July 1^st is Canada Day, so being in New Zealand and feeling patriotic I decided to make butter tarts, a Canadian baked dessert (pictured right). While making the filling-- which consists of brown sugar, eggs and cream -- my flatmate had a spoonful of the unbaked filling. I warned her about the raw eggs, but she shrugged and tasted it anyways, saying it was delicious.

Since being in New Zealand I’ve noticed a difference in egg handling than in North America. Eggs are not found in the refrigerated section of the grocery store, rather just on store shelves, and many consumers do not refrigerate eggs at home. Doug says it’s because the country just got electricity 10 years ago, and beer is the primary occupant of the fridge; however, a more scientific explanation follows:

A 2007 survey of retail eggs for Salmonella found,

The results of this survey are consistent with two previous studies in indicating an absence of internal contamination of New Zealand eggs and enumeration tests have shown that the number of Salmonella present on the surface of contaminated eggs is low.

The pilot study suggests that, in New Zealand, the risk to consumers from Salmonella in eggs is low. Food handling practices that minimise the possibility of cross contamination from shells will further reduce the risk.

I still keep eggs in the fridge, and will avoid the temptation of eating raw cookie dough.

Eat Me Daily is fast becoming one of my go-to sites. They write today:

This illustration by Lunchbreath is basically a checklist for corporate greenwashing: Earth tones, sans serif type, unbleached paper, and emotional messaging are essential components of the deceptive marketing techniques employed by corporations that rebrand their products.
We liked the customer benefit: "Be selfish while appearing progressive."

Market food safety instead. People are interested in not barfing.

At Dorset County Hospital, in the UK, alcohol based hand sanitizing gel is now banned at hospital entrances. The hospital’s Infection Prevention and Control Committee previously placed sanitizing gel at hospital entrances to promote hospital visitor hand hygiene. According to hospital staff, homeless people are now coming into the entrance and drinking the gel, which contains up to 70 percent alcohol.

A spokeswoman from the hospital said, “What we are trying to do is focus people on hand hygiene at the point of care so that they wash or gel their hands on entering wards or at the patient’s bedside.” She further implied the removal of the alcohol gel due to ingestion was only one of many health and safety reasons. The National Patient Safety Agency (NPSA) has advised hospitals to remove alcohol gel from hospital entrances.

Two persons have died from alcohol gel ingestion.

Dr. Margaret Hamburg, the new chief of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, said a couple of weeks ago she was going to focus on preventing contamination of fresh fruit and vegetables.

That’s good, because this year has brought a new crop of unrealistic expectations about the microbial safety of fresh produce, created primarily by the largest producer of fresh produce, California.

While the industry is busy blowing itself over the steps it finally took after the 29th outbreak involving leafy greens, a cone of silence has apparently fallen over any outbreak involving fresh produce. How hard is it to traceback lettuce? Apparently that depends on who wants to know the answer.

Meanwhile, a bunch of Taco Bell franchisees won damages from their insurance company over a 2006 E. coli O157:H7 outbreak involving California bagged lettuce when the judge ruled that the lettuce should be considered an ingredient, which would be covered by the policy, instead of a product, which would not be covered.

The Onion, in this satirical-but-a-little-to-close-to-reality piece, has the perfect solution for Taco Bell.
 

Taco Bell's New Green Menu Takes No Ingredients From Nature

Robert Pattinson, the dude from Twilight, is in NYC filming his latest flick and tweens from all over are flocking to the city to stalk him. Meanwhile, NYC mayor Michael Bloomberg has announced the start of 311-Online, a one-stop web portal for NYC services, and the Big App competition, reports the New York Times blog. Perhaps Mr. Pattinson (pictured right, scanning his phone) could use the application to find tween-less spots to enjoy a quiet meal.

In an effort to improve government transparency and accountability and stimulate development of the digital media industry, NYC is inviting software developers and related professionals to develop applications to help Internet users navigate vast stores of data in areas like citywide events, property sales, recreational facilities and restaurant inspections…

[P]lanned to become an annual competition known as NYC Big Apps, the city will make available about 80 data sets from 32 city agencies and commissions. The winners of the competition will get a cash prize, recognition at a dinner with the mayor, and marketing opportunities… City officials are particularly interested in receiving suggestions about how information could be used and how it could be presented electronically.

The mayor also announced the start of 311 Online — a one-stop, searchable Web portal on NYC.gov for thousands of New York City services — and said that the city would establish Skype and Twitter accounts for the 311 city services hot line.

Many applications already exist for phones, and countless cities are making restaurant inspection results available online; however, creating an application and website where consumers can access multiple agency information is smart. Consumers want this information, and they want it at their fingertips. I’d like to see a phone application that can give me the nearest pizza place, its restaurant inspection score, and the current location of Robert Pattinson (OK, that’s asking a lot).

Oregon appears to be an emerging state for 911 wackos – rivaling Florida and Texas – after a 23-year-old called 911 Friday to complain about his order at a McDonald’s in Clackamas, Ore.

Last month, a fellow Oregonian was arrested after calling 911 to complain about a juice box missing from his McDonald’s order. From insufficient shrimp in Texas, a McNuggets emergency and missing lemonade at a Burger King, 2009 is turning into a watershed year as American fast-food diners to a 911-mediated slide into idiocracy.

In the latest incident,  KOMO News reports that  a man said he had paid $10 in the drive-thru but only received a single burger and a fry before he was told to pull around.

"Sir, this is not a police matter," the dispatcher told him. "You need to take it up with the manager of the McDonald's."

The man thought it would be wise to call 911 again.

"This is a 911 emergency. I got robbed for eight dollars."

"Sir, 911 is life-and-death only. If you do continue calling 911 you will be arrested for misuse."

"Well, arrest me at (expletive) 82nd and Sunnyside Road. Please send a cop right now. I swear to God all my life..."

The man was arrested and spent the night in jail.

On Saturday, the man told KATU he stood by his actions.

"I was very upset that they tried to charge me for food I had already paid for. … For me to end up going to jail over a $10 order, that's just ridiculous.”

During the evening of Thursday, June 18, the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment urged Coloradans not to eat raw Nestle Toll House cookie dough because of possible contamination with E. coli O157:H7.

The next morning, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration warned consumers not to eat any varieties of prepackaged Nestle Toll House refrigerated cookie dough due to the risk of contamination with E. coli O157:H7. At the same time, Nestlé announced a voluntary recall of all Toll House refrigerated cookie dough products, “out of an abundance of caution.”

My colleague Evan managed to get some of that recalled cookie dough, I got some other cookie dough, and we made cookies.

In the latest video from the Safe Food Café, I stress that cookie dough is a raw product (although the eggs have been pasteurized in any commercial product) and can therefore cross-contaminate anything in the kitchen, and that the warning labels and safe-handling instructions on packages of raw cookie dough are terrible.
 

I’ve been in New Zealand for over a month now, in which time I have become accustomed to the accent, picked up some slang, and sampled many a new food. Although Marmite has not grown on me, I do enjoy a warm cup of Milo, a chocolaty malt drink, not quite as sweet as hot chocolate.

The New Zealand Herald reports today that a suggested traffic light approach to food labelling is a no-go with the Food & Grocery council.

