USDA says Nebraska Beef doesn't know how to manage shit
While Nebraska Beef was busy telling church ladies they didn’t know how to safely prepare food, and telling Americans, including 50 really sick ones, that their meat had never been linked with illness, the U.S. Department of Agriculture was busy telling Nebraska Beef they didn’t know shit.
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Or at least how to reduce it in Nebraska Beef products.
USDA just announced that Nebraska Beef, Ltd., an Omaha, Neb., establishment is expanding its June 30 recall to include all beef manufacturing trimmings and other products intended for use in raw ground beef produced between May 16 and June 26, totaling approximately 5.3 million pounds, that may be contaminated with E. coli O157:H7.
“FSIS has concluded that the production practices employed by Nebraska Beef, Ltd. are insufficient to effectively control E. coli O157:H7 in their beef products that are intended for grinding. The products subject to recall may have been produced under insanitary conditions.”
That’s insane. Or unsane. And why thermometers and cleanliness are a must at retail, food service and the home, cause companies like Nebraska Beef would rather blame consumers than take care of their own shop.
I feel naked without my thermometer -- when cooking
Me and Misti Crane, of The Columbus Dispatch, had a chat about all things food safety yesterday, as 18 people in Ohio and another 20 in Michigan have been stricken with the same strain of E. coli O157:H7, linked to hamburger from Nebraska Beef.
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As Bill Marler pointed out last night, Nebraska Beef tried to downplay the seriousness of its recall of over 265 tons of ground beef and components when it said in a press release,
"The Company has processed over 10 billion pounds of product without a confirmed customer illness."
Not sure what confirmed means, but …
What I tried to explain with Misti was that it’s not nearly enough to expect people to just handle things safety because food safety is so simple; that pathogen loads – the sheer numbers of dangerous microorganisms on product like hamburger – need to be reduced from farm-to-fork.
If you’ve ever tried making hamburgers from scratch, you’ll know why.
The opportunities for cross-contamination -- a few of those E. coli O157:H7 moving from hamburger to hands or counters or utensils, and then somewhere else –are just overwhelming.
And if the burger does make it to the grill, it has to be cooked. As I said,
"I feel naked without a thermometer," and that brown meat is not necessarily cooked meat. "Color is just a terrible indicator. Over half of hamburger will turn brown before it's actually done.”
That’s why a risk reduction approach, beginning on the farm and right through to the fork, is essential. Especially with E. coli O157:H7.
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E. coli O157 outbreak in Sweden associated with locally produced lettuce
Outbreaks involving fresh produce do happen in other countries -- they're just not so well reported.
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Soderstrom et al. do a nice job in the current Foodborne Pathogens and Disease describing a 2005 outbreak of E. coli O157 in Sweden.
"A total of 135 cases were recorded, including 11 cases of hemolytic uremic syndrome. The epidemiological investigations implicated lettuce as the most likely source of the outbreak, with an OR of 13.0 (CI 2.94–57.5) in the case–control study. The lettuce was irrigated by water from a small stream, and water samples were positive for Stx 2 by PCR. The identical VTEC O157 Stx 2 positive strain was isolated from the cases and in cattle at a farm upstream from the irrigation point."
Watch that irrigation water.
The human face of E. coli O157:H7: 3-year-old died in 2000
Three-year-old Brianna Kriefall and her family ate at a Sizzler restaurant in South Milwaukee in July 2000. Brianna died a week later after battling E. coli-related hemolytic uremic syndrome.
Brianna, along with most of the other 140 people who were sickened in the outbreak, consumed watermelon that had been cross-contaminated with raw meat.
Genetic testing showed the microbes that made the restaurant patrons sick matched microbes contained in an unopened package of meat.
The national Sizzler chain, its local franchise and an insurance company are suing Excel Corp., the subsidiary of Cargill Inc. that produced the meat.
On Friday Brianna's family reached a $13.5 million settlement with the company's meat supplier and others.
The Kriefalls' case had been dismissed in 2004 by a different Milwaukee County Circuit judge after Excel lawyers argued the company was exempt from state lawsuits because it had followed federal regulations in handling the beef sold to Sizzler.
An appeals court reversed the dismissal, saying the legal action fit within the federal goal of making food safer for consumers. The U.S. Supreme Court declined Excel's appeal.
Salmonella in tomato toll rises to 138; E. coli in lettuce outbreak appears over
The Dallas Morning News reports that Texas and New Mexico now claim 104 of the 138 cases of Salmonella Saintpaul related to tomatoes in 11 U.S. States. At least 19 people from the two states have been hospitalized. No deaths have been reported.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration said that tomatoes grown in Texas, California, Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina appear to be blameless. Those imported from Belgium, Canada, Dominican Republic, Guatemala, Israel, the Netherlands and Puerto Rico also did not appear to be the source.
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The FDA said preliminary investigations suggest that raw red plum, red Roma or round red tomatoes are the source of the problem.
Meanwhile, the Washington Health Department said an E. coli outbreak that sickened at least nine people in Pierce and Thurston counties is apparently over and that there have been no new cases since May 29.
A spokesman, Donn Moyer, said the infection apparently came from romaine lettuce that was served at schools or restaurants. Moyer says health officials haven't been able to identify the source for sure, although the Food and Drug Administration is still investigating.
E. coli O157:H7, possibly in romaine lettuce, sickens 9 in Washington State
Seriously, I'm getting tired of using this picture. But I'm not running out of opportunities.
