In January 2009, Peanut Corporation of America (PCA) was linked to a growing outbreak of illness across the U.S. caused by Salmonella serotype Typhimurium. Eventually, all peanuts and peanut products processed at PCA’s Blakely, Georgia, plant since January 1, 2007 were recalled, including over 3,900 peanut butter and other peanut-containing products from more than 350 companies. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported that 691 people were sickened and nine died across 46 U.S. states and in Canada from the outbreak.

By Feb. 15, 2009, The Washington Post described the business culture at PCA from the viewpoint of a former buyer for a major snack manufacturer -- a filthy plant with a leaky roof and windows that were left open, allowing birds to enter. The company purchased only low quality, inexpensive peanuts and paid food handlers the minimum wage lawfully allowed. The lack of a food safety culture was most evident in the description of how PCA dealt with finished product that tested positive for Salmonella spp. A report by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration identified many instances in which the product was retested until a negative result was achieved; in other instances PCA shipped the product to their customer despite the positive test or before the test result was received.

FDA further noted there were inadequate controls at the PCA plant to prevent contamination and insufficient cleaning and sanitation. Facilities for handwashing were also used to clean utensils and mops, increasing the potential for recontamination of washed hands. Equipment settings -- for example, roasting temperature and belt speed -- had not been evaluated to ensure that the roasting step was sufficient to kill bacteria. Raw and roasted peanuts were stored directly next to one another, allowing for potential contamination of the roasted finished product. Gaps in the physical integrity of the building were observed around the loading bays and the air conditioning intakes in the roof that provided pests with open access to the plant. Despite these deficiencies, PCA maintained the highest possible rating from auditing firm AIB International.

Earlier this year, Basic Food Flavors Inc., the Las Vegas company at the center of a recall of more than 100 food products containing hydrolyzed vegetable protein, or HVP, continued to make and distribute food ingredients for about a month after it learned salmonella was present at its processing facility, according to a Food and Drug Administration report.

Yesterday, similarly eerie details started to emerge from investigators going through the salmonella-in-eggs mess that has sickened almost 1,500 over the summer and led to the recall of about 550 million eggs. Highlights of the reports (called 483s) and public comments by FDA-types include:

• David Elder, director of the FDA's Office of Regulatory Affairs, told a press conference Monday the 483 forms show "significant objectionable conditions;"

• at Wright County Egg facilities, live mice were found inside laying houses at four sites, and numerous live and dead flies were observed in egg-laying houses at three locations;

• chicken manure accumulated 4 to 8 feet high underneath the cages at two locations, pushing out access doors, allowing open access for wildlife and other farm animals;

• at one location, uncaged birds were using tall manure piles to access egg-laying areas;

• inspectors saw employees not changing or not wearing protective clothing when moving from laying house to laying house;

• three Hillandale Farms locations contained unsealed rodent holes with evidence of live rodents at one of the facilities, with gaps in walls and doors at other sites.; and,

• uncaged chickens were observed tracking manure into the caged hen areas.

Dr Michael Taylor, the FDA's deputy commissioner for foods, told reporters that though the FDA has no reason to believe the practices that investigators turned up are common at all egg-producing facilities, inspectors will be inspecting about 600 large egg producers, those that have 50,000 or more laying hens, over the next several months starting in September with what it believes may be the highest-risk facilities.

Kenneth E. Anderson, a professor of poultry science at North Carolina State University said,

“That is not good management, bottom line. I am surprised that an operation was being operated in that manner in this day and age.”

How did this happen? A gap in federal or state inspection requirements may be partly to blame – but only partly.

What firms and retailers were buying these eggs? Don’t they require internal or third-party food safety audits of their suppliers? Who were the auditors and where are their reports? Has any buyer looked at owner Jack DeCoster over the years and said, your farm's a dump, I’m not buying your eggs?

While waiting for government and Godot, it’s the thousands of American egg farmers who are going to suffer if sales decline, so why not unleash the power of food safety marketing and let consumers choose at retail.

Repeated outbreaks have shown that all food is not safe: there are good producers and bad producers, good retailers and bad retailers. As a consumer, I have no way of knowing. Telling me an egg is local and grown with love is food marketing but has nothing to do with food safety and salmonella.

Tell consumers about salmonella-testing programs meant to reduce risks; put a URL on egg cartons so those who are interested can use the Internet or even personal phones to see how the eggs were raised. Boring press releases in the absence of data only magnify consumer mistrust.

Food producers should truthfully market their microbial food safety programs, coupled with behavioral-based food safety systems that foster a positive food safety culture from farm-to-fork. The best producers and processors will go far beyond the lowest common denominator of government and should be rewarded in the marketplace.
 

Elizabeth Weise writes in tomorrow’s USA Today today that in the wake of one of the largest egg recalls on record with more than 1,400 illnesses linked to eggs produced on two Iowa farms, the egg industry is resorting to the worst tactic of all – blaming the victim.

Krista Eberle of the United Egg Producers' Egg Safety Center said,

"Some people may not think of an egg as you would ground beef, but they need to start. It may sound harsh and I don't mean it to sound that way. But all the responsibility cannot be placed on the farmer. Somewhere along the line consumers have to be responsible for what they put in their bodies."

So what about all those food magazines and porn shows with images of lovingly undercooked eggs?

I told Weise there has been some kind of massive failure for that many people to get sick with salmonella, and that if indeed eggs now need to be treated "like hazardous waste," then the issue isn't so much the egg on the plate as the egg in the bowl, and on the counter and stove.

Douglas Powell, a professor of food safety at Kansas State University in Manhattan, Kansas, said,

"You know, when you're making scrambled eggs and egg ends up on the counter?" His team at K-State has spent hundreds of hours videotaping actual home cooks working in actual kitchens. Eggs could end up anywhere, on hands, dish towels, utensils, the stove, everywhere. People are basically "delusional at how good they are at handling food.”

Nancy Donley, board president of Safe Tables Our Priority, a food safety consumer group, said,

"Telling me that basically 'You didn't cook it right,' it's just offensive. The problem isn't how consumers are preparing the food, the problem is that the food is contaminated. They keep trying to push the responsibility onto consumers, they're just not taking their own responsibility."

If consumers are really being held accountable as the last line of defense in the food safety farm-to-fork line, then the egg industry needs to be explicit about it, says Carol Tucker-Foreman, an assistant secretary of agriculture under President Carter who's worked on food policy at Consumer Federation of America for decades.

