Cold Cuts

  • Really big nosestretcher alert: leading Toronto hospital says cold cuts, raw fish, OK for expectant mothers

    Posted: June 2nd, 2010 - 2:11pm by Doug Powell

    Erin Stadler was at her baby shower in North Carolina in 1997 when she at a piece of brie cheese that was contaminated with listeria. The disease made Stadler and her unborn child deathly ill.

    "You don't think about eating one piece of cheese and almost dying. That's basically, what happened for both of us," said Stadler.

    When Stadler went to the hospital, doctors immediately delivered baby Allison. She was premature at 33 weeks. Allison was in the hospital for two more weeks for additional tests when doctors realized how ill both Erin and Allison were.

    Two pregnant women on Virgin Blue Australian flights last year gave birth prematurely after being served listeria-laden chicken wraps.

    In the fall of 2008, along with the Maple Leaf listeria-in-deli-meat mess, an outbreak of listeria in cheese in Quebec led to 38 hospitalizations, of which 13 were pregnant and gave birth prematurely. Two adults died and there were 13 perinatal deaths.

    A Sept. 2008 report showed that of the 78 residents of the Canadian province of British Columbia who contracted listeriosis in the past six years, 10 per cent were pregnant women whose infections put them at high risk of miscarriage or stillbirth.

    The majority -- nearly 60 per cent -- of pregnant women diagnosed with listeriosis either miscarry or have stillbirths.

    The authors wrote,

    "Health care providers [want] better information for themselves and resources they could share with pregnant women. … The information provided to pregnant women by health care providers needs to be targeted and clear," and that as a result of the spring survey, BCCDC will start a project to better inform health care providers and their patients about food safety risks during pregnancy.

    The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has estimated approximately 2,500 cases of liisteriosis occur annually in the United States, with about 500 cases resulting in death. In 2000, listeria exposure resulted in a higher rate of hospitalization than any other foodborne pathogen and more than one-third of reported deaths from food pathogens.

    CDC has a list of foods to avoid while pregnant: deli meats or cold-cuts top the list. Health Canada has similar advice.

    Which makes a report in the April 2010 edition of the journal, Canadian Family Physician, absolutely baffling.

    Worse, the report was authored by the Motherisk team at the previously reputable Toronto Hospital for Sick Children.

    The authors state, correctly, that the incidence of listeria “among pregnant women remains about 20 times higher compared with the general population,” but go on to state, without any references, that “pregnant women need not avoid soft-ripened cheeses or deli meats, so long as they are consumed in moderation and obtained from reputable stores.”

    Here is the actual Q&A as printed in the article:

    QUESTION After hearing about outbreaks of illness resulting from Listeria and Salmonella, many of my patients are wondering about the risks of food-borne illnesses during pregnancy and what they can do to reduce their chances of contracting them.

    ANSWER Although heating or cooking food is the best way to inactivate food-borne pathogens, improved standards and surveillance have reduced the prevalence of contaminated foods at grocery stores. Therefore, it is no longer necessary for pregnant women to avoid foods like deli meats and soft cheeses (associated with Listeria); soft-cooked eggs (associated with Salmonella); or sushi and sashimi. Regardless of whether seafood is raw or cooked, pregnant women should choose low mercury seafood (eg, salmon and shrimp) over higher mercury varieties (eg, fresh tuna). Pregnant women should ensure that their food is obtained from reputable establishments; stored, handled, and cooked properly; and consumed within a couple of days of purchasing.

    I have no idea what the authors mean by a reputable source. I have no idea how this advice got approved and published. How is it that the authors, Carolyn Tam, a graduate student in clinical pharmacology at the University of Toronto, Aida Erebara MD, and Adrienne Einarson RN, assistant director of the Motherisk Program could come up with such terrible food safety advice from the 25-year-old Motherisk program which is designed “to ensure the well-being of mothers and babies, worldwide.”

    And they want donations.

    Someone has already sent the editor a letter of protest.

    Thanks to the barfblog.com reader who sent me the link.

