“In this enlightened age of hygiene and actually knowing how people get sick, raw meat has picked up a regrettable reputation. The elegance of a nice steak tartare, mixed up tableside, has been mostly forgotten, and some people even (horror of horrors) ask for perfectly nice pieces of beef to be ruined into well-doneness. But in other parts of the globe (and even some parts of America), the raw meat dish tradition is going strong.”
From Abu Dhabi to Akron, Ohio, people are worried about the safety of leafy greens – spinach, lettuce, rocket, whatever.
Gulf News reports that locally grown fresh salad vegetables in the UAE are, according to academics, contaminated by dangerous bacteria because of unhygienic farm practices and improper food handling from the farm to the table.
They also warned nearly 43 per cent of water wells in the country are contaminated with bacteria that exceed the standard level of safe consumption, even for irrigation of crops.
“If there is a serious epidemic or outbreak of life-threatening gastrointestinal disease we will know the source, namely, the contaminated salad greens we are eating nearly every day,” said Dr Dennis J. Russell, professor of biology, department of biology, chemistry and environmental science at the American University of Sharjah.
Research over the past five years showed the presence of persistent coliform and E. coli contamination sequestered within the leaves of the locally grown popular fresh salad vegetable knows locally as jarjeer (ccientific name rocket/rocca) and other salad greens, Dr Russells told Gulf News.
‘All of the samples of jarjeer were found contaminated with E. coli and 100 per cent of the latest samples were also contaminated with large amounts of Salmonella. Tests of other locally grown greens show they too are contaminated with these bacteria, although to a lesser extent,” Dr Russell said.
Michael Doyle, director of the Center for Food Safety at the University of Georgia told the Daily Herald that a recent study released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention fingered produce as the leading cause of food poisoning in the U.S.
Doyle said the more cracks and grooves on the skin of a fruit or vegetable, the more easily bacteria can hide. Melons also have a neutral pH, so they offer a perfect growing environment for bacteria.
The problem of contaminated melons is often made worse by grocery stores that sell cut pieces, but often don’t store them in a cold enough environment.
Doyle recalls walking into an upscale grocery store in South Carolina one summer, where a metal tank with ice in the bottom was filled with containers of cut melon. The bottom inch of the containers was inside the ice, leaving the majority of the melon in an environment warm enough for bacteria to multiply rapidly.
In the CDC’s new study, however, leafy greens like lettuce and spinach were revealed as the worst culprits for food poisoning in the study period, between 1998 and 2008.
Salad greens marked “washed and ready to eat” or “triple-washed” remain an area of debate among food safety experts.
Some experts contend that the triple-washing with chlorine that takes place during processing is enough to kill what bacteria can be killed, and advise against washing bagged greens because the risk of cross-contamination in the home kitchen is a greater concern.
Doyle says not to buy bagged greens at all. He advises buying whole heads of lettuce or greens, removing the outer surface layers where bacteria is most likely to be present, and then washing the greens under cold running water.
Doyle has conducted studies that show the cutting and bagging of lettuce in processing plants can actually trap bacteria inside the lettuce leaves, meaning that no amount of scrubbing or washing will ever get rid of the germs. If greens are cut before they are washed — as they commonly are during processing — the bacteria become internalized by the leaves, trapping the germs inside the produce.
As risky as bagged greens can be, Doyle said an even greater concern should be the consumption of raw sprouts like bean and alfalfa.
He believes the only reason they weren’t first on the list of illness-causing produce in the CDC study is that folks just don’t eat nearly as many of them as they do items like lettuce, tomatoes or melon.
He said sprouts, due to their high levels of contamination, should never be consumed raw.
With the holidays and warm weather, Australian Food Safety Information Council chairman Michael Eyles, warns that trying out new recipes this time of year can be great fun but food poisoning bugs can survive and even grow quickly in foods containing raw egg, like eggnog, home made mayonnaise and desserts such as tiramisu and chocolate mousse, if they aren’t handled properly.
“OzFoodNet has shown that consumption of foods containing raw or minimally cooked eggs is currently the single largest cause of foodborne Salmonella outbreaks. In their most recent nine year survey period they have linked 68 food poisoning outbreaks to eggs with 1404 Australians becoming ill, 322 hospitalised and 2 deaths.”
