Syndicate content Latest Update: 05/17/12, 11:35 PM
  • Posted: May 17th, 2012 - 7:45pm by Ben Chapman

    Author: 
    Ben Chapman

    If I was a restaurant owner, hepatitis A would scare me the most. Most folks don't display symptoms right away (up to 30 days after infection) and can be shedding the virus in their poop most of that time. An IGG shot is effective in the first 10 days post-exposure - which means the best public health strategy is to offer these shots (usually to a cost to the restaurant) to reduce the chance of illness, regardless of any actual symptoms. Most of these incidents don't result in further illnesses (beyond the initial food handler) but create a lot of bad press.

    According to the Wilkes Journal-Patriot, an employee of Dixie Donuts on NC 268 West (west of Wilkesboro) has been diagnosed with the virus and line-ups at free clinics Friday and Saturday are likely.

    The health department is holding a walk-in clinic for the hepatitis vaccine from 2 to 6 p.m. Friday and from 9 to noon Saturday at the department’s building in Wilkesboro.

    The health department learned Thursday morning that a Dixie Donuts employee was diagnosed with hepatitis A on May 13, said health department spokesman Debbie Nicholson, the department’s director of nursing.

    Ms. Nicholson said the department learned about the diagnosis of hepatitis A when a communicable disease nurse there checked the N.C. Electronic Disease Surveillance System online. She said the department is required to check the system each day.

    The Dixie Donuts employee who was diagnosed with hepatitis A isn’t currently working at the establishment and can’t work there until the person is no longer contagious, said Ms. Nicholson. The diagnosis doesn't otherwise affect food safety at the business, she said.

    Dixie Donuts owner Lee Lassiter said late Thursday afternoon, about two hours after learning about the diagnosis, that the employee was a trainee who had only worked at Dixie Donuts a short time. "We have been in business for over a year and have had no issues with food handling from any agency," he added.

    Dixie Donuts was named the Wilkes Chamber of Commerce's "Small Business of the Year" earlier this year.


     

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  • Posted: May 17th, 2012 - 7:29pm by Doug Powell

    I made a new friend last night in Germany, especially when I taunted him for saying the best music to come out of Canada was Rush.

    I knew Rush was big in Europe, but not the best thing to come out of Canada when competing against The Guess Who, The Band, Neil Young, Sloan, Tragically Hip, Blue Rodeo, Max Webster, David Wilcox, Teenage Head, Martha and the Muffins, and Alanis (in her early Debbie-Gibson-inspired-mall-dancing version).

    At least I didn’t do my patented falsetto karaoke of Greedy Lee signing Closer to the Heart (And the men who hold high places …).

    I also taunted my new friend for his lack of hockey knowledge, and proclaimed that all other sports would be far more interesting with full body contact – tennis, golf, baseball, basketball, lawn bowling and shuffleboard.

    But the closest thing to the speed and mayhem of hockey that I’ve found is Australian rules football – AFL.

    Fans will be relieved to know that West Coast midfielder Daniel Kerr is back to normal after overcoming a worrying case of food poisoning, but fellow on-baller Matt Priddis remains in doubt for Sunday's AFL clash with St Kilda at Patersons Stadium.

    Not only do they write like that down here, they talk like that. It’ll be a while before I learn Australian.

    AAP reported that Kerr's eyes almost closed over and his face was left heavily swollen after suffering an adverse reaction to a meal on Monday, with teammate Nic Naitanui posting a graphic picture of Kerr's plight on twitter.

    Eagles' coach John Worsfold was unsure what food caused the allergic reaction, but said West Coast's medical staff treated the problem and Kerr had since made a full recovery. 

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    Celebrity  |  0 Comments
    afl, food allergy
  • Posted: May 16th, 2012 - 7:44am by Doug Powell

     With Greg in Garmisch, Germany.

    Doing food safety stuff.

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    Wacky and Weird  |  0 Comments
    Beer, Beerfest, Germany
  • Posted: May 15th, 2012 - 1:32pm by Ben Chapman

    CBC reports that up to 24 cases of E. coli O157 in Miramichi, New Brunswick (that's in eastern Canada) have been linked to Jungle Jim's restaurant.

