Monthly Archives: October 2013

‘No excuse for negligent practices’ seven Ireland food businesses served closure orders in September

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The Food Safety Authority of Ireland (FSAI) has reported that seven closure orders were served on food businesses during the month of September for breaches of food safety legislation. The orders ireland.pubwere issued by environmental health officers in the Health Service Executive.

Three closure orders were served under the FSAI Act, 1998 on:
• Davak Superstores (grocery), 17 Bolton Street, Drogheda, Louth
• 10 Thousand Restaurant, 39 Middle Abbey Street, Dublin 1
• Tasty Grill (restaurant), 39 Richmond Street South, Dublin 2

Four closure orders were served under the EC (Official Control of Foodstuffs) Regulations, 2010 on:
• The Morning Star Food Hall (grocery) (Closed area: Store area only), Townparks, Commons Road, Navan, Co. Meath
• Utterly Nutty (bakery/confectionery), Bakery Mews, Kenmare, Kerry
• Tralee Central Hotel, Maine Street, Tralee, Kerry
• Planet Spice (restaurant), 51 Church Street, Tullamore, Offaly

Also during the month, successful prosecutions were brought against:
A1 Cafe Limited, Cafe India, Patrick’s Court, Patrick Street, Tullamore, Offaly
Mr John Muldowney, The Old Bank House Restaurant, 17 Main Street, Portlaoise, Laois

Commenting on these latest closure orders, Prof. Alan Reilly, Chief Executive, FSAI, stated that vigilance is always required in relation to food safety and that standards must not be permitted to slip to such levels that consumer health is put at risk.

“While most food businesses are committed to high standards for the health of their customers, this is not always the case.  We’re urging food businesses to make sure that they have a food safety management system in place and that it is consulted on a regular basis and updated, where necessary, to ensure non-compliance issues and breaches of food safety legislation don’t occur.  There is absolutely no excuse for negligent practices.”

Schools in Scotland fail food hygiene standards

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Thousands of children have been served meals from school kitchens that have failed to meet food hygiene standards.            

Five schools have been told to improve or face further action from the Food Standards Agency in Scotland.        

They are among 30 establishments in the Kilmarnock and Irvine Valley area which have just been named and shamed online for Please-sir-may-I-have-some-moretheir poor hygiene standards.            

The five schools are:            

* Kilmarnock Academy            

* Loudoun Academy            

* Stewarton Academy            

* Hillhead Primary School            

* Crosshouse Primary School            

Kitchens at Onthank Community Centre and Hurlford Community Centre have also failed.            

The council-run sites have been published on the Internet under a new scheme to allow members of the public to see if the places they are eating are safe.            

Other commercial facilities which haven’t met legal standards include take-aways, cafés, hotels and national chains.            

Log onto www.eac.eu/foodhygiene or www.food.gov.uk/ratings to see full details of every pass and fail in East Ayrshire.

NYC Salmonella cases rise in 2012 despite restaurant letter grades

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Restaurant inspection grades do not reduce rates of foodborne illness – not in any scientifically credible and measurable manner.

Publicly available grades, like the A, B, C of LA and New York City, or the red, yellow, green of Toronto do increase public restaurant.inspection.la.porn.mar.13awareness and discussion of food safety, enhancing the overall food safety culture for staff and patrons.

I understand the desire to say, hey, this program made fewer people sick, but we’re not there yet, so why overstate when it will only lead to disappointment (also valid in budget estimates and personal relationships, and pretty much everything).

The International Business Times reports New York restaurant-goers are eating up the city’s three-year-old grading system, but its effect on public health is still a bit of a mystery taste test.

Salmonella infections in New York City rose more than 4 percent in 2012 to 1,168 cases, up from 1,121 cases the year before, according to the city’s Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. The uptick follows a much-publicized 14 percent decline in salmonella infections in 2011, the first full year that the letter grades were implemented. City officials had touted the initial decline as an early sign that the letter-grade posting may be contributing to a reduction in foodborne illnesses.

According to city health officials, the annual number of salmonella infections is a useful indicator of trends in food-related illnesses: Salmonella cases occur relatively frequently and about 95 percent of them are believed to be caused by eating contaminated food.

New York’s letter-grading system — in which restaurants are required to display a large A, B or C grade in the window of their establishment — was instituted in July 2010. Since that time, the qr.code.rest.inspection.gradeHealth Department has published a progress report every six months, updating New Yorkers on the system’s effectiveness. But those reports stopped coming after 18 months: the last one was published in January 2012.

