What to know: The FDA and USDA have launched a joint investigation into a new outbreak of Listeria monocytogenes infections. The source of the pathogen has not yet been found.

For the agencies to work together on an outbreak investigation is relatively rare and generally signals they suspect a source that is made from products under the jurisdiction of both.

OPINION — Dan Flynn

“Dr. Jose Emilio Esteban left office 100 days ago. He was for two years and one month USDA’s Under Secretary for Food Safety. The office is currently vacant, awaiting a new Presidential appointee and U.S. Senate confirmation.”

“If history is any guide, the current vacancy will last hundreds more days. That’s partly why the Under Secretary for Food Safety office has stood vacant for about as long as it’s been filled.”

More than 60 people fell sick in a food handler-related norovirus outbreak in Australia.

The outbreak affected six events where attendees consumed food provided by a single catering business in the Australian Capital Territory (ACT). The infection source was suspected to be a food handler with no symptoms and inadequate food handling controls allowing contamination of certain products.

Erewhon, the luxury grocery chain famed for $20 smoothies, faced a setback when its Santa Monica tonic bar was shuttered for a cockroach infestation on April 8. 

The tonic bar at Erewhon’s Santa Monica location, 2800 Wilshire Blvd., known for crafting Hailey Bieber and Sabrina Carpenter smoothies, was closed after inspectors from the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health found two live nymph German cockroaches and one dead cockroach in a cabinet beneath a Simonelli coffee machine.