barfblog

  • Kevin Allen: Hydrolysed vegetable protein – another reminder of how little raw material testing is performed by food producers

    Posted: March 11th, 2010 - 4:11pm by Doug Powell

    Kevin Allen (right, pretty much as shown), an assistant professor of food microbiology at the University of British Columbia who used to focus on perfecting his hockey skills through food microbiology graduate education but has more recently shifted his focus to preventing foodborne illness, writes:

    As details of the Salmonella enterica serovar Tennessee contamination of hydrolysed vegetable protein (HVP) recall associated with Basic Foods Inc. (BFI), Nevada unravel, it is clear that many issues have played a role in this escalating and pervasive recall.

    The finding of S. Tennessee on processing equipment at the BFI production facility demonstrates serious deficiencies in their sanitation program; the delay in reporting and back-dating of the recall show a lack of proper risk communication and management; and the continued manufacture and shipping of potentially contaminated HVP product to food producers shows a serious lack of risk-based decision making. Together, this has the potential to result in a large number of continued recalls and smacks similar to the Peanut Corporation of America (PCA) recall in which S. Tennessee contaminated peanut products (2008) led to over 4,500 affected food products.

    In both recalls, there appears to be a lack of responsibility associated with the food producers using these contaminated products. Because traditional microbiological testing requires highly-skilled laboratory technicians and an abundance of laboratory equipment, cost-cutting measures have routinely focused on decreased in-house testing of raw materials. Rather than microbiologically verifying the quality of individual raw materials which, admittedly, is a time-consuming process, food producers have increasingly relied on the vendor’s provision of a certificate of analysis stating that the product is microbiologically safe. In theory, this process of relying on vendor (i.e. BFI, PCA) assurances of microbiological acceptability should work providing that the vendor is producing the product hygienically and subsequently testing it appropriately. However, based on these two examples alone, food producers need to start verifying the microbiological quality of their raw materials, and stop relying on vendor’s assurances.

    A food producer who used HVP in a product should be able look back at that lot to see that yes, our company used it, we tested it prior to use and found no pathogen contamination. Based on this approach, all production lots that were associated with production would also be tested and shown pathogen-free prior to retail distribution. However, cost-cutting, production requirements, and a simple willingness to assume microbiological safety of raw materials based on third-party assurances have once again severely impacted the food industry in a negative manner. Maybe it’s time food producers go back to the basics, and realize that microbiological testing of raw materials is not a waste of time and money, but rather a critical step in providing microbiologically safe foods to the public.

    Your rating: None (1 vote)
    None  |  0 Comments
    hvp, salmonella, vegetable protein
  • New Food Safety Infosheet: Illinois Subway linked to Shigella sonnei outbreak

    Posted: March 11th, 2010 - 3:52pm by Ben Chapman

    Author: 
    Ben Chapman

    My son Jack is almost 2 and has spread a whole load of illness through our house this week (fun stuff). A couple of his contemporary playmates had some suspected norovirus last week and likely the same thing has made our toliets work overtime. 

    A 2-year-old boy in Illinois also experienced foodborne illness symptoms, although more serious than what we dealt with, in late February, after eating food from a Subway restaurant. The little boy, son of Ron and Sarah Bowers, has been identified as part of an outbreak of Shigella sonnei along with at least 20 other patrons.

    This week's food safety infosheet, a graphical one-page food safety-related story directed at food handlers, focuses on the outbreak.

    Click here to download the food safety infosheet.

    Your rating: None
    Other Microorganisms  |  0 Comments
    Outbreak, Shigella, Subway
  • Crisis garden crap: Taking control of local food to a new level

    Posted: March 11th, 2010 - 3:15pm by Doug Powell

    Sorenne and I only got through the start of The Colbert Report this morning before it was off to vaccinations, so this post is somewhat late.

    But Stefan did take an excellent shot at more food wackiness being peddled on the Internet and insisted on his home herb garden, because, “I refuse to live in a world where I can’t garnish.”

    My seeds are germinating in the Kansas spring, including my garnish garden, but I get my seeds at Home Depot or several other places. I want hybrids. Genetic modification is good. That’s why hybrid corn has been around since the early 1900s.

    Not so for the Survival Seed Bank, which says it’s more valuable than silver or gold in a real meltdown.

    Remember, our hand-picked seeds are not genetically modified in any way. You simply save some of your harvest seeds from year one and have more than enough to plant in year two. You'll never need to buy seeds again! You just can't do that with man-made hybrid seeds.

    Most seed companies are now selling only "terminator" seeds which have been genetically modified and will not reproduce themselves.

    This is nonsense. And for government-paranoias here in the Midwest,

    "Indestructible Survival Seed Bank Can Be Buried To Avoid Confiscation."

