In the past few weeks, Northland District Health Board has found a total of eleven cases of the food poisoning, which has been identified as Salmonella Infantis.

The Board’s medical officer Clair Mills says it was odd to have a cluster all at once and in a region where this type of bug is uncommon.

She says nine of the eleven people had eaten at the same outlet in Whangarei.

“So then of course we look further at the premise and we take samples from food and we take stool samples from staff.”

Health officials are investigating the eatery and its food supply chain to find a possible source of the bacterial infection but have not been able to find whether it came from a product or was spread by an infected person.

She did not require hospitalization.

A CHP spokesman said E. coli O157:H7 could be contracted through consumption of undercooked contaminated food or contaminated water, or transmitted from person to person through the fecal-oral route.

“However, the bacteria can be killed at a cooking temperature of 75 degrees Celsius for two to three minutes. Members of the public are advised to cook food thoroughly to prevent infection. The core temperature of meat should reach 75 degrees Celsius for at least two to three minutes, until the cooked meat is brown throughout and the juices run clear.”

Use a thermometer, not color. In the absence of any information about how the girl was infected, eliminating other sources and sticking with the just-cook-it-and-be-clean message is simplistic at best, condescension at worse.

A fan shared a video with the local NBC affiliate, which aired a report Wednesday 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.”

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 time 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. 

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 associated 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.”

But today, the eastern New Mexico peanut butter plant shuttered eight months ago after a salmonella outbreak is back in production, and company 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.

“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.

Abstract 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.

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 violation 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.

Paul Harasim of the Las Vegas Review-Journal writes that ahough doctors first saw the symptoms as a commonplace indication of pregnancy, stool samples 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.”