While some consumer groups are pushing for traffic light labelling on food in New Zealand - to warn about a high sugar or salt content, for example - the council is against that approach.

Katherine Rich, chief executive of the Food & Grocery Council, says,

"We see this as an overly simplistic way of dealing with a complex problem. There is no evidence that slapping red light labels on milk, cheese, honey and Marmite will help New Zealanders achieve a healthy diet.”

She continued,

"The industry understood years ago that consumers wanted more information about the food they eat and so it committed to percentage daily intake labelling. Bringing in another form of labelling would cost consumers many millions of dollars for no gain…”

"As for the good food/bad food labelling, it is a joyless person indeed who suggests that the average Kiwi who occasionally enjoys a piece of chocolate with their Milo needs a big red light slapped on their chocolate bar telling them it's bad."

The traffic light communication approach – green (good), yellow (caution), red (bad) – has been used in restaurant inspection disclosure schemes, like Sacramento County, C.A. (pictured above) or the City of Toronto, Canada. During the development of the Toronto disclosure scheme it was noted that colour can be used to draw attention and suggest caution.

Whether or not a red symbol on a cookie package would actually change my purchasing habits is unknown, but cities like Sacramento and Toronto that use traffic light schemes for disclosing inspection results seem to like it, and so do consumers.

Not just a problem for Toronto or Tori Spelling, Belgium also apparently has some issues with soft-serve and regular ice cream.

Albert sent along a link to a recent report by Test-Achats, a Belgian-based consumer group that anonymously sent researchers to 69 points of sale for ice cream and soft-serve in Belgium during the summer of 2008. Amy translated, and highlights of the report are below.

“Attention was essentially directed towards touristic sites like the Côte, the Ardennes, and various country towns. They bought ice cream cones and soft-serve. While making the purchases, they took the opportunity to evaluate the hygiene at the point of sale as well as of the personnel, the place where the counter or the soft-serve dispenser was located, the conditions for rinsing the ice cream scoop, etc. Immediately after the purchase, and in appropriate sterile and temperature conditions, the ice cream was taken to the laboratory to undergo detailed bacteriological testing. …

Apparent cleanliness was rarely noted during our visits: only 18 points of sale received a good or very good score for this category. In 8 cases, general hygiene at the point of sale was simply unacceptable… and added to that was a serious lack in the staff’s personal hygiene. A serious problem that was already underscored by Test Achats: the ice cream scoop. It was only rinsed under running water in 6 of the points of sale. This is however fundamental for serving ice cream in good hygienic conditions. Too often, the scoop was left resting in obviously unclean water or it wasn’t, in any case, cleaned before service. Finally, it is unacceptable that the ice cream counter or the soft-serve machine be located in full sunlight, exposed to outside air or that the ice cream be accessible to or touched by clients. However, this was the case in 11 locations.

The testing of 5 specific bacteriological parameters as well as the number of total germs gives a realistic image of the hygienic quality of the 70 samples analyzed. Fortunately the presence of Salmonella and Listeria was never detected, on the other hand, Escherichia coli (which can provoke enteritis or diarrhea) was detected in three cases. In two cases, staphylococcus was present, proof of a lack of the personnel’s hygiene.  …

Throughout the years and through successive studies, the results are obvious: the hygienic quality of ice cream is getting worse: 35% of ice cream cones and 61% of soft-serve are bad to mediocre. This is a completely unacceptable situation."

The London Free Press – that’s London, Ontario, in Canada – reports that after three children were diagnosed with E coli O157:H7 infections within five days, the Middlesex-London Health Unit advised the public today to avoid eating any ground beef or spiced ground beef (kofta) purchased from Westmount Halal Food Store located at 490 Wonderland Road South.

In two of the cases, children consumed kofta purchased on June 14 and 15 from the store. The source of the third child's infection has not been identified, but the child's family also eats halal food, although it didn't purchase any from the Westmount store.

The public is being advised to:

• Not eat any ground beef or kofta purchased from the Westmount Halal Food Store between June 2 and today. The store is prepared to refund any customer who purchased these products.

• Contact the Health Unit (519-663-5317 ext. 2330, after hours 519-675-7523) and their healthcare provider if they have developed symptoms of severe or bloody diarrhea since June 2.

• Contact the Health Unit if they have any ground beef or kofta purchased from the Westmount Halal Food Store between June 2 and today in their home.

The peas apparently came from Kenya. But that wouldn’t fit the alliteration.

Eurosurveillance reports that in Norway, shigellosis is a mandatorily notifiable disease, and all isolates are submitted to the NIPH for verification and typing. Around 150 cases of shigellosis are confirmed per year, the majority caused by Shigella sonnei. Only around 10 to 20 of the shigellosis cases reported each year are acquired in Norway, usually as secondary cases caused by faecal-oral transmission in households.

An outbreak investigation was initiated on 27 May by interviewing the four confirmed cases using a trawling questionnaire. On the same day the NFSA inspectors visited the two households where suspected cases were reported and found an unopened package of sugar peas imported from Kenya in one household, and the packing of the same brand of sugar peas in the other. The sugar peas were bought in the same shop. Based on this suspicion, it was decided to focus the interviews on consumption of fresh vegetables and lettuce.

By 16 June, the reference laboratory has registered a total of 20 cases with the outbreak strain of Shigella sonnei, who had not travelled abroad prior to illness onset. The cases live in different municipalities, but mainly in the central and western parts of Norway. The date of onset for the first case was 10 May. All cases were adults except for one teenager, and 16 of them were women. All 20 cases reported to have eaten sugar peas, and there were no other obvious common exposures identified. The majority of the patients had bought the sugar peas in one of the large supermarket chains and only a few in another chain. The NFSA traced the suspected food product and found that all the implicated sugar peas were produced in Kenya. One sample from the unopened package of sugar peas collected in a patient household was positive for Shigella sonnei by both PCR methods, but could not be culture-confirmed.

As a response to our urgent inquiry Denmark reported an increase in the number of domestic Shigella sonnei infections in April and May 2009. They initiated an outbreak investigation to find out if the Danish cases were related to the outbreak in Norway. The investigation in Denmark also pointed at sugar peas as the source of the outbreak, and microbiological investigations (including MLVA typing) to compare the outbreak strains are ongoing.
 

A month after posting about it on barfblog, Health Canada has some new suggestions about reusing cloth grocery bags:

When using cloth bags, make sure to wash them frequently, especially after carrying fresh produce, meat, poultry or fish. Reusable grocery bags may not all be machine washable. If you are using this type of grocery bag, you should make sure to wash them by hand frequently with hot soapy water. Plastic bins should be washed using hot soapy water on a regular basis as well.

- Put your fresh or frozen raw meat, poultry and fish in separate bins or bags from fresh produce and other ready-to-eat foods.

- Putting your fresh or frozen raw meat, poultry or fish in plastic bags (the clear bags found in the produce and some meat sections work well) will help prevent the juices from leaking out and contaminating your reusable containers and other foods. Fresh produce should also always be put in plastic bags to protect them from contamination.

- If you are using your grocery bags or bins to store or transport non-food items, they should be thoroughly washed before using them for groceries.

