Tag Archives: Hamburger

Stick it in with a thermometer, not a finger (yours or anyone else’s)

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Canada’s version of state-sponsored jazz, CBC Radio, is the latest entrant in the terrible food safety advice category.

After several minutes of seductive food porn talk about the perfect burger, food and nutritionist columnist Julie Van Rosendaal said on CBC Calgary morning rare.hamburgerradio show, The Eyeopener, on April 30, 2012, I don’t know anyone who checks burgers with a thermometer.

One of the hosts had opined that people are told to get their burgers well-done, yet this one looks medium rare.

Van Rosendaal derisively pooh-poohed the question, saying something about the temperature should be 160F, adding that, “I don’t know many people who stick a meat thermometer in their burger,” and that cooks can tell when it’s done when it springs back when you touch the patty, rather than a finger sliding into the patty.

The clip is 7:48 long, and they start talking about this at 5:30. It’s available at http://www.cbc.ca/video/news/audioplayer.html?clipid=2382534459.

Color is a lousy indicator of hamburger safety. So is finger-banging beef. Use a tip-sensitive digital thermometer and stick it in. The refs are all here.

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People sick but how many remains a Canadian mystery; E. coli O157 in burgers

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The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) and Canada Safeway Limited are warning the public not to consume The Gourmet Meat Shoppe and The Butcher’s Cut brands of Frozen Beef Burgers described below because these products may be contaminated with E. coli O157:H7 bacteria.

This recall is the result of E. coli O157:H7 product testing by the CFIA related to an ongoing outbreak investigation. The CFIA is currently conducting a food safety investigation at the producing facility to determine if any additional products may be affected.e.coli.burger.2.13d

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More E. coli O157 illnesses and recalls in Canada

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CFIA ain’t so good at this food safety thing.

Earlier this month, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency and Loblaw Companies Ltd. warned the public not to consume certain Butcher’s Choice Garlic Peppercorn Beef Burgers because this product may be contaminated with E. coli O157:H7.

By Saturday, five people were confirmed sick in this outbreak.

In Sept. 2012, at least 17 Canadians were sickened with E. coli O157:H7 linked to beef slaughtered at the XL Foods plant in Alberta.

Now, CFIA and Cardinal Meat Specialists Ltd. are warning the public not to consume Prime Rib Beef Burgers because this product may be contaminated with E. coli O157:H7 bacteria.

CFIA says, “This investigation was initiated as a result of recent product testing associated with an outbreak investigation. There may be recalls of additional products as the investigation at this facility continues.”

Are more people sick? Are these outbreaks and recalls related? Does genetic fingerprinting exist in Canada or are chromosomes still being quantified under a microscope after jumping on a telephone book on a slide containing some cells (we actually did that in early 1980s genetics).

The Calgary Herald reports this morning CFIA officials were first alerted to a potential problem with hamburgers from a Brampton, Ont. plant in early October after an Edmonton patient became ill from E. coli O157:H7 poisoning.

But nearly two months passed and four more cases emerged before the federal agency began an investigation in early December.

At that point, CFIA decided it needed to confirm that contaminated product had actually found its way into the market, so it ordered inspectors to visit more than 300 stores across Canada to collect samples.

When two samples tested positive a week later on Dec. 12, agency officials issued a health alert, and Cardinal Meat Specialists Limited began a voluntary recall.

CFIA officials did not reply Sunday to written questions from the Herald about the apparent delay in launching a recall, although a spokesman has said the agency was unable to act until it had conclusive proof there was tainted product on store shelves.

Why? Doesn’t epidemiology matter?

Where is this policy enshrined? On what basis does CFIA go public?

Brent Cator, president of Cardinal Meat Specialists, told the Herald his company makes frozen patties using beef trim from various Canadian and international processors that has been certified as free from E. coli O157:H7. However, he refused to identify the sources of the meat used in the recalled burgers.

Still no beef fix a year after salmonella outbreak

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One year after a recall of contaminated ground meat sold at Hannaford stores exposed blind spots in the nation’s food-safety chain, the U.S. Department of Agriculture has yet to move forward with a proposed rule to improve record-keeping and, in turn, better protect public health.

According to the Maine Sunday Telegram when a salmonella outbreak that sickened 20 people was traced to the supermarket chain in late 2011, Hannaford voluntarily improved its tracking procedures so it could better identify the point of origin of its beef and therefore the origin of any contamination.

But while the USDA said it expected to send a detailed proposal of its new rule requiring other grocers to do the same to the White House Office of Management and Budget for review last summer, that still hasn’t happened.

And no one from the USDA will say what has held up the process, or when the rule might move forward.

“I have to say, I’m extremely disappointed that the regulations haven’t been put into place yet,” said U.S. Rep. Chellie Pingree, a Maine Democrat representing the 1st District. She has served on the House Agriculture Committee for the past two years and hopes to continue.

After the recall, the Maine Sunday Telegram/Portland Press Herald investigated the problem and exposed the holes in the USDA’s system in a special report published in March.

Meanwhile, several people sickened in the salmonella outbreak are still seeking compensation from Hannaford.