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The Washington State Department of Health said today that nine confirmed cases of E. coli infection found in Thurston and Pierce counties have been traced to romaine lettuce and a tenth case may be linked but was not tested.
Health Department spokesman Tim Church says five of the victims were hospitalized, but all have been released.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is tracing the source of the contaminated lettuce.
A table of known outbreaks of verotoxigenic E. coli -- including but not limited to E. coli O157:H7 -- associated with fresh spinach and lettuce is available at http://foodsafety.ksu.edu/en/article-details.php?a=3&c=32&sc=419&id=903.
UPDATE: The Department of Health says nine confirmed cases of E.coli infection found in north Thurston and south Pierce counties have been traced to bagged, commercial romaine lettuce.
Health officials say it's not the same type of lettuce you would buy in a grocery store.
Wales: E. coli lessons 'were not learned'
The families of the 150 sickened and one killed in the 2005 E. coli O157 outbreak in Wales told a public inquiry today it was "galling" that lessons from other outbreaks were not learned and that the events caused "lasting and untold harm" to many families.
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Mark Powell QC (no relation but a fine Welsh name), representing the families, said warnings had not been heeded following an E.coli outbreak in Scotland between 1996 and 1997 which left 21 elderly people dead.
"It is galling to the families that many of the observations the Sheriff's inquiry, with the substitution of the name of Tudor for that of Barr, the butcher involved in that outbreak, could be written about the 2005 outbreak. Much of what was said then could equally be said now."
The inquiry, chaired by Professor Hugh Pennington, who also chaired an inquiry following the 1996 outbreak in Scotland, is hearing final submissions on Wednesday and Thursday.
It was as if the report following the Scottish outbreak was never written, he told Professor Pennington, adding, "The families are determined that in 10 year's time, the same might not be said of your inquiry."
The inquiry’s findings and any recommendations are not expected to be published until later this year.
Why are UK butchers -- and inspectors -- apparently so lousy?
This isn't about the Butcher of Wales, or the Butcher of Scotland. This time, it's the Butcher of Leeds,
The Yorkshire Post reports today that a butcher's shop at the centre of one of Yorkshire's most serious food poisoning outbreaks was found to be "filthy" by inspectors two years before it was shut down.
About 60 people were struck down by E-coli O157 during an outbreak in Leeds in 2006 that led to an investigation into Todd's Pork and Beef Butchers in Armley and its stall at Kirkgate Market.
Papers released under the Freedom of Information Act reveal that Todd's was warned several times about poor hygiene standards and practices.
Hilary Cobley, whose late husband Neil was struck down by poisoning as he was due to undergo chemotherapy, was quoted as saying the outbreak was "no accident", adding,
"I don't think this happened overnight. When they shut the shop you could see the muck on the floor. It is a shame that they can't make them pay the fine."
Bureaucrats: We were told to take a "softly softly" approach to food safety plans in Wales
The families of the E. coli victims in the 2005 outbreak in Wales believe the public officials charged with protecting their families failed in their duty, but that butcher William Tudor “motivated by greed and profit bears the principal responsibility for the outbreak."
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Bridgend County Council responded by saying it made a "reasonable" decision to allow William Tudor, the Butcher of Wales, to use one vacuum-packing machine for both cooked and uncooked meat and that the rules on the issue were "unclear."
The BBC reports that Bridgend council do accept that there were deficiencies in the way its officers worked with the factory to introduce a hazard assessment plan, but it says that the government had intended the scheme to be introduced on a "softly softly" basis.
It also says that Mr Tudor's "undoubted attempts at deceit" gave their officers the impression that he was a "competent and informed food operator."
Roast beef suspected in Omaha E. coli outbreak
State health officials are continuing to investigate an E. coli outbreak in Sarpy County, Omaha, that sickened 14 people — including a 7-year-old — and sent four people to the hospital.
State epidemiologist Dr. Tom Safranek said the outbreak was caused by roast beef served at a reception hall in Sarpy County for a private gathering of 50 to 60 people on March 26. Safranek further noted the meat was prepared at a person's home and brought to the event, but he would not say where the meal was served or what the gathering was for.
Despite the sense of kinship and best intentions, there have been at least 37 reported outbreaks of foodborne illness associated with homecooked products and community dinners in North America since 1973 (http://foodsafety.ksu.edu/en/article-details.php?a=3&c=32&sc=419&id=890).
UK school bans handshake tradition amid E. coli fears
The traditional handshaking ceremony that takes place after assemblies at Bedales School in Steep, near Petersfield, has been temporarily scrapped amid fears it could spread infection.
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Headteacher Keith Budge said he made the decision after being told on Sunday that a 15-year-old student had been diagnosed with E. coli O157.
"We have already checked hygiene arrangements across the school and will be advising all staff and students to follow good hygiene practice. The school's traditional handshaking ceremony after assembly has been suspended until we get the all-clear."
Farm closes in N. Ireland after visitors contract E. coli
About 90 children and staff at three primary schools in south Belfast are to be tested for the E. coli infection after a P1 pupil at Rosetta Primary School was confirmed as carrying the bug.
Pupils at the school recently took part in a school excursion to an open farm near Belfast along with children from Cregagh and Holy Rosary primaries.
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The Eastern Health Board said other people who had contracted the infection in recent weeks had some contact with the farm.
