The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Thursday allowed food processors to irradiate fresh spinach and iceberg lettuce to kill E. coli and other pathogens.

The use of ionizing radiation will not only eliminate pathogens but also extend shelf life, the FDA said on it website. Under the FDA rule, which takes effect Friday, the packages of irradiated lettuce and spinach, like other irradiated food products, will have to bear the radura logo and one of two statements: "treated with radiation" or "treated by irradiation

Bloodsucking bedbugs have returned with a vengeance in many college dorms.

Dan Mizer, associate director of residence life at Texas A&M University, which has dealt with bedbugs in the past, explained the bedbug campus invasion to more foreign travel by students, a larger bedbug population, new rules that discourage widespread fumigation and maybe tougher bugs more resistant to pesticides

The Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) reported Wednesday the first fatality from the deadly bacteria Listeria monocytogenes while 16 people in four provinces suffered listeriosis.

The outbreak is not yet linked to a contaminated batch of roast and corned beef ordered recalled last week by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA). But Maple Leaf Consumer Foods, supplier of Sure Slice brand packaged beef, expanded the recall to include its other ready-to-eat deli meats manufactured since June 2. The meat products were distributed to fast food restaurants, institutions, nursing homes, hospitals and supermarket delis across Canada

Scientists have recovered antibodies to the virus that caused the devastating 1918 pandemic flu from the bodies of survivors and say it could be useful if another virus similar to that flu breaks out.

Researchers at Monroe Carell Jr. Children's Hospital at Vanderbilt University recovered the antibodies from elderly survivors of the pandemic flu

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency said Friday that it has confirmed Canada's 14th case of bovine spongiform encephalopathy or mad cow disease.

CFIA said in a statement that the mad cow disease was found in a six-year-old beef cow in Alberta, according to the Canadian Press