A couple of my friends are departing for Edinburgh, Scotland later this month to teach and travel. Aside from the usual packing advice – my luggage was 17 pounds overweight when I departed for New Zealand – I’ve forwarded along this story to the Canadian travelers.

Deadline Scotland Online is reporting that an Edinburgh restaurant, The Star Sea (see right) was issued an Hygiene Emergency Prohibition Notice for posing an imminent risk to public health, but re-opened 13 days later.

Inspectors visiting the Star Sea Restaurant in Edinburgh’s busy Lady Lawson Street described the infestation of rodents as “completely out of control”. City of Edinburgh Council was so concerned about the potential threat to public health that they issued an Emergency Prohibition Notice to stop it trading.

A council statement issued yesterday said:

“This inspection uncovered evidence of a mouse infestation which was completely out of control and food being used to prepare meals which had been clearly gnawed by the rodents…The hand washing facilities were inadequate, sinks were leaking and backing up with foul smelling water and several areas of wall were coated in mould.”

“A Hygiene Emergency Prohibition Notice has the effect of immediately closing a food business and is only served when there is an imminent risk to the health of people consuming food which has handled, prepared, processed or stored on the premises…The premises were subsequently allowed to reopen on 19 June, when it was determined that the risk to health no longer existed as conditions had improved, [and] the premises continue to be subject to regular visits to ensure continued improvement to full compliance with food safety regulations.”

Tony Dong, owner of The Sea Star, said he accepted why the council had to act with a closure, and then proceeded to blame a lack of fans for the mould, and poor staff cleaning for the build up of mice dropping on the floor.

“Things are much better now. We spoke to all the staff about cleaning and it is done every day now, which also makes it much easier. It wasn’t done properly before, but we spoke to all the staff and it’s so much better now.”

“We had a mice problem too, but the man from the pest control came and that has been sorted, and we are speaking to the council.

Councillor Robert Aldridge, Environment Leader, said it was important that restaurant bosses knew the council would act when necessary,

“Thanks to the hard work shown by our Community Safety staff in bringing about this emergency notice, we can send out a clear message to all food business operators that they must adhere to food hygiene requirements or face the consequences.”

It all sounds like a slap on the wrist for an establishment knowingly producing food under unsanitary conditions. Where’s the public shaming of this restaurant? Slap a big “Fail” The Star Sea’s door, and hit Mr. Dong with a nasty fine.

Organic food is not safer than conventional food. Organic food is not more sustainable than regular food. Organic food is not more nutritious than other food.

Organic is more expensive than other food, and verification of organic production practices is specious at best.

Russ Parsons of the Los Angeles Times figured this out a few weeks ago and wrote a column that began,

"I don't believe in organics."

This morning he revisited the topic, noted that organics is an article of faith for a lot of people, highlighted some hate mail, and most surprising, revealed that mail supporting Parsons’ column was overwhelmingly positive by a ratio of 5 or 6 to 1.

This afternoon, the U.K. Food Standards Authority released results of a review it commissioned which found,

no important differences in the nutrition content, or any additional health benefits, of organic food when compared with conventionally produced food.

The focus of the review was the nutritional content of foodstuffs.

Gill Fine, FSA Director of Consumer Choice and Dietary Health, said,

“Ensuring people have accurate information is absolutely essential in allowing us all to make informed choices about the food we eat. This study does not mean that people should not eat organic food. What it shows is that there is little, if any, nutritional difference between organic and conventionally produced food and that there is no evidence of additional health benefits from eating organic food.”

The FSA commissioned this research as part of its commitment to giving consumers accurate information about their food, based on the most up-to-date science.

A paper reporting the results of the review of nutritional differences has been peer-reviewed and published today by the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.

Dr Dangour, of the LSHTM’s Nutrition and Public Health Intervention Research Unit, and the principal author of the paper, said:

“A small number of differences in nutrient content were found to exist between organically and conventionally produced crops and livestock, but these are unlikely to be of any public health relevance. Our review indicates that there is currently no evidence to support the selection of organically over conventionally produced foods on the basis of nutritional superiority.”

The Times’ Parsons got it right in his original column when he said,

farming is a complicated enterprise and there is a huge gray area between certified organic and the stereotypical heavy-duty use of chemical pesticides, herbicides and fertilizers.

Furthermore, a lot of the best farming practices of the original organic philosophy -- composting, fallowing, crop rotation, the use of nonchemical techniques for controlling most pests -- have been adopted by many nonorganic growers, even though they still reserve the right to use chemicals when they think it's best.

The complete U.K. report is available at http://www.food.gov.uk/multimedia/pdfs/organicreviewreport.pdf

When her husband dumped out a can of Diet Pepsi that "tasted awful," Amy Denegri saw what looked like pink spaghetti spill out.

"We're not sure what it is...It's really sick," Amy said, though she suspects it may be a mouse.

According to WFTV Orlando, lab results from an FDA investigation of the incident will be available in one to two weeks.

When Pepsi learned of the incident, a spokesperson contacted the Denegri's. The can was traced to an Orlando bottling facility and a review of production logs showed "absolutely no evidence to suggest that any foreign object or substance entered the package at the time of production."

In addition, a statement was sent to WFTV Orlando, which reads in part:

"This is not the first time we have dealt with this type of claim. In every previous incident where lab testing has been conducted, the results have concluded that the specimen did not enter the package during production.

"That said, we treat all consumer claims very seriously and investigate them thoroughly. We have been in touch with the investigating authorities in this case. They are conducting laboratory tests to learn what may have happened here. We'll assist them however we can."

The Denegri's aren't planning a lawsuit. In fact, Amy's husband, Fred, is still drinking Pepsi. But he pours it into a cup first.

AP is reporting the second Texas based Salmonella-linked cilantro recall in a week. Fresh herbs are on the FDA produce hit list along with tomatoes, leafy greens, cantaloupe and sprouts. FDA provides technical assistance to these industries to complete commodity-specific guidance documents. David Acheson, ex-food safety Czar said in May that fresh herbs were next on the list.

Frontera Produce of Edinburg, Texas, is recalling one lot of cilantro. No illness has been reported. The recalled cilantro was available at select store chains in Texas, Oklahoma, Colorado, Louisiana and New Mexico between July 20 and July 27. Details: by phone at 877-381-5701.

Half-price cream cheese? And the brand name, no less! I saw they were getting close to their expiration dates, but I bought three, anyway. They'll keep just fine in the freezer until I'm ready to bake another pumpkin cheesecake.

Lots of shoppers buy groceries with this money-saving mentality, which has opened the market for expired food sold at discounts. It has also sparked an increase in grocery auctions for the sale of damaged, dented or surplus foodstuffs that are often close to passing their expiration dates.

At Big Harry's Auction in New Jersey, regular runs to regional food distribution centers and a wholesale food auction provide an ever-changing variety of food items for the public to bid on.

"And while Big Harry's is subject to health department inspections and offers a money-back guarantee on food purchases," writes an Asbury Park Press staff writer, "buying frozen food at auction requires something of a leap of faith. [Auction operator Vince] Iacono says he'd never sell perishable frozen food that was thawed and then refrozen, which can cause spoilage, but all he can do is trust that his haulers will abide by the same policy."

That's true for all food businesses: they have to rely on everyone before them in the farm-to-fork food chain to handle products as safely as they do. It's always important to know your suppliers.

Years ago - before we moved here and put a dog inside - the shed out back was a chicken coop. These were the original backyard chickens. A resurgence of small-flock rearing has led many to wonder (and make assumptions) about the safety of free-range eggs.

Joel Keehn wrote on Consumer Reports' Health blog this weekend that,

"About a year ago I took my 11-year-old daughter to the emergency room with what turned out to be salmonella poisoning. My first thought when I heard the diagnosis: Did she pick up the infection from our flock of chickens? But the public-health outreach worker at the local department of health said that was unlikely.

"While eggs are indeed a leading cause of salmonella poisoning, the bacteria that causes the infection may be more likely to breed in the cramped confines of factory farms than in free-range, backyard chicken runs like ours."

Oh? That's an interesting assumption. And Keehn doesn't provide anything to support it.

As far as I can tell, salmonella contamination of eggs from various farming methods has not been well-researched...save for one study rumored in January 2008 to have been conducted by the UK government that "showed that 23.4 per cent of farms with caged [egg-laying] hens tested positive for salmonella compared to 4.4 per cent in organic flocks and 6.5 per cent in free-range flocks."

The closest thing I could find was a report by the UK Food Standards Agency in March 2004 of testing results of 4,753 containers of six eggs each (with 16.9% from free-range production systems) that found "no statistically significant difference...between the prevalence of salmonella contamination in samples from different egg production types."

Keehn's blog post concluded by saying,

"By the way, the health department official who called me up said the most likely source of my daughter’s salmonella poisoning was our pet turtle. That critter is now gone. But I’m picking up four new hens from my neighbor down the road later this week."

I have no reason to believe their eggs will be any safer than those of caged hens. Keehn's reason is not good enough.