There are some theoretical risks, but there isn't anything I can find in the peer-reviewed literature that suggests reusable cloth bags are any riskier or less risky than the standard one-use-only plastic or paper from a cross-contamination between-uses standpoint. It would be nice to have that data, as opposed to the plastic-industry assertions that there is a measurable bacterial load in 25 bags in Toronto (with no pathogens, or real good indicators). 

Comparisons to reusing hand towels don't work for me (one-use-only paper vs. cloth), where the towel is part of the potential pathogen removal process (and is usually quite moist). Reusable cloth bags might be a factor in sporadic cases of Campylobacter or other pathogens, but more data is needed to make that determination.  In cross-contamination 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 transfered to the bag, and then only 10 cfus when transferred to ready-to-eat apples. Drying out the bags (by turning them inside-out between uses) could reduce the bacterial loads enough to reduce risk. Maybe. The data just isn't there. Washing them frequently (as HC suggests) is a good idea, and won't increase risk, but I wonder how much it will actually decrease risk more than just letting them dry out.

The Associated Press reports that certain packages of Kowalke Organics alfalfa spouts are being recalled due to possible salmonella contamination.

The California Department of Public Health said the packages were mostly distributed at Gelson's and Whole Foods grocery stores in Southern California. According to Kowalke's owner, Mike Matthews, only one package purchased in a store as part of a "secret shopping" investigation by state agents tested positive for salmonella, and it had a sell-by date of June 21.

The health officials "looked at our paperwork and we're 100 percent clean. The test we have for that batch was negative," Matthews said. "Since we know it was clean when it left our truck, the only way that it could have happened was in cross-contamination down the line in the store."

Officials disagreed with that deduction—and solitary test result (which came from a sample on Kowalke's premises, according to Matthews, and not on the truck)—and recommended a recall of all of Kowalke’s sprouts with sell-by dates from June 18 to June 30. Public health spokesman Al Lundeen said most sprout contamination comes from seeds, so all the products that were grown from that seed lot should be recalled.

Cross-contamination at retail is certainly a possibility. I’d be more apt to believe it, though, if I knew more about the testing procedure, and perhaps found out that more than one sample was tested per batch. With the limited information Matthews has provided, I have to agree with the health officials’ recommendation to issue a broader recall.

If you’ve got a food safety plan in place, tell the public about it—all of it. The public can always handle more information about food safety, not less.
 

A 48-year-old teaching assistant from Crayford, and a family from Broadstairs are among more than 500 British tourists who won compensation for a nightmare Caribbean holiday at the Bahia Principe Hotel in the Dominican Republic (below, left) in 2007.

According to media accounts, the holiday companies continued sending guests to the hotel despite a major outbreak of Shigella and Salmonella which lasted for months.

"My husband couldn't reach the toilet when we were there. I went down to reception to tell them to call a doctor and they said put a nappy on him to take him to the medical centre. … Some people had to have new mattresses because they hadn't made it to the toilet in time. There were children screaming all over the place and pregnant women."

Tracey Chambers, 43, said,

“People were being sick in the swimming pool and the toilets were all blocked up. Lots of people were being sick. We were told to watch what we ate because there was bug going round. …  My dad had to be put on a drip because he was dehydrated and couldn’t take on enough water. They were charging 40 dollars for a trip to the hospital.”

Other guests were diagnosed with shigella, giardia, salmonella and E coli, thought to have come from food dressings.

A spokesperson for Thomas Cook said,

"We are pleased that the majority of legal cases have now been settled and we want to be able to reassure all our customers that we work with our hotel partners to continually monitor the hygiene standards in their properties."

A public health student at Kansas State passed along this story from 9NEWS.com about Urban Hens, a Boulder, Colorado-based group that is working with the Children, Youth and Environments Center for Research Design at CU and a private grant to supposedly help teach sustainability to children by placing chickens near neighborhood and school gardens.

Wynn Martens, the co-founder of Urban Hens, said,

"How can you be truly sustaining and that is by reusing the waste in any system and keeping it inside the system instead of continuing to consume and throw it off. People become interested for different reasons. Some people are concerned with the humane treatment of the chickens. Other people are interested in the nutritional value. Other people really are interested in the educational component, so we want to support all those."

The children go to the Blossom Pre-School across the alley from Shawnee Gardens. Their curriculum will include responsibilities such as feeding and partly taking care of the chickens. Many of their lunch and dinner scraps will go to the chickens. The chickens' waste meanwhile will help fertilize the Shawnee Gardens garden. That garden's products will be eaten by both parties as will the eggs the chickens lay.

Wow. I thought American maternity leave policies were sorta barbaric – six weeks versus a year in Canada – but to make pre-schoolers clean up chicken shit, compost it and then make them eat the food with chicken poop. Hey, maybe I got it wrong, but there is nothing mentioned about microbial food safety in this situation, no details in the story or on the websites as to what constitutes proper composting.

Food porn over food safety. It'll be a public health person who gets to clean up the mess.
 

Visitation at Federal Correctional Complex-Forrest City (FCC-FC), Arkansas, has temporarily been suspended, according to the Times-Herald, due to inmates sickened with a “suspected gastrointestinal virus.” R.D. Weeks, executive assistant at FCC-FC explains, “The institution’s medical staff is evaluating and appropriately treating the inmates for the symptoms that appear to dissipate after 48-72 hours.” Weeks continues, “Symptomatic inmates are being tested to determine the exact virus; however, the H1N1 virus is not suspected in these cases.” In addition to visitation limitations, staff and inmates are reminded to adhere to universal precautions, which include frequent handwashing.

Rapper T.I. (Clifford Harris) is serving his jail time at FCC-FC for purchasing illegal firearms and silencers in October 2007. It is unknown if T.I. has been infected with the virus.

The Mighty Howard County Fair in Cresco, IA, will provide handwashing stations around livestock. Fairgoers are asked to wash their hands before and after visiting the livestock areas. Livestock at the fair include: rabbits, goats, sheep, lamas, chickens, horses, dairy cattle, beef cattle, dogs and pigs. The fair will run from June 23-28.

Cucumbers should be used as vegetables, or even conversation starters like in this scene from the movie, Animal House (right).

But a Lee County, Florida, Sheriff’s Office report says that during a food giveaway at the Lehigh Christian Church, a 33-year-old woman was struck with a cucumber by another woman after an argument over which free food belonged to which woman.

The church asked both women to leave.

If you have kids, know kids, or consider yourself a kid, singing songs may help increase handwashing. For pre-schoolers, a handwashing song, performed by the Wiggles, to the tune of “Are you sleeping” may help. Although in their music video, the Wiggles use a bowl of water to clean their hands. When washing your hands it is better to use vigorously running water to ensure biological pathogens are scrubbed away. For kids over the age of 5, another song by the Health Promotion Board, Washy Washy Clean, to the tune of “If you’re happy and you know it” may be more appropriate. I am happy and I know it when people of all ages wash their hands.

After my post in April “Cross-contamination at checkout,” one person (crs) commented:

“That's the ultimate check-out horror story. I usually put meat items in plastic bags to be on the safe side. I bag fresh produce for the same reason. I also leave the meat items till last to minimize contact with my other groceries (which doesn't help the person behind me, but I can't cover for everyone). On the downside, I'm not doing the environment any good with all those plastic bags.”

