Top 5 food-safety questions journalists should be asking

The editor of Nieman Watch at the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University tracked me down in Florida a couple of weeks ago -- it's not hard, I'm always plugged in, zing -- and asked me to pen the following, which he greatly improved with some editing. Below, Powell's take on the top-5 food-safety questions journalists should be asking.

Food safety is not a trivial issue. The World Health Organization (WHO) reports that up to 30 per cent of individuals in developed countries acquire illnesses from the food and water they consume annually. Active disease surveillance by U.S., Canadian and Australian authorities suggests this estimate is accurate.

WHO has identified five factors of food handling that contribute to these illnesses: improper cooking procedures; temperature abuse during storage; lack of hygiene and sanitation by food handlers; cross-contamination between raw and fresh ready-to-eat foods; and acquiring food from unsafe sources.

There has been some excellent media coverage of microbial food safety issues since the 1993 E. coli O157:H7 outbreak linked to Jack-in-the-Box that killed four and sickened over 600; there has also been some terribly misleading coverage.
Reporters interested in covering this important story should be asking these five questions:

1. Will more government involvement mean fewer sick people?

While the Internet and the mainstream media were all excited about the potential passage of new food safety legislation by the U.S. House in early August -- 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 and hangers-on were talking about.

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

As the Government Accountability Office pointed out in a report a year ago, “The burden for food safety in most … 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 a  visit to headquarters in Lakeland, Fla., I went to the local Publix in St. Petersburg Beach to verify what I’d heard at HQ. Sure, the bosses know 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 bore the following message:

“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.”

This was the first time I’d 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 the company’s food safety officials to say, this is important, let’s do it.

Same thing with fresh fruits and vegetables -- the leading cause of foodborne illness in the U.S. for the past decade.

Late last month, U.S. regulators announced plans to strengthen safety protocols for fresh fruits and vegetables -- except those plans are simply extensions of plans published by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in 1998. Plans and guidelines don’t make food safe: people do.

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

Journalists can hold politicians, producers and industry accountable. There are lots of plans and proposals, but will any of them translate into fewer sick people?

2. Is local/natural/sustainable/organic/raw food really any better than other types of food?

A U.S. government extension agent with a PhD and at a prominent university e-mailed the other day to ask if I had any data on foodborne illness from farmers’ markets because she was preparing for a presentation and was, “trying to make the case that there are very few cases of foodborne illness from local foods relative to our globally based food system.”

But the idea that food grown and consumed locally is somehow safer than other food, either because it contacts fewer hands or any outbreaks would be contained, is the product of wishful thinking.

Barry Estabrook of Gourmet magazine recently invoked the local-is-pure fantasy, writing: “There is no doubt that our food-safety system is broken. But with the vast majority of disease outbreaks coming from industrial-scale operations, legislators should have fixed the problems there instead of targeting small, local businesses that were never part of the problem in the first place.”

But whenever you hear someone say there’s “no doubt” in this field, you should be filled with doubt. Foodborne illnesses are vastly underreported. Someone has to get sick enough to go to a doctor, the doctor has to be bright enough to order the right test, the state has to have the known foodborne illnesses listed as reportable diseases, and so on. For every known case of foodborne illness, there are an estimated 10 to 300 other cases, depending on the severity of the bug. Most foodborne illness is never detected. It’s almost never the last meal someone ate, or whatever other mythologies are out there. A stool sample linked with some epidemiology or food testing is required to make associations with specific foods.

Maybe the vast majority of foodborne outbreaks come from industrial-scale operations because the vast majority of food and meals is consumed from industrial-scale operations. To accurately compare local and other food, a database would have to somehow be constructed so that a comparison of illnesses on a per capita meal or even ingredient basis could be made.

Then there are the whoppers that are repeated daily, somewhere, like this one by raw milk advocate Sally Fallon, who said, “Raw milk is like a magic food for children. … Without the green grass, you're missing a lot of vitamins. Also, it's much safer. When cows are eating green grass, you don't find pathogens in their milk.”

With such statements, public advocacy becomes public health risk.

The natural reservoir for E. coli O157:H7 and other verotoxigenic E. coli is the intestines of all ruminants, including cattle -- grass or grain-fed -- sheep, goats, deer and the like. The final report of the fall 2006 spinach outbreak identifies nearby grass-fed beef cattle as the likely source of the E. coli O157:H7 that sickened 200 and killed four.

A table of raw dairy outbreaks is available at http://www.foodsafety.ksu.edu/articles/384/RawMilkOutbreakTable.pdf. Kids are often the ones that get sick.

And be wary of claims that food is local.

3. Is that food safety advice really accurate?

Everyone eats, so everyone’s an expert when it comes to food. Food, Inc. may be a popular movie among the foodies, but has some terrible food safety advice. Microorganisms that make people sick exist in whatever kind of food production and distribution system we smart humans come up with. But government, industry and academic advice can often be of limited use -- or wrong. Do people really need to wash their hands for 20 seconds -- or will 10 seconds suffice? It will.  Does the water have to be warm? No. Are paper towels better than blow driers at removing pathogens? Yes, it’s the friction that counts. Food safety types argue about these things all the time. If someone says, “food safety is simple, just follow this advice,” don’t believe it. Question everything.

4. With all of the attention, resources and talk, why hasn't there been a reduction in the estimated incidence of foodborne illnesses in the past five years?

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control reported in April 2008 that foodborne illness remains a significant public health issue in the U.S., with Salmonella infections increasingly problematic: “Although significant declines in the incidence of certain foodborne pathogens have occurred since 1996, these declines all occurred before 2004,” the CDC reported.

“Outbreaks caused by contaminated peanut butter, frozen pot pies, and a puffed vegetable snack in 2007 underscore the need to prevent contamination of commercially produced products. The outbreak associated with turtle exposure highlights the importance of animals as a nonfood source of human infections. To reduce the incidence of Salmonella infections, concerted efforts are needed throughout the food supply chain, from farm to processing plant to kitchen.”

The CDC data show existing efforts to reduce foodborne illness have stalled. Signs stating “Employees must wash hands” may not be the most effective way to compel good food safety behavior. New messages using new media should be explored to really create a culture that values microbiologically safe food.

5. Why don’t producers, processors, and retailers market microbial food safety directly to consumers?

There’s lots of marketing of food safety, but it is done indirectly. One of the reasons people buy organic/natural/local/whatever is they perceive such food to be safer -- in the absence of any microbiological data. Grocery stores say all food is safe, yet the weekly outbreaks of foodborne illness -- the ones that consumers hear about -- suggest otherwise. The best farms, processors, retailers and restaurants should brag about their microbial food safety efforts and accomplishments. With so many sick people each year, there’s an attentive audience out there.

Dr. Douglas Powell is an associate professor of food safety at Kansas State University. He also runs barfblog.com, a blog about food safety.
 

An inspectors' dream.....

 

I love food safety and hate pathogens, so sometimes I can get a little too excited when restaurant operators’ are engaged in food safety and really care about what they are doing. Just the other day on a routine restaurant inspection, the manager pulled me aside and asked me if I want to hear everything they are currently doing to ensure food safety. I responded, just as Alec Baldwin did on 30 Rock when asked if he liked Phil Collins, “I have two ears and a heart, don’t I?” And so he began showing me temperature log books, digital tip sensitive thermometers to ensure proper internal cooking temperatures with log books for quality assurance purposes, food from safe sources, proper handwashing, and sanitizer solutions equipped with test strips to ensure proper chemical concentrations. The manager would encourage staff to get involved in food safety, have regular meetings discussing the importance of food safety with demonstrations, essentially on-site food safety training. Wow, doesn’t really get better than this.

This is how useless single food inspection agencies can be

When to go public remains a difficult question for public health types, but us mere mortals were offered a glimpse yesterday.

"To wait until one has evidence beyond doubt . . . is often too late to protect the public," McKeown said.

In front of a parliamentary subcommittee Wednesday, the medical health officers for Ontario and the City of Toronto chastised the Canadian Food Inspection Agency for its handling of last summer's listeriosis outbreak.

"This was a national outbreak, but it wasn't clear that the national public health dofficer had a mandate for leadership at the federal level," Dr. David Williams, Ontario's chief medical officer of health, told the committee.

Williams, along with Dr. David McKeown, Toronto Public Health medical officer, testified at a special parliamentary probing the state of food safety in Canada.

The committee was called after people consumed contaminated meat last summer from a Maple Leaf Foods plant in Toronto, resulting in the death of 22 Canadians.

That death toll was exacerbated by "a lack of effective communication" among health agencies, Williams said, along with what the health officers suggest are differences in reporting procedures between the federal health authorities, and their local and provincial counterparts.

Public health officials should act when there are "reasonable and probable grounds to believe food products poses a health hazard," McKeown explained, adding this "standard" is included in Ontario's public health legislation. But the CFIA generally waited for "conclusive evidence" a specific product is responsible for documented human illness before taking action, he said.

So, all these people died, the president of Maple Leaf thinks he's a food safety hero cause he's learned so much about listeria, and the food safety types at various levels are still talking bullshit.

The locals were left hanging by the omnipotence of the single food inspection agency.
 

This is why we got married at city hall: 29 ill with campylobacter after UK reception

A brewery has been fined £5,100 after guests at a wedding reception were struck down with a serious outbreak of food poising.

Young & Co's Brewery plc, who operate the Bull's Head in Chislehurst, admitted to three food hygiene offences that caused 29 guests at a wedding to be ill.

The officers found that the wedding reception menu contained homemade chicken liver pate and a soft-centred chocolate pudding made from un-pasteurised eggs.

The paté had been cooked the previous day using a new cooker and was probably undercooked as cooking times and temperatures had not been reassessed for the new cooker.

A faulty fridge was also found to be in use in the kitchen.

Grocers claim audits reduce foodborne illness; no evidence provided

Two weeks ago, the U.S. Grocery Manufacturers Association came out with a whopper that no one seems to have noticed.

In a press release intended to highlight private sector initiatives to bolster food safety – which I’m all for, they make the profit, they should shoulder the burden when they make their customers barf – GMA said,

“Ultimately, wider use of third party certification/audits will reduce the risk of food-borne illnesses.”

There is absolutely no evidence to support that statement.

In case there is some confusion, here is the statement in full:

Third party audits are an important part of America’s food safety net.  To ensure rigor and integrity in third party certification, policymakers and industry leaders should encourage the engagement of auditors employed by certification bodies accredited to international standards by recognized organizations such as the American National Standards Institute (ANSI). … By increasing the number of well-qualified auditors and developing universal food safety auditing criteria, industry leaders and policymakers will ensure that auditors are competent to review a particular facility, discourage duplicative audits, reduce auditing costs, and encourage wider use of third party certification/audits throughout the food industry. Ultimately, wider use of third party certification/audits will reduce the risk of food-borne illnesses.

I’ve been hearing such statements for 15 years, and while it sounds good, I’ve seen little evidence to back such proclamations. As I’ve written before,

The third-party food safety audit scheme that processors and retailers insisted upon is no better than a financial Ponzi scheme. The vast number of facilities and suppliers means audits are required, but people have been replaced by paper. Audits, inspections, training and systems are no substitute for developing a strong food safety culture, farm-to-fork, and marketing food safety directly to consumers.

If someone barfs, they’re going to go after the biggest name they can find, whether it’s a retailer or a processor. So protect that brand. Have your own people and some institutional expertise to assess food safety risks. And avoid unsubstantiated statements.
 

Food safety culture and marketing go together

I’ve been writing and talking for a couple of years about the importance of food safety culture from farm-to-fork, and that companies should become more aggressive about marketing their food safety efforts.

Turns out, the two ideas can feed each other, in a synergistic manner (Chapman made the pic).

Those companies that promote food safety culture can market their activities, and then consumers have a way to choose at the check-out aisle, providing feedback to those companies that make food safety a public priority.

Chipotle buys local - but is it safe?

At what point did the language of sustainability get co-opted by organo-local business types?

I ride my bike around town (which is a health hazard in Manhattan), we had a fabulous salad of greens grown in our own garden last night for dinner along with the tuna steak (which wasn’t grown in Kansas), yet when I speak at a local panel or read something, it’s all these folks falling over themselves to be declared green.

Chipotle Mexican Grill will expand its local produce program this summer, purchasing at least 35 percent of at least one bulk produce item in all of its restaurants from local farmers when it is seasonally available. This represents a 10 percent increase over last year's program, the first of its kind for any national restaurant chain.

"Our commitment to cooking and preparing food with more sustainable ingredients has always been about doing the right thing; the right thing for better tasting food, the right thing for the environment, and the right thing for farmers," says Steve Ells, founder, chairman, and co-CEO of Chipotle.


As a lowly consumer, I can only hope that Chipotle holds its local suppliers to some sort of microbiological standards for food safety – maybe they cook the poop out of everything.

I don’t want to hear about how sustainable it is – unless Chipotle or anyone else is going to provide data on water use, greenhouse gas emissions, and microbiological loads on local produce versus the produce provided by the big ‘ole big guys. Do farmers get pissed that anyone thinks they can grow food to feed a bunch of people? Or do they just smirk, bemused?

Once again, Chipotle is the douchebag of fast food.

Why blame the consumer when the outbreaks are elsewhere

Memorial Day is Monday, so it’s time to play, blame the consumer.

Foodborne illness outbreaks have been a regular feature in the news lately and are top of mind when consumers think of food and health issues, but new International Food Information Council Foundation research shows that fewer people are taking basic precautions that could significantly reduce their risk of becoming sick.

Are consumers supposed to cook their peanut butter? Extra roast those pistachios? Sauté the leafy greens and cook the tomatoes?

The survey results are based on self-reported behaviors – do you wash your hands, yes I wash my hands, but not really – so should be immediately consigned to the garbage-in-garbage-out bin.

My favorite question of late is to ask audiences of VP food safety types and other titans of industry how many of them use a digital, tip-sensitive thermometer when they grill chicken breast or burgers for their friends and family, since they are quality control types and really care about data.

Guess it’s follow what I preach, not what I practice.
 

Simpsons, safety, aquavit, Ben and barf

Television’s The Simpson’s on Sunday began with a nice riff about foodborne illness loosely based on the Peanut Corporation of America Salmonella-fest, then quickly moved on to immigration and shared cultural values.

There was lots of aquavit.

I was first exposed to aquavit as a 16-year-old when I spent my first of five summers as a carpenter’s helper for two Danish homebuilders in Brantford, Ontario. I learned how to hammer nails efficiently using my 20-ounce Estwing, and I learned the Danish custom of drinking Aalborg aquavit – Danish schnapps, 45 per cent alcohol, I prefer the dill, above, right, over the caraway flavor – while eating pickled herring, and liver pate and beet open-face sandwiches.

Homer says, Mmmmmmmmmmmmm.

Amy and I still indulge occasionally, especially during losing Kansas State football games.

Ben Chapman first started working in my lab in the summer of 2000. I didn’t know he existed until I invited him and the other lab-types over to the house in September. I brought out the Danish schnapps, and Chapman, eager to make an impression, decided to go drink-for-drink with me. About an hour later, he vomited in my ex’s rose bush.

But, no shame. Homer got hammered by the Norwegians and their aquavit (see the second video below, reminds me of Ben), my friend John Kierkegaard, one of the Danish builders, could drink me under the table.
 

Don't eat poop cupcakes and more

Things are winding down at Kansas State University for the year – at least on the teaching side. In the past, Amy and I have planned some exotic trip to France or Canada to get out of Kansas for the summer, but this year, we’re staying fairly put, with baby Sorenne. Maybe she’ll get acclimated to the heat.

On Friday, for the second year now, Amy hosted the Modern Languages departmental end-of-semester soiree, where all the language professors get together in a Tower of Babel sorta thing. Good fun, good food. And in a food porn moment, Katie made language-based cupcakes. What’s your favorite?

(Oh, and the A-Goo cupcake was in honor of baby Sorenne, cause she says that a lot.)
 

 

Mike Doyle unfairly slammed by wannabe foodies

I don’t really know Mike Doyle, other than the brief chats we have at meetings where our paths cross a couple of times a year and talk about our kids’ hockey-playing ambitions, or the time Amy and I ran into Mike and his wife at the local Orlando supermarket in 2006 cause I guess we were all too cheap to buy hotel food and went to stock up.

I have no idea if Doyle, the Director of the Center For Food Safety at the University of Georgia, is even interested in the job of director of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (although I know others who have had the job and it’s not a dream posting) but his name is getting slogged through the mud that is the Intertubes in a manner that does nothing but confirm that journalism shouldn’t be dead just yet. Sometimes it’s important to check things.

Obama Foodorama, a blog apparently set up to fascinate on all things foodie about the new President, says that,

“Dr. Mike Doyle is Ag Secretary Tom Vilsack's leading contender to head USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service. … Those in the know on the pick say the choice of Doyle is a step backward for Sec. Vilsack, who has so far put together a swell team at USDA. … The word "shill" has been used frequently in e mails about Doyle.”

If shill means talking straight about microbial food safety, sign me up.

“How invested is Doyle in the economics of food safety? He actually holds patents on a number of microbiological solutions for disease outbreaks.”

Uhm, professors are supposed to get outside funding. And patents. And speak their mind in a way that can be validated. Doyle has published about 500 peer-reviewed journal articles, which is 500 more than any of his critics

I don’t really know the dude, but I know Doyle’s consistent on food safety.
 

Obama at E. coli risk? What does a medium-well hamburger mean?

U.S. President Barack Obama and VP Joe Biden (right, photo from AP) ordered a couple of medium-well hamburgers for lunch today at Ray's Hell Burger in Virginia, and while media and blog reports were the usual gaga over, OMG, the President ate, no one asked, what does medium-well mean? Was the President at risk of contracting foodborne illness like the other 83 million American mortals each year?

Color is a lousy indicator. And who knows what medium-well means from one mom-and-pop shop to the next. One of the blogs is already having a heated discussion about what medium-well means and not one person has mentioned temperature.

Anyone out there want to do a graduate degree? Go to 100 burger joints, order burgers, and when they ask how would you like it cooked, ask the server, what does that mean. See if anyone mentions temperature. Write up the various responses in a methodologically sound way. You may save a President.
 

 

Domino's pizza girl whines she can't get a job

Megan K. Kelly-Hardigree, soon-to-be handwashing guru and latest barfblogger (right, pretty much exactly as shown), writes:

After being rightfully fired from a Dominos Pizza in North Carolina, Kristy Hammonds apologized to the public on ABC's Good Morning America this morning. Hammonds admits that the video she and co-worker, Michael Setzer, posted was meant to be a joke. And it was hilarious, what with the disgusting video of cheese in the nose and wiping of the rear with a sponge meant for cleaning pizza pans.

Unfortunately for Kristy and her two kids, the joke's on her.  She is having a hard time (along with thousands of other non-pranking Americans) finding a job.  Ironically, her applications are being rejected from other fast-food restaurants like McDonalds and Taco Bell.

I believe this is called karma. Or a bad Alanis Morissette song. She's Canadian even.
 

Can regulators regulate and promote? Safe food sells

I cringe when pompous professorial types begin sentences with, “Clearly …” 

It happens a lot
.

Over the years, I’ve repeatedly heard a variation of, “Clearly, government agencies can’t regulate and promote food at the same time.” I was on National Public Radio in Maryland a few weeks ago and the statement was repeated mantra-like by both the host and some activist dude.

Yesterday, it was Sylvain Charlebois, a business professor at the University of Regina, telling Canadian parliamentarians they should establish an independent food safety agency reporting directly to Parliament because the Canadian Food Inspection Agency is failing consumers because of its “dual mandate.”

That wasn’t so clear to Ronald Doering (right) who served as the CFIA's president from 1997 to 2002 and practically designed the agency. He called Charlebois's proposal to "hive off food safety" to a body reporting to Parliament instead of to a minister, “silly.”

"The principle consensus all around was if you're going to reorganize how you're going to do food safety, animal heath and plant protection, you've got to make sure you've got accountability right. All parties agreed that we needed to have the agency report directly to a minister in the traditional way, and there could be no doubt that the minister the agency reported to would be accountable for its work."

Sure, CFIA has problems -- like staff figuring out how to subscribe to FSnet. About 400 of them got deleted last week because of repeated error messages due to changes in e-mail addresses. About 250 figured out how to resubscribe; the other 150 decided to personally e-mail and demand I play secretary. Veterinarians with entitlement issues?

Back to the issue. I’ve always thought it’s easier to market safe food and never had much time for the armchair conspiracy theorists.

Doering also said it's "simplistic" to argue the CFIA's dual mandate presents a problem for consumers. Rather, he said Canadians are well-served by putting "the whole food chain in a single enforcement agency, so the CFIA is responsible for seeds, feed, fertilizers, all plant health, all animal health, all food, all commodities because they are all connected."

"The Canadian food, animal health and plant regulatory system is admired around the world. The idea we can export to a 100 countries food, animal or plants without inspection has to say something about the credibility of the regulatory agency."

Mobile food-safety labs get FDA up to speed

Elizabeth Weise of USA Today once again goes to the food safety frontlines to report about the mobile testing laboratory being used by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, this time at the border crossing between Mexico and Nogales, Arizona.

Seventy percent of the fruits and vegetables Americans consume in winter are imported from Mexico, a total of 7 billion pounds, says Allison Moore, communications director for the Nogales-based Fresh Produce Association of the Americas. About half comes through Nogales.

The road that leads to the border begins to fill with trucks carrying fruits, vegetables and manufactured goods at 6:30 a.m. By noon there can be a line of trucks up to 7 miles long snaking through the low desert hills waiting to make the crossing (right ,photo from USA Today).

The lab represents a new era for the agency in keeping the food supply safe, says Michael Chappell, FDA acting associate commissioner for regulatory affairs. It is a tool that can be suited up and rolled out to anyplace in the country facing the danger of contaminated food, whether at the hand of terrorists or Mother Nature.

In the three weeks the trailers were based in Nogales before heading to their next assignment, the FDA estimates that direct contact with the truckers shaved tens of thousands of dollars in testing costs and spoiled produce. The mobile unit also may help repair the agency's reputation, which has been battered by public frustration with the contamination of such popular foods as peanuts and spinach.

barfblog, bites, and food safety

Foodborne illness can be an unpleasant experience or something more serious. The World Health Organization estimates up to 2 billion people get sick from food and water each year – 30 per cent of all citizens in all countries.

Dr. Douglas Powell, associate professor of food safety at Kansas State University, leads a group of individuals passionately committed to reducing the incidence of foodborne illness, through research, teaching and information. The group strives daily to be the international leader in comprehensive and compelling food safety information that impacts individual lives – and reduces the number of sick people.

The electronic publications, barfblog.com and bites.ksu.edu, are comprehensive, current and compelling sources of food safety news and analysis, and help foster a farm-to-fork culture that values microbiologically safe food.

Research
•    The effectiveness of food safety messages and media in public discussions of food safety issues, such as the risks of listeria to pregnant women, legislation surrounding raw milk, public availability of restaurant inspection data, and the safety of fresh produce, are evaluated through qualitative and quantitative methods.

•    Observational research methodologies are used to quantify individual food safety behaviors from farm-to-fork, to enhance handwashing compliance, thermometer use, food packaging information and interventions that can reduce the number of people that get sick from the food and water they consume.

Teaching
•    A graduate program in food safety risk analysis – including food safety, language, culture and policy -- is being developed and will include distance-education.

•    Courses are currently taught in Food Safety Risk Analysis, and Food Safety Reporting.

Information
•    Dr. Powell is the publisher and editor of bites and barfblog, rapid, reliable and relevant sources of food safety information. Dr. Ben Chapman of North Carolina State University is the assistant editor.

•    bites and barfblog are produced by a cross-cultural team of secondary, undergraduate and graduate students as well as professionals who create multilingual and multicultural food safety and security information, including weekly food safety information sheets, and multimedia resources.

•    Research, educational and journalistic opportunities are available for secondary, undergraduate and graduate students through bites.ksu.edu and barfblog.com.

For further information, please contact:

Dr. Douglas Powell
associate professor, food safety
dept. diagnostic medicine/pathobiology
Kansas State University
Manhattan, KS
66506
cell: 785-317-0560
fax: 785-532-4039
dpowell@ksu.edu
bites.ksu.edu
barfblog.com
donteatpoop.com
youtube.com/SafeFoodCafe

or

Dr. Benjamin Chapman
Food Safety Specialist
Department of 4-H Youth Development and Family & Consumer Sciences
NC Cooperative Extension Service
North Carolina State University
Campus Box 7606 (512 Brickhaven Drive)
Raleigh, NC  27695-7606
919.515.8099 (office)
919.809.3205 (cell)
benjamin_chapman@ncsu.edu
 

Wolfgang Puck sued for crappy bathroom

Celebrity blog TMZ reports that celebrity chef Wolfgang Puck is being sued over a restaurant bathroom.

A woman claims she just wanted to take care of some toilet business during a lunch at Puck's most famous Beverly Hills restaurant, Spago back in 2007. But according to the lawsuit, filed in L.A. County Superior Court, the bathroom floor was covered in "standing pools of urine and feces" -- and the only usable toilet didn't have a lock on the door.

The woman also claims she had to use one of her hands to hold the door closed while she took care of business on the throne. But mid-squat, with her hand stuck firmly on the handle, another woman allegedly yanked the door open causing Linden to fall "face-first onto the tile floor."

Reps for Spago claim the woman is completely full of crap when it comes to the cleanliness of their bathrooms -- "In our 27 years of business we've never had an issue close to this ... that portion of the claim is totally without merit."

Wolfgang had some hepatitis A problems back in 2007.


 

bites.ksu.edu: food safety news, and more

The new web site is sorta ready to go.

I say sorta because it’s a work in progress that can be continuously updated and improved. The beta-version, warts and all, is now available.

The fastest way to receive food safety news is to subscribe to barfblog.com. If something’s happening, we try to blog it, rapidly, and with analysis. barfblog can also be followed on twitter.

bites.ksu.edu is continuously updated throughout the day and night and other times. When sufficient news exists, I will send out a summary, much like the current FSnet listserv. You can subscribe to receive this daily (or more) summary on the front of bites.ksu.edu, and can choose between html (pretty pictures and hyperlinks) or text-only formats. Or you can visit the website and see how it changes throughout the day.

If you only want to receive specific news, use RSS feeds.

RSS (Rich Site Summary, or Really Simple Syndication) is a format for delivering regularly changing web content. Many news-related sites, weblogs and other online publishers syndicate their content as an RSS Feed to whoever wants it.

If you only want stories about animal welfare, or norovirus, go to bites.ksu.edu and click on that section. Then click on the RSS symbol, and add to your reader. If you want to receive everything, click on the RSS feed on the homepage for bites.ksu.edu.

I will continue to send out news via the FSnet listserv for the immediate future while you all decide what news you want and how best to receive such news. The old site, foodsafety.ksu.edu, will remain alive as a repository and archives will be archived there, but otherwise will not be updated.
 

Canadian politicians beware: Maple Leaf's Michael McCain isn't really that into you

He may ooze empathy and smooth, but Canadian politicians on the Standing Committee on Agriculture and Agri-Food’s Subcommittee on Food Safety beware: Michael McCain (below, not exactly as shown) really isn’t that into you.

Sure he got dressed up for the committee appearance last night, prefaced it with a little foreplay at a luncheon for business types, and said I’m sorry, it was all me, but when a guy says that, he really means, it’s all you.

McCain just wants to get into your pants, or pants pockets, in the form of public tax dollars for inspections to ensure a future food safety façade so the profits at Maple Leaf Foods won’t be further inconvenienced by death and illness from deli meats.

McCain of Maple Leaf Foods has become the latest corporate type to ask for government help in the form of increased inspection. The dude from Kellogg’s did the same thing in the U.S., as did the growers of lettuce and spinach in California, and tomatoes in Florida. They all said the same thing: we can’t figure out how to provide a safe product while sucking in profits, so government, please, do it for us (that way, when there is an outbreak, we can at least say we met enhanced government standards). If anyone wants to know why government at best sets a minimal standard, read the testimony of Carole Swan, President of the Canadian Food Inspection Agency and Dr. Brian Evans, Executive Vice-President of CFIA.

All of this is tragically embarrassing.

And this ain’t rocket surgery.

Opposition MPs praised McCain for taking responsibility for the tragedy and questioned whether the government should do more to accept part of the blame.

No. Stop being taken in by the fabulously handsome McCain. The best food producers and processors will go far beyond government standards to provide a safe product; they make the profit; they should make it safe. They should brag about it.

McCain told business leaders earlier on Monday, perhaps after a lunch of liquor and delicious deli meats, that the food industry "has to raise its game" because it doesn't take food safety seriously enough.

