I'm bona fide. I'm the paterfamilias. I have a residency card and can leave the U.S. and get back in
Or something like that from George Clooney in the 2000 movie and Courtlynn favorite, O Brother Where Art Thou.
As far as the U.S. government is concerned, I am indeed somewhat more bona fide, having received my permanent residency (below), so let the food safety world tour begin.
First stop – the motherland, U.K., in early January. Amy has a conference in Manchester, so thought we’d see some of my relatives in Newport, some friends in Cardiff, and visit the statue of my now confirmed great-great-great-great grandfather, William ‘The Tipton Slasher’ Perry, bare-knuckle boxing champ of England in 1850 and 1856, in Birmingham.
Salmonella, lettuce, and lousy public reporting; silence of the Salmonella
U.S. Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Margaret Hamburg said in her Sept. 11 address to the United Fresh Produce Association’s Washington Public Policy Conference that FDA’s intent is to keep unsafe foods from reaching the market and part of that new push will be accomplished by expanding outreach.
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Guess it didn’t reach all the lettuce growers. Or the consuming public.
That’s because The Oregonian reports today that federal and state health authorities are investigating a salmonella outbreak that peaked in Oregon in August.
This is the middle of September. This is not prevention. Or good news.
The good news is that it is over, said William Keene, senior epidemiologist at the Public Health Division in Oregon.
He said the first cases surfaced nationwide in mid-July and trailed off a month later.
At least 124 were sickened across the country, with a clustering of cases in the West.
Two people got so sick they had to be hospitalized, and one had severe symptoms, Keene said. They have now been released from the hospital. He said no one died in Oregon or elsewhere in connection with the outbreak.
Scientists from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Food and Drug Administration still do not know exactly what poisoned people, though shredded lettuce is a leading suspect, Keene said.
The silence of the Salmonella. It would help, as with the Salmonella in produce outbreak last summer, or the listeria in Canadian cold cuts last fall, if public health types would clearly articulate, when they go public and why. And let everyone see those guidelines.
Food safety Bill passes House - will it mean fewer sick people?
While the websphere, blogsphere and twittersphere were ejaculating electrons about the potential passage of new food safety legislation by the U.S. House– 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, hangers-on and chatting classes could ever come up with.
When it comes to the safety of the food supply, I generally ignore the chatter from Washington, as well as the wasted Internet commentaries and conspiracy theories. If a proposal does emerge, such as the creation of a single food inspection agency, or the bill that passed the House today – and just the House -- I ask, Will it actually make food safer? Will fewer people get sick?
As the General Accounting Office pointed out in a report a year ago,
“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.”
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 my visit, I went to the local Publix in St. Pete Beach to check out what the food safety type said – sure, the boss knows 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 contained the following:
“Publix Deli
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”
(The picture isn’t very good. Note to Publix: The label warning about shelf-life is a great idea, but can’t read it if the price sticker gets slapped over some of the text.)
This is the first time I’ve 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 a food safety type to say, this is important, let’s do it.
I also went looking for some bread for turkey sandwiches tomorrow as we move down to Sarasota, and then Venice Beach. I asked an employee in the bakery for some whole wheat rolls, and she pointed out what was available, said packages of six were pre-packaged, but she could get me whatever number I wanted. I asked for four. There was no bin for me to stick my who-knows-where-they-have-been hands in to and retrieve a few rolls. The bins were turned so that only staff had access. The employee said it had been that way since she started three years ago, and that “there’s just too much stuff going around” to let consumers stick their hands into bun bins (most commonly found item in communal bun bins? False fingernails).
It’s nice that food safety is once again a Presidential priority and that politicians are trying to set a tone. But chatting doesn’t mean fewer sick people – actions do.
Fireworks, food safety and bad, bad stuf
As the fireworks continue in the background, Amy and I are working in bed and put on a terrible, 1972 movie, 1776, which turns out to be a musical about American Independence starring Ken-The-White-Shadow Howard as Thomas Jefferson and William-I-was-on-St.Elsewhere-and the-voice-of-Kit-on-Knight-Rider Daniels as John Adams.
It’s so bad it reminded me of a song we think Oprah commissioned called, America is Beautiful, written by Canadian David Foster.
Truly bad (below).
Amy and I would like to dedicate this song to Canadians Ben and Dani and Jack, who are enjoying their first Independence Day in the fireworks capital of North Carolina, and ex-pat Katie who is in New Zealand, but had the misfortune of watching this song when it aired on Oprah (always something on in the background).
America’s great, but this song is horrible. So are Americans running around with fireworks, which have been going off for three days. And the food safety … it can be improved.