I’ve been hanging out with the visiting Egyptians since Thurs.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture has this Cochran Fellows program that provides U.S.-based agricultural training opportunities for senior and mid-level specialists and administrators from public and private sectors who are concerned with agricultural trade, agribusiness development, management, policy, and marketing.

After spending over 30 hours to reach Kansas from Egypt, with a variety of travel headaches, the three food scientists and one professor have been taking in the best Manhattan has to offer: dinner at the Little Apple Brewing Company, viewing the animals at the Riley County Fair, shopping, taking in the Kaw Valley Rodeo Saturday night, and my lectures.

Sunday, the Fellows came to our house for some American-style BBQ and hospitality. I showed them how to cook a hamburger with a tip-sensitive digital thermometer, they told me about cooking and hospitality in Egypt.

Baby Sorenne was the star attraction.

And it's been a huge honor hanging out with the accomplished gentlemen and learning.

 

At some point a few years ago video games were replaced by fantasy sports as my free time diversion of choice. I'm not really into cycling, but I love fantasy baseball and fantasy football (referred to by Dani as fake baseball and football).

This is a bit of a hectic time of year, the fantasy baseball trade deadline is looming in both of my leagues and football research is gearing up. Some infectious disease news is impacting my trade plans as the Texas Rangers (one of the American League's surprising teams) have one confirmed case of H1N1/swine flu in the clubhouse (Vicente Padilla) and potentially 3 more including one of my catchers, Jarrod Saltalamacchia.

Infectious diseases like influenza and norovirus are often transferred between teammates on major sports teams.

Not good news. I was hoping to make a run for the final playoff spot in one of my leagues and not having Salty for a week or so might eliminate all hope for me.

From CBS sportsline:

It seems everyone in the media is bent on cross-contaminating and undercooking their food this summer. On Monday night’s “Great American Road Trip” (a poor replacement for the Amazing Race), the first challenge was for the men to cook hamburgers on a charcoal grill in 30 minutes for all the families to judge. The challenge took place in Sedan, Kansas at the Red Buffalo Ranch.

First, host Reno Collier made a cooking demonstration. No handwashing stations are present anywhere in sight (see right). After Collier explained how he likes to talk to his meat as he formed a raw patty, he threw it on the grill and wiped his hands on a towel. The condiment station was well stocked, but there were no meat thermometers and no safety instructions. The DiSalvatore dad said he’d never cooked anything in his life. Silvio quickly asked for tips from his wife Amy who said, “Just don’t overcook it.”

Silvio: “How do I know when it’s cooked?”

Amy: “A little bit of pink inside. Good luck.”

The father of the Rico family made the decision to cook his entire 5 lbs of meat and he commented, “I really misjudged how long it would take to cook those things.” Ricardo’s giant burgers were far from being done when it was time to serve. Host Collier yelled out, “Feel free to check these things out before you go sticking them in your mouth.” [Katie, that was for you.] One of the kids commented, “I was more nervous about barfing than about winning the challenge.”

It’s mindboggling how much cross-contamination took place in this highly edited clip (see approximately minutes 11 to 20). I think I threw up a little bit in my mouth while watching. In the end, the Ricos went home, but surprisingly they did not receive the lowest score for their burger.

Raw burger is not safe to eat. Hamburger is done when it reaches an internal temperature of 160F as measured by a tip sensitive meat thermometer. (See Doug’s videos on youtube.) Color is an unsafe indicator of doneness. Wash your hands after touching raw meat and before touching ready to eat products like buns. I personally find it challenging to grill and avoid cross-contamination … so why does everyone keep saying how simple it is to make a burger?

If you want to risk your own stomach or life, that’s your business; but please do not try to kill your neighbors or your children with undercooked meat or cross-contaminated condiments. 

I once watched a grandmotherly woman dipping her fingers in a big tub of donut icing and spreading them on fresh-baked cinnamon rolls, as she explained to me that her procedure was much quicker than the spatula-method I was using. That may have been so, but we were working in a retail donut shop where bare-hand contact with ready-to-eat products wouldn't fly with the health inspectors.

You have the right to treat your own food in any manner you please. But when feeding others, you're obligated to do all you can to make it safe.

A mom of three in Teaneck, New Jersey, wanted to bake and sell "mortgage apple cakes" to forestall the foreclosure on her home. When more than 500 orders for the $40 cakes came in, Angela Logan was ready to get baking.

But, according to the Associated Press, Teaneck's health officer notified Logan that it was against state law to use her house as a commercial kitchen.

She would have to bake in a kitchen subject to food safety inspections.

The AP reports that, since the notification, "the Hilton Hasbrouck Heights has allowed Logan to cook in the hotel's kitchen, where she can produce up to 10 cakes at a time."

That's very generous of the hotel. I wonder if they gave Logan any food safety training, or just the use of inspected facilities? Both are important if Logan's customers are going to have their cakes and eat them, too.

Nobody wants to eat poop.

A number of fast food restaurants insist their staff wear gloves when preparing food, just like Michael Jackson when performing. However, wearing gloves does not necessarily mean safer food. A study conducted by University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center, Department of Occupational and Environmental Health, indicates that levels of heterotrophic bacteria, which is one way of determining level of hygiene, were essentially higher on staff wearing gloves than on bare hands. Perhaps this may be due to food service staff wearing gloves for an extended period of time without changing them and without handwashing in between. Also, there seems to be this mentality that wearing gloves signifies less handwashing because bare hands are not in contact with food. This notion is false and should never replace handwashing.

King Soopers, Inc., a Denver, Colo., establishment, is recalling approximately 466,236 pounds of ground beef products that may be linked to an outbreak of salmonellosis, the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) announced today.

As a result of an ongoing investigation into an outbreak of Salmonella Typhimurium DT104 associated with ground beef products, the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE) notified FSIS of the problem. Epidemiological investigations and a case control study conducted by CDPHE and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) determined that there is an association between the fresh ground beef products and 14 illnesses reported in Colorado. The illnesses were linked through the epidemiological investigation by their less common pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) pattern found in PulseNet, a national network of public health and food regulatory agency laboratories coordinated by the CDC.

FSIS would like to remind consumers of the importance of following food safety guidelines when handling and preparing raw meat. Ground beef should be cooked to a safe minimum internal temperature of 160° Fahrenheit.

I would like to remind FSIS that it ain’t so easy to handle contaminated ground beef and not spread it around a home or food service kitchen.
 

As a Canadian in America, watching the health-care advertisements, warning that any new U.S. system will be socialized like in Canada is as informative as watching a Michael Moore documentary.

Both are widely inaccurate.

Same with the orgy of listeria-in-Canada coverage following the release of the Weatherill report yesterday. Almost all of the commentary and analysis borders on the banal (the dictionary says banal means “so lacking in originality as to be obvious and boring,” so for once I used a word properly) but a few things stand out:

Weatherill zeroed in on a "vacuum in senior leadership" among government officials at the Public Health Agency of Canada and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency that caused "confusion and weak decision-making."

Like a risk communication vacuum; covered that in the 1997 book, Mad Cows and Mother’s Milk.

Rob Cribb of the Toronto Star got things right when he summarized things this way:

Twenty-two dead.
Hundreds sickened.
Six months of inquiry.
Nearly $3 million in public money.

That’s $3 million in addition to all the publicly-funded salaries of bureaucrats sitting around figuring out what not to do and how to cover their own assess. The Prime Minister could have called the bureaucrats on the carpet and said – stop messing around, come clean on who knew what when and fix this. Instead, stand-up comedian wannabe and Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz got to make jokes about the 22 dead people. And he still has his job.

The front-line public health types at the local and provincial levels seemed to know what they were doing. The feds at three different agencies – Canadian Food Inspection Agency, Health Canada, and the Public Health Agency of Canada – continually got in the way and messed things up.

Of course that didn’t stop the politicians and bureaucrats from praising the Canadian food safety system in the early days of the outbreak – when they had no clue what they were talking about. Like health care, it seems that the Canadian model is to tell citizens repeatedly they have the best system in the world, and they believe it.

Or, as Cribb said this morning in the Star,

At virtually every stage of the outbreak, it seems things could have – should have – gone differently in a food safety system repeatedly hailed by government officials as "one of the safest in the world."

Rick Holley, a microbiologist at the University of Manitoba and member of the Canadian Food Inspection Agency's external advisory panel, responded with,

"I get so annoyed when I hear them say that. The food safety system in Canada is on the upper end of being mediocre."

Like health care.

The Mountain Mail reports that local and state medical officials Tuesday confirmed six children in Chaffee County have been infected with Escherichia coli in the incident that began earlier in July.

With the incubation period for the bacteria nearing its end, Chaffee County Public Health Nurse Susan Ellis said Tuesday no new cases have been reported since about July 14.

She said 30 people will have been tested by Friday as investigators continue to seek the source of contamination.

Ellis said DNA from stool samples is being examined at the state laboratory in Denver. DNA samples from two of the children, she said, were identified as matching.

