Pediatrics warns against pets for toddlers
Young children should not keep hedgehogs as pets — or hamsters, baby chicks, lizards and turtles — because of risks for disease.
That’s according to the nation’s leading pediatricians group in a new report about dangers from exotic animals.
Besides evidence that they can carry dangerous and sometimes potentially deadly germs, exotic pets may be more prone than cats and dogs to bite, scratch or claw — putting children younger than 5 particularly at risk, the report says.
Young children are vulnerable because of developing immune systems plus they often put their hands in their mouths and are awkward at handling animals, the report says.
The report appears in the October edition of the American Academy of Pediatric’s medical journal, Pediatrics.
A spokesman for the International Hedgehog Association said there’s no reason to single out hedgehogs or other exotic pets.
‘‘Our recommendation is that no animal should be a pet for kids 5 and under,’’ said Z.G. Standing Bear. He runs a rescue operation near Pikes Peak, Colo. for abandoned hedgehogs, which became fad pets about 10 years ago.
Abstract
Exposure to animals can provide many benefits during the growth and development of children. However, there are potential risks associated with animal exposures, including exposure to nontraditional pets in the home and animals in public settings. Educational materials, regulations, and guidelines have been developed to minimize these risks. Pediatricians, veterinarians, and other health care professionals can provide advice on selection of appropriate pets as well as prevention of disease transmission from nontraditional pets and when children contact animals in public settings.
Listeria has been my worst nightmare for the past 9 months
I'm a self-described food safety nerd. I don't hide from this obsession, I embrace it. But my fixation on everything food safety has led to much stress lately -- for the past 9 months my food safety spidey-sense has been heightened more than normal as Dani and I have been expecting a baby.
And he finally arrived last week.
Our little dude, Jack Neil Chapman, showed up Friday morning at 4:11am (Yes, the Neil part is named after the greatest Canadian singer/songwriter, Neil Young -- I'll fight anyone who disagrees, Ari Gold style, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QGVoLsDS3t8&e)
Throughout Dani's pregnancy I became the food police in our house -- no soft cheeses or cold deli meats made it to Dani's plate, most didn't even make it in the house. Everything (and I mean everything) has been temped during cooking. I read pretty well every paper I could on listeria, and Doug and I discussed the merits of broad food surveys and listeria growth in blue-veined cheese. It was a bit ridiculous, but I hear that first time parents sometimes can be obsessive.
During the recent Canadian listeria outbreaks I selfishly felt vindicated for keeping the products out of our house -- our view was that no matter what type of food safety system food processors had, we weren't taking the risk. Maple Leaf is a huge company that can afford lots of food safety controls, spoke about their commitment to food safety, and even used the food safety culture term Doug and I are so fond of. But 18 people have so far died from listeria in their products.
When I held Jack for the first time, about 30 seconds after he was born, I first thought "Wow, you're tiny and light, and you don't smell as manky as I had thought you would" and soon after I thought about the parents, people just like us, who have been recently affected by listeria. The victims include at least one miscarriage and six babies born prematurely in Quebec resulting from the consumption of soft cheeses. A 6-week old Manitoba infant born with a listeria, not linked to either Maple Leaf or Quebec soft cheeses outbreak, also died last week. Those are the ones we know about.
And then I realized that, although I thought I did a great job managing risks in our house, I and the rest of the food safety world have probably failed many out there who haven't reduced risks. Not the individuals who made the choice to eat risky foods, but the parents who have never heard about listeria, the ones who ate risky foods without knowing that listeria is 20 times more likely to infect pregnant women or that listeria infections during preganancy are likely to cause miscarriages or stillbirth. Who knows what effect our risk-reduction practices had on Dani's pregnancy. Maybe things would have been fine without being so strict, but we weren't interested in taking the chance.
I'm all about informed decisions around risk. I even think there is a place for raw milk consumption for adults. But we had the info to make the decisions. Info that came from a variety of places (for us it was primary resources, outbreak reports and review papers). Other parents rely on food safety professionals, like the health authorities, for info.