"Should egg cartons be required to carry a message that says 'Warning — to protect your health and the health of those in your household, you should assume that these eggs are contaminated with Salmonella Enteriditis and must be handled carefully in order to avoid possible illness?' " she asks.

Cargill Meat Solutions Corp., a Wyalusing, Pa. establishment, is recalling approximately 8,500 pounds of ground beef products that may be contaminated with E. coli O26, the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) announced today.

The product subject to recall includes:

• 42-pound cases of "GROUND BEEF FINE 90/10," containing three (3) - approximately 14 pound chubs each. These products have a "use/freeze by" date of "07/01/10," and an identifying product code of "W69032."

The products subject to recall bears the establishment number "EST. 9400" inside the USDA mark of inspection. These products were produced on June 11, 2010, and were shipped to distribution centers in Connecticut and Maryland for further distribution. It is important to note that the above listed products were repackaged into consumer-size packages and sold under different retail brand names. When available, the retail distribution list(s) will be posted on FSIS' website at

FSIS and the establishment are concerned that consumers may also freeze the product before use and that some product may still be in consumers' freezers. FSIS strongly encourages consumers to check their freezers and immediately discard any product subject to this recall.

FSIS became aware of the problem on August 5, 2010 when the agency was notified by the Maine Department of Agriculture, Food and Rural Resources of an E. coli O26 cluster of illnesses. In conjunction with the Maine Department of Health and Human Services, Maine Department of Agriculture, Food and Rural Resources, the New York State Department of Health, and New York State Department of Agriculture & Markets, two (2) case-patients have been identified in Maine, as well as one (1) case-patient in New York with a rare, indistinguishable PFGE pattern as determined by PFGE subtyping in PulseNet. PulseNet is a national network of public health and food regulatory agency laboratories coordinated by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Illness onset dates range from June 24, 2010, through July 16, 2010.
 

Advertising Age reports the American Egg Board has taken out full-page ads in major newspapers including The New York Times, Wall Street Journal and USA Today to try and tamper down rising fears around America's favorite breakfast food.

The ads call attention to the fact that "the potentially affected eggs, which make up less than 1% of all U.S. eggs, have been removed from store shelves" and end with the reminder that "thoroughly cooked means thoroughly safe." Consumers are driven from the print ads to a website, eggsafety.org.

What the ads do not talk about is risks of cross-contamination, as anyone who has cracked an egg into a bowl knows about.

Kevin Burkum, senior VP-marketing for the American Egg Board, told Ad Age the messages are "aimed at educating consumers on the safety of eggs and how to properly cook them." He added that the organization is also looking at expanding the print campaign to radio and digital efforts to get the message out.

As soon as any group talks about educating consumers, they’ve given up.

Instead, the egg folks should treat consumers like they may have a few functioning neurons, talk about salmonella testing data and sell safety directly to consumers at retail.
 

President Barack Obama got a sandwich at Jerry's Famous Deli in Miami last week, which was slapped with 26 restaurant violations for all types of uncleanliness by a state inspector on Monday.

The restaurant inspection comes less than a week after Obama made his to-go order of two corned beef sandwiches on rye.

An inspector stopped the sale of cooked meatballs after he found raw meat sitting out in the open in unsafe temperatures. Employees were also seen handling meat and bread without gloves and without washing their hands properly.

Associated Press reports a California man who says he ordered French onion soup and bit into a condom instead of melted cheese has settled his lawsuit against the Claim Jumper restaurant chain.

The terms of today's settlement were not disclosed.

Both sides say in a statement the deal indicates no admission of liability by either party.

When John Lennon heard in 1967 that one of his former schools was making students deconstruct the lyrics to songs by the Beatles, he responded by writing the most nonsensical song he could come up with, combining the lyrics of 3 previously unfinished songs – two written on acid trips – and stated at the time about the result, I Am the Walrus, “Let the fu**ers work that one out.”

The Eggman in the song apparently referred to The Animals lead singer, Eric Burdon, who had a fondness for breaking eggs over the bodies of naked women.

This trivia is as useful as most of the information surrounding the salmonella-in-eggs outbreak that has sickened a thousand Americans.

There are hints of information but most public commenters are using the outbreak for political or legal opportunism.

Today’s USA Today reports that state and federal health agencies identified an Iowa egg company as a likely source of illness at least two weeks before the firm launched a massive egg recall Aug. 13 and the public got its first hint of a growing national salmonella outbreak.

In late July, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention even considered reminding the public generally about the dangers of eating undercooked eggs, said Ian Williams, chief of the agency's outbreak response branch. The CDC decided it would be more effective to wait until the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) completed its investigation of the firm, Wright County Egg in Galt, Iowa.

By late July, the California and Minnesota state health departments had identified several small restaurant outbreaks of salmonella with eggs as a likely culprit — and Wright County Egg as a common supplier, Williams said.

The FDA didn't contact Wright County Egg until Aug. 10 and didn't provide detailed information until Aug. 12, company spokeswoman Hinda Mitchell said. The recall decision was made after discussion with FDA officials the next morning, she said.

Jeff Farrar, FDA associate commissioner for food protection, said Wednesday that his agency was aware of the states' findings in late July but needed to obtain detailed copies of invoices and other paperwork to further confirm that Wright County Egg was the supplier.

CNN also reports this morning the state of California believes it has identified its earliest cases related to the salmonella recall, and says its investigation helped tip off the rest of the country to the source of the problem.

On May 28 and 29, several people became sick after attending either a prom or a graduation party in Clara County, according to Joy Alexiou, a spokeswoman for the Santa Clara County Public Health Department. Tests on some of the victims, including a catering worker who nibbled on the food, determined that the culprit was salmonella, she said.

Three months later the state is bragging?

Sherri McGarry, a director at the F.D.A.’s Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition, told the N.Y. Times last week the Hillandale recall was prompted when Minnesota officials traced a cluster of illnesses in that state to the eggs from the company’s Iowa plants.

Doug Schultz, a spokesman for the Minnesota health department, said seven people had become ill with salmonella in mid-May after eating chile rellenos at a Mexican restaurant called Mi Rancho in Bemidji, Minn. He said that investigators established a connection to Hillandale eggs on May 24.

