Monthly Archives: April 2012

Sabotage: Woman gets 3 years for tampering food at Calgary supermarket with pins, needles

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A Calgary woman was sentenced to three years in prison for repeatedly sabotaging food at a Calgary Co-op supermarket by repeatedly placing needles, pins and other sharp objects into food products two years ago.

Judge Gerald Meagher told Tatyana Granada, 45 (right), during sentencing, "This was mean and malicious behavior. It goes beyond the victim. It could have caused danger to members of the public."

Granada, 45, was convicted on Feb. 17 of four counts of mischief and four counts of trespassing in connection with the incidents at Oakridge Co-op in southwest Calgary on Jan. 13, Jan. 18, Feb. 17 and March 10, 2010.

The judge said the woman’s actions were vindictive for having been charged with shoplifting at the store on Dec. 18, 2009 — just under a month before the spree of food-tampering incidents began.

Granada, who defended herself for the sentencing hearing, responded, "You got it wrong. I have children you must think about it. Shameful."

Calgary Co-op manager Al Madsen testified in Dec. 2011 that from the first discovery of food products with pins and nails in them, on Jan. 18, 2010, until Granada was arrested on March 16, 2010, about a dozen surveillance cameras were installed to go along with the two or three cameras in place in January.

He said some cameras were installed with the knowledge of staff after the January incidents and several more strategically located cameras were "installed surreptitiously after staff left," following further tampering incidents on Feb. 17.

Madsen said the cost of the new cameras was between $35,000 and $40,000.

He told Crown prosecutor Martha O’Connor at Granada’s trial that the store was closed at least twice to conduct entire grid searches for tampered products.

Madsen said the pattern of tampering was consistent through January, where pins and nails were placed in fresh foods in the cheese, deli, bakery and produce sections.

Madsen said undercover security officers were hired to be on the lookout at all times for possible tampering by customers or staff.

Following yet another rash of discoveries of food items with pins in them on March 11, 2010, the manager said it was decided not to close the store again, but to have cashiers inform all customers at checkouts to be vigilant about checking any food products for tampering.

That day, the bulk food bins were dumped out and because the store could not ensure safety of customers, $9,000 worth of food was thrown out.

It was around that time that assistant manager Chris Goode identified Granada as having been barred from the Co-op stores in December 2009 for shoplifting.

Madsen said he reviewed video surveillance of Granada’s entire shopping trip from March 10, 2010, and outlined her route and where she stopped.

UK pool star falls ill, blames chicken

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Is snooker sport?

The stars are still mortals and suffer from foodborne illness.

Judd Trump withstood a bout of suspected food poisoning to edge ahead of Dominic Dale as last year’s runner-up returned to the Crucible.

The Daily Mail reports the 22-year-old English potter was unusually subdued in the early stages of his Betfred.com World Championship opener, and when he trailed 3-1 at the mid-session interval it seemed he was in trouble.

Trump finished the session in style with a rapid 68 break, doubling in the black in thrilling style.

There was a raucous reception for Bristol-raised Trump as he emerged for the match. Trump has won the UK Championship and soared to No 2 in the world rankings. He also drives a Ferrari, an indication of how his life has been transformed.

Trump began his third World Championship campaign as the sponsors’ favorite to land the title, but the news that he had woken this morning feeling unwell raised questions over how he would perform against 40-year-old Dale, who was making his seventh Crucible appearance.

Trump’s management believe he became sick after eating chicken, and he continued to feel ill after the session was over.

Trump wrote on Twitter: ‘Not a good day led in bed, tryna get better for tomorrow. 1st time iv had food poisoning and hopefully the last.’

3 hospitalized after E. coli outbreak at Tennessee daycare

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WBIR reports three children are in hospital following an E. coli O157 outbreak at a Cocke County daycare facility.

According to the Tennessee Department of Health, three juveniles, all of whom attend the same daycare facility in Newport, were diagnosed with E. coli O157 symptoms.

The source of the bacteria is currently unknown, but managers of the facility are working with investigators, and the families of all children who attend the daycare have been contacted.

State health department officials have not closed the facility, but are continuing to investigate the situation.

Learning from strawberries, spinach and melons: promote safe food practice before the next outbreak

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In 1996, California strawberry growers were wrongly fingered as the source of a cyclospora outbreak that sickened over 1,000 people across North America; the culprit was Guatemalan raspberries.