Last weekend was all about Jack, and I didn't get back into reading FSNet until yesterday morning (I'm getting quite good at holding him and reading emails at the same time) and I came across Canada’s Chief Public Health Officer, Dr. David Butler-Jones’ advice concerning listeria, including the below:
*Wash your hands. This will help avoid many kinds of infections. Wash your hands in warm soapy water before preparing food, afterwards, and again before eating.
*Read labels and follow cooking and storage instructions for all foods. Make sure to check the “best before” date.
*Freeze or consume leftovers within four days of cooking. Always reheat leftovers until steaming hot before eating.
*Keep refrigerators clean and at a temperature below 4 C, or 40 F. Listeria can grow in the fridge, but the colder it is, the slower it grows. Install a thermometer in your fridge to be sure.
Those tips apply to all of us, all the time, and not just during an outbreak.
There are so many holes in his list of advice, many have nothing to do with listeria, and I don't think there is evidence that supports many of his statements. Following the list of consumer blames, Butler-Jones did get into listeria with feel-good language: "For seniors, pregnant women, and those with weakened immune systems, or for those serving or caring for anyone in these groups, some extra precautions are very important as [various] foods pose some risk." He ended his advice with "these steps form a simple approach to food safety."
The most important message missing from his list was: Don't eat this stuff unless you are cool with the risks.
I sent an email to Doug (the subject line was "what a f*ing joke"), saying where was Dr. Butler-Jones when the outbreak was announced a month ago. Did it really take a month for his staff to wake up and get some info out there? A question echoed in the upcoming Canadian Medical Association Journal which says that the Public Health Agency of Canada should be the primary source of information for the public during a crisis and that Canada's chief public health officer has not been the lead voice to inform the public.
So I guess my preachy message is along the lines of don't eat poop (especially baby poop, though Jack's hasn't started to smell yet).We need to do a better job of creating a dialogue around food safety risks with specific target audiences -- especially those at higher risk for foodborne illnesses. And though the bureaucrats talk a lot, they need to be the real leaders in information -- and forget about the fuzzy language that will make the minister happy. Tell people to stay away from the risky stuff.
Don Schaffner, guest barfblogger: Looking for ugly in the food industry
One of my favorite books of all time is "Out of Control" by Kevin Kelley. It's a non-fiction book that deals with understanding complex systems. Kelley is a bit of a polymath. He was a hippie, who edited the hippie bible, the whole earth catalog. He was there at the beginning of the internet with the creation of the Whole Earth 'Lectric Linkup. I've starting reading his blog recently, and he always has something interesting to say... like how to build foam robots.
Anyway, he recently blogged about "Looking For Ugly" where he writes "Preventing errors within extremely complicated technological systems is often elusive. The more complex the system, the more complex the pattern of error". He's writing generally, but I immediately thought about the food system. 
Kelley goes on to write specifically about the airline industry, saying "The safety of aircraft is so essential it is regulated in hopes that regulation can decrease errors. Error prevention enforced by legal penalties presents a problem, though: severe penalties discourages disclosure of problems early
enough to be remedied. To counter that human tendency, the US FAA has generally allowed airlines to admit errors they find without punishing them."
Hmmm. "severe penalties discourages disclosure of problems early enough to be remedied". Sounds to me like he's talking about a "zero tolerance" vs. regulatory limit for Listeria.
Of course the counter argument (for the airline industry) also maps well to the food industry, as Kelley writes "The general agreement in the industry is that a policy of unpunished infractions encourages quicker repairs and reduces the chances of major failures. Of course not punishing companies for
safety violations rubs some people the wrong way."
Yup. He's nailed it. This idea dovetails nicely with Doug's call to "make all data of Listeria testing in plants public so others in the industry can improve and consumer confidence can be enhanced with data not just words."
Should doctors' scrubs be as clean as their hands?
The New York Times reports that,
“Amid growing concerns about hospital infections and a rise in drug-resistant bacteria, the attire of doctors, nurses and other health care workers — worn both inside and outside the hospital — is getting more attention. While infection control experts have published extensive research on the benefits of hand washing and equipment sterilization in hospitals, little is known about the role that ties, white coats, long sleeves and soiled scrubs play in the spread of bacteria.