    It’s all BS to make a buck.

     

    The Colbert Report Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
    Survival Seed Bank
    www.colbertnation.com
    Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor Skate Expectations
    Your rating: None (1 vote)
    Food Safety Policy  |  0 Comments
    None
  • People handle food any way they want

    Posted: March 11th, 2010 - 8:20am by Doug Powell

    Some form of direct observation is the only way to do meaningful food safety behavior research, and the phrase, consumer food safety education, should be banned.

    Or at least try something new – the stuff that is out there just doesn’t work.

    That’s what I take from a preliminary summary of research led by Christine Bruhn, director of the Center for Consumer Research at the University of California, Davis, and Ho Phang, prepared by Meatingplace.

    Sure, those are a couple of my primary messages, so it’s easy to agree with someone who agrees with me, but nice to hear it confirmed.

    Bruhn and colleagues videotaped 200 volunteers in their homes while they prepared burgers and salad. She observed their methods of defrosting the meat — frozen, preformed burgers — their refrigerators' temperature, whether or not they put themselves at risk for cross-contamination and how they determined whether the meat was done.

    Of those in the study:

    * Twenty-five percent said they prefer their burgers pink.
    * Eighty-three percent said they used visual clues, rather than a meat thermometer, to determine the doneness of their burgers.
    * About half owned a meat thermometer, but almost all of those participants said they used it on larger cuts of meat, not burgers.
    * Seventy-five percent said they were unlikely to use a meat thermometer on burgers.

    Even though participants knew they were being videotaped, many did not follow recommended guidelines when preparing their burgers:

    * Although 90 percent of consumers were observed washing their hands prior to food preparation, the average hand-washing time was just seven seconds, and only 31 percent dried their hands with a clean towel (either a paper towel or a cloth towel that had not been used previously).

    * Potential cross-contamination — defined by the study as "an event in which pathogens could be transferred from one surface to another as a result of contact with a potential source of contamination" — occurred in 74 percent of the households.

    * While a bar graph showing the temperature distribution of the finished burgers demonstrated that many were at or near the recommended 160 degrees F, a few of the burgers' temperatures were recorded to be much lower — as low as 112 degrees F. (Study coordinators observing consumer behavior made sure all burgers were cooked to 160 F before volunteers consumed them.)

    Even after the exercise, only 23 percent of participants said they would use a meat thermometer on burgers in the future.

    Bruhn said,

    "Consumer education is not sufficient. Take the extra step. It protects the public, and it protects you."

    Your rating: None
    Food Safety Culture  |  0 Comments
    bruhn, consumer, Hamburger, Observation, Survey, video
  • Two listeriosis cases investigated in Ontario

    Posted: March 10th, 2010 - 11:40pm by Doug Powell

    Ontario health officials are investigating two cases of listeriosis that appear to be linked to salami recalled from stores in Ontario and Quebec about three months ago.

    The salami is sold by Siena Foods based in Toronto and was voluntarily recalled by the manufacturer on Dec. 21, 2009, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency said Wednesday. The best before date on the packaged meat is May 4, 2010.

    Ontario health officials say they've been told two men became ill and are recovering at home. The officials wouldn't say where the men live.

    I understand the right to privacy, and the investigative angst regarding cases 3-months-old, but not releasing hometown information does little to jeopardize privacy and a lot to make sure others don’t come forward. And is this really the best various Canadian health bureaucrats can do in releasing timely information that may prevent others from barfing?

    Canada: strive for mediocrity.

    Your rating: None
    None  |  0 Comments
    canda, Information, Listeria, Ontario
  • 3 sailors die of food poisoning on oil tanker

    Posted: March 10th, 2010 - 10:12pm by Doug Powell

    Agence France-Presse reports that three sailors have died of food poisoning on an oil tanker traversing the Channel between Britain and Europe, French maritime authorities said Wednesday.

    The captain of the Marshall Islands-flagged Arionas reported the deaths overnight, French officials said, adding that the source of the food poisoning was not known.

    French officials have sent a helicopter with two gendarmes and a doctor for a preliminary investigation. More gendarmes would be sent later to question the crew.

    Your rating: None (1 vote)
    Other Microorganisms  |  0 Comments
    Food Poisoning, France, sailor, tanker
  • See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil: who was Salmonella plant’s auditor?

    Posted: March 10th, 2010 - 9:02am by Doug Powell

    More corporate douchebags who talk a good food safety game but could care less have been caught endangering people and losing huge piles of money for their owners.

    The Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post are reporting this morning that Basic Food Flavors Inc., the Las Vegas company at the center of a recall of more than 100 food products containing hydrolyzed vegetable protein, or HVP, continued to make and distribute food ingredients for about a month after it learned salmonella was present at its processing facility, according to a Food and Drug Administration report.