    Dr. Eilish Cleary, the province’s chief medical officer of health, said in a statement a majority of the confirmed cases ate at a Jungle Jim’s restaurant in Miramichi in the days prior to getting sick.
    “Food samples taken from Jungle Jim’s tested negative for E. Coli 157: H7,” Cleary said (O157?- ben). “However, as most of the confirmed cases ate at this restaurant, it is likely that the contaminated food source was present in the restaurant for a short period of time but that contaminated products had been used up when testing took place.”

    She said Jungle Jim’s fully co-operated with provincial inspectors, including a thorough sanitation of its kitchen and the completion of a food safety course.

    With no new cases of E. coil being reported, she said it suggests the source of the contamination remained in the food supply chain for only a short period of time.

    A case-control stud with help from the Public Health Agency of Canada is planned.  No pathogen in the food samples isn't all that surprising; not finding the smoking gun is often the norm.

    On Jungle Jim's Facebook page, Brian Geneau, of Jungle Jim's posts:

    As you all can see the information on the news today the NB board of public Health has issued a statement concerning (sic) the e-coli and the possible implications of our location.
    Please make sure to remember their is 2 sides to all stories and that all indications are that we operate at the highest possible standard that is set by the public health and that "If" their was contamination is would of been a product that was contaminated prior of arriving to our location. all our inspections before during and after all this came back green and is posted on line and also all product tested with the results comming (sic) back negative.

    we will keep you posted as Genevieve and myself have the highest regards for our customers and their safety and have been in full cooperation (sic) with the BOHealth in order to find and prevent this from happening again (sic).

    Please remeber that the I have over 20 years experience in this industry and that we continue to operate at the highest level and with the staff we have they excecute with the same attitude.

    Kindest regards and hope to see yea all soon,

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    E. coli  |  0 Comments
    New Brunswick, Outbreak
  • Posted: May 14th, 2012 - 8:55pm by Doug Powell

    Sticky rice balls are the suspected culprit behind a Mother’s Day outbreak of foodborne illness that sickened dozens who attended a Mother's Day garden party and food fair at a Buddhist monastery in Carmel.

    About 700 people, most of them arriving on tour buses from New York City, came to the annual event where dishes were prepared by volunteers, a spokeswoman for the Chuang Yen Monastery said.

    When the tour buses arrived at Woodbury Common for a post-lunch shopping excursion, witnesses saw people crying and gripping their stomachs as they were stricken with nausea and diarrhea.

    Eric Gross of the Putnam County Bureau of Emergency Services said about 150 people overall became sick and about 80 of those had boarded buses to go to the shopping outlet.

    The Chuang Yen Monastery will be working with health officials on the investigation, the spokeswoman said.

    The Putnam County Health Department asks people who fell ill after attending the party to call their hotline at (845) 808-1390.

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  • Posted: May 14th, 2012 - 9:51am by Doug Powell

    In June, 2011, eight children in Northern France were initially diagnosed with E. coli O157 after eating beef burgers bought from German discount retailer, Lidl.

    The current bulletin from Institut de veille sanitaire has a research paper summarizing the outbreak, and reveals 18 children were sickened, 16 from E. coli O157-O177 and 1 due to E. coli O157-O26.

    The authors write that all strains isolated from patient stool samples were non-motile and fermented sorbitol, a rare characteristic for strains of E. coli O157 isolated in France.

    The authors conclude, “this outbreak … reminds us of the importance of thoroughly cooking beef burgers destined for consumption by young children.”

    Cooking is one aspect in reducing E. coli O157 and other STEC loads from farm-to-fork, but fails to acknowledge cross-contamination. Maybe it was in the paper and lost in translation.

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  • Posted: May 14th, 2012 - 2:41am by Doug Powell

    People want to know about their food. Where it was grown, how, what’s been added and if it’s safe.

    The N.Y. Times, as usual, gets that little bit right in a commentary yesterday, but wrongly thinks right-to-know is something new, that media amplification is something new because of shiny new toys, and offers no practical suggestions on what to do.

    The term pink slime was was coined in 2002 in an internal e-mail by a scientist at the Agriculture Department who felt it was not really ground beef. The term was first publicly reported in The Times in late 2009.

    In April 2011, celebtard chef Jamie Oliver helped create a more publicly available pink slime yuck factor and by the end of 2011, McDonald’s and others had stopped using pink slime.

    On March 7, 2012, ABC News recycled these bits, along with some interviews with two of the original USDA opponents of the process (primarily because it was a form of fraud, and not really just beef).

