The Food and Drug Administration is reviewing a proposal from a British biotechnology firm asking to release millions of genetically modified mosquitoes.If the FDA green lights the "new animal drug" application, quaint and quirky Key West will become the hub of controversial experiment.

Food Lies: Antwerp LLC Convicted of Felonious Misbranding

Many of us gladly pay extra for organic produce, in the hopes that the pesticide-free fruits and vegetables are worth the extra money for their cleaner profiles and nutritional benefits. But can we really be sure that little sticker on the Mango is telling the truth?Key Biscayne-based Antwerp, LLC w ... More >>

Four Ideas For New Nutrition Labels, From Stars to Traffic Lights

​"The grocery store has become a Tower of Babel," said Louis Sullivan back in 1990. "Consumers need to be linguists, scientists, and mind readers to understand the many labels they see."Sullivan at the time was Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, and he instructed the FDA to ... More >>

The Science Behind the Fishy Smell in Smelly Fish

via Redbubble.comThe stink even fish want to avoid​You want to eat fresh fish. You want it glazed, or baked in parchment with fresh dill and lemon. You want the skin crisp from the broiler and the meat moist and juicy. Instead, you're looking down at a plate of stinky fish in all of its odoriferou ... More >>

Miami's Curd Cowboys: Is Cheese the New Cocaine?

​On December 18, 2010, a freighter named America Feeder arrived at the Port of Miami from Nicaragua. Federal agents were secretly running surveillance on one container, marked ARLU 5102167. Five days later, the container was hitched to a truck and driven, with agents trailing, to a cold-stora ... More >>

Monty's, Balans and Blue Martini: Fatty Drinks the FDA Doesn't Want You to Know

Lesley ElliottIs your alcohol adding on pounds?​The U.S. Food and Drug Administration seems to believe that when it comes to alcohol consumption, ignorance is bliss. It's easy to suck down those creamy, calorie-ridden drinks without thinking about fat and sugar intake, but are we doing ourselves a ... More >>

Paranoids Rejoice! The FDA Makes Searching for Food & Drug Recalls Easier

CC CosmoPoliticianDo you know what you're eating?​​It seems like every week there's a story on the news about food or drugs being recalled. Just recently both Del Monte canteloupes and O.N.E. Coconut Water were pulled from store shelves.The problem with recalls is that once you hear about your f ... More >>

Movie Theaters Lie: Large Popcorn Equals Three Big Macs

via Flickr CA_JimNot so cute and innocent once you know him inside and out. ​I long ago stopped eating the offerings at movie theater concession stands. So long ago that I can't remember when I started loading up at Walgreen's and sneaking in healthier, fresher, and better-priced snacks. The reaso ... More >>

O.N.E. Coconut Water Recalled Over Mold

​ONE World Enterprises announced this morning that they are recalling their O.N.E. Coconut water in 11.2-ounce packaging due to mold. According to a statement posted on the Food & Drug Administration's site, product affected was shipped to several retail outlets in Florida. Consumers are asked ... More >>

Miami Couple Arrested for Contaminated Cheese Smuggling

​Cheese smuggling sounds like some sort of weird euphemism, but in this case we really mean that two people in Miami have been arrested for smuggling contaminated cheese into the country.  Yuri Izurieta, 41, and Anneri Izurieta, 46, husband and wife, and thier company, Naver Trading, Corp., h ... More >>

The Government Should Dictate Our Diet (Updated)

via Flickr walknboston​The feds have alarmed some foodies and libertarians recently by banning food ingredients in order to make it healthier. Should the government be allowed to dictate what we can and cannot eat?It all started with trans fats. Plucked from relative obscurity a few years back, tr ... More >>

Listeria-Contaminated Cheese: Recall It Now

via Flickr cwbuecheler​The Estrella Family Creamery, producer of artisanal cheeses, has refused to conduct a broad recall of its cheeses after the FDA has found listeria contamination on multiple occasions. This "stand against big government" has resulted in a feud between foodies and regulators.I ... More >>

The FDA is Set to Ban Four Loko in a Defeat of Capitalism and Freedom

In a treacherous blow to the personal freedoms of Americans and Capitalism itself the FDA is expected to ban the sale of caffeinated alcohol drinks as soon as next week. Yes, alcohol and caffeine, two perfectly legal and widely available substances will not be allowed to be sold together in one can. ... More >>

Top 10 Worst Food Recalls of 2010

image via portorikan on flickr.Food poisoning.​Blech! We used to think food recalls were a rare phenomenon. Turns out American factory culture may not have changed enough since Upton Sinclair wrote "The Jungle," to stop bacterium-infected food products from hitting store shelves.The last year has ... More >>

Kombucha Won't Get You Drunk. And It's Back.

