Grocery

  • 'I guess I did eat cantaloupe' Grocery loyalty cards help trace foodborne illness source

    Posted: November 16th, 2011 - 9:59pm by Doug Powell

    Elizabeth Weise writes in USA Today an outbreak of salmonella in five Eastern states has sickened 42 people so far this year, with two hospitalizations. Dozens more might have been struck down were it not for a strikingly successful new tool used by public health officials to quickly figure out what was making all those people sick: the lowly shopper-loyalty card.

    Food safety officials are increasingly finding value in plumbing shoppers' food buying habits through these loyalty cards when they're faced with foodborne illness outbreaks across communities and even states that seem to have no obvious links.

    "It's very helpful because it's very hard for people to remember what they ate a couple of days before, not to mention a couple of weeks ago," says Casey Barton Behravesh, with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

    Supermarket loyalty-card programs were introduced in 1987. By the 1990s, they were widely used. In return for discounts on some items, they allow companies to track shopping habits. For epidemiologists, who study disease outbreaks, they're a complete record of everything shoppers bought at the store going back for years.

    Privacy is a huge concern in using cards to track food-borne illness outbreaks, officials say. All health departments are required to get permission to use them, Hammond says. "This is voluntary: People are not required to consent to having the grocery chain release their shopper-card history," he says.

    In the salmonella outbreak among Eastern states, New York state and local health officials noticed an increased number of salmonella cases and started conducting routine interviews.

    When they realized that all the patients shopped at Wegmans, a local supermarket chain, it was a "red flag," Behravesh says. Given permission by patients to check their shopper club card data, officials found "a lot of these people were buying bulk Turkish pine nuts," or foods that contained them, Behravesh says.

    Other recent cases include:
    •An outbreak of E. coli O157:H7 that sickened 33 people and led to 15 hospitalizations in five Western states in 2010 was quickly traced to raw milk Gouda cheese produced by Bravo Farms in Traver, Calif., using Costco purchasing data.

    •A puzzling outbreak of salmonella Montevideo that sickened 272 people in 44 states in 2009 was finally cracked when health officials examined shopper records from Costco and saw that almost everyone who had gotten sick had purchased salami from Daniele Inc. Testing showed it was not the sausage but the black and red pepper it was coated in that carried the bacteria.

    The shopper loyalty cards also can help public health workers when consumers misremember what they ate. "One person swore she didn't eat cantaloupe, she only ate honeydew melons," says William Keene, a senior epidemiologist with Oregon Public Health Services. "When we pulled her records, we found that she only bought cantaloupe, not honeydew. When we showed her that, she said 'Oh, I guess I did eat cantaloupe.' "

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    Food Safety Culture  |  0 Comments
    Epidemiology, food safety, grocery, loyalty card, Outbreak
  • Grocery stores across Tampa Bay receive "Poor" food safety rating from state

    Posted: November 10th, 2011 - 2:36am by Doug Powell

     

    WTSP – Tampa Bay’s news leader – reports that of the hundreds of grocery stores across the Bay area, seven received failing ratings in the latest round of inspections by the State Division of Food Safety. 

According to Florida state guidelines, a poor rating indicates the grocery store was found to be unsatisfactory in meeting sanitation requirements on the day the inspector entered the store.

    Good and fair ratings are considered passing and in compliance with sanitation requirements.

    The businesses on the list of failing stores include:

    • ALDI at 14933 North Florida Ave., Tampa
    • La Fiesta Mexican Convenience Store, 1202 S. 22nd St. Tampa
    • Rejax Meat Market, 2327 Dr. MLK Jr. St., St. Pete
    • Save-A-Lot, at 8854 State Road 52, Hudson
    • Costco, at 10921 Causeway Blvd., Brandon
    • Kasa Xpress Market, 7020 Cypress Gardens Blvd., Winter Haven
    • El Rancho Mejicano, at 5648 SR 674, Wimauma

    Violations that trigger a failing grade vary but usually include conditions that can possibly lead to public illness.

    On an Oct. 14 inspection of the Rejax Meat Market, the inspector reported finding evidence of insects and/or rodents, with rodent droppings on a shelf in the back room.

    An Oct. 27 inspection of the Kasa Xpress Market, the state reports finding live roaches in the storage cupboard, eggs stored at improper temperature, and no soap at an employee sink.

     

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    Restaurant Inspection  |  0 Comments
    florida, food safety, grocery, inspection, tampa bay
  • Reusable bags, bacteria and lack of peer-review

    Posted: June 24th, 2010 - 3:00pm by Doug Powell

    I prefer peer-review before press releases.


    And prudence before plastic pushers.

