Houston Astros vendor fired after taking snow cones into bathroom

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Baseball is still boring. Unless there’s an outbreak of explosive diarrhea because a vendor takes a tray of snow cones into a stadium bathroom and puts it on the floor of the stall while using the facilities.

A fan shared a video with the local NBC affiliate, which aired a report astros24s-3-webWednesday night.

(There’s always cameras watching; everything is public.)

New Astros president Reid Ryan says in a statement: “The Astros were notified immediately by our partner ARAMARK of the incident involving a vendor on Monday night. We commend the swift reaction displayed by ARAMARK of terminating the employee immediately upon learning of the incident that evening.”

ARAMARK, which runs all of the food services at the ballpark, says this was an isolated incident and that the vendor’s actions were “a clear violation of our food safety practices and are not reflective of our standards.”

Rule on serving olive oil stirs ridicule and anger in Europe

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Any food safety policy decision should be backed by both theoretical and actual epidemiological evidence.

This one failed.

As reported earlier, the European economy is reeling from austerity and joblessness, so, as the New York Times puts it, the European Union took olive.oil.dippingtime last week to focus on something rather smaller in scale: it approved a measure that would ban restaurants from serving olive oil in cruets or dipping bowls.

The reaction was severe. Prime Minister Mark Rutte of the Netherlands condemned the measure, calling it “too bizarre for words” and not at all green.

Criticism was particularly harsh in Britain, often the first among critics of the European Union’s reach.

The olive oil rule was “exactly the sort of area that the European Union needs to get right out of, in my view,” Prime Minister David Cameron of Britain said Wednesday after a meeting of the bloc’s leaders in Brussels. “It shouldn’t even be on the table,” he said, immediately begging forgiveness for the wordplay.

On Thursday, the European Commission announced in a hastily called news conference that the measure, meant to take effect on Jan. 1, would be rescinded. 

5 sick; Campylobater again in raw milk in Alaska; really is Groundhog Day

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Folks in Alaska must be undergoing their own kind of public health Groundhog Day – where the same day is relived with slight variations.

But unlike the Bill Murray movie, no matter how much the health types cajole, persuade, and act nice, things won’t change.

For the second time this year, and third since 2011, the Alaska Section of Epidemiology is investigating another outbreak of Campylobacter infection colbert.raw.milkassociated with the consumption of raw milk. This new outbreak is associated with raw milk distributed by the same Kenai Peninsula cow-share program that was linked to a Campylobacter outbreak sickened at least 31 people in February 2013.

In the current investigation, five cases of Campylobacter infection have been identified to date. Two of the five people sought medical attention. Testing by the Alaska State Public Health Laboratory identified the bacteria strain as Campylobacter jejuni. The exact same strain of C. jejuni was found in cow manure obtained earlier this year at the cow-share farm that distributed the raw milk. “The genetic fingerprint of the bacteria isolated from these two people and the cow is unique. It has never been seen before in the United States,” said Dr. Joe McLaughlin, State Epidemiologist. “These outbreaks are an unfortunate reminder of the inherent risks associated with raw milk consumption, and underscore the importance of pasteurization.”

41 sickened; New Mexico plant shuttered for 8 months amid salmonella outbreak is making peanut butter again

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In fall, 2012, 41 people in 20 states contracted Salmonella from natural and organic peanut butter, primarily through purchases at Trader Joe’s.
By Nov. 2012, Sunland was eager to reopen, but the U.S. Food and Drug Administration had other ideas, and filed a permanent injunction against Sunland.

But today, the eastern New Mexico peanut butter plant shuttered eight months ago after a salmonella outbreak is back in production, and sunland_20120925084929_320_240company officials say their barf-inducing coveted natural and organic butters could be back on store shelves within a month.

Sunland Inc. Vice President Katalin Coburn says the company last week got the go-ahead from the Food and Drug Administration to restart peanut butter operations at its factory in Portales. It is currently in a test phase of production, she said.

The company processes Valencia peanuts, a sweet variety of peanut that is unique to the region and preferred for natural butters because it is flavorful without additives. It makes peanut butter under a number of different labels for retailers like Costco, Kroger and Trader Joe’s. It also makes nut butter products under its own name.

“They were saying, ‘We want Valencia. We want you guys. We want organic. So hurry up.’

Replace Valencia and organic with Salmonella. More entertaining, and possible accurate.

‘I got to publish a paper with Ninja in title’: evaluation of a food safety education game

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Erstwhile food safety nerd and friend of the blog, Don Schaffner of Rutgers, was one of the authors of a new paper in the British Food Journal exploring food safety education for middle school youths.

“Teaching people about food safety is easy, says Schaffner. “Getting them to really get it – especially when it’s busy – is hard. This game shows the balancing act that kitchen employees have to master to keep customers happy while still keeping food safe.  Plus I got to publish a paper with Ninja in the title.  How cool is that?”

The game is available at http://ninjakitchengame.org.

ninja.kitchenAbstract below.

Ninja Kitchen to the rescue: Evaluation of a food safety education game for middle school youth

British Food Journal, Vol. 115 Iss: 5, pp.686 – 699

Virginia Quick, Kirsten W. Corda, Barbara Chamberlin, Donald W. Schaffner, Carol Byrd-Bredbenner

http://www.emeraldinsight.com/journals.htm?issn=0007-070x&volume=115&issue=5&articleid=17088306&show=abstract  

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to assess the effect of Ninja Kitchen, a food safety educational video game, on middle school students’ food safety knowledge, psychographic characteristics, and usual and intended behaviors.