    Industry and others responded the next day, and although the story had been around for several years, the response drove the pink slime story to gather media momentum – a story with legs.

    BPI said pink slime was meat so consumers didn’t need to be informed, and everything was a gross misunderstanding. BPI blamed media and vowed to educate the public. Others said “it’s pink so it’s meat” and that the language of pink slime was derogatory and needed to be changed. USDA said it was safe for schools but quickly decided that schools would be able to choose whatever beef they wanted, pushing decision-making in the absence of data or labels to the local PTA. An on-line petition was launched.

    Sensing the media taint, additional retailers rushed to proclaim themselves free of the pink stuff.
    BPI took out a full-page ad in the Wall Street Journal, the favored reading choice for pink slime aficionados, and four mid-west governors banded together to repeat the same erroneous messages during a media-show-and-tell at a BPI plant. Because political endorsements rarely work, and the story had spread to the key demographic of burger eaters, others sensed opportunity in the trashing of BPI. Wendy’s, Whole Foods, Costco, A&P, Publix and others launched their own media campaigns proclaiming they’ve never used the stuff and never would.

    Guess they didn’t get their dude-it’s-beef T-shirts.

    These well-intentioned messages only made things worse for the beef producers and processors they were intended to protect.

    Here’s what can be learned for the next pink slime. And there will be lots more.
    Lessons of pink slime
    • don’t fudge facts (is it or is it not 100% beef?)
    • facts are never enough
    • changing the language is bad strategy (been tried with rBST, genetically engineered foods, doesn’t work)
    • telling people they need to be educated is arrogant, invalidates and trivializes people’s thoughts
    • don’t blame media for lousy communications
    • any farm, processor, retailer or restaurant can be held accountable for food production – and increasingly so with smartphones, facebook and new toys
    • real or just an accusation, consumers will rightly react based on the information available
    • amplification of messages through media is nothing new, especially if those messages support a pre-existing world-view
    • food is political but should be informed by data
    • data should be public
    • paucity of data about pink slime that is publicly available make statements like it’s safe, or it’s gross, difficult to quantify
    • relying on government validation builds suspicion rather than trust; if BPI has the safety data, make it public
    • what does right-to-know really mean? Do you want to say no?
    • if so, have public policy on how information is made public and why
    • choice is a fundamental value
    • what’s the best way to enable choice, for those who don’t want to eat pink slime or for those who care more about whether a food will make their kids barf?
    • proactive more than reactive; both are required, but any food provider should proudly proclaim – brag – about everything they do to enhance food safety.
    • perceived food safety is routinely marketed at retail; instead market real food safety so consumers actually have a choice and hold producers and processors – conventional, organic or otherwise – to a standard of honesty.
    • if restaurant inspection results can be displayed on a placard via a QR code read by smartphones when someone goes out for a meal, why not at the grocery store or school lunch?
    • link to web sites detailing how the food was produced, processed and safely handled, or whatever becomes the next theatrical production – or be held hostage

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  • Posted: May 14th, 2012 - 12:24am by Doug Powell

    At least 150 people who attended a Mother's Day garden party at an upstate New York Buddhist monastery have fallen ill with food poisoning.

    Eric Gross, spokesman for the Putnam County Bureau of Emergency Services, says about 700 people were at the festival at Chuang Yen Monastery in Kent Cliffs, 55 miles north of New York City. About 500 of them came on buses from Chinatown.

    Gross says people starting getting sick with vomiting and diarrhea around 3:30 p.m. Sunday after they had left the party on buses bound for Woodbury Commons shopping outlets. As of 7 p.m., Gross said 150 had been taken to hospitals in Putnam, Orange and Westchester counties.

    Officials urged people who attended the party and feel ill to call the Putnam County Health Department: 845-808-1390.

     

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  • Posted: May 13th, 2012 - 1:19am by Ben Chapman

    Author: 
    Ben Chapman

    The investigation into the source of Salmonella Paratyphi B linked to Smiling Hara Tempeh now focuses on a Maryland company who distributed a fungal starter culture used to make the product. According to the Citizen-Times, North Carolina Dept of Agriculture and Consumer Services identified the distributor as Tempeh Online of Rockville MD.

    A culture starter for tempeh, a bean product popular in vegetarian cuisine, was found to have the same type of salmonella that caused a county outbreak beginning as early as February, lab work by the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services confirmed Thursday.

