The Norwegian Institute of Public Health has confirmed a genetic match for an infection of E. coli O157 among three children who developed hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS) this year.

The Institute reported this week,

“The first child became ill in January, the second in February and the third in March. In addition, a sibling of one of the children has also developed HUS, but it has not yet been confirmed whether this is the same bacterial strain.”

One of the four children—all of which are under the age of ten—has died.

The source of the outbreak has yet to be determined. County food safety officials are currently questioning the families of victims on the children's meals and testing leftover food, while federal officials are seeking information on any further possible cases (i.e. persons, and particularly children, with bloody diarrhea who test positive for enterohemorrhagic E. coli).

I wonder if they’ve looked into the families’ grocery store receipts?

A peer-reviewed article in the April 15 issue of Clinical Infectious Diseases reports that the source of a 2007 outbreak of E. coli in Denmark was found using credit card information.

Investigators had struggled to determine the source of a strain of E. coli O26 that infected 20 Danish children between February and May of 2007.

Flesh and Stone reports that when interviews failed to yield any likely suspect foods, investigators turned to shopping lists.

“Parents in seven families provided their credit card information and a list of supermarkets where they had shopped. The two supermarket chains that the parents had used most often agreed to help with the investigation. The stores searched their central computers for the precise amount paid and the date and the location of the shop.

“From there, investigators determined that five families had purchased the same brand of fermented, organic beef sausage. A sixth family was linked to the same sausage brand through shopping records provided by the kindergarten attended by two children who became infected with the same E. coli strain, STEC O26. An unopened sample of the sausage also tested positive for the strain.”

Authors of the CID article acknowledged that relying on memory to identify similarities among the diets of outbreak victims diets is often unsuccessful and found credit card information to be “a strong tool in the [current] investigation.”

Investigation of a similar outbreak of E. coli O157 in Iceland successfully used the same method some months later. It could be worth a try for Norway.
 

After stopping in Beckley, West Virginia for the night, we arrived today in Raleigh for the first gig of the Bite Me ’09 food safety tour.

During a day of R&R, the older and much-larger skulled Jack Chapman threw Sorenne Powell to the ground, bit her toe and prepared to pounce for the three-count.

Baby wipes all around.

I recently received a complaint from an individual who bit into a succulent  chicken burger only to realize that the interior was still raw. This is the picture  taken after biting into a crispy cooked chicken burger using a camera from a cell phone, gotta' love technology. This chicken was completely raw inside but appeared cooked on the outside. 

My wife and I are finally embarking on our long awaited honeymoon to Europe to visit family and enjoy some time off. One of my all time favorite bands, Depeche Mode, will playing in Rome and we decided that we should go. Their latest song release reminded me of the answer I gave the establishment which was responsible for the raw chicken burger. An employee said that the chicken must of been cooked because it was really crispy-'Wrong.' Use a digital tip sensitive thermometer and stick it in.

Traceability is one of those food safety buzzwords that’s been around for awhile but doesn’t seem to mean much. Last year during the Salmonella in tomatoes/jalapenos outbreak, health types expressed severe frustration that many food vendors had little idea where their tomatoes were coming from. Same with the current peanut mess – why are companies still figuring out, two months after the initial recalls, that they have the PCA crap in their products.

A  report expected to be made public today by Daniel R. Levinson, the inspector general of the Department of Health and Human Services, found that most food manufacturers and distributors cannot identify the suppliers or recipients of their products despite federal rules that require them to do so.

The investigators contacted 220 food facilities to ask about their supplier records. But only 118 of these businesses were included in the study because the rest were not required under rules adopted by the F.D.A. in 2005 to maintain supplier and recipient records. Of those 118 firms, 70 failed to provide investigators with required information about suppliers or customers, with 6 of the companies failing to provide any information at all.

United Fresh Produce Association President and CEO Tom Stenzel was scheduled to tell the U.S. House Committee on Appropriations, Subcommittee on Agriculture today that,

“… we have a very good story to tell in produce traceability.”

However, one vendor told investigators that it kept no records of tomato purchases.

Tomatoes have repeatedly been implicated in nationwide food contamination scares, including one last year. Fifteen facilities told investigators they mixed raw products from more than 10 farms.
 

Do more inspectors make food safer?

No.

The latest evidence is from Professor Hugh Pennington, who concluded in a report last week that serious failings at every step in the food chain allowed butcher William Tudor to start the 2005 E. coli O157 outbreak, and that while the responsibility for the outbreak, “falls squarely on the shoulders of Tudor,” there was no shortage of errors.

Welsh First Minister Rhodri Morgan picked up on that theme yesterday and pledged to do everything possible to prevent a repeat of the E.coli outbreak of 2005 – for the sake of the families affected.

“Poor hygiene practices at the abattoir and the butcher’s premises” caused the outbreak, but he added,

“These failings were not dealt with effectively by the Meat Hygiene Service or local authority environmental health officers. …” Environmental health inspectors need to “sharpen up” and “drill down beyond the box-ticking part of the inspection process to the potential danger of the reality beyond.”

In his report Pennington said an inspector who made four pre-arranged visits to Tudor’s in the run-up to the outbreak, should not have allowed him to continue using one vacuum-packing machine for both raw and cooked meat because of the risk of cross contamination.

Among his 24 recommendations, Pennington said all checks should be unannounced, unless there were exceptional circumstances.

Don’t tell mom the babysitter’s dead.
 

To coach little girls playing ice hockey in Canada requires 16 hours of training. To coach kids on a travel team requires an additional 24 hours of training.

So it seems reasonable to have some minimal training for those who prepare food for public consumption.

The Australian state of New South Wales, which includes Sydney, has decided to agree, and will insist that every restaurant have at least one staff member who has completed a certified course in food handling.

NSW Primary Industry Minister Ian Macdonald said the State Government is introducing the laws after a spate of outbreaks, adding,

"Thirty-six per cent of food-borne illness outbreaks in NSW are the result of poor food handling. We believe that this is costing in effect $150 million in terms of lost productivity."

Unfortunately, what constitutes a certified course is often crap. The next step is to evaluate what works and what doesn’t – what kind of training actually translates into food service staff practicing safe food prep.
 

Last Thursday morning, 49-year-old electrician Michael Goodspeed was found dead in an exhaust vent of a restaurant in Steamboat Springs, CO.

The Associated Press reports,

Goodspeed became wedged in a tapering section of the vent. The Routt County Coroner says it appears Goodspeed died of "positional asphyxiation".

Goodspeed and his coworkers were staying at the restaurant while doing work there before it officially opened. He climbed into the vent in an attempt to enter the restaurant after he was apparently locked out.

The next day, the manager of a Blackjack Pizza in Denver—about 150 miles away—discovered a younger man close to meeting the same fate.

According to the Denver Post, 21-year-old Andrew Baca was found dangling above the oven yelling, “Help me, help me,” after being stuck in a vent for five to six hours. 

Firefighters were able to extricate Baca from the vent with only minor cuts and abrasions, though his clothes were removed in the rescue effort.

Police said the intruder, though lucky to be alive, was being held for investigation of burglary and criminal mischief.

The AP noted that the restaurant was closed later that day. It is unknown whether this was by order of the police force or the health department.
 

Environmental health officials found 190 items of "mouldy, slimy, putrescent or expired foodstuffs" and immediately closed the Rose and Crown pub in Thaxted, Essex, U.K. after a surprise inspection on Dec. 9, 2008.

Work surfaces and utensils were smothered in thick grease, floors littered with rotting detritus and fridges covered in mould and dozens of dirty food containers (right, photo from The Telegraph).

The kitchen did not even have any running hot running water meaning staff could not wash up or clean their hands properly.

Inspectors found the owner was still preparing food in the rancid conditions.

The owner of the pub, Nicholas Marchetto, pleaded guilty to 23 food and hygiene offences at Harlow Magistrates' Court.

He was fined £1,000 and ordered to pay another £1,000 towards the council's costs.
 

Last night Amy and I tuned into the finale of Jon and Kate plus 8, hoping Jon’s rumored making out with college chicks would be addressed. It was not.