Putting my story out there and realizing how ashamed I was to not be more aggressive with the checkers to protect my food has caused me to become far more proactive. Now two months later, we once again headed to Dillons on Saturday morning. This time I carefully organized items on the conveyor belt with produce first and meat last. I still do not know what was on the belt before I got there, but at least it was not visibly wet. When the bagger asked, “Plastic OK?” I said, “No, we have our own bags, but I want all of the meat put in plastic.” I did not notice until we got home, however, that the bagger did not classify salmon as meat. She did put the chicken and beef in their own plastic bags and kept them separate from the cloth bags. After unloading everything onto the belt, I asked the checker if I could have one of her sanitary wipes for my hands. She said sure but looked at me a little weird. She didn’t use one, but I have seen checkers religiously use them in the same store.

I am still adapting to reusable cloth bags and will likely continue to adjust my habits (That's me, left, not exactly as shown). I still do not put produce in separate plastic bags, but I keep a supply inside one of the cloth bags to cut down on waste. I either dispose of or recycle the ones that have been used for meat and fish so they do not get reused later on produce. More importantly, I’m learning to politely but quickly direct the checker and bagger about how I want my food handled. It’s not fail-safe, but in a short order of time I have learned that it is my responsibility to protect my family, and especially my baby, from pathogens whenever possible.
 

Is E. coli O157:H7 associated with things other than feedlot cattle?

I had a few people call me recently, saying, I saw that movie, Food, Inc., which says that E. coli O157:H7 is predominately in feedlot cattle because of the grain they are fed, and that’s how the bug came to exist. So how did it get into Nestle cookie dough?

It’s sort of a mantra of raw milk enthusiasts and wannabe food safety types that E. coli O157:H7 is a product of feedlot cattle, and that grass-fed creatures are benign entities for the dinner plate.

A blogger yesterday wrote, “… hamburger tainted by e-coli, a virus that breeds in a cow’s stomach when it is feed grain instead of grass (which, of course, most cows are nowadays in order to fatten them quickly and cheaply).”

It’s a bacterium, not a virus.

Nicholas Kristof, a columnist for the N.Y. Times, wrote yesterday, on Sunday, June 21/09, that, “There is some evidence that pathogens, including E. coli, become much more common in factory farming operations. Move feedlot cattle out to a pasture for five days, and they will lose 80 percent of the E. coli in their gut, the film says.”

That evidence is about as strong as the whisps of evidence compiled by Danny Sugarman that The Doors’ frontman Jim Morrisson is still alive and didn’t die from excess in a Paris bathtub in 1971. But, every teenager goes through their Doors phase (I can only find the clip below in Spanish, but Canada’s The Guess Who stands up much better with the hindsight of time; they know they are drunken buffoons, and not a drunken buffoon trying to be a poet).

Scientific uncertainty can easily be exploited by the certainty of filmmakers, who cherry pick facts and flourish on rhetoric. And I guess if it’s repeated ad nauseum for 11 years by writers from the N.Y. Times to your-favorite-bullshit blogger it becomes fact.

That line, “Move feedlot cattle out to a pasture for five days, and they will lose 80 percent of the E. coli in their gut,” comes from a 1998 paper published in the journal Science by Diez-Gonzalez of Cornell University, and colleagues.

I had one of my colleagues, Rena Orr, write a review of the controversy back in Nov. 2000.

Since September 1998, there has been conflicting information on the effect of diet on E. coli shedding from cattle. The conflict arises in part from the effect of diet on the ability of E. coli to develop acid resistance. … Diez-Gonzalez et. al demonstrated that feeding a high-grain diet to cattle results in an acidic environment in the colon. Because the animals incompletely digested the starch in grains, some starch was able to reach the colon where it fermented, producing fermentation acids. The researchers believe an acidic environment selects for or induces acid resistance among the Escherichia coli population. … Diez-Gonzalez et al. concluded that if cattle were given hay for a brief period (five days) immediately before slaughter, the risk of foodborne E. coli infection would be significantly reduced because the acidity in the colon is greatly reduced. "Our studies indicate that cattle could be given hay for a brief period immediately before slaughter to significantly reduce the risk of food-borne E. coli infection."

The Science article received mainstream media attention, and was covered by the Associated Press and The New York Times, as well as scientific releases and reports. In the Irish Times, it was cited as the basis for concluding that because Irish cattle are fed a grass-based diet rather than grain, Ireland has a low incidence of E. coli O157:H7. Hancock et al. contend that this conclusion is unsupported or contradicted by several lines of evidence. The E. coli that contaminate beef typically originate from the hide, the hooves, or the equipment used in slaughter and processing rather than directly from the colon, and likely replicate in environments unlike the colon. Therefore, the induced acid resistance of E. coli contaminating beef is likely to be unrelated to the pH of its ancestral colonic environment. The E. coli O157:H7 bacterium uses several mechanisms to survive acid environments, some of which are innate and are not influenced by environment . Although acid resistance is likely a factor in an infective dose, induced acid resistance has not been shown to be a factor in E. coli O157:H7 infectivity by experimental (dose-inoculation) or observational (epidemiological) data . Therefore, acid resistance induced by exposure to weak acid may not influence the virulence of this pathogen.

Published data on E. coli O157:H7 tends to contradict or does not support the effects of the dietary change proposed by Diez-Gonzalez et al. In a recent study on three different grain diets (85% cracked corn, 15% whole cottonseed and 70% barley, or 85% barley), the fecal pH of the animals fed the corn diet was significantly lower (P < 0.05) than the fecal pH of the animals fed the cottonseed and barley and barley diets, likely resulting in a less suitable environment for E. coli O157:H7 in the hindgut of the corn fed animals (2000, Buchko et al). In the Journal of Food Protection, researchers concluded that changing from grain to a high roughage diet did not produce a change in the E. coli concentration that was large enough to deliver a drastic improvement in beef carcass hygiene. Sheep experiencing an abrupt diet change have higher concentrations and increased shedding of fecal E. coli O157:H7 for longer periods than sheep fed a consistent high-grain diet. Another study compared the duration of shedding E. coli O157:H7 isolates by hay-fed and grain-fed steers experimentally inoculated with E. coli O157:H7 as well as the acid resistance of the bacteria. The hay-fed animals shed E. coli O157:H7 longer than the grain-fed animals, and irrespective of diet, these bacteria were equally acid resistant.

These results suggest that the proposed dietary change would actually increase contamination with E. coli O157:H7. Also, the 1,000-fold reductions in total fecal E. coli demonstrated by Diez-Gonzales et al. are far greater than those recorded in cattle experiencing similar ration changes . Finally, extensive surveys show that grain-fed feedlot cattle have no higher E. coli O157:H7 infection prevalence than similarly aged dairy cattle fed forage (hay) diets. Abrupt feed change immediately before slaughter could have unexpected deleterious effects. The proposed diet change has the potential to increase the risk of bovine salmonella infections, a potential source of food poisoning. The dietary change results in sharply reduced volatile fatty acid concentrations in the large intestine as well as changes in the bacteria, allowing for colonization of Salmonella.