But it’s not just handling. Yes, refrigerating raw egg dishes will contain risk, but does not eliminate risk. To adapt to the Australian egg climate, every time I’m at an Australian restaurant and offered aioli or mayo, I have to ask if the sauce is raw. Servers and chefs look at me like I’m some new world barbarian who wants eggs somewhat cooked.
While Sorenne and I were up watching football at 3:30 a.m. local time (recovering from all the barfing yesterday), she was browsing through this week’s edition of Eurosurveillance and thought this abstract about backyard eggs and Salmonella would be of interest.
One of her teachers at school has chickens and ducks and provides me with eggs, and I provide her with cooked things.
But as I always explain to my 3-year-old sous chef, there are certain precautions to take with raw eggs, not just the undercooking but the cross-contamination, regardless of where they originate.
Abstract below:
Implementation of control measures in line with European Commission regulations has led to a decrease in salmonellosis in the European Union since 2004. However, control programmes do not address laying hens whose eggs are produced for personal consumption or local sale. This article reports an investigation of a salmonellosis outbreak linked to home-produced eggs following a family event held in a farm in September 2011 near Warsaw, Poland. In the outbreak, 34 people developed gastroenteritis symptoms. Results from a cohort study indicated a cake, prepared from raw home-produced eggs, as the vehicle of the outbreak.
Laboratory analysis identified Salmonella enterica serotype Enteritidis (S. Enteritidis) in stool samples or rectal swabs from 18 of 24 people and in two egg samples. As no food items remained, we used phage typing to link the source of the outbreak with the isolated strains. Seven S. Enteritidis strains analysed (five from attendees and two from eggs) were phage type 21c. Our findings resulted in culling of the infected laying hens and symptomatic pigeons housed next to the hens. Salmonella poses as a public health problem in Poland: control measures should not forget home-produced eggs, as there is a risk of infection from their consumption.
Following WalMart two years ago and numerous food service firms several years ago, The Kroger Co. – a supermarket chain that operates a huge number of stores, including the Dillons in Manhattan, Kansas — today announced its decision to no longer sell sprouts due to its potential food safety risk.
“After a thorough, science-based review, we have decided to voluntarily discontinue selling fresh sprouts,” said Payton Pruett, Kroger’s vice president of food safety. “Testing and sanitizing by the growers and safe food handling by the consumer are the critical steps to protect against foodborne illness. Sprouts present a unique challenge because pathogens may reside inside of the seeds where they cannot be reached by the currently available processing interventions. Out of an abundance of caution, the Kroger Family of Stores will no longer sell fresh sprouts or procure other foods that are produced on the same equipment as sprouts.”
Pruett added that the company is open to revisiting this policy when new technologies and practices show that farmers can consistently produce sprout seeds that do not internalize pathogens, and when sprout processing environments can be enhanced for safety and cleanliness.
Deliveries of sprouts into Kroger distribution centers and stores will be discontinued on October 22, 2012.
Kroger employs more than 339,000 associates who serve customers in 2,425 supermarkets and multi-department stores in 31 states under two dozen local banner names including Kroger, City Market, Dillons, Jay C, Food 4 Less, Fred Meyer, Fry’s, King Soopers, QFC, Ralphs and Smith’s.
• raw sprouts are a well-documented source of foodborne illness;
• risk communication about raw sprouts has been inconsistent; and,
• continued outbreaks question effectiveness of risk management strategies and producer compliance.
We document at least 55 sprout-associated outbreaks occurring worldwide affecting a total of 15,233 people since 1988. A comprehensive table of sprout-related outbreaks can be found at http://bites.ksu.edu/sprouts-associated-outbreaks.
Erdozain, M.S., Allen, K.J., Morley, K.A. and Powell, D.A. 2012. Failures in sprouts-related risk communication. Food Control. 10.1016/j.foodcont.2012.08.022
Nutritional and perceived health benefits have contributed to the increasing popularity of raw sprouted seed products. In the past two decades, sprouted seeds have been a recurring food safety concern, with at least 55 documented foodborne outbreaks affecting more than 15,000 people. A compilation of selected publications was used to yield an analysis of the evolving safety and risk communication related to raw sprouts, including microbiological safety, efforts to improve production practices, and effectiveness of communication prior to, during, and after sprout-related outbreaks. Scientific investigation and media coverage of sprout-related outbreaks has led to improved production guidelines and public health enforcement actions, yet continued outbreaks call into question the effectiveness of risk management strategies and producer compliance. Raw sprouts remain a high-risk product and avoidance or thorough cooking are the only ways that consumers can reduce risk; even thorough cooking messages fail to acknowledge the risk of cross-contamination. Risk communication messages have been inconsistent over time with Canadian and U.S. governments finally aligning their messages in the past five years, telling consumers to avoid sprouts. Yet consumer and industry awareness of risk remains low. To minimize health risks linked to the consumption of sprout products, local and national public health agencies, restaurants, retailers and producers need validated, consistent and repeated risk messaging through a variety of sources.