Who knew what, when? A common theme in foodborne illness outbreak management is how was the essential information managed and responded to (whether it was knowledge of a contaminated product, linked illnesses or reporting an infected food handler). As more information trickles out about a food handler-linked Hepatitis A outbreak in Milan, Illinois it gets more confusing as to when the operator knew about the illness. Today a customer came forward and claims overhearing the discussion:

The woman says she was waiting in line to order at the McDonalds in Milan on June 25th, when she heard employee Cheryl Schram approach a manager behind the counter.
''She came out and she said Michelle, I was diagnosed with Hepatitis A'', said the woman who doesn't want her name used. ''I was in there and I heard her say that''.
The customer says she knows what she heard that day. ''I swear on my mothers grave''.

This week's food safety infosheet is all about the Hep A outbreak. Download it here.

The unintentionally funny and still, inexplicably, Minister of Agriculture in Canada, Gerry-death-by-a-1,000-cold-cuts-and-isn’t-my-moustache-awesome Ritz, spoke at a press conference today. Macleans.ca has already published some of the Q&A, which I have edited here for brevity:

Q:  Do you now recognize that, that CFIA, both those inspectors were over, do you accept that they were stressed and they were stretched too thin and that, and maybe explain why the audits were conducted?

A:  Well as you know, I’m not involved in the day to day operations, so I can’t speak to the stress of the front line operators. 

Q: We talk a lot about what went wrong, where the failures were, but 22 people died here.  Where’s the accountability?  Has anyone been fired and are you willing to compensate the families that were so aversely affected by this clear failure of our system?

A: Well there was a lawsuit, as you know, and there were compensations paid out through McCain’s.  Other than that, as I said, it’s a very complex issue. 

Q: But Maple Leaf Foods took responsibility.  Why can’t the government take some sort of responsibility?  Clearly, there were breakdowns within the government and that’s acknowledged in this report.

A:  Well our, our responsibility is to move forward with a better, better food safety system and I pledge to the victims and the, you know, their families and friends that we will move forward.  That’s my responsibility, I accept it.

Q: So there’s no compensation to them?

A: No.

Q: There won’t be any?

Moderator: Okay, that was our last question.  Thank you Minister.

Beginning in Aug. 2008, an outbreak of listeriosis linked to Maple Leaf deli meats was identified in Canada; 22 people would eventually die and at least 53 sickened.

In addition to the already available myriad of reports and testimonials comes the 181-page final report of Sheila Weatherill (right, exactly as shown) who was appointed directly by the Canadian Prime Minister.

The Investigation identified four broad categories where improvements need to be made. There must be:

-  more focus on food safety among senior officials in both the public and private sectors;

-  better preparedness for dealing with a serious foodborne illness with more advance planning for an emergency response;

-  a greater sense of urgency if another foodborne emergency occurs; and,

-  clearer communications with the Canadian public about listeriosis and
other foodborne illnesses, especially at risk populations and health professionals.

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

After in-depth analysis and advice from food safety and public health experts, the Weatherill made 57 recommendations for improvements to Canada's food safety system. The recommendations address:

-  the safety culture of food processing companies;
-  the design of food processing equipment;
-  government rules and requirements for food safety;
-  the need for food service providers to adopt food safety practices aimed at vulnerable populations; and
-  government's capacity to manage national foodborne illness emergencies.

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Weatherill had a five-person advisory committee of food safety types including Bruce Tompkin, Mansel Griffiths and Michael Doyle. The full report is included below, but is painfully slow to scroll through, so these comments are based on a cursory reading; more details to follow. I did however find that Weatherill recommended precautionary labeling – warning labels – for vulnerable populations like pregnant women and old people. That’s a start.

Who knew what when?
The report presents a timeline of the listeria outbreak, but offers little in the way of analysis. In the past the Canadian Food Inspection Agency has placed import holds on fresh produce based on epidemiological and test results conducted in the U.S. But in the listeria outbreak of 2008 (if that’s what it’s going to be called) somehow, epidemiology and positive test results from an opened package of Maple Leaf deli meat weren’t sufficient to trigger a public health warning; CFIA argued the dead-or-dying person could have contaminated the unopened package of deli-meat, so they waited until the same DNA fingerprint was found in an unopened package, another three days of inaction. So why the different standards of proof for foreign and domestic foods? What exactly is CFIA’s policy on going public? CFIA could just publish something, rather than risk a full public inquiry to get answers; CFIA bureaucrats could just be accountable to the folks that pay their salaries.

The report also talks about the need to educate Canadians about listeria and food safety. I prefer inform to the indoctrination of education, but don’t let government types do it. David Butler-Jones (below, left), Canada’s chief medical officer of health, told Canadians at the height of the listeria outbreak,

“There are the usual things we should always be doing, like washing hands, storing and cooking food properly, washing fruits and vegetables well, and avoiding unpasteurized milk and milk products…”

No idea what this has to do with listeria and ready-to-eat foods.

Also, why long-term care facilities were feeding cold-cuts to a vulnerable population is baffling – unless food safety really isn’t taken seriously by all kinds of groups (gasp).

Finally, contrary to the complete bullshit statements of various politicians and bureaucrats in the early days of the outbreak, the system did not work.

Robert Clarke, the assistant deputy minister of the Public Health Agency of Canada, said Aug. 22, 2008, that the government's actions in this case were quite rapid and an illustration of success.??????

“I'm glad we got hold of it early and now we'll take serious steps working with the feds to put it behind us."??????

It was a disaster I’m sure you’d want to put in the past.

The issues raised are not going anywhere. And Maple Leaf, why wait for more government reports? Put warning labels on your products, make listeria test results public, and market your food safety efforts directly to consumers.

listeria.cdn.final.report.jul.09.pdf

Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin took one small step for man and one giant leap for mankind on the surface of the moon forty years ago.

On this special anniversary, Craig Nelson, author of Rocket Men, released ten little-known facts about the Apollo 11 mission that took Armstrong and Aldrin to the moon and back. 

The list highlights several aspects of space travel that have been updated and improved upon since that time, including restroom facilities.

Nelson writes that in 1969 "urinating and defecating in zero gravity...had not been figured out; the latter was so troublesome that at least one astronaut spent his entire mission on an anti-diarrhea drug to avoid it."

The waste ejection predicament of the Endevour at the international space station just seems to pale in comparison.

When it gets hot in Kansas, we go to Florida.

We're leaving in a week, with a little work along the way before we settle into our rental on sexy Venice Beach, Florida. It’s the antithesis of places like South Beach, Miami, where celebrities flock and appearances rule. Venice – founded as a retirement community by the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers in the 1920s – is about as quiet as it gets.

With good beaches.

This year we’ll have 7-month-old Sorenne, and she’s starting to crawl (see below). If she can do this on hardwood, sand will be a breeze.

So we have to aware of sand in the mouth.

Besides the yuck factor, researchers at the University of North Carolina have found that digging in sand on beaches near water with high levels of fecal bacteria could be a risk factor for developing the drips.

For the study, reported in The American Journal of Epidemiology, researchers got contact information for more than 25,000 people visiting seven beaches within seven miles of sewage treatment plants.

About 10 days later, the researchers called and asked how they had spent their day at the beach and whether they had experienced problems like vomiting or diarrhea since then.

Those who dug in the sand, the study found, were significantly more likely to report having been sick — with those who had allowed themselves to be buried in the sand most affected. Children seemed to be at extra risk.

The best advice: wash your damn hands, especially before eating.

This isn’t the first time sand has been implicated in human illness.

In May, 2008, children's playgrounds on Sydney's northern beaches were closed after a rare form of salmonella normally linked to tropical fish made dozens of toddlers seriously ill.
 

At the Manhattan, KS Farmer’s Market on Saturday, Chefs Bryan and Sarah Severns demonstrated cooking with local ingredients. At their cooking station, you could find an array of utensils, several cutting boards (separate ones for raw and cooked meats and vegetables—no cross-contamination), hand sanitizer, and a three-bucket washing station.

The purpose of their demonstration was to show a variety of recipes with ingredients found at the market. Samples were provided; they were delicious. Since it is recommended to wash your hands prior to eating, the chefs had hand sanitizer available for patrons.

Bryan commented on their cooking at the market as being more of food art than food porn. Both Bryan and Sarah will return to the market for another demonstration August 1.

I’ve been following the Tour de France since 2002 when I discovered my former classmate (and 4^th grade crush) Levi Leipheimer was competing. Last year I boycotted the race when team Astana was not allowed in the Tour, but this year I kicked it into high gear and even started playing fantasy cycling. (Nerdy, I know.) Leipheimer broke his wrist on Thursday, and, unfortunately, had to leave the race. But his teammates race on, and racing requires amazing sustenance.

According to the New York Times article, “Five-star tour cuisine for guys who eat and ride” the men on the tour require 5000 to 8000 calories a day.

Eating that much demands enticement and Team Garmin-Slipstream (the team of my fantasy cyclists Farrar, Wiggins and Zabriskie) has its own chef, American Sean Fowler. Fowler works with the team’s physiologist to keep the guys feeling good and their bowels running smoothly. Juliet Macur writes:

Every day at the Tour, Fowler cooks exclusively for Garmin’s nine riders, to the chagrin of team management. (…)

On a typical morning, they will gather their cooking gear and take it to the motor home in which they follow the race. They make sure to arrive early at the team’s next hotel, to inspect the kitchen.

