Salmonella Sickens 388 Across 42 States

(NEWSER) - From spinach to peanut butter, consumers have weathered plenty of food scares recently. So the Center for Science in the Public Interest combed through CDC data to identify the foods most likely to harbor foodborne illness. Starting with the most dangerous:

1. Leafy greens: Your salad could easily be coated in germs. It’s been responsible for 363 outbreaks, most frequently playing host to the pathogen norovirus.
2. Eggs: Often infected with salmonella while still in the ovaries of otherwise healthy birds.

Monika Samaan got salmonella after meal

(NEWSER) - A judge has ordered KFC to pay an Australian family $8.3 million after their daughter was poisoned and suffered brain damage after eating at the fast-food chain. Her lawyer says Monika Samaan contracted salmonella in 2005 after eating a Twister chicken wrap and fell into a six-month coma; she has since lost her ability to speak and is confined to a wheelchair. Among the more salacious tidbits: He also argued that the restaurant would serve chicken that had fallen on the floor. KFC says the evidence doesn't prove it is responsible for Monika's condition, and it plans to appeal, the BBC reports. More»

Jennie-O burgers may be contaminated with salmonella

(NEWSER) - Bad news: That package of Jennie-O turkey burgers you bought because you were trying to be healthy just might be contaminated with salmonella. Worse news: The strain of salmonella in question is "resistant to many commonly prescribed antibiotics," the pleasantly-named Food Poison Journal reports. Jennie-O Turkey Store is recalling nearly 55,000 pounds of the frozen burgers after three people fell ill, Slashfood reports. More»

Crusaders of old were willing to risk their lives

(NEWSER) - Ho-hum: Alfalfa sprouts sickened nearly 150 people earlier this month. Sadly, we've come to expect these kinds of outbreaks, writes Deborah Blum in Slate . What we need is a modern-day Harvey Washington Wiley, she suggests. He's the USDA scientist who created high-profile "poison squads" in the early 1900s, in which young volunteers taste-tested suspect food additives. More»

Wright County Egg tested positive 73 times in 2 years

(NEWSER) - You know that massive salmonella problem that led to the recall of hundreds of millions of eggs ? Turns out Wright County Egg has known about it since 2008. Their barns tested positive for salmonella 73 times over the two-year period leading up to the recall, congressional investigators say. The swab and sponge tests revealed both the strain of salmonella that infects eggs and the toxic form, Salmonella enteritidis, notes the New York Times . More»