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This might make you think twice the next time you reach for an Oreo out of a vending machine. A new study has found that harmful bacteria can survive on sandwich crackers and cookies for months.  And months. According to newswise.com, researchers at the University of Georgia found that pathogens, like salmonella, can survive for at least six months in cookies and crackers. The recent study was prompted by an increased number of outbreaks of food-borne diseases linked to low-water-activity, or dry, foods. We won't even get into Chipotle. “There have been an increased number of outbreaks of diseases associated with consumption of contaminated dry foods. We wouldn’t expect salmonella to grow in foods that have a very dry environment,” says Larry Beuchat, a Distinguished Professor Emeritus and researcher in the UGA College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, who works with the Center for Food Safety on the UGA campus in Griffin.  Beuchat and study co-autho...

If you live in one of seven states (funny, the government isn't talking which), that disgusting slimy hamburger filler will be visiting your child's cafeteria very soon. According to politico.com, only schools in three states had signed up for the ammonia-treated meat by this time last year.  Now, so far, a total of seven will be serving it to kids. Bill Tomson and Helena Bottemiller Evich report that some schools, faced with ever-decreasing budgets, are revising their revulsion, and serving it again. Why? "Lean finely textured beef brings down the cost of ground beef by about 3 percent, which can add up quickly in a program that feeds more than 31 million school children each day," they write. The two talked to Margo Wootan, head of nutrition policy at the Center for Science in the Public Interest.Schools, who said schools are under "more financial pressure than ever before, thanks in part to the new school lunch nutrition standards that hit the ground ...