If it is not up to Sean Fowler’s standards for cleanliness, which has happened a few times at this Tour, he will cook in the motor home. He takes precautions to keep the riders safe from food poisoning or other gastrointestinal problems, which could be devastating to their performance. In his motor home, he wields utensils and pots and pans like a careful samurai because the space is cramped.

Although Leipheimer’s out, as of this morning my fantasy team still has four of the top ten riders. Let’s hope none of the others are injured or downed with foodborne illness.

KWQC is reporting that two workers at the Milan, Illinois, McDonald's tested positive for Hepatitis A but TV6 has learned one of those tests came back a month ago.

Even though the first case was confirmed back in mid-June, the Rock Island County Health Department didn't close the McDonald's until this past Wednesday. By then, another case had been confirmed.

The health department now says it didn't respond back then because it didn't know back then. The health department says it didn't find out about the case on June 9th until July 10th, a month later.

By law, the health department should have been notified within 24 hours. At a press conference Saturday afternoon, health department staff said the system broke down.

Wendy Trute with the Health Department said,

"There's a network of providers and there's a whole list of people responsible for reporting infectious diseases or communicable diseases."

The Health Department also says in addition to the two confirmed cases at the Milan McDonalds, there are also confirmed hepatitis A cases involving other local businesses.

We then asked which businesses, Trute said,

"You know what? It's not our policy to name them, nor is it the policy of the state health department. However, I can assure you we have worked with them and they have taken all the necessary pre-cautions required of them."

As far as communicating details to the public, the Health Department says it tries to balance the public's need to know with the needs of any business that may be involved.

There are 20 confirmed Hepatitis A case in Rock Island and surrounding areas, with 11 people being hospitalized.
 

This is what happens when doing interviews at 6:30 a.m. while feeding Sorenne some mush of peach and pear.

After blogging about how the U.K. Food Standards Agency was embracing food safety culture, I turned the post into an opinion piece and sent it to a newspaper in Wales.

The next morning, while feeding Sorenne, a reporter e-mailed me with some questions, and I replied, “call me.”

So she did.

The article, by Abby Alford, appeared this morning in  Wales under the headline, Tragic E. coli death used to teach US students food hygiene.

The tragic story of E. coli victim Mason Jones is being used by an American professor as a graphic illustration of what unsafe food can do.

Dr Douglas Powell also shows his students at Kansas State University a picture of the five-year-old as he teaches them about food safety.

“We are always trying to come up with new ways of getting the food safety message across. We have to have a compelling story and there’s no more compelling story than Mason Jones,” he said.

I talked about food safety culture, what FSA was proposing, and questioned how they were going to measure effectiveness.

The FSA has announced a culture change is needed in all parts of the food supply chain if the UK is to avoid another E.coli outbreak.

Dr Powell also suggested UK firms could follow the example of a factory in North Dakota, USA, which uses webcams to stream its activities live on the Internet.

Apparently I dreamed that part. There is a turkey processing plant in South Dakota that uses video cameras to constantly monitor operations and the videos can be accessed by auditors or USDA inspectors at any time – but not on the Internet. And not in North Dakota.
 

University of California at Davis researcher, Carl Winter, has recently published a study in the Journal of Food Science Education on how contemporary popular culture songs affect teaching kids about food safety. From the Beatles to the Beach Boys, Ricky Martin to Van Halen, songs can be found on their website. My favorite is, of course, the rendition of “I wanna hold your hand,” by the Beatles into “You better wash your hands.”

It’s been awhile, but Dr. Sam Ives, director of veterinary services and associate director of research at Cactus Feeders, Ltd., testified today on behalf of the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA) at a U.S. House Agriculture Committee Hearing on food safety that the U.S. has the safest food in the world.

“There is no question that the United States has the safest food supply in the world and other countries consider the U.S. the 'gold standard.'  Cattle producers support the establishment of realistic food safety objectives designed to protect public health to the maximum extent possible.

“…The U.S. has the safest food supply in the world, which is an achievement worth noting.  Science is a critical component of the beef industry and through science-based improvements in animal genetics, management practices, nutrition and health, beef production per cow has increased from 400 pounds of beef in the mid 1960s to 585 pounds of beef in 2005. … The beef industry will continue to dedicate time and resources to ensure the safety of beef.”

But that doesn’t mean the U.S. has the safest food supply in the world. For a group so dedicated to science, perhaps they could provide some science to substantiate the claim?
 

Eurosurveillance today reports an outbreak of Shigella dysenteriae type 2 infections during May-June 2009 in Sweden, involving 47 suspected cases of whom 35 were laboratory-confirmed.

The epidemiological investigation based on interviews with the patients pointed at sugar snaps from Kenya as the source. Shigella was not detected in samples of sugar snaps. However, Escherichia coli was confirmed in three of four samples indicating contamination by faecal material.

During April to May 2009 outbreaks with Shigella connected to sugar snaps from Kenya were reported from Norway and Denmark. In the three countries trace back of the indicated sugar snaps revealed a complex system with several involved import companies and distributers. In Sweden one wholesale company was identified and connections were seen to the Danish trace back. These three outbreaks question whether the existing international certification and quality standards that are in place to prevent products from contamination by faecal pathogens are strict enough.

No, they’re not.
 

Before the widespread use of refrigeration, fresh milk was often fermented into yoghurt, chesse and other dairy products for long-term storage.

So in what seems an excessively harsh penalty, if true, a British chef at a restaurant in the Emirates Palace hotel is appealing his U.S. $27,000 fine after inspectors from Abu Dhabi Municipality found the yoghurt during a routine visit to the kitchen of the Etoiles restaurant and lounge about a month ago. ??????

The head chef, identified as PH, was convicted and ordered to pay Dh70,000 for not educating his staff on the emirate’s food expiration laws and Dh20,000 for storing expired food. He also had to pay another Dh2,000 for the municipality’s fees.

PH appealed the court sentence in the past few weeks, and the case was referred to the Criminal Court of Appeal, where it was heard yesterday. ??????His attorney said the food was only one day past its use-by date; court documents do not specify when the food expired.
 

On the 7/14/09 edition of the Today Show, Martha Stewart cooked “Zesty Chicken Burgers” for Meredith Viera and a somewhat reluctant Matt Lauer. While Martha was going on about how special chicken burgers are, Matt quietly asked a food safety question.

Matt: “Obviously people are going to say you have to be careful how to cook a chicken burger. You have to get it to a certain temperature. Is that about right?”

Martha: “Um. Yeah. Well, you’ll see. It’s… It’ll won’t be pink inside. It’ll get …

Meredith: “It will have to be white inside.”

Martha: “Yeah, all the way.”

And then on to how beautiful they are. Martha went on from touching raw chicken to touching the bun she served Matt’s finished burger on. He turned away from the camera both times he “took a bite” and claimed they were very good. Who knows if he really ate the potentially killer chicken burger. I wouldn’t have.

If you cook chicken burger, use a tip-sensitive digital thermometer to make sure they reach an internal temperature of 165F. Wash your hands between touching raw meat and anything that is going to be served, especially if the person you are feeding is famous.

Many thanks to the barfblog fan who signaled Katie about yesterday’s Today Show.

After Listeria monocytogenes was found in their sprouts at a retail store about two months ago, Chang Farms started looking for the pathogen themselves.

And now they've found it.

The recalled products are packaged in 10-pound bulk bags and 12-ounce retail plastic bags, labeled under the Chang Farm brand as soy sprouts. The products were distributed to retail stores and wholesalers throughout Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York and New Jersey.

Being the first to find a problem in your own product shows a certain degree of food safety culture.

Having a problem twice in two months says something a little different, but they're moving in the right direction.

The best food producers, processors, retailers and restaurants should go above and beyond the minimal government standards, which, as the company pointed out after the discovery at retail, do not require L. monocytogenes testing for sprouts.

Now, they can tell consumers about the extra control measures they've got in place... should they one day have a website.

This morning, while drinking morning tea and perusing my Google Alerts, I came across a few stories on restaurant inspection disclosure systems. Another district in Connecticut has adopted symbols to aid consumer interpretation of inspection scores, while a city in New Mexico proposes changing from a pass-fail system to letter grades.

Stamford, CT will be the third district in the state to use symbols to disclose restaurant inspection results to the public, reports the Stamford Advocate Online. While Farmington Valley and Norwalk districts use waiter and lighthouse symbols respectively, Stamford will use smiling chef faces.

Three beaming hats is excellent and translates into a score from 90 to 100 with no four-point (the most serious) hygiene or storage violations. Two hats is acceptable and either mean a score of 80 to 96 with up to one four-point violation and less than four risk factors. One hat indicates poor levels of compliance with a score below 80 or more than two four-point violations or more than four risk factor violations…The idea has been in the works for six years, health department director Dr. Johnnie Lee said.

Results for Stamford are also available online, here.

Meanwhile, restaurants in Albuquerque, NM may be changing from a pass-fail disclosure at the door system to an A, B, C system, reports DukeCityFood.com.