CDC speaks: Surveillance for U.S. foodborne disease outbreaks, 2006
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control reports in tomorrow’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report that foodborne illnesses are a major health burden in the United States . Most of these illnesses are preventable, and analysis of outbreaks helps identify control measures. Although most cases are sporadic, investigation of the portion that occur as part of recognized outbreaks can provide insights into the pathogens, food vehicles, and food-handling practices associated with foodborne infections.
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In 2006, CDC reported 1,270 foodborne disease outbreaks (FBDOs) from all states and territories through the Foodborne Disease Outbreak Surveillance System (FBDSS), resulting in 27,634 cases of foodborne illness and 11 deaths. Among the 624 FBDOs with a confirmed etiology, norovirus was the most common cause, accounting for 54% of outbreaks and 11,879 cases, followed by Salmonella (18% of outbreaks and 3,252 cases). Among the 11 reported deaths, 10 were attributed to bacterial etiologies (six Escherichia coli O157:H7, two Listeria monocytogenes, one Salmonella serotype Enteritidis, and one Clostridium botulinum), and one was attributed to a chemical (mushroom toxin).
Among outbreaks caused by a single food vehicle, the most common food commodities to which outbreak-related cases were attributed were poultry (21%), leafy vegetables (17%), and fruits/nuts (16%). Public health professionals can use this information to 1) target control strategies for specific pathogens in particular foods along the farm-to-table continuum and 2) support good food-handling practices among restaurant workers and the public.
US waits to react to flu discovery in Canadian pigs
As a backlog of state and federal lab test results reached the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the total number of confirmed cases of H1N1 in the US climbed to 244 in 34 states, the Associated Press reported this weekend.
The Globe and Mail reported numbers from the World Health Organization, stating, “Canada, for its part, has tallied 101 cases in seven provinces.”
When news broke that a Canadian swine herd was found suffering from a flu thought to be H1N1, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) issued a statement assuring that, “this detection does not change the situation here in the United States.”
The statement continued:
“Today's discovery will not impact our borders or trading with Canada. As prescribed by the World Organization for Animal Health guidelines, any trade restrictions must be based on science so at this time, we are awaiting confirmatory test results before considering any action."
Additionally, while the CDC works on a H1N1 vaccine for humans, the USDA announced it is trying to develop a vaccine for swine. But that’s just standard protocol when a new virus appears.
It seems they’re taking no rash action until there’s evidence to suggest it’s necessary. That sounds like a wise use of resources to me.
The World Health Organization is similarly waiting for evidence before sounding the alert to a pandemic. As reported by the New York Times,
“The World Health Organization announced an increase in the number of confirmed cases of swine flu on Saturday, but said there was no evidence of sustained spread in communities outside North America, which would fit the definition of a pandemic.”
“Dr. Michael J. Ryan, the director of the World Health Organization global alert and response team, said in a teleconference from Geneva, ‘We have to expect that Phase 6 (the level of a pandemic) will be reached. We have to hope that it is not.’”
The public should be made aware of existing risks and what's being done to manage them. But, there is no good reason to waste resources pretending to manage imaginary risks.
Act on what you know and seek out what you don't--for the good of the public.
The swine flu problem isn't in the pigs
As easy as it may be to assume, there’s no evidence that the swine flu spreading through Mexico and beyond is sickening pigs now.
The World Health Organization reports that illnesses in Mexico are climbing close to 1,000 with more than 50 deaths—all of which are human. Eighteen of those cases were laboratory confirmed by labs in Canada.
Though, as a precaution, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency is “asking swine producers, veterinarians and labs to increase their vigilance in monitoring for and reporting swine disease.”
Is that a better use of resources than increasing monitoring activities of flu-like symptoms in humans?
The Public Health Agency of Canada website says of human swine influenza, “Sporadic human infections with swine flu have occurred, however these are usually caused by direct exposure to pigs,” and, “Human to human transmission of swine influenza has been documented.”
Are Canadians getting the whole story? Is this the best way to protect public health?
In the US, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have identified 20 human cases of swine flu in several states, and an investigation website outlines what is known about the virus to this point (it’s susceptible to certain antiviral drugs) and the steps being taken to find out more.
This information gives the public a better picture of the possible risks to their health and how those risks are being managed.
The interested public can generally handle more, not less, information about food safety.
Courtlynn Powell: Swine flu's making me nervous
Daughter and would-be blogger Courtlynn (below right, exactly as shown) writes that,
“Coming home from school this afternoon, a rush of fear and anxiety seemed to linger. 20 people died in Mexico. 500 nurses in Mexico have this, as well as people returning from Canada, in the past week. It's spread from California to Texas.”
