Seven pregnant women among 14 sickened with listeria from Quebec cheese
In 2004, I spent a week at a cottage with a couple of my children in Eastern Ontario near Sandbanks Provincial Park on Lake Ontario. Lovely spot.
One rainy day, we toured around and ended up at a cheese shop. They produced the cheese in the factory at the back, and had a charming market outlet that seemed to trap tourists like bees on sap.
Upon entering the store, a sign declared, “HACCP – A food safety program; Hazard Analysis Critical Control Pont.” Cool. I asked one of the staff what it meant. She said she didn’t know.
But beside the HACCP proclamation was a sign that read, “Public bathroom is out of order; for your convenience there is a blue Johnny on the spot behind the building (sic).”
And here it is (left). Note the lack of handwashing facilities or sanitizer. I watched people go to the porta potty and then come into the cheese shop and do what people do at quaint cheese shops: stick their unwashed hands into shared samples of curds (that’s one of my daughters looking disgusted in the middle, right, not because of the practice, but because I have to take pictures and be a food safety geek everywhere we go).
HACCP really doesn’t mean much unless there is a culture of food safety amongst the employees and everyone involved in making a product, like cheese or deli meat.
Best as I can figure, there is a separate outbreak of listeria in Quebec, in which one has died and 14 have been sickened. Eleven different types of cheese have been recalled, and many of them appear to be raw milk cheese, which the Quebec government recently approved for sale.
While merchants are complaining about the crackdown and lost sales, what seems to have been lost in the coverage is that seven pregnant women – four confirmed, three suspected – have developed listeriosis and three gave birth prematurely.
Sylvie Thibault, a customer sampling some of the free cheeses at La Fromagerie Atwater yesterday, said she's not worried, stating,
"I have started to double-check what cheese I buy. But I won't stop eating the food I love because of a little scare."
Joe Schwarcz, director of McGill University's Office for Science and Society, said,
"We need to put this in perspective," adding it's important "not to have people think every time they bite into a piece of brie, they're risking death."
Wow. I wouldn’t want to be pregnant in Quebec. So, Quebec government (Canada has no real authority in Quebec), given the number of pregnant women who have been sickened, any efforts to highlight the risks of listeria in certain foods to at-risk populations? Or is it just a silly little scare?
The recalled products from Fromagerie Medard are: Le Rang des Iles, Le 14 Arpents, Les Petits Vieux, Le Gedeon, Le Medard, Le Couventine, Le Cabrouet and Les Cailles, all with best-before dates between July 12 and Sept. 6. Products pulled off shelves from Fromagerie Table Ronde are: Le Fleurdelyse, Le Fou de Roi and Le Rassembleu with best-before dates after July 14.
Last week, cheeses manufactured by Fromages La Chaudiere were recalled because of salmonella, blamed for the death of an elderly person in the Chaudiere Appalaches region and 90 illnesses across Quebec.
Ontario man hospitalized 34 days with listeria from raw milk cheese(?) Wife calls for warning labels
Jockie Loomer-Kruger of Kitchener, Ontario, writes in a letter to the K-W Record today that that she and her husband holidayed in Quebec City this June and delighted in sampling many specialty cheeses made from raw milk. Then the husband became ill.
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After 34 days in hospital with listeria infection, her husband came home.
Loomer-Kruger says,
"it may be time that unpasteurized milk and milk products carried the same kinds of warnings seen on cigarette packages, products that contain nuts, or on toys with small choking-hazard parts.
"For example: "WARNING! This raw milk product may contain dangerous bacteria which could cause serious illness or death. At risk are the very young, pregnant women (potential miscarriages or stillbirths), the elderly, those with compromised immune systems, or those with artificial body parts such as heart valves or replaced joints. CONSUME AT YOUR OWN RISK."
Quebec says yes to raw milk cheese - and it's recalled for listeria
On the same day that Quebec moved to permit raw milk cheese aged less than 60 days, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) and Portuguese Cheese Co. warned the public not to consume Santa Maria brand Queijo de Cabra (fresh goat cheese) because it may be contaminated with Listeria monocytogenes.
Does fresh mean raw? How’s a pregnant woman – or a guy who really doesn’t like to barf -- to know?
