Monthly Archives: April 2014

Who hacks about botulism? Hackers blamed for UK pre-school botulism scare

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A Hampshire nursery school says hackers were behind reports a potentially fatal infection had caused it to close today.

The County Council had put out a statement saying Kings Worthy Pre-School on Church Lane, Kings Worthy, near Winchester, was closed today after a severe case of botulism was found.

botulism microThe illness attacks the nervous system and can cause paralysis and even death.

But the school says it is open as normal and no illness has been reported. It says it’s IT system was hacked last night (Tuesday 29 April).

Hampshire County Council is investigating.

Was it food poisoning? 100 sickened at Food Safety Summit

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I’m always amazed at the terrible food safety and ingredients served at food safety meetings, especially at department meetings.

amy.sprouts.guelph.05People who pontificate about what others should eat have no problem consuming sandwiches with sprouts and other crap.

More than 100 people have now reported they got sick with suspected food poisoning at a national Food Safety Summit held earlier this month in Baltimore.

Maryland state health officials say they still don’t know what caused the outbreak of gastroenteritis that left participants suffering symptoms that included diarrhea and nausea.

Abattoir owner in Ireland jailed for food safety offences

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In Ireland, if you screw up food safety, you go to jail.

A former poultry slaughterhouse owner has been jailed for four months for food safety offences.

Tim Blake Nelson, George Clooney, John TurturroNigel Wilson was convicted three years ago of nine breaches of food regulations at Upper Erne Lakes Poultry in Newtownbutler.

A warrant for his arrest was issued after he failed to appear in court, but he was convicted in his absence.

He appeared at Enniskillen Magistrates Court on Monday, having recently returned to NI from abroad.

The Food Standards Agency in Northern Ireland (FSA), which brought the case, said it welcomed the sentencing for the serious breaches of regulations and hoped it “sends a strong message to those who try to operate food businesses outside the law”.

“The investigation found decaying animal by-products infested with maggots, old and drying blood stains on the floor and no cleaning process in operation,” said Michael Jackson, the FSA’s head of food safety and operations.

Did you wash your hands? Soap dispenser alarm at Proctor and Gamble

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Procter and Gamble is literally sounding the alarm to get people to wash their hands after they use the restroom. A soap dispenser blares after people use the bathroom. Here’s how it works: The toilet door locks are rigged with pressure sensors that connect to an alarm on the soap dispenser. When toilet doors are opened, the alarm sounds. It stops as soon as the button for the soap is pressed. The alarms are being tdested in fast food restaurants, schools, and offices in the Philippines. 

Food safety fairytales: children who die from raw milk go straight to heaven in Louisiana

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Arguments of choice versus public safety are heated in a fight about whether to let Louisiana farmers sell raw milk to the public.

The full state House will consider a bill that would allow sales of unpasteurized milk, after it was advanced in a 9-6 vote April 23 by the House Agriculture Committee.

colbert.raw.milkdApproval came despite opposition from Agriculture Commissioner Mike Strain, who said farmers couldn’t guarantee that unpasteurized milk would be safe because it doesn’t go through the heating process designed to kill harmful bacteria. Louisiana’s state health officer, Jimmy Guidry, told lawmakers he wouldn’t allow his family to drink raw milk.

Supporters of raw milk say pasteurization takes away some of milk’s nutritional benefits.

Ciera Majors spoke to the House Agriculture  Committee in favor of the measure that would allow farmers to sell raw milk to consumers.

“The only argument that the opposition has for this bill is ‘death of a child, death of a child,'” said Majors. “Trust me! I want to protect my children. I wanted to give them a healthy product so much so that I bought two cows.”

One raw milk supporter, Audry Salvador, told Marksville Representative Robert Johnson it would be the responsibility of the consumer to make sure they are purchasing from a reputable farmer.

“I can watch everything they do if I want,” said Salvador.

Johnson said, “What about those who don’t?”

“That is their fault.”

“What about the child that dies that has no one to protect him,” Johnson asked.

“Well, before the age of reason they can go to Heaven,” said Salvador.
“That’s your answer?! Mr. Chairman I move that we voluntarily defer this bill,” Johnson said in extreme anger.

Johnson also tells Salvador he has a major problem with farmers being exempt from liability if someone gets sick from raw milk.
The vote was 9-6 and now heads to the House floor.

Another ‘death cap’ poisoning in Australia

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Another Canberra resident has fallen ill from death cap mushroom poisoning.

An ACT Health spokeswoman confirmed the fourth case which is unrelated to three others reported last week.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAThree members of the same household consumed the fungi last week and were recovering in hospitals in Canberra and Sydney.

ACT Health urged people not to pick and eat wild mushrooms.

California county considers color-coded restaurant health ratings

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I had some minor, minor role in the development of the Toronto red, yellow, green system of restaurant inspection disclosure.

restaurant.inspection.la.porn.mar.13More than 10 years later, Orange County, California, supervisors agreed to explore a color-coded restaurant inspection system that would alert would-be customers of what to expect at restaurants by using green, yellow and red signs.

