Letter From the Editor: Mansour to the Rescue – Food Safety News

“Mansour said Chipotle adopted his food safety plan for the 1,900-plus restaurants of the Mexican fast-casual food chain “without any modification.” He promised to eliminate or mitigate “risk to a level of near zero and will establish Chipotle as the industry leader in this area.” Whether naming a food safety czar marks the beginning of a […]

Putting Salad Bar Safety to the Test – Food Safety News

“Besides [E. coli, Listeria or Salmonella], the station reported that the lab tested for the number of microbes in one gram of food, and those results weren’t negative. In fact, the leafy green samples all had more than 1 million colony-forming units per gram (CFU/g) of microbes. Dr. Mansour Samadpour, the CEO of IEH Laboratories, noted […]

Chipotle Hires Safety Consultants to Cope With Health Scare – Bloomberg

“After shutting restaurants in Seattle and Portland, Oregon, Chipotle is doing a deep cleaning of the locations, the company said in a statement Tuesday. Twelve people in the Portland area and 25 in Washington state became ill after eating at Chipotle restaurants, according to health officials in the two states. The company is working with […]

Meet the Man Who Fights Rampant Food Fraud – Eater

“Samadpour’s company — which has over 1,500 employees across 116 labs — tests everything from whether or not a box of raspberries are actually organic or if a piece of “wild-caught” fish is actually wild, or the species listed on the label. He notes that fish are often mislabeled because once they have been filleted, […]

Private Eyes in the Grocery Aisles – The New York Times

“Business is booming — partly because IEH clients consider testing to be a gatekeeper defense in a multitiered food economy without borders. “We’re a lot more concerned about imports,” Mr. Samadpour says, because of “lack of accountability, lack of infrastructure, lack of a culture of food safety.” He says episodes like the 2008 discovery of […]

IEH welcomes Dr. Donald Zink – IEH Press Release

Donald Zink

“IEH Laboratories & Consulting Group is pleased to announce its recent hire of Dr. Donald Zink, who has joined IEH as the President of the Division of Foods and Regulatory Compliance. In his new position with IEH, Dr. Zink will provide consulting services and support clients of IEH to promote product safety and use his […]

Third-deadliest U.S. food outbreak was preventable, experts say – CNN

“Too often we are willing to send paratroopers after something goes wrong and — you know, we kill so many people,” he (Mansour Samadpour) said. “But the question is: Where were these guys before? Why should anyone be allowed to have a processing plant without the required amount of expertise, without having the food safety […]

Tests find 80% of chickens in Seattle-area groceries carry pathogens – Seattle Times

“The U.S. Department of Agriculture monitors the levels of some bacteria in poultry. Effective in July, the agency is tightening its rules. Processors will have to ensure that no more than 7.5 percent of raw chickens are contaminated with Salmonella and no more than 10.4 percent with campylobacter. The 100 chickens tested in Seattle came […]

Food-Safety Lawyer Puts His Money Where Your Mouth Is – Marler Clark

“In early 2008, Marler began talking seriously to Samadpour, who heads the Seattle-based Institute for Environmental Health, about sampling meat in groceries to see whether there was widespread contamination.  A deal was struck, a testing protocol developed and Samadpour told his labs across the country to begin buying 5,000 of the large, plastic-sealed packages of […]

Keep Your Meat Safe From E. coli – abc NEWS

“A “Good Morning America” investigation found that what is generally thought to be a simple meal — the classic American burger — can be much more complex. For its investigation, “Good Morning America” purchased six packages of 100 percent ground beef patties from major supermarket chains in Seattle and took the patties to IEH Laboratories, one […]

The Burger That Shattered Her Life – The New York Times

“Dr. Samadpour, the laboratory owner, has said that “we can make hamburger safe,” but that in addition to enhanced testing, it will take an aggressive use of measures like meat rinses and safety audits by qualified experts.” – The New York Times

Food Problems Elude Private Inspectors – The New York Times

“The contributions of third-party audits to food safety is the same as the contribution of mail-order diploma mills to education,” said Mansour Samadpour, a Seattle consultant who has worked with companies nationwide to improve food safety.” – The New York Times

Spinach E. coli Outbreak Raises Food Safety Questions – Marler Blog

“We have the safest food supply on the planet,” said Samadpour, of IEH Laboratories. After the outbreak in spinach, the affected companies hired him to detect and prevent E. coli. “This was an anomaly. Something happened at the farm level. And there have been a lot of extra steps these companies are taking to make sure this […]