The fans have taken to the streets 90 miles east of Manhattan (Kansas) in Lawrence, celebrating the dramatic come-from-behind-overtime KU victory over Memphis in the U.S. men's college basketball championship tonight.

People on TV swarming the streets in Lawrence are saying this is the happiest moment of their entire lives.

Ahem …

Being Canadian, I don't get all the intra-state rivalry; this KU logo may draw more vigorous complaints than Honduran cantaloupes.

But I say, good for Kansas. And besides, Kansas State was one of three teams that actually beat KU this season.

Now, about that hockey arena …

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London's Sunday Times ran a little puff piece -- and with spring coming in the Northern Hemisphere there will be many more -- that said food safety problems are primarily caused by eating food already past its shelf life, cross-contamination between raw and cooked foods (often involving poor hygiene) and eating food that was either not cooked or not stored properly.

Um, fresh fruits are vegetables are the leading vehicles of foodborne illness today.

Simple precautions include avoiding cooking food that’s about to go off and making sure you dry your hands properly after washing them – far more bacteria are spread from damp hands than dry hands.

The story cites the U.K. Food Standards Agency as a source for additional information. FSA tells folks,

"If you are checking a burger, sausage, or a portion of chicken or pork, cut into the middle and check there is no pink meat left. The meat should also be piping hot in the middle. If you're checking a whole chicken or other bird, pierce the thickest part of the leg (between drumstick and thigh) with a clean knife or skewer until the juices run out. The juices shouldn't have any pink or red in them."

This is bad advice. Color is a lousy indicator of doneness using a tip-sensitive digital thermometer is the only safe way to determine is food has reached a safe temperature.

And just what is piping hot?

"To test if food has been properly cooked, check that it is 'piping hot' all the way through. This means that it is hot enough for steam to come out. Cut open the food with a small knife so that you can check that it is piping hot in the middle. Generally, if food is piping hot in the middle, then it will be piping hot all the way through. … Some foods change colour when they are cooked. Looking at colour is especially useful for checking meat."

I wonder how much money was spent on consultants, and how many salaries sat around a conference table, to conclude that consumers weren't bright enough to understand more accurate messages that would actually protect their well-being.

Stick it in.

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Tellruide, Colorado, has a problem with poop.

Dog poop.

A local biologist, Ramona Gaylord, told city council that the impact of waste produced by 100 dogs located within a 20-mile radius of a watershed draining to a small coastal bay would contribute enough bacteria and nutrients to temporarily close it to swimming and shell fishing after two to three days, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

A new form from the Marshal’s Office is due to come into circulation soon. It will enable passersby to document occasions on which they witness owners neglecting their doodie duties. By signing the form the complainant agrees to be called as a witness if a ticket is issued and the matter goes to trial.

So pick up your poop.

And if you find some old poop, send it to University of Oregon archeologist Dennis Jenkins.

Jenkins found 14 feces, or coprolites, in the Paisley caves in south-central Oregon. He reported in Science on Friday that the oldest piece of crap in the collection was 14,300 years old.

Eske Willerslev, a Danish expert in ancient DNA and one of the authors of the paper, said genetic material found in the ancient poop suggests the earliest known North Americans came from Asia and Siberia, and were the ancestors of modern native peoples

As they sing on Scrubs, Check the Poo.

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As many of you reading this blog may know, Rutgers University has sponsored a seminar series on the topic of raw milk.  I am scheduled to present the fourth and final talk in the series on Monday.  Today (April 3, 2008) I attended the third talk in the series: “Raw Milk, A Microbiology Primer” presented by Dr. Mark Gebhart, an MD with Wright State University.

Dr. Gebhart is a licensed physician and board certified medical specialist practicing in Ohio.  Dr. Gebhart has worked in acute care medicine as a clinician, teacher, and researcher.  Dr. Gebhart has taken special interest in raw milk obtained from grass fed cows and believes many of the gastrointestinal disorders affecting millions of Americans could be cured by consumption of this product.  