After losing $15-20 million in reduced strawberry sales, the California strawberry growers decided the best way to minimize the effects of an outbreak – real or alleged – was to make sure all their growers knew some food safety basics and there was some verification mechanism. The next time someone said, “I got sick and it was your strawberries,” the growers could at least say, “We don’t think it was us, and here’s everything we do to produce the safest product we can.”

In Sept. 2006, an outbreak of E. coli O157:H7 killed four and sickened at least 200 across the U.S. This was documented outbreak 29 linked to leafy greens, but apparently the tipping point for growers to finally get religion about commodity-wide food safety, following the way of their farmer friends in California, 10 years later.

In 2011, Jensen Farms, an eastern Colorado cantaloupe grower produced melons that killed 32 and sickened at least 146 with listeria in 28 states. One grower trashed the reputation of the revered Rocky Ford Melon: plantings this year are expected to be down 75 per cent.

Now the Rocky Ford Growers Association has turned to government-delivered food safety audits rather than third-party audits, and committed to emboss a QR code on every melon it slates for retail sale. This QR code will tell consumers where the melon was grown, harvested, and prepared.

Location doesn’t mean safety. Include the production details.

In Aug. 2011, Oregon health officials confirmed that deer droppings caused an E. coli O157:H7 outbreak traced to strawberries, many sold at roadsides, that sickened 14 people and killed one.

So when NPR asks, Are local salad greens safer than packaged salad greens, it’s the wrong question.

It’s not whether large is safer than local, conventional safer than organic: it’s about the poop, and what any grower is doing to manage the poop. Or risks.

Any farm, processor, retailer or restaurant can be held accountable for food production – and increasingly so with smartphones, facebook and new toys down the road. Whether it’s a real or imaginary outbreak of foodborne illness, consumers will rightly react based on the information available.

Rather than adopt a defensive tone, any food provider should proudly proclaim – brag – about everything they do to enhance food safety. Explanations after the discovery of some mystery ingredient, some nasty sanitation, sorta suck.

Microbial food safety should be marketed at retail so consumers actually have a choice and hold producers and processors – conventional, organic or otherwise – to a standard of honesty. Be honest with consumers and disclose what’s in any food; if restaurant inspection results can be displayed on a placard via a QR code read by smartphones when someone goes out for a meal, why not at the grocery store? Or the school lunch? For any food, link to web sites detailing how the food was produced, processed and safely handled. Manage the poop, manage the risk, brag about the brand.

2011: 9 E. coli outbreaks in Irish daycare settings; Authority urges vigilance

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The Food Safety Authority of Ireland has urged childcare workers and crèche owners to ensure they have robust hygiene practices in place to reduce the incidence of E coli.

The authority has said it is concerned at the high levels of E coli infection here, with 285 cases of human infection provisionally recorded last year.

There were nine outbreaks in children attending crèches, or who were cared for in the home by childminders.

This involved some 75 children and adults becoming ill, with seven being hospitalised last year.

The FSAI says young children and infants are particularly at risk from E coli infection, and children and workers in childcare settings can unwittingly spread infection.

Washing hands is the single most important way to stop the spread of these E coli. Young children should be helped to wash and dry their hands. Babies need to have their hands washed as often as older children.

As well as handwashing, infection can be prevented by using a safe water supply and preparing food hygenically.

Staff are asked to stay away from childcare facilities for 48 hours if they have had diarrhoea or vomiting, and they should contact the Department of Public Health for advice to prevent more cases.

The FSAI has just published a leaflet – How to Protect the Children in Your Care – which is freely available on www.fsai.ie.

Paying attention to risks at food festivals

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I like rock and roll. I like ribs. Rock ‘n Ribs in Campbell Springfield, MO seems like a pretty great place to get your fingers sticky and listen to cover bands play songs from Sticky Fingers. Spring signifies the start of festival season, when tourism dollars pump into towns; the local kids will drink underage; and, hopefully no one gets sick from foodborne illness.

Festivals and temporary events have had their share of outbreaks in the past (Taste of Chicago in 2007, Folklorama in 2010 and numerous fundraisers and community dinners). Often there are folks at booths who are not full-time food handlers, dealing with lineups, makeshift heat sources and poor access to handwashing facilities.