See, that’s a really long explanation. It’s not as soothing as, change cattle diet, disease prevented. And that was written nine years ago.

Mike Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy and professor in the School of Public Health at the University of Minnesota wrote a cleaner critique in 2007 in the Minneapolis-St. Paul Star Tribune:

"Russo cited conclusions from a 1998 study from Cornell University that cattle fed a diet of grass, not grain, had very few E. coli, and that those bacteria that survived in the cattle feces would not survive in the human when eaten in undercooked meat, particularly hamburger. This statement is based on a study of only three cows rotated on different diets and for which the researchers did not even test for E. coli O157:H7. Unfortunately, the authors extrapolated these incredibly sparse results to the entire cattle industry. The Cornell study is uncorroborated in numerous published scientific papers from renowned research groups around the world. Finally, work conducted by the Minnesota Department of Health as part of a national study on foodborne disease recently showed that eating red meat from local farms was a significant risk factor for E. coli infection. ...

And as my colleague David Renter wrote in Sept. 2006,

"Cattle raised on diets of 'grass, hay and other fibrous forage' do contain E. coli O157:H7 bacteria in their feces as do other animals including deer, sheep, goats, bison, opossum, raccoons, birds, and many others.

"Cattle diet can affect levels of  E. coli O157:H7, but this is a complex issue that has been and continues to be studied by many scientists.  To suggest switching cattle from grain to forage based on a small piece of the scientific evidence is inappropriate and irresponsible.  Several pieces of evidence suggest that such a change would not eliminate and may even increase E. coli O157:H7 in cattle.

"The current spinach outbreak may be traced back to cattle manure, but there are many other potential sources.  Simplistically attacking one facet of livestock production may be politically expedient, but instead provides a false sense of security and ignores the biological realities of E. coli O157:H7. In 1999, for example, 90 children were felled by E. coli O157:H7 at a fair in London, Ont. The source? A goat at a petting zoo, hardly an intensively farmed animal."

Last time I looked, E. coli O157:H7 and about 60 other shiga-producing E. coli that are known to cause illness in humans are present in about 10 per cent of all ruminants – cattle, sheep, goats, deer, elk -– and I can point to outbreaks associated with all of those species. Pigs, chickens, humans, birds and rodents have all been shown to be carriers of shiga-producing E. coli but the resevoir appears to be ruminants. The final report of the fall 2006 spinach outbreak identifies nearby grass-fed beef cattle as the likely source of the E. coli O157:H7 that sickened 200 and killed 4.

How the E. coli O157:H7 got into the cookie dough remains to be seen. Biology is complex and constantly changing – even at farmer’s markets, which was the big solution of Food, Inc. But it’s only a movie.

That Cornell paper can be found here:

Diez-Gonzalez, Francisco, Todd R. Callaway, Menas G. Kizoulis, James B. Russell. Grain Feeding and the Dissemination of Acid-Resistance Escherichia coli from Cattle. Science: Sept 11, 1998. Volume 281, Number 5383, pages 1666-1668.

When Katie Filion lived with us for a few months before setting off for graduate work in New Zealand, Amy and I would tell the 22-year-old, "‘oh, you should see this movie" – insert Monty Python and the Holy Grail, Wonderboys, or even more modern fare like Napoleon Dynamite – at which point she would politely recoil. Maybe she found our movies … old.

However, Katie did confess she now misses my homemade-from-scratch buckwheat pancakes with berries.

Have I got a movie for Katie.

Woody Allen’s 1973 classic, Sleeper, when the director was at a more, uh, slapstick stage of his career, features Allen as Miles Monroe, a jazz musician and health-food store owner living in Manhattan in 1973, who is cryogenically frozen without his consent, and not revived for 200 years. When Miles is arrested as a counterrevolutionary, he escapes by disguising himself as a robot, the kind frequently used in the future for mundane chores like cooking.

Maybe the Japanese like Woody Allen more than the French like Jerry Lewis because various prototype robo-chefs showed off their cooking skills at the International Food Machinery and Technology Expo in Tokyo last week, flipping Japanese pancakes, serving sushi and slicing vegetables.

Narito Hosomi, president of Toyo Riki, manufacturers of the pancake-cooking robot, which was apparently based on me, said,

"We all know that robots can be very useful. We want to take that utility out of the factory so that they can be used elsewhere.”

I have to agree, Katie. While clever, Sleeper is slow.

In Niles, Michigan, fourteen children, ages 8-10, attended the annual Lakeland Community Hospital’s ‘Take Your Child to Work Day.’ The primary lesson of the tour was emphasizing the hospitals’ top safety precaution: handwashing. JoEllen Gamso, RN, said, “The goal for the event was to identify the many ways that patient and associate safety is maintained in the workplace.” Before and after each department tour, every child was given a golf ball sized amount of hand-sanitizing foam to demonstrate the importance of clean hands.

During the evening of Thursday, June 18, the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment urged Coloradans not to eat raw Nestle Toll House cookie dough because of possible contamination with E. coli O157:H7.

The next morning, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration warned consumers not to eat any varieties of prepackaged Nestle Toll House refrigerated cookie dough due to the risk of contamination with E. coli O157:H7. At the same time, Nestlé announced a voluntary recall of all Toll House refrigerated cookie dough products, “out of an abundance of caution.”

About 4:30 p.m. central time on Friday, June 19, 2009 (happy birthday, daughter Jaucelynn, avoid the raw cookie dough) colleague Evan reported that he had successfully obtained a package of Nestle Toll House refrigerated cookie dough (above, right, exactly as shown). I say obtained because he didn’t have to pay for it. Evan went to a local supermarket, and saw, “a young kid, armed with a box cutter, standing beside a cart full of Nestle Toll House products.

“I asked if I could have one of them, to which he replied, 'you're not going to get a refund for it are you?' I told him no, but he said he had to cut open the package so I couldn't return it. The kid wasn't wearing any gloves and was sweating, so I'm guessing he was out there for a while handling a potentially contaminated product.”

And he gave Evan the raw cookie dough, which Evan triple-bagged and refrigerated until Saturday.

Amy and Sorenne and I went grocery shopping this morning, and observed that the Nestle refrigerated products had been dutifully cleared out (left, exactly as shown). We did, however, buy a couple of other raw cookie dough products. I never eat the stuff, but understand that many are quite passionate about their raw cookie dough.

There are at least two potential problems with raw cookie dough: eating it, and cross-contamination. Evan and I videotaped a cooking experiment and the cookies get plenty hot to kill off potential pathogens (we’ll post that later).

Bill Marler has written about the uh, inadequacies of the labels on Nestle raw cookie dough. Not that anyone reads labels, or that everyone speaks English, but maybe there shoud be more of a declaration of potential risk.

And bigger type: not to sound like ole-man-grouchy-Powell, but even with my reading glasses I could barely read a damn thing on the label. The Kroger private selection brand says,

Keep refrigerated
Use before date on package
Do not eat unbaked cookie dough.

The Pillsbury refrigerated cookie dough says,

Do not microwave unbaked Poppin Fresh dough
Bake before enjoying
Do not use if unsealed.