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    Cold Cuts, deli, expectant, Listeria, mothers, Pregnant, toronto sick kids hospital
  • Listeria causes illness in fetuses, infants, at much lower dose than previously thought

    Posted: November 13th, 2009 - 7:11am by Doug Powell

    Chapman is here in Manhattan (Kansas) for a couple days, delivering a seminar later today, hanging out at the Missouri-Kansas State football game tomorrow, and primarily helping plot our research and extension activities for the next few years.

    We’ve both sired offspring in the past year-and-a-bit, so the issue of listeria and pregnant women has been a recurring theme – on barfblog.com, in research proposals, and in our microbiological nerd discussions.

    Researchers from the University of Georgia reported in the journal, Risk Analysis, this month, that pregnant women may get ill from Listeria at lower doses than previously thought.

    The risk of fetal or infant mortality among pregnant women who consume food containing 1 million cells of the food-borne pathogen Listeria monocytogenes in soft cheeses and other food is estimated at about 50 percent, suggesting five stillbirths potentially could occur when 10 pregnant women are exposed to that amount.

    A previous risk assessment estimated more than 10 trillion cells would result in stillbirths to 50 percent of pregnant women exposed, researchers said.

    "We're not saying there's a new epidemic here, we're suggesting we've come up with a more accurate method of measuring the risk and how this deadly bacteria impacts humans, especially the most medically vulnerable among us," study co-author Mary Alice Smith of the University of Georgia said in a statement.

    When estimates are extrapolated from data in tests on laboratory animals, the results showed "Listeriosis is likely occurring from exposure to lower doses than previously estimated," Smith said.

    That’s a convoluted way of saying Listeria happens, and it’s probably more deadly than anyone thought for developing babies. Given the ridiculously low levels of awareness amongst physicians, health professionals and expectant mothers, new messages using a variety of media are needed so parents-to-be are at least aware of the risks of certain refrigerated, ready-to-eat foods.

    The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has estimated approximately 2,500 cases of Listeriosis occur annually in the United States, with about 500 cases resulting in death. In 2000, Listeria exposure resulted in a higher rate of hospitalization than any other food-borne pathogen and more than one-third of reported deaths from food pathogens, the CDC says.
     

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    Cold Cuts, Death, Delis, Fetus, Meat, Pregnant, Risk, Risk Assessment
  • Food safety culture means employees don't contaminate food with brooms or forklift tires

    Posted: November 9th, 2009 - 7:32pm by Doug Powell

    If a company making ready-to-eat refrigerated deli-meats has a “strong culture of food safety,” would an employee shake a broom over a line of processed product?

    If more inspectors are the answer to safer food, why would the inspectors need publicly reported accounts of foodborne illness and death to try harder?

    And if the company and inspectors are doing lots of tests to ensure enhanced food safety, why aren’t they bragging about it instead of requiring an Access to Information request by a media outlet to discover that inspectors continue to find problems with Maple Leaf Foods infamous Bartor Road plant in Weston, Ontario.

    Last night, Steve Rennie of The Canadian Press reported that Canadian federal food safety types found a troubling lack of hygiene at Maple Leaf Foods’ Toronto facility just weeks after it reopened last year from a temporary shutdown for cleaning – after 22 people were killed and 53 sickened with listeria linked to deli meat.

    A Canadian Food Inspection Agency inspection report dated Oct. 10, 2008, found:

    • slime on part of the meat-trimming table in the curing room;
    • meat debris on two steel container bins and unidentified debris on the brine tank in the curing room;
    •a moist and mouldy cardboard sheet on the base of a skid in the curing room that holds bags of salt;
    •mouldy caulking on the walls of the meat-defrosting room;
    •a stack of dirty, mouldy and broken skids left in the frozen packoff room during cleaning;
    • food debris on knife holders, floor and meat containers in the formulation room; and,
    • rust on equipment used to process mock chicken.

    The Canadian Press obtained that inspection report and others under the Access to Information Act.

    Another report says during visits on Oct. 20 and 21, an inspector watched as "an employee in a grey jacket lifted a floor broom over a finished food product conveyor belt during operation to sweep in between the conveyors." (No additional information as to whether the product was packaged or not).

    Then on Oct. 22, the inspector saw a worker using a forklift to move ready-to-eat link sausages from the cooler to a line for packaging. The report notes the meat at the bottom part of the lift "was not protected for the potential wheel over spray or splash cross contamination."