“This industry has to raise its game. It has to take food safety more seriously, it has to invest more in food safety, and it has to improve its record of delivering safe food to consumers."


Wow. Sixteen years after Jack-in-the-Box and McCain and his $5.5 billion a year company discovers food safety after killing 21 people. He also felt it necessary to lecture parliamentarians and others that ‘poke and sniff’ methods of inspection were outdated. That rhetoric is at least 20-30 years outdated.

You know (a listener said my overuse of ‘you know’ on a Baltimore phone-in show yesterday was appalling and that as a professor lecturing to ‘glasses’ I should know better; I told him I had a voice for print and he should watch his spelling) Amy and I need people to help out with baby Sorenne. I’m not sure we need a village, but babysitters and friends are handy a few hours a week so we can slog through some work. Or shower. Sorenne is 4-months-old.

I’m somewhat baffled, however, when the so-called leaders of multi-billion dollar corporations or producer groups ask for babysitters in the form of government inspectors. Are your managers 4-month-olds that need someone to play ga-ga with? Help to get in their walker?

Canadian parliamentarians, stop being swooned by this guy. NDP MP Malcolm Allen said, “The only way you can get trust back with the public is through third-party verification.”

Apparently the star-struck Mr. Allen, thinking he was asking a tough question, showed himself as the star-struck girlfriend, who knows nothing about food safety, like the shitfest of third-party (non)verification at the Peanut Corporation of America plant which led to nine dead and 600 sick from Salmonella.

Here’s what is appalling about all this: no one, or at least me, expects anything but the bare minimum from government. The CFIA types can say they’re sorry all day, they’ll still have jobs and still go off for six-months of French lessons to move up in the Canadian government bureaucracy.

Michael McCain (above, exactly as shown), who runs that $5.5. billion a year company manufacturing products identified for decades at high risk of listeria, could stick with, yeah, we screwed up, we should have learned from all these past listeria outbreaks, we should have paid attention to the positive test results sitting in our filing cabinets, we’re sorry.

As Steve Martin once said, ‘But Noooooooooooo.’

Instead, McCain makes a big deal out of hiring a food safety dude after the fact, and lectures the rest of the industry and the country on what should be done; instead it’s like dating the worst kind of reformed smoker or born-again addict preaching to everyone else: forget minimal government regulations, forget the preaching, sell safe food. Listeria didn’t just come along 10, 20, 30 years ago, or yesterday, as you would have Canadians believe.

McCain, take care of your own shop, the one that happily makes money. Then maybe we can talk about another date.

Until then, I’m just not that into you.

Toronto takes on feds, province, issues own food safety agenda

I hear from local public health officials all the time, and the ones in Canada repeatedly say the single food inspection agency -- known creatively as, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency – sucks.

The provincial regulators also suck.

So after years of taking it, the City of Toronto is once again trailblazing when it comes to serving the public – those who end up barfing from bad food – and has come up with its own idea of a food safety system that serves people.

Robert Cribb of the Toronto Star reports this morning that in a series of three reports to be presented to Toronto city council on Monday (available at http://www.toronto.ca/health/moh/foodsecurity.htm), foodborne illness in Toronto is rampant and that in order to have fewer people barfing:

• Ontario should consider compensating food handlers who  are too sick to come to work due to "gastrointestinal illness;"
 
•  Ontario and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency should provide "full and timely disclosure of the food safety performance of all food premises
they inspect;” and,
 
• mandatory food handler training and certification, as recommended in the Justice Haines report of 2004 (that was my contribution).

A related story maintains that cases of foodborne illness began to fall almost immediately after Toronto began making restaurant inspection results public in 2001.

John Filion, chair of the city's board of health, said it is the clearest evidence yet of the public health benefits of transparency.

Good for Toronto, especially when the feds and the province leave the locals out to dry on outbreaks of foodborne illness. In the Aug. 2008 outbreak of listeria linked to Maple Leaf deli meats, Toronto health types said they had plenty of evidence something was amiss in July, but CFIA and others refused to go public until Aug. 17, 2008. So with a federal listeria inquiry set to begin Monday, and Maple Leaf all focused on federal regulations, how are Maple Leaf executives going to handle pesky local health units like Toronto – the ones who actually do the work, uncover outbreaks and create their own headlines.

Does Domino's Pizza get new media?

Domino’s Pizza posted a youtube response last night and has moved quickly to douse the Internet-fanned yuckiness of poop in its pizza.

But when Domino's spokesman Tim McIntyre told USA Today today the company is considering banning video cameras in stores, I wonder if they actually understand this social networking stuff – and that anyone can have a video camera on their cell phone.

The USA Today piece explains that two Domino’s employees in Conover, N.C. — fired and facing charges — posted a video on YouTube on Monday that shows one of them doing gross things to a Domino's sub sandwich he is making, such as sticking cheese pieces up his nose and passing gas on the salami.

Although Domino's is getting fairly high marks from social-networking and crisis-management types about its response, McIntyre told the N.Y. Times today that company executives initially decided not to respond aggressively, hoping the controversy would quiet down.

Scott Hoffman, the chief marketing officer of the social-media marketing firm Lotame, said in social media, “if you think it’s not going to spread, that’s when it gets bigger.”

That’s actually traditional media 101, but sure, dress it up with terms like new and social media.
 
By Wednesday afternoon, Domino’s had created a Twitter account, @dpzinfo, to address the comments, and it had presented its chief executive in a video on YouTube by evening (see below).

Yet more than one commentator has said the video may make things worse.

Domino’s CEO Patrick Doyle fails to look into the camera. Instead his eyes peer at 45 degrees, presumably in the direction of a script. The effect is not reassuring. What is even more unfortunate for Domino's is that the posting of the video apology has caused even more YouTube commentary about the company, some of it extremely unflattering.

However, marketers are getting an instant lesson in the dangers of an online world where just about anyone with a video camera and a grudge can bring a company to its knees with lightning speed.

Here are key things experts say marketers can do to quickly catch and respond effectively to similar social-networking attacks:

• monitor social media;

• respond quickly;

• respond at the flashpoint (Domino's first responded on consumer affairs blog The Consumerist, whose readers helped track down the store and employees who made the video);

• educate workers about social media;

• foster a positive culture; and,

• set clear guidelines.

We covered many of the same points in our Food Technology paper about food safety blogging that appeared earlier this year.

Maple Lodge to market food safety on deli meats; will Maple Leaf follow?

Maple Lodge Farms is Canada's largest independent chicken processor and I’ve been to the slaughter plant in Brampton, Ontario. With all the Maple Leaf listeria stuff over the past eight months, Maple Lodge has been sorta quiet.

Until today.

Maple Lodge chief executive officer Michael Burrows unveiled a new high-pressure method of killing listeria and other bacteria in sliced luncheon meats after the package is sealed. The process applies water under extremely high pressure to the packaged product, has no adverse impact on the product itself, and has been approved by Health Canada and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency.

So Maple Leaf, using that newfangled blogging technology, responded by saying Maple Leaf Foods was an early adopter of Ultra High Pressure (UHP) technology in Canada and began using it in Maple Leaf Simply Fresh entree products when they were introduced more than two years ago, in a bunch of other products, and will look at using it in deli meat if it can provide added food safety assurance to consumers.

Maple Leaf, seriously, you need better writers.

But this is what I like about the Maple Lodge approach:

They came out and said internal research showed consumer demand for higher levels of food safety has risen sharply in the past year, and that consumers would be willing to pay a premium of 1-2 cents per 100 grams of product to get it.

Maybe, consumers will say anything on a survey but vote with their money at checkout.

But Maple Lodge is going to label the stuff with a" SafeSure" sticker and market food safety at retail.

Good for them. Rather than lecturing consumers, let them choose. At checkout.

Food safety, one pistachio at a time

Pistachio growers probably won’t agree, but the New York Times says in an editorial this morning that  the recent blanket warning from the Food and Drug Administration about salmonella in pistachios was one of the most encouraging events in years and sent a powerful signal to those in the food business that the F.D.A. planned to focus more urgently on the safety of consumers.

The editorial concludes that even though the Obama F.D.A. appears to be doing a better job, Congress needs to beef up the agency’s staff and broaden its recall authority. Longer term, Congress and the White House need to keep promises to take a deeper look at food safety. It is time to think seriously about establishing one federal agency to coordinate and enforce food-safety regulations — and give consumers the protections they need and deserve.
 

Domino's food prep disaster

Kristy and Michael used to work at Domino’s Pizza in North Carolina. Then they decided to upload their, uh, creative approach to food preparation to youtube.

The videos were later taken off of youtube, but GoodAsYou managed to snag all of them including one of Michael wiping his ass with a sponge and then using it to clean a pan.All the videos are there. Essential tools for future food service training.

Tim McIntyre, vp communications, Domino's Pizza, LLC, wrote to GoodAsYou to say,

“Thank you for bringing these to our attention. I don’t have the words to say how repulsed I am by this – other than to say that these two individuals do not represent that 125,000 people in 60 countries who work hard every day to make good food and provide great customer service. I’ve turned this over to our security department. We will find them. There are far too many clues that will allow us to determine their location quite easily.”
 

UK urine spray man gets nine years

An Algerian-born chemist who contaminated food and wine in Gloucestershire supermarkets with his own urine and faeces has been sent to prison for nine years.

The BBC reports that Sahnoun Daifallah, 42, of Bibury Road, Gloucester, (right, sorta as shown from the BBC) was found guilty of four counts of contaminating goods at four businesses in May 2008.

The court heard shoppers and staff in both stores saw Daifallah with a black laptop computer with a vapour coming from the bag being sprayed on the shelves.

The cost of damaged products and lost business due to resulting store closures was estimated at £700,000.

 

Audits do not enhance food safety culture

“After the PCA (Peanut Corporation of America) plant, you had all the employees saying [the PCA facility] was a dump. It would have been nice for them to say that before nine people died.”

That’s what I told a student reporter for the Kansas State Collegian in this morning’s issue.

The reporter, Tyler Sharp, has been working on a story about Manhattan’s own American Institute of Baking, the auditor at the center of the PCA Salmonella fiasco, for weeks, and had trouble finding anyone to talk. After a March 6, 2009 article in the N.Y. Times sorta shattered the myth of third-party food safety audits, Tyler figured the homegrown story would be a no-brainer. Except he couldn’t get anyone to talk.

Since the release of the Times article, AIB now requires a minimum of two days or longer to complete an inspection at a food processing facility. AIB has also announced it will change the name of its Good Manufacturing Practices inspection certificates from “Certificate of Achievement” to “Recognition of Achievement.”

Is that like Homer Simpson winning the First Annual Montgomery Burns Award for Outstanding Achievement in the Field of Excellence?

I told Tyler, the reporter,

“Third-party food audits, like restaurant inspection, are a snapshot in time. They are not indicative of what happens day in and day out. It doesn’t really tell you much. There are some audits that are OK. It depends on the auditor. My concern is that — and I have done a lot of work with farmers and producers and companies — what you really want is to help people become better with food safety, whereas an audit is just a checklist that penalizes people. That doesn’t necessarily help people get better with food safety.”

The third-party food safety audit scheme that processors and retailers insisted upon is no better than a financial Ponzi scheme. The vast number of facilities and suppliers means audits are required, but people have been replaced by paper. Audits, inspections, training and systems are no substitute for developing a strong food safety culture, farm-to-fork, and marketing food safety directly to consumers rather than the local/natural/organic hucksterism is a way to further reinforce the food safety culture.

Costco, a retail store, which previously limited AIB’s inspections to its bakery vendors, has now instructed suppliers to not use AIB at all.

“The American Institute of Baking is bakery experts,” said R. Craig Wilson, the top safety official at Costco. “But you stick them in a peanut butter plant or in a beef plant, they are stuffed.”


Or as Mansour Samadpour of Seattle says,

“The contributions of third-party audits to food safety is the same as the contribution of mail-order diploma mills to education.”

Passover potluck vomit

Authorities are investigating what made more than 70 people attending a Passover event in Franconia, N.H., ill after eating at a potluck event.

State health officials said 150 people were attending the event when the illness broke out Saturday night, WMUR-TV of Manchester, N.H., reported Monday.

The New Hampshire Health and Human Services Public Health Lab was conducting tests to determine if the illness was salmonella, the report said.
 

FSnet funding, format and future: bites

I knew it was time to change things when new students repeatedly asked, “what’s a listserv?”

The four listservs – FSnet, Agnet, Animalnet and FFnet – are going to be collapsed into a daily publication called bites (below, sorta as shown) by the end of the month.

The text versions of all four listservs, as well as FFnet, are going to disappear immediately, although they will still be available through the archives at foodsafety.ksu.edu.

I have to focus my activities. And the level of sponsorship has declined. However, once bites is up and rolling, new opportunities for sponsorship will be available.

The best way to receive breaking news is to subscribe to barfblog.com. RSS feeds for immediate news will be available once the bites.ksu.edu site is up and running.

Third-party audits are no replacement for skilled staff, food safety culture: Bite Me '09

As the odometer hit 2,000 miles, Amy asked what it was like to travel when my kids were young. I said when they were 4-months-old like Sorenne, they just slept all the time.

Sorenne didn’t sleep all the time.

And then it occurred to me that when my eldest, the 21-year-old, was 4-months-old, I didn’t have a car. I was a student and didn’t drive anywhere. Those other kids who slept all the time had a sister in the backseat to help take care of them.

About 3,000 miles, I told Amy to slap me upside the head the next time I suggested such a road trip.

Bite Me ’09 – five talks, 3,600 miles in 12 days, some golf and some beach – wrapped up with a fury of talks and mileage, Monday in Florida, Tuesday in Nashville, Wednesday in Springdale, Arkansas, with an encore at Wal-Mart HQ in Bentonville and a lovely drive home through the back roads of Kansas with the prairie on fire (ranchers burn grasslands in Kansas for weed control and to encourage new growth).

My short message in various forms was this:

The third-party food safety audit scheme that processors and retailers insisted upon is no better than a financial Ponzi scheme. The vast number of facilities and suppliers means audits are required, but people have been replaced by paper. Audits, inspections, training and systems are no substitute for developing a strong food safety culture, farm-to-fork, and marketing food safety directly to consumers rather than the local/natural/organic hucksterism is a way to further reinforce the food safety culture.

Thanks for all the great hospitality from the various folks along the way and the engaging conversations.

‘Back home, sit down and patch my bones, and get back truckin on.’
 

How did food safety become today's issue 16 years after Jack in the Box? 'Letting the days go by:' Bite Me '09

At least I didn’t show up naked.

That was the general consensus from my talk in Ponte Vedra, Florida, with food industry types on Monday.

The assigned title was, Are We There Yet? – Where Are We? How Did We Get Here? Where Do We Go from Here? and was supposed to be a compressed history of food safety since the 1993 Jack-in-the-Box outbreak and how, 16 years later, the U.S. is in a food safety mess.

My talk was somewhat random – I blame it on  baby brain – and found myself going back to the food safety debates of the mid-1990s. It’s like those never happened, and every new outbreak is an unexpected crisis.

I’m old.

Old enough to remember this 1980 Talking Heads song, which seemed particularly apt, given the title of my talk and predicaments of today. From the song, Once in a Lifetime:

Letting the days go by/let the water hold me down
Letting the days go by/water flowing underground
Into the blue again/after the moneys gone
Once in a lifetime/water flowing underground

And you may ask yourself
Am I right? ...am I wrong?
And you may tell yourself
My god!...what have I done?


If you ask nice, maybe I’ll make you a mixed tape.

Amy, Sorenne and I then hustled out of 80 F weather in Florida in shorts and sandals for what turned into an 11 hour drive to Franklin, Tennessee, complete with a snowstorm. I’m the 8:15 a.m. entertainment at a regional Association of Food and Drug Officials meeting and get to share my dislike of third-party food safety audits.

And I’ll be dressed.
 

Bite Me '09: Jacksonville, Florida

After the warm-up gig in Raleigh, three days of golf with some of the Guelph mafia in North Carolina, a night at Hilton Head, S.C. and hanging on the beach in Ponte Vedra, Florida, the tour goes into rock mode tomorrow.

I may suck at golf, but I am entertaining. Unfortunately, golf is not why I got invited to the Sawgrass Marriott at the Tournament Player’s Club in Ponte Vedra. Apparently it has something to do with food safety, so I’ll try to at least be entertaining.
 

Congressional food safety conspiracies - small farms will be criminal

The New York Times picked up on the burgeoning food safety conspiracy theory business that’s been flooding the Intertubes.

There’s been a lot of outbreaks of foodborne illness and a lot of people barfing. So politicians have been busy bill-making bees, with numerous proposals before the U.S. House and Senate.

As the Times story put it,

“… small farmers, who are most accountable for their food's freshness and health, may suffer the heaviest burden under proposed new food rules. … Small farmers argue that they are already much more accountable to their customers for the quality of their product than are mass-production facilities, and that they will be crushed under the weight of well-meaning laws aimed at large industrial offenders.”

Farmers, regardless of size, are accountable for food’s freshness and health, and more importantly, the microbial food safety of that food. Farmers, big and small, are accountable to their customers. Small is not better, and there is no evidence that smaller is safer. Small, local, organic, whatever, can be microbiologically safe, but that requires attention to sources of dangerous microorganisms and effective measures to reduce levels of risk – regardless of farm size.

And before someone chimes in with the smaller-is-easier-to-trace-and-contain line, there is no evidence to support that argument other than wishful thinking. To make an effective comparison, the number of illnesses per conventional or local/small/organic meal consumed would have to be calculated. And because a lot more people eat, say, conventional tomatoes compared to local/small/organic tomatoes, illnesses with conventional product are more likely to be detected. The data simply is not available to make any meaningful comparison.

What can be said is that local/small/organic is a lifestyle choice. And like any lifestyle choice, go for it but play safe. Try not to make people barf  and even embrace evidence-based microbiologically safe food. Sales will probably increase.

Back to the story. Alexis Baden-Mayer, political director of the Organic Consumers Association, said,

"Organic standards specifically say you are supposed to cultivate the wild land on your farm, and having the area filter water has a lot of benefits. One of the principles is just that -- we're going to farm in a way that's not disruptive to nature."

Farming is not natural; any type of farming is disruptive to nature. So produce food in a way that minimizes the impact on the natural environment, and doesn’t make people barf. But that isn’t what organic is about. As Katija and I showed in our 2004 paper, organic guidelines could be adjusted to incorporate microbial food safety standards, but as they stand, organic standards are a specification for growing organic -- not microbiologically safe -- food.

The best and most dangerous mythology in the story is this:

Critics say the rules unfairly penalize small farmers who grow crops and raise cattle on the same farm, while failing to address what they believe is the root of the E. coli problem -- large, mismanaged feedlots that cram cattle together and spew waste runoff.

A percentage of all ruminants carry E. coli O157:H7. Feedlots are an easy target. But there are lots of outbreaks. Like E. coli O157:H7 in spinach in 2006 that sickened 200 and killed at least three. The source of the E. coli O157:H7 in the transitional organic spinach was a neighboring cow-calf operation – not a feedlot.

Any bill that gets past the discussion stage will be considerably modified and even if passed into law will accomplish … nothing. Conspiracy theories are fun, as is busy bee bill making, but will either result in fewer sick people? Growers, processors, retailers, restaurants and consumers should do what they can today to produce microbiologically safe food.

Language, culture and Salmonella

Amy’s a French professor so I get to hang out with a bunch of folks in Modern Languages. And she speaks French to baby Sorenne, who probably understands more than I do. I’ve taught Amy how to use a digital, tip-sensitive thermometer when cooking all kinds of meat, and she’s taught me to be more sensitive to the cultural nuances of communication.

The intersections of food safety, language and culture are ripe for study. And action. The U.S. Department of Agriculture, yesterday launched a Spanish language Food Safety at Home podcast series. That’s good. But what’s going on in Oregon is better.

There is an outbreak of Salmonella associated with white pepper that has so far sickened at least 42, including 33 in California, four in Oregon, four in Nevada and one in Washington state. Some excellent epi work led William Keene, senior epidemiologist for the Oregon state Public Health Division, and colleagues to test ground white pepper from an Asian restaurant on the east side of Portland. Sure enough, it was positive for salmonella.

According to a report in this morning’s Oregonian, the spice was imported as peppercorns from Vietnam and then ground, packaged and distributed by Union International Food to distributors and manufacturers in the West. It was packaged under the Lian How and Uncle Chen brands.

The Food and Drug Administration has printed warnings about the recall in both English and Mandarin while Oregon's Public Health Division has added an additional Vietnamese version.

Dr. David Acheson, the FDA’s associate commissioner for foods, said,

"This issue illustrates an important area for food safety in that we are dealing with a relatively small facility. Getting the appropriate information out to small facilities who may not necessarily have English as their first language" is a challenge.

USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service invites consumers to subscribe to the free podcast service by visiting http://www.fsis.usda.gov/News_&_Events/Feeds/index.asp. Once subscribed to the RSS feed, new broadcasts will be downloaded automatically to the feed reader used by the subscriber.
 

Australian state to require food safety training for staff

To coach little girls playing ice hockey in Canada requires 16 hours of training. To coach kids on a travel team requires an additional 24 hours of training.

So it seems reasonable to have some minimal training for those who prepare food for public consumption.

The Australian state of New South Wales, which includes Sydney, has decided to agree, and will insist that every restaurant have at least one staff member who has completed a certified course in food handling.

NSW Primary Industry Minister Ian Macdonald said
the State Government is introducing the laws after a spate of outbreaks, adding,

"Thirty-six per cent of food-borne illness outbreaks in NSW are the result of poor food handling. We believe that this is costing in effect $150 million in terms of lost productivity."

Unfortunately, what constitutes a certified course is often crap. The next step is to evaluate what works and what doesn’t – what kind of training actually translates into food service staff practicing safe food prep.
 

190 kinds of rotting food found at pub

Environmental health officials found 190 items of "mouldy, slimy, putrescent or expired foodstuffs" and immediately closed the Rose and Crown pub in Thaxted, Essex, U.K. after a surprise inspection on Dec. 9, 2008.

Work surfaces and utensils were smothered in thick grease, floors littered with rotting detritus and fridges covered in mould and dozens of dirty food containers (right, photo from The Telegraph).

The kitchen did not even have any running hot running water meaning staff could not wash up or clean their hands properly.

Inspectors found the owner was still preparing food in the rancid conditions.

The owner of the pub, Nicholas Marchetto, pleaded guilty to 23 food and hygiene offences at Harlow Magistrates' Court.

He was fined £1,000 and ordered to pay another £1,000 towards the council's costs.

 

Canadian food safety: there are no rules on informing the public

Toronto’s Globe and Mail reports in tomorrow’s edition that the Canadian Food Inspection Agency often finds problems with bottled water, but doesn't tell the public about them.

CFIA food safety and recall specialist Garfield Balsom said there are no hard-and-fast rules on what requires public notification.

“There is nothing indicating what is to be made public or what's not.”


The way the story is written, it's difficult to tell whether this rather explosive quote refers to just bottled water or all food safety issues. The story does explain that an Access to Information Act request was required to determine CFIA issued 29 recall notices for bottled water products between 2000 and early 2008, but issued a public warning in only seven cases, two of which came after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration made public its recall orders.

Balsom said that other countries follow the same approach and don't automatically issue notices because consumers would soon be overwhelmed by publicity over recalls, most of which would pose low risks.

“There are downsides to publicizing everything.”


True. But based on past case studies, people hate it when government-types are inconsistent or bureaucratic or less than forthcoming.

The agency has an internal hazard ranking system, known as class one, class two and class three, for products that respectively pose high, moderate and low risk. … But the access records show that there was no consistency in the agency's approach. There were cases of the same bacteria and same hazard ratings being treated differently, with some having public recalls and others not.


This is a persistent problem – when to go public. Suspicions remain that CFIA and Maple Leaf Foods were slow in responding to last year’s listeria shitstorm that killed at least 21 – and a public offering of who knew what when is still missing.

Same with the Salmonella in tomatoes and jalapenos last summer in the U.S. Many were frustrated by conflicting messages and finger-pointing. Same with cyclosproa in the U.S. in Canada in 1996, in which California strawberries were erroneously fingered when it was the Guatemalan raspberries.

Epidemiology, like humans, is flawed. But it’s better than astrology. The more that public health folks can articulate when to go public and why, the more confidence in the system. Past risk communication research has demonstrated that if people have confidence in the decision-making process they will have more confidence in the decision. People may not agree about when to go public, but if the assumptions are laid on the table, and value judgments are acknowledged, then maybe the focus can be on fewer sick people.

Microbiologically safe food - regardless of farm size

Daughter Courtlynn spent her spring break with daughter Sorenne in Manhattan (Kansas).

Which is the only lede I got into foodborne illness, conspiracies and shameless exploitation of children.

The conclusion is this: Michelle Obama should use the White House garden to endorse microbiologically safe food, from around the corner or around the globe.

Phillip Brasher wrote in The Des Moines Register yesterday,

“In recent years, the federal government and the food industry have taken some significant steps to improve the safety of fresh produce. Those measures include stringent inspection standards for farms that supply schools and supermarket chains. The standards sometime restrict the use of compost and manure to fertilize crops and restrict how close cattle can be to fields.”

Stringent standards is not the descriptor to be used in the wake of the Peanut Corporation of America-AIB auditing fiasco. Worse, associations representing small-scale farmers have taken to the Intertubes to whine and conspiratorize about the end of family farming; that somehow standards for producing safe produce shouldn’t apply to small farms, or my garden.

The group that keeps getting cited for its threatening analysis of proposed food safety legislation is the ponderous Farm-to-Consumer Legal Defense Fund, which is run by the folks pushing raw milk. And some of those folks have, uh, interpretations of food safety that are not only wrong but dangerous to public health. Epidemiology does work, but not everyone likes the results.

Back to my kids. Or Mason Jones, the five-year-old who died in the 2005 E. coli O157 outbreak in Wales. Or Barack’s kids, since he cited them in a food safety chat. The food safety goal, for me, is to have fewer people barfing and dying. There is some microbiology and food science available to help achieve that goal. There is a lot of speculation, fairytales and unknowns about the providence of nature and immunology which can get in the way of that goal.

Michelle Obama, you are embracing local and fresh and natural foods and whatever that means. As I asked March 11, 2009, use the White House bully garden to embrace microbiologically safe food.

Kellogg's sells poop; asks taxpayers to wipe up

Kellogg CEO David Mackay is planning to grunt out a giant turd in Washington tomorrow.

To see how his assertions would be, uh, swallowed, Mackay’s comments were leaked to an uncritical press this afternoon, just like in the financial meltdown. Both AP and Reuters proclaimed that Kellogg’s “is urging lawmakers to overhaul the nation's food safety system.”

Mackay (right, exactly as shown) wants food safety placed under a new leader in the Health and Human Services department. He also called for new requirements that all food companies have written safety plans, annual federal inspections of facilities that make high-risk foods, and other reforms.

Mackay whined that Kellogg's had to recall more than 7 million cases of crackers and cookies, at a cost of $65 million to $70 million, and that "Audit findings reported no concerns that the facility may have had any pathogen-related issues or any potential contamination.”

Kellogg’s is a multi-billion dollar company asking for a government handout to do what Kellogg’s should be doing – selling a safe product. Kellogg’s helped create the paper albatross that is third-party audits instead of having its own people at plants that supply product which Kellogg’s resells at a substantial profit. And now this crapmeister is going to tell Washington how to strengthen food safety when he can’t keep shit out of his own company’s peanut cracker thingies. Must be a day of dicks.

Sen. Florez of California needs an editor and a fact-checker

When I was about 13-year-old, my attempts at writing included starting sentences with, “Well, …”

At some point I received some direction from knowledgeable editors, and I read Strunk and White, The Elements of Style.

Sen. Dean Florez, D-Shafter (Kern County), the majority leader in the California state Senate wrote in the The San Francisco Chronicle yesterday that,

“Short of raising our own vegetables and meats, a worthy but impractical goal in a nation now more urban than rural, how can each of us ensure that what we eat is not only nutritious but safe?

"Well, we can begin by adopting the mantra of the Slow Food movement and make a habit of buying from our local farmers. … To make our food safer, we need to begin with the soil itself. We know that the modern factory farm is to blame for more and more virulent strains of microbes. All that corn and grain fed to cows have changed the chemistry in their guts, allowing harmless microbes to evolve into the deadly ones.”

Anyone raising their own food is equally capable of poisoning that food. Buying local does not mean safe. And to say that dangerous bacteria like E. coli O157:H7 evolved from factory farms and corn is to ignore science and hop on the most populist of bandwagons.

Dick.

