Monthly Archives: April 2014

Is there a better name for cross-contamination: kitchen cutting boards remain a source of multidrug-resistant bacteria after use

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After handling raw poultry, hands of food preparers and cutting boards remain a source of transmission for multi-drug resistant bacteria, such as E. coli that produce extended-spectrum beta-lactamases (ESBLs). The study of household and hospital kitchens was published in the May issue of the journal Infection Control and Hospital Epidemiology.

Dan Aykroyd Plays Julia Child“The spread of multidrug-resistant bacteria has been associated with the hospital setting, but these findings suggest that transmission of drug-resistant E. coli occurs both in the hospital and households,” says Andreas Widmer, MD, lead author of the study. “Our findings emphasize the importance of hand hygiene, not only after handling raw poultry, but also after contact with cutting boards used in poultry preparation.”

Researchers from University Hospital in Basel, Switzerland collected and examined 298 cutting boards (154 from University Hospital and 144 from private households) after preparation of various meats (i.e., poultry, beef/veal, pork, lamb, game and fish) and before being cleaned. They also collected 20 pairs of gloves from hospital kitchen employees after they handled raw poultry. These samples were tested for the presence of ESBL-producing Enterobacteriaceae, a family of gram-negative bacteria that includes Salmonella, E. coli and Klebsiella.

In testing the cutting boards, researchers found that 6.5 percent of hospital cutting boards used in preparation of poultry were contaminated with ESBL-producing E. coli. For boards used in households, researchers found ESBL-producing E. coli cutting.board.chicken.nov.13on 3.5 percent of these surfaces. They also found that 50 percent of the hospital kitchen gloves were contaminated with this drug-resistant E. coli.

The researchers found that none of the cutting boards used in preparing beef/veal, pork, lamb, game or fish were contaminated with any ESBL-producing bacteria. They also found that the meat’s country of origin did not play a factor in the presence of bacteria on any of the surfaces.

Reference: Sarah Tschudin-Sutter, Reno Frei, Roger Stephan, Herbert Hächler, Danica Nogarth and Andreas F. Widmer. “Extended-spectrum beta-lactamase (ESBL)-producing Enterobacteriaceae – a threat from the kitchen.” Infection Control and Hospital Epidemiology [35:5] (May 2014).

Source: Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America (SHEA) 

Canadian restaurant inspections uncover repeated, major violations

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Canada’s (self-proclaimed) biggest analysis of public health inspection reports from national chain restaurants reveals that almost one-in-four inspections has at least one major violation, a CBC Marketplace investigation has found.

Major violations, such as improper food handling, inadequate handwashing and failing to keep food at safe temperatures, have the potential to negatively affect human health.

toronto.red.yellow.green.grades.may.11In the largest investigation of its kind, Marketplace analyzed the data from a year’s worth of public health restaurant inspections in five Canadian cities — Vancouver, Calgary, Regina, Toronto and Ottawa — almost 5,000 reports in total. Two statisticians from the University of Toronto analyzed the data.

 “Food safety is a very serious matter,” says Jim Chan, a retired public health inspector who spent 36 years with Toronto Public Health. “The public has a right to know so they can make informed choices.”

In some cases, Marketplace discovered that serious problems continued even after restaurants were notified by public health inspectors:

A Subway restaurant in Calgary was cited by health inspectors three times for contaminated cleaning cloths.

A Moxie’s in Vancouver failed to keep food at a safe temperature during three consecutive inspections.

A Tim Hortons in Calgary was written up by inspectors five times for a fly infestation.

According to the reports, handwashing was a significant problem in most cities, as was general kitchen cleanliness.

sylvannus.toronto.2005In addition to the statistical analysis of report results, Marketplace used a hidden camera to document troubling behaviour at several locations.

​Retired Vancouver public health inspector Domenic Losito was alarmed by footage showing garbage strewn all over the kitchen floor at one restaurant.

​“At least try to get the garbage in the garbage can, but – I think I would have walked into this place, walked out and filed a closure notice right away. I just – it’s just unacceptable,” he said.

Restaurants Canada, the group representing the restaurant industry, refused to speak on camera about the investigation.

The group opposes the public posting of inspection grades, such as those used by Toronto Public Health in its award-winning DineSafe program. In Toronto, restaurants are required to post inspection results where patrons can see them. The DineSafe cards are colour-coded (green for “pass,” yellow for “conditional pass,” and red for “closed”) to make results easy to understand.

Restaurants Canada says the yellow cards are “problematic and misleading” because there are many factors that depend on subjective assessment and that grades present an oversimplified picture of safety.

The group says that consumers who want to know how a restaurant has performed during inspections should access the reports online.

While many jurisdictions make inspection reports available online, some do not make results public.

CFIA plays the 99 per cent numbers game

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CFIA is getting into the 99 per cent game, usually reserved for hucksters on TV.

