Food Poisoning, Foodborne Illness Information and Research : International Food Safety Network : BarfBlog

The N.Y. Times has a story running in tomorrow’s edition flaunting the value of raw milk as a way to save the family farm because a small percentage of people pay a hefty premium for the raw stuff.

The story lacks any mention of adverse health effects from raw milk , other than quoting an FDA type as saying, “raw milk should not be consumed by anyone, at any time, for any reason.”

Such proclamations are not particularly persuasive.

The story, like many others, notes that people want to know where their food comes from; but that doesn’t make food safer. Knowing how to control and minimize the spread of dangerous microorganisms makes food safer, whether it’s from around the corner or around the globe.

The Times story does however make mention of the Quebec listeria outbreak of 2008 that was traced to cheese made from unpasteurized milk, stating that “one person died; more than 30 became ill,” and proclaiming that the government went crazy recalling nearly 60,000 pounds, of cheese from hundreds of producers.

The Times story appears to be something about government out-of-control, although it’s a mish-mash.  And it fails to mention that the 2008 Quebec outbreak, led to 38 hospitalizations, of which 13 were pregnant and gave birth prematurely. Two adults died and there were 13 perinatal deaths. Recent research has demonstrated listeria can cause illness in fetuses and infants at much lower doses than previously thought.
 

An updated table of unpastuerized milk and cheese outbreaks is below.

http://bites.ksu.edu/raw-milk-outbreaks

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From the a-little-knowledge-is-dangerous category, a UK deli clerk at a Sainsbury’s supermarket refused to sell a pregnant woman a piece of cheddar cheese until she lied and promised she wouldn’t eat the cheese.

Janet Lehain wrote in a letter of complaint to Sainsbury's that the female clerk at the Clapham, Beds store was "patronising" and said, “how lucky my generation are to have such information available as this was not the case 'in her day'."

Sainsbury's said the worker was wrong, adding,

"It isn't policy to refuse a sale on grounds goods may be unsuitable for pregnant women."

Whatever the policy is, Sainsbury’s could at least get the information correct: there are certain soft cheeses that should be avoided by pregnant women because of the potential to support growth of listeria. Amy has written extensively about this.

Me, I view the grocery store and the restaurant as my laboratory. I watch and ask questions of people, especially front-line staff. The head of food safety back at corporate HQ may know the correct food safety answer, but are they providing support to front-line staff, the people customers are most likely to interact with? That’s why we do food safety infosheets, a tool to provide continuous updates to employees, and that’s why we do secret shopper experiments.

The key findings after sending trained shoppers to a bunch of stores in southern Ontario in 2004?

“Although many grocery store employees appeared confident in their food safety knowledge, when asked for storage and handling advice, many were unaware of the proper methods within their department and were willing to offer incorrect advice. This advice often conflicted with the food handling information posted throughout the grocery store.”

Any organization is only as good as its weakest link. There’s already enough bad food safety information out there.


Secret shopper: Grocery store employee food handling practices from a customer’s perspective
01.aug.05,
Food Protection Trends
Lisa Mathiasen and Doug Powell

http://www.foodsafety.ksu.edu/en/article-details.php?a=3&c=11&sc=82&id=840

Food safety is critical along the entire agri-food chain, but it should be emphasized particularly in grocery stores because this may be the last opportunity to prevent food from becoming contaminated before it is purchased.

The responsibility for safe food handling has increased for the newer North American supermarkets, which offer a variety of additional food services and products. This research reports on food handling trends discovered by observing the food handling practices of grocery store employees and by inquiring about specific food safety-related topics in supermarkets across southern Ontario.

Ten researchers, trained to portray customers, visited 13 randomly selected supermarkets in Southern Ontario, three times. Observations and information were evaluated against the content of supermarket training programs and current literature. The triangulation of results was used to establish and confirm the observed trends.

During the store visits, a number of poor food handling practices were observed including improper glove use; cross contamination between raw and ready-to-eat meats and poultry; improper food storage; and poor personal hygiene. In addition, although many grocery store employees appeared confident in their food safety knowledge, when asked for storage and handling advice, many were unaware of the proper methods within their department and were willing to offer incorrect advice. This advice often conflicted with the food handling information posted throughout the grocery store.

