A total of 316 persons infected with the outbreak strains of Salmonella Bareilly (304 persons) or Salmonella Nchanga (12 persons) have been reported from 26 states and the District of Columbia, up from 258 earlier this month.

Is raw really better?

I don’t know too many microbiologists who go in for the raw sushi, or raw anything.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control reports that of those sickened by sushi eating, 37 have been hospitalized, and no deaths have been reported.

Collaborative investigation efforts of state, local, and federal public health agencies indicate that a frozen raw yellowfin tuna product, known as Nakaochi Scrape, from Moon Marine USA Corporation is the likely source of this outbreak.

Consumers should not eat the recalled product, and retailers should not serve the recalled raw Nakaochi Scrape tuna product from Moon Marine USA Corporation.

Laboratory testing conducted by state public health laboratories in Connecticut, Maryland, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, and Wisconsin has isolated Salmonella from 53 (96%) of 55 samples taken from intact packages of frozen yellow fin tuna scrape from Moon Marine USA Corporation or from sushi prepared with the implicated scrape tuna product.

On April 24, 2012, FDA issued a document that lists observations made by the FDA Representative(s) during the inspection of a Moon Fishery (India) Pvt. Ltd facility conducted as part of this ongoing outbreak investigation.

This investigation is ongoing. CDC and state and local public health partners are continuing surveillance to identify new cases.

A total of 258 persons infected with the outbreak strains of Salmonella Bareilly (247 persons) or Salmonella Nchanga (11 persons) linked to tuna scrape have been reported to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control from 24 states and the District of Columbia.

Of those, 32 ill persons have been hospitalized, and no deaths have been reported.

Collaborative investigation efforts of state, local, and federal public health agencies indicate that a frozen raw yellowfin tuna product, known as Nakaochi Scrape, from Moon Marine USA Corporation is the likely source of this outbreak.

Consumers should not eat the recalled product, and retailers should not serve the recalled raw Nakaochi Scrape tuna product from Moon Marine USA Corporation.

State public health officials are interviewing ill persons to obtain information regarding foods they might have eaten and other exposures in the week prior to illness. On initial interviews, many of the ill persons reported consuming sushi, sashimi, or similar foods in a variety of locations in the week before becoming ill. Among 51 ill persons for whom information is available, 35 (69%) reported consuming sushi, sashimi, or similar foods in the week before illness onset. This percentage is higher than expected compared with results from a survey of healthy persons in which 5% of persons reported consuming sushi, sashimi, or ceviche made with raw fish or shellfish in the 7 days before they were interviewed. The investigation into specific types of sushi is ongoing.

The investigation has not conclusively identified a food source. Investigation is ongoing into individual food items and their sources. CDC, FDA, and state and local public health partners are continuing surveillance to identify and interview other ill persons about the foods they ate. CDC will update the public on the progress of this investigation as information becomes available.

The sushi slime, or tuna backmeat that has now been linked to 141 confirmed Salmonella illnesses, up from 116, originated at a tuna processing facility in India.

Sushi eaters, you thought you were eating what? The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has conducted a traceback of tuna from four of the outbreak clusters, in Connecticut, Rhode Island, Texas, and Wisconsin, and found that all four received the same imported frozen raw Nakaochi Scrape tuna product from a single tuna processing facility in India.

Chapman and I chatted today – with his kids, extended family, burgeoning home canning career – he had to escape the Food Safety Summit in D.C. to catch up. He told me one of the industry types said everyone uses this stuff, which has helped propel the popularity of sushi eating.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control reported today the number of confirmed Salmonella Bareilly linked to this outbreak has increased to 141 from 20 states and the District of Columbia.

The number of ill persons identified in each state is as follows: Alabama (2), Arkansas (1), Connecticut (6), District of Columbia (2), Florida (1), Georgia (6), Illinois (13), Louisiana (3), Maryland (14), Massachusetts (9), Mississippi (2), Missouri (4), New Jersey (8), New York (28), North Carolina (2), Pennsylvania (6), Rhode Island (5), South Carolina (3), Texas (4), Virginia (8), and Wisconsin (14). 21 ill persons have been hospitalized, and no deaths have been reported.

The newest food safety infosheet, a graphical one-page food safety-related story directed at food businesses, is now available.

Food Safety Infosheet Highlights:

- Among the 116 illnesses are 12 hospitalizations.

- The implicated product, processed and distributed by Moon Marine USA Corporation (also known as MMI) of Cupertino, Calif. is made of tuna back meat, which is  scraped off the bones and looks like ground product.

- The product is not available for sale to individual consumers, but may have been used in food service and retail to make sushi, sashimi, ceviche and similar dishes.

- Moon Marine USA Corporation or MMI and Nakaochi Scrape AA or AAA were printed on boxes of the product when it was initially sold to distributors. Boxes may have been broken into smaller lots for further sale.

Food safety infosheets are created bi-weekly and are posted in restaurants, retail stores, on farms and used in training throughout the world. If you have any infosheet topic requests, or photos, please contact Ben Chapman at benjamin_chapman@ncsu.edu.

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Click here to download the infosheet.