Owner Nadine Scharf said three days earlier, “The FDA encouraged us to do a recall but I said I needed to see hard evidence that our sprouts were involved … We’ve never had any problem before. We do the same thing that we’ve done for 24 years.”
Yet as of June 27, 2011, 21 individuals, including three hospitalizations, infected with outbreak strain of Salmonella Enteritidis had been linked to the sprouts.
So Evergreen relented and issued a voluntary recall.
Last week, owner Nadine Scharf told the Spokesman Review she’s regretted that decision ever since.
“It went on the Internet that we had bacteria in our plant,” Scharf said. “They said: ‘Don’t eat their sprouts. If you have them in your fridge, get rid of them. Don’t even give them to your animals.’ ”
More than a month later, the test results showed no bacteria was found at Evergreen Produce, in Moyie Springs.
The FDA, however, didn’t relent on its conclusion that the business was the origin of the outbreak.
It’s a case that underscores a difficult regulatory balance: Move quickly on the best information available to extinguish a dangerous public health threat, or conduct a more meticulous investigation to protect a business from potential harm?
A year later, Scharf and her family are still trying piece back together the business they grew from the ground up.
The sprout-growing business started in the Scharf family almost 25 years ago as something for Fred and Nadine Scharf to do with their two home-schooled sons.
They kept vats in their house and sold the sprouts in small amounts to neighbors and local grocery stores.
One of the business’s biggest clients was Fairchild Air Force Base, which routinely sent military inspectors to the warehouse before the food could come on base.
That’s why the Scharfs were so surprised when, a month after their last military inspection, the FDA came knocking.
The FDA did not respond to numerous requests for an interview for this story.
Previously, however, an FDA representative said negative test results did not necessarily rule out Evergreen sprouts as the cause of the outbreak. Pathogens may have been contaminating only one portion of the food, the representative said.
What’s more, once the FDA ordered the voluntary recall, no more salmonella cases were reported.
Months later, Scharf began healing the reputation of her business. She convinced her clients the business was clean. She personally contacted each buyer. She hid nothing, sending them the test results.
Last winter – after almost four months of no business – orders starting coming in again.
Scharf’s sons, who have families and careers of their own now, came back to help restart the business. David and his wife, Jolene, now run Evergreen Produce full time. Nadine and Fred retired two months ago.
Their grandkids are on the list of 12 people now employed. Business is about 75 percent of what it was before the recall.
The family said they have contacted the FDA to ask if they will ever be officially vindicated.
“I said, ‘You have ruined our business. … Are you going to help us get back online now?’ ” Nadine Scharf said. “They said: ‘We have never done that and we never will.’ ”
VietNamNews reported that up to 40 per cent of tested bean sprout samples sold in Ha Noi’s markets are infected with harmful bacteria, including E. coli, prompting national food safety officials to call for tightened controls on raw vegetables.
Head of the Plant Protection Department Nguyen Xuan Hong warned consumers to eat well-cooked sprouts instead of raw ones.
Meanwhile Jelle Kuijper, interim manager of the recently formed European Sprouted Seeds Association, said new EU rules, which may take effect in 2013, will only work if everyone, from top to bottom, participates.
I’ll stick with our view.
Erdozain, M.S., Allen, K.J., Morley, K.A. and Powell, D.A. 2012. Failures in sprouts-related risk communication. Food Control. 10.1016/j.foodcont.2012.08.022
Nutritional and perceived health benefits have contributed to the increasing popularity of raw sprouted seed products. In the past two decades, sprouted seeds have been a recurring food safety concern, with at least 55 documented foodborne outbreaks affecting more than 15,000 people. A compilation of selected publications was used to yield an analysis of the evolving safety and risk communication related to raw sprouts, including microbiological safety, efforts to improve production practices, and effectiveness of communication prior to, during, and after sprout-related outbreaks. Scientific investigation and media coverage of sprout-related outbreaks has led to improved production guidelines and public health enforcement actions, yet continued outbreaks call into question the effectiveness of risk management strategies and producer compliance. Raw sprouts remain a high-risk product and avoidance or thorough cooking are the only ways that consumers can reduce risk; even thorough cooking messages fail to acknowledge the risk of cross-contamination. Risk communication messages have been inconsistent over time with Canadian and U.S. governments finally aligning their messages in the past five years, telling consumers to avoid sprouts. Yet consumer and industry awareness of risk remains low. To minimize health risks linked to the consumption of sprout products, local and national public health agencies, restaurants, retailers and producers need validated, consistent and repeated risk messaging through a variety of sources.