Go to any other large city and you’ll see lots of restaurants with big “A”s or “B”s in their windows. Sometimes you’ll see a “C”. In fact, many chowhounds will insist that an ethnic restaurant graded “A” can’t really be all that good or authentic – it’s the B and C ones worth seeking out. To bring the Duke City in line with all of these other progressive urban areas, it has been proposed that we, too, use the ABC method. And let the battle begin!

It’s the New Mexico Restaurant Association vs. City of Albuquerque and city councillor Trudy Jones! Each has their own talking points, arguments, and rebuttals. Here they are in a nutshell:

City of Albuquerque: “The old rules are outdated and behind the times and we must change them.”

NMRA: “The new rules embrace new technology but badge restaurants for six months based on inspection results that were likely fixed on the spot.”

Why doesn’t someone ask consumers, operators and inspectors which disclosure method they like?

I played lots with liquid nitrogen as a graduate student in molecular biology and genetics back in the mid-1980s (the music was so bad I listened to baseball games on the radio during evening lab sessions).

A 24-year-old man from Stahnsdorf near Berlin was poised to try out a new recipe from the school of molecular cooking, which aims to apply scientific processes to gastronomy.

There was an "enormous explosion", according to the Berliner Morgenpost daily.

The man lost one hand in the explosion and the other was so badly injured it had to be amputated.
 

“If you’re going to San Francisco...” don’t expect to find restaurant inspection results easily. SF Gate Online acknowledges a reader’s frustration with restaurant reviews published in the San Francisco Chronicle.

The reader writes about a recent food critic review,

I am concerned about food safety. Often before I go to a restaurant I check its health department inspection results. The recent health department inspection reports for this [reviewed] restaurant indicated many unsafe food practices. I decided not to go to the restaurant after reading the inspection reports.

What due diligence does a restaurant reviewer perform before finalizing his or her review of a restaurant? I do not believe it’s in the best interest of the reader for a newspaper to write a review without including information as to whether it is safe to eat at that particular restaurant.

As intriguing are the comments following this story, with a few examples below:

whatnext         7/13/2009 6:06:39 AM
Correct me if I'm wrong, but, I seem to remember a time when the Chronicle actually posted the results of health inspections for restaurants. We should have a grading system like the one they have in L.A..

ringu    7/13/2009 6:18:41 AM
I agree I always liked the grading system that is used down south and wondered why we don't use it here. Around here you have to ask the establishment owner for the inspection results since they aren't posted for public viewing. I like seeing that grade when I go south it means alot for piece of mind and makes it easier to avoid places that are suspect.

signed_a_b     7/13/2009 7:18:03 AM
…The system we have in SF, where a yellow piece of paper (which may or may not be posted visibly) has health notes scribbled on it, is useless and absurd.

citizenkarma   7/13/2009 8:01:18 AM
Whatnext is right. I would add that health inspection information is much more valuable and actionable for cnsumers than the biased opinions of a food critic, usually recognized by owner and staff the minute they walk in, and who are treated royally accordingly. Think this does not influence the review? Think again.

Consumers in San Francisco, CA desire inspection information, and as the story and comments suggest, they want it easily accessible. The neighbouring cities of San Diego and Los Angeles have public disclosure systems in place -- letter grades in the windows and reports online – why not San Francisco?

I had a broken jaw once – wired shut for six weeks. Filled up on soup, shakes and various forms of slop.

That was a long time ago. Today, people with broken jaws can go to the Jaw Wired Shut blog.

Frank Bruni writes in the New York Times,

Jaw Wired Shut is one of those when-God-gives-you-lemons things, and it really does capture the glory of the Internet, which allows people in very particular situations, with very particular needs, to find guidance and company. To connect.

But it also has an amusing dimension, with a cultural-commentary side. As the blog’s author approaches her latest appointment with the blender, she muses on flavors and food rituals much the way any other recipe writer or tester would, never mind that her end result will invariably be … mush.

The posts play as a simultaneous homage to, and parody of, food porn today.

“Fresh lettuce reminds me of childhood summers,” begins one recent post. “I loved going next door to play in the dirt in our neighbor’s garden.”

The pizza in Halmstad, Sweden apparently sucks.

Food safety inspections allegedly found that almost 90 per cent of establishments that serve pizza failed to meet the minimum levels of hygiene.

The Hallands-Posten reported that just nine of the 70 restaurants in town that serve pizza made the grade. Food safety inspectors were genuinely shocked when they tallied the results of their unannounced checks on restaurants in the coastal town of Halmstad this spring. With the vast majority of the town’s restaurants miserably failing basic hygiene, the inspectors were left wondering what went wrong.

Food safety inspector Ulrika Cederberg told the Hallands-Posten,

“We’re quite shocked. We actually didn’t think it would be this bad. There were nineteen places that didn’t have access to a functioning washbasin with soap and paper towels.”

Among the most appalling findings was one restaurant that was infested with a species of beetle that lives off dried fish, meat and cheese. Inspectors shut the place down immediately.

Another restaurant was given a temporary reprieve when the staff stayed up all night to try and clean up the many failures given out by inspectors. Storing food in toilets and no washbasins were major failings at that restaurant.

“If only” is often how statements begin by food safety wannabes who are sure they have stumbled upon a vast conspiracy meant to subjugate society.

If only Monsanto didn’t genetically-engineer seeds …

If only products like milk were served raw and natural …

If only cattle were fed grass, there would be no E. coli O157:H7.

When someone makes such proclamations, or says they speak fact, usually with an air of authority, I immediately think that person is full of it. People who say “trust me” are immediately untrustworthy.

Megan Jacob, Todd Callaway, and T.G. Nagaraja of Kansas State University write about the dietary interactions and interventions affecting Escherichia coli O157 colonization and shedding in cattle in an upcoming issue of Foodborne Pathogens and Disease. It’s not a movie, not a blog, not a pulp fiction, so they sorta have to get it right. And they do, when they write:

“The specific mechanisms responsible for increased or decreased E. coli O157 shedding or survival are not known … results of studies are conflicting or not repeatable, which speaks to the complexity of the hindgut ecosystem, variation in animal feed utilization, and variation within feed products.”

The complete abstract is below.

Escherichia coli O157 is an important foodborne pathogen affecting human health and the beef cattle industry. Contamination of carcasses at slaughter is correlated to the prevalence of E. coli O157 in cattle feces. Many associations have been made between dietary factors and E. coli O157 prevalence in cattle feces. Preharvest interventions, such as diet management, could reduce the fecal prevalence and diminish the impact of this adulterant. Dietary influences, including grain type and processing method, forage quality, and distillers grains have all been associated with E. coli O157 prevalence. In addition, several plant compounds, including phenolic acids and essential oils, have been proposed as in-feed intervention strategies. The specific mechanisms responsible for increased or decreased E. coli O157 shedding or survival are not known but are often attributed to changes in hindgut ecology induced by diet types. Some interventions may have a direct bacterial effect. Frequently, results of studies are conflicting or not repeatable, which speaks to the complexity of the hindgut ecosystem, variation in animal feed utilization, and variation within feed products. Still, understanding specific mechanisms, driven by diet influences, responsible for E. coli O157 shedding will aid in the development and implementation of better and practical preharvest intervention strategies.

The Sydney Morning Herald this morning – this being Sunday morning in Australia – has a huge feature on the effects of the New South Wales state Food Authority taking a more, uh, vigilant approach to restaurant inspections.

The newspaper concludes that 40 per cent of all restaurants, takeaways and other food businesses in NSW were caught breaching one or more of the critical food handling practices when first visited by an inspector.

That may not be an entirely fair representation. Lots of places have at least one critical violation, and in the U.S., how a critical violation is defined can differ from state-to-state, and even county-to-county. There needs to be some sort of control or comparative group to determine whether that number is high or not.

But it sure sounds gross.

Inspection rates are woefully inadequate in some local councils, and there is often a lack of follow-up.

Anna Cenfi, part-owner of the Belli Bar, got it right when she said inspections conducted in the past few months were more thorough than in previous years, but that she had received three letters warning that a food safety inspection was imminent.

"I think that warning people that they are coming to inspect is ridiculous. They should just spot check everyone, even if it's just once a year. I'm not worried for myself but I know a lot of dodgy places out there."

Journalist Mathew Moore does clearly state that whatever the limitations, “making this information public we can now expect improvements in standards that transparency and public scrutiny of government information can bring. The Food Authority deserves praise for releasing this information and giving the public far more data than it can get in any other state. It's an important addition to the name and shame list … With its website and release of the statewide data, NSW has gone further than any other state.

“Yet it still lags behind many cities in Britain and the US, where the results of every restaurant inspection are posted online. New York City even allows consumers to search restaurants according to their number of violation points.

“Governments there have learnt what the NSW Government is now only beginning to realise; there are major public health benefits in shining a public light into the kitchens of every food business that serves the public.”

Tim Hortons, which the N.Y. Times described yesterday as “a Canadian purveyor of doughnuts and coffee that has won a wide following,” is making a sudden entry into New York City, primarily because of a picture of a mouse.