Gebhart spent the first half of his time pointing out in great detail that raw milk contains multiple redundant systems of bioactive components that reduce or eliminate pathogens.  He proceeded to show a series of slides listing more than twenty of these components (e.g. lactoperoxidase, medium chain fatty acids, B-lymphocytes, lysozyme, etc.).

Gebhart’s focus then shifted to the microbial risks in raw milk.  He cited one study from a reputable journal (Applied and Environmental Microbiology) that showed that levels of the pathogens Campylobacter decline over time in raw milk.  When questioned by one audience member – Dr. Tom Montville – about CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) statistics showing many foodborne disease cases linked to raw milk, Gebhart said the he believed the epidemiological links to raw milk were not conclusively proven.

Gebhart then shared some statistics from two different sources (American Journal of Public Health and the CDC) that show that there were only 1.9 cases of raw milk food poisoning per 100,000 people, vs. 4.7 cases of pasteurized milk food poisoning per people 100,000.  Gebhart thought that these data made a compelling point in favor of raw milk, until another audience member – Dr. Mukund Karwe – pointed out that many more people consume pasteurized milk than raw milk.  Gebhart then stated that he needed to double check his references.

Gebhart then shared a number of slides in quick succession on a variety of topics including information on the effect of pasteurization on human breast milk, the safety of milk from cows with access to pasture, and the ability of some pathogens (spore formers like B. cereus and C. botulinum) to survive pasteurization.  Gebhart quickly wrapped up his talk as the debate between different audience members began to drown him out.

I can’t wait to see how things go on Monday.
--
Don Schaffner is an Extension Specialist in Food Science at Rutgers
University.

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After posting this week's infosheet on a Brazilian soccer club's hep A outbreak possibly linked to dirty water bottles we picked up three more stories on hep A exposures:

Cincinnati, OH:
A food handler at a PF Chang's restaurant in West Chester, OH was diagnosed with hepatitis A earlier this week, and today there was a report of the vaccination clinic running out vaccine and sending exposed individuals to an urgent care facility as a back up (resulting in wait times upwards of three hours).

Boise, ID:

Nearly 300 people were vaccinated for hepatitis A at Boise's Central District Health this past week.
The rush came after a health scare at the Red Feather Lounge where an employee confirmed infected with the virus

New Zealand:

An orchard worker was found  to have hepatitis A and was  sent home to the Solomon Islands.
The fruitpicker, who was working at Apollo Pac in Whakatu for the season, was referred to the Hawke's Bay District Health Board's (DHB's) public health unit with the symptoms of Hepatitis A, including nausea and jaundice. The DHB's medical officer of health Caroline McElnay was cited as saying  23 people who had been living in close quarters with the person had also been screened for the disease and given an injection of antibodies for temporary protection.

Happy hep A day.

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Capitalizing on the massive popularity of soccer, we decided to throw together an infosheet on the reported hepatitis A illnesses linked to a Brazilian club team.  As Doug posted last night, health authorities are linking the outbreak to shared water bottles (they must have been contaminated with some nasty poop).

You can download the infosheet here.

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Associated Press is reporting that a hepatitis A outbreak hit the Brazilian soccer team Internacional, sidelining five players who are now banned from any contact with teammates.

The team said the liver disease probably spread from player to player in the locker room, most likely through shared water bottles.

Except hepatitis A is not spread by saliva; it's spread by poop. So there was either poop on the water bottles -- possibly from someone's hand -- or poop in the water.

Or the water bottle theory is wrong.

Internacional is a former club world champion.

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On June 12, 1996, Ontario, Canada's chief medical officer, Dr. Richard Schabas, issued a public health advisory on the presumed link between consumption of California strawberries and an outbreak of diarrheal illness among some 40 people in the Metro Toronto area. The announcement followed a similar statement from the Department of Health and Human Services in Houston, Texas, which was investigating a cluster of 18 cases of cyclospora illness among oil executives.