Sen. Florez also uses the ubiquitous “we” as in “We know …”

Who are these we? I wrote an entire book with a dude who I had to break of the “we” habit. And looks like I need to revisit my own rules about using “air fingers” or “dick quotes.”
 

Obama makes food safety statement: forms committee

U.S. President Barack Obama used his weekly radio – and YouTube – address today to bolster and reorganize the nation’s fractured food-safety system by forming a committee -- the Food Safety Working Group.

President Clinton had a similar group 13 years ago.

Obama said,

“In the end, food safety is something I take seriously, not just as your president, but as a parent.”


Me too. But when it comes to the safety of the food supply, I generally ignore the chatter from Washington. If a proposal does emerge, such as the creation of a single food inspection agency, I ask, Will it actually make food safer? Will fewer people get sick?

In the initial parsing of the speech, the N.Y. Times reported,

Experts have long debated whether the F.D.A. should increase inspections or rely instead on private auditors and more detailed safety rules. By calling the limited number of government inspections an “unacceptable” public health hazard, Mr. Obama came down squarely on the side of increased government inspections.

Government inspections have a role. But it’s minimal compared to what industry can do. And FDA has no authority over farms, so problems with tomatoes, spinach and sprouts are not going to be solved by increasing inspections at processing plants.

Obama is excellent at setting tone, and that is the best that can be expected from this committee formation. Maybe it will send a message that everyone, from farm-to-fork, needs to get super-serious about providing microbiologically safe food. Maybe that will increase the safety of the food supply and result in fewer sick people.

 

Michelle Obama promotes fresh produce; how about microbiologically safe produce?

The New York Times continues the fascination with all things Obama this morning as it reports on First Lady Michelle’s focus on fresh produce.

“You know, we want to make sure our guests here and across the nation are eating nutritious items. Collect some fruits and vegetables; bring by some good healthy food. We can provide this kind of healthy food for communities across the country, and we can do it by each of us lending a hand.”


In a speech at the Department of Agriculture last month, Mrs. Obama described herself as “a big believer” in community gardens that provide “fresh fruits and vegetables for so many communities across this nation and world.”

I am too. Brought the seedlings in yesterday as a temporary cold snap hit Kansas, but the greens and asparagus will soon be sprouting from the family garden. I also know fresh produce is also the biggest source of foodborne illness today in the U.S. That’s because it’s fresh, and anything that comes into contact has the potential to contaminate.

So, yeah Michelle, promote the produce, but organic and local do not mean safe. Play up those producers who responsibly manage microbial risks. And if you’re going to put your kids dining habits front and center, you really don’t want them barfing.

Kristen Schaal, otherwise known as Mel from Flight of the Conchords, offered her take on First Lady Michelle last night on the Daily Show.
 

Farmers -- organic, conventional and otherwise - need to focus on microbial food safety

Organic is an industry, just like any other industry. While the organic folks may have cornered the language involving sustainable, natural and healthy, they use the same promotional BS that any big food company would use.

That’s why they use pictures like the one, right, to portray the organic industry. I look at the picture and wonder where those hands have been and what kind of poop is being spread on that fresh produce.

The same organic  folks who criticize industry for putting out promotional brochures and information are guilty of … putting out promotional brochures and information.

Taste the Change: How to Go Organic on Campus
, is described as “the nation’s first guide for students who want to bring organic dining to campus is now available for download. This ground-breaking student guide is dedicated to feeding the organic revolution on campus.”

I have no idea why a guide that includes “Media Outreach” and “Free Food Never Fails” is considered ground-breaking, but the new brochure does follow the equally abysmal, Organic: It’s Worth It. And once again, the organic folks explicitly state that organic is a production standard, not a food safety standard.

“Organic production is based on a system of farming that maintains and replenishes soil fertility without the use of toxic and persistent pesticides and fertilizers.”

The N.Y. Times pointed out the same thing a few days ago: organic does not mean safer; it’s a lifestyle choice. But the organics industry keeps hinting at health benefits.

“Organic agriculture minimizes children’s exposure to toxic and persistent pesticides in the soil in which they play, the air they breathe, the water they drink, and the foods they eat.”

As Katija and I pointed out in our 2004 paper, Microbial Food Safety Considerations for Organic Produce Production:  An Analysis of Canadian Organic Production Standards Compared with US FDA Guidelines for Microbial Food Safety,

“The production of safe food is the responsibility of everyone in the farm-to-fork chain. With established relationships between growers and regulatory infrastructure, the CGSB organic standard would be an ideal vehicle for providing organic growers with information and guidelines on identifying and controlling microbial hazards on their produce.”

Would be. All growers – organic, conventional and otherwise – need to focus on microbial food safety. There’s just too many people getting sick from the food they eat..
 

Local is not safer

Spring has sprung in Kansas. We all worked in the yard yesterday, and after a couple of cool nights later in the week, the first leafy greens will be going into the garden.

With spring comes the mantra, local is safer.

The idea food that is grown and consumed locally is somehow safer than other food, either because it contacts fewer hands or any outbreaks would be contained, is sorta soothing, like a mild hallucinogen, and has absolutely no basis in reality.

Foodborne illness is vastly underreported -- it's known as the burden of reporting foodborne illness. Someone has to get sick enough to go to a doctor, go to a doctor that is bright enough to order the right test, live in a state that has the known foodborne illnesses as a reportable disease, and then it gets registered by the feds. For every known case of foodborne illness, there are 10 -300 other cases, depending on the severity of the bug.

Most foodborne illness is never detected. It’s almost never the last meal someone ate, or whatever other mythologies are out there. A stool sample linked with some epidemiology or food testing is required to make associations with specific foods.

Robert Brackett, senior vice president of the Grocery Manufacturers Association, and a darn fine scientist, told USA Today most foodborne illnesses don't get noticed because not enough people get sick to alert officials that an outbreak is underway. Undetected outbreaks are more likely with "local" products delivered in small quantities and sold in a small area.

Comparing local with all that other food brings in more tenuous links and numerous erroneous assumptions. To accurately compare local and other food, a database would have to somehow be constructed so that a comparison of illnesses on a per capita meal or even ingredient basis could be made.

But the absence of data doesn’t stop doctrine. JoLynn Montgomery, director of the Michigan Center for Public Health Preparedness at the University of Michigan told the Detroit Free Press today that one solution that is catching on is buying locally grown foods.

"The less distance the food has to travel, the fewer people who touch the food, the less risk you have.”

Local can be microbiologically safe. But repeating ‘local’ while in some sorta peyote buzz doesn’t take care of the dangerous bugs. So wherever food is purchased or even grown, ask some questions:

• how are pathogenic microorganisms managed;
• is wash and irrigation water tested for dangerous bacteria;

• how is fresh produce protected from animal poop;
• what kind of soil amendments are being used and are they microbiologically safe; and,
• are you or your suppliers practicing great handwashing?

That’s a start.
 

Safest food in the world: Minnesota academic edition

Fewer than one in four consumers now believe the U.S. food supply is safer than it was a year ago, according to new data from the University of Minnesota's Food Industry Center.

That’s an awkward sentence. But not as awkward as the statement by study co-author Dennis Degeneffe , a research fellow at the center, who told a Minnesota paper that,

Even with low consumer confidence in food safety and intense media scrutiny of recent contaminations, it’s important for consumers to keep in mind that the industry as a whole is safe.

“The truth of the matter is, we have the safest food supply in the world, and it’s probably getting better with technology.”


Tell that to the sick people. And provide some data to back it up.
 

Whole Foods - purveyors of food porn

Baby Sorenne is three-months-old today. She slept eight-straight hours last night. Awesome.

Whole Foods Market figures I’m part of their demographic, and is rolling out a Whole Baby promotion.

Throughout the month, in-store lectures by Whole Body experts will provide shoppers with information on such topics as prenatal top priorities, natural baby care choice, tips and concerns for breastfeeding mothers and top 10 "first food" facts.

I checked out Whole Foods' food safety expertise, which they claimed they were really good at. Maybe they were using the same nutritionists and dieticians as in all those Canadian seniors’ homes who thought it was OK to feed listeria-laden cold cuts to the immunocompromised elderly. Nowhere in the Whole Foods literature is there any statement that pregnant women should avoid refrigerated ready-to-eat foods like soft cheeses, smoked salmon and deli meats.

But Whole Foods, like so many other groups, does manage to blame consumers for the bulk of foodborne illness, in the absence of any data to support such a claim.

Food safety is pretty high on everyone's list of "things to be aware of," especially in light of the food recalls and poisoning scares that seem to happen all too frequently. But believe it or not, the ones you hear about on the TV news aren't the most common — a good deal of food poisoning is caused by improper food handling in home kitchens.


Whole Food customers are paying a premium for foodstuffs, only to be told that the company carefully checks the paperwork for all the products it sells, but can do no better than the minimal standard of government.  “For the thousands of products we sell, that’s the extent we can go to. The rest of it is up to the F.D.A. and to the manufacturer.”

Whole Baby is going nowhere near baby Sorenne.
 

Across the Sea, Fat Duck flails

The Fat Duck fiasco reached public ears on Feb. 24, 2009, the day celebrity chef Heston Blumenthal decided that because of his “moral feeling” about 40 sick customers, he best close shop, even though he was losing a lot of money and maybe it wasn’t necessary.

By March 3, 2009, chef Heston declared tests  ruled out food poisoning after up to 40 customers reported feeling unwell and that,

“It has been awful. We have done our own food testing for the last four years. Everything is tested from the food coming out of the ground, from the farm into the kitchen and to the customer.

"When we started getting telephone calls we took it very seriously. … We've had staff tested, some customers tested and so far it is categorically not food poisoning. We are now looking at the possibility of an airborne virus. This could have come from a customer, a staff member not showing symptoms or from outside the restaurant. A customer called me to say they came in with a table of four, three of them got ill, but then their children got ill so they are convinced it is a virus."


At the time I wrote that a lack of positive test results proves nothing. Chapman and I e-mailed each other about the pitfalls of armchair epidemiology. Oh, and I’d be interested to know the nature of those tests for everything. Testing is one of those words that is supposed to make folks sound like they are on top of things – Maple Leaf does thousands of tests – but it’s sorta meaningless in the absence of a protocol.

Today the Fat Duck remains closed. The number of sick is now estimated at 400. The Independent reported yesterday that more than 1,000 people face medical checks after health officials widened their investigation into the Fat Duck illness. And the story has gone international.

The New York Times reports this morning that Britain’s Health Protection Agency is testing the food, testing the people who had become ill and conducting a “risk assessment of all food storage, preparation and cooking processes.” It is testing for bacteria, viruses, patterns in the sick people’s symptoms and in the food they ate and, for good measure, testing other diners, whether or not they got sick.

“… Mr. Blumenthal is perhaps best known for items like snail porridge and “nitro-scrambled egg and bacon ice cream” (served with tea jelly).

His Sound of the Sea dish includes seafood, foam and what some reviewers have called “edible sand.” It is served alongside a conch shell with an iPod in it, so diners can listen to wave and seagull sounds as they eat.


And the individual stories are emerging. Boxing promoter Frank Warren was one of 400 diners who fell ill after dining at the Fat Duck, and said he was "very disappointed" with his treatment after becoming sick following his visit.

"Everything was fabulous about the evening - the food, the setting, the service, it was unbelievably good but unfortunately, afterwards, all of us were ill. … Since then we have not heard anything from the restaurant at all. I am very disappointed and I know that the people I went with are very disappointed with the feedback."

As I’ve already written, check out the staff. And handwashing facilities. And suppliers. And places chefs rarely think to go when it comes to basic microbiology, from farm-to-fork.

And what a fab excuse for a Weezer video, Across the Sea.

Third party food safety audits are like mail-order diplomas

Mansour, I couldn’t have said it better myself:

“The contributions of third-party audits to food safety is the same as the contribution of mail-order diploma mills to education,” said Mansour Samadpour, a Seattle consultant who has worked with companies nationwide to improve food safety.


The Ponzi scheme that is third-party food safety audits is starting to collapse. Watching Jon Stewart on the Daily Show last night, the questions he asked to a N.Y. Times reporter about the financial mess could have easily been mapped to the food safety mess (see video below).

The N.Y. Times will report in tomorrow’s editions that the American Institute of Baking auditor who gave the Peanut Corporation of America plant in Georgia a superior rating before the peanut-salmonella shitstorm, was an expert in fresh produce and was not aware that peanuts were readily susceptible to salmonella poisoning — which he was not required to test for anyway. Oh, and PCA paid for the audit which Kelloog’s then blindly accepted.

The auditor even wrote in a Jan. 20 e-mail after the salmonella outbreak became public, that, “I never thought that this bacteria would survive in the peanut butter type environment. What the heck is going on??”

That’s why there’s FSnet and barfblog and hundreds of other food safety resources out there; he never heard of Peter Pan and salmonella in 2007?

In 2007, Keystone Foods, the Pennsylvania plant that makes Veggie Booty, received an “excellent” rating from the American Institute of Baking. But the audit did not extend to ingredient suppliers, including a New Jersey company whose imported spices from China were tainted with salmonella.

“The only thing that matters is productivity,” said Robert A. LaBudde, a food safety expert who has consulted with food companies for 30 years, adding that “you only get in trouble if someone in the media traces it back to you, and that’s rare, like a meteor strike.”

Dr. LaBudde said a sausage plant hired him five years ago to determine the species of bacillus plaguing its meat. But the owner then refused to complete the testing. “I called them ‘anthrax sausages,’ and said they could be killing older people in the state, and still they wouldn’t do it,” he said, declining to name the company.
...

Before the salmonella outbreak, Costco had rebuffed repeated proposals by the organization to inspect all its food suppliers. “The American Institute of Baking is bakery experts,” said R. Craig Wilson, the top food safety official at Costco. “But you stick them in a peanut butter plant or in a beef plant, they are stuffed.”

Costco, Kraft Foods and Darden Restaurants are among a group of food manufacturers and other companies that use detailed plans to prevent food safety hazards. They also supplement third-party audits with their own inspections and testing of ingredients and plant surfaces for microbes.

 

Food safety education failures

Whenever a group says the public needs to be educated about food safety, biotechnology, trans fats, organics or anything else, that group has utterly failed to present a compelling case for their cause.

I cringe, and remember a Lewis Lapham column I read in Harper’s magazine in the mid-1980s about how individuals can choose to educate themselves about all sorts of interesting things, but the idea of educating someone is doomed to failure. Oh, and it’s sorta arrogant to state that others need to be educated; to imply that if only you understood the world as I understand the world, we would agree and dissent would be minimized.

What nonsense.

Yet millions are wasted weekly on such campaigns.

Industry, government, academia, activists, they all resort to the same language when it comes to providing information: them folks need to get edumacated.

In the past year:

• the American Ag & Energy Council said it believed in promoting all the good the industry does through education;

• Shell Malaysia chairman Datuk Saw Choo Boon told Malaysians efforts should concentrate on educating the public to become twice as efficient in energy use by 2050;

• an industry type said food irradiation is safe, but its adoption by the industry would require a massive consumer education campaign;

• the U.S. beef checkoff supported the efforts of federal agencies in promoting beef safety through educational activities;

• the Canadian Partnership for Consumer Food Safety Education has it right in their horribly bureaucratic name;

• as does the U.S. Partnership for Food Safety Education, dedicated to improving public health through research-based, actionable consumer food safety education; and,

retailers are joining the group effort to educate millions of consumers about food safety.

A long time ago, I wrote,

There is a dearth of scientific studies applying proven risk communication concepts to issues of microbial food safety. There is, however, an abundance of academic, industrial and government pronouncements on how to improve communications activities related to food safety, based on anecdotal evidence and almost always citing the need for “educated consumers” or “a better-educated public.”

Such proposals invoke a one-way, authoritarian model of communication that is characteristic of scientists and engineers in general. Further, exactly how this mythical consumer will become better educated remains a mystery. What is known is that the traditional approach of scientists clearly explaining the facts is “naive—and probably a recipe for failure. ... Effective communication
“Too often, risk communicators are more concerned with educating the public, rather than first listening to them and then developing communication policies.”

So it’s not surprising that the organic industry is also lacking in imagination and has launched a national consumer education and marketing campaign.

The Organic Agriculture and Products Education Institute (Organic Institute) has launched "Organic. It's worth it."

"The mission of this campaign is to answer consumer questions about organic with the clear message that organic is worth it in every way from health care and economics to farming and the environment. It will increase consumer trust, knowledge and purchase of organic products," said Christine Bushway, president of the Organic Institute and executive director of the Organic Trade Association (OTA), the sponsor of the campaign.

Designed to be of service to families with young children at home, the campaign especially seeks to reach new mothers, the primary gateways to organic, according to OTA Marketing Director Laura Batcha, who developed the campaign with Haberman, the Minneapolis brand public relations firm, on behalf of the Organic Institute.

"Helping mothers make the connection between the personal health of their families and the health of the environment is key to this education and marketing initiative," explained Batcha. "It gives them the rationale they need to make the organic purchase."


Of course, as the N.Y. Times points out this morning, organic has nothing to do with food safety. It’s a production standard, and a porous one at that. But consumers believe that organic is healthier and safer, according to surveys. The organic industry will never come out and say it’s safer, but they hint at it through marketing (see above).

So it’s a shock to some that Peanut Corporation of America plants in Virginia and Texas were certified organic, revealing the same Ponzi scheme of inspection and auditing that failed to catch Salmonella problems in the plants.

As the Times states,

Although the rules governing organic food require health inspections and pest-management plans, organic certification technically has nothing to do with food safety. …

A private certifier took nearly seven months to recommend that the U.S.D.A. revoke the organic certification of the peanut company’s Georgia plant, and then did so only after the company was in the thick of a massive food recall. So far, nearly 3,000 products have been recalled, including popular organic items from companies like Clif Bar and Cascadian Farm. Nine people have died and almost 700 have become ill.

The private certifier, the Organic Crop Improvement Association, sent a notice in July to the peanut company saying it was no longer complying with organic standards, said Jeff See, the association’s executive director. He would not say why his company wanted to pull the certification.

A second notice was sent in September, but it wasn’t until Feb. 4 that the certifier finally told the agriculture department that the company should lose its ability to use the organic label.


To emphasize that reporting basic health violations is part of an organic inspector’s job, Barbara C. Robinson, acting director of the agriculture department’s National Organic Program, last week issued a directive to the 96 organizations that perform foreign and domestic organic inspections that they are obligated to look beyond pesticide levels and crop management techniques.

Potential health violations like rats — which were reported by federal inspectors and former workers at the Texas and Georgia plants — must be reported to the proper health and safety agency, the directive said.

Wow. Organic inspectors have to be told by the feds that rats may pose a health risk and should be reported.

Arthur Harvey, a Maine blueberry farmer who does organic inspections, said agents have an incentive to approve companies that are paying them.

“Certifiers have a considerable financial interest in keeping their clients going,” he said.

OMG. Organic, like other food systems, is about making money.

Is there a better way? Yes, market microbial food safety and hold producers and processors – conventional, organic or otherwise – to a standard of producing food that doesn’t make people barf. That’s something shoppers will support, instead of being told they have to become better educated about someone else’s limited perspective.
 

Farmers markets on campus - where's the food safety?

University campuses are often the first mainstream pressure point to be hit with food fads. So it’s no surprise the Los Angeles Times reports this morning that a growing number of colleges are finding that campus farmers markets are a great fit, tapping into students' interest in sustaining the planet with an appealing combination of food, music and lots of people hanging out.

The University of Southern California held its first market in February 2008, the result of meetings between students and university officials that began in fall 2007.

Scott Shuttleworth, the university's director of hospitality said that having at least one farmer at the market was important to give shoppers a chance to talk with someone about "eco-friendly agriculture and organic and natural farming practices."


I’m not sure at what point only local, natural types who hang out at farmers markets cornered the language on “sustaining the planet” but it happened a while ago – and without discussion. As usual, what was lacking from the coverage was any discussion of microbial food safety standards; even suggesting such basics can bring the wrath of a tyrannical religion.

The author of the blog, Conkey’s Tavern, who’s a fan of local, as am I, agreed the other day with the idea of data: water quality results, data on soil amendments, evidence of compliance with handwashing and safe handling.



It isn’t about local, small or big. It’s about what will make folks barf. And that requires control of dangerous microorganisms, regardless of politics.
 

Fat Duck was correct to close after diners sickened

The Fat Duck is apparently a fancy restaurant in Berkshire, UK, run by TV chef Heston Blumenthal; it was voted Best Restaurant in the World by fellow chefs in 2005, or something.

The Independent reports that Blumenthal (right) spent a sleepless night before deciding to close the restaurant last Tuesday in the face of a steady stream – between 30 and 40 – of complaints from customers who suffered vomiting, diarrhoea and flu-like symptoms.

"I made the decision to be transparent about it. Who knows if it was the right or wrong decision to make. But my gut reaction, the moral feeling about it all, was that's what we had to do. It was an incredibly emotional decision."

But tests for viral infections and food poisoning have proved negative and there is speculation that the winter outbreak of norovirus could be the real reason why they became sick.


Yeah, check out the staff. And handwashing facilities. And suppliers. And places chefs rarely think to go when it comes to basic microbiology, from farm-to-fork.

Food poisoning sickens 80 at Neb. choir event

Nebraska health officials say more than 80 people fell ill from food poisoning after a choir competition Feb. 21 at Papillion-La Vista High School.

Food served at the competition came from a range of sources, including vendors and parents who had donated baked goods for a fundraiser. 



State epidemiologist Tom Safranek says the illnesses have been traced to improperly handled meat, which was cooked at a family's home. 



The illnesses are not linked to a recent outbreak of salmonella that's sickened at least 14 people in eastern Nebraska. State health officials are still investigating the source of those illnesses. 

 

Times food safety editorial is nutty

An editorial in Tuesday’s N.Y. Times about the now bankrupt Peanut Corporation of America and its Salmonella shitfest is long on outrage but short on imagination.

“While most successful food producers are far more diligent — big name-brand peanut butter is considered safe, for example — American consumers have faced far too many food-supply emergencies in the last few years.”

Is ConAgra a big food company? Wasn’t Peter Pan peanut butter the source of a huge Samonella outbreak in 2007?

“Congress needs to find more money for inspectors, especially at the Food and Drug Administration.”

Maybe, but lots of federal and state inspectors, along with the best and brightest the Ponzi scheme of food safety auditing had to offer all seemed to miss the problems at PCA. If someone wants to break the law and ship Salmonella-contaminated product, it’s going to happen.

“President Obama promised during the campaign to create a government that does a better job of protecting the American consumer. The nation’s vulnerable food supply is a healthy place to start.”

Government has a role. But nowhere did the Times editorial mention the power of consumer choice that would be unleashed if food producers would truthfully market their microbial food safety programs, coupled with behavioral-based food safety systems that foster food safety culture from farm-to-fork. The best producers and processors will go far beyond the lowest common denominator of government and should be rewarded in the marketplace.
 

Quiznos: Toasted tastes better, especially if the safety were improved

There’s no ice hockey in Manhattan (Kansas) but we do get the NHL channel, and a hockey game can make some fine background while editing.

Saturday nights around 6:45 pm (CST), if I remember, it’s off to Hockey Night in Canada for seven minutes of Don Cherry, the 75-year-old former coach and commentator know for his “outspoken manner, flamboyant dress, and staunch patriotism.”

Cherry also lended his trademark staccato yelling to the Quiznos sandwich chain in Canadian ads, and the “Toasted tastes better” tagline.

So I thought of Don today, as I pined for hockey and read that Quiznos has adopted a new animal-welfare policy regarding its purchases of eggs, pork and turkey, developed in conjunction with People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.

That’s sweet. I wonder if Quiznos modified its buying patterns after tomatoes on its sandwiches in Rochester, Minnesota, sickened at least 10 people with Salmonella in 2007. Maybe Quiznos modified its policies on raw sewage on the floor in its restaurants after a Chicago outlet was closed in 2008. And maybe Quiznos has instituted sensitivity training for its managers after a Toronto spokesthingy said in response to the Canadian listeria outbreak in deli meats which killed 20 last year that, “People are hypochondriacs.”

This video is aptly titled, Don Cherry is crazy.
 

Sales drop 25% as parents shun peanut butter

A story in Saturday’s  N.Y. Times will report that sales of all brands of peanut butter are down by nearly 25 percent – and those numbers will get worse.

The contaminated peanut butter traced to the Georgia plant represents a small percentage of the total $800 million in annual sales by the peanut butter companies in the United States. But the public relations problem for the rest of the industry is unlikely to ease anytime soon. …


So far, the salmonella outbreak has been linked to 575 illnesses and eight deaths, and more than 1,500 products have been recalled, including cookies, ice cream and pet food.

In response, brands like Jif and Peter Pan are taking out ads to tell shoppers that their products are not affected, and giving them a coupon.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Oh, I’m sorry, I fell asleep.

Instead of telling consumers what they aren’t, maybe the big peanut butter types could tell people what they are – the food safety steps they take to produce a product that won’t make people barf.

The best food producers, processors, retailers and restaurants should 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.

The makers of Jif and Peter Pan have already gone on record saying they will not disclose their own food safety test results.
 

Finally, a focus on the 'fallacy' of food safety audits

“They called me crazy at Masters and Johnson. But I’ll show them.”
The demented Dr. Bernardo from Woody Allen’s 1972 film, Everything You Always Wanted To Know About Sex (But Were Afraid to Ask).

A week ago I asked, with all the recalled products related to Samonella in peanut paste, what problems did the third-party auditors uncover and what was done about such problems?

A few weeks ago, Chapman and I wrote that,

Third-party audits are an incomplete form of verification that provide a limited view of a producer’s facilities and documentation but do not effectively reduce risk. …At some point, folks will figure out that all these outbreaks of foodborne illness – like Salmonella in peanut butter – happened at places that passed so-called independent audits.

Ten years ago, I told the Ontario greenhouse tomato growers they should have their own in-house food safety expertise to help farmers produce safe product and to market the program, with test results, to buyers and consumers.

They said I was crazy.

This morning, the N.Y. Times and USA Today are reporting that Peanut Corporation of America, the Blakely, GA firm at the epicenter of the Salmonella shit storm, had “regular visits and inspections” of its Blakely, Ga., plant in 2008, not only by federal and state regulators but by independent auditors and food safety companies that made “customary unannounced inspections.”

Kellogg's auditor, the American Institute of Baking checked out Peanut Corp. of America's Blakely, Ga., plant in 2007 and 2008 and gave it superior ratings both times.

"That's frightening," says Michael Doyle, director of the Center for Food Safety at the University of Georgia.

Andrew Martin of the Times writes that,

Peanut Corporation of America’s statement was released as food manufacturers and public health officials tried to determine how so many inspectors missed what some have said were obvious problems at the plant, including improper sanitation procedures, live roaches, mold and slimy residue on floors and equipment.

Kris Charles, a spokeswoman for Kellogg, said,

Had Kellogg known of the problems at the plant that the Food and Drug Administration detailed recently, “we would have discontinued the relationship with P.C.A. immediately and would not have accepted any ingredients from them.”


Jim Munyon, president of AIB International, based in Manhattan, Kan., said the company would not have received a superior rating if his auditors had seen the filth the federal government described.

“It would mean that we didn’t see it on the day we were there. What goes on the rest of the time, we don’t know.”

He did say that AIB wouldn't see internal test results unless PCA shared them. "They show us only what they want to show us," he says.


Doug Powell, an associate professor of food safety at Kansas State University, said the salmonella outbreak at Peanut Corporation of America showed the “fallacy” of independent audits, which are commonly used to verify food safety, animal welfare claims and organic production methods. While the intent might be good, he said, the results are usually withheld from the public.

“Companies say they do all this testing. Great. Show us the data. They won’t. Given all the outbreaks, why should we believe them?”

 

Red Wigglers, the Cadillac of worms

WKRP in Cincinnati was always one of my favorite television shows. Although not much of a hit when it originally aired from 1978-1982, WKRP was a blockbuster in syndication, and can still be seen on WGN (tonight at 6 pm Central, Bailey lets Johnny move in). Amy got me the complete first season on DVD.

The episode where station manager Arthur Carlson regrettably takes on the religious right came to mind when reading about the Digestive Table (below, left), created by artist Amy Young who lives in … Ohio.

This homebrew "bio-factory" includes a dense mixture of live Red Wiggler composting worms, sowbugs, shredded paper, food scraps, and other biodegradeable materials. Included in the table structure is an embedded LCD screen and infrared camera so that people dining at the table can catch a glimpse of the decomposition process happening below. Although this reviewer likes the utilitarian aspect of this table concept, I would be hesitant about eating a meal near any kind of decomposition process.

