New Zealand has a much higher rate of reported campylobacteriosis than the rest of the developed world and it’s because consumers are dumb, not because of high loads of campylobacter entering kitchens. Or that’s what a new paper says; I’ve parsed the abstract, below.

“The two main risk factors identified internationally for campylobacteriosis are, consumption of undercooked chicken and cross-contamination during food preparation.”

With you so far.

“One possible reason is that New Zealanders have poorer home hygiene practices during food preparation than the citizens of other developed countries.”

Why just the home? Isn’t food prepared in a myriad of places like, restaurants, and isn’t the basics of many food safety risk reduction efforts to actually reduce risk: to lower loads of Campylobacter moving from the farm right through to the food service and home kitchen?

“The objective of this study was to investigate cross-contamination during chicken preparation at home as a possible hypothesis to explain the high reported rate of campylobacteriosis.”

That sounds like a great observational study, coupled with microbiological modeling. Except the researcher did this:

“An extensive search of databases of publications concerned with consumer food handling practices or self-reported practices, consumers' knowledge or perception about food safety and consumers' observed practices, was conducted.”

Scream. Relying on other studies of self-reported research is flawed and the conclusions erroneous.

“Personal communication with science groups in New Zealand and the world were also carried out. It was found that in New Zealand there is a lack of data regarding consumer knowledge and studies on handling practices. The few studies conducted in New Zealand were not comprehensive.”

So the data about New Zealand home handlers, already flawed, is worse than usual, yet the researchers write …

“It appears from the findings of this study, that New Zealanders' knowledge of basic food hygiene is lower in comparison to people of other developed countries. For example, New Zealanders scored the lowest in their knowledge about food safety or hygiene.”

That’s not evidence. And awareness doesn’t mean people will actually do it.

“Most of the evidence collected in this study supports the hypothesis that New Zealanders are poorer in home hygiene than people of other developed countries, and this has possibly contributed to New Zealand having the highest rate of campylobacteriosis among developed countries.”

No. It was a foregone conclusion. But that won’t stop politicians and producer/industry groups from citing the work … extensively. And then the researcher will get promoted.

Fox News reports that public restrooms in Beijing must contain no more than two flies per stall, according to a bizarre new directive issued to washroom attendants.

The Beijing Municipal Commission of City Administration and Environment issued the rule Monday as a "new standard for public toilet management," the Beijing News reported.

Xie Guomin, the official in charge of the initiative, told the newspaper that the two-fly rule was not compulsory, but was a new benchmark to improve the Chinese capital's notoriously unpleasant public restrooms.

"We will not actually count fly numbers. The regulation is specific and quantified, but the inspection methodology will be flexible."

Restaurant violations are nothing new. The shocking bits of this story is that there are 100 sushi restaurants in the Tampa area alone; and that sushi is considered “healthy and nutritious.”

The I-Team at ABC Action News reviewed the inspection reports of 100 sushi restaurants in the bay area over the last year and found serious critical violations that could make you or your family sick.

That includes raw tuna at 61 degrees, raw shrimp and fish over cooked tempura, which is a cross contamination issue and restaurants that had to throw out food because they were at hazardous temperatures. We also look at one sushi restaurant that tops the list in critical violations.

Seventeen years ago, Gregg Jesperson ate a burger that was still pink at a mom-and-pop restaurant in northern Alberta (that’s in Canada), where he and his family were living at the time.

The medication he’ll have to take for life is one reason why he’s not going to forget what happened anytime soon.

Jesperson, now a teacher at Booth Memorial in St. John’s, ate the burger on a Thursday.

By Sunday, it was determined Jesperson had developed hemolytic uremic syndrome, or hamburger disease.

Jesperson was hospitalized almost four weeks, undergoing dialysis and being hooked up to a machine that withdraws plasma and replaces it.

After his release, it took him almost a year to regain his physical strength.

Jesperson, who always enjoyed a rare steak, says he wasn’t aware of the dangers of uncooked hamburger meat before that.

“I’m a big fella, fairly hardy and that, and it really knocked the piss right out of me,” he says.

These days, Jesperson gets nervous when he sees people served burgers that are a little pink.

If he grills one himself, he “cooks the bejeezus out of it.”

His advice is to do the same, and not to be afraid to send undercooked burgers back at a restaurant.

Better advice would be to use a tip-sensitive digital thermometer because color is a lousy indicator of safety.

But this story is a lot better than the misguided letter-writer to a New Brunswick newspaper (also in Canada) who insisted dangerous E. coli like O157 only “grows inside of dairy and beef cattle that are fed a high proportion of grain.” Way to recycle a 15-year-old myth.