News Stories - Page 444

Mother Nature has blessed Georgia with an abundance of rain over the past month, leaving most areas drought-free. But all that moisture mixed with warm spring temperatures creates a perfect environment for landscape diseases.

Unpasteurized milk from cows, sheep or goats can carry dangerous bacteria that infect humans. People have contracted salmonella, E. coli, listeria and even rabies from consuming raw milk. It’s a risk people shouldn’t take, says a University of Georgia food specialist.

Women who want to increase their chances of giving birth to a girl should live closer to the equator, says a University of Georgia researcher, whose recent study sheds light on how temperature and day length can influence human reproduction.

A new technology that kills pathogens on food at home and in restaurants, grocery stores, beverage-manufacturing and food-processing facilities has been licensed to the maker of FIT Fruit and Vegetable Wash™. The licensing agreement between the University of Georgia Research Foundation, Inc. and HealthPro Brands, Inc., FIT’s parent company, vastly extends the range of applications for the company’s current anti-microbial food wash.

Due to an abnormally dry January and February, drought conditions have returned to much of Georgia. And it could get worse.

For the second time in two years, a nationwide outbreak of salmonellosis has been tied to peanut products. This time, more than 570 people have been sickened and more than 1,700 products have been taken off supermarket shelves so far, in what is now the largest food-related recall in the country’s history.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Food and Drug Administration advise consumers not to eat peanut products made with peanut butter or peanut paste made at the Peanut Corporation of America facility in Blakely, Ga. More than 1,300 products ranging from cookies and ice cream to trail mix and pet food have been recalled due to a nation-wide salmonella outbreak connected to the facility.

In Georgia, you can pretty much count on cold weather from October to March. People can protect themselves by staying indoors or wearing warm clothes. It’s not as easy for crops. Accurate temperatures and weather readings are vital to farmers.

In connection with a salmonella investigation, the Food and Drug Administration has warned consumers against eating processed foods made with peanut butter. The country already had a large surplus of peanuts. With any decline in consumption now, that stockpile will grow, says a University of Georgia peanut expert.