Between Friday night and dawn on Monday, the Riese Organization intends to convert 13 Dunkin’ Donuts stores into the city’s first Tim Hortons restaurants, including early-morning, high-traffic shops like the one in Pennsylvania Station and another next to the New York Stock Exchange. The switch may surprise regular customers of the shops, said Dennis Riese, chief executive of the Riese Organization.

“You take down one sign and put up another. The biggest challenge will be to get New Yorkers to know what Tim Hortons is.”

Tim Hortons Inc. is a Canadian fast food restaurant known for its coffee and doughnuts, founded in 1964 in Hamilton, Ontario by Canadian hockey player Tim Horton. In 1967 Horton partnered with investor Ron Joyce, who quickly took over operations and expanded the chain into a multi-million dollar franchise. There are almost 3,000 Tim Hortons in Canada, and another 5-0 in the U.S. The chain accounted for 22.6 per cent of all fast food industry revenues in Canada in 2005. Canada has more per-capita ratio of doughnut shops than any other country.

Tim Horton was a bruising defenceman who won 4 Stanley Cups with the Toronto Maple Leafs in the 1960s. Born in 1930 in Cochrance, Ontario, Horton spent his formative years playing in mining communities surrounding Sudbury, Ontario. He got noticed by the Leafs organization and moved to Toronto when he was 17-years-old. He died in a car accident in 1974 after a 24-year National hockey League career.

Horton had a reputation for enveloping players who were fighting him in a crushing bear hug. Boston Bruins winger Derek Sanderson once bit Horton during a fight; years later, Horton's widow, Lori, still wondered why. "Well," Sanderson replied, "I felt one rib go, and I felt another rib go, so I just had—to, well, get out of there!”

The Times reports that the arrival of Tim Hortons to N.Y. City comes after a decade of contention between Riese and Dunkin’ Donuts that peaked after The New York Post published a photo of a mouse munching on a doughnut in a shop operated by Riese on 46th Street at Fifth Avenue. The chain sued Riese, and the sides eventually agreed that the relationship would end this week in what Dunkin’ Donuts called a “disenfranchisement.”

In Canada, owning a Tim Hortons is like owning a license to print money.
 

My wife and I recently returned from our 6 week honeymoon vacation in Europe. We spent three weeks in France, one week in Spain, and two weeks in Bella Italia. The scenery was breathtaking, the architecture unimaginable, the stench from unpasteurized cheese- priceless. My sister in law, who was also travelling with us in France, was quite taken away with a few of the unpasteurized cheeses offered. She later experienced severe cramps, headaches, nausea, bloody diarrhea, and ended up barfing away-exorcism style. After the second day of bed rest, she decided to visit the local hospital as the symptoms seem to have been worsening. The attending physician simply indicated that she had food poisoning. No samples were submitted, no food history, no information regarding foods she should be avoiding, nothing. Dr. Spaceman from 30 Rock would have probably have given better advice. If the attending physician decided not to submit samples for analysis or obtain a food history, perhaps some food safety tips would have been appropriate like avoid unpasteurized cheeses.

If you ran a $5.5-billion-a-year corporation that made a variety of ready-to-eat deli meats, and those products killed 22 people and sickened another 53, causing the company to lose millions and trust in the food safety system to be further undermined, how would you go about rebuilding that trust, that brand?

Maybe make public all the listeria test results the corporation undertakes in the form of a live, continuously updated website; maybe have live video cameras that people could check out on the Internet to see how these delicious deli-meats are made; maybe market these food safety initiatives at retail.

Or blame consumers.

Maple Leaf Foods announced yesterday as part of their continuing Journey to Food Safety Leadership – I wish they were already there, but Don’t Stop Believin’ – they were launching a food safety at home website.

“In keeping with our mandate of becoming a leader in food safety education, we have launched a new website to help consumers understand the important role of food safety at Maple Leaf and in your homes.”

(I have this stupid Journey video on in the background that I’m about to paste below and I can’t tell whether it’s the music or that statement that just made me barf a bit in my mouth.)

If Maple Leaf believes they can be leaders in food safety education, why is there no mention that pregnant women shouldn’t eat Maple Leaf or any other deli meats or other refrigerated ready-to-eat foods?

More data; less Believin’.

And Journey still sucks.
 

I’m not sure how I would have figured stuff out when I moved to Manhattan (Kansas) if Amy wasn’t with me.

Especially the American university administrative hoops. And the French. I’m Canadian but, like many other Canadians, don’t speak French. Fortunately, Amy’s a French professor so I can now understand all the food safety stuf Albert Amgar sends me from France – it’s usually in French.

Albert has just retired and has started his own blog, Le Blog d’Albert Amgar. It sounds classy, cause it’s French.
 
“Among the subjects reviewed are the recall of food in France, Europe and the rest of the world, food hygiene, HACCP, management of microbial risks, food safety policy, food microbiology through microorganisms of interest and those that make problems (emergent or not), chemical risks of different natures, problems arising in food safety and security as well as some elements in nutrition, and some simply in security.”

Albert also has this quote at the top of his blog from Pierre Darmon’s, “L’homme et les microbes” (The Man and the Microbes):

“Hygiene, before Microbiology, is only hygienic in its intentions. It’s a Science of appearances that rests in the hands of the blind: what’s healthy is beautiful, good, and doesn’t smell bad.”

Best wishes for the blog, Albert. And after three years I’m starting to understand the Tour de France – or at least the scenery.

Nuts and seeds seem to be prone to Salmonella contamination. This year alone peanuts, pistchios, sesame and sunflower seeds, and now potentially pecans have been recalled due to Salmonella contamination.

Today General Mills announced a voluntary recall of Nature Valley Granola Nut Clusters “Nut Lovers” (pictured right) due to potential Salmonella contamination believed to be from pecans in the product, reportsForbes.com.

The new product, a bag of bite-size granola clusters, is sold in stores and vending machines. General Mills ( GIS - news - people ) said pecans received from an unidentified supplier and used in the product are the source of the potential salmonella.

The recall only covers products with the following "best if used by" dates: March 7, 2010; March 8, 2010; March 9, 2010; March 10, 2010; and March 11, 2010.

The company said that no illnesses have been reported in connection with the product, and that no other types of Nature Valley products are being recalled.

Salmonella can cause fever, diarrhea, nausea, vomiting and abdominal pain. In young children, the elderly and people with weakened immune systems, it can cause more serious or even fatal infections.

A 1975 article in Applied Microbiology examined the survival of Salmonella in pecans during processing and storage conditions. The paper suggests that morphological differences in pecans will make some susceptible to cracking and water uptake during processing, and hence microbial contamination.

Know your supplier, and the steps they are taking to produce safe products.

Growing up my older cousin Adam was obsessed with the pizza-loving Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and every time we visited his house my sisters and I were forced to re-enact fight scenes from the wildly popular TV series. Adam was always Leonardo, and somehow one of us was always the wise rat Splinter.

Perhaps it was Splinter that lead to the Round Table restaurant closure in Danville, CA this month. Danvilleweekly.com reports that following a customer-complaint the Contra Costa County Environmental Health Division investigated and confirmed the presence of a rat in the pizza parlor.

Joe Doser, supervising environmental health specialist, said

"We have to look into all of these reports. So we went out and investigated and confirmed the complaint."

The inspector found a number of issues with the restaurant, including a live rat found in a trap on the premises, droppings, cross contamination of food, improper food storage and improper storage of utensils.

The Round Table was closed for one day, while cleanup crews took care of the issues found by the inspectors. It was inspected again June 2 and again June 3. Several minor infractions were found and again evidence of rodents was seen.

Doser continued,

"The corrective plan they [the owner] provided to our office is pretty good. If they stick with it they should be OK."

The restaurant was placed on a one-year probation. During that time additional inspections are set up, at the cost of the restaurant. If the issues are not addressed in a timely fashion, the restaurant could be shut down again and the owners could potentially face civil or criminal charges.

Doser said there are approximately 4,000 restaurants operating the county, and each year, the office receives 1,000 consumer complaints, concluding,

"People think they saw a rat or a cockroach or they got sick. As with all complaints we have to check it out. About 75 percent of them turn out to be valid.”

Anywhere that serves food has the potential to attract rodents. Food operators should be aware of this potential, and take measures to prevent or control these issues.

After the 2005 E. coli O157 outbreak which killed 5-year-old Mason Jones and sickened 160 schoolchildren in Wales, Professor Hugh Pennington led a public inquiry which revealed the futility of food safety training, government inspection, and pretty much anything to do with the so-called food safety system.

Yesterday, First Minister Rhodri Morgan announced more of the same in responding to Pennington’s report in the Wales Assembly.

“We know already that the Food Standards Agency is to review the use of equipment such as vacuum-packing machinery for both raw and cooked products.”

Duh. It shouldn’t happen.

“The training of inspectors and their managers is also being examined, with the aim of making this more comprehensive, helping them develop a sixth sense of what is potentially catastrophic.”

So they can see dead people?

“Inspections will be unannounced unless there is a clear requirement otherwise.”

Just make the inspections unannounced.