Color is still a lousy indicator to determine whether food has been safely cooked. But sometimes it’s obvious, usually by biting into semi-still-frozen burgers; Amy got to experience that once in Manhattan; I did in New Zealand years ago; and now some dude in Ontario (the one in Canada) whose friend posted this pic to Reddit over the weekend.
“Fried Chicken #FAIL. My friend ordered a chicken burger from KFC & it came back raw. Yes he ate that bite that’s missing.”
In the comments, the user explains that that sandwich in question was purchased in Ontario, Canada, where the information on the packing is written in both French and English. PFK stands for “Poulet frit a la Kentucky.”
Raw sprouts are the poster child for failures in what academics call, risk communication.
I’ve been thinking about this for a long time.
About 1999, graduate student Sylvanus Thompson started working with me on risk analysis associated with sprouts. He got his degree and went on to rock-star status in the food safety world with the implementation of the red-yellow-green restaurant inspection disclosure program with Toronto Public Health, but we never published anything.
I remember frantically flying to Kansas City to hang out with this girl in Manhattan (Kansas) I’d met a couple of weeks before, in the midst of the 2005 Ontario raw sprout outbreak that sickened over 700; Jen Tryon, now with Global News, interviewed me at the airport, with me wearing a K-State hockey shirt (that’s the joke; there is no hockey at K-State, and I was still employed by Guelph; and I was going to hang out with this girl).
After the German E. coli O104 outbreak that killed 53 people last year and sickened over 4,000, along with the ridiculous public statements and blatant disregard for public safety taken by sandwich artist Jimmy John’s in the U.S., I figured we really needed to publish something.
The basic conclusions:
• raw sprouts are a well-documented source of foodborne illness;
• risk communication about raw sprouts has been inconsistent; and,
• continued outbreaks question effectiveness of risk management strategies and producer compliance.
We document at least 55 sprout-associated outbreaks occurring worldwide affecting a total of 15,233 people since 1988. A comprehensive table of sprout-related outbreaks can be found at http://bites.ksu.edu/sprouts-associated-outbreaks.
Sprouts present a unique food safety challenge compared to other fresh produce, as the sprouting process provides optimal conditions for the growth and proliferation of pathogenic bacteria. The sprout industry, regulatory agencies, and the academic community have been collaborating to improve the microbiological safety of raw sprouts, including the implementation of Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP), establishing guidelines for safe sprout production, and chemical disinfection of seed prior to sprouting. However, guidelines and best practices are only as good as their implementation. The consumption of raw sprouts is considered high-risk, especially for young, elderly and immuno-compromised persons (FDA, 2009).
Sol Erdozain, now a graduate student in psychology at Kansas State University, took the lead on this one. Kevin Allen, now a prof-type and hockey goon at the University of British Columbia (that’s blue-eyes, right) who used to take great pleasure firing pucks off my head – even though he is also a goalie – weighed in with his microbiology expertise, Katija Morley (nee Blaine) made our arguments more coherent, and I pestered everyone. Because I should have published something like this 12 years ago.
Writing is hard.
From November 2010 into 2011, an outbreak linked to raw sprouts in the U.S. and involving sandwich franchise Jimmy John’s sickened 140 people. This was the third sprout related outbreak involving this franchise, yet the owner of the Montana Jimmy John’s outlet, Dan Stevens, expressed confidence in his sprouts claiming that because the sprouts were locally grown they would not be contaminated. By the end of December 2010 a sprout supplier, Tiny Greens Farm, was implicated in the outbreak. Jimmy John’s owner, John Liautaud, responded by stating the sandwich chain would replace alfalfa sprouts with clover sprouts since they were allegedly easier to clean. However, a week earlier a separate outbreak had been identified in Washington and Oregon in which eight people were infected with Salmonella after eating sandwiches containing clover sprouts from a Jimmy John’s restaurant. This retailer was apparently not aware of the risks associated with sprouts, or even outbreaks associated with his franchisees.