Turns out it was Guatemalan raspberries, and no one was happy.

Last month, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency warned consumers to stay away from Honduran cantaloupes because of a salmonella outbreak that has sickened at least 50 Americans and nine Canadians.

The president of Honduras is furious. So is the agriculture minister who is demanding millions in reparations, saying the U.S. has not scientifically proven the fruit was infected in Honduras.

But proof is rare.

The initial, and subsequent, links between cyclospora and strawberries or raspberries in 1996 was based on epidemiology, a statistical association between consumption of a particular food and the onset of disease. The Toronto outbreak was first identified because some 35 guests attending a May 11, 1996 wedding reception developed the same severe, intestinal illness, seven to 10 days after the wedding, and subsequently tested positive for cyclospora. Based on interviews with those stricken, health authorities in Toronto and Texas concluded that California strawberries were the most likely source. However, attempts to remember exactly what one ate two weeks earlier is an extremely difficult task; and larger foods, like strawberries, are recalled more frequently than smaller foods, like raspberries.

By July 18, 1996, the CDC declared that raspberries from Guatemala -- which had been sprayed with pesticides mixed with water that could have been contaminated with human sewage containing cyclospora -- were the likely source of the cyclospora outbreak, which ultimately sickened about 1,000 people across North America. Guatemalan health authorities and producers vigorously refuted the charges. The California Strawberry Commission estimated it lost $15 million to $20 million in reduced strawberry sales.

Once epidemiology identifies a probable link between a food and some dangerous bug, health officials have to decide whether it makes sense to warn the public. In retrospect, the decision seems straightforward, but there are several possibilities that must be weighed at the time.

Back in 1996, when the Ontario Ministry of Health decided to warn people that eating imported strawberries might be connected to cyclospora infection, two outcomes were possible: if it turned out that strawberries were implicated, the ministry made a smart decision, warning people against something that could hurt them; if strawberries were not implicated, then the ministry made a bad decision with the result that strawberry growers and sellers lost money and people stopped eating something that was good for them.

If the ministry decided not to warn people, another two outcomes were possible: if strawberries were implicated, then the ministry made a bad decision and people could have acquired a parasitic infection they could have avoided had they been given the information (lawsuits usually follow); if strawberries were definitely not implicated then nothing happens, the industry does not suffer and the ministry does not get in trouble for not telling people.

These scenarios apply to cantaloupes and salmonella, raw milk and E. coli, and any other combination of food and pathogen.

It's often not fair. Any hosehead can come along and say, "Hey, I found a mouse in my beer bottle, give me a free case of beer." Or a syringe in some soda. Or I barfed from eating some food. The best producers or manufacturers can do is diligently manage and mitigate risks and be able to prove such diligence in the court of public opinion.

Douglas Powell is scientific director of the International Food Safety Network at Kansas State University. A video on preparing cantaloupe -- and some nasty comments which highlight the trade and economic issues at stake -- is available here .

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Along the lines of the inspirational "Dude, wash your hands" campaign, and Jack Black's Step Off from School of Rock (right), Northern Ireland's safefood has urged people unhappy about food hygiene standards in public eateries to speak out if they are not satisfied.

The Speak Out campaign aims to raise the overall standards of food hygiene in food outlets in Ireland.

Martin Higgins, chief executive from safefood, said,

"Food safety is a right, not a privilege and consumers should not settle for anything other than the highest standards. Our campaign provides consumers with information on what to watch out for in relation to food safety. … We know from recent safefood research that over half of consumers on the island of Ireland were reluctant to speak out if they were unhappy with food hygiene standards. In the last six months, we have seen a positive shift in consumer's attitudes with more people feeling empowered to speak out if they are not happy. We would like to see this trend continue, as ultimately, consumer demand for proper hygiene standards will result in improvements."

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