It was not clear why the F.D.A. did not act on the information sooner.

Why didn’t Minnesota go public if it had information that could limit future illnesses?

FDA and other federal agencies do themselves a tremendous disservice by failing to clearly articulate how and when the public (and industry) should be informed about potential health risks. No amount of federal legislation or lawsuits will fix this. Instead it requires a recommitment to having fewer people barf. And any company that wants to lead – especially with profits – will stop hiding behind the cloak of government inspection and will make test results public, market food safety at retail so consumers can choose, and if people get sick from your product, will be the first to tell the public.

You all sound like element’ry penguins.

CNBC reports that experts have some simple advice when it comes to eating runny eggs these days: Run away.

With salmonella concerns triggering the recall of more than a half-billion eggs in more than a dozen states, warnings are becoming more dire every day against eating undercooked yolks and translucent egg whites.

But what's a home cook to do, especially when hit by cravings for eggs Benedict, pasta carbonara, homemade Caesar dressing or other dishes that call for raw or only slightly cooked eggs?

Drinking raw eggs for a protein boost? Even worse idea, given the risk of salmonella and its violent nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain and temporary residency in the bathroom.

"We've got enough issues. Who needs to be barfing because of raw eggs?" asked Douglas Powell, an associate professor of food safety at Kansas State University and author of BarfBlog.com, which highlights food-handling problems in the news and in popular culture.

He advises cooks to use a food thermometer in their frittatas, quiches and other egg dishes — and, in fact, when preparing meat or anything that poses dangers when undercooked.

Paul Stern, who cooks for the Hole in the Wall Gang Camp, an Ashford, Conn., camp for seriously ill children, many with compromised immune systems, said this year, the camp switched (before the recall) to pasteurized liquid egg product.

"I wouldn't be consuming or serving raw eggs any more than I'd be eating or serving raw chicken."
 

I told a state-sponsored jazz radio station yesterday (NPR) and a few dozen other media outlets yesterday that as someone who shops a lot for groceries, I’d be really interested in eggs that were verified through some kind of testing to be salmonella-free. Or reduced levels. Anything but the marketing crap that currently dominates the nation’s grocery shelves.

People are clamoring for local, natural, sustainable eggs in the wake of a 500 million egg recall that has sickened about 1,000 Americans with salmonella, yet there is absolutely no evidence that other eggs have lower levels of salmonella.

Buying preferences may help some folks feel superior, but salmonella happens – and it happens a lot. So why is there not a single retailer who will demand salmonella testing and market those results at retail?

As a consumer, I’m helpless in my choices for reduced-salmonella eggs, unless I buy pasteurized eggs, and even they are not fail-safe. I spend a lot of money at the grocery store feeding the herd of children I seem to have accumulated – why can’t someone give me some microbiological data on which to make a purchasing decision? Having more government inspectors does nothing to assuage my food safety doubts.

Marketing food safety at retail has the additional benefit of enhancing a food safety culture within an organization – if we’re boasting about this stuff I guess we really better wash our hands and keep the poop out of food. Maintaining a food safety culture means that operators and staff know the risks associated with the products or meals they produce, know why managing the risks is important, and effectively manage those risks in a demonstrable way. In an organization with a good food safety culture, individuals are expected to enact practices that represent the shared value system and point out where others may fail. By using a variety of tools, consequences and incentives, businesses can demonstrate to their staff and customers that they are aware of current food safety issues, that they can learn from others’ mistakes, and that food safety is important within the organization.

In the egg fiasco, no one is stepping up and saying, we know about salmonella, this is how we go above and beyond the minimal requirements of government, and this is why you should buy my eggs.

www.foodsafetyinfosheets.com

Le U.S. Centers of Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) est en train d’enquêter sur une éclosion à Salmonella Enteriditis liée aux œufs en coquilles. L’éclosion, qui a débuté en mai et qui est toujours en cours, a entraîné environ plusieurs centaines de malades.

Les enquêtes auprès de 250 malades en Californie, le Colorado et le Minnesota ont révélé plusieurs restaurants ou lieux où a mangé plus d’une personne malade avec la souche épidémique.

Les officiels de la santé de Californie ont confirmé que l’éclosion a été tracé jusqu’aux œufs de Wright County Egg à Galt dans l’Iowa, qui a procédé à un rappel estimé à 228 millions d’œufs le 13 août 2010.

Le rappel comprend des œufs en coquilles conditionnés par Wright County Egg entre le 16 mai et le 13 août 2010. Ils proviennent de caisses en cartons de six à 18 œufs et comprennent les numéros de site P-1026, P-1413 et P-1946.

•Les œufs peuvent héberger Salmonella et ont besoin d’être cuits à 63°C pendant 15 secondes pour réduire le risque.

•Les œufs doivent être conservés au réfrigérateur et maintenu en dessous de 7°C.

•Utiliser des œufs pasteurisés comme solution de remplacement pour des plats nécessitant des œufs crus.

Les œufs rappelés sont vendus sous de multiples noms de marque :
Lucerne, Albertson, Mountain Dairy, Ralph's, Boomsma's, Sunshine, Hillandale, Trafficanda, Farm Fresh, Shoreland, Lund, Dutch Farms et Kemps.
 

Pour plus d’information, contacter Ben Chapman,benjamin_chapman@ncsu.edu ou Doug Powell, dpowell@ksu.edu
 

Audrey Kreske, an N.C. State post-doc writes of a food safety blunder on morning television:

Today's Today Show featured a segment with Martha Stewart discussing her top 50 tips for creating a kitchen that's “not only beautiful but functional as well”.  Viewers were definitely waiting with pens in their hands to discover the Domestic Diva’s secrets.

Some of the household tips included: how to avoid breaking dishes while washing them; putting liquid soap in easy-to-use decanters; and the essential nature of multiple little dishtowels.

Fascinating.

Then things got weird (see the video below, beginning at 3:55). Martha got a bit wacky with the eggs.

In attempt to show how nice eggs look on the counter as a decoration accessory, the Diva points to eggs in a basket and says, “We're having a big problem with eggs so everybody better be very careful where their eggs come from. But organically grown eggs from the farm, you can keep out for a few days on the counter”

Matt Lauer, somewhat taken aback by the statement chimed in and asked “Oh really, that's not a problem?”