    That part is gross. And unacceptable.

    On Aug. 23, 2008, (barfblog.com passim ad nauseum) Maple Leaf CEO Michael McCain took to the Intertubes to apologize for an expanding outbreak of listeriosis that would eventually kill 22 people. As part of his speech, McCain said that Maple Leaf has “a strong culture of food safety.”???

    On Aug. 27, 2008, McCain told a press conference, ??????“As I've said before, Maple Leaf Foods is 23,000 people who live in a culture of food safety. We have an unwavering commitment to keep our food safe, and we have excellent systems and processes in place.

    Dr. Randy Huffman, Maple Leaf’s chief food-safety officer, took to his company’s Journey (worst band ever)-inspired Journey to Food Safety Leadership blog to say today,

    “The average reader must be wondering how this plant could have so many issues only a month after re-opening from causing one of the worst food safety crises in Canada.”

    I’m not sure what he means by average. I consider myself dull and below-average; does that mean I won’t be able to understand what he is saying?

    Huffman: Over the past 12 -14 months- since these inspections were conducted - we have invested over $5 million in upgrades at the Bartor Road plant. This includes repair of floors and wall surfaces, air handling systems, caulking, better separation of raw and cooked areas of the plant, new pallets and new slicing and packaging equipment. We have implemented over 200 new operating procedures.

    Why did it take 22 deaths and 53 illnesses to make this food safety investment?

    Huffman: CFIA generates these reports and so does Maple Leaf, through our own inspections across all our plants. We welcome this government scrutiny.  Canadians hold us to a higher standard, as they should.

    So why did the reports have to be obtained through an Access to Information request, and why doesn’t Maple Leaf just sidestep the government and make the reports public, along with other data, as it becomes available, to build trust with the buying consumer?

    Would more inspectors have helped? Maybe if they were looking. Federal food inspection union thingy Bob Kingston said,

    "In a normal operation that had not been through what they had been through, that might be a common occurrence. But in this facility, it's very surprising that that would still be there. Because you would expect it to be spotless."

    The best food producers, processors, retailers and restaurants will go above and beyond minimal government and auditor standards and sell food safety solutions directly to the public. The best organizations will use their own people to demand ingredients from the best suppliers; use a mixture of encouragement and enforcement to foster a food safety culture; and use technology to be transparent -- whether it's live webcams in the facility or real-time test results on the website -- to help restore the shattered trust with the buying public.

    And the best cold-cut companies may stop dancing around and tell pregnant women, old people and other immunocompromised folks, don't eat this food unless it's heated

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    Food Safety Policy, Listeria, Plants, Raw Food  |  0 Comments
    Aquaculture, Cold Cuts, Delis, Filth, Maple Leaf
  • Cold water is fine for washing hands - soap and vigor are the critical components

    Posted: October 12th, 2009 - 4:48pm by Doug Powell

    “Hot water for handwashing has not been proved to remove germs better than cold water.”

    That’s the conclusion of The Claim column in tomorrow’s N.Y. Times science section.

    We’ve been saying for a couple of years that water temperature is not a critical factor -- water hot enough to kill dangerous bacteria and viruses would scald hands -- so use whatever is comfortable. Warmer water may be better at removing oils and stuff, but not the things that make people sick.

    The Times story says,

    In its medical literature, the Food and Drug Administration states that hot water comfortable enough for washing hands is not hot enough to kill bacteria, but is more effective than cold water because it removes oils from the hand that can harbor bacteria.

    But in a 2005 report in the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, scientists with the Joint Bank Group/Fund Health Services Department pointed out that in studies in which subjects had their hands contaminated, and then were instructed to wash and rinse with soap for 25 seconds using water with temperatures ranging from 40 degrees Fahrenheit to 120 degrees, the various temperatures had “no effect on transient or resident bacterial reduction.”

    They found no evidence that hot water had any benefit, and noted that it might increase the “irritant capacity” of some soaps, causing contact dermatitis.

    “Temperature of water used for hand washing should not be guided by antibacterial effects but comfort,” they wrote, “which is in the tepid to warm temperature range. The usage of tepid water instead of hot water also has economic benefits.”
     