​Some beverages have a history in medicine. Coke can trace its origin back to the late 19th century when it was sold as a medical elixir. 7-Up launched in the 1920s, originally contained lithium, and was marketed as a mood stabilizer and hangover cure. Today, both of these household names and are ... More >>

Cock-Flavored Soup and Other Questionably Named Brands

FlickrSugar sells, especially in our pleasantly plump society. That's why The Corn Refiners Association is asking the Food and Drug Administration to start calling high-fructose corn syrup "corn sugar."Their motivation is two fold: 1) Scientific research linking obesity and corn syrup have been inco ... More >>

Salmonella Solution: Eat Fresh, Organic Eggs

Lee KleinI am the eggman, goo goo g'joob​So now it's our eggs. It should be obvious to most people that the massive agri-businesses supplying us with much of our food supply needs oversight -- real oversight, not the corrupted mimicry of such currently performed by the FDA. But with our presently ... More >>

Update: Tons of Contaminated Cheese Sold in Florida, Texas, California, New York

Alex Izaguirre​Yesterday I described what might have been the largest cheese bust in history. Eighty-five tons of the stuff, most of it contaminated with staph, was sold to at least 30 people. Today I learned some of the cheese made it out of Miami to Texas, California, and New York. The FDA has ... More >>

Biggest Cheese Bust in Memory in Miami

Alex Izaguirre​Two Hondurans were busted Monday for illegally selling diseased cheese to more than 30 people in Miami.The pair -- Francisca Josefina Lopez, 40, and Jorge Alexis Ochoa Lopez, 34 -- was nailed for importing $322,000 of the stuff from Nicaragua and then illegally reselling it. Mo ... More >>

UM Doc Looking at New Use for Botox: Overactive Bladders

​Patients in a new study at the University of Miami have had Botox regularly shot into their urethra -- keep your mind out of the gutter -- to see if perhaps the chemical could be used to treat overactive bladder problems.Botox is usually used cosmetically to numb muscles in the faces to lessen th ... More >>

Brazilian hair straightening can be deadly

Scared Stiff: In Miami-Dade, Back-Alley Beauticians Will Straighten Your Hair With Formaldehyde

tarus kumar via flicker cc Need something stronger?Andressa is a perky traveling beautician who specializes in Brazilian hair straightening. Sure, she uses formaldehyde -- found in embalming fluid -- to make curls straight as straw. And, yeah, inhaling the stuff causes nasal cancer in rats, bu ... More >>

FDA To Public: Eat Shit!

​Food Animal Concerns Trust (FACT) has launched a petition drive to ban poultry litter being used as cattle feed. Poultry litter  consists primarily of chicken shit, feathers, spilled feed and bedding material that accumulate on the floors of the buildings that house chickens and turkeys. It ... More >>

News Roundup

What... the...? Slot machines at MIA? Like that airport needs to be any more of a circus than it already is. [Herald]Miami-Dade commissioners have no problem with Carrie Meek representing Wackenhut and the county, even while the two are in a legal dispute. [Herald]Adam Tavss, the Miami Beach Police ... More >>

BBQ and Food Safety Guidelines From The USDA

image via thebittenword.com's flickrLeave it to the nofunsters at the FDA to take a beautiful concept like BBQ, the most perfect cooking method in in the history of civilization, and ruin it with their salmonella this, and cleanliness that.What they think is so hard about doing it right, I jus ... More >>

FDA Cracking Down On Another of Jose Canseco's Favorite Substances

via Wikimedia CommonsWe've spent so much time following the sad saga of A-Rod, that we've forgotten to check in with Miami's even more disgraced baseball star -- Jose Canseco! Last year a Sunrise-based company, Smoking Everywhere, enlisted the former slugger to tout its e-cigarette. Using a com ... More >>

Bottled Water Gets the Boot

As containers and costs mount, tap water is the rule in eateries.

Week's Top Food-Related Headlines

Miracle Fruit: The Untold Story

Namaste Miami: Fake Sugar Abuser

Wacky Tobaccy

Ain’t nothing wrong with it in this Key West musical.

Sushi Advisory

Eat Shit and Die

Exactly what do chickens and cows eat before we eat them?

ADM: Supermaggot To The World

ADM: Supermaggot To The World

The Skinny on Social

Darn good food that’s darn good for you

Too Close for Comfort?

Cattle-ist for reform

The Great White Tuna

Unsolved Fish Mysteries

News of the Weird

Addicted to Addiction

University of Miami's Deborah Mash believes ibogaine could be the wonder drug to end all drugs. And she's ready to risk everything to prove it.

Letters

Lab Rats

Some people sign up to test experimental drugs for the good of mankind. Others do it for the money. Meet Miami's professional pincushions.

They're Gonna Live Forever

Federal officials have spent an eternity trying to put the founders of Fort Lauderdale's Life Extension Foundation behind bars

What a Gas!