Martha said, “Oh, no, no; not if they're fresh”

The big problem Martha refers to is the over 1300 Salmonella Enteriditis illnesses linked to egg and egg products that have led to a recall of almost half a billion eggs.

The problem that Martha misses is that it doesn’t matter where eggs come from or the production practice, there is still a risk of Salmonella Enteriditis being present. Contamination comes from the environment, humans or rodents; multiplies within the flock; and, an infected hen can result in the pathogen inside the egg (infection occurs in the ovary).What is problematic about the pathogen is that while it may infect a hen or group of hens, it typically does not create any clinical signs.  If Salmonella is in an egg sitting on the counter, even if Martha says it's okay, the bacterium can grow and create a larger issue.

According to a 2005 USDA risk assessment, approximately 1 in 20,000 contains Salmonella;  even if they appear to be clean and uncracked.

The best available evidence suggests that eggs should be stored in the refrigerator/cooler and held below 45°F. The U.S FDA recommends buying eggs only if sold from a refrigerator or refrigerated case, checking that the eggs are clean and the shells are not cracked, and, refrigerating promptly to prevent egg-related illness.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

The companies that have recalled more than half a billion eggs following a salmonella outbreak fell short of safety standards at their farms, U.S. Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Margaret Hamburg told CNN Sunday, adding

"There's no question these farms involved in the recall were not operating with the standards of practice we consider responsible.”

She said "about 1,000" people have been sickened by a salmonella outbreak that federal regulators have traced back to two Iowa egg producers. One of those companies said Sunday it is "devastated" by the possible connection between its product and salmonella.

Hillandale Farms said it shared "a number of common suppliers" with Wright County Egg, including a company called Quality Egg, which provided feed and young birds.

Both Wright County and Quality Egg are owned by the DeCoster family, which has a string of agribusiness interests in the Midwest and Northeast. Those companies' records have come under new scrutiny since the recalls were announced earlier this month.

The Washington Post reports that in the past 20 years, according to the public record, the DeCoster family operation, one of the 10 largest egg producers in the country, has withstood a string of reprimands, penalties and complaints about its performance in several states.

In June, for instance, the family agreed to pay a $34,675 fine stemming from allegations of animal cruelty against hens in its 5 million-bird Maine facility. An animal rights group used a hidden camera to document hens suffocating in garbage cans, twirled by their necks , kicked into manure pits to drown and hanging by their feet over conveyer belts.

And today’s USA Today reports that to some experts, the huge recall of potentially contaminated eggs is a testament to how the industry has grown from many small producers to large industrial farms.

The problem, many food safety experts say, is that even as eggs moved to a very intense production method with enormous companies and huge flocks, regulation was almost entirely lacking.

In 1999, President Clinton vowed to increase regulation and wipe out the disease in eggs by 2010. Instead, the industry and FDA delayed the creation of the rules, finally written in 2004.
 

New Zealand chef Peta Mathias has been criticized for the flashy jewelry she wears during her TV show, with critics saying the rings and other jewellery would never be tolerated in a commercial kitchen because of the bacteria that gathers underneath.

Mathias agrees but says: "Hey, it's for TV."

Food writer and columnist Julie Biuso said people had been talking about Mathias' rings for years, adding,

"There's a grubby look about it. It's an act. She dresses up with all the jewellery ... possibly she cooks like that at home. Of course, she's over the top, she's way over the top. But people love to criticise. She's doing it her own way. If you don't like it, switch off."

Biuso said Mathias would never be allowed to wear her rings while cooking in a commercial kitchen.

AUT senior lecturer in food safety Suzanne Bliss said Mathias' rings were possibly sending the wrong message to the public and young people in the food industry.

But it was a TV show and, for that reason, hosts had licence to go outside the normal boundaries of food hygiene.

Mathiasen, L.A., Chapman, B.J., Lacroix, B.J. and Powell, D.A. 2004. Spot the mistake: Television cooking shows as a source of food safety information, Food Protection Trends 24(5): 328-334.

Consumers receive information on food preparation from a variety of sources. Numerous studies conducted over the past six years demonstrate that television is one of the primary sources for North Americans. This research reports on an examination and categorization of messages that television food and cooking programs provide to viewers about preparing food safely. During June 2002 and 2003, television food and cooking programs were recorded and reviewed, using a defined list of food safety practices based on criteria established by Food Safety Network researchers. Most surveyed programs were shown on Food Network Canada, a specialty cable channel. On average, 30 percent of the programs viewed were produced in Canada, with the remainder produced in the United States or United Kingdom. Sixty hours of content analysis revealed that the programs contained a total of 916 poor food-handling incidents. When negative food handling behaviors were compared to positive food handling behaviors, it was found that for each positive food handling behavior observed, 13 negative behaviors were observed. Common food safety errors included a lack of hand washing, cross-contamination and time-temperature violations. While television food and cooking programs are an entertainment source, there is an opportunity to improve their content so as to promote safe food handling.

Toronto Public Health has identified a case of Hepatitis A in an employee at a Wendy's restaurant located at 438 Nugget Avenue in Scarborough. Anyone who consumed food purchased at this restaurant between July 26 and August 6 may have been exposed to the hepatitis A virus. The risk of getting the infection is very low.

Depends on how well the employee washed his or her hands and whether they were prepping salads or other fresh product. Don’t eat poop.
 

Depends on the state, according to Brian Palmer of Slate Magazine.

When police in Western New York pulled over Gary Korkuc for blowing off a stop sign on Sunday, they found a live cat in his trunk, covered in cooking oil, peppers, and salt. Korkuc told authorities that his pet feline was "possessive, greedy, and wasteful" and that he intended to cook and eat it. Korkuc has been charged with animal cruelty. …

Few states have specific laws barring the use of pets for food. The ones that do typically ban the slaughter or sale of dog and cat meat. The state of New York expressly prohibits "any person to slaughter or butcher domesticated dog (canis familiaris) or domesticated cat (felis catus or domesticus) to create food, meat or meat products for human or animal consumption." It's not clear whether the eating itself is outlawed or only the butchery. If you managed to buy dog or cat flesh from someone else who broke the anti-slaughter law, you might be OK. The law also doesn't cover ferrets, gerbils, parakeets, or other less familiar pet species. (Although the general anti-cruelty law might protect exotics.)