There were a few moments of footage where the Gosselin kids filled the doggie bowls with pet food. The little helpers were eagerly scooping the food and handling the bowls, and didn’t appear to wash their hands.

Pet food can become contaminated with Salmonella, so Kate should ensure her kiddies are washing their hands after handling pet food or treats.
 

Actor John Corbett – Chris on Northern Exposure, Carrie’s boyfriend for awhile on Sex and the City, empathetic husband on The United States of Tara – needs to do a new Applebee’s advert (he’s the voice).

Shigella – it only comes from fecal material.

WSYR-TV is reporting the Onondaga County Health Department in New York state has confirmed seven cases of Shigella in people who recently ate at the Applebee’s in Camillus, and that up to 9,000 people may have been exposed to the bacteria

County Health Commissioner Dr. Cynthia Morrow said Shigella is associated with consuming water or food contaminated with fecal matter.

Those who are confirmed ill ate at the restaurant on either Saturday, March 7th or Sunday, March 8th, but the overall window that the Health Department is looking at is between Sunday, March 1st and Friday, March 20th.

The health department waited until Tuesday to announce the illnesses because it had sent stool samples to the lab, and had just gotten the results back.

Health officials are now testing all employees at the restaurant, which remains open.

Daughter Courtlynn spent her spring break with daughter Sorenne in Manhattan (Kansas).

Which is the only lede I got into foodborne illness, conspiracies and shameless exploitation of children.

The conclusion is this: Michelle Obama should use the White House garden to endorse microbiologically safe food, from around the corner or around the globe.

Phillip Brasher wrote in The Des Moines Register yesterday,

“In recent years, the federal government and the food industry have taken some significant steps to improve the safety of fresh produce. Those measures include stringent inspection standards for farms that supply schools and supermarket chains. The standards sometime restrict the use of compost and manure to fertilize crops and restrict how close cattle can be to fields.”

Stringent standards is not the descriptor to be used in the wake of the Peanut Corporation of America-AIB auditing fiasco. Worse, associations representing small-scale farmers have taken to the Intertubes to whine and conspiratorize about the end of family farming; that somehow standards for producing safe produce shouldn’t apply to small farms, or my garden.

The group that keeps getting cited for its threatening analysis of proposed food safety legislation is the ponderous Farm-to-Consumer Legal Defense Fund, which is run by the folks pushing raw milk. And some of those folks have, uh, interpretations of food safety that are not only wrong but dangerous to public health. Epidemiology does work, but not everyone likes the results.

Back to my kids. Or Mason Jones, the five-year-old who died in the 2005 E. coli O157 outbreak in Wales. Or Barack’s kids, since he cited them in a food safety chat. The food safety goal, for me, is to have fewer people barfing and dying. There is some microbiology and food science available to help achieve that goal. There is a lot of speculation, fairytales and unknowns about the providence of nature and immunology which can get in the way of that goal.

Michelle Obama, you are embracing local and fresh and natural foods and whatever that means. As I asked March 11, 2009, use the White House bully garden to embrace microbiologically safe food.

Last week several patrons of the Boathouse Rotisserie and Raw Bar became ill after eating raw oysters. Health department tests confirm that eleven consumers of the Chattanooga, Tennessee restaurant were infected with norovirus.

Now the Food and Drug Administration has issued a warning to avoid oysters recently harvested from Mississippi area 2C between Feb. 24 and Mar 17, 2009. 

Retailers and food service operators can check the tag or labeling that should accompany all raw molluscan shellfish to verify its origin… Consumers who are uncertain about the origin of oysters should contact the place of purchase to determine if the oysters are from the affected area… Individuals who have eaten raw oysters harvested from the affected area during the specified dates and have experienced symptoms of norovirus infection are encouraged to contact their healthcare provider and local health department.

Oysters filter large quantities of water; therefore if there are contaminants in the water they can be picked up in the oysters, causing illness if consumed raw or improperly cooked. In the past contaminated water or infected food handlers have been the cause of norovirus outbreaks linked to raw oysters. 
 

Michelle Obama wants to educate children about healthful, locally grown fruit and vegetables.

“My hope is that through children, they will begin to educate their families and that will, in turn, begin to educate our communities.”

That is so retarded.

Oh, I thought that was OK after Barack told Jay Leno last night that his 129 in bowling was Special Olympics-like.

I compost. I garden. I know that berries (left) don’t magically come in the first year.

“Bill Yosses, the pastry chef, is looking forward to berry season.”

Growing food requires skill; farmers are professionals, not hobbyists. There is room for both. And I’d like to see some genetically-engineered Bt sweet corn grown in that garden. It’s more sustainable.

Below, our polar scarebear protects seedlings in the Kansas sunshine.

While attending university in Guelph I made the trek from Sault Ste. Marie, through Michigan, a few times a year. A quick Google Maps search reveals Lake Orion, MI, where Canterbury Castle is located, was less than an hour off my regular route.

According to ClickOnDetroit.com, nearly 100 people have become ill with what is believed to be norovirus, after dining at the castle this week.

Nevin Mitchell, who attended a fundraiser with his family at the castle, said,

"First we threw up, a lot, until we couldn't throw up anymore. Then we had severe muscle and stomach cramps. And diarrhea, I'm afraid to admit."

Nevin and his family were luckier than others. According to the fundraiser organizer, one attendee was treated for four days after becoming ill.

“Complete weakness. He couldn't even lift his hand up to take a phone number down for the health department from me."

People who attended two other Canterbury Castle events, including a wedding, also became ill that night. The [Oakland County Health Department] said the virus is usually spread by improper hand washing.

What’s more important, is encouraging food handlers to stay home if they are ill, and for 2 or 3 days after feeling better in the case of norovirus. Many outbreaks of norovirus have occurred in foodservice.

Symptoms of norovirus typically appear 12 to 48 hours after ingestion of the virus, and include nausea, vomiting, diarrhea and abdominal cramps, usually lasting for 1 or 2 days.
 

During my undergraduate days I frequented the Grad Lounge, a campus eatery, almost daily, ordering Indian cuisine like chana and samosas (pictured right). The food was decent, but mainly they accepted debit, while most other places on campus did not.

An Indian and Pakistani cuisine restaurant in Fredericton, New Brunswick has had its license revoked following a bad inspection Tuesday, reports Canadaeast News Service.  The restaurant, Chez Riz, was mentioned in the national Where to Eat in Canada guide, but won’t be serving up samosas until it corrects the three pages worth of items listed on the inspection report.

The Health Department's report identified frozen samosas stored on newspaper with a metal pan on top in one freezer, and raw chicken stored on top of cooked food… The walk-in refrigerator needed cleaning and knives under a steam table were dirty… Floors, walls and ceilings, shall be cleaned regularly to prevent accumulation of dirt and food residue… No soap in the hand sink in the staff washroom…

Rizwan UI-Haq, chef at the restaurant, said aside from the chicken and samosas the rest of his food is fine,

"Our hot and cold temperatures were good. They checked it with a meter. Everything was OK. Our problem was the mess and the cleaning thing.”

In New Brunswick restaurant inspection results are summarized with colors, as seen below, and can be found on the Department of Health’s website.

UI-Haq plans on returning to his previous green status,

"I will be ready today or tomorrow. He'll (the inspector) check everything and we'll be fine. I will give more attention to this, because I've never had any problem. I was always on green until the day before yesterday.”

If only the Where to Eat in Canada guide mentioned restaurant inspection results.
 

The Eye of Dubai reports that the Tawam Hospital in Abu Dhabi has increased patient satisfaction by implementing a HACCP plan.

Were patients, staff, and guests previously dissatisfied with their foodborne illnesses, I wonder?

 The CEO of the hospital, Mr. Michael E. Heindel, was quoted as saying,

“By implementing food safety audits and ensuring that staff at Tawam adhere to food safety standards and procedures we have been able to increase patient satisfaction and meet the [requirements for HACCP certification].”

The article, titled Taste and quality of hospital food on the rise, mentions several other improvements in the service of food at Tawam Hospital and seems to credit all of them to the HACCP plan.

It appears the culture of food safety stirring at the hospital has raised enthusiasm for improved quality of service overall.