Asked why the reports stopped, the Health Department told International Business Times that city officials “continue to evaluate the letter-grading initiative and are looking at the impact of the improved inspectional program on restaurants and on hospitalizations and emergency visits for foodborne illnesses.”

While popular with the public, the grading system has been described as unnecessarily burdensome and even humiliating by restaurant owners and food handlers who complain of steep fines, arbitrary inspections and bloated hearings procedures.

Patti Jackson, a veteran New York chef, said, “The grades are punitive and silly, but I don’t think they’re the worst thing that’s ever happened. They’re just a giant throbbing pain in the ass.”

Maybe. Or maybe the grades hold people a little more accountable. How best to improve the system?

Norwegian admission: smoked salmon may harbor listeria

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Norwegian researchers have found that nine types of Listeria monocytogenes identified in three salmon-processing companies in Norway are of a genetic variant which are also found in patients suffering from listeriosis.

In a press release issued on Tuesday, Norway’s National Institute of Nutrition and Seafood Research (NIFES) said that a study of smoked.salmon.bagelthree companies producing farmed salmon in different parts of Norway have identified 15 types of Listeria monocytogenes.
Of the 15 types, nine are of a genetic variant that scientists have also found in patients with listeriosis.

Emphasizing that no link has ever been established between any cases of listeriosis and the salmon products from Norway, the researchers cautioned that salmon can not be discarded as a possible source of the disease, which mainly affect human fetuses, neonates and persons with conditions weakening their immune systems.

This is the first time for the researchers in the institute to conduct a study comparing the samples with Listeria monocytogenes obtained from Norwegian salmon factories and the human cases of the disease, Bjoern Tore Lunestad, a senior scientist with NIFES, told Xinhua in a telephone interview from Bergen, a Norwegian city on the western coast.

“This background in not sufficient for us to claim that fish are the sources of the cases of listeriosis in our study. But on the other hand, we cannot ignore this possibility. Salmon are one of several potential sources of L. monocytogenes,” said Lunestad. Their findings is published in the October issue of the Epidemiology and Infection journal.

Air China passengers vomit, get diarrhea from expired food

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On Oct. 5, 2013, passengers on flight Air China CA1268 to Beijing experienced severe diarrhea and vomiting after eating expired biscuits, Beijing Evening News reports.

One family, surnamed Zhang, had reportedly noticed that the biscuits had been expired for four days and reported them to a crew OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAmember, who agreed to replace hers but not to alert the other passengers. About half an hour later, a bout of diarrhea and vomiting swept through the cabin, affecting at least 30 people, who formed massive queues in front of the lavatories. 

Second major outbreak this year; Foster Farms chicken sickens nearly 300 with Salmonella

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Foster Farms raw chicken products made at three California sites may have sickened nearly 300 people in 18 states, according to a public health alert issued Monday by U.S. Department of Agriculture officials.

JoNel Aleccia of NBC News and Lynne Terry of The Oregonian report that at least 278 illnesses caused by salmonella Heidelberg linked to the chicken brand have been reported, mostly in California, according to the USDA’s Food Foster-Farms-Chicken-BreastSafety and Inspection Service. The products were distributed mainly to outlets in California, Oregon and Washington state. 

The notice follows an outbreak earlier this year traced to Foster Farms raw chicken in which 134 people in 13 states became ill, but it appears to be a separate, new incident, said Barbara Reynolds, a spokeswoman for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That outbreak, which was declared over in July, sickened 40 people in Oregon and 57 in Washington state and sent 33 patients to the hospital.

Neither agency could provide many details about the latest outbreak because of limited staffing caused by a week-long government shutdown.

Illnesses were linked to the Foster Farm brand through epidemiologic, laboratory and trace-back methods, FSIS said. But health officials were unable to tie the illnesses to a specific product or a specific production period. They said that the products bear one of three establishment numbers inside a USDA mark of inspection or elsewhere on the package. The numbers are: P6137, P6137A and P7632.

The USDA allows producers to sell raw poultry with a nearly 10 percent incidence rate of salmonella. Foster Farms says it’s always met that standard. It is not issuing a recall.

Foster Farms officials said in a statement that the company has been collaborating with FSIS and CDC to eradicate salmonella Heidelberg at its sites and has retained national experts to “assess current practices and identify opportunities for further improvement.”