99.9 per cent sounds good, but that’s only a 3-log reduction. For food safety purposes, log-5 (99.999 per cent) to log-7 (99.99999 per cent) reductions in dangerous pathogens are often strived for.

Last week, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency announced that 99.8 per cent of whole cantaloupe samples tested negative for the presence of Salmonella (they didn’t test for Listeria, but should have).

cantaloupe.salmonellaPlaying the 99 per cent game is also terrible risk communication: it doesn’t matter how small the percentage of positive samples were if you were one of the 23 people that dies from Listeria in Maple Leaf cold-cuts in 2008.

Data and sampling are a necessary evil and I’m glad CFIA is making the results public. But testing is limited and fraught with caveats. It’s expensive, and industry has lots of data, so why not make it public, in the context of an overall approach to food safety for a specific food.

CFIA reports  a total of 499 whole cantaloupe samples were collected and tested for Salmonella bacteria, which can cause a serious illness with long-lasting effects. One sample was found to be unsatisfactory due to the presence of Salmonella.

A week later, CFIA said more than 99.9 per cent of leafy green vegetable samples had no detectable levels of bacterial pathogens and were safe to consume.

As part of a five-year microbiological plan that began in 2008/2009, the CFIA analyzed a total of 4,250 domestic and imported, whole and fresh-cut fresh leafy vegetable samples available in the Canadian market for Salmonella, E. coli O157:H7, E. coli O157:NM and generic E. coli. The fresh-cut samples were also tested for Listeria monocytogenes.

The 2009/2010 study deemed 12 samples to be “unsatisfactory” due to the presence of Salmonella, Listeria monocytogenes, and/or high levels of generic E. coli. None of the samples were found to be positive for E. coli O157:H7 or E. coli O157:NM.

Aberdeen’s typhoid outbreak remembered 50 years on

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Sheena Blackhall was a 16-year-old schoolgirl when Aberdeen was brought to its knees by the largest typhoid outbreak in recent British history 50 years ago.

More than 500 people of all ages had to be quarantined in hospital.

The infection was eventually traced back to a single tin of Argentinean corned beef sold in a supermarket.

typhoid.canned.beefIt happened in the summer of 1964, and led to speculation across the country of many deaths.

In reality, and somewhat remarkably, the outbreak was contained without a single related death.

Most patients spent many weeks in hospital until they were allowed home.

Ms Blackhall told BBC Scotland: “The GP that we had had been in a Japanese prisoner of war camp so he knew right away that I had typhoid and phoned for an ambulance, by which time I had a very high temperature and I was delirious.

“I remember nothing about this but apparently when they took me down the stairs I said ‘dinna cremate me! I want to be buried!’ – which upset everybody.

An inquiry into the outbreak later found that a large can of Argentinean corned beef had been sold sliced from the cold meat counter of the William Low supermarket.

The can had been cooled in Argentina using untreated water from a river.

The typhoid organism was assumed to have entered the meat through a small hole in the seam of the can.

It was then passed on to anyone who bought the corned beef, or other products which had come into contact with the shop’s meat slicer.

The media attention helped raise the importance of cleanliness and hygiene.

Hygiene lessons from the Aberdeen typhoid outbreak are still relevant today.

Prof Hugh Pennigton, the renowned bacteriologist, said it was an “enormous” outbreak.

Farm management, hygiene, weather all affect E. coli rates in spinach

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The likelihood that a crop of leafy greens will be contaminated by E. coli, an indicator of fecal contamination, before harvest is strongly influenced by both farm management and environmental factors, according to a study spotlighted on the cover of the new issue of the journal Applied and Environmental Microbiology.

The work, led by Dr. Renata Ivanek and her lab in the Department of Veterinary Integrative Biosciences (VIBS) at the Texas A&M College of Veterinary Medicine & spinachBiomedical Sciences (CVM), was a collaborative effort between researchers at Texas A&M University, Colorado State University, Texas Tech University, and Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service.

In this study, the research team cross-referenced environmental data with information from participating farms in multiple test areas. Then, the team determined how three groups of factors—farm management, location, and weather—affect spinach contamination with E. coli. The team studied spinach samples from 12 farms in Colorado and Texas and compared variables including the local temperature, precipitation, wind speed, soil characteristics, proximity to roads and water bodies, and such farm management practices as the farm workers’ hygiene and manure application practices.

Overall, the study found that farm management, location, and weather factors should be considered jointly in developing agricultural methods and interventions that reduce the threat of E. coli contamination at the pre-harvest level. The odds of spinach contamination decreased to approximately 1 in 17 with implementation of good hygiene practices for farm workers, but they increased to approximately 4 in 1 for every millimeter increase in the average amount of rain in the month before harvest. Furthermore, applying manure fertilizer on the field increased the odds of contamination to approximately 52 in 1.

“Hygiene practices and fertilizers used are relatively easy to change,” Ivanek said. “The challenge, however, will be to use the information about how rainfall affects produce safety into an intervention, or plan, that growers could implement on a daily basis.”