Children and pensioners are especially vulnerable to E. coli O157 which is normally found in the intestines of people and cattle and can be passed on by eating infected food and liquid.
Not quite.
E. coli O157 and other verotoxigenic E. coli are found in about 10 per cent of all ruminants -- cattle, sheep, goats, deer -- and outbreaks have been linked to each.
So while the farm says,
"We are confident that our intensive cleaning programme over the weekend will further reassure the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) on Monday and that we will immediately reopen for business,"
it may not be that simple.
There have been over 20 outbreaks of severe illness from petting zoos -- primarily contact with farm animals -- in the past decade.
159 people, mainly children, were sickened with E. coli O157:H7 traced to a goat and a sheep at the petting zoo at the 1999 Western Fair in London, Ontario.
Prof. Hugh Pennington of the U.K. has gone so far as to say that children under five (who are more vulnerable because of their still-developing immune systems) should be banned from visiting livestock farms because of the serious risk of acquiring E. coli O157:H7 infection from farm animals. Such a ban already exists in Sweden.
In the fall of 1998, I accompanied one of my four daughters on a kindergarten trip to the farm (left). After petting the animals and touring the crops --I questioned the fresh manure on the strawberries --we were assured that all the food produced was natural. We then returned for unpasteurized apple cider. The host served the cider in a coffee urn, heated, so my concern about it being unpasteurized was abated. I asked: "Did you serve the cider heated because you heard about other outbreaks and were concerned about liability?" She responded, "No. The stuff starts to smell when it's a few weeks old and heating removes the smell."
There is much to learn from interacting with animals, farms and the world. The challenge is to do so in a microbiologically safe manner.
Hamburger Habits: Is Medium Safe?
I’m a reformed medium-rare hamburger eater. Before I met Doug, I always wanted my hamburgers pink in the middle and frankly had no clue that this was a potentially risky habit. Now that I’ve learned hamburger needs to be cooked to 165 F to be safe, however, I rarely eat hamburger unless Doug cooks it at home. That’s the only way I can assure that the cook is using a meat thermometer and knows how to properly do so.
Tonight, though, I’m in Buffalo, NY and I had dinner with two British friends in a rowdy Irish pub. While I intended to order salad, the pickings were few on the menu and I settled on a cheeseburger with fries. The waitress asked me, “How do you want that cooked.” Somewhat startled and without my food safety arsenal beside me, I said, “Medium.” I hate well-done hamburger because of the texture, but I wanted my burger safe. How could I tell her that?
My burger came and was very medium rare looking … very pink in the middle and done on the outside. I ate it. The whole thing. And it tasted good. And now I’m thinking about my foolish behavior and wondering if I’ll get e. coli. I know that color is a lousy indicator and I know it’s not likely I’ll get sick. But without the thermometer, how can you be sure?
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USDA to start testing for non-O157 E. coli in beef
Meatingplace.com was first to report on plans by USDA to start testing ground beef and ground beef component samples for non-O157 Shiga Toxin-Producing E. coli (STECs) to determine whether to declare them adulterants.
(A couple of relevant outbreak tables involving non-O157 STECs are available at:
http://barfblog.foodsafety.ksu.edu/2007/10/articles/e-coli/nono157-stec-meeting/)
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Officials from USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service told about 200 participants at a public meeting on Wednesday the agency will test both samples that test positive and those that test negative for E. coli O157:H7, but production lots will not be recalled, seized or detained if they only test positive for non-O157 STECs. The data is being generated only for study purposes at this time.
USDA will issue a public notice to announce a start date, which has not been determined. FSIS Deputy Assistant Administrator Daniel Engeljohn said the agency will assess the testing data "over a limited timeframe sufficient to ascertain the general likelihood of the presence of selected non-O157 STECs."
"Based on the evidence that we develop from our testing, as well as other available evidence, we will decide whether to declare selected non-O157 STECs to be adulterants," he said in a presentation prepared for the group.
Elizabeth Hagen, FSIS executive associate for Public Health, said the testing will focus on six groups of E. coli bacteria — O26, O111, O103, O121, O45 and O145 — which are responsible for 75 percent of non-O157 illnesses. She noted the true incidence of non-O157 human illness is difficult to define, due to limited awareness and non-uniform surveillance. Outbreaks worldwide have been associated with varied non-food and food vehicles, including meat.
While USDA has not yet decided to declare the non-O157 STECs adulterants, Engeljohn outlined the process if the agency does. The agency would:
* define applicable products from slaughter/dressing and further processing operations
* issue a Federal Register Notice in the form of an interpretive rule
* establish an effective date that ensures sufficient time to address seamless implementation for both domestic and imported products
* issue compliance guidelines
* issue policy implementation instructions and train FSIS inspection personnel
* conduct outreach to the regulated industry.
Well aware of the controversy these and other proposed actions are likely to generate, FSIS Under Secretary Richard Raymond opened the meeting by saying, "You certainly may hear things you don't agree with…Progress won't occur if we're just wanting to avoid discomfort by maintaining the old status quo. The E. coli bug is obviously not satisfied with the status quo and neither should we be."
More to follow.
Hamburgers contaminated by E. coli O157:H7 in France
A FSnet reader provided a link to the French Ministere de l'Agriculture and we're going to start trying to translate the significant microbial warnings and outbreaks.