To that, I say, “Hooray for HACCP.”
 

bites ... it'll be here sooner than I think, but never quite fast enough

Kellogg CEO David Mackay is planning to grunt out a giant turd in Washington tomorrow.

To see how his assertions would be, uh, swallowed, Mackay’s comments were leaked to an uncritical press this afternoon, just like in the financial meltdown. Both AP and Reuters proclaimed that Kellogg’s “is urging lawmakers to overhaul the nation's food safety system.”

Mackay (right, exactly as shown) wants food safety placed under a new leader in the Health and Human Services department. He also called for new requirements that all food companies have written safety plans, annual federal inspections of facilities that make high-risk foods, and other reforms.

Mackay whined that Kellogg's had to recall more than 7 million cases of crackers and cookies, at a cost of $65 million to $70 million, and that "Audit findings reported no concerns that the facility may have had any pathogen-related issues or any potential contamination.”

Kellogg’s is a multi-billion dollar company asking for a government handout to do what Kellogg’s should be doing – selling a safe product. Kellogg’s helped create the paper albatross that is third-party audits instead of having its own people at plants that supply product which Kellogg’s resells at a substantial profit. And now this crapmeister is going to tell Washington how to strengthen food safety when he can’t keep shit out of his own company’s peanut cracker thingies. Must be a day of dicks.

Jersey represent.

Barfblogger and Franklin Township Health Department health officer Michele Samarya-Timm (right, not exactly as shown) has been crowned handwashing queen and Health Educator of the Year by the New Jersey Society for Public Health Education.

Patti Elliot, acting director for the Franklin Township Health Department said,

"Michele's enthusiasm for the field of public health is surpassed by no one.”

Samarya-Timm is the only health educator to receive the professional distinction of Diplomate in the American Academy of Sanitarians and has been recognized as an emerging public health leader by the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention.

In Franklin, Samarya-Timm established a model of the CDC's "It's a SNAP!" handwashing program, created a youth-based pandemic preparedness/handwashing program, and a handwashing/hygiene and illness reporting program for food handlers.

On a national level, Samarya-Timm works with the Food and Drug Administration, United States Department of Agriculture, the CDC and other agencies on establishing timely food safety and food outbreak information to consumers.

 

Charges are pending against two employees of the Wendy's drive-through in Moundsville, West Virginia after a sheriff's deputy said he found pubic hair on his sandwich.

According to the Marshall County Sheriff's Department, the deputy went through the Sunday night before heading to work.

He finished his chili and opened his sandwich. It was then he said he spotted the ball of pubic hair.

Later, two Wendy's employees confessed to the crime and said they purposely targeted an officer.

Deputies are waiting for Bender's blood test results. If he has any diseases, the misdemeanor charge will be escalated to a felony.
 

In a bid to divert attention from the lack of a June Stanley Cup parade in Toronto, councillor and city board of health chairman John Filion announced today that new food options will be available at street vendors throughout the GTA this summer.

Souvlaki, salsa karahi, jerk chicken and pad thai will be on the menu this May when the city of Toronto rolls out a street-food program to showcase the multicultural dishes of Canada's biggest city.

[Filion] said the new street food, offered in addition to the familiar hot-dog stands on Toronto street corners, “will be healthy, personal, interesting and may introduce us to cultures we are not familiar with.”

The Globe article notes that carts will be visited by public health inspectors regularly.  Good.  But what's more important is what happens when the inspectors aren't around.

Operators must know (and care) about the risks associated with the products they sell, More complicated foods come with complicated preparation and handling steps.  Multiple raw ingredients need to be kept at the right temperature, operators have to avoid cross-contamination and, keep bacteria and viruses off of their hands. 

A program specific to the new types of permissible street foods should supplement these inspections, so vendors and public health inspectors can discuss potential issues well before the first pad thai is served. Allowing vendors to sell new foods with minimal facilities without providing resources to help them learn how to create them safely is a potential recipe for disaster.

Courtlynn’s here and that meant a quick meal at Subway last night on our way home from the airport. The restaurant was fairly deserted and we only saw one male employee working. After we received our order to go, I ducked into the women’s restroom. While washing my hands, I reached for the soap and saw the sign pictured here. I rinsed with water and hoped the friction from the paper towel would be of some benefit. But I’m not serving meals to others and only had to hand Doug his sandwich in the car before eating my half. Proper handwashing requires the proper tools: water, soap, paper towels.

Katie, a.k.a. the woman who lives under our stairs, used to be a sandwich artist at Subway in the Soo. She says they got “into a lot of shit” if they didn’t keep the soap dispensers filled.
 

Eat fresh. Use soap.

Organic produce is so virtuous that UK writer Lucy Siegle had to ask, Does organic produce need to be washed?

“Health professionals are adamant that all fresh produce should be cleaned to remove potential pathogens. … Even produce sold as ‘pre-washed’ needs to be washed. … As organic produce has been annexed by big commercial enterprises, it is increasingly scrubbed up in huge pack houses that bring together produce from large numbers of farms for a good dousing.”

Siegle needs to research beyond the big ag conspiracy. A panel of scientists with expertise in microbial safety of fresh produce concluded in 2007 prewashed bagged salads should not be washed again at foodservice or at home.

"Leafy green salad in sealed bags labeled “washed” or “ready-to-eat” that are produced in a facility inspected by a regulatory authority and operated under cGMPs, does not need additional washing at the time of use unless specifically directed on the label. The panel also advised that additional washing of ready-to-eat green salads is not likely to enhance safety. The risk of cross contamination from food handlers and food contact surfaces used during washing may outweigh any safety benefit that further washing may confer."

Jon Stewart did a nice job trashing stereotypes of big ag, stem cells and that scientific discovery is planned – all at once. See about 1:48 minutes into the video below.

During an inquiry last year, Prof Hugh Pennington heard how John Tudor and Son, known on barfblog as 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.

Sharon Mills, Mason's mother and vocal food safety activist, was quoted in the Western Mail today as saying,

“There should be zero tolerance of rogue traders like Tudor.
“Health inspectors should not give people so many chances. Tudor fobbed them off so many times.
“Some meat producers could be dicing with death and they shouldn’t be given a second chance or allowed a few weeks to make things better because it can have a devastating effect. The inspectors should shut them down until they get it right.”

Ms Mills, also mum to Chandler, 11, and Cavan, four, said she hopes Professor Pennington will also recommend a change in the law to force butchers to have entirely separate areas for the processing of raw and cooked meat with separate sets of equipment for each.

“I would also like to see better training for GPs and hospitals, so they become more aware of the bacterium and more aware of the signs of infection so they can hospitalise people as soon as possible,”

“My little boy is lying in a cemetery. He died for nothing, so some good has got to come out of it. We also need to be looking at the health inspectors themselves and asking if they have the right training and if they are the right people to do the job. Are they strong enough to stand up to the people who break the rules?”

Inspection is part of the solution, but is only one factor in safe food production. Lowering the incidents of foodborne illness is not going to happen with increased inspection alone -- what Mills suggests about the quality of inspection, and looking for the right indicators is more important.  Having inspectors, auditors, coaches, etc. who know the production, processing and preparation systems and who can be the bug is the key to risk reduction.

Baby Sorenne is already taking an interest in colorful books and images. Soon it will be storytelling.

The Whole Foods blog had a particularly fantastical and derogatory tale today.

Joe Dickson writes in a piece entitled, Standards Even A Kid Can Understand, that he couldn’t figure out how to write about the complexity of quality in one post so he gets to do a series.

Joe, it’s called editing. You’re a terrible writer.

“Is everything here organic?” and Paige said “no” but that everything was natural. And then fumbled through various attempts at explaining what natural means - realizing as she rambled that a typical 11-year-old doesn’t have the background to understand how much junk is in our conventional food supply. Paige eventually came up with this: “You won’t find blue catsup here because catsup comes from tomatoes and tomatoes aren’t blue in nature.” And the friend got it: “So, catsup is red here?” Yes.

Joe the former nursery school teacher then introduces those readers who haven’t fallen asleep or clicked elsewhere to Quality Standards Storytime.