Sharon Mills and Nathan Jones, the parents of Mason Jones (above, right) said they would like to see Mr Morgan take more direct action and impose measures on the authorities involved, instead of leaving them to correct their own mistakes, with Ms. Mills stating,

“It was a bit disappointing because there was nothing definite about what he said. I thought we were going to get some answers and there still aren’t any. I don’t think we are any further forward than we were before.”

Somewhere, Prof. Pennington, who also headed the inquiry after the 1996 E. coli O157 outbreak in Scotland that killed 21 and sickened over 400, is wondering how to escape this Groundhog-Day-esque cycle of outbreak-illness-death-report-repeat.
 

Andrew Stormer (right, exactly as shown), a Kansas State food science grad who used to work with me writes from Topeka:

Food is my career and a passion, so I often find myself in conversations with people regarding trendy food topics (organic, healthy, safe etc.).  Today I found myself in the midst of a debate about the doneness of burgers with a plant employee.

The other dude was talking about the burgers he had grilled on July 4th. I asked him if he used a tip sensitive digital thermometer to determine if it had been cooked to 160°F, and the debate ensued.  He proudly proclaimed that he could tell if they are cooked “just right” by looking at the color and pushing on them with his finger.  I countered, stating that both of his methods were terrible indicators of doneness and that temperature is the only way to tell for sure.  I mentioned premature browning and that 160°F was the necessary temperature to reach to ensure the death of the common patty-pathogen E. coli O157:H7.

He persisted, saying I was wrong, and that his method had always worked and he had never made anyone sick.  How did he know that for sure, I wondered, explaining that the incubation period for E. coli was usually anywhere from about 18 to 72 hours, and that a person won’t exhibit symptoms of the infection until well after leaving the BBQ. 

He didn’t have much of a response. 

I then offered to find and show him studies, books, articles etc. that supported my claim.  He wanted none of it, and wrapped up the debate nicely with, “I just know.”  I was left frustrated and dismayed. 

This is a dangerous and arrogant attitude to have towards food safety, but unfortunately I have come across countless others that share the same “I just know” train of thought.  That said; his method is still a step above the “put-a-thin-piece-of-metal-in-the-burger-and-taste” method.

As Eddie Murphy said in the movie, 48 Hours, “A badge and a gun goes a long way. … There’s a new sheriff in town.”

That’s the impression the Obama Administration is trying to project with a spate of announcements to enhance food safety, which makes me feel it’s 1994 all over again … and look, there’s Michael Taylor back as a food safety advisor at the Food and Drug Administration (good choice, BTW).

For all the various announcements and endorsements today, the list of invitees to the White House is the most telling. How many food poisoners can you spot on this list, the ones who profit from selling food, have proven themselves incapable of providing safe food, and now have to ask for a babysitter?

Below is a list of expected attendees at today's Food Safety Announcement, including representatives from consumer, industry, producer associations, public health, and academic organizations.
ADMINISTRATION OFFICIALS:
* Vice President Joe Biden
* Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius
* Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack
* Dr. Peggy Hamburg, Commissioner, FDA
* Dr. Joshua Sharfstein, Deputy Commissioner, FDA
* Melody Barnes, Director, Domestic Policy Council
* Dr. John Holdren, Director, Office of Science and Technology Policy
MEMBERS OF CONGRESS:
* Representative Rosa DeLauro (D-CT)
* Representative John Dingell (D-MI)
* Representative Bart Stupak (D-MI)
OTHER EXPECTED ATTENDEES INCLUDE
(in alphabetical order by last name)
* Brent Baglien, ConAgra Foods
* Andrew Bailey, National Turkey Federation
* Scott Becker, Association of Public Health Laboratories
* Georges Benjamin, American Public Health Association
* Ellen Bloom, Consumers Union
* Abigail Blunt, Kraft Foods
* Melane Boyce, Confectioners Association
* Thomas Bradshaw, American Frozen Food Institute
* David Buck, Center for Foodborne Illness, Research & Prevention
* Christine Bushway, Organic Trade Association
* Jonathan Cantu, Government Accountability Project
* Barry Carpenter, National Meat Association
* Anthony Corbo, Food and Water Watch
* Jo Ellen Deutsch- United Food & Commercial Workers International Union
* Caroline DeWaal, Center for Science in the Public Interest
* Orlo Ehart, NASDA
* Cathleen Enright, Western Growers Association
* Sandra Eskin, Georgetown University, Health Policy Institute
* Scott Faber, Grocery Manufacturers of America
* Gregory Ferrara, National Grocers Association
* Anthony Flood, International Food Information Council
* Molly Fogarty, Nestle
* Randall Gordon, National Grain and Feed Association
* Robert Green, United Egg Producers
* Sally Greenberg, National Consumers League
* Lisa Griffith, National Family Farm Coalition
* Robert Guenther, United Fresh Produce Association
* Margaret Henderson, National Fisheries Institute
* James Hodges, American Meat Institute
* Katherine Houston, Cargill, Inc.
* Jonathan James, Allen Family Foods, Inc
* Alice Johnson, ButterBall
* G. Chandler Keys, JBS
* Lonnie King, CDC
* Barbara Masters, Olsson Frank Weeda Terman Bode Matz PC
* Margaret Mellon, Union of Concerned Scientists
* Joel Newman, American Feed Industry Association
* Donna Norton, Mom's Rising
* Erik Olson, Mars
* H. R. Bert Pena, Stinson Morrison Hecker LLP
* Robert Pestronk, National Association of County and City Health Officials
* Adam Reichardt, Association of State and Territorial Health Officials
* Tanya Roberts, Center for Foodborne Illness, Research & Prevention
* Welford Roberts, National Environmental Health Association
* Donna Rosenbaum, S.T.O.P. - Safe Tables Our Priority
* Marianne Rowden, American Association of Exporters and Importers
* Ruth Saunders, International Dairy Foods Association
* Bryan Silbermann, Produce Marketing Association
* Brian Snyder, Sustainable Agriculture Coalition
* Steven Steinhoff, Association of Food and Drug Officials
* Michael Taylor, George Washington University, School of Public Health and Health Services
* Mary Toker, General Mills, Inc.
* Omar Vargas, Pepsi-Cola North America
* Christopher Waldrop, Consumer Federation of America
* Deborah White, Food Marketing Institute
* Heather White, Environmental Working Group
* Andrea Yabulonsky, ConAgra Foods

Reuters is reporting this morning ahead of a press conference later today by recently formed supergroup, the Food Safety Working Group (right, not exactly as shown), that the Obama administration is ordering tougher steps to curb salmonella and E.coli contamination in U.S. food processing plants and created a new deputy food commissioner post to coordinate safety.

In response to the working group recommendations, the administration created a new position -- deputy commissioner for foods -- at the Food and Drug Administration to increase coordination of food safety activities in different parts of the federal government.

Other highlights include:

• the FDA has issued a rule aimed at reducing salmonella contamination of eggs during production;

• the administration directed the Food Safety and Inspection Service to develop standards by the end of the year to reduce salmonella in turkey and poultry;

• to reduce E.coli contamination of beef, the FSIS was directed to improve surveillance and testing for the bacteria in plants that handle beef, especially ground beef; and,

• the administration said the FDA would issue new guidance to the industry by the end of the month in an effort to reduce E.coli contamination in tomatoes, melons and green leafy vegetables.

Scott Faber of the Grocery Manufacturers Association said the absence of a federal standard for commodities like leafy greens, tomatoes and melons was the "biggest hole in the current food safety net" and the proposal to issue guidance "is the single most important step that we can take to reduce the risk of foodborne contamination."

Yes, fresh produce is the biggest hole – although all the processing-related outbreaks of late suggest a fairly big hole – but FDA has been issuing guidance for growing safe, fresh produce for 10 years. Does anyone follow it? Will more guidance mean fewer sick people? Doubtful.

As I wrote when the supergroup, Food Safety Working Group, announced its inaugural tour back in March, ??????U.S. President Obama is excellent at setting tone, and maybe that’s the best that can be expected. At least food safety is on the White House agenda. Maybe it will send a message that everyone, from farm-to-fork, needs to get super-serious about providing microbiologically safe food. Maybe that will increase the safety of the food supply and result in fewer sick people. Maybe there will be a hit single to be found in the Working Group’s first release.
 

NBC 29 reports that a group of central Virginia guests have Salmonellosis that appears to be linked to frozen lasagna from a popular pasta shop. In a classic blame game maneuver and "wha happened?" defense, the owner of Mona Lisa (the pasta shop) says that if his food is the source of the outbreak, it was likely customer error.

The owner of Mona Lisa pasta says his kitchen is not to blame for six central Virginia dinner guests coming down with salmonella. While he says he sold the frozen lasagna, it was not his kitchen that was responsible for cooking it to code.

Chef Jim Winecoff has been creating Italian dishes at his Mona Lisa Pasta Shop on Preston Avenue in Charlottesville for years. Winecoff said, “We’ve been here for eight years now providing lasagna, fresh pastas, sausage, ravioli, through the company.”

Winecoff is confident his kitchen is not to blame. Winecoff stated, “We’ve had no trouble whatsoever with our food in the past and I hope this is not a problem with our food. The customer has written instructions as to how to prepare the food, to bake at a certain temperature for a certain amount of time, and that's a food-safe temperature.”