These events need to have someone who is paying attention, inviting the health inspectors in to point out potential issues and have lots of portable restrooms/handwashing stations available for vendors and patrons.

As I told the venerable Portable Restroom Operator, the type of festival I want to go to as a patron is a place that doesn’t need to be regulated. They welcome inspectors as a second set of eyes but they should already have the mindset of ‘making 700 people sick would be bad for our festival’.

Rock ‘n Ribs sounds like they are paying attention.

In Ozarks First, Mike Brother of the Springfield-Greene County Health Department was cited as saying,  "We’re asking them to police themselves to work with the people doing the sampling to keep proper hygiene wash their hands and wear gloves."

"These kind of events these sampling events we can’t bring an inspector out to inspect all 50 or 60 or 100 of the booths out here giving samples," said Brothers.

Jim McLeod of Southwest Rotary says they’ve been in the competition for 12 years and always make sure they’re handing out safe food.
"Every time we get into the food we’ll wear gloves when we touch it we got the restaurant inspector out here just like anywhere else and we’re doing the same thing as restaurants," said McLeod.

Long live rock and roll. And ribs.
 

90 police in Peru sickened with food poisoning

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BBC reports more than 90 police officers at a jungle base in Peru have been taken to hospital with food poisoning.

The officers developed fever, nausea and stomachaches after eating chicken soup at Mazuco police base in Tambopata province, officials say.

Police said they would investigate the suppliers of the meals.

The police officer said 150 police had been taken to the medical post on the base, but many had to be moved to hospitals because the base did not have enough medication.

One of the officers who fell ill told local media he and his colleagues had been "poisoned with bad food, dirty meat, and eggs and fish that were off."

The area has been the scene of violent clashes between the security forces and miners protesting against tougher penalties for illegal operations.

 

Fight bad food safety advice

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Dr. Oz says people can eat steak tartare but tells Margaret not to eat raw meat straight out of the package, Joy on the Foodtard Network is more concerned about creating grill marks on steaks than safety, especially cross-contamination, and Heston is a hero to most but norovirus-boy still don’t mean much to me.

Fact fudging: what are risks associated with raw milk cheese?

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The American Cheese Society has a, uh, cheese problem.

While regulators and retailers reassess the safety of raw milk cheese, ACS declared last week raw milk cheese ”when produced and sold under current FDA guidelines, can be consumed without unnecessary risk.”

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration began a comprehensive review of the 60-day aging rule in 2009. Officials said the review was done and was awaiting approval before release.

That was over a year ago.

The debate focuses on a federal rule that requires cheese made from raw milk to be aged for 60 days before it is deemed safe to eat. Aging allows the chemicals in cheese, acids and salt, time to destroy harmful bacteria. ?Scientists have found, however, that 60 days of aging is an overly simplistic guideline, in part because there are so many types of cheese and different ones may require different safeguards.

In one 2010 outbreak, 38 people in five states became sick from raw milk gouda made by Bravo Farms of Traver, Calif., and sold through Costco. In another outbreak, eight people in four states were sickened by bacteria traced to soft cheeses made by Sally Jackson, a pioneering cheesemaker in Oroville, Wash.

In Ms. Jackson’s case, investigators documented unsanitary conditions that could have played a role in making the cheese unsafe. And in the Bravo case, investigators charged the company with packaging cheese for sale before the required 60-day aging was complete.

The American Cheese Society (ACS) endorses current FDA raw milk cheese guidelines for manufacturers, including:

• producing cheese in licensed facilities that are routinely inspected on the local, regional, and federal level;
• producing cheese under the oversight of licensed dairy handlers; and,
• aging cheese for a minimum of 60 days before it is sold.

The majority (approximately two-thirds) of ACS members voluntarily exceed these standards by establishing and adhering to a Hazard Analysis & Critical Control Points (HACCP) plan, and following these additional ACS-recommended best practices:

• taking part in ongoing food safety education;
• regularly conducting product and environment testing;
• maintaining accurate and up-to-date records;
• seeking third party certification;
• building relationships with local, regional, and federal inspectors; and,
• adhering to all state and federal regulations and industry standards.

Shouldn’t any producer of potential risky food comply with food safety basics?