Once upon a time there were only natural foods. I know this is obvious, but one of my most strongly-held beliefs about food is that we should pay attention to the diets that humans have followed for 200,000 years or so. Our bodies and brains evolved on a diet of unprocessed foods — mostly plants and nuts, some animal protein and very little else. The 50-100 years since the advent of food processing and artificial preservatives occupies about .05% of that timeline. I think it’s fairly logical to play it safe and stick to the diets that have proven safe and healthful for most of recorded time.

Then, sometime in the twentieth century, Artificial Preservatives, Colors and Flavors were invented by “food scientists,” devoted to improving the quality of our lives through science. The ability to color, flavor and preserve food indefinitely made it possible to recreate authentic-seeming foods and make them last virtually forever. …

The Organic and Natural Products movements were born in opposition to these changes, based on the belief that natural food is healthier, better for you and better tasting. As the conventional grocery industry got weirder and weirder, the group of resisters got bigger and bigger. Whole Foods Market was born out of that opposition, founded in 1981 as a natural alternative to mainstream grocery stores. Organic agriculture also followed a similar route, rising as a resistance movement to chemical/industrial agriculture during the 1970s and 80s.

What a fairytale. Maybe Whole Foods should worry first about keeping dangerous bacteria out of the food it sells – it’s part of that food science thing – so its customers don’t barf.

And leave the storytelling to experts like Robert Munsch of Guelph, Ontario, whose 1986, Love You Forever, is one of the most popular children’s books ever, with some 8 million copies sold (my kids preferred The Paper Bag Princess, while I preferred Good Families Don’t, because it’s about farts).

Shortly before baby Sorenne was born I gave an animated telling of the story to our prenatal class, complete with bad singing, based on years of practice, and because I’d seen Munsch tell the story a few times.

An employee of a Ferndale, Washington, Dairy Queen says she “accidentally” poured Ajax into the malt dispenser, sickening two customers, according to court documents.

Detectives obtained surveillance video and saw the employee, Dale, pouring the Ajax into the malt dispenser, documents said.

Meanwhile, officials at an Arkansas hospital reported Friday that 10 children drank windshield wiper fluid after a staffer at an Arkansas day care mistakenly put the liquid in a refrigerator and served it.

A hospital toxicologist said,

"All we know was that the individual at the day care had recently shopped and had come back to the day care with a lot of different products. This product was mistakenly grabbed and thought to be Kool-Aid and put in the refrigerator."
 

Yet another cool application for the iPhone. 

COEDmagazine.com raves about Have2P:
 
You panic, you sweat, your mouth runs dry as painful bubbles round bends in your irritated intestines causing you to fall to curl into a squatting fetal position on the side walk - needless to say, it’s not pretty.

But with the new Have2P iPhone app, all your problems are solved! Using the phone’s internal GPS, this free application automatically finds available bathrooms in your vicinity in a matter of seconds.

I wonder if the bathrooms are fully stocked with running water, soap and paper towels?
 

KGAN reports that the outbreak linked to SunSprout Enterprises is now at 76 confirmed cases in Nebraska, Iowa, South Dakota and Kansas (Missouri is missing from the list -- although has been mentioned by other sources).

Health officials have confirmed at least 76 cases of salmonella in four states as part of an outbreak linked to alfalfa sprouts.

Cases of salmonella in Nebraska, Iowa, Kansas and South Dakota have been tied to SunSprout Enterprises' sprouts that were distributed to grocery stores and restaurants.

The Omaha company voluntarily recalled its products. Shipments were resumed after an inspection found no cause of salmonella.

Nebraska health officials say at least 45 cases of Salmonella saintpaul have been confirmed near Omaha, Lincoln and Kearney.

Iowa officials confirmed 21 cases. South Dakota and Kansas officials have both confirmed at least five cases in their states.

A selection of past sprouts-related outbreaks can be found here.

On Days of Our Lives today, Victor Kiriakis gave his opinion about Chloe Lane, “Hell, botulism is better than being married to her.” In food safety terms, that’s a very low blow.

Botulinum is a deadly toxin that comes from bacteria in soil and grows in warm, moist environments with no oxygen and low acidity. For example, it can grow on a baked potato wrapped in foil and left out on the counter. There have also been cases of poisoning in carrot juice, home-canned green beans, and enchiladas in France.

Botulism can cause serious complications such as paralysis and death.

Common symptoms include difficulty swallowing or speaking, facial weakness, double vision, trouble breathing, nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain and paralysis.

In infants, symptoms include constipation followed by "poor feeding, lethargy, weakness, pooled oral secretions, and wail or altered cry. Loss of head control is striking."

If having botulism is better than being married to Chloe, then Lucas better hope Victor, Kate, Sammy or even Daniel will ruin that wedding (you can vote online at nbc.com).

And p.s., Victor Kiriakis is played by John Aniston, the father of Jennifer Aniston IRL.



 

Farmers Weekly Interactive reports that while farmers fight for their livelihoods, the entire UK Animal Health workforce of about 1700 staff will have to undergo workplace training, which includes learning how to play the drums and playing games.

One vet spoke of management’s attempt at Diversity Day (from The Office, right and below) by saying,

"… we wasted an entire day playing games, mucking about and banging drums.I am appalled that taxpayers are being asked to foot the bill for this when we are supposed to be fighting disease.”

A spokeswoman for Animal Health said,

"As well as strategy, aspects of the day focus on effective teamwork and how it can help Animal Health deliver better outcomes in the future.

"This was done in a fun and interesting way which involved staff doing activities together.”
 

The New Mexico Restaurant Association (NMRA) is not happy with a proposal to switch the current green (pass)/red (fail) inspection disclosure system in Albuquerque to letter grades, reports KRQE.com.

Currently results of restaurant inspections are disclosed to the public using green or red stickers at the establishment, with similar in-compliance/not-in-compliance information available online.  The proposed change would provide consumers with more information than simply pass/fail, awarding establishments a letter grade -A,B,C or U (unsatisfactory) - based on the latest inspection scores.

But the NMRA is opposed to this, and released a statement on their website,

“A health department inspection sheet, while a matter of public record, is really a working document, a snapshot, that is provided by the health department to the restaurant owner and is not designed to serve as a guidepost to the general consumer as to the quality or purity of the food served in restaurants. The fact that a restaurant is open for business indicates that no health hazard exists at that establishment.”

I don’t see how that statement suggests why letter grades would be any different than the pass/fail disclosure system. And the part about “if a business is open there is no health hazard” – not sure about that either, since the association stated inspection is just a snapshot, so how can it ensure consumer safety at all times?

What the association should have suggested is that there is no evidence to support a letter grade system over a pass/fail system in conveying inspection results to the public. And some research indicates that consumers still think in terms of pass/fail, even with more complex disclosure systems.
 

I've been following food porn backlash in the UK as a result of an outbreak of something at quasi-celebrity Heston Blumenthal's restaurant, the Fat Duck.  Today Cold Mud picked up a blog post from one of the walking wounded who experienced  “two weeks of serious unpleasantness”.

The poster writes:

“The only things that felt a bit dodgy on the way down were the oysters. Neither of us is a huge fan, but we both ate them because we were determined not to miss out on anything. Anyway, we were eating in one of the most famous restaurants in the world so we were confident that there wouldn't be anything wrong with them."

I especially love this quote; it demonstrates the power of trust in food sources -- this guy is famous, I have a personal connection, I don't want to miss out, he wouldn't make me sick.

At the end of the post, the author discusses the lack of communication between the Fat Duck and ill patrons, and here's where it all goes really wrong for me:

“The next day I went onto the Fat Duck website and sent them an email. At that point the news bulletins were saying that 40 or so diners had been affected and I wrote something to the effect of: 'This has happened to us as well. We loved the meal and we’re not angry but count us among the walking wounded and let us know what's happening.’
“We received no reply so I wrote quite a long letter. I haven’t received a reply to that either. I’m appalled because I was so entranced by Heston Blumenthal and he comes across as being very decent and clever. We had been so ill and, at the very least, we expected some kind of acknowledgment.  We really thought they would be interested in what had happened to us."