    The Rockville, Md., company, Tempeh Online, sold the starter culture to Smiling Hara Tempeh, which made the meat substitute in Candler.
    Federal regulators have been involved, and the Buncombe County Health Department on Thursday said it is continuing to investigate.

    “The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is already involved in tracing the origin of the ingredient to identify (the) source of contamination as well as the potential for other salmonella outbreaks in the U.S.,” according to a release from the Health Department. FDA spokesman Curtis Allen could not be reached for comment Thursday afternoon. Allen has said the administration has a policy against naming companies behind outbreaks.

    State Department of Agriculture spokesman Brian Long had identified the distributor as Tempeh Online but said he didn’t know the producer of the culture, which is made up of fungal spores. Long said his department was in touch with the FDA, trying to find out if other tempeh makers in the state are using the culture. “We are concerned whether other tempeh makers in North Carolina are using this culture, but we haven’t received any distribution records from FDA, which would first have to review the maker’s and distributor’s records,” he said.

    Smiling Hara Managing Executive Chad Oliphant said he began buying cultures from Tempeh Online after his regular company ran out.

    On April 26, after state agriculture inspectors found the possibility of salmonella in Smiling Hara’s tempeh, Oliphant said he contacted the company. “Once this thing came up, I contacted him and he wasn’t really forthcoming in the conversation,” he said.

    The Citizen-Times reports that the distributor could not be contacted and a call to a number listed on their website (which has since been taken down - but can be seen here with some internet magic) was answered but "said the the number was wrong and hung up after learning he was speaking with a reporter." Doesn't seem like Tempeh Online is employing a positive food safety culture - they would be forthcoming with risk-reduction steps, sympathetic towards those affected by the outbreak and would be infoming customers/recalling their products to avoid similar incidents.
     

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  • Posted: May 13th, 2012 - 12:50am by Ben Chapman

    Author: 
    Ben Chapman

    With at least 11 E. coli O157:H7 illnesses (and 2 HUS cases) linked to an unnamed Spartanburg Mexican restaurant, social media speculation and outrage has commenced.
    From the WSPA-TV (Spartanburg) Facebook page:
    - "They need to release the name of the restaurant. One so the public knows , and two b/c if people don't know which one to avoid, they may stop eating at Mexican Restaurants all together. So why should other Mexican restaurants have to suffer?"
    - "I smell some hush hush money so the name doesn't get in the public! Like others, I love Mexican food but not at the risk of my health. And if its so safe, why not release the name? Other Mexican rests may suffer loss of business because of this, including this restaurant!"
    - "WE SHOULD DEMAND TO KNOW THE NAME AND THEY NEED TO SHUT IT DOWN!"

    While investigators might believe that avoiding the unnamed business isn't going to reduce anyone's risk of being part of the outbreak (the epidemiologists believe the risk of exposure doesn't exist anymore?) releasing the name can help the investigators get better data. Getting the name out there might trigger some folks to report symptoms, especially if they have eaten at the implicated site.
    Not releasing the name seems to be creating mistrust in the authorities, and other Mexican restaurants in the Spartanburg area.
     

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  • Posted: May 12th, 2012 - 5:42am by Doug Powell

    KTNV, Contact 13 in Las Vegas, reports in this week’s Dirty Dining segment that food improperly handled and issues with storage lead to the recent closure of Valerio's Tropical Bake Shop.

    Inspectors slapped the shop with 49 demerits, forcing it to close its doors. Anything more than 40 demerits means an automatic closure.

    Issues included food stored unprotected both outside and inside the restroom.

    Inspectors also found what they describe as a black mold-like growth in a kitchen sink.

    Other violations included chicken thawing improperly and several foods were at the wrong temperatures, including chicken salad, boiled eggs, carrots and egg rolls.

    Contact 13 was not allowed on the property, but manager Rex Jose tells us: "Things at the bakery have been very busy. But we have listened to what the Health District had to say and have made all the necessary changes."

    The Health District tells us Valerio's Tropical Bake Shop is back open, and operating with a 4 demerit A grade.
     

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  • Posted: May 12th, 2012 - 5:16am by Doug Powell

    South Carolina health inspectors are investigating an outbreak of Escherichia coli O157:H7 linked to a Mexican restaurant in Spartanburg.

    Adam Myrick, spokesman with the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control, told the Spartanburg Herald Journal that of the 11 suspected or confirmed cases associated with the same restaurant, two people were infected to a potentially serious level, said.