“The discussion was reignited this year when the British National Health Service imposed a “bare below the elbows” rule barring doctors from wearing ties and long sleeves, both of which are known to accumulate germs as doctors move from patient to patient.
“But while some data suggest that doctors’ garments are crawling with germs, there’s no evidence that clothing plays a role in the spread of hospital infections.”
Apparently there are some textiles being manufactured with antimicrobial components. I really have no opinion. But when it comes to Scrubs, Everything Comes Down to Poo.
Pink Floyd and Fargo Rock City: food service and music
PhD student Ben Chapman went and worked in a restaurant as part of his food safety research. He saw lots of things, but his most memorable description of kitchen work was that he had to listen to a lot of Pink Floyd.
There was some Tom Petty, and The Clash, but a lot of Pink Floyd. So it was with a nod and a lighter raised in the air to food service workers everywhere upon hearing the nears that founding Floyd keyboardist Richard Wright passed today.
But Pink Floyd doesn’t get much airplay in the Midwest. For a full accounting of why the Midwest is home to terrible hair metal, check out Chuck Klosterman’s Fargo Rock City, which Chapman loaned me a couple of years ago. And today, a barfblog reader e-mailed me to say,
“What I find most amusing about these Listeria posts is the album cover from the (very horrible and untalented) metal band.”
A few e-mails later, and she says,
“There is at least one metal band for every disease, especially those involving vomit, blood, decay, puss, gangreen or amptutation.
“I just found ascaris, a death metal band in denver. i think this should be an ongoing theme - each post should have an accompanying death metal promotion."
But the best was when she linked me to a Strongbad post – Amy’s been a fan for years – about cliché metal bands. The comments section of barfblog.com is developing nicely.
Does Maple Leaf read barfblog?
They've got pictures now.
After posting on Sunday night about the confusion around Maple Leaf's multiple brands and differing
packaging, and seeing consumer reaction to the same, I'm happy to see that Maple Leaf has stepped up with some better comminication. In the below clip from CBC Toronto, one concerned Canadian shopper shows her frustration by saying "it's kind of hard to tell... a lot of things you don't know if they come from the Maple Leaf thing".
My favourite Maple Leaf thing has always been Doug Gilmour, circa 1993.
Maple Leaf foods has posted a viewer-friendly graphic (at the bottom of the notice) of how to determine if a product is part of the recall. I especially like the inclusion of variances of the establishment code.
Maple Leaf Listeria developments
The coverage of this outbreak isn't really going away as more details came out yesterday.
Earlier in the day, Maple Leaf spokesperson Linda Smith was cited as saying that inspectors failed to detect listeria in this case, but they are constantly swabbing for the bacterium. "Did we find it? Absolutely not. We did not find that listeria," she said. "Did we let people down? Yes. But we were doing the right things."
On CBC's National tonight (clip below), Smith was quoted as saying "We would occasionally find a listeria positive swab, at which case we sanitize that complete area and swab again."
So which is it?
In legal news, and the lead story on Canada AM this morning, is that class action lawsuits in Quebec, Ontario, Manitoba and Saskatchewan have been launched according to Tony Merchant, of the Merchant Law Group LLP, who says residents in each of the provinces have contacted his firm about representation.
As I wrote this post, I saw Michael McCain's Maple Leaf apology on TV three times.
Listeria recall: We've got pictures, Maple Leaf doesn't
Maple Leaf's CEO Michael McCain says his company has a culture of food safety. I've written about the food safety culture concept and believe that a big part of it is being ready for outbreaks and recalls. They happen. A lot.
I'm not sure what Mr. McCain and his team has done in preparation for this outbreak, but in March I wrote about Quaker Oats handling of a recall due to Salmonella in some of their Aunt Jemima products:
"Quaker Oats has great information on their website already [less than 4 hours after the recall], with a nice graphic on how to handle the recall.... Especially love that people can sign-up for ongoing info -- good preparation on Quaker Oats' part."
It looked like they were ready for a problem, and already had the resources in place to get information out to their customers.