Design/methodology/approach – The experimental group (n=903) completed the following activities about one week apart from each other: pretest, played the game, posttest, and follow-up test. The control group (n=365) completed the same activities at similar intervals but did not have access to the game until after the follow-up test.

Findings – Linear mixed-effects models, controlling for gender, grade, and geographic location revealed significant time by group effects for knowledge of safe cooking temperatures for animal proteins and danger zone hazard prevention, and usual produce washing behaviors. Pairwise comparisons, adjusted for multiple comparisons, indicated that after playing the game, the experimental group felt more susceptible to foodborne illness, had stronger attitudes toward the importance of handling food safely and handwashing, had greater confidence in their ability to practice safe food handling, and had greater intentions to practice handwashing and safe food handling. Teachers and students found the game highly acceptable.

Originality/value – The game has the potential to promote positive food safety behaviors among youth, in a fun and educational format.

Ethnic restaurant in Sydney fined $85,000

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The Crow’s Nest, an Indian and Pakistani cuisine restaurant in North Sydney, has been fined $85,00 for more than 15 different food safety violations that took place between 2011 and the present date.

Mike Stewart of Australian Food Safety News writes this type of fine is considered the worst that could be given, used only when the types of crow's.nestviolation are so serious that they truly put public safety at risk.

Some of the violations that the restaurant was found guilty by the North Sydney Food Council for included:

• serious cockroach infestation;

• no hot water available in kitchen;

• walls, floors, and shelves were covered in grease and grime, creating food safety concerns as well as fire hazards;

• food was being stored in broken containers;

• chopping boards were not being cleaned properly; and,

• refrigerators were not functioning properly or were not sealed to keep cold air in.

The owner of the Crow’s Nest indicates that more than $40,000 have been poured into reconstruction and maintenance to ensure the restaurant is no longer in violation. Additionally, the owner indicated that the exterminators visit every six weeks now to ensure that roaches are completely eradicated from the location.

 

294 sick; Firefly Salmonella creates complications, hard choices for pregnant Las Vegan

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In late April, a couple of days after Konstantino and “Myla,” Lyudmyla Kouris walked over from their All Real Estate investment company office to have lunch with their friend Nikk Zorbas at the Firefly restaurant next door, Myla, got sick.

Paul Harasim of the Las Vegas Review-Journal writes that ahough doctors first saw the symptoms as a commonplace indication of pregnancy, stool Lyudmyla Radchenkosamples taken after her condition worsened showed –– and continue to show –– she suffers from salmonella, food poisoning that caused the Southern Nevada Health District to shutter the Paradise Road Firefly on April 26.

To their horror, the couple learned that what was generally causing others a few days of distress –– nearly 300 people have now reported food poisoning symptoms –– could lead to severe pregnancy complications.

Radchenko, expecting her child in early June, was too ill to take part in initial interviews with the Review-Journal last week in which Kouris and Zorbas first outlined her situation. Zorbas spent four days in the hospital fighting salmonella symptoms, while Kouris recently stopped taking antibiotics for his bout with salmonella.

“Our lives have been nothing but stress since we found out what Myla had –– nothing is really positive any more,” Kouris, 50, said as the couple sat in their office on Monday. “All we talk about now, all we think about, is what salmonella could do to our baby.”

With stool samples this week showing the salmonella still strong in her system, Radchenko nodded at the talk of stress as she repeatedly caressed her stomach.

“So much stress,” she said in an accent that reflects her Ukrainian homeland. “It is so scary. I’m afraid for our little boy.”

Food safety apology II: Copa sorry for Salmonella outbreak

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The restaurant behind Canberra’s largest salmonella outbreak has made a public apology to affected diners.

The Copa Brazilian Churrasco restaurant in Dickson released the statement on Thursday morning, after 140 people fell ill and 15 were admitted to raw.egg_.mayo_-300x203hospital after eating bad mayonnaise nearly two weeks ago.

“It is with sincere compassion and genuine sorrow that we apologize to all the people and their families affected by the recent tragic sequence of events,” the statement said.

“We have removed all products containing raw eggs from our menu to ensure an outbreak of this kind is never repeated at The Copa.”

The release said the restaurant management had been unable to make an official statement earlier due to the ongoing investigation, but decided to make an apology now given the release date was unknown.

It’s never wrong to say sorry, especially when it was clear that 140 barfing people had one thing in common: they ate at the Copa.

To now remove all raw-egg based dishes is nice, but too little too late. Any restaurant that willingly ignores risks associated with its food gets little sympathy. There have been plenty of raw-egg related outbreaks in Australia — so many that we have our own table — including Canberra in 2011.

A table of raw-egg related outbreaks in Australia is available at http://bites.ksu.edu/raw-egg-related-outbreaks-australia.

copa.apology

Food safety apology I: Texas health type says sorry to family

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The parents of an 18-month-old and a 4-year-old who were sickened by E. coli from a local restaurant weren’t happy with a Brazos County Health wilke.taco.e.coli.may.13Department news conference on Tuesday.

On Wednesday, the doctor who ate a taco from the restaurant from which the bacteria was traced, issued an apology.

Dr. Eric Wilke told News 3, “I did have the opportunity to speak with Mr. Melton yesterday and offered my heartfelt apology that I offended him and his family. I would never want to lessen the gravity of what they experienced. Mr. Melton was very gracious and I appreciate his willingness to speak to me. If my comments and actions gave anyone the impression, other than what we felt in terms of concern, then I would like to offer my apology to them and ask for their forgiveness.”

Dr. Wilke says eating the taco at the news conference on Tuesday was simply an attempt to quell some of the public concern about food safety.

It was a dumb attempt.