    DHEC is continuing its “multi-faceted investigation” that includes reviewing restaurant menus, food samples and taking stool samples from those who have related symptoms who have eaten at the restaurant.

    Myrick wouldn’t confirm the restaurant associated with the outbreak. Myrick said the cases were reported during the last week of April and the first week of May.

    DHEC has since inspected the restaurant and does not have a “reason to believe the public is in danger at this time,” Myrick said.

    “It’s early in the investigation and we’re piecing together information and talking to people,” Myrick said. “We’ve looked at the facility and found no substantial problems, but again, it’s early.”

    The agency issued an alert to local healthcare providers Friday afternoon advising them of the symptoms associated with shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli (STEC), which include severe stomach cramps, diarrhea (sometimes bloody), vomiting and a mild fever.

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  • Posted: May 11th, 2012 - 3:15pm by Doug Powell

    The French published their own series of detailed foodborne disease surveillance papers, and did it the day before the Americans.

    A special issue of the Bulletin épidémiologique hebdomadaire (BEH) and the Bulletin épidémiologique Anses-DGAL, May 2012, number 50, Microbiological hazards in food products of animal origin: monitoring and evaluation contains 13 research papers.

    In an editorial, the author writes foodborne illness surveillance is an important and complex issue. Important because tens of thousands of cases of foodborne outbreaks are still reported each year, complicated by the difficulty in assessing and controlling the risk throughout the supply chain -- from the farm to the fork.

    Thanks to Albert Amgar for passing along the information and some translation.

    The abstracts are available at http://www.anses.fr/bulletin-epidemiologique/Documents/BEP-mg-BE50.pdf and are available in English. They are also available in the daily bites-l listserv and at bites.ksu.edu.

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  • Posted: May 11th, 2012 - 1:42pm by Doug Powell

    Turtles in the 1960s and 1970s were inexpensive, popular, and low maintenance pets, with an array of groovy pre-molded plastic housing designs to choose from. Invariably they would escape, only to be found days later behind the couch along with the skeleton of the class bunny my younger sister brought home from kindergarten one weekend.

    Maybe I got sick from my turtle.

    Maybe I picked up my turtle, rolled around on the carpet with it, pet it a bit, and then stuck my finger in my mouth. Maybe in my emotionally vacant adolescence I kissed my turtle. Who can remember?

    The U.S. Centers for Disease Control reports there are now 124 confirmed cases of people, primarily kids, infected with outbreak strains of five different Salmonella outbreak strains in 27 states.

    There’s a country-wide love for turtles in 2012, even though the U.S. Food and Drug Administration banned the sale and distribution of turtles less than 4 inches in size as pets since 1975.

    Two new multistate outbreaks linked to small turtles have been identified since the prior update on April 5, 2012. Overall, 5 multistate outbreaks of human Salmonella infection are linked with exposure to small turtles. Results of the epidemiologic and environmental investigations indicate exposure to turtles or their environments (e.g., water from a turtle habitat) is the cause of these outbreaks.

    • A total of 124 persons infected with outbreak strains of Salmonella Sandiego ( and B), Salmonella Pomona (A and B), and Salmonella Poona have been reported from 27 states.

    • Small turtles (shell length less than 4 inches) were reported by 92% of cases.

    • Forty-three percent of ill persons with small turtles reported purchasing the turtles from street vendors.

    • 19 ill persons have been hospitalized, and no deaths have been reported.

    • 67% of ill persons are children 10 years of age or younger.

    • Small turtles (shell length less than 4 inches) were reported by 93% of cases with turtle exposure. Forty-three percent of ill persons with small turtles reported purchasing the turtles from street vendors.

    The number of ill persons identified in each state is as follows: Alaska (2), Alabama (1), Arizona (3), California (21), Colorado (5), Delaware (3), Georgia (3), Illinois (1), Indiana (1), Kentucky (1), Massachusetts (3), Maryland (6), Michigan (2), Minnesota (1), Nevada (4), New Jersey (7), New Mexico (3), New York (24), North Carolina (1), Ohio (2), Oregon (1), Pennsylvania (9), South Carolina (3), Texas (12), Virginia (3), Vermont (1), and West Virginia (1).

    The complete update is available at http://www.cdc.gov/salmonella/small-turtles-03-12/index.html.