If county health officials move forward with the plan, it would align them with restaurant rating signs in Sacramento and Alameda counties, but not neighboring Los Angeles, San Diego and Riverside counties, where a letter-grading system is used.

The proposed traffic-light style was proposed in a grand jury report that criticized the county’s current system as confusing.

Filion, K. and Powell, D.A. 2009.

The use of restaurant inspection disclosure systems as a means of communicating food safety information.

Journal of Foodservice 20: 287-297.

Abstract

The World Health Organization estimates that up to 30% of individuals in developed countries become ill from food or water each year. Up to 70% of these illnesses are estimated to be linked to food prepared at foodservice establishments. Consumer confidence in the safety of food prepared in restaurants is fragile, varying significantly from year to year, with many consumers attributing foodborne illness to foodservice. One of the key drivers of restaurant choice is consumer perception of the hygiene of a restaurant. Restaurant hygiene information is something consumers desire, and when available, may use to make dining decisions.

Australian food safety lab staff walk off job

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About 100 staff from NSW’s public food safety lab have walked off the job for an afternoon claiming plans to axe the facility could put the community at risk.

food.lab.testingThe food testing branch of the Forensic Analytical Science Services (FASS) is set to be shut down after the Food Authority didn’t renew its contract, flagging a move to private tender.

About 17 scientists and technical officers from the Lidcombe lab in Sydney’s west are set to lose their jobs.

Australia still has an egg problem

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I live in the Australian state of Queensland, which is four times the size of Texas and four times the attitude.

But being a good citizen and recently grandfathered in for voting rights because I’m from Canada, I thought I’d write the state minister of health, Lawrence Springborg.

mayonnaise.raw.eggOn Nov. 5, 2013, there was an outbreak of Salmonella poisoning at Melbourne Cup functions.

At least 220 people at 40 different Melbourne Cup events catered by the same Brisbane-based company, Piccalilli Catering, got sick with Salmonella. One died.

On Nov. 14, the co-owner of Piccalilli Catering released a statement via Twitter identifying her company as the responsible caterer and saying that they were deeply upset and distressed but denying responsibility, alleging that the infection was due to eggs provided by their supplier to make raw egg mayonnaise. Ms Grace denied any breakdown in her company’s quality system.

On Nov. 16, The Courier Mail reported the Director of Metro North Public Health, Dr Susan Vlack, as saying that “three or four” suspected contaminants were being looked at.

“We don’t have any definite proof that it is the eggs.” Dr Vlack said. “We don’t have the results to be able to say one way or the other. There are still a number of possibilities. It might take two, possibly three weeks.”

Since then, there has been no further update from Queensland Health and the initial Nov. 13 update has been erased from the Department’s website.

There’s some basic risk analysis questions here that should be answered to provide some level of confidence to Australian consumers:

• how did the outbreak happen;

• was this commodity sourced from a food safety accredited supplier;

• did handling by the caterer contribute to this outbreak;

• what is Queensland Health’s policy on use of raw eggs in dishes to be consumed raw;

• is this policy enforced;

• is the investigation closed and if so, why and when was it closed;

• will an outbreak investigation report be created and publicized;

• why was the previous update erased from the Department’s website and on whose authority; and,

• what is Queensland Health’s policy on providing information to the public.

It is in the best interests of both the public and the food industry that your Department respond promptly to such outbreaks demonstrating timeliness, transparency and critical detail. I have no confidence that your Department will follow through on the release of information should there be any similar outbreaks.

A table of raw egg related outbreaks in Australia is available at https://barfblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/raw-egg-related-outbreaks-australia-3-3-14.xlsx

Yours sincerely,

Dr Douglas Powell

Former professor of food safety at Kansas State University, now residing in Brisbane.

powellfoodsafety.com

barfblog.com

0478222221

Toward an understanding of the influence of cultural background and domain experience on the effects of risk-pricing formats on risk perception

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Risk-information framing can be a powerful tool for aiding the communication of risk and improving decision making. However, little work has investigated the extent that these framing effects depend on the characteristics of the perceiver. In our study, we examine whether the effects of different risk-pricing formats on risky choices are the same for all individuals, no matter their domain experience or cultural background, or reusable.grocery.bag.riskwhether there are interactions between these factors. Survey 1 revealed that three risk-pricing formats of the same choice problem resulted in the same individuals making different risky choices (preference reversal), suggesting that risk perception was distorted by the risk-pricing format manipulation. In Survey 2, the effects of the risk-pricing formats were shown to differ by the participants’ cultural background (Asian vs. European) and the extent of their domain experience. The fact that there were no differences between the cultural or domain experience groups in their overall tendency to select riskier (cf. safer) choices indicates that risk behavior differences between groups are often closely linked to perceptual, rather than simply attitudinal, cognitive processes. The results demonstrate the complex, interactive cognitive processes that are used to encode risk information, involving the framing of the information and the cultural background and previous experiences of the individual. We conclude that it is important to consider the characteristics of the individual (e.g., culture, domain experience, etc.) when manipulating risk-information framing with the aim of improving risk communication.

Risk Analysis [early view]

 Peter Fraser-Mackenzie, Ming-Chien Sung and Johnnie E.V. Johnson