California's anti-pet-eating law has a broader reach. It bars possession of the carcass, so having bought your cat steaks from someone else wouldn't be a useful alibi. The California law also protects "any animal traditionally or commonly kept as a pet or companion," rather than just Fido and Fluffy. The statute is somewhat untested, though, so no one really knows which animals are included.

Pigs are not, even though they are commonly kept as pets, because they are farm animals. Horses are specifically covered by a different section of the code. There's no precedent on iguanas, goldfish, or boa constrictors. …

Authorities won't have any trouble prosecuting Korkuc, the Western New Yorker who was marinating his cat in the trunk. Whether or not he really intended to eat his feline, keeping a companion animal in a motor vehicle without proper ventilation is illegal. Rubbing the cat with chili-infused oil, while not specifically addressed, is also a violation of the state's general cruelty law, which prohibits torture.
 

I don’t know what Folklorama is in Winnipeg (that’s in Canada) but food served at the Russian pavilion is the suspected source of an E. coli outbreak that has sickened 16 including one confirmed case at emergency rooms between Aug. 1 and Aug. 16.

The Winnipeg Free Press reports the parents of a two-year-old boy who suffered kidney failure want tougher food-handling rules imposed on the fair.

The boy’s mother said tests confirmed the boy had verotoxigenic E. coli and was in acute renal failure. The tot spent two nights in the pediatric intensive care unit and now has a central dialysis line in his neck and hip.

Executive director Ron Gauthier said nothing like this has ever happened before in Folklorama's 41 years and he doesn't know what potential changes the festival could make until the review is complete.
 

We’ve seen a lot of toilets along the highways and byways while making the 19-hour drive from Arkansas to Anna Maria Island, Florida, including a couple of special ones in the middle of the night on Alabama back roads (it was a shortcut).

I told the woman encased in her plastic booth at a Shell station off I-75 in northern Florida that the men’s room was out of paper towel: she sneered.

But the best sign came from the toilets at the Southbank splash park and playground in Brisbane, Australia, where people apparently have a unique approach to using the facilities.
 

The CFIA announced yesterday that Le Belle de Jersey cheese may be contaminated with Listeria monocytogenes. They claim that no illnesses have been reported, but we’ve all heard that one before.

The news release doesn’t include specific information regarding the affected product, like weight, lot number or locations where it was sold; information needed to avoid the tainted product.

Another product, also recalled yesterday, President’s Choice®Decadent Chocolate Chunk Cookies had a very different news release. The company responsible included all the necessary information to identify and avoid the product, which is not tainted with Listeria but contains metal pieces.

The reasons for recalling the products might be different but they both pose a threat to consumer’s health. So why the difference in disclosure of information between these recalls?

The CFIA should require specific information regarding recalled products so that there is no expanded health hazard alert informing how many people have gotten sick since the last health hazard alert release.

Before I moved to North Carolina I didn’t know a whole lot of the specifics around home food preservation. I had never pickled, canned, or done anything preserve-y. My parents use to have a pickling party around Labour Day every year (the ‘u’ is in there because I lived in Canada then) but I never really got into it. In the past two years I’ve become a lot more involved with preservation stuff as the close to 100 extension agents across the state to whom I provide technical food safety support spend a pretty good chunk of their time teaching and answering questions about pickling, pressure canning and the likes.

I jumped into pickling last year and pressure canning this year so beyond the science aspect I have an idea of the practices – what’s tough and what might go wrong. Preservation is a bit like baking where recipes, ratios and processing times are important to create a final product that’s not going to paralyze or kill someone. Follow the rules and everything should be okay.

AP reports that something went wrong in the Chicago area and now a few folks are suffering from salmonellosis:

Salmonella isn’t typically associated with fermented or acidified cucumbers (the heat processing of the product should kill it and the  pH is too low for growth of other pathogens). AP reports that the illnesses have been linked to pickles that were sold to customers in plastic bags. This outbreak looks like the result of a post-pickling issue; possibly dirty hands or equipment used to transfer the pickles to bags.

The Aussies have a way with words, as the Herald Sun proclaims this morning that Miss Universe 2004 and “glamazon Jennifer Hawkins has revealed a bout of food poisoning was the cause of her extra-skinny appearance at the Myer Summer Collection launch this month.”

Hawkins has told New Idea magazine she dropped weight quickly after falling ill while on holidays with her boyfriend, Jake Wall, adding,

"I had a severe case of food poisoning while I was in Europe recently and it took its toll on me. I knew I was smaller than usual, but there was nothing I could do. I ate lots of healthy food before the parade and my mum even came to Sydney to cook Jake and me a yummy meal. I do maintain a healthy lifestyle and love to exercise and eat well, but things like getting sick happen. I am only human."

Australia is an Internet backwater.

In that context, the best thing about Australia is, McDonalds.

Every café and bakery and bookstore, they’ll provide 15 minutes of wi-fi if a purchase is made. Hotels will sell it to guests at $10/hour (I’m not making this up).

Not McDonalds – free wi-fi at many of their stores.

So I’ve been hanging out at a mall in Brisbane’s CBD (central business district) for the past few days, tapping McDonalds’ free wi-fi.

I never hang out at the mall.

Food courts and restaurants in shopping malls are particularly vulnerable to roach and rodent infestations because clothing stores, electronics outlets and other mall standbys aren't subject to health regulations or inspections, and pests often sneak into malls by hiding in shipping and packaging boxes.

Kevin Chinnia, manager of Montgomery County's health inspectors, told the Washington Examiner,

"Malls are a wide-open space, and it's a lot more difficult to manage than if you have a stand-alone structure that you can monitor yourself.”

Virginia and Maryland health inspectors cited roughly three-quarters of all mall food vendors for violating critical health regulations during the past year, according to an analysis of health records at 12 local malls conducted by The Washington Examiner.

The Food and Drug Administration defines critical violations as those posing an "imminent health hazard" to diners. Such violations range from improper hand washing to serving contaminated food, and, depending on the severity of the infraction, can lead to a restaurant losing its food service license.

Local health officials spotted live rodents, rodent droppings or cockroaches -- dead and alive, clinging to food preparation machines and even to workers -- at more than 10 percent of mall eateries.
 

Who would name a food place the Birdbath Bakery?

Birds are factories for salmonella and campylobacter and I wouldn’t want them bathing around food.

If the goal is to be New York City’s most sustainable bakery, then why not. But sustainable is not the same as sanitary.