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    Salmonella  |  0 Comments
    Cdc, Children, Fda, Pets, salmonella, turtle
  • Posted: May 11th, 2012 - 4:33am by Doug Powell

    Ten years ago, armchair epidemiologist and fidelity poster boy Kobe Bryant of the Los Angeles Lakers (apparently a basketball team) came down with food poisoning after eating a room service dinner of a cheeseburger and cheesecake at the Lakers' Sacramento hotel. The Lakers won.

    Last night, Bryant was again suffering from gastro but the Denver Nuggets crushed the Lakers, 113-96, forcing a game 7 in their playoff series.

    Bryant was not available for comment before the game, ignoring reporters' questions as he walked from the bus into the arena and down a corridor to the locker room. He headed directly for the training room.

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  • Posted: May 11th, 2012 - 12:46am by Doug Powell

    surveillance.jpg

     Based on numerous media interviews today, the take-home message will be, foodborne illness has declined by 23 per cent over 14 years.

    Nope.

    Instead, what the U.S. Centers for Disease Control has done is publish 18 papers today that provide a glimpse into the intricacies, problems and potential of foodborne illness surveillance. There are many caveats, there will be many criticisms, but the approach is consistent with a risk analysis approach to problems: this is what we know, these are the assumptions we made, this is what we think it means, let’s discuss how to make it better.

    And bring evidence to the table.

    The papers also highlight the complexities of food-pathogen interactions while reinforcing that food safety happens in lots of places in lots of ways, from farm-to-fork. The next time someone says food safety is simple, roll your eyes, walk away, respond with derision, whatever your preference.

    But bring some data to the table. This issue of Clinical Infectious Disease will help with that.

    Below are the urls for the 18 abstracts:

    http://cid.oxfordjournals.org/content/54/suppl_5/S381.extract
    http://cid.oxfordjournals.org/content/54/suppl_5/S385.abstract
    http://cid.oxfordjournals.org/content/54/suppl_5/S396.abstract
    http://cid.oxfordjournals.org/content/54/suppl_5/S405.abstract
    http://cid.oxfordjournals.org/content/54/suppl_5/S411.abstract
    http://cid.oxfordjournals.org/content/54/suppl_5/S421.abstract
    http://cid.oxfordjournals.org/content/54/suppl_5/S424.abstract
    http://cid.oxfordjournals.org/content/54/suppl_5/S432.abstract
    http://cid.oxfordjournals.org/content/54/suppl_5/S440.abstract
    http://cid.oxfordjournals.org/content/54/suppl_5/S446.abstract
    http://cid.oxfordjournals.org/content/54/suppl_5/S453.abstract
    http://cid.oxfordjournals.org/content/54/suppl_5/S458.abstract
    http://cid.oxfordjournals.org/content/54/suppl_5/S464.abstract
    http://cid.oxfordjournals.org/content/54/suppl_5/S472.abstract
    http://cid.oxfordjournals.org/content/54/suppl_5/S480.abstract http://cid.oxfordjournals.org/content/54/suppl_5/S498.abstract

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  • Posted: May 11th, 2012 - 12:03am by Ben Chapman