Amy, the French professor partner took a crack at this one:
"On March 25, 2008 the press conference held by DGS, DGAL, InVS and AFSSA made precisions on the available information on the contamination of hamburger by the bacteria E. coli O157:H7 on which the shelf life has expired.
This outbreak was revealed by analyses that were undertaken at the producer’s initiative, conforming to communal and national hygiene rules.
It remained to be clarified the levels of contamination of these products because the first analyses were conducted without a microbial count. The official count analyses performed on the same hamburgers confirmed an important contamination on two samples and a weaker one on two others.
Since beginning informing consumers on March 21, 2008, there have been no human cases confirmed tied to this outbreak. In specific, no hemolytic uremic syndrome cases have been found.
Recommendations for consumers:
You are reminded that if you bought or are storing in your freezer the lots of hamburgers in question (fresh ground steak or ground meat, 5-15% fat, Monoprix or Carrefour brands, expiration date March 17 or 18, 2008, sanitary check number FR 50.147.02), you are formally recommended to not consume them and to bring them back to the store where you bought them.
In case digestive problems arise within a maximum of 10 days after consumption of the hamburgers from the incriminated lots, you are recommended to consult your physician and indicate your consumption to him."
And in what I've learned to love about the French, the press release says,
If you have not consumed any of the hamburgers from the incriminated lots or i
f you have no symptoms, it is useless to worry or to consult anyone.
The release also says to cook hamburger to the center. Whatever that means. What is French for piping hot?
Generally, it is advisable to remember that cooking the hamburgers through to the center prevents the consequences of such an outbreak, as the bacteria are destroyed by a temperature of 65°C.
Hygiene failures in Wales similar to Scottish E. coli outbreak
This barfblogging stuff can be fairly cool (thanks, Bill).
I wrote an opinion piece about the on-going inquiry into the 2005 E. coli O157 outbreak in Wales, and how the findings to date were somewhat similar to what happened after the 1996 E. coli outbreak in Scotland.
Didn’t send it to any media outlets, but posted it on barfblog.com.
That was Feb. 27, 2008. Yesterday, the opinion piece/blog entry apparently made an appearance at the inquiry in Wales.
The Western Mail reported that the Welsh E. coli public inquiry was yesterday shown a blog entry suggesting that chairman Professor Hugh Pennington was trapped in Groundhog Day and that worrying parallels have emerged between the world’s worst E.coli O157 outbreak and the cause of the South Wales Valleys outbreak.
The Scottish outbreak was caused by meat produced by award-winning butcher John Barr, who was found to be using the same knives to handle both raw and cooked meat.
The inquiry into the South Wales outbreak has heard how butcher William Tudor relied on one vacuum-packing machine for both raw and cooked meats. The single machine, which was in use for at least nine months before the outbreak and has been repeatedly referred to as a serious risk of cross-contamination.
In 1999 Prof Pennington said,
“The prospect of another Mr Barr type situation is still quite real because everybody I talk to in meat inspection and environmental health tells me there are people who are still not doing the right thing.”
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But despite the recommendations, Tudor repeatedly passed routine environmental health inspections and was awarded his butcher’s licence just over a month before the outbreak, which killed five-year-old Deri Primary School pupil Mason Jones (right), even though Bridgend Council’s inspectors were aware that he was working with only one vac-packing machine.
Asked about the Groundhog Day blog, Dr Salmon said,
“The butcher, John Barr, as far as I understand, was extremely well connected in the location of which his enforcement was taking place. It will be important to take into account how much such considerations may or may not have applied in the case of William Tudor.”
Shiga toxin kills child, sickens five others in Texas
Health officials are reporting that shiga toxin -- and that often means E. coli O157:H7 but that has not been confirmed in this case -- has sickened at least six people in Texas. Three of the cases were children and one of those children died.
Most of the cases were reported in Bastrop County.
Doug McBride, spokesperson for the Texas Department of State Health Services, said,
"The bacteria that can produce this shiga toxin typically live in the intestines of animals, so the origin is usually going to be related to fecal matter from animal waste. … What's unusual about this is to have six cases within a few days and in a relatively small geographical area."
Health official are awaiting the results of lab tests to identify a specific bacteria. 
How to properly cook hamburgers
The best way to make a hamburger is debatable. In my opinion adding Swiss cheese, pickles, onions, and mustard to a burger nearly perfects it. The one other ingredient? Temperature.
Cooking burgers to 160°F is the only sure way to tell that it is fully cooked. Cooking hamburgers to 160°F kills unwanted microorganisms such as E. coli O157:H7, a deadly ingredient. The U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention estimates 61 deaths a year from E. coli, and thousands more ill. Ground beef was recalled 19 different times in 2007 for E. coli contamination.
E. coli O157:H7 loves hiding in the intestines of animals, such as cows. During slaughter, if workers do not follow safe practices it can get onto the cuts of meat. Steaks can be cooked to varying degrees of doneness because any potential for microorganisms exists only on the surface. However, with ground beef the muscle is mixed up and the organisms are spread throughout the meat.
When cooking, don’t rely on the burger’s appearance to tell if it is done. Many people think a burger that is no longer pink is a done burger. This is not the case as pointed out in many studies (here, here, and here). Sometimes burgers look done well before they hit 160°F.
To measure the temperature of a burger, go out and buy a tip sensitive digital thermometer. Remove the burger from the grill or stove and insert the thermometer into the side of the meat all the way to the center. Wait until the thermometer reads 160°F before serving. Add the toppings of your choice, and enjoy!