    I prefer to bike to the grocery store with my kid in the trailer and dog on the leash – and put the groceries in my knapsack. With daytime highs of 100F, that ain’t happening so much at the moment.

    A new report issued today by the University of Arizona and Loma Linda University in California says those reusable grocery bags can be a breeding ground for dangerous foodborne bacteria and pose a serious risk to public health.

    Maybe.

    Maybe it’s Gotcha microbiology where a bug is found, but the public health significance isn’t matched up with epidemiology (where are the sick people).

    Chapman has highlighted the flaws in the paucity of data that is out there, and will be going through this later tonight.

    The American Chemistry Council, which underwrote the research project, may be a fine organization – and I’m all for industry sponsoring research – but why not release the results in a peer-reviewed journal?
     

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    Other Microorganisms  |  2 Comments
    American Chemistry Council, Disclosure, grocery, report, reusable bags
  • Riding in carts with meat

    Posted: June 3rd, 2010 - 9:45pm by Doug Powell

    Several years ago, a young girl in Ottawa contracted E. coli O157 after licking the moisture off a package of hamburger on a particularly hot day. The risks of having young children near potentially contaminated food in a shopping cart has been well recognized. And now confirmed.

    Researchers at CDC and elsewhere report in the current Journal of Food Protection that kids can be exposed to raw meat and poultry products while riding in shopping carts. Parents, pay attention.

    Prevalence of, and factors associated with, this risk factor for Salmonella and campylobacter infection in children younger than 3 years***
    01.jun.10
    Journal of Food Protection®, Volume 73, Number 6, pp. 1097-1100(4)
    Patrick, Mary E.; Mahon, Barbara E.; Zansky, Shelley M.; Hurd, Sharon3; Scallan, Elaine
    http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/iafp/jfp/2010/00000073/00000006/art00012
    Abstract:
    Riding in a shopping cart next to raw meat or poultry is a risk factor for Salmonella and Campylobacter infections in infants. To describe the frequency of, and factors associated with, this behavior, we surveyed parents of children aged younger than 3 years in Foodborne Disease Active Surveillance Network sites. We defined exposure as answering yes to one of a series of questions asking if packages of raw meat or poultry were near a child in a shopping cart, or if a child was in the cart basket at the same time as was raw meat or poultry. Among 1,273 respondents, 767 (60%) reported that their children visited a grocery store in the past week and rode in shopping carts. Among these children, 103 (13%) were exposed to raw products. Children who rode in the baskets were more likely to be exposed than were those who rode only in the seats (odds ratio [OR], 17.8; 95% confidence interval [CI], 11.0 to 28.9). In a multivariate model, riding in the basket (OR, 15.5; 95% CI, 9.2 to 26.1), income less than $55,000 (OR, 1.8; 95% CI, 1.0 to 3.1), and Hispanic ethnicity (OR, 2.3; 95% CI, 1.2 to 4.5) were associated with exposure. Our study shows that children can be exposed to raw meat and poultry products while riding in shopping carts. Parents should separate children from raw products and place children in the seats rather than in the baskets of the cart. Retailer use of leak-proof packaging, customer placement of product in a plastic bag and on the rack underneath the cart, use of hand sanitizers and wipes, and consumer education may also be helpful.

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    Food Safety Culture  |  0 Comments
    Children, exposure, food safety, grocery, Shopping Carts
  • Should sell-by dates be thrown out?

    Posted: January 28th, 2010 - 5:32pm by Doug Powell

    The Independent reports that the U.K. Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs says British consumers each year throw out 370,000 tonnes of food that has passed its "best before" date, and a further 220,000 tonnes that is close to, but still within, its "use by" date.

    Yet last week, Approved Foods, announced that its sales for the final week of December were up a staggering 500 per cent year on year. At sites such as Approved Foods and Bargainfoods.co.uk, you can pick up four tins of pinto beans for £1, or a can of tuna for 59p. Or how about four Toblerones for 99p? There's nothing wrong with the foods. They're just coming up to their "use-by" dates or have gone beyond their "best before" dates.

    Last year, Environment Secretary, Hilary Benn, called on food manufacturers to consign to the dustbin date labels such as "sell by" and "display until", retaining only the crucial "use by" date.

    A recent FSA study revealed a rise in the potentially deadly disease listeriosis due to people consuming chilled ready-to-eat foods -- products such as pre-packed sandwiches, salads, cooked sliced meats, smoked salmon, soft cheeses and pates -- that have been in their fridges too long. The findings highlight the potential risks involved in both our ignorance and our habits of going on gut instinct.
     

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    Food Safety Policy  |  0 Comments
    grocery, Labeling, sell-by date, Supermarket