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    Handwashing  |  2 Comments
    Antibacterial, Cold Cuts, Fairmont Hotel & Resorts, Germs, Soap, Temperature, Vigor, Water
  • Cold prevention kit nonsense

    Posted: September 25th, 2009 - 6:24am by Doug Powell

    In the anything-to-make-a-buck category, it’s the cold & flu prevention kit: Kleenex, antimicrobial wipes, soap and some other stuff, all conveniently wrapped in additional plastic.

    Gonzalo, a student who works with me, snapped this shot at a local supermarket last night.


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    Cold Cuts, Farm Kitchen, Flu, Hucksterism, Marketing, Prevention
  • Food safety Bill passes House - will it mean fewer sick people?

    Posted: July 30th, 2009 - 9:23pm by Doug Powell

    While the websphere, blogsphere and twittersphere were ejaculating electrons about the potential passage of new food safety legislation by the U.S. House– it passed -- I was hanging out with some food safety dudes at Publix supermarkets HQ in Lakeland, Florida.

    And I saw far more in Lakeland that would impact daily food safety than anything the politicians, bureaucrats, hangers-on and chatting classes could ever come up with.

    When it comes to the safety of the food supply, I generally ignore the chatter from Washington, as well as the wasted Internet commentaries and conspiracy theories. If a proposal does emerge, such as the creation of a single food inspection agency, or the bill that passed the House today – and just the House -- I ask, Will it actually make food safer? Will fewer people get sick?

    As the General Accounting Office pointed out in a report a year ago,

    “The burden for food safety in most of the selected countries lies primarily with food producers, rather than with inspectors, although inspectors play an active role in overseeing compliance. This principle applies to both domestic and imported products.”

    Publix, with over 1,000 supermarkets, its own processing plants, and thousands of food products moving through its shelves, can’t afford the luxury of chatter.

    After my visit, I went to the local Publix in St. Pete Beach to check out what the food safety type said – sure, the boss knows food safety, but do the front-line staff?

    I ordered some shaved smoked turkey breast from the deli, and the sealable bag the meat was delivered in contained the following:

    “Publix Deli
    The Publix Deli is committed to the highest quality fresh cold cuts & cheeses
    Therefore we recommend all cold cuts are best if used within three days of purchase
    And all cheese items are best if used within four days of purchase”

    (The picture isn’t very good. Note to Publix: The label warning about shelf-life is a great idea, but can’t read it if the price sticker gets slapped over some of the text.)

    This is the first time I’ve seen a retailer provide information to consumers on the accurate shelf-life of sliced deli meats. It didn’t require Congressional hearings; it didn’t require some hopelessly-flawed consumer education campaign; it required a food safety type to say, this is important, let’s do it.

    I also went looking for some bread for turkey sandwiches tomorrow as we move down to Sarasota, and then Venice Beach. I asked an employee in the bakery for some whole wheat rolls, and she pointed out what was available, said packages of six were pre-packaged, but she could get me whatever number I wanted. I asked for four. There was no bin for me to stick my who-knows-where-they-have-been hands in to and retrieve a few rolls. The bins were turned so that only staff had access. The employee said it had been that way since she started three years ago, and that “there’s just too much stuff going around” to let consumers stick their hands into bun bins (most commonly found item in communal bun bins? False fingernails).

    It’s nice that food safety is once again a Presidential priority and that politicians are trying to set a tone. But chatting doesn’t mean fewer sick people – actions do.

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    Food Safety Culture, Food Safety Policy, Listeria, Norovirus, Raw Food  |  0 Comments
    Cold Cuts, Congress, Delis, Publix, Warehouse, Warning
  • Death-by-cold-cuts Minister says Listeria inquiry not necessary

    Posted: June 18th, 2009 - 11:18am by Doug Powell

    The person who is still, inexplicably, Minister of Agriculture in Canada, Gerry-death-by-a-1,000-cold-cuts-and-isn’t-my-moustache-awesome Ritz, said last night that despite the recommendations of a parliamentary committee, who were stonewalled by bureaucrats, a full public inquiry into the Maple Leaf Listeria mess that killed 22 people last year was not necessary.