One of WKRP’s long-time advertizers is Harvey, who sells, “Red Wigglers, the Cadillac of worms.” Catchy jingle too. Compost away, I do, but outside, not at the dinner table.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

ROB MANCINI: Top 10 Kitchen Crimes

During the production of Kitchen Crimes, a television series that dealt with food safety in the home as opposed to restaurants, there were a number of reoccurring themes that kept popping up.  So I developed my top 10 list of Kitchen Crimes to reflect my observations from the television show.

Tops was a severe lack of handwashing or inadequate handwashing. Handwashing typically involved a quick 2 second rinse with water and drying with a dirty tea towel. Family members would pet their dogs, cats, and even in one case a pet turtle, then go and prepare food without handwashing. So, number one on my list is:

1. Wash hands thoroughly before and after preparing food. Lather with soap and water for at least 15 seconds. Rinse well and dry with a clean towel.

A number of families were aware that their refrigerator should be kept at 4-5°C, but it was never checked.  Families were questioned on why they should maintain this temperature and the typical answer was that it would kill bacteria. The “danger zone” (4°C- 60°C) is conducive to rapid bacterial multiplication and at 4°C, bacterial multiplication is reduced, not stopped.

2. Invest in a fridge thermometer to ensure your fridge is at the right temperature. Cold foods should be kept below 4°C. Hot foods should be at a temperature greater than 60°C.

Throughout the filming of the series, families did not use thermometers to ensure food was properly cooked.  Visual inspection seemed to suffice.

3. Invest in a digital, tip-sensitive thermometer to ensure food is properly cooked.

It always bugs me when I see open packages of meat dripping bacterial laden juices on ready to eat foods, like vegetables or fruit.

4. In your refrigerator, meats should always be placed on the bottom shelves or in meat drawers in case of leakage and vegetables should be kept above to prevent cross contamination. All open or partially consumed foods should be packaged in airtight plastic storage containers.

In one episode, I dressed up in some sort of a space suit equipped with facial gear and so on (more for effect than anything else), but it was to prove a point. Mice like to eat food so if food is left on the floor, uncovered, mice will be there.

5. All dry goods need to be stored off the floor and sealed properly to prevent entry of rodents or insects.

To ensure food is adequately cooled in the fridge,

6. Do not over-pack the refrigerator or freezer. This restricts proper air flow and prevents the appliances from functioning efficiently.

This next one always gives me a headache, happens very frequently in restaurants. Vegetables and fruit typically do not undergo a subsequent cooking process which leads me to number

7 on my list: Prevent cross-contamination when preparing food by designating one cutting board for raw meats and another for vegetables or any ready-to-eat foods.

8. When cleaning surfaces, wash first with soap and water then sanitize with a mild solution of chlorine bleach and water.

If one is looking for the highest bacterial counts in the household, look no further.

9. Replace dishcloths and sponges on a daily basis.

10. After dishwashing, all utensils and dishware should be air dried to prevent cross-contamination from towels.

Third-party audits sorta suck

I’ve never been a fan of third-party audits.

As Ben and I wrote a few years ago,

“On-farm food safety cannot be just a set of formulaic guidelines; rather, it must be specific to an agricultural site to make it work, as suggested by Rangarajan et al (2002). A one-size-fits-all approach will not work, as the individual producer has many different priorities at any given time during the growing season. Participation of stakeholders has been identified as a missing component in all reviewed programmes. Further, third-party audits are an incomplete form of verification that provide a limited view of a producer’s facilities and documentation but do not effectively reduce risk. Audits are analagous to restaurant inspections, a snapshot of a business’s operating procedures and a visual inspection of facilities. It has been suggested that inspection scores for restaurants are subject to inspector inconsistencies and are not  predictive of the likelihood of an outbreak (Cruz et al, 2001; Jones et al 2004). This is likely to be true for producer third-party audits as well.”


At some point, folks will figure out that all these outbreaks of foodborne illness – like Salmonella in peanut butter – happened at places that passed so-called independent audits.

As Abraham Mahshie of The Packer wrote last week,

Increasingly, industry officials are calling for a regulatory benchmark that would create science-based food safety standards for third-party auditors. The result, they say, will be a sharp reduction in the cost of third-party audits that are at times repetitive and arbitrary measures of food safety.

“To me, the real issue in the certification, validation, etc. is there is no real scientific basis,” said Robert Buchanan, director of the Center for Food Systems Safety & Security, College Park, Md. “It hasn’t really been worked out to say, ‘these are the key steps that need to be controlled, or need to be achieved.’” …

He said that global GAP certifications, for example, in his opinion do not certify products for safety. … Buchanan said, in many cases, the third-party auditors are not transparent enough for the scientific community to survey and critically analyze what they are actually measuring.


I said that 10 years ago.

Paul Medeiros, food safety consulting manager for Guelph Food Technology Centre, Guelph, Ontario, said in Canada, many growers and government officials are debating how the standards for food safety should be set and who should provide the oversight once standards are in place.

That may keep a bunch of government and grower-types employed – does nothing for food safety.

Focus on what is going to result in fewer sick people.

Powell DA and Chapman BJ: Fresh Threat: What's lurking in your salad bowl? J Sci Food Agric 87:1799 – 1801 (2007)

European Union: Foodborne illness on the rise, e-cards could warn consumers

The New York Times reported yesterday that the Internet has made it much easier to connect for sexual hookups. In response, public health officials have been exploring ways to harness the online world for conducting safe-sex education and preventing the spread of sexually transmitted diseases by alerting people exposed to them.

The e-card, which allows the sender to select the disease involved and includes links to public health sites and services, is part of that strategy.

So when I read this morning that the European Food Safety Agency reported that food-poisoning cases are on the rise across the 27-nation bloc, I thought, why not e-cards to warn of foodborne illness.

e-cards: they’re not just for sexual hookups anymore.
 

Football food safety

I expect there are some Pittsburgh Steelers fans up preparing for a day of tailgating, even though the kick-off in the American Football Conference Championship game is not for another 12 hours.

Amy will be cheering for the underdog Baltimore Ravens, because back-up wide receiver and special teams specialist Yamon Figurs played ball at Kansas State.

Amy never really followed football, except for the band. I started taking her to Kansas State games, more for the spectacle than the sport, and Amy became a fan.

Those purchasing food at Heinz Field in Pittsburgh may want to be wary. Like tailgaters, perhaps people need to take their own digital, tip-sensitive thermometer.

ThePittsburghChannel.Com reports that three-quarters of all food vendors at the stadium have been cited for critical violations in the past two years.

“Inspectors cited the Steel City Grill for serving chicken, chipped beef and hot dogs as much as 40 degrees below the required temperature. …

“The Steel City Grill was cited for serving meat at lukewarm temperatures in 2007 and again in 2008.

The 2008 inspection also said the "cook does not know the proper cooking temperature for chicken."


As far as K-State football alumni in the three years I’ve been in Kansas, I prefer Zac Diles, who now plays for the Houston Texans. Unassuming, hard-hitting linebacker at Kansas State, just like I was in my own mind back in high school. We even wore the same number – #52.
 

CHUCK DODD: In defense of food - not Pollan

Chuck Dodd, a veterinarian and PhD student at Kansas State University, writes:

I grew up in rural Missouri eating meat and potatoes, mostly meat, and quite a bit of it.

But my carnivorous mantra doesn’t match the advice of Michael Pollan, author of In Defense of Food—An Eaters Manifesto (right). He says:

“Eat food, not too much, mostly plants.”

Most of the world already follows Michael Pollan’s advice—out of necessity.

Approximately 4.7 billion people, or over two-thirds of the world’s population, live in lower income countries where safe food and water is limited. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) now reports that rising food prices have contributed to a global increase in malnourishment and hunger. For people living in areas of poverty or conflict, it isn’t about food choices, it’s about simply eating. My wife, Lisa (with neighbor, left), and I lived among the poor in East Africa for six years. We’ve seen hunger, malnourishment, and the effects of diarrheal disease in children--not from the safe distance of a TV screen, but among our friends.  We strived to help transform lives in difficult places.       

Many of us who live in affluent societies enjoy abundant food choices. In the U.S., we have the luxury of being able to pick our diet based upon personal preference, individual nutrients, food production systems, origin, brand, and price. For those of us who have these abundant food choices, Pollan provides additional advice:

●don’t eat anything that your great grand-mother wouldn’t recognize as food;

●avoid food products containing ingredients that are a) unfamiliar, b) unpronounceable, c) more than five in number, or that include d) high-fructose corn syrup;

●avoid food products that make health claims;

●shop the peripheries of the supermarket and stay out of the middle. (processed food products dominate the center aisles); and,

●get out of the supermarket whenever possible.


Pollan’s recommendations are clever. But some of his other recommendations, like “pay more, eat less,” would offend our African friends, like Olendorrop (right).  Olendorrop faces daily challenges in feeding his family.  In the semi-arid savannah of the Rift Valley in northern Tanzania, he struggles to raise sheep and goats, grow corn, and survive.  He has learned how to use dewormers to keep his livestock healthy.  When he uses an antibiotic to treat a sick animal, he doesn’t care about organic food.  All of his animals are grass-fed because corn is people food.  He can’t go to the supermarket because there isn’t one.  He isn’t worried about health claims and ingredients because his food doesn’t have labels.  If Olendorrop paid more and ate less, his family wouldn’t survive.

My advice: if you can afford to choose what you eat, be thankful. Being able to consider what you eat is a luxury in itself. 

Our eater’s manifesto should be to help others simply eat.  Have we, the affluent with abundant food choices, finally arrived, or have we lost touch with global reality?  Do we really need to defend our food from food science and food production systems, as Pollan writes, or do we need to defend the 923 million undernourished people in the world  who don’t have food and help transform their lives?

136 hospitalized; Australian bakery fined $40,000

The Sydney Morning Herald reports that the Sydney bakery responsible for a food poisoning outbreak that affected 319 people, of whom 136 were admitted to hospital, has been fined more than $40,000 for breaches of the Food Act.

The NSW Food Authority closed French Golden Hot Bread, in Homebush West, in March last year after tracing a salmonella outbreak to the egg mayonnaise served with its pork and chicken rolls.

Contrary to government regulations, the egg mixture was not heat-treated or kept below the specified 5 degrees.

A faulty refrigerator was also blamed for the elevated temperature of the mayonnaise, which allowed the bacteria to develop.


The Herald also reports this morning that more than half the local councils in New South Wales, the Australian state that contains, Sydney, have not fined any food businesses caught breaking food safety laws in the past four years, raising fears that much of the state has no effective protection against food poisoning from unhygienic restaurants and cafes.

Figures provided by the Office of State Revenue, which collects payments for fines imposed by councils, show that since 2004 only 67 out of more than 150 councils imposed any fines on restaurants and takeaway food businesses flouting hygiene laws.

"If you never issue a fine, they will laugh at you," said Des Sibraa, a former chief food inspector for NSW and now a food safety consultant.

He said the only conclusion to be drawn from the fact so many councils did not issue any fines was that many of them did not have serious inspection regimes.
"There is a place for warnings, but only for any minor matters, not for anything serious … Some councils are not doing anything," Mr Sibraa said.

Obama: Forget the fashion and focus on food safety basics

Baby Sorenne woke up around 4 a.m. and, after nursing, hung out with daddy and watched Mallrats until she went back to sleep.

Daddy – that’s me – started prepping for the Christmas meal: boneless leg of lamb marinated in fresh rosemary – the one herb that seems to flourish indoors – and lime-garlic sauce. And some other stuff, which I could describe in pornographic detail, but will instead call side dishes.

As I prepare the lamb, I’ll keep in mind the World Health Organization’s factors that contribute to foodborne illness:

• improper cooking procedures;

• temperature abuse during storage;

• lack of hygiene and sanitation by food handlers;

• cross-contamination between raw and ready-to-eat foods; and,

• foods from unsafe sources.

Yet increasingly, food safety is used as a catch phrase to encompass whatever political goals some group wants to achieve

The N.Y. Times yesterday encapsulated what has been circulating on the Interwebs for weeks, stating that,

“From the moment it was clear that Barack Obama was going to be president, people who have dedicated their lives to changing how America eats thought they had found their St. Nicholas. It wasn’t long before the letters to Santa began piling up.

“Ruth Reichl, the editor of Gourmet magazine, wants a new high-profile White House chef who cooks delicious local food. Wayne Pacelle, head of the Humane Society of the United States, wants policies requiring better treatment for farm animals. …

“Not only does (Obama) seem to possess a more-sophisticated palate than some of his recent predecessors, but he will also take office in an age when organic food is mainstream, cooking competitions are among the top-rated TV shows and books calling for an overhaul in the American food system are best sellers.”


Running through all of this is some kind of food snobbery that assumes whatever is fashionable is somehow safer.

Even the groups advocating more food safety are reeking of political ambition rather than focusing on the things that make people sick.

Like Brody in Mallrats, no one wants a stink palm.

This could affect the next inspection: restaurant sickens health dept at Xmas meal

I’ve now concluded that people don’t invite me to dinner, not because I’m food safety man, not because I’m a jerk, but because I don’t like the band Journey.

Every time I write about the badness that is Journey, people insist on telling me how Journey power ballads impacted their lives in the early 1980s.

I’m also careful when people dine with me and Amy and Sorenne, cause food safety man making others barf would be, uh, awkward.

That’s probably how the owners of an unnamed southern Illinois restaurant feel after the head of the Lawrence County Health Department said she was among 42 people sickened during a buffet gathering of 72 people Dec. 15.

Phyllis Wells says the cause of the outbreak hasn't been pinpointed, but she suspects that the culprit was a norovirus that can cause stomach distress. … For now, Wells says the common denominator appears to be ham served in the salad bar.
 

Top Five Records presents Top 10 food safety issues - 2008

Casey Jacob’s been working full-time with me for the past six months. We got  a bunch of papers coming out and she’s developing into a fairly decent writer. So here’s Casey’s version of the Top 10 food safety stories of 2008.

1. Salmonella in tomatoes/peppers – problems with tracing sources of produce
Companies that can provide efficient traceability systems for their products provide an advantage to the retail food service sector during recall and outbreak situations.

2. Melamine in Chinese infant formula – know your suppliers
Buyers need to know their suppliers, the risks that might be associated with their products, and how they should be managed. Suppliers should be able to demonstrate the safety of their products and processes, and have programs in place to manage risks.

3. Listeria in deli meats and soft cheeses -- should vulnerable populations be warned?
Beginning in July, 20 Canadians were killed and dozens were sickened by an outbreak of Listeria monocytogenes in deli meats produced by Maple Leaf Foods.
Most of the deaths were related to the consumption of deli meats in places like nursing homes that were unaware of the recommendation that immunocompromised individuals avoid deli meats to reduce the risk of Listeria, unless they are thoroughly heated. Pregnant women are also advised to avoid unheated deli meats, soft cheeses, and other refrigerated ready-to-eat foods that can foster the growth of Listeria. Warnings for vulnerable young, elderly, ill, or pregnant. people on product labels or menus may provide information for those populations to make informed choices.


4. Restaurant inspection disclosure systems on the rise
The food service sector should recognize that certain diners are interested in the information provided by inspection reports and summaries. This increase in transparency highlights the importance of maintaining or improving. compliance with food safety regulations during inspections.

5. Downer abuse in California –poor animal welfare can impact business
It’s not enough for a producer or processor to say they are doing the right thing; they will have to be able to prove it using techniques like video surveillance. It is expected that proof of actions will become increasingly demanded and adopted over the next year.

6. Patrons use cell phone cameras to document food safety issues
Public health authorities in Toronto, Canada, shut down one of Chinatown’s most prominent restaurants after a passerby took a photo of rats on a countertop in February.

7. E. coli O157:H7 linked to UK butchers – no food safety culture and lax inspection
Creating a culture of food safety within an organization where all members from executives to front-line staff. have a set of shared values around risks will be come increasingly important for the foodservice sector.

8. Pot pies and chicken thingies – the danger of microwave use and the difficulties of consumer communication
USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) issued a public health alert in March advising the public of a salmonellosis outbreak associated with frozen, stuffed raw chicken products in Minnesota—the sixth of its kind since 1998.
 It may be prudent to blatantly inform consumers through product package labeling that if products contained are raw and should, therefore, not be prepared in the microwave.

9. Outbreaks at several universities -- outbreak communication strategies

Several outbreaks of illness occurred at university campuses where communication departments were slow to take responsibility.

10. Sourcing locally – don’t make assumptions about safety

Organizations and individuals are making commitments to utilize local food sources. However, there is little discussion surrounding the microbiological safety of such food.  All foods, regardless of the location, should be sourced from trusted sources that provide evidence of safe practices, and claims regarding the safety of food should made in conjunction with sound data.

Vilsack is Obama's agriculture secretary - my kid farted

My kid just had this huge dump. Or a huge fart. Amy and I walked around in the snow this afternoon in our own sustainable transportation way, and when we got home I was holding her in the living room, and she passed gas for a good 30 seconds.

It was awesome.

I wouldn’t be much of a new parent if I didn’t talk about my kid’s bowel movements. And all this talk about the so-called sutainable ag community wanting some food porn type to be the agriculture secretary has me focused on baby farts.

Bob and Angelique brought us dinner and hung out – much better than baby wresting in a restaurant – and we were watching some Flight of the Conchords reruns. Murray the Manager had a poster in his office that said, New Zealand: Don’t expect too much and you will love it.

That’s how I feel about government appointments. Sure a political appointment can set a tone, make a fashion statement, but it’s not really going to change anything. And why wait for government – if you want to change something, go do it.
 

Bad bird advice for the holidays

The Brits and their piping hot. The Canadians and their 185F.

No one knows where this advice comes from, yet every holiday, the soundbites are trotted out like a recurring nightmare. It’s like a song by Journey or Styx or Bryan Adams – Don’t Stop Believing, I’m Sailing Away, Summer of ’69 -- it keeps playing and it’s horrible.

The UK Food Standards Agency
came out with a computer screen saver yesterday that I couldn’t get to work, and just as well – it says “cook your turkey properly until the juices run clear.”

Color is a lousy indicator: use a digital tip-sensitive thermometer and stick it in.

Nevertheless, the communication experts at the Food Standards Agency say:

“These are the three main ways to tell if poultry is cooked:

* the meat should be piping hot all the way through

* when you cut into the thickest part of the meat, none of the meat should be pink

* if juices run out when you pierce the turkey, or when you press the thigh, they should be clear.”


Piping hot reminds me of Dick van Dyke in Mary Poppins. Provide some scientific validation for these statements. And is it really so hard to recommend using a thermometer?

In Canada, where the laws of physics are somehow different, Health Canada continues to recommend cooking all the crap out of the bird until 185F. The U.S. changed its advice to 165F years ago. When asked why, Canadian government types won’t talk. It’s a secret. But then again, Canada has no Parliament. It goes away. Just keep on believing.
 

Safe food when the power goes out - chill the beer on the porch

Baby Sorenne slept for a four-hour stretch last night. Not bad one week in. And now the big chill is supposed to arrive later today. It was 60F (15C) at 5 a.m., and has already dropped to 26F (-4C) by 10 a.m., and supposed to be 10F (-12C) by tonight.

A year ago Manhattan (Kansas) was suffering through an ice storm that knocked power out for a few days. The U.S. Northeast is going through the same thing: more than 1 million homes and businesses are without power after a huge ice storm.

“The ice storm compared with some of the Northeast's worst, especially in New Hampshire, where more than half the state -- 400,000-plus homes and businesses -- was without power at the peak of the outage. Far fewer customers were affected by the infamous Ice Storm of '98, when some residents spent more than a week in the dark. New Hampshire opened at least 25 shelters.”

"This is pathetic," said Bob Cott of Portland, Maine. "I'm already sick of winter and we have nine days to go before it officially begins."


And that’s a good reason to be in Kansas, rather than Maine, or Canada.

Grocers speak on food safety

I don’t really know Bob Brackett other than an annual chat when we run into each other at meetings. Years ago I started calling him the best-dressed man in food safety ‘cause he always wore a sharp suit.

Bracket started out in academia, established himself at the University of Georgia, then went to government as director of the Food and Drug Administration’s Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition, and then to industry as senior vice president and chief science and regulatory affairs officer of the Grocery Manufacturers Association. That’s a lot of titles. And gives Bracket a credibility others can only talk about. This guy walks the talk, and has done it in various shoes.

Bracket writes in this morning’s N.Y. Times that the Grocery Manufacturers Association agrees with the Dec. 6, 2008 Times editorial that that the Food and Drug Administration should be given more resources and authority to prevent contamination of the nation’s food supplies.

Once in office, President-elect Barack Obama and his administration should commit to increasing annual food-related spending to $900 million by 2012 and should work with Congress to quickly modernize our food safety laws.

Specifically, the F.D.A. should be allowed to set and enforce safety standards for fruits and vegetables; require every food manufacturer to adopt, regularly update and make available for F.D.A. confirmation a food safety plan; and require food importers to document the steps they are taking to police their foreign suppliers.

By doing much more to prevent contamination — and by expanding and better targeting inspections — the next administration can immediately address the challenges of rising food imports and changing consumer preferences.


Good on ya.

N.Y. Times food safety editorial misses the point

The New York Times wrote in an editorial Saturday that the Food and Drug Administration is right to focus on imported foods and it is encouraging that the agency has already hired staff for new offices in China and India that will try to ensure the safety of food products before they are exported.

Yes, imported foods can be problematic. But so can homegrown foods. The silence surrounding California lettuce as a possible source of E. coli O157:H7 outbreaks in Michigan and Ontario is beyond disturbing. And the more fingers are pointed to imports, the fewer questions are asked about domestic supplies.

The Times did get this part of their editorial right:

“The goal is to root out tainted food — whether produced abroad or in this country — at the earliest stages of the production and distribution process while being ready to respond quickly if pathogens start reaching consumers.”

They just couldn’t follow through with a meaningful statement and say, providing safe food actually depends on a culture of food safety from farm-to-fork, wherever that food comes from.
 

If you bag a deer, don't slaughter it in a restaurant kitchen

The manager of Stromboli Pizza in Allentown says a customer saw one of the restaurant cooks carving up a deer Tuesday. John Okumus says the venison wasn't intended for the store. He says he shot a doe during a hunt and left the carcass in the store's kitchen for pickup by a friend.

Okumus says a customer complained to the city health department after seeing a cook mistakenly butcher the deer.

The department investigated the incident but did not issue a citation.


There are reasons animals are slaughtered in  slaughterhouses.  See the infosheet below.

Top 5 food safety myths

Top 5 Records presents Top 5 Food Safety Myths by Bee Wilson, the author of "Swindled: The Dark History of Food Fraud.”

• The American food supply has never been so dangerous.
Wrong. If you find it terrifying feeding your family now, try imagining yourself in Washington or New York from the 1850s to the 1900s. You try to buy vinegar; you are sold sulfuric acid. Your peas come greened with copper, giving you a dose of heavy metal poisoning with every bite. Spices are bulked with breadcrumbs or sawdust. Children's candies are colored with poisonous lead. Canned goods are laced with copper, tin and toxic preservatives.

• Packaged food is safer.
Packaged food is potentially less safe than unpackaged food. It passes through many hands before it reaches the consumer, increasing the odds that it has been tampered with at some point along the way. Plenty of packaged food is mislabeled — as is the case with the formula scandal in China, which has affected well-known brands.

• People who buy organic food don't have to worry.
As with any other culinary fetish, "organic" is a target for swindlers. There have been numerous cases of organic food fraud in recent years — mass-produced eggs passed off as "organic free-range," for example.

• Science makes our food less healthy.
We owe a huge amount to the quiet behind-the-scenes work of scientists — the food detectives who do their bit to uncover food fraud.

• Eating safely comes down to individual behavior.
If we all take personal responsibility for washing fruits and vegetables and cooking poultry until it's piping hot, surely we'll be safe? Not so. Food safety is largely a question of politics. The Chinese dairy scandal demonstrated what happens when a government fails catastrophically at regulating its food supply.

F.D.A. details its food safety campaign

Andrew Martin of the N.Y. Times has just reported on-line and in tomorrow’s print editions that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration will release a report Monday that summarizes what officials call a “hugely ambitious” campaign to reshape its food inspection arm to root out safety hazards through things like sophisticated software and certifiers from the private sector.

“The goal is to radically redesign the process,” said Dr. David Acheson
(right, exactly as shown), the agency’s associate commissioner for foods. For imported food, for instance, that means trying to detect tainted products during the production process rather than waiting until they enter the country.

“We cannot simply rely on picking the ball up at the point of entry,” Dr. Acheson said.

The changes were first outlined in the agency’s Food Protection Plan, which was released in November 2007. In June, the agency was criticized by the Government Accountability Office for failing to provide details on the costs or specific strategies for carrying out the plan. Some lawmakers have repeatedly called the agency’s food protection efforts inadequate.


Governments can only do so much, and auditors or other third-party certifiers have been sorta miserable – a lot of foodborne illness outbreaks are linked back to farms, processors and retailers that went through some form of certification. What’s needed are the proper mixture of carrots and sticks to foster a food safety culture at all points of the farm-to-fork food safety system. My friend, Frank, wrote a new book about food safety culture. But more about that tomorrow, or in a few days, depending on when this baby decides to arrive.
 

You burnt the bird? A number of reasons to be thankful!

Michéle Samarya-Timm, a Health Educator for the Franklin Township Health Department in New Jersey, writes,  Thanksgiving, and its hours of food prep, certainly creates a reason to appreciate sound food safety advice.  After all, 3 hours seated at the dinner table should never be followed by 3 days seated on a porcelain throne. 

Over the past few days, I’ve seen lots of advice to ensure a perfectly cooked (and foodsafe) thanksgiving turkey, but what if you’ve applied the cooking process a little too thoroughly?   

Amending a list I found several years ago, here’s an updated version of Reasons to Be Thankful for Burning the Bird:

1.    The useless pop-up timer was rendered useless.
2.    Your tip sensitive digital thermometer will read at least 165F.
3.    Salmonella won't be a concern.
4.    Another valid reason for cooking stuffing outside the bird.
5.    No one will overeat.
6.    Post dinner sleepiness won’t be due to the tryptophan in turkey.
7.    Uninvited guests will think twice next year.
8.    Pets won't pester you for scraps.
9.    The smoke alarm was due for a test.
10.    Ash residue is a great motivation for handwashing.
11.    Carving the bird will provide a good cardiovascular workout.
12.    After dinner, the guys can take the bird to the yard and play football.
13.    The less turkey Uncle George eats, the less likely he will be to walk around with his pants unbuttoned.
14.    You'll get to the desserts quicker.
15.    No arguments about throwing out turkey leftovers.
16.    Next year you’ll pay closer attention to Doug Powell’s Canadian Thanksgiving food prep video.

Enjoy your holidays.  And wash your hands!

Are you smarter than a fifth grader -- Michéle Samarya-Timm turkey edition

Guest barfblogger Michéle Samarya-Timm, a Health Educator for the Franklin Township Health Department in New Jersey, decided I could use some blogging relief while awaiting the birth of my fifth daughter. It’s been an emotional ride, and I greatly appreciate the help.

Michéle writes, as an educator, it’s always interesting to discover what people in my community know (or don’t know) about food safety. And what their kids pick up from the kitchen.

A common project in grade schools this time of year is having the students write directions on how to cook a turkey. Sometimes, they’re even more educated than their parents…and sometimes not. Here’s a sampling from the web:

Kids Turkey directions

By: Drew -- I put it in the oven at 100 degrees and cook it for 6 hours.

By: Doni – Put it in the oven and set it for 28 minutes at 388 degrees.
 
By: Brandon -- I think the temperature of the oven is 251 degrees. My mom puts it in there for twenty minutes.

By: Quinn -- My mom sets the oven for 400 degrees and cooks it for 7 minutes.

By Seth: You cook a turkey for 10 minutes. Then wait for ten minutes. Then cook the turkey at 2500 degrees.

By Savannah: First get everything you need. That would be turkey, tinfoil, spray bottle, pan, thermometer, and stuffing. Turn on the oven to the right degrees. Cook it for 20 minutes.

By Spencer: Buy a turkey. Then, stuff it. Put it in the oven for all day and night at 100 degrees. Take it out of the oven and put it on the table. Make sure you take the little red thing out.

By: Johanna -- My mom bought a turkey. She put it in a pan and cooked it and cooked it. The temperature was 27 degrees. Hot! Then my mom cut the turkey's head off and feet and wings and ate it.

By Madison: Cook the turkey for 25 minutes. Get it out as soon as it is done. But before you put in the little red thing. When the red things pop out that means the turkey is done. Then take it out.

By: Dylan -- First you pull off the feathers. Next you clean it. Third, you put some seasoning on it. Next, you put a thermometer in. Fifth, you put it in a pan. Sixth, you put it in the stove. Next, you put it to 95 degrees. Next, you cook the turkey for sixty minutes.