The thing I liked the most about Quaker Oats' Aunt Jemima situation was that they had pictures of the recalled product. A company with a culture of food safety is ready for a recall, has a website with pictures and consumer-friendly information ready to go in anticipation, like Quaker Oats did.
Maple Leaf has a big list of recalled products (220, check it out here) but they don't have any pictures of them. It's not a superficial request to have some nice pictures to show folks what this stuff looks like, and where you can find the sometimes elusive codes/dates/establishment code. It's just good communication. The FDA realized this, and last year started including pictures on their recall notices for products that they have deemed to be high health risks (after the Castleberry's chili sauce recall). 
Sometimes I buy lunch meat. Sometimes I even get the prepackaged stuff. I don't always know what brand it is, and I don't know all the intricacies of the food system and get mixed up as to which parent company makes Shopsy's. The list system is confusing.
The Globe and Mail is reporting tonight that:
Maple Leaf is working with distributors to track down all 220 products from the Toronto site, which Mr. McCain told reporters could be anywhere in Canada. That could take as long as three to five days, he said during a news conference at the firm's Toronto head office.
At about 7:50pm this evening I thought I'd take a look at whether I could find any of these recalled products at the grocery store and get some pictures to demonstrate where the codes can be found.
I found some.
About 2 minutes after entering Ultra Food and Drug in Guelph, I was able to find the recalled Maple Leaf's EZee Sub Dagwood products, with the establishment code (denoted, I assume, by the "EST. 97B" still on the shelves. That's the bad news.
The good news is that I can use a real example of what one of the recalled products looks like and where the establishment code is. Something that Maple Leaf hasn't done.
Michele Samarya-Timm, guest barfblogger: Seattle has officially washed its hands of the five self-cleaning toilets
Oh, the news stories that catch the eye of one immersed in public health.
While we spend most of our time on this blog discussing issues that have to do with what comes after toilet use (handwashing, hopefully), the toilet facilities themselves occasionally come into the spotlight ….
The Seattle Times recently reported that Seattle has officially “washed its hands” of their self-cleaning public toilets. Which leaves visitors to that city without a convenient place to, uh, relieve themselves – as well as leaving them without a convenient place to wash their hands. 
Too bad Seattle did not work toward finding a way to deal with any problems these public toilets may have caused. Finland found they could reduce/eliminate illicit behavior in their roadside toilets by allowing one to unlock the door by text messaging with a mobile phone. The toilets have been secured, and a sign outside explains that the user just sends the word "open" (in Finish) to a short code and the door will be unlocked remotely. The company managing the service will keep a short-term record of all users’ phone numbers, simply so that if the toilet is then damaged by criminals, they can be traced by the police.
And across the globe, even now, more than 600 cities have automatic public toilets -- Singapore alone has 750, London 678, and Athens 500. And there are traditional facilities across the globe as well.
So what’s a tourist in Seattle – or elsewhere -- to do? Do you ask a stranger for directions? Advocate for conveniently located facilities? Or map out toilet and handsink locations before you ever leave the comfort of home? How about all three:
• Visiting England? The Public Toilets-Gut Trust recently began a campaign, Can’t Wait, Won’t Wait: Public Toilet provision in the UK to educate stakeholders on need to retain or provide adequate public toilets:
• How about those travels down under? Australia’s National Continence Management Strategy Project readily publishes locations of rest rooms on their searchable public toilet map: www.toiletmap.gov.au
• Traveling wherever the world will take you? The Bathroom Diaries www.thebathroomdiaries.com lists, describes and rates toilet facilities in cities throughout the world. Whether you stay close to home or are planning a trip, say, to China, Turkey or Florida, you can print out a list of public facilities in the cities you plan to visit. One can also enter search terms such as “soap” “changing table” or “don’t eat poop.”
• Do you ever find yourself desperately looking for a clean toilet in the city? MizPee purports to find the closest, cleanest toilets in your area and sends the information to your cell phone. One can add and review rest rooms, and check their toilet paper ratings.
• Then there’s Diaroggle which helps one locate public toilets from a mobile phone. In addition to location, the website includes user ratings for cleanliness, the rules of gaining entrance, and occasionally even pictures snapped by users to show how good or bad the porcelain sanctuary is. According to the site, this is “ for the discerning, on-the-go defecator who is brave enough to use a public bathroom, but still demands a hygienic and private bathroom experience.”