Dude, Captain Food Porn Blumenthal, you need to respond to patrons who got sick at your restaurant. It doesn't matter whether contamination occurred in your restaurant, or if it was something contaminated prior to its arrival (Those dodgy oysters? Fresh sprouts? Whatever).  You are the face and brand associated with that meal. You have folks reaching out to you for info, or just to let you know what happened to them, you need to acknowledge it.  Tell them what you are doing to find out what happened, and how you manage food safety in your organization -- especially how you assess safe suppliers.

In last week's food safety infosheet  (you can download it here) we focused on the fallout of a Staphylococcus aureus outbreak associated with baked hams in Kentucky -- a 72-year-old man died and a wrongful death suit has been filed against the operator.  Outbreaks like this one, and the Fat Duck happen all the time. It is on operators to be proactively identify risks with their products, address them and prepare for when things go wrong.  And answer emails from ill patrons. And post something on your website about the outbreak -- have that stuff ready to go, because it's one of the first places people will be looking.

Epidemiological studies conducted in France show that beef burger consumption is the main risk factor of a serious disease caused by Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli bacteria or STEC.

A quantitative risk assessment for the consumption of beef burgers containing STEC by the Agence Francaise De Securite Sanitaire Des Aliments concluded that almost 50% of children under the age of 5 eat well-done beef burgers (as well as 29% and 24% of 5-10 year olds and 10-15 year olds respectively). The proportion of beef burgers consumed rare increases with the children’s age: 10%, 17% then 20% for each of the age groups defined (under 5, 5-10 year olds and 10-15 year olds). Regarding the effectiveness of cooking (a frozen beef burger being pan-fried and turned over once), it should be noted that cooking “rare” is associated with a percentage of STEC destruction of 0% to 87% ; “medium” 37% to 96% and “well done” 94% to 99.8%. Concerning the consumption habits that prevail in French households today, these results highlight the importance of the length of cooking on STEC destruction (currently not enough), and the hygiene of beef burger production.

A place to start might be to accurately define what rare, medium and well-done actually mean, as quantified by time and temperature

Eurosurveillance reports that the Netherlands experienced a nationwide outbreak of Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli (STEC) O157 with onset of symptoms from the end of December 2008 until the end of January 2009. A total of 20 laboratory-confirmed cases were linked to the outbreak strain, serotype O157: H-, stx1, stx2, eae and e-hly positive.  The investigation into the source of this outbreak is still ongoing, but evidence so far suggests that infection occurred as a result of consuming contaminated raw meat (steak tartare). 

An 8-year-old Wisconsin girl is heading to New York City next week to compete for a $25,000 college scholarship in a national peanut butter competition for her sandwich shaped like a hedgehog.

Jif peanut butter announced Tuesday that Alexandra Miller's sandwich created in the image of a hedgehog received enough votes in an online competition last month to earn her one of five finalist spots in the Jif Most Creative Peanut Butter Sandwich Contest (the Jif website totally sucks and I can’t find the picture; it’s also quite sexist; here’s a hedgehog, right).

The recipe, dubbed The Happy Hedgehog, places 1 tablespoon of Jif Creamy Peanut Butter and 1 teaspoon of Smucker's sugar-free red raspberry preserve between two slices of whole wheat bread. It's cut into a circle, with the edges pressed together to seal it. Ten pretzel sticks form the hedgehog quills, and almond slivers create ears with raisins for eyes and a Bugle chip for a nose. The hedgehog is complete with raspberry fruit strip feet, and green apple slices with peanut butter piped on top for grass.

Will the gimmick help sales?

Americans bought 41.8 million pounds of jarred peanut butter in the four-week period ending Feb. 21 - 13.3 percent less than in the same period the previous year, research firm Nielsen reported Tuesday.

The period's sales were the lowest of any in the three years Nielsen has tracked the U.S. food, drug, and mass merchandisers segment, which includes Wal-Mart Stores Inc., the nation's largest retailer.

Executives said last month that they were seeing weakness in Jif sales because of the outbreak, even though Jif was not affected. The company ran ads in more than 100 papers and aired national consumers saying the Jif brand is safe.

But that safety data is not publicly available. The best food producers, processors, retailers and restaurants should go above and beyond minimal government and auditor standards and sell food safety solutions directly to the public. The best organizations will use their own people to demand ingredients from the best suppliers; use a mixture of encouragement and enforcement to foster a food safety culture; and use technology to be transparent -- whether it's live webcams in the facility or real-time test results on the website -- to help restore the shattered trust with the buying public.
 

Organic is an industry, just like any other industry. While the organic folks may have cornered the language involving sustainable, natural and healthy, they use the same promotional BS that any big food company would use.

That’s why they use pictures like the one, right, to portray the organic industry. I look at the picture and wonder where those hands have been and what kind of poop is being spread on that fresh produce.

The same organic  folks who criticize industry for putting out promotional brochures and information are guilty of … putting out promotional brochures and information.

Taste the Change: How to Go Organic on Campus, is described as “the nation’s first guide for students who want to bring organic dining to campus is now available for download. This ground-breaking student guide is dedicated to feeding the organic revolution on campus.”

I have no idea why a guide that includes “Media Outreach” and “Free Food Never Fails” is considered ground-breaking, but the new brochure does follow the equally abysmal, Organic: It’s Worth It. And once again, the organic folks explicitly state that organic is a production standard, not a food safety standard.

“Organic production is based on a system of farming that maintains and replenishes soil fertility without the use of toxic and persistent pesticides and fertilizers.”

The N.Y. Times pointed out the same thing a few days ago: organic does not mean safer; it’s a lifestyle choice. But the organics industry keeps hinting at health benefits.

“Organic agriculture minimizes children’s exposure to toxic and persistent pesticides in the soil in which they play, the air they breathe, the water they drink, and the foods they eat.”

As Katija and I pointed out in our 2004 paper, Microbial Food Safety Considerations for Organic Produce Production:  An Analysis of Canadian Organic Production Standards Compared with US FDA Guidelines for Microbial Food Safety,

“The production of safe food is the responsibility of everyone in the farm-to-fork chain. With established relationships between growers and regulatory infrastructure, the CGSB organic standard would be an ideal vehicle for providing organic growers with information and guidelines on identifying and controlling microbial hazards on their produce.”

Would be. All growers – organic, conventional and otherwise – need to focus on microbial food safety. There’s just too many people getting sick from the food they eat..
 

At barfblog we're all about community-generated content. It's fun when someone emails with a food safety-related story or a picture for us to share.  Today's content comes from a colleague and avid barfblog groupie who was driving through southern Georgia this morning and snapped the picture at right.

The pictured sign is posted at the entrance of a pecan and peanut company's roadside market/shop. All I know about this unidentified business is that it distributes stuff like raw, roasted and nut products all over the U.S. 

Sure, it's a good idea to keep dogs out of the food area of a store, but suggesting to take a walk in the orchard, an equally important food area, is kind of weird.

To me, it seems like the producer should be thinking their orchard is a food area as well. Sure, it's really tough to control birds, deer and feral pigs, but inviting dogs to take a dump in the orchard (something that is controllable) probably isn't a good idea.  In the climate of uncertainty around the effectiveness of pathogen reduction strategies in the nut industry, it's an especially bad idea.

Keep the dog poop out of the orchard.

In an attempt to upstage upset fast food patrons who call 911 when they don't get their McNuggets, lemonade, cheeseburger or proper garnish, a man in Peoria IL took the law into his own hands.

PJ Star.com reports that a McDonalds staff member was assaulted with an eggless McGriddle, after a customer, who purchased the breakfast sandwich, was angered by its lack of egg. 

Police were called to a West Bluff McDonald's restaurant early Saturday after an employee was allegedly assaulted with a breakfast sandwich.

About 5:20 a.m., a man at the drive-through window at 627 N. Western Ave. was upset his McGriddle sandwich didn't have an egg in it, the victim told police. She told the man she would correct the sandwich, but he became irate when the driver of the vehicle behind him honked at him to move.

The man then threw the hot, greasy sandwich at the 38-year-old employee's face, according to police reports. The man drove off before police arrived.

The woman refused medical attention.

I'm not a huge McGriddle fan, but I do really like those sausage and egg McMuffins.