Grub Street New York reports inspection results indicate the bake shop couldn’t present a Food Protection Certificate, there was evidence of mice, and food-contact surfaces weren’t properly sanitized.

But an employee tells us that the main reason for the closure was that Birdbath had started transporting savory items (salads, pizzas, sandwiches) by rickshaw from City Bakery and didn’t have adequate refrigerators for keeping them at the Department’s required temperature of 41 degrees or below.
 

Veron Foods, LLC of Prairieville, La. is recalling approximately 500,000 pounds of “ready to eat” sausage and hog head cheese products that may be contaminated with Listeria monocytogenes, the Louisiana Department of Agriculture and Forestry’s Office of Animal Health and Food Safety announced.

The problem was discovered through a foodborne illness investigation that resulted in a product sample testing positive for Listeria monocytogenes. But just like the Canadian Food Inspection Agency and salmonella-tainted green onions, no one is saying who or how many got sick.
 

 The Toronto Star reports today that the Ontario Ministry of Health and Long Term Care is investigating a spike in Salmonella Oranienberg-linked illnesses in and around Toronto. Twenty-five cases of Salmonella have been reported to health authorities since late July, up from the expected three in the same time frame. The Star suggests that these cases may be linked to a CFIA investigation of green onions. The inspection agency issued a warning about unwrapped green onions that were sold between July 31 and August 1 at a Highland Farms grocery store located at 4750 Dufferin St.

Loose green onions sold in such a small window could suggest either contamination at the store (an ill food handler?) or problems further upstream (transport, distributors, wholesalers or even back to the farm).

But probably not in-home or shopping practices.

Making the below advice from Dr. Arlene King, Ontario’s chief medical officer of health, pretty far out of context (although health authorities have been known to call situations like this "a teachable moment"; research disagrees that this tactic works).

“People need to remember to properly handle and prepare food,” said King.

The ministry recommends four basic steps to prevent foodborne illness — clean, separate, cook and chill.

The steps include thoroughly washing hands, surfaces and equipment, keeping raw and ready-to-eat foods separated, cooking at high temperatures, and properly refrigerating and defrosting food.

Yeah, I'm sure refrigeration and defrosting was really a key factor with the green onions. How about giving folks some advice on how to ask questions about the conditions their produce was grown and talking about what regulators and the industry is doing to make sure this type of stuff doesn't happen.

Are stars better than grades or numbers or colors or smiley faces when posting the results of restaurant inspections?

That research has yet to be done, but Windsor (that’s in Ontario, Canada)

Dr. Allen Heimann, the medical officer of health, writes in the ironically named newspaper, the Windsor Star, that a five-star rating system was adopted last year and is intended to be representative of how closely food premises owners/operators follow food safety standards.

The results of this new program have been overwhelmingly positive. More than 95 per cent of food premises have either four or five stars.

If you don't see a star sign posted, ask to see it. If it's unavailable, you can choose to either purchase your food without knowing the rating, or search for the rating online first.

In fall 2010, the second phase of the SFC program will be in effect with the new website, which will allow you to search from home for any food premises and have instant access to its star rating and an inspection report.

Each report will list the concerns a health inspector had during their inspection, as well as an explanation of each.

Visit the SFC website at http://www.safefoodcounts.ca.

This is the way to handle a bad restaurant inspection, especially with the television cameras rolling: take responsibility, fix things, and no whining.

KTNV reports the Souper Salad was issued with 29 demerits by the Southern Nevada Health District, primarily related to a salad bar that wasn’t keeping foods at the proper temperature.

When Contact 13 stopped at the restaurant, Souper Salad was right in the middle of a re-inspection. The manager, Jeff Brooks, took time to explain to us his concerns about the restaurant's C grade. "It was definitely a concern and that's why we took care of the steps as needed."

He says he had all the food at the salad bar thrown out, and that the salad bar was adjusted to the appropriate temperature. And in the end, Brooks says he stands by the quality of his restaurant. "Unfortunately sometimes these things happen. I do care about the type of food, the temperatures of the foods I feed to the public. I'm not one of these managers that doesn't care about it."

We spoke with the Health District, which confirms, the restaurant was re-inspected. Souper Salad made the necessary changes to go from 29 demerits down to only 4, enough for an A grade. Looking into their history, this was actually their first C grade in 3 years.
 

Wandering around Brisbane on a Saturday afternoon we came upon the splash park and beach at Southbank, close to downtown.

Sorenne did some impromptu playing, and I noticed at least three little kids running around naked. The lifeguard soon happened along and told the parents to at least put a diaper on the toddlers. I asked the lifeguard, was that to prevent little ones pooping in the splash park and he said, he didn’t know, it was just policy.

It’s a good policy.

WIS reports the Splash Pad at Drew Wellness Center is back open after being closed for nearly a month when a child was found sick with a case of the parasite cryptosporidium.

Since then, the city has revamped its procedures for keeping track of how the pad is maintained.

Ray Borders-Gray with the Drew Wellness Center, said,

"After what happened, we took a good hard look how we were doing business. The standard Operating Procedures for the Splash Pad is now written down, all staff have taken a look at it, the standards are now here on site, so if anyone has any questions about what should happen, when it should happen. …

"We are asking people to wear the proper swim attire. We want to make sure the little ones are in the diaper swim pants and we ask that people do not bring their pets to the Splash Pad."
 

In the latest ridiculously expensive survey of Canadians, 77 per cent of Canadians said they were either "very" or "somewhat" concerned with the safety of the food they eat, up from 66 per cent in 2007,

The Ipsos Reid poll conducted for Postmedia News found 87 per cent agree that they trust food that comes from Canada more than food that comes from abroad, with 85 per cent of respondents saying they make an effort to buy locally-grown and produced food.

So, Canadians trust Maple Leaf and their listeria-laden cold cuts more than stuff from other places?

Debbie Field, executive director of the Toronto-based food advocacy group FoodShare, said,

"Even though it seems silly and a bit utopian to imagine small producers being safer, what people like me believe is that it's true. You'll always have some problem, you'll always have contamination, you'll always have some airborne illness. But if it's kept local, its impact is much smaller.”

The only way to verify such claims is to assess

Associated Press reported today a rare U.S. outbreak of typhoid fever has been linked to a frozen tropical fruit product used to make smoothies.