“I just want the bills paid and the things to go away,” said Kenneth Koehler, 53, of Old Orchard Beach, who has racked up $8,000 in medical expenses since he was sickened more than a year ago.

He hasn’t eaten a hamburger since.

No one from the USDA, which was also tight-lipped during the recall investigation, would say when it might send the proposal to the White House.

People sick, how many a mystery; E. coli O157 in Canadian hamburger

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There’s an E. coli O157:H7 outbreak in Canada, product has been recalled, but no one will say how many are sick.

This is due to some bureaucratic division of reporting: the Canadian Food Inspection Agency reports on recalled food, and it’s up to Health Canada or the Public Health Agency of Canada to report actual illnesses.

Expect to hear from one of those agencies in the next week.

What is known is that CFIA and Loblaw Companies Ltd. are warning the public not to consume certain Butcher’s Choice Garlic Peppercorn Beef Burgers because this product may be contaminated with E. Coli O157:H7.

The affected product, Butcher’s Choice Garlic Peppercorn Beef Burgers, is sold frozen in 1.13 kg packages bearing UPC 0 60383 89363 7. The affected product bears the code BEST BEFORE 2013 MR 03 EST 752.

This product has been distributed nationally.

This recall is the result of an ongoing investigation into a number of E. coli O157:H7 related illnesses in Canada. The CFIA is currently testing additional products collected from across the country. The recall may be expanded to include other codes or products as test results are received.

How hard would it be to clearly state, this is how many people are sick, and where they are located? Canadian tax dollars at work. And why isn’t megalomart Loblaw putting out its own version? Hiding behind the sheen of government, which is a lousy shield.

 

London restaurant fights council over rare hamburger complaint

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I don’t know what a rare hamburger is. When asked how I would like a burger, I say thermometer-verified 165F. I’m met with blank stares, which I return: rare is a subjective value with little meaning.

The city council of Westminster — which includes many of the important cultural districts in the West End — served notice against London restaurant Davy’s over how they were serving their £13.95 burger. The council’s food health and safety manager commented, “It is possible to produce burgers that can be eaten undercooked, but strict controls are essential.”

Huffington Post reports Davy’s has appealed the notice to the High Court, and their decision could set a precedent for how rare and medium rare burgers are regulated going forward.

The rare burger controversy in Westminster follows several months of controversy in England over the risks posed by rare and medium-rare beef. One major UK burger chain recently committed to ending the sale of rare and medium-rare burgers, while another was hit with penalties for serving undercooked burgers

Food poisoning hard to prove – and complaint records hard to get

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The Ottawa E. coli case that prompted the Windsor-Essex County Health Unit to bar restaurants from serving raw kibbeh may not have been caused by the ground beef dish after all.

Eric Leclair, head of the health information co-ordination unit at Ottawa Public Health, told Claire Brownell of the Windsor Star that while a child became ill with the potentially life-threatening type of E. coli after eating the home-prepared dish last February, there’s no way to know for sure whether the food was the source of the illness.

“There’s no confirmation, per se. The actual food itself was prepared in someone’s home. It wasn’t bought as kibbeh, it was just bought as meat,” he said. “There was no real solid connection between them.”

In fact, it’s almost impossible to verify the source of any food-borne illness with certainty. Six people reported food poisoning to the Windsor health unit between April 1 and June 30, 2012, but  inspectors ruled the complaints unsubstantiated after investigating the establishments that served the food, according to information obtained by The Star through an access to information request.

That information was not easy to obtain. In early July, after the health unit imposed restrictions on the sale of raw kibbeh, The Star asked Medical Officer of Health Allen Heimann and health inspection department manager Mike Tudor for records of complaints about food-borne illness in the second quarter of 2012 and filed a freedom of information request after they declined to provide them, citing privacy reasons.

Almost five months later, after The Star appealed the health unit’s decision to deny the records, the organization revealed a few pieces of information about the complaints during a mediation session co-ordinated by the Ontario information and privacy commissioner. Four were about handwashing and four were from restaurant customers who said they found something unsanitary in their food, in addition to the six complaints from people who believe they became sick after eating tainted food.

Dana Young, a lawyer representing the health unit, said she was reluctant to provide details about the complaints — such as what unsanitary objects people said they found in their food — because they might identify the restaurant or the person making the complaint. Young and a group of high-ranking WECHU staff members agreed to compile a chart with generic information about the complaints, which was completed and in the mail on Friday, according to the mediator.

Health unit CEO Gary Kirk said he was concerned about releasing inaccurate information to the public. Unless a person who gets sick from tainted food keeps both a sample of the food and a stool sample for testing, it’s impossible to know for sure whether that food caused the illness.

“If we were to name the establishment where these complaints were lodged, we might mistakenly impugn someone’s reputation, because the follow-up didn’t indicate where there was a problem,” he said. ”That’s at the heart of our concern.”

Yet that’s exactly the type of unsubstantiated complaint held up by the health unit in support of banning an entire traditional dish from restaurants. When asked why the WECHU believes that particular complaint warranted such drastic action, but considers similar complaints in Windsor too unreliable to release to the public, Tudor, the health inspection department manager, said kibbeh was on the health unit’s radar anyway.