References
Hunt, M.C., O. Sørheim, E. Slinde. Color and Heat Denaturation of Myoglobin Forms in Ground Beef. Journal of Food Science Volume 64 Issue 5 Page 847-851, September 1999.
http://www.blackwell-synergy.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1365-2621.1999.tb15925.x?prevSearch=authorsfield%3A%28M.C.+Hunt%29
Ryan, Suzanne M., Mark Seyfert, Melvin C. Hunt, Richard A. Mancini. Influence of Cooking Rate, Endpoint Temperature, Post-cook Hold Time, and Myoglobin Redox State on Internal Color Development of Cooked Ground Beef Patties. Journal of Food Science. Volume 71 Issue 3 Page C216-C221, April 2006
http://www.blackwell-synergy.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1365-2621.2006.tb15620.x?prevSearch=authorsfield%3A%28M.C.+Hunt%29
Seyfert, M., R.A. Mancini, M.C. Hunt. Internal Premature Browning in Cooked Ground Beef Patties from High-Oxygen Modified-Atmosphere Packaging. Journal of Food Science. Volume 69 Issue 9 Page C721-C725, December 2004
http://www.blackwell-synergy.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1365-2621.2004.tb09923.x?prevSearch=authorsfield%3A%28M.C.+Hunt%29
Mother tells how E. coli killed son
Sharon Mills, 33, whose five-year-old son Mason Jones died in 2005 after contracting E. coli O157, told the public inquiry in Wales today that she was devastated when she learned he had the bug.
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In her statement to the inquiry, Ms Mills said,
"When Mason was hallucinating he said to me, 'Mamma, I'm dying.' Mason had never been a child who had ever talked about death - his words therefore hit me for six. You could see it in Mason's eyes that when he said these words he meant what he was saying. That was the first time that I began to form a deep-rooted feeling that Mason could die. I tried to reassure him and talked about things like how many children he was going to have when he got older. I told him that the doctors and nurses were going to make him better. This night was the worst of my life. ...
"He was a beautiful child and I couldn't understand why this had happened. When Mason passed away I felt numb. I felt as if I were looking at someone else's child. I thought that it couldn't be Mason lying there. It was unreal. I felt that I was having a nightmare and that I couldn't wake up. I have felt like that ever since. Returning home without Mason felt as if my life had ended."
The Butcher of Wales
Professor Hugh Pennington has become unstuck in time.
More like Bill Murray in Groundhog Day, than Billy Pilgrim.
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In November 1996, over 400 fell ill and 21 were killed in Scotland by E. coli O157:H7 found in deli meats produced by family butchers John Barr & Son. The Butcher of Scotland, who had been in business for 28 years and who was previously awarded the title of Scottish Butcher of the Year, was using the same knives to handle raw and cooked meat. That's a food safety no-no.
In a 1997 inquiry, Prof. Pennington recommended, among other things, the physical separation, within premises and butcher shops, of raw and cooked meat products using separate counters, equipment and staff.
In the past two weeks, Prof. Pennington has heard in a new inquiry how John Tudor and Son, the Butcher of Wales, used the same machine to vacuum package both raw and cooked meats, leading to an E. coli O157:H7 outbreak beginning in Sept. 2005, which sickened some150 children in 44 schools in southern Wales and killed five-year-old Mason Jones.
How can the good professor awaken from this recurring national nightmare?
The inquiry into the 2005 outbreak, which began in Feb. 2008, is again chaired by Prof. Pennington and has again heard testimony highlighting gross managerial failures and shocking levels of complacency.
So far, the Butcher of Wales has been shown to have:
• encouraged staff suffering from stomach bugs and diarrhea to continue preparing meat for school dinners;
• known of cross-contamination between raw and cooked meats, but did nothing to prevent it;
• used the same packing in which raw meat had been delivered to subsequently store cooked product;
• operated a processing facility that contained a filthy meat slicer, cluttered and dirty chopping areas, and meat more than two years out of date piled in a freezer;
• a cleaning schedule at the factory that one expert called "a joke;"
• falsified crucial health and safety documents and lied about receiving hygiene awards; and,
• supplied schools with meat that was green, smelly and undercooked.
Professor Chris Griffith, head of the food research and consultancy unit at the University of Wales Institute, Cardiff, told the inquiry the culture at the premises was “dominated by saving money.”
This would explain why Tudor retained his contract to supply schools: because he was the cheapest.
So who allowed Tudor to operate under such conditions?
Government inspectors.
(This is why I get substantially nervous when any food producer, such as California lettuce and spinach growers, says they meet inspection standards.)
Prof. Pennington has heard that Tudor and Son was visited several times in the months leading up to the Sept. 2005 outbreak, that inspectors knew there was only one vac-pac machine being used for both cooked and raw meats but, despite Pennington's 1997 recommendation, inspectors decided the business did not pose "an imminent risk" to human health.
A retired senior Food Standards Agency official, who now works as a freelance food safety consultant, told the inquiry that the use of a single vac-pak for both raw and cooked meat was “like playing Russian Roulette."
The official also chided inspectors for failing to note deficiencies in Tudor's written food safety plan and stated, rather bluntly, "There was a failure in the series of inspections to identify poor hygiene and working practices and a failure to take action."
The inspectors also took on "face value" explanations offered by Tudor and his staff for various food safety failures.