It's early on in the investigation and not much information is available but the "we've been doing things this way for a while and never had a problem" optimistic attitude doesn't do much to build trust.

Especially in an outbreak situation.

An operator with a good food safety culture knows about the microbial risks associated with their products and who might screw up, whether it is suppliers, staff or customers. Blaming the customers is never a good thing, especially if you happened to sell them something with a pathogen in it. Ask the ConAgra pot pie folks. Or the Nebraska Beef ground beef folks.

Telling a customer the time of baking and at what temperature misses the measurable risk reduction step -- endpoint temperature. Food businesses selling this-needs-to-be-cooked items should be stating what temperature the dish needs to be cooked to and how the temperature needs to be measured.

Lizard droppings or similar contamination may have been the cause for scores of students falling ill after eating at a girls' hostel of Bagerhat Government PC College, civil surgeon Subhash Kumar Saha said on Sunday.

Saha was making an inspection of the hostel's kitchen after 63 students, who had taken lunch there on Saturday, underwent treatment for food poisoning at Bagerhat Sadar Hospital.

Of them, 31 were admitted in critical condition, said doctors, but all were treated and out of danger.

Last night while Doug was cooking dinner and we were feeding Sorenne some rice cereal and squash, I noticed we still had a tube of Pillsbury Cookie Dough in the refrigerator leftover from last week’s cookie experiment. We decided to make some cookies and free up more space in the fridge.

Doug reminded me, as I got ready for the extremely complicated process of slicing the dough to put on a cookie sheet, that I needed to treat the product as though it were contaminated. I said, “But this isn’t the recalled dough.” To which Doug responded, “Just because it wasn’t recalled doesn’t mean that it isn’t contaminated.” True that. So we were careful not to cross-contaminate. We put the tube on a cutting board. I used a pair of scissors to open it up and immediately put them in the dishwasher. I sliced up the dough, put it on the cookie sheet, washed my hands thoroughly, and Doug took care of the actual baking.

The cookies were not nearly as delicious as the ones Katie and I used to make during her 5 month stay in Manhattan, and I’m sure they contained some dairy, but we ate all of the cookies anyway.

This week Tom sent us a book advertisement from Amazon.com, “Cooking with Pooh: Yummy Yummy Cookie Cutter Treats.” If you’re potentially cooking with poo, be careful not to cross-contaminate and do not eat uncooked dough.

The Cuyahoga County Board of Health confirms that three children have been exposed to the E. coli bacteria. Two more cases are under investigation.

"Five cases is very unusual for us to have," says Terry Allan, the health commissioner in Cuyahoga County.

The three children with confirmed cases also have what's known as Hemolytic Uremic Syndrome (HUS).

Allan says the children must have contracted E. coli in one of two ways: either from a batch of meat that is contaminated or from just undercooked beef. Testing will be conducted on meat in the area, but so far, there is no indication that any particular batch of beef in Ohio is contaminated.

Or from thousands of other ways that E. coli O157:H7 can get into food or water or petting zoos.

Allan also says,

"If you don't have a thermometer, it's important that you cook that hamburger until it's no longer pink in the middle."

This is wrong. Color is a lousy indicator. Use a meat thermometer, be careful about cross-contamination, and have more microbial awareness than the health commissioner in Cuyahoga County.
 

I have an affinity for the Danes. I spent five summers working with two Danish home builders in Ontario, who introduced me to 45% Danish Schnapps, pate and beet snacks, which Amy and I munched on our balcony yesterday, and when I go to meetings in Copenhagen, they offer beer at the 10:30 a.m. coffee break; and noon; and afternoon coffee (beer).

My friend John the carpenter who fought in WW II (last name Kierkegaard, like the philosopher, Soren, baby Sorenne, get it?) would also have his morning, noon and afternoon beers in Ontario, but would at least admit, “The work, after some beers, it’s not so great when looked at the next day.”

This morning, Denmark is admitting it may have some problems with Salmonella.

The National Food Directorate says that 40 people have contracted Salmonella Enteritidis since May, probably as a result of fried eggs or raw eggs that have not been heated properly.

In several cases, the eggs have been traced back to the Møllebjerggård Ægpakkeri egg packaging plant and a producer that delivers eggs to the plant has been put under observation.

The Directorate has ordered eggs from the producer in question to be withdrawn from the market.
 

Look, I’m goofy. Probably the Brantford, Ontario, water, cause hometown pal Wayne Gretzky sure looked goofy on The Young and the Restless in 1981.

I don’t want to be on video. But if that’s what it takes to get the message out about how to safely grill burgers this holiday weekend, then why not.

As I wrote the N.Y. Times today in response to their July 1, 2009 piece, The Perfect Burger and All Its Parts, Chef Seamus Mullen’s recommendation to use any thin piece of metal into the side of a burger, and “if it’s barely warm to the lips, it’s rare. If it’s like bath water, it’s medium rare” only demonstrates the divide between food safety and food pornography.

The only thin piece of metal that should be stuck into the side of a hamburger is a tip-sensitive digital thermometer.

Color is a lousy indicator of burger safety, as is the taste of metal sticks. Rather than putting E. coli O157:H7 on precious testing lips – stick a thermometer in.

A recent spike in Salmonella cases in the Vancouver, B.C. area has lead the B.C. Centre for Disease Control to release the following, reports News1130:

Over 56 cases of infection are being blamed on the same strain of Salmonella.

While the BCCDC says they have not identified a common source associated with the infections, they advise that the two most important risk factors for Salmonella are the consumption of eggs and chicken. Salmonella can contaminate meat, eggs and raw fruits and vegetables. Symptoms of Salmonella infection may include fever, headache, diarrhea, stomach cramps, nausea and sometimes vomiting.

The BCCDC reminds people that the possibility of becoming ill from Salmonella can be eliminated almost completely with proper food handling and cooking practices.

Yes, eggs and chicken can harbor Salmonella, and proper hygiene and food handling can prevent cross contamination in the home; however, several outbreaks of Salmonella have not been preventable at the consumer level. Peanut butter, cantaloupe, ice cream and pistachios aren’t commonly cooked prior to consumption. 

If you’re a retailer as big as Whole Foods, how hard is it to provide accurate information?

For their July 4 “perfect burgers” the food porn emporium says, “Grill meat to desired doneness; about 4 to 6 minutes per side over a medium hot fire. Be careful not to overcook, which will dry out the meat.”

This means nothing, but as a smart food science prof once told me, processing is all about adding air and water and charging more; Whole Foods adds swarmy words and charges more.

Color is a lousy indicator of safety. Use a tip-sensitive thermometer, and use food porn for titillation, not safety.

Raise a butter tart and Molson Export – or Labatt Crystal if you’re into the skid stuff – it’s Canada Day, the celebration of the July 1, 1867 enactment of the British North America Act, which united Canada as a single country of four provinces.

The N.Y. Times has a fun piece of famous ex-pats saying what they miss most about Canada – original Coffee Crisp chocolate bars seems to be the best thing folks can conjure up – but more importantly to some, the new Canadian organic food logo went into effect (below, left, exactly as shown).

Organic is a production standard. Doesn’t mean anything about quality, taste or safety. It’s a marketing concept, but now they have their own label.

All produce will have to be completely organic to be stamped with the logo, while products with multiple ingredients must have 95 per cent organic content.

Farmers who want their produce to carry the new "Canada Organic" label have to apply in writing for certification. The application must include:

* The name of the agricultural product.
* The substances used in its production.
* The manner in which those substances are used.

The logo will also be used on USDA-certified organic products imported from the United States.

Between 70 and 80 per cent of all organic products available in Canada are imported primarily from the U.S., according to government figures.

My group has written extensively about organic and conventional food safety – it’s just not on. There are good farmers and bad farmers, conventional, organic and otherwise.

But this logo? I sent it to a few of my colleagues and asked them what they thought – all the results were too pornographic to publish here. Maybe on twitter.
 

I've loved Chicken with Broccoli and Cheese (of various brands) since childhood. These prepared-but-raw entrees mostly fell by the wayside when I started cooking like a grown-up. But just last week, the crunchy broccoli with melted cheese hidden inside tasty breaded chicken thingies called out to me and my inner child, and a box of them was soon in my home freezer.

A couple years ago (under the alias C. Wilkinson), I watched a bunch of people cooking products just like these in model kitchens. I was helping graduate researcher Sarah DeDonder, who was curious what could be contributing to the half-dozen Salmonella outbreaks associated with such products that occurred in the ten years before the study (and the two outbreaks after).

The raw, frozen chicken thingies I brought home last week were made by Antioch Farms (a Koch Foods brand). The box's front label proclaimed, in half-inch-high letters, that the products were indeed raw. The back label warned me not to cook them in the microwave. It also showed me how to stick a thermometer in to be sure each one reached a bacteria- and virus-killing 165 F.

I found each of these label features fairly helpful. However, when I baked them for dinner last night, I modified the depicted thermometer-sticking method a little to determine the internal temperature of the chicken, rather than the filling.

I'm happy to report that the chicken read 175 F before it reached the dinner table. And it was as delicious as I remembered.