New hand dryer eco-friendly, food safe
I’ve waited a whole month for this Saturday to roll around. For weeks, I’ve been rinsing, drying, crushing, and collecting our cans, bottles, and boxes in anticipation. This Saturday is the day the county picks up our recycling. I have to drive my tubs to the library parking lot, but I don’t mind. I’m happy to be counted among those who choose to waste less. This reflects one particular side of my personality.
Another side is evident when I wash my hands: I soap up my palms and fingertips. I get between my fingers and up my wrists. After I rinse away the soap, I dry them thoroughly.
And this is the point where the two collide: When I go to dry my hands (and am not at home where clean cloth towels are available), I always reach for the paper towels over a blow dryer.
I know many trees are felled in the making of single-use paper towels, but blow dryers are disgusting: They collect microbes that may have been aerosolized when the toilet was flushed and then blow them onto your hands.
At least, most blow dryers do. HACCP Australia thinks the Dyson Airblade hand dryer can effectively dry hands without recontamination.
Australia Food News reports that the Dyson Airblade is the first hand dryer to be approved for use in food handling areas. AFN explains,
“Using high velocity sheets of unheated air, hands are dried in just ten seconds while, at the same time, 99.9% of bacteria and mould is removed from the air using HEPA filtration…The dryer, unlike conventional warm air hand dryers, does not blow bacteria back onto freshly washed hands nor use a heating element that can induce bacterial growth.”
As an added ecological bonus, the Dyson Airblade uses up to 80 per cent less energy compared with conventional hand dryers.
“Recently unveiled in Australia, the Dyson Airblade hand dryer has already had local success by receiving a New Product Award at its first public launch. It has now been introduced in food manufacturing areas at Cargill’s, Kellogg’s, Fletcher’s International, KFC, Tabro Meats, Wingham Beef and George Weston Food’s Tip Top bakeries, as well as a number of kitchens at McDonalds Restaurants.”
Until these are available in all the kitchens and public bathrooms I visit (and the data shows up on their microbial safety), I try to strike a balance between food safety and eco-friendliness: I use one paper towel to its fullest (two, if necessary), and avoid grabbing a handful out of assumption that they’ll be needed.
I hate assumptions.
Space toilet is plugged
The Associated Press reports today that one of the international space station's toilets is out of order. As an often user of a plunger in my house, I know the embarrassment (or pride for some folks) that arises from plugging the commode.
While flight director Brian Smith declined to speculate whether overuse caused the toilet trouble, he was quoted as saying "We don't yet know the extent of the problem. It may turn out to be of no consequence at all. It could turn out to be significant. It's too early to tell right now."
The situation might get stickier as the space station guests, crew of the Endevour, are restricted to relieving themselves in their own vehicle. The AP says that the Endevour is parked next to the Japanese porch and can't eject waste, Cousin Eddie-style, without spraying it all over the porch.
NASA, the food safety equivalent of the always-prepared Boy Scouts (without the funky green uniforms) was a catalyst in the creation of the modern food safety risk reduction system. In the 1960s NASA commissioned Pillsbury to rethink how to address risks in food processing and moved away from the use of end product testing as the only check. The result, hazard analysis critical control point (HACCP) was created and seen as the best way to keep astronauts from acquiring foodborne illness and the avoiding awkwardness that would be created by explosive diarrhea in weightlessness.
The toilet repair work reportedly fell to Belgian astronaut/plumber Frank De Winne who wore goggles, gloves and a mask.
Should food safety inspectors get fired if they screw up? Welsh parents say yes
Ya can’t inspect your way to a safe food supply.
For all those in Canada and America clamoring for more inspectors, please, read the report Bill-Murray-in-Groundhog-Day impersonator Professor Hugh Pennington wrote after the 2005 E. coli O157 outbreak in Wales, which sickened 160 and killed 5-year-old Mason Jones (right).
The Western Mail reports this morning that the parents of those kids want the inspectors – the environmental health officers who failed to shut down the butcher responsible for the E .coli outbreak – fired.
Julie Price, 44, whose son Garyn, 13, was left fighting for his life after his kidneys failed when he contracted E.coli O157, said:
“At the end of the day, the buck stops with (butcher) Tudor, but these people were in place to protect our children and they didn’t. I would like to see them sacked.”
Jeanette Thomas, 37, from Mountain Ash, whose sons Garyn ,10, and Keiron ,13, both contracted the bug, said,
“These environmental health officers shouldn’t be allowed to get away with it, especially considering what these poor kids have been through."
Pennington’s report noted that the inspectors, could and should have stopped Tudor using a single vacuum-packing machine for raw and cooked meat.
The butcher was HACCP-trained, inspected and in the business for 30 years, but apparently didn't know or care about cross-contamination between raw and cooked product. Neither did the imspectors.
HACCP increases customer satisfaction
The Eye of Dubai reports that the Tawam Hospital in Abu Dhabi has increased patient satisfaction by implementing a HACCP plan.
Were patients, staff, and guests previously dissatisfied with their foodborne illnesses, I wonder?
The CEO of the hospital, Mr. Michael E. Heindel, was quoted as saying,
“By implementing food safety audits and ensuring that staff at Tawam adhere to food safety standards and procedures we have been able to increase patient satisfaction and meet the [requirements for HACCP certification].”
The article, titled Taste and quality of hospital food on the rise, mentions several other improvements in the service of food at Tawam Hospital and seems to credit all of them to the HACCP plan.
It appears the culture of food safety stirring at the hospital has raised enthusiasm for improved quality of service overall.
To that, I say, “Hooray for HACCP.”
I thought it was football?
The bi-annual congress of the South African Association for Food Science and Technology in Durban was told on Wednesday that many of South Africa's food manufacturers are failing to meet basic hygiene standards with the management often scrambling to ensure a spotless factory only when standard certification inspections are imminent.And with the 2010 soccer World Cup just around the corner, it is high time that local food producers improved food safety levels in their factories to avert possible food poisoning disasters.
Rolf Uys, Manager of AIB International, was cited as saying that 45 percent of the factories his company had inspected over the past year had not met basic international food safety requirements, and 70 percent had less than desirable levels of food safety standards, adding,
"Some of the things I have seen this year were live insect activity in seven out of 10 silos inspected; cat droppings in a warehouse; urine in a fruit juice container; slime and psocids (tiny insects ) in water feed; the same buckets used for waste product and cleaning; and rodents blissfully living in warehouse wall panels.
"Factories are being cleaned once every three years just in time for the audit inspection. There is good preparation for the audit, but the attention is not on an entrenched food safety programme. … There is an attitude in the factory of 'we'll clean when we feel like it because the legislation is only providing a guideline', and of 'let's see what we can get away with.' A lot of factories are saying 'we'll just take our chances' and dish out vouchers to customers who complain, but this is not working any more."
If this is what the auditors are willing to say publicly, wonder what they really find?