Buyers with the school boards were equally eager to look the other way to save a pound. One supervisor told the inquiry, “You have to have faith in people. You don’t expect them to make up stories about meat.”
Except that inspection and regulatory regimes for meat were created in Southern France in the 12th century precisely because people do make up stories about meat. Europe has almost 1,000 years of regulatory experience with shoddy food suppliers; that experience was not applied in southern Wales in 2005. As a result, 5-year-old Mason Jones died a painful and unnecessary death. Dozens of kids were hospitalized and will suffer life-long effects.
The official purpose of the inquiry is to provide recommendations designed to prevent a similar outbreak happening again.
As Prof. Pennington knows, that was supposed to happen in 1997.
20 sick, 2 serious, with E. coli O157:H7 after church potluck
WKRG News is reporting that at least 20 of the 300 people who attended the annual "Beast Feast and Wild Game Supper" at the Eastern Shore First Baptist Church in Alabama last weekend got sick and eight of those 20 people were infected with E. coli O157:H7.
Teresa Porter with the Baldwin County Health Department, said,
"Three of the people infected are still in the hospital. And there's an two-to-ten day incubation period for this organism so we've got a couple more days to go."
Two brothers reportedly 10- and 8-years-old sickened in the outbreak remain in fair and good condition today after being transferred from Mobile to Birmingham.
Associate Pastor Ken Wilson at the Eastern Shore Baptist Church said,
"It's affected all of us as a church family. We're doing whatever we can to help the families affected and we're cooperating with the health department."
A table of church-community-potluck style outbreaks is available at http://www.foodsafety.ksu.edu/en/article-details.php?a=2&c=5&sc=25&id=881.
We say, anyone serving food, especially in a public setting, should have some minimal food safety training.
Taco John's E. coli lettuce grown next to Calif. dairy farm
The Bakersfield Californian reported on Friday that a 16-month federal and state investigation found that lettuce raised on Wegis Ranch in Buttonwillow Calif., and served at Taco John’s restaurants was the source of an E. coli O157:H7 outbreak that sickened 81 people in Iowa and Minnesota in late 2006.
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The report does not definitively state how the lettuce was contaminated but said water contaminated by manure from two nearby dairies could be a possible source.
Wegis Ranch uses manure water to irrigate some fields where animal feed is grown, according to the report. It said lettuce linked to the E. coli outbreak was grown directly across from two of those fields.
In addition, the ranch’s irrigation system may have allowed manure water to taint freshwater used to irrigate fields where lettuce was grown, the report concluded.
E.coli samples from the ranch and dairies genetically matched the strain found in the tainted lettuce. The dairies were Maya and West Star North.
The next day, Bloomberg News reported that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration had published guidelines that suggested employees of fresh-cut fruit and vegetable processors wash their hands to help stop the spread of contamination.
Yes., handwashing is important. So is not growing fresh product in cow shit.
'Fecal contamination will continue to occur and shit always flows downstream'
That's the conclusion from an extensive feature in Men's Health on last year's increase in E. coli O157:H7 in the U.S.
Author Tom Groneberg quotes several folks with their theories for the increase.
Richard Raymond, M.D., the USDA's undersecretary for food safety, says,
"The amount of product we test that's positive has gone up about 33 percent this year from the past 3 years. I don't think it's that the agency has fallen asleep at the switch. I don't think it's that the industry has gotten sloppy. I think it's the cows."
Specifically, Dr. Raymond cites high corn prices for prompting a switch to cheaper feeds for fattening cattle. "When you change their feed, their intestinal flora change."
T.G. Nagaraja, Ph.D., a professor of microbiology at Kansas State University and the leader of a team of researchers targeting ways to decrease levels of E. coli in cattle before they reach the slaughterhouse, says,
"We found that cattle consuming distiller's grains as 25 percent of their diet had about a twofold higher incidence of E. coli O157:H7. Our observation is preliminary, but we've done three studies that show a positive association between this feed and increased levels of O157."
David Smith, D.V.M., Ph.D., a professor of veterinary and biomedical science at the University of Nebraska, says,
"One factor associated with cattle shedding the E. coli organism is wet and muddy pen conditions. I suspect the slaughterhouses may have had cattle arrive this summer with a higher probability of shedding E. coli, or the cattle had it present on their hides, which led to greater opportunities for ground-beef contamination than during droughts."
Michael Doyle, Ph.D., director of the center for food safety at the University of Georgia and one of the world's leading authorities on E. coli and other foodborne pathogens, says,
"There is often an increase in bacterial contamination when experienced workers on the slaughter line are replaced with less-experienced workers, such as before and after holidays, and raids this year on illegal slaughterhouse workers by the INS led to replacement with less-experienced line workers."
Doug Powell, Ph.D., an associate professor of pathobiology and scientific director of the International Food Safety Network, says,
"You're not going to eliminate E. coli O157:H7. Down-line processors have to be operating under the assumption that they're going to get some E. coli just like we expect consumers to operate under the assumption that they're going to have some in their product, which is why we tell them to cook it."
So cook that burger. And stick that thermometer in it..jpg)
E. coli butcher's meat 'was smelly but cheap'
E. coli butcher William Tudor supplied schools with meat that was green, smelly and undercooked but retained his contract because he was cheap.
The Western Mail reports that even though school cooks raised numerous concerns, Tudor was not seen as a major problem and councils continued to buy their meat from him because he was the supplier that gave the “lowest overall offer.”