I so appreciate the humor in Thanksgiving prep through a child’s eyes, but the handwashing advocate in me really wishes at least one mentioned soap and water as an important part of food preparation.

Hopefully, their parents will refer to the USDA Food Safety Education resource, http://www.fsis.usda.gov/food_safety_Education/Ask_Karen/#Question, the Butterball Turkey Talkline, http://www.butterball.com/tips-how-tos/turkey-experts/overview , FSnet and other experts for handwashing steps and other tips to ensure a foodsafe Thanksgiving.
 

When handling meat, it's 'turd to tongue' or -'manure to mouth'

Hugh ‘Groundhog Day’ Pennington, emeritus professor of bacteriology at the University of Aberdeen, wrote in a column for the BBC earlier this week,

“The kitchen has the potential to be most dangerous room in the house. Making it safe is easy. When handling raw meat mutter the mantra ‘turd to tongue’ or - if you have squeamish tendencies – ‘manure to mouth.’”

The good Dr. Pennington was talking about how Campylobacter is the most common cause of foodborne illness and that it “is an embarrassing fact that Campy is a natural bug of birds.”

It’s not easy. Food safety isn’t simple. That’s why up to 30 per cent of everyone gets sick from the food and water they consume each year. And as Jorgen Schlundt, director of food safety at the World Health Organization said the other day,



“The notion that you can deal with it at the end of the food chain is clearly wrong.”



 

Food safety has to be farm-to-fork: WHO

That’s what we’ve always said – safe food, from farm-to-fork.

Jorgen Schlundt, director of food safety at WHO, told Reuters today,

“The notion that you can deal with it at the end of the food chain is clearly wrong.”

Yet there continues to be an outpouring of advice for consumers – the end of the food chain. But more about that later.

Schlundt also said today that the number of foodborne diseases seems to be on the rise in both wealthy and poor nations.

Previously, the World Health Organization (WHO) estimated that up to 30 per cent of individuals in developed countries acquire illnesses from the food and water they consume each year. U.S., Canadian and Australian authorities support this estimate as accurate (Majowicz et al., 2006; Mead et al., 1999; OzFoodNet Working Group, 2003) through estimations from available data and adjustments for underreporting. WHO has identified five factors of food handling that contribute to these illnesses: improper cooking procedures; temperature abuse during storage; lack of hygiene and sanitation by food handlers; cross-contamination between raw and fresh ready to eat foods; and, acquiring food from unsafe sources.

Oh, and that logo (upper right) is going to be retired in January when we relaunch everything.

Majowicz, S.E., McNab, W.B., Sockett, P., Henson, S., Dore, K., Edge, V.L., Buffett, M.C., Fazil, A., Read, S. McEwen, S., Stacey, D. and Wilson, J.B. (2006), “Burden and cost of gastroenteritis in a Canadian community”, Journal of Food Protection, Vol. 69, pp. 651-659.

Mead, P.S., Slutsjer, L., Dietz, V., McCaig, L.F., Breeses, J.S., Shapiro, C., Griffin, P.M. and Tauxe, R.V. (1999), “Food-related illness and death in the United States”, Emerging Infectious Diseases, Vol. 5, pp. 607-625.

OzFoodNet Working Group. (2003), “Foodborne disease in Australia: Incidence, notifications and outbreaks: Annual report of the OzFoodNet Network, 2002”, Communicable Diseases Intelligence, Vol. 27, pp. 209-243.
 

Philippine cafeteria workers dishing up disease

Is your school cafeteria gross? How does it match up with the Philippines, where PNA reports that a Department of Health (DOH) study found six out of 10 food handlers at canteens have infections that might be passed on to students.

Dr. Yolanda Oliveros, director of the DOH National Center for Disease Prevention and Control, said that study showed that food handlers usually introduce biological hazards to students.

"These problems usually arise if the food handlers suffer from specified diseases; or from organisms/eggs on the food handler's skin; or in their intestines/feces; or by cross contamination after handling raw materials.”

Oliveros said that they had recommended that food handlers wear protection such as gloves and must adhere to safety standards such as washing their hands regularly.


Enjoy lunch.

White Castle and food safety

Being Canadian, I’d never really heard of White Castle, the burger joint, until I saw the 2004 film, Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle. Much more than a stoner comedy, the film was an incisive depiction of race in America. Chapman came over to my house in Guelph in 2005 one afternoon to move some furniture and we had steaks and watched the movie.

A Canadian visiting, “beautiful Northern Kentucky, famously (mis)marketed as the South Side of Cincinnati” writes in a recent blog about dining at  Covington’s White Castle:

“I’ll tell you what: never have my sense of both food AND physical safety been so violated before 11pm. I walk in, and for a few minutes, could only stare. Back in the kitchen (fully open), I see a woman lay out maybe a hundred of White Castle’s trademarked bite-size burgers, or ‘Slyders’, on the grill, and, while still completely red, put buns over top the raw meat to warm. Once the meat turns an unnatural shade of grey, she throws them together with some cheese and onion to form a ‘burger’. I’m tempted to walk away and head to the (in my opinion) much safer McDonald’s. …
 
“I sit, take a few pictures, and prepare to savour. Oh wait, while I’m taking pictures (and getting ‘who the hell is this retard tourist and why is out after dark in such a dodgy area’) stares, I’m distracted by a small child whose mother is letting her eat fries (not hers) off the floor. …

“Well, thinking back (it has been two weeks–but don’t worry, I did jot down some notes), I can still taste the fear. The fear that I was likely going to end up spending a good portion of the night over the toilet. No part of the burgers felt or tasted safe. The cooking process, over a bed of onions, under a bed of buns, is just very, very circumspect. And the whole place was pretty dirty. But I ate them, grey and mushy as they were."

 

What is safe food?

I struggle with that question. Food safety or, safe food, are terms that are bandied about but, like talking with a spouse, maybe we’re talking about different things.

If I’m in front of a group, I usually ask, what does safe food mean to you? The answers run the range of possibilities – nutritious, sustainable, low in fat, welfare-friendly, local and any other slogan that has been popularized and rendered meaningless by fashionable foodies.

The people that publish Consumer Reports came out with some “new national food safety and labeling poll" that even went by the bullshit name, GreenerChoices, yesterday which seemed to cover everything – genetic engineering, labeling, inspections – except the things that make people barf.

I find it all confusing. And, as Less Nessman said on WKRP in Cincinnati, “when I get confused, I watch television. Somehow, television makes things simple.”

But that was 30 years ago. So I checked Wikipedia.

“Food safety is a scientific discipline describing handling, preparation, and storage of food in ways that prevent foodborne illness.”

That’s too simple. Way too simple.

Rhode Island Food Safety Education
has a thorough but long-winded definition:

“Protecting the food supply from microbial, chemical (i.e. rancidity, browning) and physical (i.e. drying out, infestation) hazards or contamination that may occur during all stages of food production and handling-growing, harvesting, processing, transporting, preparing, distributing and storing. The goal of food safety monitoring is to keep food wholesome.”


That may be difficult to fit on a T-shirt.

What’s your definition of safe food?
 

Food safety infomercials still suck

I got up at 4:45 a.m. Sunday.

Just habit, how I roll, watching No Country for Old Men in the background, which really does improve with repeated viewings, like most Coen brothers movies.

While scouring the Internet I came across probably the worst infomercial ever. Bill Marler, your competition ain’t going to be knocking down the doors any time soon.

This Florida law firm has its own Internet infomercial. I’m thinking Dan Ackroyd selling a Bass-o-matic.

“What kind of bacteria do you hear about?

The most common is the E. coli virus.

The E. coli virus was linked to Taco Bell shredded lettuce …

Another bacteria that can cause foodborne illness is the salmonella virus.”


Douche alert: Lawyer host -- even I got my hair cut. And telling viewers to “shop at places with reputable reputations” is not a real mastery of the English language.
 

What Maple Leaf's Michael McCain was thinking the past two months

Rob Cribb of the Toronto Star continues his excellent reporting on the Maple Leaf Foods listeria outbreak in Canada that has killed at least 20, and based on e-mails from the company’s CEO and president, Michael McCain (right, exactly as shown), I’m struck that the head of a $5 billion a year company that sells food is so whiney about food safety.

McCain blames the media for making a big deal out of the story, blames lawyers for being ambulance chasers, and says that,

"Eradicating listeria from a plant is akin to eradicating the flu from the office -- we have best practice systems in place to reduce it to the absolute lowest level because it's our reputation at stake, but eradication is just not possible."

So shouldn’t you warn those who are most vulnerable? Like pregnant women and old people?

The entire story is a good read, and it’s based on internal memos that McCain sent to thousands of staff (and which were regularly forwarded to me throughout the outbreak) but the most damning excerpt is this:

"I, for one, can say I've learned more in the past three weeks about (food safety) than I have ever learned before in my lifetime."

A company selling over $5 billion a year and bragging about it's culture of food safety should be doing better than on-the-job training.
 

Bad cooking advice from Australian chicken industry

This is a picture I got from Pete Snyder years ago. It’s a chicken leg, back attached and it’s fully cooked. The red stuff has to do with the age the chick was harvested at. The point is, the only way to accurately cook meat is using a digital, tip-sensitive thermometer. Color is a lousy indicator.

Not so says the Australian Chicken Meat Federation (ACMF), which highlights a host of BBQ food safety failings, yet inexplicitly insists,

“Consumers need to be encouraged to routinely adopt simple food safety practices. The best way to check your chicken is to pierce it and see if the juices run clear.”

If it’s so simple, why can’t the industry get it right? Stick it in, and use a thermometer.
 

 

CFIA has new food safety advisory panel - doesn't tell anybody

In the spirit of open and transparent communications, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency has created a new food safety advisory panel – and not bothered to tell anybody, particularly the taxpayers that fund CFIA.

Amidst some stories about new listeria testing protocols for Canada, the Toronto Star and CBC noted there was, “a newly formed CFIA panel of experts advising the agency on food safety.”

So 11 years after being created, CFIA decided to get a panel of experts to advise on food safety, which, the agency declares, is it’s top priority.

There is no mention of this new science advisory panel on CFIA’s website.
 

E. coli O157:H7 hits Guelph, again

Three months after University of Guelph spokesthingy Chuck Cunningham said, "It seemed to me like it was business as usual," after an E. coli O157:H7 outbreak struck 20 people, the same bug has struck again.

The Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph Public Health unit says that four confirmed cases of E. coli O157 are all U of G students. To date, the only commonality among the four students is that they ate at the Pita Pit in the University Centre, so as a precaution, the University is voluntarily closing the UC Pita Pit until Public Health completes its investigation.

In Aug., Cunningham said, "It's a surprise and a shock to us that this has happened.”

So what is it now?

The great food safety school seems to have a lot of poop in their food.

In Aug., a  press release from the University said,

“Although health officials said it's unlikely that the source of the outbreak will ever be identified, they believe it's an isolated incident.”

How do they know it’s an isolated incident if the source of the outbreak is never identified?

For a self-proclaimed food safety school, Guelph really sorta sucks. Sorry for the sick kids.
 

Maple Leaf invents food safety

I blogged earlier today that any food company doing over $5 billion a year in sales should already have a food safety dude and, after at least 20 deaths, really shouldn’t be bragging.

It gets worse.

Maple Leaf Foods president and CEO Michael McCain said yesterday that by appointing a chief food safety officer,

"I think we're the first in Canada and ... possibly in North America to have that role inside a major food company.”

Wow.

Jack-in-the-Box appointed a food safety officer after the 1993 E. coli O157:H7 outbreak. Odwalla acted like it invented flash pasteurization after the E. coli O157:H7 outbreak in cider in 1996. I could go on. Michael McCain, your knowledge of food safety sucks.

And rather than pontificating, at some point Mr. McCain will provide a full accounting of:

• who knew what when;



• warn pregnant women and others at risk from listeria in deli meats; and,



• make your listeria data public.

Whole Food food porn - it ain't about safety

I’ve never gotten the Whole Foods thing.

They display the food in a loving manner, it’s enjoyable to hang out at the stores, but like most porn -- or food porn – it’s ultimately unfulfilling.

Two months ago, Whole Foods Markets Inc. “launched a revamped and more interactive Web site offering recipes, videos of cooking demonstrations and its Whole Story Blog that enables users to talk to one another about everything from food safety to prices.”

I subscribed to the RSS feed to stay current on all things Whole Foods. The blog they are blowing has nothing to do with food safety and everything to do with food porn.

I can just stay at home with a copy of Bon Appetit.


 

Local food isn't safer; so what does local mean?

Never underestimate the ability of industry – and that includes farmers, processors, retailers and food service -- to co-opt that which is trendy for marketing purposes. Hucksterism is alive and well and flourishing (see the Hellmann’s campaign below).

Julie Schmit of USA Today writes that the "locally grown" label is part of retailers' push to tap into consumer desires for fresh and safe products that support small, local farmers and help the environment because they're not trucked so far.

Just how do some retailers define locally grown?

• Wal-Mart, the nation's biggest retailer, considers anything local if it's grown in the same state as it's sold, even if that's a state as big as Texas and the food comes from a farm half the size of Manhattan, as in the case of the 7,000-acre Ham Produce in North Carolina.

• Whole Foods, the biggest retailer of natural and organic foods, considers local to be anything produced within seven hours of one of its stores. The retailer says most local producers are within 200 miles of a store.

• Seattle's PCC Natural Markets considers local to be anything from Washington, Oregon and southern British Columbia.


And while there is a perception that local, like organic food, is safer, such assumptions are made in the absence of any evidence.

Robert Brackett, senior vice president of the Grocery Manufacturers Association, said most foodborne illnesses don't get noticed because not enough people get sick to alert officials that an outbreak is underway. Undetected outbreaks are more likely with "local" products delivered in small quantities and sold in a small area.

Matt Regusci, head of business development for PrimusLabs.com, a leading produce food-safety auditor, said small producers are also less likely than big ones to have had food-safety audits, which grocers often demand of big suppliers, adding,

"The vast majority of food safety is common sense. Are there a few small idiots out there messing things up for everybody? Yes. But there are big idiots out there messing things up, too."

Managing food safety at convenience stores

I didn’t know C-store was short for convenience store – the kind at street corners and attached to gas stations. But that’s what you learn when you read Dean Dirks.

Dean says:

• In your weekly newsletters or communications with employees, post articles about other retailer’s misfortunes or law suits. The point isn’t to smear other retailers but to keep the fear in the minds of your team. Don’t let associates go a day without thinking about it. (check out our weekly food safety infosheets and subscribe for the free electronic distribution)

• Require your district managers, store managers and foodservice managers to become ServeSafe certified.

• Develop food safety audits to be completed daily at the store level and have regular audits completed at the district level. Record temperatures of refrigeration and product every four hours, date and rotate products, constant hand washing to name a few. All foodservice professionals know what needs to be done and inspected. The question being, are you doing it?

• Develop a food borne illness reporting procedure. Have a form on site that collects only contact information and train your associates to never comment other than to take the information. In addition, make sure the customer is given the corporate office’s contact information.

• Make it a policy that only the food service director or vice president (senior management) follows up on the call to the customer.

• If more than three customers call with the same symptoms then you legally have a food borne outbreak. The next step is to get the County Health Department involved. The worst thing you can try to do is hide it.


And as Sheetz discovered in a 2004 outbreak of Salmonella that sickened over 400 and was linked to tomatoes in ready-to-eat sandwiches, know your suppliers.
 

Are you food safety savvy?

That’s what dietician and TV personality Leslie Beck asked yesterday in the Toronto Globe and Mail as she posed a pre-Canadian-Thanksgiving food safety quiz.

Leslie (right) didn’t do so good -- and she’s the alleged teacher with the answer book.

That’s because she went to the Coles Notes version -- the Canadian Partnership for Consumer Food Safety Education – for her answers instead of doing some digging.

“While food processing has been blamed for many of these (foodborne) outbreaks, the fact remains that the majority of food-safety problems occur at home. It is estimated that Canada has as many as 13 million cases of food poisoning every year, most of which could be prevented by safer handling of food at home.”

With at least 20 people dead from listeria in cold cuts in Canada, such a statement is not only factually inaccurate, it is condescendingly harsh.

“Fresh produce must always be washed - true or false?
Answer: True
Fresh fruit and vegetables should never be consumed without being washed under clean, running water - even prebagged, prewashed produce.”


Chirstine Bruhn, UC Davis, do you have something to add on this? Last I saw, scientists were saying don’t rewash the pre-washed greens for fear of contaminating clean product. Food safety is not simple and there are lots of disagreements – which is why these laundry lists of do’s and don’t’s, are fairly useless. People are interested in this stuff, give them some data, some information, some context, not just questionable marching orders.

“What temperature does your stuffed Thanksgiving turkey need to reach before it is safe to eat?
Answer: d) 82 C (180 F)
Use a digital meat thermometer and cook your turkey until the temperature at the thickest part of the breast or thigh is at least 82 C (180 F)."


No idea where this comes from, because Health Canada won’t let mere mortals peek at the wizard behind the green curtain who makes such pronouncements (watch the video below for how Health Canada derives at consumer recommendations for things like cooking temperatures). The recommended internal temperature in the U.S. is 165F. You can read how that number was determined at http://barfblog.foodsafety.ksu.edu/2007/10/articles/food-safety-communication/thawing-and-cooking-turkey/.

Both are better than the U.K.’s, “piping hot.”

“What is the safest way to thaw your Thanksgiving turkey?
Answer: d) In the fridge
 Never defrost a turkey at room temperature.”


Yes you can, and I will be this weekend. Check out Pete Snyder’s comments and our own work in this area.

We’ll be videotaping the turkey preparation for our annual Canadian-expat-in-Manhattan (Kansas) Thanksgiving feast on Monday.
 

Local equals safe - with some exceptions

Fluid leaking from a garbage truck in the streets of Tularosa, New Mexico, tested positive for E. coli a few days ago.

The vehicle was inspected after residents noticed the leak.

Tularosa Mayor Ray Córdova then inspected the vehicle and smelled something extremely foul coming from it.  That's when he told residents to take samples of the fluid so he could send it off to a lab for testing.

Those tests came back positive for the E. coli bacteria…

On Thursday Alamo Disposal owner Art Cardiel said the leak came from a crack in the truck.  However he also said believes the E. coli is coming from the bacteria in people's trash and not the truck itself.

"In this area, a lot of people grow their own fruit because there's a lot of water," Cardiel said.  "Now how am I supposed to have any control over what I put in my truck that comes out of their trash cans?"

The owner of the company, Alamo Disposal, has been given 10 days to fix the leak.

In the meantime, this fluid can continue to leak into people’s gardens, contaminating produce – “fresh and local” produce.

Local producers tend to be more careful because it is often their own families, friends and neighbors who will eat the produce.

Be on the safe side, stock up now on local tomatoes, peppers and other fresh produce and preserve them for the winter.

Be on the safe side? Really? What if there’s a truck with E. coli-contaminated fluids leaking around?


 

Food irradiation videos highlight, uh, creativity?

 Whether you’re Lou Dobbs with your own cable show or Norman B- and his Deviations from the Norm, you too can have your own opinions about food irradiation.

I have mine, and want individuals to have choice at the checkout counter.

“Food irradiation of fresh produce is an additional tool that can help reduce the threat of foodborne illness — but it is not a magic bullet. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has published a final rule allowing the irradiation of fresh iceberg lettuce and fresh spinach, available at: http://www.cfsan.fda.gov/~dms/cfsup185.html

"Farmers still need to practice good agricultural practices, and the possibility of post-processing contamination still exists, Powell said, but added that irradiation is safe and should be made available at the retail level.

"There's a lot of people already speaking on behalf of consumers and what they may or may not do," Powell said. "When it comes to food, consumers vote with their wallets at checkout, not on public opinion surveys. I'd really like to see someone step up and offer consumers the choice. There have been enough serious outbreaks of foodborne illness in fresh produce that the interest in irradiated spinach and lettuce should be strong."


But check out these videos.
 

 

 

Buying fresh produce is an act of faith: Here's why

Buying any sort of fresh produce is an act of faith. The Associated Press explains why in a story today.

At the end of a dirt road in northern Mexico, the conveyer belts processing hundreds of tons of vegetables a year for U.S. and Mexican markets are open to the elements, protected only by a corrugated metal roof.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration suspects this packing plant, its warehouse in McAllen, Texas, and a farm in Mexico are among the sources of the United States' largest outbreak of food-borne illness in a decade, which infected at least 1,440 people with a rare form of salmonella.

A plant manager confirmed to The Associated Press that workers handling chili peppers aren't required to separate them according to the sanitary conditions in which they were grown, offering a possible explanation for how such a rare strain of salmonella could have caused such a large outbreak.

The AP has found that while some Mexican producers grow fruits and vegetables under strict sanitary conditions for export to the U.S., many don't — and they can still send their produce across the border easily.

Neither the U.S. nor the Mexican governments impose any safety requirements on farms and processing plants. That includes those using unsanitary conditions — like those at Agricola Zaragoza — and brokers or packing plants that mix export-grade fruits and vegetables with lower-quality produce. …

(There) is no public list of the chains that require sanitary practices, meaning there's no way to know whether the fruit and vegetables in any particular store is certified or not. …

Agricola Zaragoza is one of the uncertified plants, manager Emilio Garcia told the AP. He said the packing plant washes produce from both certified and uncertified producers, opening up the possibility for contamination. He refused to give details about his suppliers. …

Kathy Means, a vice president for the U.S. Produce Marketing Associations, said food safety is in the hands of the food industry, with most major produce buyers requiring both U.S. and foreign food producers to have third-party audit programs. However, Means said, not all buyers follow the same rules.

"It's not government-regulated, so it's up to the company to require it.”

I say, cut the BS and start deliberately marketing food safety. That way, someone has to back it up; not some dance with an auditor or certifier, or some other third party that has nothing to do with credibility and everything to do with providing distance when the shit hits the fan – or the produce.
 

Playing politics with listeria in Canada

“In October, 1996, 16-month-old Anna Gimmestad of Denver drank Smoothie juice manufactured by Odwalla Inc. of Half Moon Bay, Calif. She died several weeks later; 64 others became ill in several western U.S. states and British Columbia after drinking the same juices, which contained unpasteurized apple cider --and E. coli O157:H7. Investigators believe that some of the apples used to make the cider may have been insufficiently washed after falling to the ground and coming into contact with deer feces.

“The Odwalla outbreak, and dozens of others, illustrate some basics about E.  coli O157:H7 that have gotten lost in the rush --especially by some virulent columnists --to describe the Walkerton outbreak through the filters of political preference. E. coli O157:H7 is part of nature, a natural world that will change and adapt as humans alter their version of the world. But for all the railing against so-called factory or industrial farming, the links remain tenuous. In fact, such assumptions and finger-pointing can actually be dangerous as individuals become less vigilant, assuming that such problems only happen to other people in other places.”


That’s what I wrote in Canada’s National Post on June 3, 2000 in the wake of the Walerton, Ontario, E. coli O157:H7 outbreak which would kill seven and sicken 2,500 in a town of 5,000.

The person in charge of the municipal water system for Walkerton was found to add chlorine based on smell and criminally convicted; the farm was a cow-calf operation that was the poster farm for Environmental Farm Plans.

No matter.

The same mind-numbing politics is now dominating the listeria outbreak in Canada which has killed 19 and sickened dozens.

The cause of the outbreak appears to be the accumulation of listeria in meat slicers used at the Maple Leaf plant in Toronto. The feds have advised all registered establishments that manufacture ready-to-eat meat products to step up their cleaning protocols. Bill Marler noted some other examples related to listeria and meat slicers in a post this morning.

No matter.

A letter writer to the Toronto Star this morning says the only people affected by listeria are “those whose immune systems are low because they have been eating a nutritionally poor diet of mostly processed foods … we would all be better off if we bought fresh, unprocessed food from local farms. These foods would keep our immune systems strong so they could easily ward off a few harmful bacteria.

Guess the letter writer has never heard of pregnant women getting listeria (see next post).

On Saturday, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper set the terms of reference for an investigation into the listeriosis outbreak:

• Examine the events, circumstances and factors that contributed to the outbreak.

• Review the efficiency and effectiveness of the response by federal agencies in terms of prevention, the recall of contaminated products, and collaboration and communication among partners in the food safety system and the public.

• Make recommendations aimed at enhancing prevention of future outbreaks and the removal of contaminated products from stores and warehouses.

No matter.

The report is due before March 15, 2009.

Harper then called a Canadian election for Oct. 14, 2008.

Bob Kingston, president of the Public Service Alliance of Canada's Agriculture Union, said in a news release,

"
We already know the problem is too few inspectors . . . in a system that relies too much on the food industry to police itself.”

Apparently the union inspectors have super vision and can see listeria – especially in the depths of slicing machines.

Others are calling for a full-scale inquiry, like what happened after Walkerton and in Ontario after some dodgy meat slaughtering practices were uncovered (the Haines report). I participated in both inquiries. There is no need for another.

The Ministers of Agriculture and Health, or the Prime Minister’s office, need to call up the bureaucrats and say,

"People are pissed. Give me a clear accounting of who knew what when so I can give a clear accounting to the public. I want the report on my desk Monday at 7 a.m. I’ve got an election campaign going on."
 

Hurricane Gustav and food safety

I have been following Hurricane Gustav closely on the news. I choke when I see images of the storm and people evacuating their homes, the same homes that were devastated by Katrina 3 years ago.

As reported by the New York Times:

“More than one million households in Louisiana were without power, with most of the outages — about 300,000 — concentrated in the greater New Orleans area, Gov. Bobby Jindal said at a televised news conference. As flood waters and tidal surges continued to subside, city and state officials struggled to get electricity to hospitals and sent thousands of emergency workers onto streets to clear debris and fix downed power lines.”

Residents who are left without power should take the following precautions to minimize risk of foodborne illness:

1 – The refrigerator and freezer doors should be kept closed as much as possible to keep the cold temperature longer. A refrigerator keeps food at safe temperatures for about 4 hours if unopened. Dry or block ice also helps maintain the proper temperature: at or below 40°F for a refrigerator and 0°F for a freezer. 

2 – If any meat, poultry, fish, or eggs, where left over 40°F for more than two hours, it is safer to discard it.  A thermometer in your refrigerator helps you determine the temperature (make sure it is working properly).

Residents who are in flood areas:

1 – The safest is to stick with bottled water. However, if you don’t have access to this, you can also filter (through clean cloths) and boil the water for at least a minute. Water can also be disinfected with household bleach, which kills some, not all, pathogens. Add 1/8 teaspoon (8 drops) of bleach per gallon.

2 – Discard food that has come in contact with floodwater, including anything in cardboard boxes, home canned foods, or damaged cans.

A more complete guide can be found here, and please, stay safe.

Botulism, babies and bad advice

Amy and I don’t really disagree about much. But we can each get moody and self-absorbed and go after each other. Especially at the end of 20-hour drives. That’s about how long it takes to go from Manhattan (Kansas) to Guelph (Ontario) and at the end of one epic journey back from Guelph two years ago, tired and driving through Kansas City with a trailer full of my crap that I just had to have in Kansas, Amy decided to entertain herself by asking me, who are you to publish an opinion, or something like that.

I’ve always thought that academic-types had a responsibility to share their knowledge in a compelling manner with the public, rather than just complain about people’s opinions of things scientific and otherwise. But really, who the hell am I? Why should anyone listen? Or care?

I questioned myself for a couple of months and didn’t do much public stuf. Then I got over it. But I still question myself and try to do my homework.

I’m not so sure about Dr. Dave in the video below.

This is from some mommy television show in Canada that Ben sent me. It’s called, The Mom Show. In the clip below, Dr. Dave, appears to have no clue about botulism in babies less than a year old.

Clostridium botulinum can cause sickness in very young children, and infants under the age of 1 years old are most at risk. Honey may contain Clostridium botulinum spores that can grow in the digestive tract of children less than one-year-old because their digestive system is less acidic. The bacteria produces toxin in the body and can cause severe illness. Even pasteurized honey can contain botulism spores and should be not be given to children under the age of 12 months.

The advice is clear: do not give any honey to children less than one-year-old.

But maybe I don’t know what I’m talking about.


 

Food safety in Thailand

On Thursday I spent a couple of hours with some visiting food safety types from Thailand, sharing our experiences with on-farm food safety and fresh produce.

Near the end of the talk, I put up a sample of a daily FSnet mailing for additional information. For policy analyst Thepchoo Sripoti, left, with Thailand’s National Food Institute, light bulbs went off. He said,

“I am a big fan of your FSNET for almost 7 years. It gives me new information on food safety around the world. Wish you have a great success all the way.”