Church dinner volunteer diagnosed with hepatitis A; vaccination clinic organized for attendees

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Community dinners, the fellowship-fostering events often organized by churches are a nostalgic link to the past when a congregation would financially support members’ activities through chili, pancakes or barbecue. They also, according to CDC’s Rob Tauxe, have created some of the easily traced foodborne illness outbreaks. Like this one in Alabama and this one in North Carolina.

The traditional foodborne outbreak scenario often follows a church supper, family picnic, wedding reception, or other social event. This scenario involves an acute and highly local outbreak, with a high inoculum dose and a high attack rate. The outbreak is typically immediately apparent to those in the local group, who promptly involve medical and public health authorities. The investigation identifies a food-handling error in a small kitchen that occurs shortly before consumption. The solution is also local.plenty_of_cheer_at_church_dinner_2082983728

Community dinners can be great fundraisers but are often held at temporary sites and staffed by volunteers unfamiliar with safe food handling practices for large meals.

And sometimes those volunteers are diagnosed with hepatitis A.

According to Paul Merrill at WMTW,  Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention is holding a hepatitis A vaccination clinic for an estimated 100 attendees of a church supper in Durham, Maine.

The Maine CDC said it was investigating a case of hepatitis A and found a person infected with the virus had prepared and served food at the Durham Friends Meetinghouse on Saturday, Sept. 28.

Health officials said that person was also part of a women’s group luncheon affiliated with the meeting house.

The Maine CDC said infected person was also associated with a preschool in Cumberland County, but the exposure happened outside the window where vaccination would be effective (now parents of the kids and other preschool folks wait and see if anyone exposed develops symptoms -ben).

6 confirmed sick with Salmonella linked to bean fundraiser in Alabama, dozens ill

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At least six cases of Salmonella have been confirmed in Limestone County, Alabama, and officials believe those who fell ill may have contracted it at an annual bean dinner fundraiser held Friday in Athens.

Kelli Powers, chief executive officer of Athens-Limestone Hospital said, athens.alabama.salm.bean.oct.13“We have seen dozens of people Saturday, Sunday and today with mainly diarrhea but also vomiting and nausea,” Powers said. “There are about 24 people in our waiting room right now who have been waiting about an hour with symptoms.” 

See me smell me taste me; faith-based food safety in Malaysia

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In the wake of four Salmonella deaths and multiple illnesses at a wedding, 36 sick kids at one school from canteen food and 25 at another, a prominent physician told Malaysia’s New Straits Times consumers could protect themselves against food poisoning by sight, smell and taste.

Malaysian Public Health Physicians’ Association (PPPKAM) vice-president Dr Othman Warijo said the three steps were part of a imagescampaign by the Health Ministry and were crucial to avoid food poisoning.

“Despite appearing simple, the steps are worth doing to avoid food poisoning, which can result in death,” he said on Friday.

He said victims of food poisoning often blamed food handlers when they themselves ignored safety procedures before eating.

“Look at the physical appearance of the food to find out if the gravy has become sticky. Sniff the food to determine if it is rotten. Taste the food. If one is confident that the food is edible, then one can proceed. Otherwise, leave it.”

He added food handlers must ensure adequate storage and cooking facilities to ensure that raw materials were not contaminated and have basic knowledge in food preparation, be properly attired with their head and mouth covered, use aprons and gloves, and undergo compulsory typhoid injections.

In the Salmonella deaths, Kedah Health Department director Dr Ismail Abu Taat confirmed that the chicken used for the ‘ayam masak merah’ dish was delivered to the host in Kampung Huma a day before the wedding reception was held. “The chicken stock was sent to the house on Friday evening but the meat was only cooked at 4pm the next day, which allowed to bacteria to breed,” he said.

Raw is risky: unpasteurized apple cider glorified

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From the we’ve-always-done-it-this-way-and-no-one-has-gotten-sick files, 78-year-old Doris Van Duyne Heddy Cooke of Montville, NJ, the co-owner of an apple farm and cider press that has powell.kids.ge.sweet.corn.cider.00operated since 1896, told the Times, “Some people come here specifically because it’s not pasteurized. … We have our regulars who come every year, very nice people who keep coming back. They love that our cider is made like it always was.”

A table of fresh juice related outbreaks is available at http://bites.ksu.edu/fresh-juice-outbreaks.