Fewer than one in four consumers now believe the U.S. food supply is safer than it was a year ago, according to new data from the University of Minnesota's Food Industry Center.

That’s an awkward sentence. But not as awkward as the statement by study co-author Dennis Degeneffe , a research fellow at the center, who told a Minnesota paper that,

Even with low consumer confidence in food safety and intense media scrutiny of recent contaminations, it’s important for consumers to keep in mind that the industry as a whole is safe.

“The truth of the matter is, we have the safest food supply in the world, and it’s probably getting better with technology.”

Tell that to the sick people. And provide some data to back it up.
 

I’ve written extensively about the salmonella-related dangers of kissing pet turtles during my time as an emotionally-vacant adolescent.

Martin Armstrong, a member of the Fisheries Advisory Council, a life member in Trout Unlimited and a member of the Outdoor Writers Association of America, asks in The Advocate, ever watch a competitive angler on TV kiss a big fish that he just caught?

Did you ever kiss a big fish that made your day or, better yet, win a party boat pool?

Well, when you kiss that big fish you are risking contracting a bothersome intestinal parasite.

Giardiasis is a diarrheal illness caused by a microscopic parasite, Giardia intestinalis (also known as Giardia lamblia or Giardia duodenalis). Once a person or animal has been infected with Giardia, the parasite lives in the intestine and is passed in feces. Because an outer shell protects the parasite, it can survive outside the body and in the environment for long periods of time -- often several months or even a year or more.

 

The beat goes on.

Brian Evans, executive vice-president of the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, wrote in the Globe and Mail this morning that the only part of a July 24 meeting between officials from Maple Leaf Foods and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency that concerned listeria centred around consistency between Canada's approach to import testing and monitoring, and that of other countries.

Michael McCain of Maple Leaf said the same thing in a March 4, 2009, press release,

"While we welcome open discussion of the outbreak in any and all reviews to ensure appropriate lessons are drawn from this tragedy, we take the strongest possible exception to any inference that we withheld information from the public."

As I said March 4, those explanations are probably true.

But CFIA and Maple Leaf  -- especially Maple Leaf if it’s the world-class thingy it claims to be – need to publicly state, for the record, who knew what when, instead of continuous damage control every time someone asks a question.

Evans also writes today that,

These consultations had nothing to do with the listeria outbreak that was brought to light several weeks later and to which the agency responded quickly and professionally.

No one can judge whether the agency responded quickly and professionally because a detailed timeline of who knew what when is simply not available. If McCain really valued “open discussion of the outbreak” they would publicize their own listeria test results leading up to the public recall in an outbreak that killed 20.

Bamba bamba.

Restaurant disclosure systems, like letter grades in L.A. or coloured cards in Toronto, communicate restaurant inspection results to patrons. This week Durham Region in Ontario launched DineSafe, a food safety inspection disclosure program that uses coloured cards to communicate inspection scores. Green, yellow or red cards must be posted at food establishments, similar to the disclosure system in Toronto.

According to newsdurhamregion.com, during the first day 30 restaurants were inspected, with only two receiving yellow cards, and the remainder receiving green cards. 

On Monday March 2, the first round of inspections under DineSafe resulted in two yellow cards, for the Akashia Japanese and Korean restaurant on Kingston Road West in Ajax and Wie Geht's Amigo on King Avenue East in Newcastle.

Ken Gorman, director of environmental health for Durham, said the Ajax restaurant received a yellow because of the level of cleanliness of food contact surfaces, food storage issues which could result in possible contamination and temperature abuse. The Newcastle restaurant's citations included food not being stored at the proper temperature, lack of paper towels and soap at the food and hand sink areas and sanitation problems with the floor, walls and equipment.

Both restaurants have been re-inspected and received green cards.

Gorman indicated he expects about 80 per cent of establishments will earn a green this year, and things are going well with the new program. He continued,

"Some people are very excited ... one got their green sign and they were cheering and clapping.”

In Durham Region the frequency of restaurant inspection is based on risk. High risk establishments are inspected three times per year, moderate risk twice a year, and low risk once a year. Overall inspection scores determine the colour of the sign issued to an establishment, green indicating a pass, yellow indicating substantial incompliance with provincial rules, and red indicating establishment closure.

 

Some people will do anything for a quick buck. Fake health inspectors in the Greater Toronto Area have been targeting mom and pop food stores in purchasing food safety tests. If managers do not comply, they would be faced with severe health code violations. Now I have heard everything. Health inspectors are required to present valid identification prior to inspecting an establishment. If something does not look right, contact your local health authority.  Food and water tests should also be performed in an accredited laboratory and not on site.

The Toronto Star writes this morning Mom-and-pop food stores and restaurants across the GTA are being scammed by fake health inspectors pushing unnecessary food and water tests, authorities say.

Dozens of convenience store and restaurant owners, most of them new Canadians, have told Peel, Halton and Toronto health departments that they were contacted by a "food and water safety technician" wanting to sell them $30 to $40 safety tests.

The so-called technicians reportedly say the tests are mandatory, and hand out what looks like "old meat plant inspection forms" from the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs, said Matt Ruf, Halton Region's manager of food safety.

Halton and Toronto officials said the people typically identify themselves as representatives of the Canadian Food Safety Institute or the Canadian Food Safety Resource Centre, which the institute founded according to the website www.cfsrc.com.

The CFSI "is not an agency we would deal with," said Rob Colvin, manager of healthy environments for Toronto Public Health.

So far, only a handful of business owners – including two in Toronto – have paid for the tests, officials said.

The cases started emerging first in Peel and Halton in mid-January, then in Toronto about three weeks ago, Colvin said.

Jalal Hadibhai, who owns the Down Under convenience store in Yorkville, said a woman called Monday, saying she would send a technician the next day to perform E.coli tests in the store.

She wanted $39.95 in cash or cheque, he said.

Hadibhai called Toronto Public Health to ask if the tests were legitimate and was told no, he said.

In the end, no one came to the store.

"I would have asked for I.D.," the store owner said. "I would never give them cash."

Sgt. Brian Carr said Halton police are looking for a woman who attempted to sell the tests in a Hasty Market in Oakville yesterday.

She allegedly told the manager that without the tests he could face fines for health code violations.

The woman presented a business card indicating she was from the CFSRC, police said. The organization has addresses in Mississauga and Ottawa.

"There's no such unit out there," Carr said. Messages left for the CEO of the safety institute were not returned.

A toll-free number listed on both organizations' websites is out of order.

It's unclear how many people are involved, but "it seems there's a whole team of people out there," said Colvin.

Mark Nesbitt, spokesperson for the Ontario Ministry of Health and Long- Term Care, said restaurant and store health inspections lie "entirely in the hands of local public health units."

Any private inspections purchased by business owners would be non- binding and, he added: "Buyer beware."

While New Zealand’s Flight of the Conchords charmed the critics lat year, the best television show in recent times is Australia’s Summer Heights High. And while the show is set in Melbourne, a school in Australia’s Northern Territory has, according to The Courier-Mail, been battling sewage in its canteen sink, water contaminated with dog poo, and piles of rubbish that are causing public health risks.

The school, at Palumpa, near Wadeye in the Northern Territory, has been in the news because students have been forced to wade through a crocodile-infested billabong to get to classes and the school "bus" - a Toyota TroopCarrier - has been stalked by a crocodile.

The new findings are contained in a Health Department report, completed last month, which was obtained by the Northern Territory News.

The Northern Territory News also revealed that two Palumpa children were airlifted to Royal Darwin Hospital this week suffering gastro.
 

For years, stories have circulated about the outrageous demands rock stars – even Celine Dion – make for their backstage accommodations as part of concert contracts or riders.

Most famously, Van Halen included in the rider for its 1982 world tour that absolutely no brown M&Ms be found backstage (the band insists this was not rock star excess, but an easy way to check if concert promoters completely read the riders and paid attention to important things like the stage and lighting).

The satirical rockumentary  Spinal Tap contains a scene where Nigel complains about the backstage food and the little pieces of bread (below). They also insist on blue M&Ms only.