It would seems with at least 66 people sick with a serious illness – E. coli O157:H7 – of which 25 had to be hospitalized and seven will suffer long-term kidney damage, these labels sorta suck.

Oh, and according to a story carried by Bloomberg,

“The Toll House cookie brand is named for the Toll House Inn in Whitman, Massachusetts, whose owner, Ruth Wakefield, is credited with inventing the chocolate chip cookie in the 1930s."
 

Evan Mitchell, another ex-pat Canadian living in Manhattan (Kansas) writes that last night, he and the wife had a biological urge …  for something cold (Kansas is humid in the summer).

Our house is within walking distance of Arby’s, and with their current “happier-hour” promotion (50% off all drinks), we couldn’t resist. After receiving our shakes, we needed straws which where located by the condiment stand. It was at this time that we almost barfed and our perceived hour of happiness was no longer happy.

Arby’s has a killer condiment stand. For no extra cost, one could triple pickle their roast beef melt; a true American deal that doesn’t exist in Canada. Although I’m a fan of sharing such luxuries with others, part of the ‘go green’ and don’t waste philosophy, I limit that selection to members of the human race; that means no bugs. The containers of pickles, peppers, onions, lettuce, olives, etc., were all occupied by little feasting winged insects. Although eating from a dish that has been uncovered and exposed to however many other bodily fluids (and stuff) in a day is gross, I was still disgusted and a little mortified by the sight.

Arby’s, that was gross.
 

My knowledge of foreign languages is limited to high school Spanish and learning while traveling. Thankfully, I have Amy, who translated all these French words into English, so I could understand what I was reading (and French-bites correspondent, Albert Amgar, who sent the story in the first place).

At Local Hospital of Penne-D’Agenais, France, Tuesday, June 16 was dedicated to handwashing. Representatives across all hospital services contributed in the “Clean Hands = Saved Lives” campaign. This included taking a training class, informing the public on handwashing, how handwashing contributes in reducing the risk of germs and soiling, and that handwashing reduces cross-contamination between people and objects. Handwashing is also suggested for the prevention of infectious disease spreading and foodborne illness [don’t eat poop].

Hands should be washed before and after handling food, after using the toilet or changing a diaper, and when taking care of others. Proper handwashing includes using soap, rubbing hands together fiercely, and drying with a paper towel.

In yet another example of different jurisdictions having different opinions about when to go public, the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment sent out a press release last night urging Coloradans not to eat raw Nestle Toll House cookie dough because of possible contamination with E. coli O157:H7.

If the link is proven, cookie dough would join a long list of foods like produce, pet food, peanut butter and pot pies that consumers really have very little control over; it's up to the producers and processors. Which makes various consumer education programs like FightBac sorta backwards. Consumers have a role in food safety, but not with this stuff.

Colorado state health officials, the CDC and several other state health departments are investigating an outbreak of E. coli O157:H7 infections.

To date, 66 cases from 28 states have been identified. Preliminary evidence from the multi-state investigation suggests that Nestle Toll House cookie dough may be the source of the outbreak, although further investigation is ongoing.

Five cases have been reported in Colorado in the following counties: Denver, Douglas (2), Jefferson and Weld. Two of the people have been hospitalized, and one has developed a severe complication called hemolytic uremic syndrome. Of the four people interviewed so far by the state health department, all had consumed the raw cookie dough during the week before they became ill.

Alicia Cronquist, the foodborne disease epidemiologist at the state health department, said,

“We can’t be certain that raw cookie dough is the source of these infections, but we are concerned enough that it might be and want consumers to be aware.”

Daniel Rifkin, Wholesale Food Program manager for the Department of Public Health and Environment’s Consumer Protection Division, said,

“Nestle is currently evaluating what actions they will take regarding their product. In the meantime, it is important that consumers do not eat or use raw Nestle Toll House cookie dough for now. If you decide to use the product, ensure that the cookies are cooked thoroughly and wash your hands well after handling the raw dough. More information will be forthcoming.”

Some restaurants in Estacada, Oregon have learned the benefits of disclosing restaurant inspection results to the public, reports Escadanew.com. In Escada inspection results for local diners are posted at the premise, in the form of a “Complied” or “Failed to Comply” card in the establishment window, and the full report plus numerical score is available online.

Additionally Dirty Dining highlights those establishments that have received a high inspection score, between 90-100, and one business owner is reaping the benefits.

Hitchin Post Pizza has been in business for five years, and has scored well on all of its inspections, earning at least a 95 in the last five.

Manager Valerie Ann Ballantyne said her good inspection results have improved business,

“I was on Dirty Dining for being one of the 10 restaurants in Oregon with a perfect score. Just for being on Dirty Dining we had several people come in.”

She continued,

“I take pride in keeping my establishment very, very clean. It’s very, very important for people to come into a clean establishment and not have to worry about getting sick. I know I would never eat in a place that wasn’t clean.”

It’s not as easy as it may seem to receive a perfect score.

“You have to make sure the refrigerator is at the right temperature, the bleach buckets have the right consistency, the filters are clean...the list just goes on and on,” said Ballantyne.

Hitchin Post Pizza, and the other 23 dining establishments in the Estacada area, know what the standards are and expect a representative from the Clackamas County Health Department to visit at least twice a year.

In Escada establishments are inspected unannounced twice a year, with additional inspections when necessary. They are scored starting at 100 per cent and subtracting 1 or 2 points for non-critical items and 4 or 5 points for critical items, which are considered more serious and can cause food-borne illness.

The person who is still, inexplicably, Minister of Agriculture in Canada, Gerry-death-by-a-1,000-cold-cuts-and-isn’t-my-moustache-awesome Ritz, said last night that despite the recommendations of a parliamentary committee, who were stonewalled by bureaucrats, a full public inquiry into the Maple Leaf Listeria mess that killed 22 people last year was not necessary.

That’s true, if only the bureaucrats at Maple Leaf, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, the Public Health Agency of Canada and dozens of others did their jobs and came publicly clean about who knew what when and what steps were taken to protect public health.

Until then, maybe the judicial route is best. But what a waste of resources, and more importantly, public confidence.
 

The Arizona Daily Star online (www.arizonastarnet.com) posted an article from June 8, 1944 in which a bar and restaurant were closed for inadequate toilet facilities.  

Acting on instructions from [the] chief sanitarian of the city-county health department, the city license department yesterday revoked the licenses and ordered the closing of the La Cabana Bar and Jimmy’s Chicken Shop, both located at 227 South Meyer Street. The licenses were taken up and the places closed…

In the case of the La Cabana Bar, [it is noted] that there are not adequate toilet facilities for the employees and tenants of four apartments on McCormick Street. The public has been using the back yard for such purposes, and the bar is to be closed until such time as toilet facilities are installed at the bar and at the apartments.

Similar reasons were given in the order for the closing of the restaurant, stating that flies from the back yard are swarming over the food in the eating place. The restaurant may not be reopened until toilet facilities are provided and the back yard cleaned up….