 

Color doesn’t cut it when cooking burgers – French edition

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Our French food safety friend, Albert Amgar, sent along a statement from retailer Carrefour involving a recall of hamburger and patties contaminated with E. coli O 157: H7 and produced by Elivia Eloyes.

“In general, it should be noted that cooking (ie the disappearance of the pink color) hamburgers and chopped meat products helps prevent the consequences of such contamination … these recommendations for cooking are most appropriate when the meat is intended for young children and the elderly.”

What’s more appropriate is a tip-sensitive digital thermometer because 30 per cent or so of hamburger will turn brown before it is actually cooked to a safe temperature.

Color is a lousy indicator: stick it in.

At least they said sorry; 33 sick with Salmonella from Cargill beef in 7 states

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At least 33 people have been sickened with Salmonella Enteritidis linked to ground beef from a Cargill plant in Pennsylvania.

Although the onset of illness happened during the week of June 6, 2012, it took six weeks of sleuthing to link illnesses in five case-patients to the ground beef products produced at this establishment based on epidemiologic and traceback investigations, as well as in-store reviews.

Two of the five case-patients were hospitalized. Leftover product with no packaging information collected during the course of this investigation by the Vermont Department of Health tested positive for the outbreak strain of Salmonella Enteritidis. This outbreak strain of Salmonella Enteritidis is drug sensitive, meaning antibiotics can be effective in treating patients who need them

"Foodborne illnesses are unfortunate and we are sorry for anyone who became sick from eating ground beef we may have produced," stated John Keating, Cargill Beef president. "Ensuring our beef products are safe is our highest priority and an investigation is underway to determine the source of Salmonella in the animals we purchased for harvest and any actions necessary to prevent this from recurring."

Cargill Beef, a business unit of Wichita-based Cargill Meat Solutions Corporation, announced the Class I voluntary recall of approximately 29,339 pounds of 85-percent-lean, fresh, ground beef produced at the company’s Wyalusing, Penn., facility on May 25, 2012, due to possible contamination with Salmonella Enteritidis.

The products subject to recall, sold wholesale and for further processing:
• 14 pound chub packages of "Grnd Beef Fine 85/15", packed 3 chubs to approximate 42-pound cases.

The ground beef involved was repackaged for sale to consumers by Cargill’s customers. For a list of packages associated with this recall, consumers should refer to the USDA recall website at:www.fsis.usda.gov/FSIS_Recalls/index.asp.

Kibbeh kontroversy: is raw hamburger banned in Ontario or not? And how should the rules be enforced

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A month after an Ontario health unit decided to enforce a ban on kibbeh – a Lebanese dish made from raw hamburger – one restaurant says it will serve the dish processed instead of ground, sidestepping regulations.

Mazaar restaurant co-owner Imad Najjar told the Windsor Star, "I’m going to serve it until a food processor or a mincer is called a grinder."

Dr. Allen Heimann, Windsor-Essex County chief medical officer, responded, "If meat is sliced thinly while raw, like ceviche, which is Italian, it is not in violation of the regulations. But if it is raw ground meat, then that’s something entirely different."

The latest statements cap weeks of uncertainty, bungling and bad food safety advice.

It began in late June when Windsor-Essex County Health Unit inspectors began forcing Lebanese restaurants to pull product after a report of contaminated raw kibbeh in Ottawa late last year.

Provincial regulations require ground meat cooked to an internal temperature of at least 71 C for at least 15 seconds.

Medical officer Heimann then went on the record to state, “regardless of the popularity of a product, public safety must be my priority.

“Raw kibbeh and steak tartare are raw ground meat dishes that do not conform to section 33(7) paragraph 3 of Ontario Regulation 562, of The Food Premises Regulation.

“This section of the regulation states that all parts of ground meat (other than ground meat containing poultry) must be cooked to reach an internal temperature of at least 71 C for at least 15 seconds. Ground meat containing poultry must be cooked to at least 74 C for at least 15 seconds.

“On July 10, a teleconference was held to discuss the issue with the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care and several other health units, including Ottawa, Toronto and London.

“All of the participating health units confirmed they do not allow the serving of raw ground meat in restaurants. The teleconference group further agreed to continue to review this issue in accordance with the Food Premises Regulation.”

And then things got really confusing.

An Ottawa resident wrote, “The regulation Heimann keeps quoting, that ground meat should be cooked to 71 C, deals with store-bought ground meat that was never intended and should not be used for raw consumption. Kibbeh, tartare and carpaccio do not fall into this category, as any foodie (or 15 seconds on Google) could tell you.”

Raw is raw.

A local medical doctor wrote that he’s never seen a case of E. coli from kibbeh, and that, “if you really wanted to prevent this infection in our community, perhaps Big Brother should ban travel to Mexico.”

It didn’t take long for a raw milk proponent to jump in and argue freedom of choice should apply to all foods.

Maybe. But don’t serve it to kids. The Ontario government needs to come clean on what the rules are and how they should be enforced without leaving local inspectors as the arbiters for bureaucratic indecision.