Seven cases have been confirmed — three in California and four in Nevada. Two more California cases are being investigated. Five people were hospitalized, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The CDC said five of the victims drank milkshakes or smoothies made with frozen mamey fruit pulp. Four of them used pulp sold by Goya Foods Inc. of Secaucus, N.J.

Mamey is a sweet, reddish tropical fruit grown mainly in Central and South America. It is also known as zapote or sapote. It is peeled and mashed to make pulp, the CDC said.

The company has recalled packages of the pulp, sold in mostly western states. That press release said “no illnesses have been reported to date in connection with Goya brand Mamey Pulp.”

Oops.

A sample from one package found in Las Vegas tested positive for the bacteria that causes typhoid, the Food and Drug Administration reported Wednesday.
 

The Miami Herald reports that Dolphins linebacker Austin Spitler lost 18 pounds and missed a number of early training camp practices because he somehow contracted salmonella. Spitler, the seventh-round pick from Ohio State, said he spent two days in the hospital and was constantly ill.

``It was a bad deal,'' he said.
 

King et al., report in Emerging Infectious Disease that on February 11, 2009, two cases of diarrhea were reported to a surveillance coordinator: 1 in a child with HUS and the other in that child’s sibling.

The 2 siblings, 2 and 6 years of age, had diarrhea beginning on February 4 and 5, 2009. Bloody diarrhea developed in the younger child, and HUS was diagnosed on February 9. The older child had non-bloody diarrhea for 3 days and abdominal pain. Questioning of the patients’ parents identified no recent history of travel, contact with farm animals, or outdoor bathing. A food history indicated that the 2 patients had shared an undercooked ground beef burger 4–5 days before symptom onset. The patients’ parents also ate burgers from the same package (box); they did not report any gastrointestinal symptoms.

And they found the same bug in a leftover frozen burger.

STEC serotype O123:H– has been isolated from feces of healthy lambs and sheep in Spain and in southwestern Australia and is considered to be among the predominant ovine STEC serotypes in these countries.

This family outbreak shows that STEC serotype O123:H–, albeit rarely described as causing human illness, can cause severe human infection. This serotype can also cause clusters of STEC infections and be transmitted by ingestion of undercooked ground beef.
 

As director Kevin Smith would say, Brisbane, Australia, I’m inside you.
(Smith was inside Sydney last week as part of his touring standup Q&A sessions that get turned into fairly entertaining movies.)

Other than torturing Sorenne for 36 hours of transportation from Manhattan to Brisbane, the only excitement was the ‘Do Not Spit Here’ sign on the garbage can in the Auckland airport, also available in what looked like Chinese and Korean.

But there was a good food-related barf story out of Berkeley, Calif.
Julie R. Smith writes in The Berkeley Independent that she used to sneer at germs, but is now plagued with the “social food” problem, when you’re faced with food that has not been prepared in a state-licensed restaurant with a sanitation rating of A+. Unless I’ve actually watched you crack the eggs or cook the meat (and preferably inserted the thermometer myself), forget it. I’m a nervous wreck.

In 2007 I started throwing up at work, which led to throwing up in the parking lot, which became throwing up in my car (a co-worker was driving, thank God), which segued into throwing up all over the ER admittance desk.

After barfing on a nurse and two gurneys, the fun began: I started literally foaming at the mouth. Every time I retched, foam flew far and wide. My co-worker, a staff photographer who served in Viet Nam, was convinced I had rabies.

Two hours later, after shots and IVs and heated blankets, the ER doc announced that I appeared to have norovirus. “Nora who?” I asked fuzzily. …

A year ago, I returned from a trip to North Carolina feeling fine. At 1 a.m. I woke drenched in sweat, fell out of bed and threw up on the dog. Then the other end of my digestive system decided to join the party.

Five hours later I was again in the ER with dry heaves and a nifty potassium drip. The doctor asked if I’d eaten anything “that didn’t taste right.”

“Not really, but I pigged out all weekend,” I admitted. “Chicken, deviled eggs, pasta salad, fried fish, pie, baked potato with sour cream. Too much rich food, I guess.”

He shook his head. “When you eat something that doesn’t agree with you, you throw it up and life goes on,” he said. “This is food poisoning. You ate something that was contaminated.”

So there you have it: Norovirus and food poisoning. Life’s too short to spend it throwing up. Pass me the meat thermometer.

I’ve been hanging out at fairs and the sorts lately, like the Wamego Tulip Festival and Phillipsburg Rodeo. I always check for handwashing stations where there is contact with the animals and food involved. However, the animals are not the only risk at fairs and festivals and the consumer cannot always be the scapegoat.

Thirteen businesses and food stalls were ordered to shut down at the Oxegen and the Dún Laoghaire Festival of World Cultures in Ireland due to food safety violations.

“The FSAI said that it is unacceptable that some food businesses are continuing to breach food safety laws and warned all food business operators to place robust food safety systems and hygiene practices top of their agenda.”

Consumers should wash their hands and do everything they can to avoid foodborne illness, but when the food handlers are the problem there’s not much the consumer can do.
 

Raw chicken is probably the first thing that most people think of when thinking of foodborne illness. You would think chefs would know to use a thermometer to prevent undercooked chicken from ending up on the table.

However, tonight I witnessed a chef on 24 Hour Restaurant Battle (on the Food Network) serve some raw chicken to his diners. Not just to any person at that, but Marcus Samuelsson and Scott Conant, who were judges on the show. At least they got it right, immediately recognizing the risks and spitting it out.

Every person in the vicinity turned around when Samuelsson pointed out: “That is dangerous; that is not undercooked, it’s raw.”

If your restaurant makes people barf, it’s not going to fare so well. Mr. Blumenthal learned that the hard way last year when his restaurant was shut down due to norovirus.
The chef on the show also learned the hard way; the raw chicken cost him the $10, 000 prize.
 

Patrons of two Grand Lake, Colorado, restaurants are being urged to get either immune globulin (IG) or hepatitis A shots following the discovery that a worker employed at both eateries has a case of hepatitis A.

The two restaurants were identified by the Denver Post as Sagebrush BBQ & Grill and Max & T's Bar and Grill by the Grand County Public Health department.

Officials emphasized that both restaurants have had very good inspection records and are cooperating in the investigation.

The health department said there are no other confirmed cases of hepatitis A at this time.