    That’s true, if only the bureaucrats at Maple Leaf, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, the Public Health Agency of Canada and dozens of others did their jobs and came publicly clean about who knew what when and what steps were taken to protect public health.

    Until then, maybe the judicial route is best. But what a waste of resources, and more importantly, public confidence.
     

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    Cold Cuts
  • More testing, not inspectors may have prevented listeria says McCain; will test results be made public?

    Posted: June 12th, 2009 - 10:00am by Doug Powell

    Micahel McCain, the president of Maple Leaf Foods, was correct yesterday when he told a Winnipeg Chamber of Commerce event that adding more food inspectors to the plant floor would not have made a difference in preventing last August's listeria outbreak at one of its Toronto plants that caused 22 deaths.

    "What is very important to recognize about bacteria is that you cannot see it. We wish you could visually inspect for bacteria, but it can't be seen with the eyes, tasted or touched."

    The head of the $5.2-billion-a-year Toronto-based food giant was adamant that more testing was the only effective way to address the issue and that Maple Leaf has doubled the number of tests being undertaken.

    Thank you for that lesson in microbiology, Mr. McCain. Yes, the inspectors’ union in Canada has been shamelessly exploiting the deaths of 22 people to get more shifts for its workers. Good of you to call them on it.

    Now to the harder questions, which McCain continues to avoid.

    Why didn’t Maple Leaf do more extensive testing prior to the outbreak? It’s not like there haven’t been listeria outbreaks in ready-to-eat refrigerated foods like cold cuts before.

    Why won’t Maple Leaf make all of its listeria test results public, especially since it wants to build consumer confidence.

    Will Maple Leaf put warning labels on its cold cuts to advise pregnant women and older folks that such products shouldn’t be eaten raw?

    And to all the dieticians running the menus at the elderly folks homes where the 22 people died: what were you thinking serving cold cuts? How hard is it to heat a sandwich? Have any of you had any decent food safety training?
     

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    Food Safety Policy, Listeria, Raw Food  |  1 Comment
    Canada, Cold Cuts, Delis, Maple Leaf, Michael Mccain, Pregnant
  • Listeria recall: We've got pictures, Maple Leaf doesn't

    Posted: August 24th, 2008 - 10:48pm by Ben Chapman

    Maple Leaf's CEO Michael McCain says his company has a culture of food safety.  I've written about the food safety culture concept and believe that a big part of it is being ready for outbreaks and recalls.  They happen.  A lot.

    I'm not sure what Mr. McCain and his team has done in preparation for this outbreak, but in March  I wrote about Quaker Oats handling of a recall due to Salmonella in some of their Aunt Jemima products:

    "Quaker Oats has great information on their website already [less than 4 hours after the recall], with a nice graphic on how to handle the recall.... Especially love that people can sign-up for ongoing info -- good preparation on Quaker Oats' part."

    It looked like they were ready for a problem, and already had the resources in place to get information out to their customers.

    The thing I liked the most about Quaker Oats' Aunt Jemima situation was that they had pictures of the recalled product. A company with a culture of food safety is ready for a recall, has a website with pictures and consumer-friendly information ready to go in anticipation, like Quaker Oats did.

    Maple Leaf has a big list of recalled products (220, check it out here) but they don't have any pictures of them. It's not a superficial request to have some nice pictures to show folks what this stuff looks like, and where you can find the sometimes elusive codes/dates/establishment code.  It's just good communication.  The FDA realized this, and last year started including pictures on their recall notices for products that they have deemed to be high health risks (after the Castleberry's chili sauce recall). 

    Sometimes I buy lunch meat.  Sometimes I even get the prepackaged stuff.  I don't always know what brand it is, and I don't know all the intricacies of the food system and get mixed up as to which parent company makes Shopsy's.  The list system is confusing.

    The Globe and Mail is reporting tonight that:
    Maple Leaf is working with distributors to track down all 220 products from the Toronto site, which Mr. McCain told reporters could be anywhere in Canada. That could take as long as three to five days, he said during a news conference at the firm's Toronto head office.

    At about 7:50pm this evening I thought I'd take a look at whether I could find any of these recalled products at the grocery store and get some pictures to demonstrate where the codes can be found.

