South Carolina health types advised people who purchased barbeque at a fundraiser at York’s Grace Covenant Church fundraiser on Sept. 16 and 17 to throw the food away.

“The food from this event shouldn’t be eaten by any people or animals,” said Gil Potter, M.D., medical director of the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control’s Region 3 public health office, which includes York County. “We’ve received reports of more than 40 people who became ill after eating food purchased at the church. More than 300 plates of food were sold, and many people bought barbeque in bulk for freezing and later use.”

According to Potter, all of the people who became ill are reporting the same symptoms, mainly vomiting, diarrhea and stomach cramps.

“Tests are under way to identify the cause of the illness and we’ll continue to investigate this situation,” Potter said. “While not conclusive, this fundraiser is one thing in common among the people who got sick. As a precaution, we are advising everyone to immediately discard any food purchased at this fundraiser.”

Every summer, government agencies at the local state and federal level in Western countries around the world warn consumers to be extra super-duper careful when barbecuing, because the incidence of foodborne illness, especially E. coli O157:H7, goes up in the warm summer months, and this is because consumers are doing dumb things at the grill.

I never believed it – consumers, food service workers, humans are capable of doing dumb things wherever they are cooking – but it was another standard line in the blame-the-consumer approach to food safety risk reduction.

There has been plenty of evidence over the years to show that the increase in human illnesses in summer months is strongly correlated to overall increases in E. coli O157:H7 loads in cattle in summer months.

Lower the loads, reduce the risk.

Most food safety interventions are designed to reduce or eliminate pathogen loads – to lower the number of harmful bugs from farm-to-fork. A piece of highly-contaminated meat can wreck cross-contamination havoc in a food service or home kitchen.

A new paper in Foodborne Pathogens and Disease by researchers from the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the University of Nebraska-Lincoln uses models representing seasonal variation in E. coli O157:H7 loads in the farm-to-fork continuum, and concludes that summertime cooking is as risky as the rest of the year.

The authors write:

“A plausible explanation for the increase in E. coli O157:H7 illness during the summer is poor consumer storage and cooking practices associated with meals prepared and cooked outdoors (e.g., picnics and barbeques). If these practices are major contributors to human illness, then an effective mitigation strategy could be additional labeling and consumer education regarding the need to maintain meat products at temperatures sufficiently low to avoid bacterial growth during transportation to outdoor venues and to cook products to a sufficient temperature when grilling. Conversely, if summer storage and cooking practices are not responsible for a large proportion of summer illnesses, a more effective mitigation strategy would reduce the seasonal effect of E. coli O157:H7 contamination at the preharvest stage or during the production and processing of beef. …

“The seasonal change in the probability of exposure to a contaminated serving is the primary driver of the season pattern in illnesses, rather than any seasonal changes in consumer storage and handling.”

The complete abstract is below.

Determining relationships between the seasonal occurrence of Escherichia coli O157:H7 in live cattle, ground beef, and humans
Foodborne Pathogens and Disease. October 2010, 7(10): 1247-1254
Michael S. Williams, James L. Withee, Eric D. Ebel, Nathan E. Bauer, Wayne D. Schlosser, William T. Disney, David R. Smith, Rodney A. Moxley
http://www.liebertonline.com/doi/abs/10.1089/fpd.2010.0576
Abstract
The prevalence and concentration of many foodborne pathogens exhibit seasonal patterns at different stages of the farm-to-table continuum. Escherichia coli O157:H7 is one such pathogen. While numerous studies have described the seasonal trend of E. coli O157:H7 in live cattle, ground beef, and human cases, it is difficult to relate the results from these different studies and determine the interrelationships that drive the seasonal pattern of beef-related human illnesses. This study uses a common modeling approach, which facilitates the comparisons across data sets, to relate prevalence in live cattle to raw ground beef and human illness. The results support an intuitive model where a seasonal rise of E. coli O157:H7 in cattle drives increased ground beef prevalence and a corresponding rise in the human case rate. We also demonstrate the use of these models to assess the public health impact of consumer behaviors. We present an example that suggests that the probability of illness, associated with summertime cooking and handling practices, is not substantially higher than the baseline probability associated with more conventional cooking and handling practices during the remainder of the year.

Sub Rosa describes itself as a virtual restaurant & secret bar located in Dundee, Oregon. By day, it's a lunch room for the distillery office and stealth drop in bistro with thundering tunes, WiFi Internet connections and a limited lunch menu. By night, when we are open, it’s an underground fine dining restaurant and spirits bar.

Today, Sub Rosa posted on its web site that,

It will come to no surprise to many that Sub Rosa has a clothing optional policy.

This 'tradition' started with our wait staff. It was late July - the week of the annual International Pinot Noir Celebration and it was quite hot outside. We had to chill our Pinot Noir before serving because of the heat.

One wardrobe malfunction led to another that evening and soon the entire wait staff was topless. Being a huge wine tasting weekend, Sub Rosa was filled out-of-towners including some French guests. There is something about being on vacation that releases the inhibitions. It wasn't long until half the female guests had doffed their tops as well. You would have thought you were at some French Rivera private party, but no - just another magical weekend night at Sub Rosa in Dundee.

We've been known to cook topless with only the benefit of a kitchen apron separating us from the raw flame. Nude barbecue, while not the rule can happen on hot summer evening at Sub Rosa.

Sub Rosa's feeling is that both men and women deserve to go topless. Get over it already. You're starting to accept screw caps as alternatives to cork in wine bottles. You might as well get used to both sexes running around topless.

Nothing says classy like, Show me your hooters – with a $100 bottle of wine rather than Miller LIte.

Hockey in Raleigh is back. After a somewhat surprising playoff run in the spring, the Carolina Hurricanes took the ice last night at the RBC Center to open the 2009-10 season vs. the top-ranked Philadelphia Flyers.

The 'Canes lost 2-0, in part because of a futile powerplay (0-for-8).

I took my dad to the game (right, self-pic, exactly as shown) and we debated getting a bbq sandwich after the first period but the price tag was a bit steep ($7).

My dad asked me "So, how do you think they are doing, food safety-wise".

I told him that it's tough to say, anytime you eat you put trust in a food handler somewhere and hopefully they know somthing about risks and risk reduction. I watched for a couple of minutes and snapped the below pic of the bbq (below left, food porn shot, exactly as shown).

While sitting around today and watching some college football I started to think a bit more about my dad's question and dug up some inspection reports. I couldn't find the Carolina BBQ stand in question but was able to browse through 20 or so other RBC Center sites from the past couple of years. Temperature abuse, especially hot-holding seemed to be a common violation.

The bbq looked and smelled good, and judging by the lineups, was moved out of the pans to patrons' sandwiches pretty fast. But who knows at what temperature, and how long it was held before we came by. I hope that someone did.