Thanks for the kind words and the visit.


 

Canadian consumers, if you have Maple Leaf deli meats, it's your fault

In possibly the worst – or most incongruent – press release ever written, the Canadian Partnership for Consumer Food Safety Education, the group with the excessively explanatory name, says they have "issued some simple guidelines to reduce the risk of microbial foodborne illnesses. This is of special interest to Canadians in light of recent coverage of listeriosis.”

So for all the money this group gets from government and industry, they can’t be bothered to say, hey, if you’re pregnant or immunocomprimised, you shouldn’t eat this stuff.

Instead,  just more messages funded by taxpayers telling them to feel good about the food they buy.

This is the same group that wanted to use a Mrs. Doubtfire-inspired food safety spokesthingy to reach out to university students, until the trans-generders in Canada got word and forced the campaign to disappear.

Stick it in: Use a thermometer to cook foods so your friends don't barf at football

U.S. college football kicks off Saturday. Time to put on your favorite school’s colors and brush up on that fight song. Thousands of students and alumni will be heading out to the stadium, tailgating, and firing up those grills. Hamburgers, chicken, ribs, or beans, there will be plenty of food on hand.

Use a food thermometer to make sure you aren’t serving your friends and family undercooked meats. Make sure to cook ground beef to 160°F(1), while chicken needs to reach 165°F(2). That way when your team takes the field, you aren’t puking or stuck on the toilet. And using a thermometer will make you a better cook. People are impressed by this. Good food safety will allow you to fully enjoy the tailgating atmosphere, so you can cheer your school onto victory.

It’s all on video, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YmyMmjfFo5Y

References

1: Ryan, Suzanne M., Mark Seyfert, Melvin C. Hunt, Richard A. Mancini. Influence of Cooking Rate, Endpoint Temperature, Post-cook Hold Time, and Myoglobin Redox State on Internal Color Development of Cooked Ground Beef Patties. Journal of Food Science. Volume 71 Issue 3 Page C216-C221, April 2006
http://www.blackwell-synergy.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1365-2621.2006.tb15620.x?prevSearch=authorsfield%3A%28M.C.+Hunt%29

2: Focus On: Chicken. Food Safety and Inspection Service. United States Department of Agriculture. April 4, 2006. http://www.fsis.usda.gov/factsheets/chicken_food_safety_focus/index.asp
 

 

Nuke my food. Please

Marjorie Cortez, a Deseret News editorial writer in Salt Lake City whose kitchen is armed with bleach, antibacterial wipes and sprays, writes,

“Some 12 years ago, my husband got sick. I had never seen a person so sick outside of a hospital. His fevers were so severe that when they broke, the bed sheets were sopping wet. He couldn't keep anything in his stomach. We battled to keep him hydrated.

“He wasn't alone in his misery. He was among a small group of people who contracted salmonella when a restaurant cook failed to properly clean a cutting board where raw chicken had been cut. …

“So it surprises me when there's such outcry when the Food and Drug Administration approves a practice to help make our food safer. This past week, the FDA decided to allow spinach and lettuce sellers to treat their products with radiation to safeguard against E. coli and other bugs that can make us sick.

“As soon as FDA officials made the announcement, critics were all over the airwaves claiming radiation makes food less nutritious and potentially toxic.
Toxic? Give salmonella a whirl if you want to talk toxic. …

“Food irradiation isn't a magic bullet. But it's one more barrier to micro-organisms that can sicken and kill. I should think that most people would want that extra tool to help keep their families safe, particularly when we know that a fairly high percentage of food-borne illnesses result from poor food-handling practices in the home.

“For me, it's one more safeguard, one I'm more than willing to welcome into my home.”

 

A typical Michael Phelps breakfast

An increasingly pregnant Amy and I were strolling along Venice Beach this morning, marveling at the complete lack of a storm – Fay fizzled – and Amy said she was hungry for bacon and eggs and French toast. She had eaten an hour earlier.

This is normal in pregnancy.

uber-Olympian Michael Phelps isn’t pregnant, but consumes 8,000 to 10,000 calories a day.

Serious Eats reports that Phelps' typical breakfast order from Pete's Grille in Baltimore, Maryland, as is recounted in autobiography Beneath the Surface, is:

“Start with three sandwiches of fried eggs, cheese, lettuce, tomato, fried onions, and mayonnaise; add one omelet, a bowl of grits, and three slices of French toast with powdered sugar; then wash down with three chocolate chip pancakes.”

Maybe the U.S. track team should have been hanging out with Phelps. The N.Y. Times reported Saturday that several members of the United States track team became ill at the team’s pre-Olympic training center in Dalian, about 300 miles east of Beijing, and food poisoning was the likely cause.

 


 

Culture, camp, pregnancy and ... synchronized diving?

Why is synchronized diving an Olympic sport?

I don’t know either, but it caught the attention of my dining companions, each with their own food safety story to share.

Philippa Ross-James, Program Manager Communications, with the New Zealand Food Safety Authority, gave a great talk Monday morning at Kansas State University, sharing the agency’s experience promoting food safety practices in culturally acceptable ways with New Zealand's indigenous people -- Maori, and New Zealand's Pacific peoples.

The take home messages: build trust, get out of the office, and be in it for the long term. That’s Philippa (right), with Curtis Kastner, director of Kansas State’s Food Science Institute, me, Philippa, and Lisa Freeman, associate dean for research at K-State’s vet college, and a v.p. at K-State’s new Olathe innovation campus.

My youngest daughter, Courtlynn, is back from camp and spending some time in Manhattan (Kansas). She told me on the last day of camp, the chicken that was served was still cold in the middle. A camp counselor came around and told the kids, don’t eat the chicken, it’s not cooked.

If you’re making food for 300 or so kids, have some standard operating procedures, and use a damn thermomter.

Finally, during the synchro swimming display last night, pregnant Amy inquired about the bruschetta with goat cheese. It was a soft cheese and there is a risk of post-processing contamination – the soft cheese can support listeria growth if contaminated with a knife or someone’s dirty hand – so she didn’t order it, but I had to ask, “Is the goat cheese made from raw or pasteurized milk.”

The waiter didn’t have a clue, but did offer to ask, returned from the kitchen, and said it was made from pasteurized milk, and someone had asked the chef the same question last week.

Consumers can ask questions.

Philippa left for the 30-something hour trek back to Wellington this morning.

Courtlynn, Amy and I are heading to Florida for some much needed beach time.
 

Guess Who? Guelph food safety needs more than press releases

I got a haircut yesterday.

There was some XM Satellite classic rock station on in the background, so I got to expound yet again about the Journey effect, Fargo Rock City and bad radio music in the Midwest, and Canadian bands who had made it big (a song by The Guess Who came on; I spoke with Burton Cummings on an airplane a few years ago, and was able to quip about Randy Bachman’s stomach surgery as he was sitting in with the band on Letterman the other night; Bachman and Cummings never registered the band’s name, The Guess Who, so some posers tour under that name, sorta like the Food Safety Network at the University of Guelph cause I didn’t bother to register the name).

I had just posted a blog about the E. coli O157 outbreak at the University of Guelph, and was all chatty about that, so I said to my hair person, Virginia, if you made 6-figures running some aspect of a university, and 20 people got sick from eating in one of your food service outlets, what would you say?

"I’d say I was sorry."

Me too.


“The University regrets any inconvenience or concerns this situation may have caused.”

The U of G community was shaken up by the serious outbreak of E. coli on campus, said Chuck Cunningham, U of G's director of communication and public affairs.

"It's a surprise and a shock to us that this has happened," he said.

Steps have been taken to ensure that food operations on campus are safe, Cunningham said, adding that he bought a salad from a university cafeteria for lunch yesterday.

"It seemed to me like it was business as usual," he said.


I'd start by looking at suppliers, follow through to employee handling, handwashing policies  and whether sick employees are pressured to work. This ain’t rocket surgery.

A press release from the University said yesterday that,

“Although health officials said it's unlikely that the source of the outbreak will ever be identified, they believe it's an isolated incident.”

How do they know it’s an isolated incident if the source of the outbreak is never identified?

The press release also states that information about E. coli is available through the Ontario Ministry of Health.

Doesn’t the University of Guelph have some food safety group that bills itself as a “Reliable Information Source” and runs a phone line to answer food safety questions?  I must be having a Guess Who moment again.

Love that Canadian flag.





The Journey effect; and why I don't get invited for dinner

Amy and I don’t often get invited for dinner. I thought it was cause of my food safety geekness, but I now realize it could just be me.  On Tuesday I ended the meal at some friends’ house by breaking out my best Geddy Lee falsetto and recounting the Rush classic, Closer to the Heart.

It was part of our terrible bands nostalgia. Journey was at the top of my list (and they’re even back with a new Steve Perry sounding singer they found on youtube). I saw Journey once, opening for the Rolling Stones in Buffalo in 1981. They were terrible. But they made the Stones look even better when they finally took the stage. Ever since, I refer to the practice of surrounding oneself with dumbasses as the Journey effect – it makes you look better without trying.

I’ve also since learned there are a lot of hardcore Journey fans out there.

As I told Misti Crane of the Columbus Dispatch back in July, I try not to be a food safety jerk around other people. But, sure enough, the first e-mail Wednesday morning was from our dinner hosts, asking if our stomachs were stable.

Dinner was great. And I’ll stick to my 68-72 Stones.


Note to the mother country: Food safety is not simple

The UK Food Standards Agency continues to set new lows for communicating about food safety issues with the public that pays them to communicate with them.

And the Brits seem to have this obsession with how food safety is simple.

There is an outbreak of Salmonella Agona in the UK and Ireland that has sickened about 80 people of all ages, but predominantly young adults.

In the FSA release, the government agency says, “the source of the outbreak is not yet known” and that “when the Agency has further information or useful advice for consumers in relation to this outbreak it will publish it immediately.”

Fair enough. But FSA then feels it necessary, in some weird paternalistic way, to tell Brits that,

“In the meantime, there are simple measures you can take to reduce the risk of food poisoning … Always follow the manufacturers cooking instructions for food intended to be eaten hot and make sure it is piping hot throughout.”

What if the instructions suck, like with pot pies?

“When eating out, always make sure the hot food you have ordered is served piping hot throughout – don’t be afraid to ask for it to be re-heated."

If food safety is so simple, why are there all these sick people and no identified source? Piping hot is too subjective. And since when does anyone have to ask a Brit to be more assertive? Go to a football match.

Seriously, for the millions of dollars spent on risk communication and food safety, this is the best FSA can do?

University of Guelph: 'We take pride in our food services and food safety' and our ability to infect people with E. coli

At least four people have been stricken with E. coli at the University of Guelph – two food handlers, one university faculty, and one conference attendee.

So says the health unit, in a local newspaper report. The university didn’t actually say anything, other than to issue a Kremlinesque request to talk to people who’ve been barfing.

“In the interests of the health of our community, the University is posting this bulletin. Representatives of Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph Public Health are investigating a possible E. coli outbreak.

“Symptoms of E. coli include diarrhea, stomach cramps, nausea and/or vomiting. If you or a family member recently had, or currently has any of those symptoms, please call Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph Public Health at 1-877-844-8653. For more information about E. coli go to www.wdghu.org”


A university spokesthingy did tell the paper, "We take pride in our food services and food safety."

Risk communication 101: Better to come clean up front than let the details slowly – or explosively – shit out.

Obama needs more food safety specifics

Barack Obama is generating lots of interest in the U.S. Presidential process. Especially about whether he is too thin to be voted President by fat Americans.

I can’t even vote but, like Tom Hanks, share an interest in presidential history.

On Friday, Obama introduced the Improving Food-borne Illness Surveillance and Response Act of 2008, which would improve information sharing and collaboration between public and private agencies and other organizations to effectively address food safety challenges. …

“The Obama food safety legislation would strengthen and expand food-borne illness surveillance in order to better inform and evaluate efforts to prevent these illnesses. This bill would also enhance the identification and investigation of food-borne illness outbreaks, which would assist officials to respond appropriately. In anticipation of future challenges, this bill would require a survey of state health departments to determine critical needs as well as the development of strategic plans. …”


Sorry, I must have dozed off there.

Sure Obama is offering up more than McCain. But Obama is creating expectations. Hopefully they are not too unrealistic; he’s already fallen into the safest food in the world rhetoric.

And it’s spelled foodborne, not food-borne.

This sorta reminds me of Les Nessman advising station manager and local council candidate, Arthur Carlson, on how to answer tough questions during an episode of WKRP. Something like:

(Food safety) is an important issue for all Americans. I take this issue seriously and will be appointing a blue-ribbon fact-finding commission, to issue a position paper on (food safety) very soon.

And since there’s not much on youtube about WKRP, I’ll leave you with, The Dungarees versus the Suits.







E. coli at camp; 13 Scouts sickened

My youngest daughter – although 13 seems fairly grown up -- just came back from camp, and is going to be joining Amy and me in Kansas in a week.

She went to camp for the first time when she was 7. At the time I wrote,

Looks like I picked the wrong week to send my kids to camp.
 From sea to diarrheal sea, North Americans have been stricken by illnesses 
most likely transmitted in food.
 Two years ago, Canada was just beginning to have some myths shattered about
 Canadian clean water as reports trickled out regarding an outbreak of E.
coli O157:H7 in Walkerton, Ont. In the end, 2,300 were sickened and seven
 killed, all in a town of 5,000.


Now, 29 attendees at a cheerleading camp in Washington State have been 
stricken with the same bug, including a teenager whose kidneys were so 
damaged that she is on dialysis. Sleuthing by health investigators sparked a 
U.S.-wide recall of a brand of Romaine lettuce on Monday, which was clearly 
implicated in the outbreak.


This morning, I could only sigh and be thankful my youngest returned without diarrheal incident.
Health officials have confirmed that at least 13 boys, all but one from Northern Virginia, contracted E. coli bacterial infections while attending a popular Scout camp in Goshen, Va. …

Since the outbreak, Scout officials have taken steps to reduce the risk of further contamination by temporarily removing ground beef -- a common source of E. coli -- from camp menus; distributing hand sanitizers; and encouraging hand-washing and proper hygiene.

At some point people may realize E. coli O157:H7 is present in the environment and could be in lots of foods and water – not just ground beef.

There's a lot of poop in produce

I know there’s lots of serious stuff going on in Washington, where a bunch of food safety suits are playing advocates for whatever lobby they represent – and they all represent a lobby – and a lot of politicians are spinning stuff way beyond what any data suggests, but has anyone noticed, there’s a lot of poop on produce?

Last night, NewStar Fresh Foods  of Salinas, Calif., issued a voluntary recall for fresh cilantro because it has the potential to be contaminated with Salmonella.

Back on July 18, Salmonella Oranienburg was found in both North Carolina and Texas on jalapenos and avacados.

And on July 9, 2008, Lucky Green Trading, Inc. of Garden Grove, CA, recalled its Thai Basil , because it has the potential to be contaminated with Salmonella. Not the Saintpaul, but still Salmonella.

While the suits are playing armchair quarterback and asking for money, they seem to be completely ignoring the microbiological positives that keep showing up in their product.

At what point will the politicians, crusading under the rubric of food safety, begin to ask, what’s with this don’t test, don’t tell policy?

Cause now that FDA and others are looking, there sure seems to be a lot of poop on produce.

Various suits: Clean up your own backyard before shitting in someone else’s.

And as I’ve written before, when it comes to the safety of the food supply, I generally ignore the chatter from Washington, and I’m increasingly ignoring the chatter from the various usual suspects and hangers on, like academics and others looking to promote their own agenda (many in the food safety world are heading to Columbus, Ohio, for the IAFP meeting and I just really don’t want to be there – and won’t). Will any of this grandstanding actually make food safer? Will fewer people get sick?



Produce leadership: memories of convenience?

The produce industry in the U.S. deserves better leadership. Or at least better writers.

At least that’s my take-home message after reading the screed by Bryan Silbermann, president of the Produce Marketing Association, Newark, Del., and Tom Stenzel, president of the United Fresh Produce Association, Washington, D.C., who are preaching the it’s-time-to-change message at least 10 years too late.

The title itself -- We can't go back, so let's charge straight ahead -- suggests a memory of convenience or a preference of forgetfulness.

“Our industry's key focus now should be to exert as much control as possible over our destiny moving forward. We are, after all, in the best position to lead the task at hand.”

Amy, my French literature wife says,

“When a trauma occurs such as the one that just took place in the produce industry with the Salmonella Saintpaul outbreak, people generally take one of two paths, according to psychoanalytic theory. They either dwell in the past, in the time before the rupture occurred, and pretend that the past was perfect, or they focus solely on the future. In either case, they ignore the painful present and the immediate working out of the trauma at hand.”

I’m not so literate. More literal. Literally, shouldn’t the produce industry have taken control of their destiny after any of the 20-some outbreaks in leafy greens or the 12 outbreaks in tomatoes since 1990? What about after all the other outbreaks in fresh produce?

Casey Jacob, Benjamin Chapman and I have a chapter in a book coming out later this year. It goes something like this:

From the October, 1996, E. coli O157:H7 in Odwalla fresh juice outbreak to the Sept. 2006 E. coli O157 in spinach outbreak,

“almost 500 outbreaks of foodborne illness involving fresh produce were documented, publicized and led to some changes within the industry. … (But) at what point did sufficient evidence exist to compel the fresh produce industry to embrace the kind of change the sector has heralded since 2007? And at what point will future evidence be deemed sufficient to initiate change within an industry? …

“A decade of evidence existed highlighting problems with fresh produce, warning letters were written, yet little was seemingly accomplished. The real challenge for food safety professionals, is to garner support for safe food practices in the absence of an outbreak, to create a culture that values microbiologically safe food, from farm-to-fork, at all times, and not just in the glare of the media spotlight.”


The produce leaders also write in their letter that, now, after all these fresh fruit and vegetable outbreaks,

“Working together with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, state departments of agriculture and foreign governments, there must be extensive industry training and education, to help every employee at every company understand the role they play in creating a food safety culture.”


Wow, sounds like something I’d write. Except I’d throw in an evaluation component to see if the training and education actually work. But I see no evidence the industry wants to undertake such work.

I take that back. Lots of individual growers, and I’ve had the privilege of working with several, want to do the basic work and whatever they can to ensure a safe harvest. They want to know if their people know how to wash the shit off of their hands, and how to keep the shit out of fields of fresh produce.

The associations, the industry leaders, have apparently given up, and now “support fair but mandatory produce food safety rules.” They want government to do their job.

A food safety audit does not ensure safe food

I’m not a fan of third-party food safety audits. Sure, there’s lots of good people out there, especially the ones who can coach and assist, but straight audits of food producing facilities – beginning on the farm and through to the fork – can be fraught with inadequacies.

And too often, it’s about the paycheck, not the food safety (and that comes from years of working with farmers and others and watching various auditors show up and not knowing too much).

Crain's Detroit Business
has a story about the expanding empire of NSF International's testing and certification services, which expects sales to increase 29 percent, to $155 million this year.

NSF CEO Kevan Lawlor says that as companies develop more global supply chains, there's an increased risk of health and safety issues.

Which could also be an argument for developing an internal capacity to assess suppliers and internal operations.

Chapman has written that,

“Farmers and processors need to demonstrate to consumers they are aware of microbial risks and are taking serious steps to reduce that risk, day-in, day-out, even in the absence of an outbreak. Regulatory or even third party-audits are largely meaningless. Audits are snapshots, and auditors look for easily viewed visual mistakes and do little to look at what a farmer or staff member does. Just like restaurant inspections audits are not a good indicator of likelihood of an outbreak. Farmers need food safety resources 24/7 to help guide their production practices, and they need those best practices continually reinforced; an annual audit is hopelessly insufficient, especially since outbreaks keep happening from processors that are audited. Inspection scores for farms, like those for restaurants are subject to inspector inconsistencies and are not predictive of the likelihood of an outbreak (Cruz et al., 2001; Jones et al., 2004).”

Or as I’ve written and stressed for years,

“certified/verified/HACCPified/inspected/audited don't means that much unless there is a culture of food safety present farm-to-fork, 24/7.”

How many NSF-audited farms or facilities have subsequently been involved in outbreaks of foodborne illness? How many farms or facilities audited by other third-party operators have been involved in outbreaks of foodborne illness?

Buffalo meat can carry dangerous E. coli, just like grass-fed beef

Andrew Stormer (right, pretty much as shown) tells me his parents went to the farmers’ market yesterday and bought some buffalo meat.

Stormer, a student who works with me but is spending the summer as an intern in the 38C (100F) heat of Salina, Kansas, says,

“The person selling the meat said that their buffalos were not fed grain and therefore, E. coli was not a concern in buffalo meat.  The person also said that because E. coli did not appear in the meat that it didn't matter if people undercooked it.”

A quick look on the Internet found that many purveyors of buffalo meat shared similar views; that somehow is doesn’t need to be sufficiently cooked to control dangerous bugs.

This sounds like a variation on a similar fantasy that shiga-toxin or verotoxin-producing E. coli like E. coli O157:H7 don’t occur in grass fed cattle. They do. And lots of other places.

Hazarika and colleagues at the Department of Veterinary Medicine, Public Health &, Hygiene, CVSc, AAU, in India reported in the Journal of Food Safety in 2005 that,

“The emergence of Verotoxin-producing Escherichia coli (VTEC) as zoonotic foodborne pathogens in recent years has become a public health concern because of its life threatening human diseases. In the present investigation, out of 87 strains of E. coli, 22 (25%) belonging to 13 different serotypes isolated from raw buffalo meat and its products were found to be verotoxic as tested by Vero cell cytotoxic assay. Serotype 026 followed by O153 and 0157 were the predominant VTEC. …  VTEC in cooked buffalo meat products, namely shami kabab and kabab, appears to be a matter of concern and a potential threat to public health.”


That means handle ground buffalo like ground beef, and cook to 160F.



Sus vide cooking is safe if you follow a plan

The New York Times reported last week that in 2006,

“the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene inspected restaurants using the sous vide method, in which food is vacuum-sealed in plastic for slow cooking at low temperatures. Because of concerns about bacteria growth in the sealed pouches, restaurants were told to stop using vacuum-sealing machines until they filed plans detailing their processes. … Afterward, restaurants like Blue Hill, Per Se and WD-50 filed sous vide plans that were approved by the city as officials developed formal regulations.

“In March the Board of Health approved those regulations. They require restaurants that cook sous vide to have an approved Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point plan. …

“Some chefs say the health department is overzealous in its regulation of sous vide, which is safe when properly practiced. But others agreed with officials who said it was important that correct procedures were clearly followed, because anaerobic bacteria can thrive in the airless environment of a vacuum bag if techniques are not done properly.

“Sous vide, which means ‘under vacuum’ in French, refers to a technique where foods are vacuum-sealed to carefully calibrated degrees of pressure so they can be suffused with flavors in a marinade or submerged in temperature-controlled water baths. …

“Bruno Goussault, the chief scientist at Cuisine Solutions, an industrial sous vide company, was one of the developers of sous vide and has trained many famous chefs in the technique. He said that he understood the need for health department oversight and that he consulted with the city to help draft the regulations. …

“It’s very easy to work with the top chefs, but when you are making regulations you need to take care of all the chefs, not just the top chefs,” Mr. Goussault said. “Perhaps sometimes it’s excessive, too much regulation for the top chefs, but I think it’s necessary.”

Mayra goes to the Idaho market, and finds food is local, not safer

I followed Doug’s suggestion to flesh out consumer reactions to the latest Salmonella outbreak and visited the farmers market in Idaho while visiting my boyfriend.

I read the results of a poll published by the Associated Press, concluding that half of Americans are changing their buying behavior because of the most recent salmonella outbreak.

I was surprised at the market when all the people who I managed to grab for a short interview (shoppers busy shopping) replied they weren’t afraid of getting sick from the food they were buying.
 
But they weren’t feeling completely safe either.

I guess getting diarrhea once in a while is just part of life. And things can get out of control for farmers, large and small, unless you are controlling, of course. 

“I’m buying tomatoes now,” she said. “Nothing is safe unless it comes from your own backyard and you have full control and knowledge over how you grow the produce.”

One woman even said that the salmonella outbreak was simply fake. She understood it as some sort of scam of the government to get people to believe in something to act a certain way and that it’s destroying people’s lives.

Wow.

Didn’t quote her in my article.

But this was the general reaction I got:

“Everything is locally grown and I want to support local, including a friend who works at a farm,” she said. “I don’t think it’s safer though.”

I agree with the conclusion of this shopper:

“With rising oil prices, people have been concerned about other things too,” he said. “They are more concerned about sustainability and the environment, and they think coming to the market supports the cause.”

Mayra Rivarola is a journalism student at Kansas State University hoping to graduate in 2010 when she plans to return to her native Paraguay.  She loves traveling, cooking, and watching TV commercials. Mayra is also addicted to the Internet and is eternally thankful for Google.

GAO and a single food inspection agency: Will it actually make food safer? Will fewer people get sick?

When it comes to the safety of the food supply, I generally ignore the chatter from Washington. If a proposal does emerge, such as the creation of a single food inspection agency, I ask, Will it actually make food safer? Will fewer people get sick?

Much is being made this morning about a new report from the U.S. General Accounting Office, and how the U.S. is lagging behind other countries – countries that have single food inspection systems. The Chicago Tribune says, On food safety, U.S. not No. 1, while the L.A. Times  offers an editorial, U.S. lags on food regulation.

So I spent the end of another stellar day in Melbourne, and the beginning of a new day back home, by reading the report and comparing it to some of the Washington chatter.

Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) said,

"Today's GAO report shows that America ranked eighth out of eight countries -- dead last -- in terms of national food safety systems.”

There was no such ranking in the report. There was no ranking at all in the report.

Congresswoman Rosa L. DeLauro (CT-3) said,

“This GAO report highlights how effectively a single food safety agency could protect our food supply. … By focusing on the entire food supply chain, placing primary responsibility for food safety on producers, and ensuring that food imports meet equivalent safety standards. …”

The U.S. system already does that. And the report says nothing about how a single food inspection agency could better accomplish such tasks.

The Center for Science in the Public Interest says,

“The GAO report also shows that creating a unified food safety program is technologically and economically feasible, and most important, effective in helping to reduce foodborne illness.”


There were no measures of effectiveness for any of the single food inspection agencies, other than whether public opinion or confidence in the shiny, happy new agencies increased over time based on self-reported surveys. A few advertisements could have accomplished that.

There was certainly no mention of any agency reducing the incidence of foodborne illness. The seven countries studied – Canada, UK, New Zealand, Ireland, Denmark, Germany and The Netherlands – said they reorganized their food inspection agencies to improve effectiveness and efficiency; not one said to improve public health and have fewer sick people.

The GAO report -- Selected Countries’ Systems Can Offer Insights into Ensuring Import Safety and Responding to Foodborne Illness – did say:

“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.”

That’s good.

“None of the selected countries had comprehensively evaluated its reorganized food safety system … Most of the selected countries use proxy measures, such as public opinion surveys, to assess their effectiveness. Public opinion in several countries has improved in recent years.”

That’s bad.

In Canada, “At the consumer end of the spectrum, the food safety agency educates Canadians about safe food-handling practices and various food safety risks through its Web site, food safety fact sheets, and the Canadian Partnership for Consumer Food Safety Education, a group of industry, consumer, and government organizations that jointly develop and implement a national program to educate consumers on how to safely handle food.”

That’s awful.

To summarize: no rankings, no measures of effectiveness, and not much fact-checking.

Should there be a single food inspection agency in the U.S.? Maybe. But will it enhance the safety of the food supply? Will it mean fewer sick people?



Hosers surface in Wisconsin: woman accused of placing dead rat in food

On March 22, 2005, Anna Ayala claimed she found a finger in a bowl of Wendy's chili in San Jose. The finger became the talk of the Internet and late-night talk shows, and spawned numerous bizarre tips and theories about the source of the finger. Wendy’s lost millions in reduced sales.

The finger belonged to an associate of Ayala’s ex-husband and both are now doing time.

Less noticed was that at least 20 copycat claims surfaced since Anna's tale, bringing back memories of hosers Bob and Doug MacKenzie of Second City fame explaining how to get a free case of beer by claiming to find a dead mouse in a beer bottle.

This is not funny to the food companies who have, and succeed, in providing safe, affordable food but have to further protect themselves against bogus claims.

Debbie R. Miller, 41, of Appleton, Wis. was charged Monday with one felony count of extortion after she was accused of planting a dead lab rat in restaurant food and demanding $500,000 to keep quiet.

Miller claimed to find the rat in her lunch April 17 as she ate at the upscale Seasons Restaurant in Grand Chute, according to the criminal complaint.

She threatened to alert the media unless the owners paid her $500,000, the complaint said.