Fox News is reporting that an Atlanta woman took a bite of a blue peanut M&M and discovered what a local biologist says is a vertebra from a small mammal.

Potts is not currently pursuing a lawsuit against Mars, the global giant that owns M&Ms, but the issue kept gnawing at her, so on Tuesday she said she took the object to Professor Larry Blumer, director of environmental studies in the biology department of Morehouse College in Atlanta, for an examination.

"It's definitely bone, and it came from some type of mammal," Blumer told FOXNews.com. "This isn't [a] tail vertebra — it's something higher up, and the reason I'm certain for that is because it's hollow. The nerve cord would run through there."

On Wednesday upon learning of the incident, Mars issued a statement noting that food and product quality is of "paramount importance to Mars."
  

Does anyone else notice the sanitized crap that spews forth from various industry associations? I know that being in an association means striving for the lowest common denominator, but why, in 2009, 11 years after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration first proposed Good Agricultural Practices for fresh produce, and hundreds of outbreaks later, is the United Fresh Retail-Foodservice Board patting itself on the back for endorsing the importance of efforts to harmonize produce food safety audits to reduce cost and duplication of efforts, while enhancing overall safety?

Maybe I’m missing something but shouldn’t this have been initiated about 10 years ago? I’m all for exposing the Ponzi scheme that is food safety audits and the burden that repeated and replicated audits place on individual growers. I fought for audits that make sense to buyers when I chaired a Canadian Horticulture Council committee on the topic back in 2002ish. They didn’t like the recommendations of my committee because they wanted money from the federal government.

How’s that working out for ya?

At some point, the folks growers elect to represent them will ask, why would I pay hundreds of dollars to attend a conference that should have happened at least 10 years ago? How did we growers get into this mess of multiple audits? Why didn’t you tell the retailers what they needed to know, instead of the retailers imposing some stupid standard on growers?

Thanks for the leadership.

Whenever a group says the public needs to be educated about food safety, biotechnology, trans fats, organics or anything else, that group has utterly failed to present a compelling case for their cause.

I cringe, and remember a Lewis Lapham column I read in Harper’s magazine in the mid-1980s about how individuals can choose to educate themselves about all sorts of interesting things, but the idea of educating someone is doomed to failure. Oh, and it’s sorta arrogant to state that others need to be educated; to imply that if only you understood the world as I understand the world, we would agree and dissent would be minimized.

What nonsense.

Yet millions are wasted weekly on such campaigns.

Industry, government, academia, activists, they all resort to the same language when it comes to providing information: them folks need to get edumacated.

In the past year:

• the American Ag & Energy Council said it believed in promoting all the good the industry does through education;

• Shell Malaysia chairman Datuk Saw Choo Boon told Malaysians efforts should concentrate on educating the public to become twice as efficient in energy use by 2050;

• an industry type said food irradiation is safe, but its adoption by the industry would require a massive consumer education campaign;

• the U.S. beef checkoff supported the efforts of federal agencies in promoting beef safety through educational activities;

• the Canadian Partnership for Consumer Food Safety Education has it right in their horribly bureaucratic name;

• as does the U.S. Partnership for Food Safety Education, dedicated to improving public health through research-based, actionable consumer food safety education; and,

• retailers are joining the group effort to educate millions of consumers about food safety.

A long time ago, I wrote,

There is a dearth of scientific studies applying proven risk communication concepts to issues of microbial food safety. There is, however, an abundance of academic, industrial and government pronouncements on how to improve communications activities related to food safety, based on anecdotal evidence and almost always citing the need for “educated consumers” or “a better-educated public.”

Such proposals invoke a one-way, authoritarian model of communication that is characteristic of scientists and engineers in general. Further, exactly how this mythical consumer will become better educated remains a mystery. What is known is that the traditional approach of scientists clearly explaining the facts is “naive—and probably a recipe for failure. ... Effective communication
“Too often, risk communicators are more concerned with educating the public, rather than first listening to them and then developing communication policies.”

So it’s not surprising that the organic industry is also lacking in imagination and has launched a national consumer education and marketing campaign.

The Organic Agriculture and Products Education Institute (Organic Institute) has launched "Organic. It's worth it."

"The mission of this campaign is to answer consumer questions about organic with the clear message that organic is worth it in every way from health care and economics to farming and the environment. It will increase consumer trust, knowledge and purchase of organic products," said Christine Bushway, president of the Organic Institute and executive director of the Organic Trade Association (OTA), the sponsor of the campaign.

Designed to be of service to families with young children at home, the campaign especially seeks to reach new mothers, the primary gateways to organic, according to OTA Marketing Director Laura Batcha, who developed the campaign with Haberman, the Minneapolis brand public relations firm, on behalf of the Organic Institute.

"Helping mothers make the connection between the personal health of their families and the health of the environment is key to this education and marketing initiative," explained Batcha. "It gives them the rationale they need to make the organic purchase."

Of course, as the N.Y. Times points out this morning, organic has nothing to do with food safety. It’s a production standard, and a porous one at that. But consumers believe that organic is healthier and safer, according to surveys. The organic industry will never come out and say it’s safer, but they hint at it through marketing (see above).

So it’s a shock to some that Peanut Corporation of America plants in Virginia and Texas were certified organic, revealing the same Ponzi scheme of inspection and auditing that failed to catch Salmonella problems in the plants.

As the Times states,

Although the rules governing organic food require health inspections and pest-management plans, organic certification technically has nothing to do with food safety. …

A private certifier took nearly seven months to recommend that the U.S.D.A. revoke the organic certification of the peanut company’s Georgia plant, and then did so only after the company was in the thick of a massive food recall. So far, nearly 3,000 products have been recalled, including popular organic items from companies like Clif Bar and Cascadian Farm. Nine people have died and almost 700 have become ill.

The private certifier, the Organic Crop Improvement Association, sent a notice in July to the peanut company saying it was no longer complying with organic standards, said Jeff See, the association’s executive director. He would not say why his company wanted to pull the certification.

A second notice was sent in September, but it wasn’t until Feb. 4 that the certifier finally told the agriculture department that the company should lose its ability to use the organic label.

To emphasize that reporting basic health violations is part of an organic inspector’s job, Barbara C. Robinson, acting director of the agriculture department’s National Organic Program, last week issued a directive to the 96 organizations that perform foreign and domestic organic inspections that they are obligated to look beyond pesticide levels and crop management techniques.

Potential health violations like rats — which were reported by federal inspectors and former workers at the Texas and Georgia plants — must be reported to the proper health and safety agency, the directive said.

Wow. Organic inspectors have to be told by the feds that rats may pose a health risk and should be reported.

Arthur Harvey, a Maine blueberry farmer who does organic inspections, said agents have an incentive to approve companies that are paying them.

“Certifiers have a considerable financial interest in keeping their clients going,” he said.

OMG. Organic, like other food systems, is about making money.

Is there a better way? Yes, market microbial food safety and hold producers and processors – conventional, organic or otherwise – to a standard of producing food that doesn’t make people barf. That’s something shoppers will support, instead of being told they have to become better educated about someone else’s limited perspective.
 

An Algerian-born chemist has been found guilty in a British court of contaminating food and wine by using his own urine and feces.

The court had heard man sprayed the mixture in the Air Balloon Pub, in Birdlip, near Cheltenham on 14 May, 2008.

He then moved on to the Waterstones bookstore in Cirencester, Tesco in Quedgley and Morrisons in Abbeydale.

The court also heard shoppers and staff in both stores saw the man with a black lap top computer with a vapor coming from the bag being sprayed on the shelves. He is likely to be deported.
 

In yet another example of America’s slide toward Idiocracy, a Florida woman called 911 after paying for 10 Chicken McNuggets and told that no deep-fried chicken bits were available and would she like something else because all sales are final.

She called 911 three times.

"This is an emergency, If I would have known they didn't have McNuggets, I wouldn't have given my money, and now she wants to give me a McDouble, but I don't want one. This is an emergency."

Once police arrived, the woman told police,

"I called 911 because I couldn't get a refund, and I wanted my McNuggets.”

The police report states the woman,

"maintained the attitude 'this is an emergency, my McNuggets are an emergency.'"

