While assuring the public that there is no evidence of an outbreak, the Central District Health Department is alerting the public that an employee of the Cheesecake Factory on North Milwuakee Road in Boise, Idaho, was infected with the hepatitis A virus, but is no longer infectious.

CDHD is alerting patrons who may have dined at the restaurant between Dec. 13, 2011, and Jan. 22, 2012, that they may have been exposed to hepatitis A. If a person has had a hepatitits A vaccine or have had the illness in the past, the CDHD said they are protected from the infection.

"The risk to the public health is extremely low because the employee was not involved in food preparation," said a statement from CDHD. "Still, there is the possibility that patrons could have been exposed to hepatitis A."

The Cheesecake Factory has fully cooperated with the investigation into the situation. The employee is believed to have practiced good hand hygiene. The risk of exposure is considered very small, but not zero.

In a triumph of food porn over food safety, an investigation into an outbreak of salmonellosis in the summer of 2010 after a wedding party in Bavaria, Germany that sickened at least 52 people failed to pinpoint a specific food source but did uncover a number of disturbing food safety practices – such as adding rose petals to food and no temperature checks -- again linked to an unlicensed caterer.

German researchers report in Eurosurveillance this week that in the summer of 2010, a local health office in northern Bavaria, Germany, was informed that approximately half of the 110 guests of a wedding that had taken place the preceding weekend had contracted gastroenteritis. At the wedding party, soup and a late-lunch buffet (served from 3 p.m.) and a cold dinner buffet (served from 10 p.m.) had been provided by an out-of-town caterer. In addition, a wedding cake made by a local bakery and a number of cakes and desserts contributed by different wedding guests were served by the catering staff at 20.00. The food served at the wedding was suspected to be the source of the outbreak. Initial laboratory results of stool samples of some guests who became ill indicated Salmonella enterica subsp. enterica serovar Enteritidis (S. Enteritidis) as the causative pathogen.

According to the caterer, only the meat dishes were prepared at the caterer’s facilities in advance. All sauces, antipasti and salads were made from commercially produced ingredients and were prepared at the wedding party venue. Food items that required cooling were transported in cooling boxes and stored in cooling units at the venue. At the venue, the lunch buffet was set up for six hours, between 2 p.m. (the buffet was set up one hour before it was available to guests) and 8 p.m. No checks were carried out of holding temperatures of the warm or cold dishes. Salads and other cold dishes were not cooled during this period. Photographs of the buffet showed that a number of the cold dishes were decorated with non-edible flowers (such as roses), which were inserted into the food. The flowers had been purchased at a wholesale retailer. Cakes supplied by a number of wedding guests were stored without cooling until they were served at 20:00. The dishes of the dinner buffet were not cooled. They were first served at 10 p.m. It is unclear for how long the dishes of the dinner buffet were served; however, it is known that the catering personnel departed at 00.30.

Inspection of the catering facilities and interview of the catering staff revealed a number of shortcomings contravening European food hygiene regulations. The facilities used by the caterer were not registered with the local authorities. There were no records of the required staff training on food hygiene. No temperature controls of cooling devices or transport boxes were carried out, nor were temperatures monitored during preparation or serving of warm dishes. There were no records of HACCP concept planning or implementation. The company was banned from catering until proof of changes in their practices had been provided to the local authorities.

The cohort study showed that a variety of dishes were associated with a significantly increased risk of infection: in particular consumption of a group of lunch dishes containing mayonnaise was associated with a high relative risk. Despite the constraint of a two-week delay between the wedding party and the questionnaires being sent out, participants appeared to recollect well which dishes they had consumed.

The isolation of S. Enteritidis from two of the food samples at the wedding party was judged to show that the food served posed a health risk, as all the food items were ready for consumption without requiring further preparation or heating. The isolation of indistinguishable Salmonella strains from the food samples as well as from stool samples of respondents and catering personnel supported the hypothesis that the outbreak was foodborne.