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The N.Y. Times reports this morning that Mexican officials, scrambling to control a swine flu outbreak that has killed as many as 61 people and infected possibly hundreds more in recent weeks, closed museums and shuttered schools for millions of students in and around the capital on Friday, and urged people with flu symptoms to stay home from work. …
The new strain contains gene sequences from North American and Eurasian swine flus, North American bird flu and North American human flu, said the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. A similar virus has been found in the American Southwest, where officials have reported eight nonfatal cases. …
Mexico’s flu season is usually over by now, but health officials have noticed a significant spike in flu cases since mid-March. The W.H.O. said there had been 800 cases in Mexico in recent weeks, 60 of them fatal, of a flulike illness that appeared to be more serious than the regular seasonal flu. Mexican officials said there were 943 possible cases.
Still, only a small number have been confirmed as cases of the new H1N1 swine flu.
It's tragic to be hip if the science sucks -- turkey advice
The U.K. Food Standards Agency is so tragically hip they’ve gone viral.
Except they call it ‘viral,’ encasing the word in what speakers would call “air quotes” or what Jon Stewart of the Daily Show recently called “dick fingers.” I call it bad writing.
The Agency has launched a new 'viral' marketing campaign, which raises awareness to the dangers of eating week-old turkey and gives tips to protect people in the UK from festive food poisoning. …
The new 60-second video aims to raise awareness of bad food hygiene and give some key advice on the safe handling of Christmas leftovers. The shocking but amusing film features a family that hasn’t been following the Agency’s advice on food hygiene. Diarrhoea might be the Christmas gift that keeps on giving, but do you really want to give it to your family?
The Agency advises leftovers should be:
* cooled as quickly as possible (within one to two hours) and kept in the fridge
* reheated only once, until piping hot
* eaten within two days
Who said the film was shocking? Or funny? And what does piping hot mean?
The Australians, who are just entering the hot summer weather, are more reasonable and recommend cooking to 75C (167F).
The origin of poultry cooking recommendations has been pondered many times on barfblog.com.
Currently, Health Canada suggests consumers cook turkey until the temperature of the thickest part of the breast or thigh is at least 85C (185F), though no one knows why.
A few decades ago, the USDA was also recommending that thigh meat reached 180-185F and breast meat reached 170F.
When asked why a couple years back, a manager of the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture Meat and Poultry Hotline said, "I've looked all over and I really have no idea. I think it happened sometime back in the 1980s, but I don't know what it was based on."
One of my research assistants, Casey Jacob, dug up a New York Times article from 1990 in which an assistant supervisor of the Hotline admitted that a turkey cooked until the breast meat is 160F and the dark meat is 170F was "microbiologically safe," but that the agency recommended the higher temps just to be on the safe side.
The agency now recommends that consumers cook poultry to an internal temp of 165F.
Casey tells that tale here:
“When USDA microbiologists finally got around to conducting validation studies in 2000, they figured out that a 7 log reduction in Salmonella could be achieved instantly at 158F and beyond.
“In 2006, NACMCF decided (through scientific studies, of course, not random number generation as may have been used previously) that foodborne pathogens and viruses, such as Salmonella, Campylobacter, and the avian influenza virus, were destroyed when poultry was cooked to an internal temperature of 165F.
“And thus the scientifically validated American recommendation of 165F was born.”
Here are the refs. Enjoy your Christmas dinner.
National Advisory Committee on Microbiological Criteria for Foods. 2006. Response to the questions posed by the Food Safety and Inspection Service regarding consumer guidelines for the safe cooking of poultry products. Adopted March 24, 2006. Arlington, VA.
United States Department of Agriculture, Food Safety and Inspection Service. 2005. Time-temperature tables for cooking ready-to-eat poultry products. Available at:
http://www.fsis.usda.gov/OPPDE/rdad/FSISNotices/RTE_Poultry_Tables.pdf. Accessed November 23, 2008.
Amy and I will be having lamb.
And this is the real deal, Kingston, Ontario’s very own, Tragically Hip.
If it's not Scottish, it's craaaaapp
The U.S. implemented a ban on haggis from Scotland in 1989 amidst the bovine spongiform encephalopathy [mad cow] scare because the dish contains offal ingredients such as sheep lungs. Sheep can suffer from scrapie, which is in the same family of diseases as BSE.A Scottish government spokesperson told BBC News,
"The market is massive because there are so many expat Scots there and once Americans try a good quality haggis, they can't get enough of it."
A spokesman for the U.S. Department of Agriculture said,
"We do not allow importation because of the U.K.'s BSE status. Sheep are susceptible to TSE's and thus the U.S. takes precautions on importing those ruminants from BSE-affected countries."
A spokesman for Britain's Food Standards Agency said,
"We see no reason at all why people cannot eat haggis safely, so long as manufacturers follow hygiene legislation."
The story says that haggis is traditionally served with tatties and neeps (potatoes and turnips). It usually contains a sheep's lungs, liver and heart minced with onion, oatmeal, suet, spices and salt mixed with stock. It is then boiled in the animal's stomach for approximately three hours.