    I found some.

    About 2 minutes after entering Ultra Food and Drug in Guelph, I was able to find the recalled Maple Leaf's EZee Sub Dagwood products, with the establishment code (denoted, I assume, by the "EST. 97B" still on the shelves.  That's the bad news.

    The good news is that I can use a real example of what one of the recalled products looks like and where the establishment code is.  Something that Maple Leaf hasn't done.

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    Cold Cuts, Communication, Maple Leaf
  • Michael McCain of Maple Leaf: Should pregnant women eat deli meats?

    Posted: August 24th, 2008 - 9:28pm by Doug Powell

    There’s been an outbreak of babies amongst the food safety stalwarts in my lab. Katija delivered in June, Ben’s gonna be a daddy next month, and me, trying to keep up with the cool kids, at the end of November.

    Michael McCain, the president and CEO of Maple Leaf Foods, seems sincere enough    . He said yesterday that listeria is "pervasive" adding that,

    "It (Listeria) is virtually impossible to eradicate in its entirety. It exists in plants, in supermarkets, potentially in your kitchen.”

    That’s true. And deli meats and other refrigerated ready-to-eat foods like smoked salmon are particularly good sources of listeria.

    Back in May, U.K. environmental health officers from 42 local authorities purchased 1,127 samples of sliced-at-the-counter cooked meats from food retailers including butchers, delicatessens, market stalls and supermarkets.

    Laboratory tests found that 15 per cent of the samples were contaminated with low numbers of listeria on the day of purchase, while 7.3 per cent were contaminated with Listeria monocytogenes, the more serious form of listeria.

    Although these were within European Food Safety Standards, when the contaminated samples were tested again after storage for 48 hours in a refrigerator, the L. monocytogenes in some of the contaminated samples had multiplied to unsafe levels.

    In July, 2008, health types in Ireland warned pregnant women to avoid ready-to-eat, refrigerated and processed foods, such as soft cheeses, cold cuts of meat, pates and smoked fish after an increase in pregnancy-related listeriosis.

    A Dec. 2007 review of listeria in pregnancy states,

    “One of the most important changes during pregnancy is the down-regulation of the cellular immune system. Because the fetus is genetically different from the mother, the body treats it as a graft. To prevent the maternal immune system from rejecting the fetus, cell-mediated immunity must therefore be suppressed during pregnancy. This is favored by high levels of progesterone. However, reduced cell-mediated immune function leads to increased susceptibility of the woman and her fetus to infections by intracellular pathogens such as Listeria monocytogenes. That is why pregnant women are 20 times more at risk of contracting listeriosis than are other healthy adults. Pregnant women account for 30% of all cases of listeriosis and 60% of cases among persons 10 to 40 years of age.

    “Typically, systemic infection occurs most frequently after ingestion of food contaminated with L monocytogenes. The bacteria cross the mucosal barrier of the intestine, probably aided by active endocytosis of organisms by epithelial cells. Once in the bloodstream, bacteria spread to different sites, but they have a particular affinity for the central nervous system or placenta. While circulating, the bacteria are internalized by macrophages and other plasma cells and are thereafter spread cell-to-cell through phagocytosis. As a result, antibodies, complement, and neutrophils become unable to protect the host.”

    And that’s why 6-months pregnant Amy hasn’t touched a deli product in over six months. But most women don’t know this. Neither do a lot of doctors or health professionals. During one of our prenatal visits, I asked the aid if there were any foods pregnant Amy should be avoiding.

    She said, “no, not really.”

    I specifically asked about deli meats.

    She said, “Get the deli meat from the counter cause it’s fresher than the pre-packaged stuff.”

    She didn’t know about listeria. Most people don’t. Researchers reported in the Australian and New Zealand Journal of Health that in a survey of 586 women attending antenatal clinics in one private and two major public hospitals in New South Wales between April and November 2006, more than half received no information on preventing Listeria.

    So, Michael McCain, I know what I’d tell my wife or any other pregnant woman. What would you tell a pregnant woman about deli meats? Would you be willing to put a health advisory on the back of the package?

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    Cold Cuts, Deli Meat, Pregnant