The owners turned the rat over to their insurance company. Investigators there determined the rodent was a white laboratory rat, the complaint said.

Tests also suggested the rodent had been cooked in a microwave, but the restaurant doesn't use microwaves in cooking.


Even Larry the Cable Guy: Health Inspector could have figured that one out.



UK TV chefs 'fail on basic hygiene'

BBC News reports that Dr Layla Jader, of the National Public Health Service for Wales, said at the British Medical Association conference in Edinburgh that TV chefs are setting a bad example by failing to follow basic hygiene standards, and that programmes often did not wash vegetables before using them or separate uncooked meat from other food, raising the risk of food poisoning.

"I really get frustrated, I've seen it so many times. They bring in the vegetables, they open the bag and they make the salad straight from unwashed vegetables. They do it for the sake of expedience, but these programmes are watched by millions of people.

"It's irresponsible. If they are going to do something that's not healthy they should say: 'We are in a hurry but please wash the salad and vegetables before you serve it'."


A spokeswoman for Ready Steady Cook said the programme followed the "very highest standards."

Celebrity Masterchef stated,

"Before contestants are allowed to cook they are thoroughly briefed by our qualified home economists on all aspects of hygienic food preparation. In addition they are also monitored whilst cooking as we take the health of everyone involved in the programme extremely seriously."

The problem is the highest standards sorta suck. And for the apologists who say that cleaning and handwashing occur off-camera … I doubt it. It’s easy to mention hygiene without preaching. Who wants to eat poop?

Mathiasen, L.A., Chapman, B.J., Lacroix, B.J. and Powell, D.A. 2004. Spot the mistake: Television cooking shows as a source of food safety information, Food Protection Trends 24(5): 328-334.

Consumers receive information on food preparation from a variety of sources. Numerous studies conducted over the past six years demonstrate that television is one of the primary sources for North Americans. This research reports on an examination and categorization of messages that television food and cooking programs provide to viewers about preparing food safely. During June 2002 and 2003, television food and cooking programs were recorded and reviewed, using a defined list of food safety practices based on criteria established by Food Safety Network researchers. Most surveyed programs were shown on Food Network Canada, a specialty cable channel. On average, 30 percent of the programs viewed were produced in Canada, with the remainder produced in the United States or United Kingdom. Sixty hours of content analysis revealed that the programs contained a total of 916 poor food-handling incidents. When negative food handling behaviors were compared to positive food handling behaviors, it was found that for each positive food handling behavior observed, 13 negative behaviors were observed. Common food safety errors included a lack of hand washing, cross-contamination and time-temperature violations. While television food and cooking programs are an entertainment source, there is an opportunity to improve their content so as to promote safe food handling.

Michelle Mazur: Food safety at baseball parks

Hot dogs, hamburgers, fries, pretzels with cheese, popcorn, and peanuts are all a part of the classic ballpark menu.  But as the baseball industry grows, new additions to the menu include peppery clam chowder served in a bread bowl dotted through with tender bits of clam; a fried catfish sandwich in a crisp, Cajun-accented crust; and a homey bowl of jerk chicken over rice, with a healthy dash of jalapeño hot sauce.  Peter Meehan recently completed a trek across the country to 10 American cities, visiting 12 major league ballparks to sample the cuisine that was offered.

Even the hot dogs have evolved. How about a Tags: , , ,

Follow the poop - not the bullshit

The award for the most silly statements in one media report that I’ve seen today – and I see a lot in one day – goes to North Carolina’s Asheville Citizen-Times.

In the context of the on-going Salmonella outbreak, with 971 confirmed illnesses and at least 189 hospitalizations, Charlie Jackson, director of the Appalachian Sustainable Agriculture Project, says people should not be too concerned, adding,

“In the whole scheme of things, we have the safest food in the world. There is more danger in driving to the market than eating a tomato that is going to make you sick.”

How compassionate. If someone in industry or government said that they would be rightly skewered.

Jackson also said local food is inherently safer than food shipped in from far away, adding,

“The big and astounding problem is that they don’t know where it (the salmonella) came from. That doesn’t occur when you buy the product right from the farmer who grew it.”

Wrong. The big problem is poop on food, wherever it came from, along with bullshit statements from hucksters.

Renay Knapp, a family consumer science agent with the N.C. Cooperative Extension in Henderson County, says

“Probably the most important thing is to keep hot food hot and cold foods cold. That’s where it all starts.”

Nope. It starts on the farm and keeping poop away from the food.

And these are pictures, for no particular reason, of Wellington, New Zealand, where Amy and I are currently camped out, and yesterday’s lunch. We don’t get mussels like that in Kansas.



I try not to be a food safety jerk

After telling Misti Crane of The Columbus Dispatch that I feel naked without a thermometer – when cooking – she came back for more, and asked if I would ever take a thermometer to, say, a Fourth of July BBQ at someone else’s place.

Here's what Doug Powell does: He whips out the thermometer he's recently taken to carrying with him.

You might wonder how the food-safety expert finesses such a potentially awkward social situation.

"I go into it very academic, professor-ish like," he said.

"I try not to be a jerk."

… But nobody will eat a burger off his grill that hasn't been stabbed in the side with a tip-sensitive digital thermometer and is cooked to a minimum of 160 degrees.


I’ve taken thermometers while tailgating at Kansas State football games, I’ve stuck them in potpies, and I’ve converted at least one French professor into using a thermometer. I know it’s awkward to ask questions, or listen politely while someone gases on about how safe their food is cause it comes from some dude with a RR address, but really, I try not to be a jerk.

Below are two videos, one tailgating, and one on how to cook hamburgers.

Now, can someone explain the American fascination with fireworks and the desire for students – especially males – to  ignite the noisemakers every night, beginning July 1. What are they compensating for?








Chipotle misses the microbiological mark - again

Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc., famous for telling consumers what isn’t in its foods – antibiotics, hormones – and has had a couple of recent unpleasantries associated with their food – norovirus and hepatitis A – announced it will start buying locally raised produce for its restaurants this summer.

Under the plan, 25 percent of at least one of its produce items, including romaine lettuce, green bell and jalapeño peppers and red onions, for each of its 730-plus restaurants, will be sourced from small and mid-sized local farms.

I’m all for local food, as long as someone is checking to ensure the microbiological safety of fresh produce. Local does not automatically mean safe.

Casey Jacob, guest barfblogger: The south central Kansas omnivore's dilemma

My husband and I just moved to south central Kansas after I graduated from Kansas State University’s food science program in May and we got married.  I’ve talked him into taking me to see Pixar’s Wall-E tonight, but we need some dinner first.

We thought we might try Acapulco Restaurant, a Mexican franchise in town. That is, until I read on FSnet that the restaurant had just been named as the source of a 19-person salmonella outbreak. My new hubby was suddenly not too keen on going.

I, however, reasoned that after gaining some bad press and losing a bit of business, the restaurant’s management would be preaching food safety harder than they ever had before. The chances of an outbreak due to kitchen hygiene issues likely decreased dramatically.

In August 2007, Donna Garren, vice-president of health and safety regulatory affairs for the National Restaurant Association trade group, said outbreaks were leading restaurant chains to “[spend] additional resources outside of the typical food safety domain.”

Donna also admits, however, “There are costs associated with not knowing your suppliers.” If ingredients aren’t sourced from safe suppliers, even that assumedly sparkling-clean kitchen is no guarantee I’ll be served safe food.

Her quote was included in an article that claimed it was statistically safer to eat at fast-food chain restaurants than to cook for yourself at home.

While the title of Biggest Source of Foodborne Illness – home, restaurant, elsewhere -- is still hard to pin down, it can be safely said that both chain restaurants and the household kitchen are still in the running. So who knows where I’ll have dinner tonight… or if I’ll make it out without barfing. 

As one Acapulco Restaurant patron confessed, “You compare all the bad to the good, sometimes it's worth the risks.”

Casey Jacob is the married version of former barfblogger Casey Wilkinson, and continues to work with her Kansas friends.

Mayonnaise makes food safer

The New York Times reports that, despite its reputation, mayonnaise can reduce food spoilage.

Most commercial brands of mayonnaise contain vinegar and other ingredients that make them acidic — and therefore very likely to protect against spoilage.
 
When problems occur, they usually result from other contaminated or low-acid ingredients (like chicken and seafood), improper storage and handling, or homemade versions that contain unpasteurized eggs.

One prominent study published in The Journal of Food Protection found, for example, that in the presence of commercial mayonnaise, the growth of salmonella and staphylococcus bacteria in contaminated chicken and ham salad either slowed or stopped altogether. As the amount of mayonnaise increased, the rate of growth decreased. When temperatures rose to those of a hot summer day, the growth increased, but not as much as in samples that did not contain mayonnaise.


Or, as Bill Marler quipped, for his summer picnic, “I’ll just have the bun please.


Salmonella in tomatoes or something else?

With no end in sight, Elizabeth Weise of USA Today reports that suspicions are mounting that fresh unprocessed tomatoes aren't necessarily causing the salmonella outbreak that has sickened 851 people across the U.S., with the latest case beginning June 20.

Robert Tauxe, deputy director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s division of foodborne diseases, said CDC launched a new round of interviews over the weekend, adding,

"We're broadening the investigation to be sure it encompasses food items that are commonly consumed with tomatoes.”

Weise reports that if another food is found to be the culprit after tomatoes were recalled nationwide and the produce industry sustained losses of hundreds of millions of dollars, food safety experts say the public's trust in the government's ability to track foodborne illnesses will be shattered.

Michael Osterholm of the National Center for Food Protection and Defense at the University of Minnesota, said,

"It's going to fundamentally rewrite how we do outbreak investigations in this country. We can't let this investigation, however it might turn out, end with just the answer of 'What caused it?' We need to take a very in-depth look at foodborne disease investigation as we do it today."

Jim Prevor, editor of Produce Business magazine, says tomatoes couldn't have caused an outbreak that has stretched from early April to late June.

"There's not a field in the world" that produces that long.

If not tomatoes, what else? "Something that people find difficult to remember but which is always served with tomatoes," says Tauxe.

That would put salsa, jalapeño peppers, green onions and cilantro at the top of the list of potential culprits, says Doug Powell, director of the International Food Safety Network at Kansas State University in Manhattan, Kan.

Emergency plans for retail food establishments

Ever wonder what to do in an ice storm. A tornado? How about a flood? Living in the Midwest, we get everything.

Now imagine it’s not just you and your family. It’s a restaurant, a store, even a really big store.

The Conference for Food Protection (CFP) has released “practical guidance for retail grocery and food service establishments to plan and respond to emergencies that create the potential for an imminent health hazard.”  It includes a list of on-line resources.

It’s a great starting point.



Strict safety guidelines enforced as produce travels from Mexico

The Dallas Morning News ran a couple of excellent features on the flow of food from Mexico to the U.S. Yesterday's story was about the lack of inspectors, how little product was actually inspected, and, perhaps unwittingly, the problem of inspecting fresh produce for microbial contaminants.

“In December, officials took a sample for testing from a 5,500-pound load of Mexican basil moving through the Otay Mesa border crossing in San Diego. The basil continued on to its destination and was sold to restaurants and other customers in California, Texas and Illinois the next day. When the test results came back two weeks later, they suggested salmonella contamination, sparking a late recall.”

It's much better to design safety into all operations, beginning on the farm.

Glenn Fry helps run Taylor Farms de Mexico's new $14 million plant in San José Iturbide, Mexico. He picked the land where it sits, designed just about every facet of it, and he manages more than 800 workers who plant, harvest and package produce – including lettuce, onions and broccoli – for export to the U.S.

Today’s story says that Taylor Farms is just one of a handful of U.S. companies lured by Mexico's ideal year-round growing climate, proximity to Texas, low labor costs and plentiful workforce.

During a recent lettuce harvest, quality-control supervisor Laura Patino pointed to an aide who monitors workers coming out of the mobile toilets at the end of the fields to make sure they wash their hands before returning to work.

"Many of our workers don't even have toilets at home, so this is new to them," Ms. Patino explains. "We've literally taught many of them how to go to the restroom. It's that basic."

The lettuce field – owned by Oscar A. Bitar Macedo and leased by Taylor – is fenced off from outside "contamination." Heavy strips of yellow plastic keep out dogs, cattle and other livestock.

Mr. Bitar, owner of Rancho Don Alberto, leases all of his 100 hectares (about 247 acres) to Taylor. And he's responsible for maintenance, water wells, monthly water testing, fencing, security guards and, yes, even toilet paper. …

Within two hours, 24 boxes, each holding about 850 pounds of lettuce, are transported to Taylor's plant a few miles down the road for the first of several safety checks.

At the entrance, 19-year-old Efigenia Rosas checks the boxes to make sure they're labeled with bar codes identifying the owner's farm, crew supervisor, field and time of harvest – a crucial step in the process. If a consumer later finds a problem, Taylor can trace the produce back to the field and farmer. …

At 6 p.m., driver Roman Ayala, an employee of Flensa Trucking, begins the drive north on Mexico's Highway 57. He's in no rush because he has no chance of getting to Nuevo Laredo before Customs shuts down the bridge at 11 p.m. And it won't reopen until 8 a.m., something that frustrates Mr. Fry to no end.

"How can the U.S. government be serious about food safety when they shut down the border overnight and perishable goods have to sit there and wait?" he asks.


There is also a good video overview of the lettuce harvesting procedures available along with the story at http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/world/mexico/stories/063008dningproducttaylor.40d72a3.html

Safest food in the world - Barack Obama edition

Barack Obama may be the change candidate but his food safety rhetoric falls into a tired and unsubstantiated pattern.

Obama wrote on Friday in a letter to  Cow Calf Weekly (great reading for the beach),

“America continues to have the safest, most abundant and cheapest food supply in the world. … Beef producers are a key component in a healthy and vibrant rural America. By strengthening USDA and working to enhance food safety and meat processing, my administration will assist the industry in providing a wholesome and safe product to your customers.”

Maybe Barack is using the same PR folks as the Taste of Chicago. And with over 800 people sick from Salmonella in tomatoes and no source in sight, is it really the right time to be making claims about who has the safest food?

Thanks to Kansas State PhD student Charles Dodd for forwarding the item.

Tips for buying fresh produce: Ask, hope, pray

Five people who got sick from salmonella this month ate at the same McDowell County restaurant, O'Dear's Country Diner on U.S. 221 in Marion, North Carolina, but the cases do not appear linked to the ongoing Salmonella-in-tomatoes outbreak.

The restaurant was voluntarily closed Thursday, cleaned Saturday under the supervision of health department specialists, and plans to reopen Monday.

Marion restaurant owner Bob Gaddy said he had not heard about the salmonella problems. He and his brother, Mack, have run Harvest Drive-In for 35 years. Like O'Dear, Gaddy makes a point of buying tomatoes and produce from somewhere he thinks is safe, but said it's tough to know.

"You ask. But you also hope and pray.”

Raw milk risk

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report in the current issue of Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report on Escherichia coli O157:H7 infections in children associated with raw milk and raw colostrum from cows -- California, 2006. Some highlights below:

On September 18, 2006, the California Department of Public Health (CDPH) was notified of two children hospitalized with hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS). One of the patients had culture-confirmed Escherichia coli O157:H7 infection, and both patients had consumed raw (unpasteurized) cow milk in the week before illness onset. Four additional cases of E. coli O157:H7 infection in children who had consumed raw cow milk or raw cow colostrum produced by the same dairy were identified during the following 3 weeks. In California, intrastate sale of raw milk and raw colostrum is legal and regulated. This report summarizes the investigation of these cases by CDPH, the California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA), and four local health departments and subsequent actions to prevent illnesses. As a result of this and other outbreaks, California enacted legislation (AB 1735), which took effect January 1, 2008, setting a limit of 10 coliforms/mL for raw milk sold to consumers. Raw milk in several forms, including colostrum, remains a vehicle of serious enteric infections, even if the sale of raw milk is regulated.

Six cases were identified; four persons had culture-confirmed infections, one had a culture-confirmed infection and HUS, and one had HUS only. The median age of patients was 8 years (range: 6--18 years), and four of the patients (67%) were boys. The six cases identified during this investigation were geographically dispersed throughout California. All six patients reported bloody diarrhea; three (50%) were hospitalized. Illness onset occurred during September 6--24, 2006. Isolates from the five patients with culture-confirmed infections had indistinguishable pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) patterns. The PFGE pattern was new to the PulseNet (the National Molecular Subtyping Network for Foodborne Disease) database and differed markedly from the pattern of the E. coli O157:H7 strain associated with a concurrent multistate outbreak linked to spinach consumption (1). Four of the five E. coli O157:H7 isolates were subtyped by multiple-locus variable-number tandem repeat analysis (MLVA) according to a protocol used by CDPH laboratory and were found to have closely related MLVA patterns (2).

Five of six patients reported they had consumed brand A raw dairy products in the week before their illness onset; the sixth patient denied drinking brand A raw milk, although his family routinely purchased it. Among the five patients who consumed brand A dairy products, two consumed raw whole milk, two consumed raw skim milk, and one consumed raw chocolate-flavored colostrum. Four of the five patients routinely drank raw milk from dairy A. One patient was exposed to brand A dairy product only once; he was served raw chocolate colostrum as a snack when visiting a friend. No other food item was commonly consumed by all six patients. No other illness was reported among household members who consumed brand A dairy products.

Using purchase information supplied by the patients' families, investigators determined that the patients consumed raw milk from lots produced at dairy A during September 3--13, 2006. Milk samples from these production dates were not available for testing. Fifty-six product samples from several lots with code dates of September 17, 2006, or later were retrieved from retails stores and dairy A and were tested for aerobic microflora, total coliform, fecal coliform, and E. coli O157:H7. The outbreak strain of E. coli O157:H7 was not found in any product samples. However, standard aerobic plate counts and coliform counts of collected samples with code dates of September 17 through October 9, 2006, were indicative of contamination. Colostrum samples had high standard plate counts and total coliform counts, and fecal coliform counts of 210--46,000 MPN/g. California standards limit standard plate counts for raw and pasteurized milk to 15,000 CFU/mL and total coliform counts for pasteurized milk to 10 coliform bacteria/mL. At the time of this outbreak, California did not have a coliform standard for milk sold raw to consumers. California also classifies colostrum as a dietary supplement, for which it has no microbiologic standards, rather than a milk product.

Raw milk from dairy A was the likely vehicle of transmission, but the exact mode of milk contamination in this outbreak was not determined.

Asymptomatic cows can harbor pathogens and cause human illness by shedding pathogens in untreated milk or milk products. These findings suggest that if raw milk had been subject to the same coliform standard as pasteurized milk in California, milk from dairy A might have been excluded from sale and this outbreak might have been averted.

From 1998 to May 2005, raw milk or raw milk products have been implicated in 45 foodborne illness outbreaks in the United States, accounting for more than 1,000 cases of illness (CDC, unpublished data, 2007). Because illnesses associated with raw milk continue to occur, additional efforts are needed to educate consumers and dairy farmers about illnesses associated with raw milk and raw colostrum. To reduce the risk for E. coli O157 and other infections, consumers should not drink raw milk or raw milk products.

Tornado hits Manhattan (Kansas)

I love Manhattan (Kansas).

People are always asking me, with a bemused, smug look, Kansas? Why would you move to Kansas?

I explain to them how Manhattan is huddled in the Flint Hills, beautiful spot, and most of the bad weather goes around Manhattan.

Not last night.

The townhouse Amy used to live in probably doesn't exist anymore. That was one of two areas of town that got hammered by a tornado about 11 pm Central time.

ABC affiliate KTKA in Topeka captured the tornado on video as it entered Manhattan, at least until the camera on the weather tower got taken out (see below).

Cheryl May, Kansas State University's (awesome) director of media relations extraordinaire, told CNN the storm destroyed a wind erosion lab, damaged several engineering and science buildings and tore the roof off a fraternity house at the school (right, Weber Hall, home of much of Animal Science).

"Our campus is kind of a mess."

There were no immediate reports of injuries, she said.

In an update released at 8 a.m. (CST), Tom Rawson, vice president for administration and finance, estimated storm damage at Kansas State University to exceed $20 million.

"The damage on campus is extensive. Roofs have been damaged or torn off, windows have been blown out in many buildings. Weber Hall is severely damaged. The Wind Erosion Lab is gone. There is significant damage to the engineering complex, and to Waters, Call, Cardwell and Ward Hall."

And since my students don't seem to know, but of course read barfblog, classes are cancelled for today.

Local radio station KMAN has a complete list of known damage. People are being asked to stay away from damaged areas -- and there are various unsubstantiated reports of looting.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture has the following food safety advice after a weather emergency:

Keep the refrigerator and freezer doors closed as much as possible to maintain the cold temperature.

Discard refrigerated perishable food such as meat, poultry, fish, soft cheeses, milk, eggs, leftovers and deli items after 4 hours without power.

Never taste a food to determine its safety

Drink only bottled water if flooding has occurred

Undamaged, commercially prepared foods in all-metal cans and retort pouches (for example, flexible, shelf-stable juice or seafood pouches) can be saved.

When in Doubt, Throw it Out


If you have any firsthand reports, pictures or video, send it along. Amy and I are going to start working our way home from Quebec City.


Can TV cooks become food safety celebrities? or Have you spotted Doug Powell ranting?

"If you read Doug Powell’s FSnet e-mail news, you have probably spotted some of his rants against unsafe techniques demonstrated on television cooking shows."

So says Gary Acuff, president of the International Association for Food Protection in his June 2008 column about the poor food safety practices of celebrity chefs.

My rants are based on research, reviewed and published in Food Protection Trends, a monthly journal of … the International Association for Food Protection.

In 2004, my laboratory reported that, based on 60 hours of detailed viewing of television cooking shows, an unsafe food handling practice occurred about every four minutes, and that for every safe food handling practice observed, we observed 13 unsafe practices. The most common errors were inadequate hand washing and cross-contamination between raw and ready-to-eat foods. The abstract is below and available at http://www.foodsafety.ksu.edu/en/article-details.php?a=3&c=14&sc=102&id=842.

To answer Gary's question, is there something that can be done? After completing the initial research in 2002, I began writing about the topic, with snappy headlines like, Can TV cooks become food safety celebrities? One of my students at the time, Christian Battista, put together four, 3-minute greatest hits videos, depicting various practices we observed like cross-contamination and lack of handwashing. The videos were a hit.

Once the paper was published, it made headlines around the globe. Some folks at the Food Network in Canada gave me a call, and said they wanted to work with me and my lab, to enhance food safety on their shows.

I said sure.

I also kept showing the videos at my various public appearances.

And then the Food Network called again.

This time the folks at the other end were on a speakerphone -- and there was a lot of them. Lawyers, I suspect.

The Food Network people said if I ever showed the videos again they would sue my ass.

But YouTube didn't exist back then. And I'm in the U.S. now. Hmmm ….







Mathiasen, L.A., Chapman, B.J., Lacroix, B.J. and Powell, D.A. 2004. Spot the mistake: Television cooking shows as a source of food safety information, Food Protection Trends 24(5): 328-334.

Consumers receive information on food preparation from a variety of sources. Numerous studies conducted over the past six years demonstrate that television is one of the primary sources for North Americans. This research reports on an examination and categorization of messages that television food and cooking programs provide to viewers about preparing food safely. During June 2002 and 2003, television food and cooking programs were recorded and reviewed, using a defined list of food safety practices based on criteria established by Food Safety Network researchers. Most surveyed programs were shown on Food Network Canada, a specialty cable channel. On average, 30 percent of the programs viewed were produced in Canada, with the remainder produced in the United States or United Kingdom. Sixty hours of content analysis revealed that the programs contained a total of 916 poor food-handling incidents. When negative food handling behaviors were compared to positive food handling behaviors, it was found that for each positive food handling behavior observed, 13 negative behaviors were observed. Common food safety errors included a lack of hand washing, cross-contamination and time-temperature violations. While television food and cooking programs are an entertainment source, there is an opportunity to improve their content so as to promote safe food handling.

Keeping the crap out of camping

Amy and I are leaving this afternoon for Canada for a month, to do some research in Quebec and play some hockey. We could go camping -- but we won't. I've become like Ben's mom, whose idea of camping is when the hotel doesn't have air conditioning.

But for millions of others, this Memorial Day weekend marks the beginning of camping season. For Canadians, the season usually starts with the Victoria Day weekend (May 19, 2008) and is characterized by drunk students freezing their assess off in pouring rain. This year was no different.

Camping can either be a flurry of fun and adventure, or a miserable few days of getting sick in the bushes and being dehydrated.  Every summer, thousands of people set out on these camping adventures, and every summer, many become stricken with foodborne illnesses or a parasitic infection.  Some of the most common culprits include norovirus, E. coli O157:H7, Cryptosporidium parvum and Giardia duodenalis. 

Such illnesses are not limited to the occasional outdoor excursion; there are many recorded outbreaks at children’s summer camps.  In 2007 norovirus struck down dozens of children and staff members in Three Rivers, MI at a local summer camp.  Such outbreaks are not new; in 1994 E. coli O157:H7 infected multiple people at a summer camp in Virginia.  Since children are more susceptible to these illnesses than adults, it’s especially important that when camping with children care is taken to prevent infection.

Basic camping food safety is similar to kitchen food safety:

• keep meat in the cooler below 40°F;
• store the food in a large cooler, in the shade and away from the campfire;
• when cooking meat, try to use disposable utensils and if metal utensils are used, sterilize them in the fire; and,
• use a tip sensitive digital thermometer.

Never drink untreated water; even the cleanest looking streams can contain harmful parasites.  There are a couple of options for treating water: boiling and filtration.  Bringing a metal cup along to boil water in is the easiest and most effective method.  Bring the water to a rolling boil, and let it boil for at least one minute.  If you’re in the mountains or higher elevations, it’s best to boil for several minutes.  Higher altitudes lower the boiling point of water.

If boiling is not an option, then a filter will suffice.  Make sure to purchase a filter with a pore size of 1 micron absolute or smaller.  This method works best in combination with water tablets.  Water tablets also help to remove some sediment. The tablets may leave a slight aftertaste, so bringing orange juice crystals or a powdered drink along may help to stifle it.



Is free soft-serve ice cream for pregnant women a good idea?

Baskin Robbins is offering free soft serve ice cream to expectant mothers on May 21, 2008, in California, Chicago, New York, Nashville, and El Paso, Texas. It's apparently the beginning of a national roll-out of soft serve ice cream at Baskin Robbins.

I have no idea why they targeted expectant moms, or why they recruited a pregnant Tori Spelling as spokesthingy.

Andrew Reece and I did some quickie research and found the Australians, in particular, may have a problem with this promo.

Soft serve ice cream is on the Australian list of foods pregnant women should avoid. Sanitation with the equipment appears to be an on-going problem.

A 1996 study in Sydney, Australia found 49 of 86 samples of soft serve to have dangerous bacteria levels. Another study in Wisconsin in 2003, found 15 of 22 local soft serve machines at retail food service establishments to have dangerous levels of coliforms and other bacteria. In 2006, Iowa also found a high level of soft serve machines (23%) in the Waterloo-Cedar Falls area to have dangerous levels of coliforms and other bacteria. Regular cleaning of machines with soap and sanitizer could reduce the number of bacteria found on the soft serve machines.

Poor hygiene can lead to the spread of foodborne illness through soft serve ice cream. Soft serve ice cream is typically kept at a higher storage temperature than frozen ice creams, which could lead to increased bacterial growth. Ice cream is high in moisture and protein content, which is favorable for bacteria to grow. The Food Safety Authority of Ireland has its own publication warning of such risks.

The risk appears minimal with good sanitation -- although our research was limited and forced by time constraints. A reader asked, would I take my pregnant wife for free B&R soft serve ice cream?

No.

Where frozen and canned vegetables come from: 2001

Another blast from the past, with iFSN's Andrew Reece editing together some old video on food safety in the Ontario processing vegetable industry. Newbie student Ben Chapman worked the camera and provided some narration, as we toured farms and processing facilities in Ontario.

Posers like Gordon Ramsey can gas on all they like about the political food flavor of the day, producers and processors supply the bulk of food ingredients that are a cornerstone of a healthy and abundant diet.


Show me, don't tell me

Show me, don't tell me: That's what I thought as I glanced through the latest survey from the International Food Information Council (IFIC) Foundation on May 14, 2008.

The survey of 1,000 American adults, conducted in February and March of 2008, found that,

"while more than three-quarters of Americans (82%) say they are confident in their ability to safely prepare food, many do not take steps to reduce the spread of bacteria in their kitchen. For instance, less than half (48%) report using separate cutting boards for raw meat or poultry and produce, and just 29% say they use a meat thermometer. … Most (92%) report washing their hands with soap and water when preparing food, and nearly as many (79%) say they store leftovers within two hours of serving. But just 15% report checking the wattage on their microwaves, and even fewer (7%) say they use a meat thermometer when using their microwave."