In Seattle or elsewhere, we all can map our comfort breaks along with our travel itineraries. What a wonderful resource for a discerning on-the-go handwasher.
--
Michéle Samarya-Timm is a Health Educator for the Franklin Township Health Department in New Jersey.
Barfing on the BARF diet
A raw diet for pets is quite a controversial subject. Processed pet foods are processed with heat, making vitamins and nutrients less available compared to raw diets. Raw diets are also generally free from additives and preservatives found in traditional pet foods.
However, raw diets cost more money per day and require more time and labor in order to prepare the meal. There is also a risk of contamination with bacteria such as Salmonella and E. coli with raw pet food diets. A study conducted by Joffe found that 30 percent of dogs on raw food diets had salmonella in their stool. "Dogs eating raw chicken will secrete salmonella into the environment," explains Joffe. "It can cause everything from mild flu-like problems to life-threatening illnesses."
The most popular version of the raw diet is called the BARF diet, short for Bones And Raw Food or Biologically Appropriate Raw Food. BARF diets are composed mainly of raw meat and vegetables. Most veterinarians are not happy about these diets because there is no guarantee that the pet is receiving a properly balanced and nutritionally complete meal, and there is also the problem of bacterial contamination.
The Canadian Veterinarian Medical Association doesn't recommend feeding pets raw food, and neither does the American Veterinary Medial Association.
If pet owners are looking for an alternative to store bought pet food, the optimal word according to the CMVA is "cooked." Make sure to use recipes that call for cooked meats. A healthy recipe includes cooked meat, such as hamburger or chicken, with potato or rice and a mineral supplement. Proper cooking practices, such as using a meat thermometer and handwashing, are also essential to ensure the safety of the meal.
When football and food safety collide
I love it when two of my favorite things, football and food safety, intersect. Last year it was pigeon poop in stadiums. This year it's about changing culture. USA Today published a profile of 4 new NFL head coaches and one spoke specifically about changing the losing culture of a team.
Mike Smith of the Atlanta Falcons said: "When you change the culture, you have to change people's behaviors. And when you change behaviors, you change their habits."
I think this philosophy should be the same in fields, packing sheds, processing facilities, retail stores and kitchens: Leadership that values food safety should have a goal of changing the culture of an organization, resulting in behavior and habit changes on on the front-lines. And the organization doesn't have to be complicated or large, it could be an independent restaurant with 4 staff members or a church dinner committee with 20 volunteers.
Places I want to eat at or buy food from should be able to say that handling and producing food safely is what we do. Just like Smith wants his team to have a shared belief that winning is what they do.
Poop on Mushrooms? Sara Snow on Jon and Kate Plus 8
While I was working with the TV on this afternoon, I heard Sara Snow, Television host and Green Goddess, telling Kate Gosselin of Jon and Kate Plus 8 that mushrooms should not be washed. Kate, who is raising her family on organic food believing it will make her young twins and sextuplets healthier and stronger, was clearly put off by Sara’s advice. She said the family doesn’t normally eat mushrooms, but she was willing to follow directions. Sara told her to just wipe off the mushrooms with a damp paper towel.While the stir fry cooked, the dialog was enlightening:
Sara to Kate: “In my opinion, if there’s a little bit of dirt left on there, it’s fine. It’s not gonna hurt anyone.”
Kate to camera: “She taught me how to clean them, which was a little disturbing to me.”
Jon in Kate’s ear: “Fungi!”
Kate to Jon: “There was dirt on them. Active dirt. And she said you don’t wash mushrooms.”
Jon to Kate: “It’s not dirt.”
Kate: “I know that.”
Jon grins: “Poopadoop.”
Kate: “I know. You see. That’s why he doesn’t eat them, he claims.”
Kate to Sara: “I don’t know if I like to eat dirt, Sara.”
Kate to camera: “I was essentially merely just wiping the poop off of them and that concerned me that I didn’t get every last speck.”