Although restaurant inspection has changed over the years, similar dirty establishments still exist today; however, consumers don’t always need to rely on the local paper to get inspection information. Starting in San Diego County, California in 1947, inspection grades were posted at the premise to inform the public about the results of the most recent health inspection. Many counties followed suit, and today concerned consumers in some areas can access inspection information at the premise, online, or through request at the health department. Inspection information in Arizona is available online, at azcentral.com.

The Canadian politicians investigating last year’s listeria outbreak that killed 22 were so frustrated by the lack of information from the Canadian Food Inspection Agency and the Public Health Agency of Canada they have demanded a full public inquiry.

The Globe and Mail reports this morning that a report to be released Thursday will conclude that the two-month parliamentary study was unable to gather enough evidence to get to the bottom of the outbreak. The call for a public inquiry represents a rebuke to the government's own investigation into the issue led by Sheila Weatherill, who will release a report this summer.

The committee report will also call for an overhaul of the Public Health Agency of Canada so that it becomes more of an independent health watchdog. The committee further recommends that inspection reports at food processing plants be released to the public.

And since CFIA and others are stonewalling, what with their “we went public when we had hard scientific proof” and epidemiology-is –for-wusses line, we’ve put together a timeline that should help the investigators in their, uh, investigation.


Chronology of testing events prior to the August 17, 2008 public alert of possible contamination of Maple Leaf Foods’ deli meats by L. monocytogenes

And it took the Public Health Agency of Canada until Aug. 23, 2008, before they made a definitive link and then Michael McCain of Maple Leaf Foods went on his award-winning rendition of remorse.




 

Amy didn’t feel too good last night.  She thought maybe it was the damn-near raw tuna on her salad the other afternoon when we ventured to our nearest patio for some Sunday relaxation.

Probably not. But raw is not without its risks.

One summer day in August 2006, Anthony Franz went to a Chicago area hospital carrying a 9-foot worm.

He did not find it in his garden.

Franz is one of the few, but growing number of tapeworm victims in cities across the world who are discovering (or rediscovering) that some of the most popular fish can host parasites.

Although still rare, a study this June showed salmon tapeworm infestations tripled from an average of 0.32 cases per 100,000 people each year in Kyoto, Japan, to at least to 1 case in 100,000 people in 2008. As more people adopt sushi and undercooked fish diets around the world so too, has the worm spread. …

"Parasites are really a non-issue, it's not as big of a problem as time and temperature holding," said Pamela Tom, Seafood Network Information Center Director at the University of California, Davis. "People focus on methyl mercury, but in reality it's not as important as the bacteria."

Although it’s winter in New Zealand, back in North America it’s summer, and summer means flies. I distinctly remember eating dinner at my camp with sticky fly traps (pictured right) hanging above the dinner table, dead flies stuck to it, daring to drop onto my cob of corn.

Chicagobusiness.com reports that Dunkin’ Donuts on West Madison St. has had its food license suspended after a recent inspection reported a fruit fly infestation.

The Department of Public Health had cited the Dunkin’ Donuts on June 8 for the health code violation and gave the restaurant management a week to correct the problem. A follow-up inspection on Monday found “dozens of fruit flies” in the kitchen and dining area…

The location also was cited for a poorly maintained and overflowing garbage bin and gaps in its front door that were large enough to allow rodents and insects to enter the premises.

The restaurant will face a fine that could total $1,000 and will be required to appear at an administrative hearing on July 23.

Restaurant inspection results for Chicago are available online, found here or here, with the latest inspection for Dunkin’ Donuts showing as a pass in October, 2007.

I’ve taken to going to sleep about 10 p.m. and getting up about 4 a.m. That means Amy stays up later, feeds Sorenne a couple of more times, and apparently gets to listen to me babble in my sleep.

This is nothing new. I’ve given entire lectures in my sleep – and I’m just talking about with Amy, not classrooms.

I’ve written about the trauma of only having turtles as pets while growing up. And the recent story in the Baltimore Sun and the terrible response about how those tiny turtles are OK as long as little kids don’t put the entire turtle in their mouths apparently triggered some sort of response.

"I'm supposed to kill 6 of those f***ing flaming turtles"

Amy says she laughed, Doug started laughing, then said, "See, I'm wasting my resources when I'm not doing what I'm supposed to."

Amy, who likes to ask questions when I talk in my sleep, says,

"What are you supposed to be doing?"

"Keeping those f***ing new zealanders in line."

This probably had to do with the e-mails I was sending to New Zealanders Katie and Gary before I went to sleep. Or not.
 

Canning season is just about to start. I've never really done any home food preservation before. Growing up all I was really exposed to, canning-wise, was pickles, freezer jam and frozen peaches. All of which I loved to eat, but I always found ways to occupy myself while my mom and grandmother were making them for fear of having to help. My dad and grandfather usually golfed while this was all going down.

Golfing is sort of out of the question now that I have a nine-month-old crawling around the house, so I'm taking up canning. I'm heading out to Walmart this week to grab the Ball Home Canning Basics kit and start experimenting.

Maybe experimenting might now be the right word. I don't really want to experiment too much when the consequences can be so drastic. This week's food safety infosheet focuses on an outbreak from earlier this year in Spokane, WA. Reportedly a 30-year-old Washington State nurse and her two children became ill with botulism reportedly acquired from canned green beans. The nurse’s illness was so severe that she required a ventilator to breath for months.

Though reliable data is often hard to access, other recent outbreaks linked to the potentially complicated processes of home preservation have contributed to the national burden of foodborne illness. Illnesses have been linked to home preservation in numerous states. As recent as September 2008, an Ohio man and his grandson were hospitalized as a result of botulism toxin poisoning caused by improperly canned green beans. In 2007 a Virginia couple died after consuming improperly canned foods that also contained botulism toxin.  There have been at least seven other outbreaks of botulism linked to home preservation practices across the U.S. since 1995. Improperly processed home-dried jerky products have also recently been linked to Salmonella and pathogenic E. coli outbreaks.

You can download this week's food safety infosheet here.

While watching Speidi on the View today, I saw a Huggies Pull-ups commercial about potty training. The mom in the commercial mentioned the need for her daughter to be potty trained before they go on a vacation. She goes further in mentioning all the supplies needed to teach potty training to her daughter: the child-sized toilet, the magic wand (an incentive for her princess of a daughter), and toilet paper. The mom failed to mention any sort of handwashing, whether it is with soap and water (preferred method after using the toilet) or alcohol hand sanitizing rub.

Other potty training tips can be found on the pull-ups website. These items include blogs for parents, DVDs, child incentives, and many others.

Researchers say that handwashing is learned during toilet training. Please, don’t eat poop, wash your hands.

Jay Rayner writes in the U.K. Observer today that, really bad food, is hot.

Greta Scacchi, who is pictured clutching a cod to her naked body (right, exactly as shown), will doubtless come to be seen as the seminal image for a particular moment, when the gruelling, knotty business of campaigning around food issues finally became sexy.

Where celebrities are concerned, it seems, food is the new fur. … Tomorrow, Paul McCartney and his daughters Stella and Mary are launching a campaign to convince the public to go meat-free for one day a week. Another movie, Food Inc, which looks at the excesses and foul side-effects of industrial food production has just been released in the US and will shortly arrive here. Plus there is a major investigation by environmental campaigner Tracy Worcester into the dark underbelly of the global pig-rearing business which is about to be screened on digital channel More4.