In late December 2011, less than one year after making the switch to clover sprouts, Jimmy John’s was linked to another sprout related outbreak, this time it was E.coli O26 in clover sprouts. In February 2012, sandwich franchise Jimmy John’s announced they were permanently removing raw clover sprouts from their menus. As of April 2012, the outbreak had affected 29 people across 11 states. Founder and chief executive, John Liautaud, attempted to appease upset customers through Facebook stating, “a lot of folks dig my sprouts, but I will only serve the best of the best. Sprouts were inconsistent and inconsistency does not equal the best.” He also informed them the franchise was testing snow pea shoots in a Campaign, Illinois store, although there is no mention regarding the “consistency” or safety of this choice.
Despite the frequent need for sprout-based risk communication, messaging with industry and public stakeholders has been limited in effectiveness. In spite of widespread media coverage of sprout-related outbreaks, improved production guidelines, and public health enforcement actions, awareness of risk remains low. Producers, food service and government agencies need to provide consistent, evidence-based messages and, more importantly, actions. Information regarding sprout-related risks and food safety concerns should be available and accurately presented to producers, retailers and consumers in a manner that relies on scientific data and clear communications.
Erdozain, M.S., Allen, K.J., Morley, K.A. and Powell, D.A. 2012. Failures in sprouts-related risk communication. Food Control. 10.1016/j.foodcont.2012.08.022
Nutritional and perceived health benefits have contributed to the increasing popularity of raw sprouted seed products. In the past two decades, sprouted seeds have been a recurring food safety concern, with at least 55 documented foodborne outbreaks affecting more than 15,000 people. A compilation of selected publications was used to yield an analysis of the evolving safety and risk communication related to raw sprouts, including microbiological safety, efforts to improve production practices, and effectiveness of communication prior to, during, and after sprout-related outbreaks. Scientific investigation and media coverage of sprout-related outbreaks has led to improved production guidelines and public health enforcement actions, yet continued outbreaks call into question the effectiveness of risk management strategies and producer compliance. Raw sprouts remain a high-risk product and avoidance or thorough cooking are the only ways that consumers can reduce risk; even thorough cooking messages fail to acknowledge the risk of cross-contamination. Risk communication messages have been inconsistent over time with Canadian and U.S. governments finally aligning their messages in the past five years, telling consumers to avoid sprouts. Yet consumer and industry awareness of risk remains low. To minimize health risks linked to the consumption of sprout products, local and national public health agencies, restaurants, retailers and producers need validated, consistent and repeated risk messaging through a variety of sources.
“The AVMA discourages the feeding to cats and dogs of any animal-source protein that has not first been subjected to a process to eliminate pathogens because of the risk of illness to cats and dogs as well as humans. Cooking or pasteurization through the application of heat until the protein reaches an internal temperature adequate to destroy pathogenic organisms has been the traditional method used to eliminate pathogens in animal-source protein, although the AVMA recognizes that newer technologies and other methods such as irradiation are constantly being developed and implemented.”
I like this statement for many reasons. It is not forcing anybody to stop feeding raw diets, it discourages people from doing so. The reason? It’s a “risk for pets and humans.” As a veterinarian-to-be, I’m well aware that we are the first line of defense when it comes to zoonotic disease transmission. Forget all the stories about how your dog does much better on raw than dry, or how fido went from being blind and bald to seeing and hairy when you switched to raw (ok, made that one up, but just go to the AVMA’s web site and you’ll see the types of responses we’ll have to deal with.
My major concern is to keep my family, dog, patients and patients’ owners healthy.
Just as with human food, raw is rarely a good idea. You can get your pets yourself, and your family sick (via direct feeding or cross-contamination). So, even if you are totally against the evil man, and don’t want to feed your dog specially formulated dry food, you may want to cook it. The same food safety guidelines apply for humans and pets.
steak tartare, mixed up tableside, has been mostly forgotten, and some people even (horror of horrors) ask for perfectly nice pieces of beef to be ruined into well-doneness. But in other parts of the globe (and even some parts of America), the raw meat dish tradition is going strong.”
protein reaches an internal temperature adequate to destroy pathogenic organisms has been the traditional method used to eliminate pathogens in animal-source protein, although the AVMA recognizes that newer technologies and other methods such as irradiation are constantly being developed and implemented.”