Sara responds to Kate: “I let all sorts of things fall into my food and I’m not worried about it.”
Is Sara crazy? Is Kate right? Sara concludes, “By the time it all cooks down you won’t even notice it’s there. I’ll cover it up nicely.”
That’s the point, really. If you’re cooking your mushrooms, you can kill the nasty microbiological matter. But would you pop them in your mouth raw? Neither Sara nor Kate visibly ran to the sink to wash with soap and water after touching the Poopadoop Mushrooms. In the next scene everyone was heading to the table to eat.
The Mazurs and Food Safety
ers about it as well.My mom has become a regular reader of BarfBlog and we’ve also discussed a few of the articles at the dinner table. When we’re out doing things and we see someone doing something unsafe with food (like picking food up off the floor and eating it) one of our favorite things to do is say, “Doug wouldn’t like that.”
It turns out that there are a few things in the lives of the Mazurs that “Doug wouldn’t like.” A prime example is one of our favorite restaurants on the East side of Wichita. They serve traditional Indian food, buffet style. The restaurant is family owned, and as far as I know they have a relatively clean restaurant up to code according to the city. But during my interview for my job with Doug, we discussed this restaurant and I distinctly remember him telling me it wasn’t a good idea to eat at a buffet. The food sits out for hours and so many people go up and contaminate it, even with a sneeze guard.
He’s right, buffet style is a food safety nightmare , but unfortunately it hasn’t stopped our family from eating there once every two weeks. I have yet to get sick from the buffet, so I continue to play the game of Russian roulette with the possible pathogens in the Indian food. Each time we sit down at that restaurant we all say, “Doug sure wouldn’t approve of this.
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Topeka, KS: Poop in Lake Shawnee
e lake for four years also walked off the job after she was told that she couldn’t speak to media about her boyfriend’s incident.It sounds like there was no proper policy in place, so the guys in charge decided that the lifeguards would just have to take care of the problem. However, removing fecal matter with bare hands isn’t ideal. It’s much better to try to protect the hands somehow or to fish out the poop with a scoop.
The director of parks and recs for Shawnee County, John Knight, says that a new policy is in place for lifeguards at Lake Shawnee if poop is found in the lake again. The lake water has been tested for E. coli but results have not been released.
Public beaches on the coast are often tested for fecal coliforms and E. coli. Both are indicator organisms of the presence of harmful bacteria in the water. If the levels of bacteria are too high, the swimming area may be closed for a period of time. But the same system does not exist for many lakes with swimming areas.
When swimming in lakes, oceans or rivers, children should not drink the water they are swimming in. There is the possibility of human fecal matter and also wildlife fecal matter in the water.
Setting Boundaries: Pets and your newborn baby
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My ex mother-in-law once told me that if I had a baby I would have to get rid of my cats. I replied, “No cats, no baby.” My step-brother's cats mysteriously disappeared once his firstborn was old enough to crawl. Doug and I have two cats and two dogs and no intention of giving them up or sending them outdoors once the baby arrives. Sure, there’s dog hair all over the floors and it’s going to be a hassle learning to manage new and old responsibilities – and much more difficult to keep pet hair out of the baby’s mouth once she’s mobile. But we committed to the pets long ago and have been working on teaching them their order in the home. The Dog Whisperer, Cesar Millan, recommends that the dogs not even be allowed near the baby’s belongings at first to teach them that Baby is Alpha. Let them sniff at a distance until they know their place. When the dogs go for a walk, it should be behind the stroller, and they shouldn’t get unsupervised visitation, if they are allowed at all, in the baby’s room. It’s all about setting boundaries.
The Worms and Germs Blog by Doug’s ex-hockey buddy Scott Weese (he’s still a buddy but no hockey for Doug in Manhattan) recommends in “Old pet, new baby...new problems?” that we visit our veterinarian and the humane society to get advice on introducing the dogs and cats to the baby. Scott provides relevant downloadable pamphlets from the Calgary Humane Society in his blog post.
We want all four pets and the three of us to survive the transition without nips, scratches, or territory marking. We get enough of that from our friends and colleagues.
Produce leadership: memories of convenience?