    Author: 
    Ben Chapman

    A Journal of Infectious Diseases paper co-authored by Bill Keene about an investigation into a norovirus outbreak that hit 13 members of a soccer team has created a media furor and a press release competition. It could have been a gym bag, or a plastic bag - but the implicated vector happened to be a reusable grocery bag that was left in a hotel room that contained a bunch of food.
    Cue the witch hunt on reusable bags.
    The Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics recycled a recent press release saying that reusable bags need to be washed regularly by users as pathogens grow well and cross-contamination is likely.
    From the release:
    Reusable grocery totes are a popular, eco-friendly choice to transport groceries, but only 15 percent of Americans regularly wash their bags, creating a breeding zone for harmful bacteria, according to a survey by the Home Food Safety program, a collaboration between the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics (formerly the American Dietetic Association) and ConAgra Foods.
    “Cross-contamination occurs when juices from raw meats or germs from unclean objects come in contact with cooked or ready-to-eat foods like breads or produce,” says registered dietitian and Academy spokesperson Ruth Frechman. “Unwashed grocery bags are lingering with bacteria which can easily contaminate your foods.”
    I don't dispute that washing bags is a good idea, I'm just not sure there's data that supports their statements.
    Williams and colleagues (2011) have published the only peer-reviewed study on the microbial safety of reusable bags and tested growth of Salmonella in 2 batches. They spiked the bags with 10^6 cfu and let them sit in the trunk of a car for 2 hours. One of the batches, where the temperature reached 47C/117F, showed a one-log increase in the Salmonella. The other batch, where the temperature reached 53C/124F, there was a one-log reduction. That data doesn't show just a breeding zone - it shows they can be a killing zone too (and I'm not sure how realistic a 10^6 contamination really is).
    The part of the press releases that is the least rooted in science is that pathogen-containing bags "easily contaminate your foods." The same Williams study showed generic E. coli is floating around in bags, recoverable in 12 % (n=58) of those tested but can it be (or is it likely) to be transferred to any ready-to-eat foods, or somehow to food contact surfaces in the home?
    Just because the bacteria might be there, doesn't mean it can contaminate a ready-to-eat food. No one has presented data to support that. Maybe the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics - if so, they should share it.
    In a cross-contamination event there is a dilution effect when it comes to transfer. 1000 cfus of Campylobacter on the outside of the package of raw chicken might become 100 cfus when transferred to the bag, and then only 10 cfus when transferred to ready-to-eat apples.
    Washing bags frequently (as the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics suggests) is probably a good idea (like washing hands in warm water) and probably won't increase risk, but I wonder how much it decreases the probability of cross-contamination when compared to doing nothing.
    Aron Hall from CDC took a much more realistic approach to the outbreak focusing on norovirus (as opposed to the vector) calling the virus "the perfect human pathogen." I couldn't agree more, as I cleaned up puke over the past couple of days.
     

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  • Posted: May 10th, 2012 - 11:32pm by Doug Powell

    Raw milk, raw skim milk (non-fat), raw cream and raw butter produced by Organic Pastures Dairy of Fresno County is the subject of a statewide recall and quarantine order announced by California State Veterinarian Dr. Annette Whiteford. The quarantine order came following the confirmed detection of campylobacter bacteria in raw cream.

    Consumers are strongly urged to dispose of any Organic Pastures products of these types remaining in their refrigerators, and retailers are to pull those products immediately from their shelves.

    From January through April 30, 2012, the California Department of Public Health (CDPH) reports that at least 10 people with campylobacter infection were identified throughout California and reported consuming Organic Pastures raw milk prior to illness onset. Their median age is 11.5 years, with six under 18. The age range is nine months to 38 years. They are residents of Fresno, Los Angeles, San Diego, San Luis Obispo and Santa Clara counties. None of the patients have been hospitalized, and there have been no deaths.

    The dairy's owner, Mark McAfee, says he believes the test results are incorrect. He has requested a hearing with the California Department of Food and Agriculture Friday.

    It's the second recall in six months for the company, which was forced to recall milk contaminated with E. coli in December.

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  • Posted: May 10th, 2012 - 5:52am by Doug Powell

    Almost a month after an elderly patient died in a Northern Ireland hospital and three others were sickened from Listeria, health trusts have been advised to stop serving sandwiches from a specific food company.

    Following the outbreak, the trust carried out a review of food supplier and distribution chains with the Food Standards Agency and Environmental Health.

    Health Minister Edwin Poots said preliminary results of tests on sandwiches provided to inpatients indicated low levels of listeria were present although he stressed these were within the legal limits.

    In response to an Assembly question on the matter, he said: “As a precautionary measure the Northern Trust decided not to serve sandwiches from a particular supplier until investigations have been completed.

    In 2008, three patients died during a listeria outbreak at the Royal Victoria Hospital in Belfast.

    Also in 2008, 23 people – primarily elderly – died from Listeria in Maple Leaf deli meats in Canada. Maybe the sandwiches could be heated?

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  • Posted: May 10th, 2012 - 5:22am by Doug Powell

    A German man who was caught with 49 live lizards in his luggage at Munich airport claimed the creatures were for his dinner and even offered to bite the head off one to prove it.

    The man was travelling back from Oman in the Middle East when customs officials discovered 31 spiny-tailed lizards and 18 other assorted breeds of lizard in his suitcase, Germany's DPA news agency reported.

    The 28-year-old man claimed the reptiles were for his "personal food supply" and offered to eat one of the creatures in front of officials as proof.

    The man may face a fine of several thousand euros for transporting protected animals.

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    Wacky and Weird  |  1 Comment
    eat, Lizard, smuggle