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The inquiry heard that between 1998 and 2005, school cooks in Merthyr lodged complaints with the authority’s catering department. These included:
Ham – green and gone off;
Roast pork – smelling and falling to bits;
Mould on slices of turkey;
Feather in cooked turkey.
Yummy.
E. coli butcher played Russian Roulette with school meals
Brian Curtis, a retired senior Food Standards Agency official, who now works as a freelance food safety consultant, told a public inquiry that the use of a single vacuum packing machine for both raw and cooked meat at E. coli butcher William Tudor’s factory was “like playing Russian Roulette." adding,
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"It seems to me, in a crude analysis, it is a bit like playing Russian Roulette. You might get away with it the first time, the second time, the third time, but progressively you have a greater chance the gun will go off and what we are talking about is a nine-month period."
The South Wales Echo also reports that Mr Curtis told the inquiry yesterday that a document produced by Tudor -- his HACCP plan -- "was not a valid plan. It was not a safe plan," but that Bridgend council’s environmental health officers, “failed to identify the deficiencies and weaknesses” of the document.
Mr Curtis also said there had been flaws in the way Tudor’s was inspected because there were too many announced visits that allowed him to prepare and that the inspections themselves had not been undertaken thoroughly, stating,
"There was a failure in the series of inspections to identify poor hygiene and working practices and a failure to take action."
E. coli butcher failed to follow food safety rules
A food safety inspector who visited John Tudor & Son five times in 2005 told the E. coli inquiry in Wales today that although a single vac-pac machine was being used for cooked and raw meat, the business did not pose "an imminent risk" to human health.
Media Wales reported that Angela Coles, a Bridgend Council environmental health officer said she took on "face value" explanations from the company's manager Celyn Williams about training and how the vacuum-packaging machine would be cleaned between being used for cooked and raw meats.
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James Eadie, the inquiry's lead counsel, also questioned Amy Lewis, a senior environmental health officer at Bridgend Council, about holding temperatures after cooking gammon, which exceeded Tudor's own HACCP plan, stating,
"Is it inconceivable that you would have asked about temperatures, found out it was non-compliant with a crucial step in the HACCP plan and then made no record or note of it? You didn't pick this up?"
Ms Lewis replied, "I don't recall."
The inquiry also heard that E. coli butcher William Tudor was granted his first butcher's licence despite not possessing a relevant food safety certificate; instead he passed a 26-question test, set by senior Bridgend Council environmental health officers in 2001.
E.coli butcher: How the system failed
A public inquiry heard Friday about a string of failures by food safety officers responsible for inspections of William Tudor’s meat plant leading up to the September, 2005 E. coli O157:H7 outbreak.
The South Wales Echo reported that Amy Lewis, an environmental health officer, admitted failing to check Tudor’s claims that his staff had food hygiene certificates – but only after a series of questions by lead counsel to the inquiry James Eadie, including the evidence that Tudor himself had admitted the staff were never trained.
A second officer, Ian Sullivan, who was responsible for advising on a critical food handling plan had only been employed for a few months when he became responsible for supervising Tudor and had never dealt with a business of that size.
A third officer, Joanne Evans, admitted mistakes in filling out forms that affected how often the Bridgend Industrial Estate plant was inspected.
Earlier in the week, Tudor said in a letter read out at the Cardiff inquiry, he followed official hazard analysis guidelines, and the practices used by his firm were supervised by Bridgend Council.
It was also revealed that Tudor, who was sentenced to 12 months in jail for his actions, was released after serving on 12 weeks.
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The parents of five-year-old Mason Jones (right), who died during the outbreak, were unaware of Tudor’s early release until the start of this week’s public inquiry and called it a “travesty of justice.”
Garyn Price, 12, who almost died after contracting E.coli during the outbreak, was quoted as saying he was “disgusted” Tudor was allowed out of prison so soon and said,
“I got upset when my mum told me he was out. They should’ve kept him in prison longer. I don’t think he will have learned his lesson.”
There were 157 probable cases of the E.coli O157 strain and 118 confirmed during the outbreak, which was declared on 16 September 2005 and declared over on 20 December that year.
It affected 44 schools across south Wales, making it the largest outbreak of its kind in Wales, and the second biggest in the UK.
E.coli butcher hid factory filth
South Wales Echo is reporting that the factory run by E.coli butcher William Tudor contained a filthy meat slicer, cluttered and dirty chopping areas, and meat more than two years out of date piled in a freezer.
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Professor Chris Griffith, head of the food research and consultancy unit at the University of Wales Institute, Cardiff, told the inquiry the culture at the premises was “dominated by saving money.”
His report also included statements from those who worked at the factory, who reported that a cling film machine stored in the toilets was used to wrap faggots in the cooked meat area and that rotting meat and maggots were found in drains.
Staff also said Tudor encouraged them to continue preparing meat for delivery to schools even when they were suffering from sickness and diarrhoea.
E.coli butcher lied about his hygiene awards
Colin Houston, deputy head of the enforcement division of the UK Food Standards Agency told a public inquiry yesterday that E.coli butcher William Tudor (nice tag line) falsified crucial health and safety documents and even lied about receiving hygiene awards.
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The inquiry heard the claims had been made in a document known as a HACCP (Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point) plan which Tudor, as a butcher, was required by law to prepare and implement to help reduce the risk to the public.