At least that’s my take-home message after reading the screed by Bryan Silbermann, president of the Produce Marketing Association, Newark, Del., and Tom Stenzel, president of the United Fresh Produce Association, Washington, D.C., who are preaching the it’s-time-to-change message at least 10 years too late.
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The title itself -- We can't go back, so let's charge straight ahead -- suggests a memory of convenience or a preference of forgetfulness. “Our industry's key focus now should be to exert as much control as possible over our destiny moving forward. We are, after all, in the best position to lead the task at hand.”
Amy, my French literature wife says,
“When a trauma occurs such as the one that just took place in the produce industry with the Salmonella Saintpaul outbreak, people generally take one of two paths, according to psychoanalytic theory. They either dwell in the past, in the time before the rupture occurred, and pretend that the past was perfect, or they focus solely on the future. In either case, they ignore the painful present and the immediate working out of the trauma at hand.”
I’m not so literate. More literal. Literally, shouldn’t the produce industry have taken control of their destiny after any of the 20-some outbreaks in leafy greens or the 12 outbreaks in tomatoes since 1990? What about after all the other outbreaks in fresh produce?
Casey Jacob, Benjamin Chapman and I have a chapter in a book coming out later this year. It goes something like this:
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From the October, 1996, E. coli O157:H7 in Odwalla fresh juice outbreak to the Sept. 2006 E. coli O157 in spinach outbreak, “almost 500 outbreaks of foodborne illness involving fresh produce were documented, publicized and led to some changes within the industry. … (But) at what point did sufficient evidence exist to compel the fresh produce industry to embrace the kind of change the sector has heralded since 2007? And at what point will future evidence be deemed sufficient to initiate change within an industry? …
“A decade of evidence existed highlighting problems with fresh produce, warning letters were written, yet little was seemingly accomplished. The real challenge for food safety professionals, is to garner support for safe food practices in the absence of an outbreak, to create a culture that values microbiologically safe food, from farm-to-fork, at all times, and not just in the glare of the media spotlight.”
The produce leaders also write in their letter that, now, after all these fresh fruit and vegetable outbreaks,
“Working together with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, state departments of agriculture and foreign governments, there must be extensive industry training and education, to help every employee at every company understand the role they play in creating a food safety culture.”
Wow, sounds like something I’d write. Except I’d throw in an evaluation component to see if the training and education actually work. But I see no evidence the industry wants to undertake such work.
I take that back. Lots of individual growers, and I’ve had the privilege of working with several, want to do the basic work and whatever they can to ensure a safe harvest. They want to know if their people know how to wash the shit off of their hands, and how to keep the shit out of fields of fresh produce.
The associations, the industry leaders, have apparently given up, and now “support fair but mandatory produce food safety rules.” They want government to do their job.
Jamie Oliver: Slaughtering chickens to raise awareness about slaughtering chickens
The show serves up a giant dose of shock and awe as chicks are gassed to death and an adult chicken is killed for the meal. Yet throughout the show Oliver insists that he is trying to raise awareness about how chickens are treated in the poultry industry.
"I don't think it's sensational to show people the reality of how chickens live and die at the moment. It may be upsetting for some people but that's how things are. And if seeing some of the practices helps to change the shopping habits of just 5 per cent of people watching, then it will be worth it.”
Channel 4 factual entertainment boss Andrew Mackenzie said: "Jamie's simple message, in quite an overt way, will be: 'If you know what happens to a chicken before arriving on your plate, would you change the way you think about chicken? Would you still eat it?'"
Oliver had criticized Sainbury’s supermarket over its involvement on his show and has since apologized for it. It appears that his main goal to is encourage people to purchase free-range and organic chicken raised in less intensive facilities. However I found that most of the program depicting the slaughter of chickens seems to push people towards vegetarianism rather than purchasing their chickens from another source. You be the judge.
A food safety audit does not ensure safe food
And too often, it’s about the paycheck, not the food safety (and that comes from years of working with farmers and others and watching various auditors show up and not knowing too much).Crain's Detroit Business has a story about the expanding empire of NSF International's testing and certification services, which expects sales to increase 29 percent, to $155 million this year.