What marks out these campaigns is their sophistication. It began a couple of weeks ago with the news that Nobu, the global high-end chain of Japanese restaurants favoured by the glitterati, was still serving bluefin tuna despite it being an endangered species.
 

This is why I don’t give money to PBS, or as Stephen Colbert refers to them, State-sponsored Jazz. Reminds me of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation: they’re morons.

Maybe not about everything, but about stuff I know about, they’re morons.

PBS is broadcasting this video about how to cook moist, well-done hamburgers. The cross-contamination is awesome, way to go cooks. These people have no clue, even though they talk about bacteria, they still contaminate the rest of the kitchen with their bacterial-laden hands, and then go on to tell viewers that color is a good indicator for food safety.

Color is a lousy indicator for food safety. Use a tip-senstive thermometer.

You want a moist burger? Cook to about 150F, let sit for 5 minutes while the temperature rises to 160F
 

I have a lot of respect for my friend Frank.

Anyone can be a poser and critic; Frank actually tries to make change.

Frank’s the head of food safety at Wal-Mart. He used to be head of food safety at Walt Disney in Orlando, and when I visited with Frank and his staff in Bentonville, Arkansas a couple of months ago, he was enthusiastically telling me about the challenges of providing safe food – that’s food that doesn’t make people barf – to millions of people on a daily basis.

“Disney was a challenge. This is a lot bigger.”

Frank’s even put his thoughts on paper, in a book called, Food Safety Culture, published last year.

Unlike Food, Inc., the movie version won’t be opening at theatres any time soon.

As far as I can tell, because I haven’t seen the movie and won’t until it comes on my cable movie channels, Food, Inc. is a little about food safety, and only because Fast Food Nation author Eric Schlosser figured out that if you mention food safety a bunch of times, it sells more books or movies (see the Colbert clip below). The rest is about all things perceived to be bad about food, like genetic engineering, animal welfare, and whatever else.

Frank has to provide safe food to millions of people every day … or he gets sued.

Some people, like Michael Pollan,  are journalism professors at Berkeley and can reiterate bullshit like grass-fed cattle have lower levels of E. coli O157:H7.

Dude, just cause it’s written a bunch of times on the Internet doesn’t make it true.

Some people are biology professors, like Dave Renter at Kansas State, who doesn’t make movies but does know that E. coli O157:H7 and friends are complicated, and show up in lots of places. Oh, and it was a grass-fed cow-calf operation that was responsible for the E. coli O157:H7 outbreak in transitional organic spinach in 2006 that sickened 200 and killed four. There are many more outbreaks linked to biology rather than the politically convenient factory farming. Some people, like Frank, are actually responsible for delivering safe food.

Frank writes in his book, Food Safety Culture: Creating a Behavior-based Food Safety Management System, that an organization’s food safety systems need to be an integral part of its culture.

Consumers at the local market, the stop-n-shop or the supermarket, can ask someone, how do I know this food won’t make me barf? While such talk may be socially frowned upon, it’s time to put aside the niceties and bureau-speak and talk directly about safe food.  Ask at Wal-Mart; ask at your local market. I know if Frank were there, he’d be able to answer.

Schlosser comers across as an idiot.
 

Micahel McCain, the president of Maple Leaf Foods, was correct yesterday when he told a Winnipeg Chamber of Commerce event that adding more food inspectors to the plant floor would not have made a difference in preventing last August's listeria outbreak at one of its Toronto plants that caused 22 deaths.

"What is very important to recognize about bacteria is that you cannot see it. We wish you could visually inspect for bacteria, but it can't be seen with the eyes, tasted or touched."

The head of the $5.2-billion-a-year Toronto-based food giant was adamant that more testing was the only effective way to address the issue and that Maple Leaf has doubled the number of tests being undertaken.

Thank you for that lesson in microbiology, Mr. McCain. Yes, the inspectors’ union in Canada has been shamelessly exploiting the deaths of 22 people to get more shifts for its workers. Good of you to call them on it.

Now to the harder questions, which McCain continues to avoid.

Why didn’t Maple Leaf do more extensive testing prior to the outbreak? It’s not like there haven’t been listeria outbreaks in ready-to-eat refrigerated foods like cold cuts before.

Why won’t Maple Leaf make all of its listeria test results public, especially since it wants to build consumer confidence.

Will Maple Leaf put warning labels on its cold cuts to advise pregnant women and older folks that such products shouldn’t be eaten raw?

And to all the dieticians running the menus at the elderly folks homes where the 22 people died: what were you thinking serving cold cuts? How hard is it to heat a sandwich? Have any of you had any decent food safety training?
 

When I think of Australia I think of the hilarious TV show Summer Heights High. Although the mockumentary about high school students takes place in Melbourne, I can’t help but picture angry food operators in Adelaide saying “puck you” to unfavorable health inspections.

According to AdelaideNow, food premises in Adelaide that do not adhere to the Food Act will be name-and-shamed publicly. Prior to this decision restaurant inspection results in Adelaide were not available to the public.  

Mr MacPherson, [Acting Ombudsman], quoted the overwhelming public desire for the information to be released…

He continued,

"In reaching this conclusion I consider that there is a public interest in promoting safe and hygienic practices within restaurants and in diners being able to make informed choices about where they eat.”

"Eighty-six per cent of 1268 participants in a survey linked to an online version (AdelaideNow) of an article that appeared in The Advertiser on 11 May, 2009, agree that information identifying infringing restaurants should be disclosed publicly."

Tuesday’s Oprah had Dr. Oz talking to viewers about the smart patient checklist. Dr. Oz believes there are eight ways to avoid medical mistakes: preventing infection, avoiding wrong-site surgery, not commencing in chitchat, using a high-tech hospital, using a hospital that uses a patient care checklist, using a nationally accredited hospital, knowing the hospital you are using, and being a smart patient.

Preventing infections is straightforward. “You’re in an environment that has sick people in it who have infections themselves,” says Dr. Oz. Also, “It’s so easy to spread to you.”

Asking people to wash their hands before touching you, keeping hand sanitizer near your bedside, and avoiding bacteria-promoting items (flowers and jewelry) will help reduce your chance of getting a hospital-acquired infection. Other helpful tips include asking the doctor or nurse to wash their hands, sanitize their medical equipment (stethescope, sphygmomonometer, etc.), and to clean general patient room equipment (phone, television remote, etc.).

More details about Dr. Oz’s smart patient checklist can be found on Oprah’s website.
 

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control reports in tomorrow’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report that foodborne illnesses are a major health burden in the United States . Most of these illnesses are preventable, and analysis of outbreaks helps identify control measures. Although most cases are sporadic, investigation of the portion that occur as part of recognized outbreaks can provide insights into the pathogens, food vehicles, and food-handling practices associated with foodborne infections.

In 2006, CDC reported 1,270 foodborne disease outbreaks (FBDOs) from all states and territories through the Foodborne Disease Outbreak Surveillance System (FBDSS), resulting in 27,634 cases of foodborne illness and 11 deaths. Among the 624 FBDOs with a confir