Mr Houston told yesterday’s hearing in Cardiff Bay that another of Tudor’s false claims in his HACCP plan had been to suggest that his factory had completely separate areas for the preparation and handling of raw and cooked meat.
Mr Houston told the inquiry he would have expected environmental health officers to check whether this was in fact the case during inspections of the premises on Bridgend Industrial Estate.
I can't wait to hear from the inspectors.
The inquiry also heard from a handwriting expert who found Tudor had falsified vital records detailing the temperature meat was stored at and cleaning records.
"There is conclusive evidence, as she (the handwriting expert) put it, that the logs and cleaning standards forms dated July 2004 onwards, were not completed on a daily/weekly basis, but that the batches of entries were made at one time.”
E. coli butcher encouraged ill staff to prepare meat
The public inquiry into the 2005 E. coli outbreak in Wales began yesterday and already the evidence is shocking -- or, maybe, all too common.
Professor Chris Griffith, head of the food research and consultancy unit at the University of Wales Institute, Cardiff, was asked by South Wales Police to compile a report assessing the health risk posed by John Tudor and Son butchers.
Media Wales is reporting that,
E. coli butcher William Tudor encouraged staff suffering from stomach bugs and diarrhoea to continue preparing meat for school dinners.
He was also aware of cross contamination between raw and cooked meats, but did nothing to prevent it.
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Some 150 schoolchildren were sickened in the outbreak and five-year-old Mason Jones died in October 2005.
Prof Griffith was quoted as telling the inquiry,
"Packaging in which raw meat had been delivered was subsequently used to store cooked product," and that a cleaning schedule at the factory was so bad it was "a joke."
Yesterday the inquiry was told that a routine inspection of John Tudor and Son in January 2005, by Bridgend Council environmental health officer Angela Coles, found that one vacuum-packing machine – referred to in the inquiry as a vac-packing machine – was being used to package raw and cooked meats – a potentially serious source of cross-contamination, and that there were no facilities for small equipment – such as knives – to be cleaned.
Pediatrician says, irradiate beef, for kids' sake
Harry Hull, of St. Paul, a pediatrician who served as the state epidemiologist for the Minnesota Health Department from 2000 to '06 and is currently a consultant in infectious disease epidemiology, writes in AgWeek that, .jpg)
“A year of eating dangerously: 2007 was year of wake-up (re)calls for beef” (Agweek, Jan. 7) should capture the attention of everyone concerned about the future of the beef industry. E. coli kills kids. It's time for industry to accept that the processing methods currently being used for ground beef cannot achieve the level of safety that Americans both expect and deserve.
"Beef producers and processors have made valiant efforts that have reduced, but certainly not eliminated, E. coli from ground beef. Millions of dollars have been spent to 'fix' the problem. Current technologies - steam pasteurization, acid rinses and sprays - can eliminate more than 99 percent of E. coli in ground beef. The percent of contaminated ground beef samples remained steady at 0.17 for three years before going up sharply to 0.20 in 2007. That means that one out of 500 pounds of hamburger contains deadly E. coli and millions of pounds of contaminated hamburger still reach the consumer. This is unacceptable from a public health perspective and would be an embarrassment to any other industry.
"There are no clear answers as to why recalls and illness increased dramatically last year. Some companies made mistakes but others had serious problems despite using used the most advanced technology available. More sophisticated tests and increased testing rates are likely to yield even more recalls in 2008. …
"While ground beef should be thoroughly cooked and properly handled, we know that is not the case in many home kitchens and far too many restaurants. When E. coli contaminated food makes it to the table, children get sick, suffer and die. Industry has a legal responsibility to make sure that products are safe so that our kids remain healthy. The permanent solution to the problem - irradiation - is already in hand and we need to use it.
"Irradiation is a USDA/FDA-approved process and already is being used by several visionary companies, including Schwan's and Omaha Steaks. Many of our spices and an increasing amount of imported produce are irradiated. Pasteurization made milk both nutritious and safe for our children. Irradiation can so the same for ground beef. Let's stop dithering and do what is right for our kids. Ground beef should be routinely irradiated."
Cooking the poop out of pepperoni pizza
Bakery and Snacks reported this morning that in November, General Mills recalled over 400,000 products, after fearing that the E. coli O157:H7 strain found its way into pepperoni meat used on Totino and Jeno pizzas.
General Mills said nine of 21 people in 10 states reported having eaten Totino's or Jeno's pizza with pepperoni topping at some point before becoming ill, although all recovered from the illness later on.
The recall hit the Pillsbury USA ranges particularly hard, as net sales for the division fell two per cent.
The International Food Safety Network has started to load videos on YouTube, as a prelude to the on-line cooking show planned for next year, Live … From the Safe Food Café.
The first, entitled E. coli O157:H7 and Pizza, covers the recent E. coli O157:H7 outbreak and subsequent recall of Totinos and Jeno’s frozen pizzas. More videos will be uploaded soon, so keep an eye out, or subscribe to our YourTube profile “SafeFoodCafe.”
Safe Food Café - Petting zoos and their risk
The International Food Safety Network’s Safe Food Café campaign has returned with a new video aimed at petting zoos. E. coli outbreaks have been linked to petting zoos in recent years that have resulted in hundreds ill. This has resulted in safety measures being stepped up around the animals. Make sure to stay tuned to The Safe Food Café on YouTube for more reports.