No matter, the Montreal Gazette came out Saturday and exclaimed in an editorial that “the trick is to manage the risks carefully, and make sure potential consumers understand the situation. Quebec seems to have taken health concerns into account. Under the new rules, Quebec will require each cheesemaker to know his or her milk supplier personally, and to be knowledgeable about the dairy operation in question.”
Yes I know you. Therefore it is safe.
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Mansel Griffiths, a dairy microbiologist at the University of Guelph and my PhD supervisor (right, not exactly as shown) says the 60-day limit has become arbitrary, since it is no longer a guarantee of destroying pathogens. Still, he believes raw-milk cheese continues to pose health-safety issues over potential pathogens.
Making Love or Making Camembert
In an interview for CNN yesterday, the mayor of Saint-Loup de Fribois, France, Philippe Meslon said, "A camembert not made out of raw milk is like making love without sex.” This story, “France milks cheese for all its worth,” tracks the camembert business in Normandy and the struggle to earn the coveted Appelation d’Origine Contrôlée.
While I totally appreciate the tradition involved in making lait cru camembert (and personally love the taste), I still applaud the largest cheesemakers such as Lactalis and Isigny Sainte-Mère for choosing to heat-treat their milk. That safety measure meant that they consequently lost their AOC (“real camembert”) label, but it also meant significantly reducing the risks for their many consumers.
The mayor of Saint-Loup also says a Frenchman is “someone who cultivates with modern evolution his past. It's someone who protects moral values, cultural values and artistic values, and when I say cultural values I would include camembert." That’s a nicely ambivalent statement supporting a staple of his region’s economy.
Normand cheesemaker, François Durand has 40 cows and the AOC label. He proudly claims that making cheese is about not cutting corners. "You have to have the passion. Yes it's difficult because it means a lot of work. We make it all by hand.”
With recent changes in the large “industrial” cheeses, however, some camembert makers have been driven out of business. Michel Delorme says the new and stricter rules combined with his age made him stop producing handmade camembert. Although Durand misses his cheese, he’s kept some souvenirs such as his milk cans to remember his cheesemaking days.
Passion is important and nostalgia is nice, but the hundreds of years of tradition that go into camembert making in France need to include food safety practices to protect both French culture and consumers.
'Real Camembert' wins war against pasteurized posers
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Two of France’s top lait cru Camembert producers, Lactalis and Isigny-Sainte-Mère, announced last year they were forgoing the status of “Appellation d’Origine Contrôlée” and switching to cheese made exclusively with heat-treated micro-filtered milk (not quite pasteurized but still an affront to purists).Lactilis’ spokesperson, Luc Morelon said that although they recognize the importance of Camembert traditions, they’re making the change,
“[b]ecause consumer safety is paramount, and we cannot guarantee it 100 per cent. We cannot accept the risk of seeing our historic brands disappearing because of an accident in production."
In response to his critics Morelon added,
“I don't want to risk sending any more children to hospital. It's as simple as that."
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Lactalis and Isigny-Sainte-Mere had argued for dropping the requirement that raw milk be used in the production of Camember to qualify for the AOC label.Kansas consumers warned about homemade raw milk cheese
Food safety inspectors found the cheese being sold last week at Panaderia Real, 107 North Jennie Barker Road, in Garden City. The cheese was destroyed after testing confirmed that it was made from unpasteurized milk and that it was contaminated with Salmonella.An investigation into the cheese’s origin revealed that it was being made in the home of Guadalupe Valadez, who is not licensed to manufacture food. To be licensed, Valadez would need to use a commercial kitchen to make the cheese and to undergo routine food safety inspections.
Valadez was selling the cheese to neighbors, to coworkers at Tyson Foods and to two stores, Panaderia Real on Jennie Barker Road and at Panaderia Alexis at 146 Stevens Avenue. She reports she had been making and selling the cheese for about a month.
The illegal cheese was identified during a two-month pilot project to monitor the safety of imported and domestically produced foods offered for sale in Kansas. It was launched by the Kansas Department of Agriculture late last month. '
Inspectors are collecting up to 10 products from each facility they visit as part of the project. Products are tested for Salmonella, Listeria monocytogenes and E. coli, the most common causes of foodborne illness.
