Victoria

  • Australian sprouts recalled again

    Posted: January 23rd, 2012 - 12:26am by Doug Powell

    There's been another recall of mung bean sprouts grown in Victoria (that’s where Melbourne is).

    For the second time this month, mung beans and mung bean and alfalfa sprout mixes have been recalled due to E. coli contamination. The salad mixes were grown in two separate locations, one in Flowerdale north of Melbourne, and the other in Gippsland in Victoria's south east.

    ABC News reports that “last year 46 people in Germany died from eating E. coli contaminated sprouts, however this is a different strain of the bacteria and considered unlikely to make people sick.”

    Fifty-three people died in the German E. coli O104 sprout outbreak. And again, no details on what kind of E. coli, or if anyone is sick.

    A table of sprout-related outbreaks is available at http://bites.ksu.edu/sprouts-associated-outbreaks.

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    E. coli  |  0 Comments
    Australia, e. coli, food safety, Sprouts, victoria
  • 165 sick from norovirus at Canadian student journalism conference up from 75

    Posted: January 21st, 2012 - 5:09am by Doug Powell

    The Victoria Times Colonist (that’s in British Columbia, in Canada) reports 147 delegates are believed to have contracted norovirus during the final night of a four-day university journalism conference at the Harbour Towers Hotel and Suites, and the final tally has yet to come.

    More than one- third of the 370 delegates attending the Canadian University Press national conference went down with severe nausea, vomiting and diarrhea.

    Eighteen hotel staff also contracted the virus about 24 hours after the first few students showed symptoms, according to hotel management.

    "That's a really significant outbreak," said Dr. Murray Fyfe, chief medical health officer for the Vancouver Island Health Authority. "And the fact that we had people who were perfectly well and then became ill after coming into contact with others or got sick when they got home, that's really typical of norovirus."

    The highly contagious virus kept some delegates isolated in their hotel rooms for days before they could check out.

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    bc, Cup, food safety, Harbour Towers Hotel and Suites, Journalism, norovirus, victoria
  • Public health should protect public health and name names; Victoria health types resort to blame the consumer defense

    Posted: January 13th, 2012 - 6:38am by Doug Powell

    After the belated public notification about a salmonella outbreak linked to Rizzo's Pizza in Ballarat, Australia, the Herald-Sun uncovered a bunch of other incidents of people barfing in the state of Victoria that were never or belatedly made public.

    A poisoning outbreak at a sushi bar that left 84 people sick and 19 in hospital is among serious food safety incidents kept quiet by authorities.

    Other cases uncovered include 17 diners who fell acutely ill after eating Vietnamese chicken and pork rolls; 10 people struck down after eating eggs Benedict at a cafe; and 13 people who fell crook from chicken parmigiana at a hotel.

    Health department figures show a significant rise in salmonella cases in the past two years, many of them linked to eggs (a table of raw-egg related outbreaks in Australia is available at http://bites.ksu.edu/raw-egg-related-outbreaks-australia).

    Brooke Dellavedova, a principal at Maurice Blackburn, said she often heard about food poisoning outbreaks, but new laws meant class actions were difficult to mount on behalf of victims.

    "So the proprietors get a slap on the wrist, if that, and that's the end of the story," she said.

    Department of Health spokesman Graeme Walker said the department did not routinely reveal the names of businesses because its role was to identify and remove the source and investigate the cause.

    Acting chief health officer Dr Rosemary Lester said the information was not being kept secret and salmonella was common adding, "We do know that many cases of salmonella arise in the home and other outlets.”

    This isn’t about where salmonella happens: this is about accountability by publicly-funded health types.

     

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    Salmonella  |  2 Comments
    ballarat, food safety, Going Public, salmonella, victoria
  • 18 sick, 1 dead in Australian salmonella outbreak

    Posted: January 10th, 2012 - 2:41pm by Doug Powell

    A restaurant in Ballarat, northwest of Melbourne, was closed for a week on Dec. 30, 2011, after a cluster of salmonella infections including one death, were linked to the eatery.

    A Health Department spokesman confirmed 13 cases of salmonella linked to the eatery, plus another five suspected cases.

    Investigations are continuing into whether the death of an elderly man on December 30 is connected to the case.

    Health officials said the premises required “a thorough clean-up” and they ordered an extensive overhaul of the business’s food-handling procedures.

    Staff were also ordered to undertake more training in food handling.

    In another example of repetition-doesn’t-make-it-right, he owner of the business said yesterday he was shocked by the incident.

    “We’ve been using the same procedures for 21 years and never had such a thing. We don’t know what caused it but we have done everything the Health Department has asked us to do – everything – but we don’t know if it’s our fault or not.”

    The owner said he had changed his supplier of eggs.

    While the restaurant has reopened for business, it is still being monitored by Ballarat City Council.

    Acting chief executive officer Jeff Pulford declined to say whether charges were pending.

    “The matter is the subject of an ongoing investigation in conjunction with the Department of Health and as such it is inappropriate to make any comment,” he said.

    If people were getting sick in Dec., the place was shut on Dec. 30, and almost two weeks later the restaurant is reopened with no more details than we’ve changed our egg supplier, it is more than appropriate to make a comment. How are consumers to know whether they should eat at the place or not?

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    Salmonella  |  3 Comments
    Australia, ballarat, food safety, Outbreak, restaurant, salmonella, victoria