This research highlights the need for more interactive training specific to individual departments within a supermarket, and will help in the improvement of training resources for grocery store food handlers.
 

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Coldmud.com highlighted what it called the best commercial ever?: this gem for Nissin cup noodle European-style cheese curry.

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Here is what is lost in the gushing about raw-milk cheeses and many other forms of food pornography:

The fall 2008 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.

But, the discussion in Montreal over the past two days is about the fate of small cheese producers, who are apparently giving up.

Ever since last year's listeriosis outbreak, when provincial inspectors seized tonnes of Quebec cheeses believed to have been cross-contaminated by the listeria bacterium, Fromagerie Lehmann and other raw-milk cheese producers were visited constantly by officials on the lookout for the listeria bacterium.

Like 20 or so others, Lehmann finally gave up on raw-milk cheese altogether.

By some estimates, only 10 Quebec raw-milk cheeses remain. The others now are made with milk that's been heated to kill unwanted bacteria - and, some say, the flavours of the meadow and the changing seasons.

On Monday, the provincial ombudsman concluded the Quebec government was ill-prepared to handle the outbreak of listeria contamination in some cheese products last summer, but it was right to order a mass recall of the cheeses.

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For all the fawning media coverage and energy expended, I figured there would be millions of Americans drinking raw milk.

A story in the Dayton Daily News pegs the number at 500,000.

That’s nothing when it comes to food dollars. And there are reasons why the numbers are so low. As the U.S. Centers for Disease Control reported in its Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report today,

“On October 26, 2007, a family health clinic nurse informed the Kansas Department of Health and Environment (KDHE) that Campylobacter jejuni had been isolated from two ill persons from different families who were members of a closed community in a rural Kansas county. By October 29, 17 additional members of the community had reported gastrointestinal illness and visited the clinic within a week. All 19 persons reported consuming fresh cheese on October 20 that was made the same day at a community fair from unpasteurized milk obtained from a local dairy.

"This report summarizes the findings of an investigation by KDHE and the local health department to determine the source and extent of the outbreak. Eating fresh cheese at the fair was the only exposure associated with illness (relative risk [RR] = 13.9). Of 101 persons who ate the cheese, 67 (66%) became ill. C. jejuni isolates from two ill persons had indistinguishable pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) patterns, and the isolate from a third ill person was nearly identical to the other two. Although all samples of cheese tested negative for Campylobacter, results of the epidemiologic investigation found an association between illness and consumption of fresh cheese made from unpasteurized milk. To minimize the risk for illness associated with milkborne pathogens, unpasteurized milk and milk products should not be consumed."
 

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Public health officials in Quebec say a pregnant woman in the province has lost her baby, possibly because of listeriosis.

Officials are still awaiting test results to confirm whether the woman who lost her baby was infected with the bacteria, said Dr. Horatio Arruda, Quebec's director of public health protection.

She didn’t lose the baby. It’s not like she misplaced the baby somewhere. The baby died because of listeria. Pregnant women should not eat a whole bunch of refrigerated ready-to-eat foods, but in the rush to promote raw milk cheese and food porn, those in charge forgot to remind those who are vulnerable of the risks.

Max Dubois, the owner of L'Échoppe des Fromages in St. Lambert, wants to know who will compensate him for the $40,000 worth of cheese inspectors seized and destroyed from his store on Saturday.

"Why could they not have organized a voluntary recall, as they do in France. Each cheese would have been sent away for analysis. We would have better been able to trace the spread of the bacteria. But now all the evidence has been destroyed. We'll never know if it was spread through a distributor, or on the paper it was wrapped in, or in some other way."

Uh, France is no better. Here is the latest French cheese recall due to listeria.

Microbiologist Jacques Goulet, a cheese specialist in the food science department at Université Laval, says he, too, believes the government over-reacted.

"Listeria is present everywhere. But for most people, the risk posed by listeriosis is very low. Healthy people are rarely affected by the bacteria," he said, noting that the annual average of listeriosis cases in Quebec is about 50. (The public health department reported 63 cases in 2007 and 49 in 2006.).

Way to cite statistics. The people who got sick are real people who thought they were eating safe food.
 

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-    use only raw milk;
-    have at least half of the cows providing the milk from Normandy origin; and,
-    ensure that their cows graze on Normandy pastures for at least 6 months of the year and fed hay the remainder of the time.

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