And why do these food-related 911 calls keep recurring in Florida?

WOWT TV in Omaha and AP are reporting that an outbreak of Salmonella in Nebraska has been linked to a local fresh sprouts producer.

Nebraska Health and Human Services says the initial testing links the outbreak to source-alfalfa sprouts from a local grower, CW Sprouts in Omaha.

Public health workers have been interviewing individuals involved in the outbreak, as well as people in a control group that helps interviewers determine the food source. The interviews led epidemiologists to conclude that sprouts were reported in a high number of food histories of ill people, thus there was a strong association with sprouts.

Nebraska's chief medical officer Joann Schaefer held a press conference Tuesday releasing the following information:

- As of Tuesday, the state health department had confirmed 14 cases of Salmonella in Nebraska.

- The cases were reported from Feb. 2 to Feb. 23.

And in a great example of good communication, the health authorities said that there really wasn't much a consumer could do once they had the product (other than cook it):

While the health department recommended consumers wash all fruits and vegetables before consumption, Schaefer acknowledged that doing so likely would not have prevented the most recent outbreak.  Schaefer said officials believe the salmonella was probably within the alfalfa sprouts, and therefore, could not be washed off. 

"The company does all sorts of washing procedures in its plant," Schaefer said. "It's state of the art. It's probably one of the cleanest facilities we've seen."

A clean facility doesn't do a whole lot if the seeds come in contaminated. The warm and humid environment that sprouting plants grow in provide a fantastic situation for pathogens to thrive. Pathogens have been shown to attach and survive within the layers of the sprout, making washing virtually useless.

The FDA offers the following advice to all consumers concerning sprouts:

• Cook all sprouts thoroughly before eating to significantly reduce the risk of illness.
• Sandwiches and salads purchased at restaurants and delicatessens often contain raw sprouts. Consumers who wish to reduce their risk of foodborne illness should specifically request that raw sprouts not be added to their food.
• Homegrown sprouts also present a health risk if eaten raw or lightly cooked. Many outbreaks have been attributed to contaminated seed. If pathogenic bacteria are present in or on seed, they can grow to high levels during sprouting even under clean conditions.

A selection of past sprouts-related outbreaks can be found here.

My friend Dave got into the bottled water biz in the 1980s in Hamilton, Ontario, providing those 5-gallon jugs for water dispensers at home and offices. I never was into that stuff, but the 5-gallon plastic carboys that people haul to the grocery store for a refill are excellent secondary fermentation vessels for home beer production.

But, for those who work in an office, the water cooler is, I’m told, the place for gossip, flirting and bacteria.

The Sunday Herald reports that tests for watchdog organization, Consumer Focus Scotland, found potentially dangerous bacteria in drinking water dispensers in workplaces, schools and care homes. The group says the dispensers need to be better cleaned and maintained, and that the Scottish government, along with the Food Standards Agency, should review existing legislation because it is difficult to enforce.

Environmental health officers found bacterial contamination in 23 out of 87 water dispensers sampled in Edinburgh, Lothian and Borders. They tested for five types of bacteria known to cause illness, particularly in people who are vulnerable due to frailty or ill-health.

Water from bottle-supplied coolers was the most contaminated, with 14 out of 35 samples containing bacteria. Eight samples showed the presence of coliform bacteria, usually associated with faeces, and three contained staphylococcus aureus, which can cause serious illnesses.

Nine of the 52 samples from plumbed-in coolers taking water from the mains were also found to be contaminated, sometimes by more than one type of bacteria.

The contamination is thought to be due to the poor hygiene habits of some drinkers. Unwashed hands, putting mouths to taps and refilling dirty bottles could all be to blame.

Dlisted reports that Jennifer Aniston and Owen Wilson were on Germany's Wetten Dass... to promote that movie about a dead dog when they had to eat a doggy biscuit after losing a bet.

People magazine says that the bet was that a woman claimed she could correctly identity her team of Husky dogs just from listening to them drink soup. Jennifer and Owen and the host all indulged. People magazine even asked readers, “Have you ever tried your pet’s food?”

This is a bad idea. Salmonella has been routinely found in dried dog food and doggy treats. People worried about barfing should wash their hands after handling either – dog food or treats, Jennifer or Owen.
 

The Fat Duck is apparently a fancy restaurant in Berkshire, UK, run by TV chef Heston Blumenthal; it was voted Best Restaurant in the World by fellow chefs in 2005, or something.

The Independent reports that Blumenthal (right) spent a sleepless night before deciding to close the restaurant last Tuesday in the face of a steady stream – between 30 and 40 – of complaints from customers who suffered vomiting, diarrhoea and flu-like symptoms.

"I made the decision to be transparent about it. Who knows if it was the right or wrong decision to make. But my gut reaction, the moral feeling about it all, was that's what we had to do. It was an incredibly emotional decision."

But tests for viral infections and food poisoning have proved negative and there is speculation that the winter outbreak of norovirus could be the real reason why they became sick.

Yeah, check out the staff. And handwashing facilities. And suppliers. And places chefs rarely think to go when it comes to basic microbiology, from farm-to-fork.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution asks an important question beyond how did the salmonella get into PCA's Blakely, Georgia Plant -- how did the 2007 Peter Pan outbreak strain get into the PCA plant?

From the AJC article:
Experts at the FDA and the CDC said they are intrigued by an unusual clue.
Two years ago the ConAgra plant in Sylvester launched a nationwide recall of Peter Pan peanut butter after consumers were sickened by a less common strain of the bacteria, called Salmonella Tennessee. It had a unique genetic fingerprint.
On Jan. 22, tests by the Minnesota Department of Agriculture found salmonella with that same genetic fingerprint in an unopened 5-pound container of King Nut peanut butter produced late last year at the Blakely plant.

The possible on-farm link to the peanut butter outbreak has been circulating around for a while (including being something ConAgra suggested during the investigation of the Peter Pan 2007 outbreak). This link reminds me of some of the stuff my good friends Linda Harris and Michelle Danyluk have looked at in the almond industry -- the environmental persistence of Salmonella PT 30 and it's subsequent transfer to the nuts (even frequent barfblogger Don Schaffner got in on some of this action). Maybe there is an environmental reservoir near of in some peanut fields. And if there is, maybe there are things that peanut producers can do to address them. The impact that this outbreak has had on peanut farmers suggests that any food safety hurdles that could be put in place is worth some investigation.

From the AJC article:
Some food safety experts questioned whether the peanut industry is aware some farming practices may increase the risk of salmonella contamination. Only one Georgia peanut farm has sought and received certification of using good agricultural practices, said Arty Schronce, a state Agriculture Department spokesman.
“My impression is the farmers really don’t have good agricultural practices,” said Michael Doyle, who has served as a consultant for ConAgra and the American Peanut Council. Doyle is director of the Center for Food Safety at the University of Georgia.
When peanuts are roasted, Doyle said, the focus may be more on achieving the right flavor rather than on safety. If salmonella is present in very large numbers, the roaster may not kill all of it, he said.
Doyle said he recently got a call from a peanut industry adviser in Georgia. “The bottom line I got from him: The farmers feel the processor is at fault and should process the salmonella out of the peanuts,” Doyle said. “They’re looking at the peanut as a commodity, rather than a food.”

I hear a lot of talk and read a lot of articles that quote food folks saying that food safety is a farm-to-fork responsibility. True. That's why it's a good idea that the peanut industry (and heck, other nut and seed folks as well -- check this out) take these two outbreaks as indicators of something bigger -- that there may be on-farm Salmonella reduction strategies employable that .

It's not up to me to assign blame for the outbreaks (That's the law and Bill Marler's job) although I'm sure that some peanut growers will feel that's what the AJC article is all about.  It's not -- this is the first step in the public dialogue around the good agricultural practices that peanut growers currently have.  If there isn't much there, as Mike Doyle alludes to, then it's a good idea to do the research on what the risks are figure out how to address them.

Last month's congressional subcommittee revelations revealed that there's a bad operator in the middle of this outbreak, but peanut farmers, one of the groups hit hardest by the fallout, need to make sure they are part of the solution and truly make peanut butter food safety farm-to-fork.