NSF CEO Kevan Lawlor says that as companies develop more global supply chains, there's an increased risk of health and safety issues.
Which could also be an argument for developing an internal capacity to assess suppliers and internal operations.
Chapman has written that,
“Farmers and processors need to demonstrate to consumers they are aware of microbial risks and are taking serious steps to reduce that risk, day-in, day-out, even in the absence of an outbreak. Regulatory or even third party-audits are largely meaningless. Audits are snapshots, and auditors look for easily viewed visual mistakes and do little to look at what a farmer or staff member does. Just like restaurant inspections audits are not a good indicator of likelihood of an outbreak. Farmers need food safety resources 24/7 to help guide their production practices, and they need those best practices continually reinforced; an annual audit is hopelessly insufficient, especially since outbreaks keep happening from processors that are audited. Inspection scores for farms, like those for restaurants are subject to inspector inconsistencies and are not predictive of the likelihood of an outbreak (Cruz et al., 2001; Jones et al., 2004).”
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Or as I’ve written and stressed for years, “certified/verified/HACCPified/inspected/audited don't means that much unless there is a culture of food safety present farm-to-fork, 24/7.”
How many NSF-audited farms or facilities have subsequently been involved in outbreaks of foodborne illness? How many farms or facilities audited by other third-party operators have been involved in outbreaks of foodborne illness?
Casey Jacob: Dr. Phil's germaphobic mom
There were multiple specimens alive and well in Jennifer’s house (as with most any house), according to swabs by microbiologist Carolyn Jacobs, who sampled several frequently contacted surfaces, such as light switches and the TV remote. In the kitchen, she targeted the sink and what she felt was one of the dirtiest areas in the home: the can opener.The show’s M.D. identified bacillus and staphylococcus strains in samples from the can opener, but claimed they were “completely benign and can’t hurt you at all.” To prove his point, he grabbed a spoonful of the red stuff in the dish in front of him and smiled as he took a bite. Fortunately, it was only red Jell-O.
However, he reasoned, human immune systems serve a purpose and are meant to encounter microbes in everyday life. Jennifer admits, “I have this huge fear of my (six-month-old) daughter getting sick and dying,” from the bacteria and viruses she knows are everywhere.
The M.D. is right in saying that human bodies are built to deal with microorganisms—both harmful and benign. However, as in the case of consuming raw milk, some members of society are better equipped for them than others, and children may not be as well prepared to fight off tough pathogens.
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Jennifer is right to worry… a little.That attitude of compulsive cleanliness could do a lot of good for food handlers in the farm-to-fork distribution chain that lie beyond mom’s kitchen: fry cooks, butchers, servers, fruit pickers, slaughterhouse managers, and even even cheerleaders at lemonade stands. Something to think about.
Casey Jacob is the married version of former barfblogger Casey Wilkinson, and continues to work with Doug in various capacities.
Michelle Mazur: Food safety at baseball parks
Even the hot dogs have evolved. How about a Tags: Culture of food safety, ballpark, baseball, food safety
Anita Bivens, another diner at the restaurant, said, 
Although I’m very confident that Bobby’s culinary skills are far more advanced than Kim’s, one can only imagine that every eye was on Kim as she did her best 
No matter what method or etiquette is used, it simply must be done during the workday. That leaves many wondering, how much time and money is spent doing your business in the bathroom? .jpg)
One organization seems to be doing the exact opposite; they’ll pay people to poop. The Environmental Studies Program at Oberlin College held an event last fall entitled the “
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Under the plan, 25 percent of at least one of its produce items, including romaine lettuce, green bell and jalapeño peppers and red onions, for each of its 730-plus restaurants, will be sourced from small and mid-sized local farms. 
We thought we might try Acapulco Restaurant, a Mexican franchise in town. That is, until I read on FSnet that the restaurant had just been named as the source of a 
Glenn Fry helps run Taylor Farms de Mexico's new $14 million plant in San José Iturbide, Mexico. He picked the land where it sits, designed just about every facet of it, and he manages more than 800 workers who plant, harvest and package produce – including lettuce, onions and broccoli – for export to the U.S.