New food safety infosheet -- Harvey's E. coli O157:H7 Outbreak Report Released

The newest food safety infosheet, a graphical one-page food safety-related story directed at food handlers is also now available at foodsafetyinfosheets.ksu.edu. Infosheets are created weekly and are posted in restaurants, retail stores, on farms and used in training throughout the world.

This week's food safety infosheet focuses on a Fall 2008 E. coli O157:H7 outbreak inked to a Harvey's restaurant in North Bay, Ontario, Canada.

Food safety infosheet highlights:
- Health authorities point to Spanish red  onions as most likley source of the outbreak
- Poor sanitation of onion dicer may have prolonged the outbreak
- Equipment should be fully disassembled to allow for cleaning and sanitizing of hard to reach areas
Food safety infosheets are created weekly and are posted in restaurants, retail stores, on farms and used in training throughout the world. If you have any infosheet topic requests, or photos, please contact Ben Chapman at benjamin_chapman@ncsu.edu
You can follow food safety infosheets stories and barfblog on twitter @benjaminchapman and @barfblog.

Click here to download a pdf of the food safety infosheet.

Is it hepatitis A day and no one told me?

After posting this week's infosheet on a Brazilian soccer club's hep A outbreak possibly linked to dirty water bottles we picked up three more stories on hep A exposures:

Cincinnati, OH:
A food handler at a PF Chang's restaurant in West Chester, OH was diagnosed with hepatitis A earlier this week, and today there was a report of the vaccination clinic running out vaccine and sending exposed individuals to an urgent care facility as a back up (resulting in wait times upwards of three hours).

Boise, ID:

Nearly 300 people were vaccinated for hepatitis A at Boise's Central District Health this past week.
The rush came after a health scare at the Red Feather Lounge where an employee confirmed infected with the virus

New Zealand:

An orchard worker was found  to have hepatitis A and was  sent home to the Solomon Islands.
The fruitpicker, who was working at Apollo Pac in Whakatu for the season, was referred to the Hawke's Bay District Health Board's (DHB's) public health unit with the symptoms of Hepatitis A, including nausea and jaundice. The DHB's medical officer of health Caroline McElnay was cited as saying  23 people who had been living in close quarters with the person had also been screened for the disease and given an injection of antibodies for temporary protection.

Happy hep A day.