Cooling

  • Clostridium in holiday meal sickens 34 in Thunder Bay

    Posted: January 5th, 2011 - 6:01pm by Doug Powell

    The Slovak Legion in Thunder Bay, Ontario (that’s in Canada, and it’s cold) hosted a Christmas meal on Dec. 14, 2010; at least 34 diners ended up barfing.

    Clostridium prefringens (that’s perfringens – dp) has been identified as the bacteria that caused the illnesses. It was found in the cooked turkey sample and stool samples that were submitted for testing.

    The Thunder Bay District Health Unit notes almost all food-related outbreaks of C. perfringens are associated with inadequately cooled or reheated meals such as turkey dinners. Outbreaks are usually traced to large-scale food premises.

    To prevent food-related illness:
    • Educate food handlers on correct food safety practices
    • Serve meat dishes hot, or as soon as they are cooked
    • Do not partially cook meat and poultry one day and reheat the next
    • Divide large amounts of food into smaller containers to allow rapid cooling

    Try out our holiday meal food safety infosheet at foodsafetyinfosheet.com.


     

    Your rating: None (2 votes)
    Bookmark and Share
    Other Microorganisms  |  0 Comments
    Clostridium perfringens, Cooling, food safety, Holiday, legion, Thunder Bay, Turkey
  • Fancy restaurant didn't know how to cool food; three sickened

    Posted: September 19th, 2007 - 10:16am by Doug Powell

    In one of the lamest food safety excuses ever tabled, defence lawyer Adrian Gundelach told the Brisbane Magistrates Court yesterday -- with a straight face -- that Harem Restaurant, routinely left dishes out to cool at room temperature for eight hours, stating,

    "It was something that my clients couldn't have foreseen. They'd been following a practice that they've been following since the day the restaurant opened."

    That practice led to three people barfing up Clostridium perfringens after dining at the upscale Brisbane eatery in July. An additional 16 people at the function also reported symptoms, but were not confirmed after failing to return health sample kits to Queensland Health.

    The Harem restaurant in Brisbane, Australia, is listed in the Best Restaurants Guide of Australia as follows:

    "Be an Ottoman prince for the evening: sit on sumptuous cushions shrouded by curtains, feast on finger food and enjoy a night of belly-shaking. There’s no confusion as to what type of restaurant Harem is; the dining room is a riot of handmade rugs, multi-coloured tablecloths, brass lamps and cushions, all imported from Turkey, and the carpeted floorspace is patrolled by fez-hatted wait staff."

    The judge wasn't amused and fined the restaurant $20,000.

    The restaurant has since changed its cooling techniques.

    Pay more attention to food safety basics and less food pornography.
    Your rating: None
    Bookmark and Share
    Restaurant Inspection  |  0 Comments
    Clostridium, Cooling