Danielle Schor, Senior Vice President of Food Safety for the IFIC Foundation and registered dietitian, said,

“Consumers are a lot more confident about their ability to safely prepare food than they ought to be, based on what we learned. We still have a long way to go to educate the public about the basics such as avoiding cross contamination and cooking to proper temperature."

We've been doing a bunch of observational research over the past year and results will start trickling out in the next few months. Until then, as Brae Surgeoner wrote in the June 2007 issue of Food Protection Trends

"The study of consumer food-handling practices has relied almost exclusively on data obtained in self-report surveys. … The problem is that people often lie.

"In 1999, a team of Australian researchers, in their article, “A Video Study of Australian Domestic Food-Handling Practices,” impressed upon readers of the Journal of Food Protection the discrepancy that exists between what consumers say they do, and what they actually do. Comparing responses to a food-safety questionnaire administered prior to video surveillance of participants in their home kitchens, the researchers found significant deviations between stated and actual behavior.  For example, there was a highly significant difference between self-reported and observed hand-washing practices. … Without observing actual behavior, food safety educators may be developing interventions that are successful in changing what individuals report they do, but may do little in changing what they actually do."

Oh, and anyone who says that avoiding cross-contamination is simple should be videotaped preparing a meal -- preferably with a few kids running around or some other distractions similar to actual scenarios -- and the video analyzed by trained coders looking for food safety, including cross-contamination, mistakes. My videos are at http://www.youtube.com/SafeFoodCafe, and I make mistakes -- or at least what may be defined as a mistake. That's because food safety -- including avoiding cross-contamination -- is not simple.


Food safety is not simple; and please, stop yelling

When people write using exclamation marks, especially in an e-mail or web-based postings, they seem to be yelling,

At the reader.

At me.

The U.K. Institute of Food Science & Technology issued an update yesterday on avoiding cross-contamination in the home. Why did the group specifically target the home and not include food service and retail? No idea.

I won't bicker with the advice -- although in some cases it seems excessive and culled from brochures rather than actual observation. For example, under handwashing, the report says,

"Wash hands, including finger-tips, thoroughly with soap and water for at least 20 seconds and dry them thoroughly before you start preparing food. Do this repeatedly during food preparation - after every interruption and always if you have had to change the baby's nappy or have been to the toilet; or after combing or touching your hair, nose, mouth or ears; or after eating, smoking, coughing or blowing nose; or after handling waste food or refuse; or after handling dirty cloths, crockery etc; or after shaking hands; or after touching shoes, the floor or other dirty surfaces. After preparing raw foods such as fish, meat, or poultry, wash your hands again before you start handling other foods. Rings can harbour germs - remove them before preparing food!

Twenty seconds of handwashing -- which is itself excessive -- is further excessive after simply scratching (not picking) my nose. I'm sure that will spark some hate mail. We were talking about that yesterday during my presentation at the Alabama Food Safety and Defense Conference in Montgomery, AL, yesterday.

But look at that exclamation mark. Gives it the ring of a fascist line-dancing instructor barking out orders.

The document concludes by stating,

If you suspect cooked, or ready-to-eat food might be contaminated, don't serve it or eat it!

Remember:

Food-poisoning is preventable - avoiding cross-contamination is simple and important!


Food safety is not simple. And save the exclamation marks for the truly exclamatory.

Safe food gardening

Whether purchasing from a local gardener, or starting your own garden, keep a few food safety questions in mind:

where is the garden located;

what type of fertilizer is used;

what is the water source;

is the garden and surrounding area properly maintained; and,

is the produce harvested safely?

Local gardeners and produce customers should understand that whether
it is a 1,000-acre commercial operation, or a small 10’ x 10’ plot of
land in one’s backyard, the principles of safe gardening remain the
same. The grower must prevent the produce from being contaminated.
Remember: food safe from farm to fork – even if it’s a small farm.

For more information about safe gardening visit
http://ucfoodsafety.ucdavis.edu/UC_Publications/


Court says Tyson chicken antibiotic claims must stop

Hucksterism. That's how I characterized the marketing by Tyson Foods Inc. of its antibiotic-free fresh chicken almost a year ago.

A couple of judges have now agreed.

Today, a federal appeals court in Baltimore refused to block an order barring Tyson Foods from advertising that its poultry products don't contain antibiotics thought to lead to drug resistance in humans.

The lower court ruling was a victory for rivals Perdue Farms and Sanderson Farms, who are suing to stop the advertisements. The two companies say the advertisements are misleading because none of the companies uses those types of drugs and shoppers could be led to think other companies use the drugs.


I continue to look forward to the day when food is marketed and advertised based on the lack of dangerous bugs that make people barf and shit.

Organic food myths

Rob Johnston argues in the U.K.'s Independent newspaper this morning that organic foods are not healthier or better for the environment, they're packed with pesticides, and in an age of climate change and shortages, these foods are an indugence the world can't afford.

Organic myths:

• Organic farming is good for the environment

• Organic farming is more sustainable

• Organic farming doesn't use pesticides

• Pesticide levels in conventional food are dangerous

• Organic food is healthier

• Organic food contains more nutrients

• The demand for organic food is booming

All myths, and backed up by Johnston in the article. As far as microbial food safety, as we've written before,

Organic standards are process-based, and have nothing do to with end-product safety. Specific omissions include worker hygiene and recommendations for safe use of processing and irrigation water. Further, any guideline or standard is meaningless without robust verification. The production of safe food is the responsibility of everyone in the farm-to-fork chain -- conventional or organic -- and food safety, especially with fresh produce, must begin on the farm.

I ate a fast food burger and it made me sick a few hours later: doubtful

Dallas Morning News columnist James Ragland tried to raise awareness of foodborne illness yesterday but instead perpetuated some of the worst myths -- that barfing is caused by the last food eaten and that fast-food burger joints are largely to blame.

Ragland writes that on Monday,

"I decided to swing through a popular fast-food restaurant to grab a burger, fries and a cold drink.

Hours later, the burger grabbed back. My stomach tightened. A chill fell over me. Then sweat.

If you've ever had food poisoning, you know what happened next.

One recurring thought crossed my mind as my wife patiently dabbed a cold damp towel across my forehead: "Go into the kitchen, fetch the solid cast-iron skillet and whack me over the head with it!"

By week's end, I was still struggling to get back to full strength, relying mostly on saltines and Gatorade."


Foodborne illness sucks for anyone, and Ragland deserves credit for reporting on the topic and telling people how to report foodborne illness in Dallas. However, except for a few toxins, it's not the last meal that made someone like Ragland sick, and fast-food joints -- especially the popular ones -- have fairly good food safety systems; they have too, with so many outlets and so many people looking to make a fast buck. Incubation times for most foodborne ailments can be found in the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's Bad Bug Book at http://www.cfsan.fda.gov/~mow/app2.html.

If you think food made you sick, here's what to do:

• go to the doctor if necessary;

• keep the food, in the fridge or freezer if necessary; and,

• contact your local health department.



Cooking with a microwave

In October 2007, at least 270 people in 36 American states got sick with Salmonella after eating Banquet Pot Pies, leading to a national recall and prompting many to question the safety of microwave cooking. Since the outbreak, the manufacturer, ConAgra, has revamped their labeling to try to ensure proper microwave preparation by consumers.  But questions still loom whether these label changes are enough, and may leave people wondering how to properly cook using a microwave.

For thick items that can’t be cut:
∑ use medium power;
∑ microwave for a longer period of time;
∑ stir, turn, or flip food halfway through to limit cold spots;
∑ let food stand for a couple minutes when finished microwaving; and,
∑ be cautious of bones (they can act as heat shields.

There are many other variables that dictate how well food is cooked in the microwave, including:
∑ type of container;
∑ physical state of food (frozen or thawed);
∑ type of food;
∑ product geometry;
∑ moisture content;
∑ bone presence; and,
∑ microwave wattage.

The wattage of a microwave is located on the back or inside the door.  Microwave power is grouped into high (1000 – 1300 W), medium (700-900 W) and low (500-600 W).  Many labels on microwave foods give cook times for high, medium and low wattage microwaves, so it is handy to know the wattage being used.

There are hundreds of frozen, prepared products or meals, like pot pies, that may contain raw or fully cooked ingredients. The only way to know is to read labels carefully. Package labels may also contain instructions to cook to 165°F for poultry and 160°F for beef and other meats, and to verify doneness using a digital, tip-sensitive thermometer.  To be on the safe side, leftovers should reach 145°F.


Food safety in Seattle

The Dali Lama is at the hotel next door, Chris Rock is doing standup at a theatre down the street, and I'm sitting at Seattle University with a bunch of food safety geeks.

Wouldn't have it any other way.

What I learned from Marler's food safety conference in Seattle for the past two days is:

• the supposed experts are as confused as mere mortals when it comes to food safety solutions;

• faith-based food safety systems are as common as I thought they might be; and,

• there's a whole lot of supposedly smart people who can't be bothered to edit themselves to their allotted time.

Marketing food safety at retail may be a way to create a food safety culture from farm-to-fork.

Oh, and they protest about everything in Seattle.


Meat safety chief: Increase E. coli testing

Philip Brasher of the Des Moines Register reported from Seattle this morning that USDA’s undersecretary for food safety, Richard Raymond, said he’s determined to increase testing for E. coli contamination before he leaves office, adding,

"We need to address this tougher problem and take some moves there to help protect the American public."

Raymond, a physician who was formerly the chief medical officer in Nebraska, said results from some public health laboratories shows illnesses form non-O157 strains of E. coli are “at least as prevalent” as O157 illnesses. He said the non-O157 strains are harder to detect.

I'm at the same conference, Who's Minding the Store? - The Current State of Food Safety and How It Can Be Improved, hosted by lawyer and barfblog sugar daddy Bill Marler.

Washington  Governor Christine Gregoire (right) gave the food safety luncheon address.

I chatted with the affable Dr. Raymond after his presentation, and asked him if USDA would consider using video cameras to augment veterinary inspection in slaughterhouses. He said, "ask me after next Thursday."

Raymond, and several of the other speakers stated that the political-media focus on a single food inspection agency was a distraction.

I agree. Whatever is done, it should reduce the number of sick people. That's the measure that counts, and one where progress has stalled.

New strategies required to reduce foodborne illness says CDC; don't eat poop

The Centers for Disease Control reported today that foodborne illness remains a significant public health issue in the U.S., with Salmonella infections increasingly problematic.

"Although significant declines in the incidence of certain foodborne pathogens have occurred since 1996, these declines all occurred before 2004," the CDC reported (http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm5714a2.htm).

"Outbreaks caused by contaminated peanut butter, frozen pot pies, and a puffed vegetable snack in 2007 underscore the need to prevent contamination of commercially produced products. The outbreak associated with turtle exposure highlights the importance of animals as a nonfood source of human infections. To reduce the incidence of Salmonella infections, concerted efforts are needed throughout the food supply chain, from farm to processing plant to kitchen."

"Food safety is a continuing problem that starts at the farm and continues through the food chain all the way to the kitchen," Dr. Robert Tauxe, deputy director of CDC's Division of Foodborne, Bacterial and Mycotic Diseases, said during a teleconference.

Given that rates of foodborne infection haven't changed significantly in the past three years, more needs to be done to improve food safety, Tauxe said "We have to be vigilant about hygiene practices and prevention all along the way to reduce the risk of foodborne infection."

"There's just way too many sick people," said Dr. Douglas Powell, an associate professor and scientific director of the International Food Safety Network at Kansas State University.

" The CDC data show existing efforts to reduce fodborne illness have stalled," said Powell, who also publishes barfblog.com. "We need new messages using new media to really create a culture that values microbiologically safe food."

Bad advice from the UK Food Standards Agency

London's Sunday Times ran a little puff piece -- and with spring coming in the Northern Hemisphere there will be many more -- that said food safety problems are primarily caused by eating food already past its shelf life, cross-contamination between raw and cooked foods (often involving poor hygiene) and eating food that was either not cooked or not stored properly.

Um, fresh fruits are vegetables are the leading vehicles of foodborne illness today.

Simple precautions include avoiding cooking food that’s about to go off and making sure you dry your hands properly after washing them – far more bacteria are spread from damp hands than dry hands.


The story cites the U.K. Food Standards Agency as a source for additional information. FSA tells folks,

"If you are checking a burger, sausage, or a portion of chicken or pork, cut into the middle and check there is no pink meat left. The meat should also be piping hot in the middle. If you're checking a whole chicken or other bird, pierce the thickest part of the leg (between drumstick and thigh) with a clean knife or skewer until the juices run out. The juices shouldn't have any pink or red in them."

This is bad advice. Color is a lousy indicator of doneness using a tip-sensitive digital thermometer is the only safe way to determine is food has reached a safe temperature.

And just what is piping hot?

"To test if food has been properly cooked, check that it is 'piping hot' all the way through. This means that it is hot enough for steam to come out. Cut open the food with a small knife so that you can check that it is piping hot in the middle. Generally, if food is piping hot in the middle, then it will be piping hot all the way through. … Some foods change colour when they are cooked. Looking at colour is especially useful for checking meat."

I wonder how much money was spent on consultants, and how many salaries sat around a conference table, to conclude that consumers weren't bright enough to understand more accurate messages that would actually protect their well-being.

Stick it in.


Tega Cay, S.C. fire department barbecue food contaminated; throw it away

The South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control is urging anyone who purchased barbecue at a March 30 fundraiser for the Tega Cay Volunteer Fire Department to throw the food away.

Firefighters sold approximately 3,000 servings of food and the York County Public Health Department has identified more than 40 people who became ill. Many people bought barbecue in bulk for freezing and later use.

Tests are under way to identify the cause of the illness.

Eat this, you'll be fine

Last week,  Italy's Agriculture Minister, Paolo De Castro, (right) dug into some buffalo mozzarella for the cameras after assuring the European Commission that no mozzarella cheese contaminated with cancer-causing dioxin had been exported.

On Saturday President Manuel Zelaya of Honduras downed some homegrown cantaloupe for a CNN news crew, proclaiming, "I eat this fruit without any fear. It’s a delicious fruit. Nothing happens to me!”

Both were continuing a questionable tradition that may actually amplify the concerns of citizens when the safety of certain foods is scrutinized: roll out the politician to consume the food in question.
The list is long:

• Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien scarfed back a burger after the first case of mad cow disease was discovered in Canada in May 2003;
• French President Jacques Chirac and future French president Nicolas Sarkozy consumed cooked chicken during the International Agriculture show in Paris in March 2006 to bolster confidence after an outbreak of avain influenza;
• Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg said in 2006 he often fed salmon to his own children after Russia banned imports of fresh Norwegian salmon because of worries about toxic metals;
• Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell lunched at a Philadelphia Taco Bell in Dec. 2006 after an E. coli O157:H7 outbreak linked to lettuce sickened 71; and,
• most famously, former U.K. Agriculture Minister John Gummer feeding a hamburger to his four-year-old daughter Cordelia as concerns about the safety of British beef mounted in 1990 (left).

Do people believe politicians? How about company executives?

In 2000, 14,700 Japanese were sickened and 180 hospitalized after Snow Brand milk employees failed to properly clean factory pipes for weeks. As reported in The Economist, "At one point during Snow Brand’s latest poisoning scare, its befuddled boss fled a press conference shouting, 'I haven’t slept at all in the past week.'"

Snow Brand has a bit of a reputation for dramatics.

"When, almost half a century ago, some 1,900 school children fell ill after drinking Snow Brand’s powdered milk, a dismissive company executive confidently downed a glass of the drink in front of the press to allay fears of contamination. A few hours later, as expected, he was rushed to a bathroom."

Several years ago, Health Canada proposed to ban the sale of cheeses derived from raw milk, but they failed to provide a compelling case for such a ban. They also ignored the cultural and social factors—the enjoyment—that lead some people to rank specific cheeses like fine wines. Raw milk cheeses can contain the bacterium Listeria which can cause life-threatening illness and lead to miscarriages, but such cases simply had not been seen in Canada (which does not mean such cases did not exist). This left health officials arguing that such cheeses should be banned, even in the absence of Canadian-based scientific evidence to warrant such a ban. The Minister of Health at the time, David Dingwall, was soon in Quebec, scarfing down raw milk cheese for the television cameras.

People make risk/benefit decisions every time they enter an automobile, smoke a cigarette, have a drink, eat fat or enter into a relationship. Rather than eating up in front of the camera, governments, executives, even local farmers, should provide data to back up their claims of safety.

Douglas Powell is scientific director of the International Food Safety Network at Kansas State University.

Local is good -- what about flooding and tornadoes?

Driving through Oklahoma yesterday on our way to Longview, Texas for a couple of talks, I was reminded several times by billboards that local is good in Oklahoma.

It's the same in Arkansas, Texas, and pretty much every other state and province in North America.

What happens to the local food supply when there is torrential rainfalls and tornadoes. Seriously. For 10 of the 11 hours we spent on the road yesterday, it was pouring. Much of Texas got at least 6 inches of rain. Texas flood (right). And shortly after we arrived in Longview last night, the tornado warning sirens went off and we all congregated in the laundry room. The storm also knocked out most Internet connections, so news and blogging are delayed.

But back to the local is good. Bob Woldrop, president of the Oklahoma Food Cooperative, told NewsOK.com,

"I think local foods are better and safer. Local foods are processed in smaller facilities. When I buy beef through the Oklahoma Food Co-op, I buy it from a particular farmer, and it all comes from one animal."

Samantha Snyder, horticulture educator at the Oklahoma County Extension Center, said,

"Some people really prefer the organic, and some people say it is safer because they know where it's coming from and how it's been treated."

Snyder also urges people to plant their own vegetable gardens as a step in ensuring safety and freshness of their food.

Freshness maybe. But safety depends on the grower taking steps to manage and mitigate microbial contamination. Floods make that difficult, no matter the size or location of the farm.

The most dangerous U.S. states for eating out?

HealthInspections.com has, based on data from the U.S. Centers For Disease Control, determined that restaurants in  Florida, California, Minnesota, Ohio, and New York were responsible for the most number of outbreaks in 2006.

1. Florida            74 outbreaks
2. California       69 outbreaks
3. Minnesota      55 outbreaks
4. Ohio               54 outbreaks
5. New York      50 outbreaks

Across the country, restaurants were responsible for at least 605 outbreaks of food poisoning in 2006, compared to 532 outbreaks in 2005.


I'm not sure what the numbers actually mean.  Fodborne illness is notoriously underreported, and some state and local health departments are better than others in following up and tracking down where and how people get sick.

Further, the numbers are simply counts, and do not account for the number of restaurants in a state, or even better, the number of meals consumed at a restaurant in a state in a year. What about food service? Are those meals included or not?

Fun with lists.

Home gardeners 'disconnected' from sources of foodborne illness

I love our garden. It's a decent size, with lots of berries, beans, tomatoes and greens.

With spring just around the corner, I've started some seeds (right, interspersed amongst the French literature books that Amy is fond of) and started working the soil.

It's also time for a new crop of stories about how local food is safer, better and just all around morally superior. Like the Arizona Republic last week, which stated,

"An increasing number of consumers hit hard by escalating food costs are, planting backyard gardens to save grocery dollars while protecting the environment against pollutants and themselves against tainted food."


Architects Miro Chun and Bryan White of Phoenix were cited as saying the garden provides a plentiful supply of organic produce, fits in well with their commitment to eat as locally as possible and gives them peace of mind when food-safety scares erupt, with Chun quoted as saying, "We were glad we could pick spinach out of our garden when spinach was making people ill."

Maybe. Depends on what was in the soil. From the backyard to a farmer's field, the basics are the same, especially with fresh produce that is not going to be cooked: know the source of water, know what is being added to the soil, and wash your damn hands.

Researchers from the northeast U.S. reported in the Feb. 2008 Food Protection Trends that based on interviews with 94 home gardeners of fruits and vegetables that,

"Home gardeners, although they acknowledged that they could get sick from consuming produce, did not seem to be aware that contamination could come from a variety of sources such as soil, compost, fresh manure and/or the water supply. Results indicated that there was a 'disconnect,' or lack of understanding, of the sources and mechanisms of pathogenic bacterial contamination as related to its homegrown produce."

This is common. Think like a microorganism and most problems can be predicted and prevented. Be the bug.

Tennis star Federer's weakness might have been an illness

"I thought I had mono when I was a teenager but it turns out I was just really bored."

One of my favorite lines from Wayne's World, if only because it was so apt: I had mononucleosis when I was 17, and would sleep for hours on end, but maybe I was just really bored.

That probably doesn't apply to Roger Federer, 26.

Last month, after falling ill for the third time in six weeks, he had extensive tests in his native Switzerland and in Dubai, where he lives part time. According to Federer, the conclusion was that he had contracted mononucleosis.

Federer had already said he experienced food poisoning before the Australian Open, which he said disrupted his preparation for that tournament.

But Federer, who complained of feeling sluggish during the Open, said it appeared that the mononucleosis was the more serious issue.

Mike Myers can empathize.



Prestigious Australian golf club investigated over suspected food poisoning

My old -- and we're all getting old -- hockey/Guelph buddies are golfing in Myrtle Beach this weekend, the annual getaway (right is my friend Steve, upon learning that the universe had been altered and I won putting last year).

I took a pass this year, as my youngest daughter and her friend are going to hang out in Manhattan (Kansas) for a week. Can you think of a better place to spend spring break?

So I thought about the food safety at the new course the boys are trying out this year as one of Queensland's most prestigious golf courses came under investigation after as many as 15 wedding guests fell ill from suspected food poisoning last weekend.

Queensland Health and the Ipswich City Council have launched an investigation into Brookwater Golf Club after guests fell ill while attending a wedding reception on Saturday.

Late last year, the club appointed leading Brisbane chef Russell Armstrong as its executive chef and launched a new a la carte dinner menu. Mr Armstrong also has his own signature restaurant – Salt on Armstrong – in Brisbane City.

On its website, Brookwater claims it supplies wedding guests with "innovative seasonal menu selections, featuring the freshest regional cuisine."

Hope they got the food safety basics together. In August, 2005, during the halfway point of the annual International Association for Food Protection golf tournament in Baltimore, a burley, 50-ish goateed he-man requested his hamburger be cooked, "Bloody … with cheese."

His sidekick piped up, "Me too."

Our golf foursome of food safety types were alternately alarmed and amazed, but ultimately resigned to conclude that much of what passes for food safety advice falls on deaf ears.

I asked the kid flipping burgers if he had a meat thermometer.

He replied, snickering, "Yeah, this is a pretty high-tech operation."

The young woman taking orders glanced about, and then confided that she didn't think there was a meat thermometer anywhere in the kitchen; this, at a fancy golf course catering to weddings and other swanky functions along with grunts on the golf course.

And this pic (left) is when Richie finally did something useful and scored a hole-in-one, netting a $300 free bar tab for the group in 2005.

Bruce Cockburn and food safety



From displaced Guatemalans to the Amazon rain forest to the angst of high school sweethearts, Canadian singer-songwriter Bruce Cockburn has been there for four decades to turn protest into song.

Now, Cockburn is traveling to Nova Scotia, Canada, for a Friday appearance to help kick off the four-day Real Food, Farming and Flowers weekend focused on food security and related issues, both locally and globally.

The headline says, Cockburn here to promote food safety, once again confusing food safety with local food.

Mark Austin, co-organizer of the Truro and Halifax events, said,

"I believe, as many do right now, we have to find a way to reconnect. There’s a lot of talk about buying locally, growing your own food and supporting farmers’ markets," with where our food comes from. Along with that, we need to produce food in a sustainable way. In other words, I’m not a great believer in industrial farming and processed foods."

That’s all great. And has nothing to do with microbial food safety.

If I Had a Rocket Launcher. If a Tree Falls in a Forest. Lovers in a Dangerous Time.

'80s music really sucked.

Judge for yourself …


Animal welfare shouldn't be a downer

In 1184, city leaders in Toulouse, France, introduced some of the first documented measures to oversee the sale of meat: profit for butchers was limited to eight per cent; the partnership between two butchers was forbidden; and, selling the meat of sick animals was forbidden unless the buyer was warned.

By 1394, the Toulouse charter on butchering contained 60 articles, 19 of which were devoted to health and safety.

As outlined by Madeleine Ferrières, a professor of social history at the University of Avignon, in her 2002 book, Sacred Cow, Mad Cow: A History of Food Fears, the goal of regulations at butcher shops -- the forerunners of today's slaughterhouse -- was to safeguard consumers and increase tax revenues. Animals from the surrounding countryside were consolidated at a single spot -- the evolving slaughterhouse, originally inside city walls -- so taxes could be more easily gathered, and so animals could be physically examined for signs of disease.

It's no different today: slaughterhouses are common collection points to examine animals for signs of disease and to collect various levies. And like medieval times, one of the most basic rules is animals that cannot walk are forbidden from entering (the slaughterhouse or city).

So when Hallmark/Westland Meat Packing Co., a Chino, Calif., establishment that is (was) the second-largest provider of beef to the U.S. school lunch program was caught breaking the rules, the U.S. Department of Agriculture on Sunday announced the firm was voluntarily recalling two-years worth of production, or approximately 143 million pounds of raw and frozen beef products. USDA had determined the meat to be unfit for human food because the cattle did not receive complete and proper inspection.

But it wasn't the inspectors and veterinarians who work for USDA, those who are paid to be present in the slaughterhouse to inspect and verify compliance, who busted the case. It was an undercover employee of the Humane Society of the United States who obtained footage which prompted USDA to act (the original video is available at:
https://community.hsus.org/campaign/CA_2008_investigation?qp_source=gaba89).

The slaughterhouse was found using a variety of distasteful techniques such as electric prods, nudging with a forklift and waterboarding, to get non-ambulatory animals to walk one last time, and just in time for the USDA-type to notice.

A non-ambulatory animal is also called a downer.

Federal regulations forbid downed cattle from entering the food supply because they may have higher levels of E. coli, salmonella or mad cow disease.

A 2004 review of meat inspection in Canada found that cattle become non-ambulatory at all ages and for a variety of reasons, and that banning these animals from the food chain could encourage illegal slaughter and the sale of uninspected meat processed under unhygienic conditions.

"However," the report stated, "most downer animals are dairy cows that are at the end of their productive lives and are being sent for slaughter to salvage what little value remains. The quality of their meat is low and although it cannot be said that this meat is unsafe, there is a heightened risk."
That's why they're supposed to be kept out of the food supply.

In the Middle Ages, violation of regulations ranged from fines to flogging to banishment.
Hallmark/Westland Meat Packing Co. will be flogged in the media and the two-year recall should effectively banish the company.

But unlike 12th century France, USDA has access to the same video technology that a single undercover worker was able to use to bring down a large corporation. Producers and processors who say their food is safe should be able to prove it. Producers and processors who say they treat animals humanely should be able to prove it.

Leading chefs say Sydney fish market stinks

A couple of Sydney's top chefs have lambasted the Sydney Fish Markets for selling old, damaged seafood that is an "embarrassment".

Greg Doyle, of Pier Restaurant, said reviewers were "just being polite" when they said the markets were among the best in the world, adding,

"This is bullshit. I find the Sydney Fish Market an embarrassment. … You go down to the fish market and there is so much product that's days and days old. They are spraying them with tap water and it can ruin the fish because it absorbs all this water. It's old fish. That's why the place has this stink."

Steve Hodges, of Fish Face is quoted in tomorrow's edition of Time Out magazine as saying the markets are "f---ing terrible."

Grahame Turk, the managing director of Sydney Fish Markets, said he was appalled by the comments, adding,

"It's ridiculous really, because all three of them have been down here buying fish. … look at the inside - I would be quite happy to eat my dinner off the auction room floor."


New South Wales Primary Industries Minister Ian Macdonald said there were  no problems with food safety.

"The New South Wales Government constantly monitors places like the Sydney fish market. The authority undertakes inspections and audits of the wholesale processes at the market. There've been shown to be no systemic problems with food safety."

Hank Hill on food safety and hygiene

Food bans don't work. It leads to underground food establishments that often skip on food safety basics.

That's not some policy wonk, that's Hank Hill from tonight's King of the Hill. If municipalities are going to ban trans fats, why not ban raw oysters and rare burgers. Where is the line drawn?

Bans have unintended consequences. And, as Thomas Jefferson noted a long time ago,

"I know no safe depository of the ultimate powers of society but the people themselves; and if we think them not enlightened enough to exercise their control with a wholesome discretion, the remedy is not to take it from them but to inform their discretion by education."

So be informed. Don't eat poop.