    Managers at Basic Food Flavors of Las Vegas learned on Jan. 21 that samples taken a week earlier from their Nevada facility tested positive for salmonella, but they kept shipping their product to foodmakers, according to FDA inspection records.

    The FDA last week recommended companies recall products, from chips to soups, that contain a commonly used additive made by Basic Food Flavors that tested positive for salmonella. The additive is mixed into foods to give them a meaty flavor.

    FDA officials inspected Basic Food's plant for about two weeks starting in mid-February and found the company didn't adequately clean equipment and store foods to protect against the growth of contaminants such as salmonella, according to the inspection report.

    The inspectors noted that "light-brown residue" and "dark-brown liquid" was observed on or around where Basic Food makes flavor-enhancing ingredients used in foods. The inspectors said brown residue was also found in a plastic pipe used in making food ingredients.

    Basic Food makes a flavor enhancer called hydrolyzed vegetable protein, or HVP. The FDA report said the company first learned salmonella was present at its processing facility for HVP on Jan. 21. The company continued to distribute the ingredients until Feb. 15. A representative for the company wasn't immediately available to comment. The company hasn't responded to earlier requests for comment.

    No illnesses have been reported related to the recall, said FDA spokeswoman Rita Chappelle.

    But those who shipped out Salmonella-positive ingredients are still douchebags.

    A list of affected products can be found at http://www.accessdata.fda.gov/scripts/HVPCP/.

    Your rating: None (1 vote)
    Salmonella  |  0 Comments
    Basic Food Flavors Inc., hvp, hydrolyzed vegetable protein, salmonella
  • Company will increase testing after caught with listeria-cheese

    Posted: March 10th, 2010 - 8:39am by Doug Powell

    Every time a company gets caught with their fingers in the food safety cookie jar, they make pledges to improve food safety procedures. What planet were they living on before? Had they never heard of outbreaks involving similar products? Taking preventative actions? Not making their customers barf?

    I’ll stop looking at the world through beer goggles.

    CTV News reports a small, organic cheese maker on B.C.'s Saltspring Island is continuing production after a big product recall this week, but with stricter safety measures in place.

    Three varieties of Camembert manufactured by Moonstruck Organic Cheese were recalled Monday, after the B.C. Centre for Disease Control discovered the listeria bacteria in one wheel of cheese.

    Moonstruck cheesemaker Julia Grace told CTV News that the company has vowed to bump up its safety procedures, and all cheese is now being independently tested before sale.

    "It's going to be a shake up but it's going to make us a stronger company. Once you've had an experience like this, you tighten up your measures more ferociously just to make sure this never happens again," she said.

    Your rating: None
    Listeria  |  0 Comments
    bc, Cheese, Listeria, Moonstruck Organic Cheese
  • Stephen Colbert does Salmonella (in Pringles)

    Posted: March 10th, 2010 - 7:32am by Doug Powell

    I get up early and start writing. Shortly thereafter, 1-year-old Sorenne gets up, and likes to start the day by taking in some milk and watching The Colbert Report from the night before.

    I’m not making this up, she views Colbert as her other father.

    Last night, Stephen opened with Salmonella in hydrolyzed vegetable protein which made its was to a certain variety of Pringles potato chips.

     

    The Colbert Report Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
    Consumer Alert - Pringles
    www.colbertnation.com
    Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor Skate Expectations
    Your rating: None
    Salmonella  |  0 Comments
    Colbert, pringles, salmonella
  • Salmonella in veggie protein – the Canadian angle

    Posted: March 9th, 2010 - 4:14pm by Doug Powell

    I’ve already given Kevin Allen enough attention – the dude who really enjoyed himself too much while bouncing hockey pucks off my head – but he’s polite enough to give credit and he took my risk analysis course back in 1998 when he was a fledgling graduate student.

    The course devotes a lot of time to food safety risk communication and Kevin, being a bright guy, thought, CBC is about to call and ask me about Salmonella in hydrolyzed vegetable protein, I’ll check in with Doug for some tips.

    Kevin called, I told him to figure out what his couple of key messages were and hammer them home, cause TV and radio are relentless in their quest for simplicity, and the result is in the first couple of minutes in the video available at

    http://www.cbc.ca/video/#/News/Local_News/BC/ID=1435456122

    Not bad, although his second soundbite may have had more Canadian credibility if he said, “as a father of two children and a hockey player (goon)” but who am I to quibble.

    Canada, meet your newest food safety spokesthingy, from Belleville, Ontario, now plying at the University of British Columbia, Dr. Kevin Allen (above, right, exactly as shown).
     

    Your rating: None (1 vote)
    Salmonella  |  0 Comments
    hvp, hydrolyzed vegetable protein, salmonella