The always colorful and geographically precise, Bill Keene, senior epidemiologist with Oregon Public Health, told The Oregonian yesterday that mystery Mexican-style fast food chain restaurant A is Taco Bell.

"It's been clear for weeks that Taco Bell was the source for many of the illnesses. It's equally clear that it's not all Taco Bell. It's also not a single Taco Bell restaurant."

The first cases appeared at the beginning of April and continued through the third week in July. Dozens were sickened in Wisconsin, Indiana, Ohio and Kentucky, with a sprinkling of cases across the rest of the country. One person in Oregon -- a woman in her 20s in Klamath County -- got sick.

Keene said,

"It's very striking to have two such similar outbreaks at roughly the same time and both of them affecting Taco Bell. The similarities might be a coincidence."

Although no one food or menu item has been named a culprit, Keene said epidemiologists think that lettuce, tomatoes or both were to blame.

"It's not 100 percent sure it's one or the other but those are the chief suspects," he said. "We've been unable to tease them apart because everyone eats both."

Keene said the food involved in the outbreaks was clearly contaminated before reaching Taco Bell franchises.

"It's not something that they're doing wrong. One of the products that they using in their food was contaminated."

The company did not return a phone call seeking comment.

CDC officials would not confirm that the company involved in the outbreaks was Taco Bell.

Naming a restaurant could have an economic impact on the company's bottom line, said Kristen Nordlund, an agency spokeswoman.

The outbreak is also considered to be over though both the FDA and CDC are continuing to investigate.

"There's no inherent reason for people to stop eating at Taco Bell now," Keene said.

Canadian Agriculture Minister and would-be comedian Gerry Ritz on Thursday told Postmedia News that last week's massive recall of all Brandt ready-to-eat deli meats exposes gaps in Canada's meat inspection system, stating,

"I'm concerned that the paperwork that Brandt had was less than strenuous, I'll call it. We are in there looking through some of that. We're looking at different protocols, at having them reporting in different ways. At the end of the day, we'll have a better plant."

Sarah Schmidt, following up on her Postmedia story yesterday about the delay in detecting problems at the Brandt Meats Toronto-area plant, said the Canadian Food Inspection Agency – which reports to the Canadian Parliament through the Minister of Agriculture – only checked out the Brandt plant after pressure from public health types.

As in, we got a bunch of sick people, it came from this plant, maybe you should look harder, do we have to do your job as well?

Ritz was further quoted as saying,

"It takes a combination of work between CFIA, public health and the industry of record. I think everyone learns from every one of things. We always do that 'lessons-learned' aspect of it. Having said that, we always strive to do better and I think in this case, certainly it could always be worse and we try to make a better system as we move forward."

Minister, by worse, do you mean when 23 people die from listeria in Canada in 2008?

Ritz also said, "we hiring people as fast we can."

Inspectors? Scientists? PR hacks? How’s the quality control on those fast hires?

The owner of the Rock and Rolls Cafe, Chapel St Leonards, U.K., was fined £2,000 and ordered to pay costs of £400 after his cafe failed a food hygiene inspection in August 2009.

Breaches of food safety offences included failing to control flies and keep work surfaces clean.

In a refreshing restatement of why inspections take place, Coun Sandra Harrison, portfolio holder for health at East Lindsey District Council, said,

"It is important that food business owners remember that their reputation is on the line and they could receive a hefty fine if they are found to be breaching food safety standards. In this case we have seen significant improvements but these types of incidents should never occur. When we do detect food safety issues we will always take action because it is putting the health of our community at risk."
 

There are some recurring myths in the public discussion of foodborne illness and the reasons 76 million Americans barf every year from the food and water they consume, and the New York Times is recycling them all.

Author Eric Schlosser (“Unsafe at Any Meal,” New York Times, Op-Ed, July 25) overstates the protective role of government while casting aspersions against what he calls industrial agricultural and unchecked corporate power. His rant on the Colbert Report last year was legendary.

Henry Miller who used to do biotechnology work at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration writes in the Times this morning, “The vast majority of food poisoning is caused by individuals’ mishandling of food; common lapses include the mishandling or undercooking of poultry and the inadequate refrigeration of food. More expansive, expensive, onerous regulation is not the answer; better education of consumers is.”

Our review of the data found a complete mish-mash about where “the vast majority of food poisoning illness is caused” and that no conclusions could be drawn. Produce, pot pies, pet food and pizzas don’t have much to do with consumers. And how would this better education be conducted?

If someone wrote in and said Americans have the safest food supply in the world, all the big three mythologies would be represented.

Food safety is not simple and the public discussion – which affects individual behaviors from farm-to-fork – is a mess.
 

For years, no matter where I lived, there was a Kentucky Fried Chicken fast-food restaurant nearby – what’s now called KFC -- and the scent of special herbs and spices was in the air and in my clothing.

I’d eat the stuff once a year, and immediately regret the indulgence.

There’s a tragic case involving a KFC that is being heard by the Australian Supreme Court involving 11-year-old Monika Samaan, who is suing KFC, claiming the source of her salmonella poisoning was a Twister her father said he bought at the outlet on October 24, 2005.

In testimony today, three former staff at KFC Villawood, near Sydney said they would drop chicken pieces on the floor, help themselves to food and throw chicken strips at each other as 'pranks.

The Sydney Morning Herald reports KFC has denied responsibility for Samaan’s illness, which has left her with severe brain damage and quadriplegia.

Hatem Alhindawiq, 20, who began working at the Villawood branch in September 2005, told the court that a few weeks after he started there he and his friends would lock each other in the cool room and ''maybe chuck chips … at each other, that kind of stuff''.

They would also throw chicken nuggets and chicken strips and ''muck around, slap each other and run away, all that sort of stuff'', he said, adding that chicken strips were ''the easiest to chuck''.

Mr Alhindawiq said he saw a friend who was a cook at the outlet accidentally drop a piece of chicken as he was unloading the deep fry basket. It fell onto a ''breading table'' where chicken is floured before being cooked, and then onto the floor. ''He was like, 'Oh, don't worry' … look, it's only flour,' and he grabbed it and he chucked it back in.''

Danielle Cabassi, 19, who worked at the branch for two years from 2005, said she often saw the cooks fail to wash their hands between working with raw chicken and removing cooked chicken from the fryer. They would use tongs, but there was still blood on their hands, the interior student said.