Colts win in stunner; stadium food service company denies media access to witness food safety improvements
Maybe it was the stadium food that somehow lifted the Indianapolis Colts to a stunning come-from-behind 35-34 victory over the New England Patriots in another chapter of the U.S. football rivalry of 
the decade, Peyton Manning (right) versus Tom Brady (below, left).
After being hammered by local health types, the folks who run the food concessions at Lucas Oil Stadium swooped into town and promised to set things straight. WISH went out to ask some tailgaters to see how confident were about buying food inside the stadium.
Tailgater Glen Vigar reacted to the news,"(It's) a little scary. I mean it's a brand new building. I wouldn't expect it."
Vigar said that he wouldn't eat the food there anymore.
Centerplate said it planned to have 15 of its own food safety inspectors inside the stadium Sunday to make sure conditions are clean.
24-Hour News 8 had asked to be inside the stadium to see how that was going, but a Centerplate spokesperson denied that request.
Atypical scrapie in single NZ sheep
Contrary to what the New Zealand Herald reported tonight (this morning in NZ), the animal in question was born in NZ, not the UK, because NZ does not import sheep from the UK.
MAF Biosecurity New Zealand (MAFBNZ) and the New Zealand Food Safety Authority (NZFSA) today confirmed that a series of New Zealand and European laboratory tests on a single New Zealand sheep brain have detected the condition atypical scrapie (also known as Nor 98).
Atypical scrapie/Nor 98 is a relatively recently discovered brain condition of sheep and goats that is quite different from the classical form of scrapie.
Neither atypical scrapie/Nor 98 nor scrapie is known to pose any risk to human health or the safety of eating meat or animal products.
MAFBNZ Principal International Adviser Dr Stuart MacDiarmid says global knowledge about atypical scrapie/Nor 98 is evolving. The widely accepted mainstream scientific view is that it occurs spontaneously or naturally in very small numbers of older sheep in all sheep populations around the world.
“This positive detection of atypical scrapie/Nor 98 in a sheep from New Zealand’s national flock reinforces that view. Every country that has conducted sufficient surveillance for atypical scrapie/Nor 98 has found it in their flocks. This includes most Scandinavian and EU countries, the UK, the USA and Canada,” he says.
The detection does not change New Zealand’s status as free from scrapie.
Dr MacDiarmid says because of this scrapie freedom status, New Zealand supplies sheep brains to the European Union for use in the development of tests for scrapie.
“The affected brain was one of a consignment of 200 brains sent for this purpose. EU-authorised tests carried out in New Zealand prior to shipment had not picked up anything unusual. However further tests in Europe and re-testing in New Zealand on different parts of the brain from the area originally tested have now established a diagnosis of atypical scrapie/Nor 98.
There is no evidence that atypical scrapie/Nor 98 can be transmitted naturally to other animals or to people, or that it in any way affects people.
The beefsteak ritual survives -- without silverware
He's talking about a beefsteak, described by Paul Lukas of the N.Y. Times as a
"raucous all-you-can-eat-and-drink banquet."
The story says that back in the days before cholesterol testing, beefsteaks — boisterous mass feeds featuring unlimited servings of steak, lamb chops, bacon-wrapped lamb kidneys, crabmeat, shrimp and beer, all consumed without such niceties as silverware, napkins or women — held sway in New York for the better part of a century.
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The ritual was documented by the writer Joseph Mitchell for the New Yorker magazine in his 1939 article “All You Can Hold for Five Bucks.” As Mr. Mitchell told it, the beefsteak came into being in the mid-1800s, became popular as a political fund-raiser and vote-buyer, and began a slow decline when women started taking part after being granted suffrage in 1920.Today the beefsteak features slices of beef tenderloin washed down with pitchers of beer, and has migrated from its New York roots to New Jersey.
The events, which typically attract crowds of 150 or more, with a ticket price of about $40, are popular as political meet-and-greets, annual dinners for businesses and civic groups, and charity fundraisers. Caterers said they put on about 1,000 of them in the region last year.
The story says that in 1938 a Clifton butcher and grocer named Garret Nightingale, known as Hap, began catering parties with a set formula.
He grilled tenderloins (the muscle used for filet mignon) over charcoal, sliced them, dipped the slices in melted butter, served them on slices of white sandwich bread, added French fries on the side, and let everyone eat as much as they wanted. This he called a beefsteak. Within a decade, it had become an entrenched local phenomenon.
Hap Nightingale died in 1982. By that time he had passed the business on to his son, Bob, who turned it over to his son, Rob, in 1995. The second- and third-generation Nightingales continue to run the operation today out of an unassuming Clifton house where Bob Nightingale was raised and still lives. Their business office is the house’s cramped basement, and the tenderloins are grilled over hardwood charcoal in the driveway before being taken to the beefsteak venues. From this unlikely command center, the Nightingales catered over 600 beefsteaks last year, going through 88,000 pounds of tenderloin in the process.