There are several possibilities for the source of the Salmonella contamination in this outbreak. Mayonnaise is a well-recognized vehicle of contamination when raw egg is used as an ingredient. However, in this outbreak all cold dishes and salads were made from commercially prepared ingredients. As commercially produced mayonnaise and sauces are conventionally based on pasteurized ingredients, it is unlikely that they would be the primary source of contamination. Commercial mayonnaise by itself is also not suitable for Salmonella propagation, due to its low pH adjusted by acetic acid. However, addition of mayonnaise to other salad ingredients may alter the overall acetic acid concentration of the mixture, thus providing a suitable base for proliferation once the pathogen has been introduced by secondary contamination.

The environmental investigation revealed a number of infringements of food safety regulations, including a lack of staff training and the absence of records of a food safety concept according to the HACCP principles. Lack of temperature controls for food storage and transport as well as prolonged presentation of buffet dishes at room temperature provided ideal conditions for pathogen proliferation, regardless of the primary source of contamination.

While they do not replace official controls, the HACCP principles are central to the European concept of food safety by helping food business operators to attain a high standard of food safety. Successful implementation of procedures based on the HACCP principles requires the full cooperation and commitment of food business employees. Adequate training of personnel is central to achieving this goal.

The outbreak investigated in this study demonstrates the consequences of lack of staff training and the failure to identify hazards to food safety, as well as failure to implement control measures to mitigate such hazards. The use of flowers as food decoration demonstrated insufficient understanding of the potential for contamination through products that are not intended for food production and therefore not subject to food hygiene regulations.

Intelligently implemented food hygiene concepts not only benefit the consumer but are also very much in the interest of the food business operator, whose business can be threatened by food-borne outbreaks. Initial hygiene and food safety training for food business operators should therefore also explain microbiological principles underlying food safety practices in order to equip the businesses with the required background knowledge and motivation to design and implement an intelligent food safety/HACCP concept, including the consideration and identification of potential sources of contamination. Explicit mention of the dangers of the use of non-edible flowers for decoration should be considered in guides to good practice, which are a valuable instrument to aid food business operators with compliance with food hygiene rules and with the application of the HACCP principles.

The complete paper is available at http://www.eurosurveillance.org/ViewArticle.aspx?ArticleId=20076.

Officials of a Mexican political party are apologizing to 650 indigenous people who suffered food poisoning after attending a campaign rally in southern Mexico.

Authorities in the indigenous town of Chilapa had to open an auditorium on Wednesday to treat people who became sick after eating rice tacos and eggs handed out by former mayor Sergio Dolores, who is running for congress.

Guerrero state civil protection officials said adults and children were fainting, throwing up and suffering from diarrhea.

A new report says Canadians suffer more foodborne illness than Americans, that most of it happens with restaurant meals, and that consumers are sorta dumb too.

Unfortunately, the report relies heavily on other reports that are not peer-reviewed, assumptions, and suffers from highly selective referencing to make a point – and I have no idea what that point is.

The report, Improving Food Safety in Canada: Toward a More Risk Responsive System, released by the Conference Board of Canada to coincide with their food safety conference and upstaged by Galen Weston Jr.’s comments that farmer’s markets were going to kill someone, says half or more of all cases of foodborne illnesses in Canada are picked up in restaurants or from other food service providers.

Daniel Munro, Principal Research Associate, said, “It is commonly assumed that farms and food processing companies hold the most responsibility for ensuring safe food, and their role is critical. But most foodborne illnesses are associated with the preparation and storage practices of restaurants, food service operations, and consumers themselves.”

I’m not sure who makes that assumption. It is estimated there are 6.8 million cases of food-borne illness annually in Canada.

Part of the problem can be traced to restaurant inspection systems that are seen as too sporadic to have an impact on restaurants’ day-to-day food safety practices.

Garth Whyte, president and CEO of the Canadian Restaurant and Foodservices Association dismissed the report describing it as "shockingly short on facts."

"This study did not even bother contacting us about what we are doing, and if they had, they would know that there are three government recognized food safety training programs that train tens of thousands food handlers per year," Whyte said.

Except training alone doesn’t do much for food safety behavior.

The report provides a number of recommendations to improve Canada’s food safety system including providing restaurants and other food service providers with timely information and advice on how they can minimize food safety risks.

We call them infosheets.

It also urges governments to build on current consumer awareness initiatives by engaging consumers directly in discussions about food safety in their households.

The report offers no advice on how to do that.