Home test kit for E. coli and Salmonella?
Magna Medical Services (MMS) is pumping out the press releases following high profile outbreaks. These dudes have been around for a while, and usually after every outbreak they fire out something about testing your food with their high-powered testing. Today's says:
With the recent string of food recalls, food and health retailers are scrambling to offer instant food testing kits for E.coli and Salmonella manufactured by Magna Medical Services, Inc. MMS Quick Results Food Testing Kits are home food test kits for E.coli and Salmonella.
“Retailers will be able to sell home kits for E.coli and Salmonella to clients that need to quickly check their food areas and food products for possible bacteria outbreaks,” says Robert Greene, General Manager for Magna Medical Services, Inc “This is a product that should be right next to every home first aid kit.
They also put out releases following the 2006 spinach-linked E. coli O157:H7 outbreak, and another that cites "recent E. coli outbreaks that have affected the Northeastern United States" back in January. Seem to be capitalizing on public interest in food safety, but I have lots of questions about the product.
Does this product even work (and how would we know)?
Where is the data (because it's not on their website)?
How sensitive is it?
What's the utility of using quick strips on food in your home?
How do you sample food in your house?
What would happen if a firm,or a temporary food stand, or my mom used these strips, the results showed no contamination, and the food still resulted in an outbreak?
Maybe it's a good tool, but without some of these questions answered I file MMS into the huckster category, capitalizing on food safety hysteria. Maybe MMS have some good answers, and I welcome any comments on this product here on barfblog.
Some of my food microbiologist friends are struggling with figuring out the best way to use traditional, labour-intensive methods of sampling different foods (especially produce) and there are disagreements on sample preparation. Seems MMS has got it all figured out. And only for "less than $4 USD"
I think what MMS is trying to sell is a magic bullet -- test with our strips and you can be sure about your food. And without the data, I'm not sure they can say that, I don't believe that there are magic bullets in food safety, it's not that simple.
Saving the world one sucker at a time
The Rhode Island Oyster Gardening for Restoration and Enhancement program at Roger Williams University is putting oysters in the state's waterways to filter out pollution and rev up the ecosystem.
Each little sucker takes in up to 50 gallons of water in a day, clearing out pollutants, plankton, and silt so that the water is nice and clean for the aquatic plants below. These plants, along with tiny fish that like to live in the oyster beds, attract winter flounder and lobster can be harvested for us to eat. The area's aquaculture producers are happy about that one.
The oysters also clean up after crop fertilizers. Nitrogen from agricultural runoff is sucked up and oxygen abounds for our newfound aquaculture.
Clean water, more food, and a pick-up system for ag chemicals. I, for one, am impressed. All hail the mighty oyster: saving the world one sucker at a time.
You got a reaction, didn't you? You took a white orchid turned it blue
Typing "almond" and "pasteurization" into a Google search brings up the Almond Board's action plan to pasteurize all California almonds, followed by a long list of websites with content criticizing the Board's decision, including: Mandatory almond pasteurization is WRONG; We like it raw; and Raw food, right now (followed by lots of exclamation marks).
If you read my postings you know that I feel strongly about the need to pasteurize milk. As I read through the almond arguments I see strong parallels between the two debates, and for good reason, they're both rooted in this burgeoning need to eat as nature intended, without the interference of any sort of large-scale food technology. But I'm much less familiar with the history of almonds and foodborne illness and at this point I can appreciate both the consumer and industry's point-of-view. I do however agree that pasteurized almonds should not be labeled raw because by definition they are not.
At any rate, I had a good chuckle reading the following excerpt from the Cleansing Blog this morning:
"Many almond growers, not surprisingly, are hopping mad at the ABC for this “pasteurization tyranny” that will now require almond growers to kill a perfectly good product before they can sell it to consumers. It’s almost like being in the flower business and, after growing beautiful orchids for your customers, some stupid state agency comes along and says you have to cook all the flowers before you can sell them because somebody once stuck their nose in a pot of orchids and sniffed up a creepy crawler. Cooked orchids, alas, are not nearly as beautiful as living orchids."
Thanks to the White Stripes (American rock band) for the catchy title; should attract some fresh faces to the world of food safety communication.