Should cats be allowed to control rats in N.Y. deli's?
Across New York City, the owners of delis and bodegas say, in this morning's N.Y. Times, they cannot do without their cats, tireless and enthusiastic hunters of unwanted vermin, that typically do a far better job than exterminators and poisons. Urszula Jawor, 49, the manager of a corner store in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, said of her cat that,
“In the morning she is lazy, it is her nap time. But in the afternoon she is busy. She spends hours stalking the mice and the rats.”
The story says that to store owners, the services of cats are indispensable in a city where the rodent problem is serious enough to be documented in a still popular two-minute video clip on YouTube from late February (youtube.com/watch?v=su0U37w2tws) of rats running amok in a KFC/Taco Bell in Greenwich Village.
Store-dwelling cats are so common that there is a Web site, workingclasscats.com, dedicated to telling their tales.
But, the story notes that the city’s health code and state law forbid animals in places where food or beverages are sold for human consumption. Fines range from $300 for a first offense to $2,000 or higher for subsequent offenses.
Robert M. Corrigan, a rodentologist and research scientist for the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, said,
"Any animal around food presents a food contamination threat. And so that means anything from animal pieces and parts to hair and excrement could end up in food, and that alone, of course, is a violation of the health code."
Mr. Corrigan was cited as conceding that some studies have shown that the smell of cats in an enclosed area will keep mice away, but he does not endorse cats as a form of pest control because, he explained, the bacteria, viruses, fungi, parasites and nematodes carried by rats may infect humans by secondary transfer through a cat.
Still, many store owners keep cats despite the law, mainly because other options have failed and the fine for rodent feces is also $300.
José Fernández, the president of the Bodega Association of the United States, said,
"It's hard for bodega owners because they’re not supposed to have a cat, but they’re also not supposed to have rats."
"I wouldn't be happy showering under a rat"
The Manawatu Standard reports that the two flatmates are nervously awaiting the results of blood tests after they learnt the "smelly water" they had been drinking and showering in came from a tank housing a badly decomposed rat.
Having suffered bouts of diarrhoea and vomiting before becoming aware of the corpse, they still have to shower at their parents' homes and clean cooking utensils on the front lawn.
The saga began in early November when a 19-year-old resident noticed the water was "smelly" and she began feeling ill.Her mother, worried sewerage had seeped into the water pipes, contacted the council, which in turn flushed the home's pipes.
Several weeks later the shower blocked up, which eventually led to a plumber finding what was left of the large rat.
Rather than remove it, he gave instructions not to use any water until someone else did the dirty work.
The landlord said, "I can't believe they didn't ring me to say it was still there. I thought it was gone. Oh, I just feel ill. I have barely slept thinking about rats in tanks. It's just a dreadful situation, but I thought the plumber or sanitisers had dealt with it."
Cheese pornographers don't know poop
Murray's Cheese in New York City perpetuates poop.At Murray's, we take pride in the quality of our products and strive to provide our customers not only with exceptional food but also the knowledge to become a happy, healthy eater.
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The latest blog post from Murray's -- and some past ones would be hilarious except that their BS has serious public health consequences -- regurgitates crap about E. coli O157:H7 not being found in grass-fed cattle.Cows poop E. coli O157:H7 -- regardless of diet.
Cocktail sausages sicken kids, need to be reheated
Canterbury’s Medical Officer of Health, Dr Ramon Pink, says cocktail sausages (also known as cheerios or saveloys) should be heated before they are eaten and should not be offered cold to children at butcher’s shops or delicatessens.
The cocktail sausages were given to most of the children over the counter – a common practice which has been associated with outbreaks of salmonella and campylobacter in Christchurch in the past.
While cocktail sausages are cooked during their preparation they are not ready-to-eat foods. Further heating before eating is required to destroy any bacteria that may have contaminated them after they were made.
Proper handwashing still requires proper tools
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It's a message that goes unheeded -- at home and abroad.Research published in the New Zealand Medical Journal found almost 20 percent of men, and 8 percent of women didn't wash their hands after going to the toilet.
But what's worse says New Zealand Public Health Association (PHA) Director Dr Gay Keating is that some schools have appalling washroom facilities, and it is often not possible for students to wash and dry their hands properly – even if they want to.
"Sometimes there is no soap, let alone hot water, and children are expected to wash their hands in freezing water, even in the middle of winter. There may be no paper towels, or hand dryers.
"This is a great disincentive to proper hand washing, and pupils who do not wash their hands properly are at greater risk of contracting illnesses themselves, or passing on bugs. They then have to have days off school, which recent educational research has shown often leads to them falling behind in school work. …
“Hand-hygiene is basic to maintaining good health.”
Dr Keating says all schools should provide pupils with soap, warm water and hand-drying facilities.