Norovirus outbreak: why do bad things seem to happen at Chuck E Cheese?

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Health officials say they’re seriously concerned about an outbreak of Norovirus linked to a well-known restaurant. Hundreds of people walk through the doors for birthday parties – but when Kelly Green left this Chuck E Cheese’s she was not celebrating.

“I started getting really sick to my stomach and feeling super nauseous. I got an extreme case of bad, bad diarrhea,” Kelly Green said. “It was like worse than I ever experienced.

norovirus-2After talking to others who attended the party, Green soon learned she had a case of Norovirus.

Green said she contacted The Hennepin County Health Department. Soon after, health officials asked her to submit a stool sample to see if she had contracted the virus.

No one from Chuck E Cheese’s would talk on camera. A spokesperson told KARE 11 News employees sanitize hard surfaces throughout the day and perform a deep clean at night. Late Thursday, the Chuck E Cheese’s released the following statement:

We are aware that the Maple Grove Health Department launched an investigation this week into a few reported cases of Norovirus contraction potentially stemming from a birthday party at a Chuck E. Cheese’s location. We are also aware that Minnesota has seen numerous outbreaks across the state this year – more than 40 reported cases since Jan. 1, according to the Minnesota Department of Health, so we are cooperating fully with officials to learn as much as possible about this situation.

While the investigation is ongoing, preliminary reports have determined that someone entered our restaurant while ill and transmitted the virus to other patrons through close contact. The cleanliness of our facility has not been called into question. As we are always concerned about the health and safety of the families who visit our stores and we are aware that the Norovirus has plagued many residents this spring, we will continue to be hyper vigilant in maintaining our rigorous sanitation standards.

Chuck E Cheese’s also provided video showing dispensers with hand sanitizer throughout their restaurants.

But hand sanitizers don’t work so well on Norovirus.

French court fines former owner, director of Marcel Baey for 2010-2011 Listeria cover-up

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A French court condemned the former director of salmon smoker Marcel Baey on April 8 in relation to an investigation into unreported listeria occurrences and misleading marketing material at the company in 2010 and 2011, reported La Voix du Nord.

smoked-salmon2-265x268The court also imposed a fine of €50,000 on the company’s former owners. However, that money is unlikely to ever be paid considering Marcel Baey’s assets were taken over by from receivership Poland’s Suempol in July 2013.

“This case relates to events between 2010 and 2011,” Marcel Baey’s current production manager Romain Marce told Undercurrent News following the court ruling. “It does not concern Suempol but the entity Marcel Baey. It is therefore the liquidator who is concerned.”

The authorities which uncovered the malpractices at Marcel Baey from 2010 to 2011 stressed that these were in the past, and that the company and its owners Suempol are fully compliant with regulations.

According to La Voix du Nord, the court heard that Marcel Baey had dissimulated a sanitary crisis in 2010 and 2011. The Boulogne-sur-mer-based company was also found guilty of misleading promotion on its products.

The findings were uncovered by the French agency Direction departementale de la protection des populations (DPPP), which started investigating the company following hear-say from competitors.

European Hepatitis A-frozen berry update

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More than 1,300 hepatitis A cases have been reported in eleven Member States since January 2013, with 240 confirmed cases related to the ongoing outbreak.

Initially the outbreak was associated with people who had travelled to Italy. However seven Member States- France, Germany, Ireland, Norway, the raspberry.pieNetherlands, Sweden and the United Kingdom- have reported cases of infections in people who had not travelled to Italy.

Preliminary investigations identified frozen berries as the most likely source of infection. Other hypotheses, such as cross contamination in the food production environment or that the outbreak strain is already widespread but previously undetected, have now also been taken into account.

EFSA is leading a trace-back investigation, with the support of affected Member States, the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, the European Commission and the Federal Institute for risk assessment (Bfr).

Health fair attendees stricken with food poisoning

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The Rio Grande County Public Health Department in Colorado is investigating an outbreak of food poisoning possibly linked to food that was served at the 9Health Fair in Monte Vista on Saturday, April 5. 9Health Fair says the food at the fair was supplied by the Kiwanis Club.

vomit.toiletPublic Health Department Director Emily Brown says they have sent samples to the state lab and expect results by the beginning of next week. Brown estimates about 30 cases were reported by volunteers and participants. Brown says that it doesn’t appear the illness is spreading.

Health department says Bonicki’s outbreak could have resulted from improper food storage

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The Michigan Department of Community Health reports that an outbreak of foodborne illness at Bonicki’s Sports Bistro, could have resulted from improper food storage.

In a news release Friday morning, April 11, the health department officials said the investigation at Bonicki’s at 1891 East Apple Ave. turned up the presence of Clostridium perfringens, a common bacteria that can cause foodborne illness.

395394_237923292949867_1801694089_nThe bacteria is found throughout nature but “typically causes illness when foods are served after improper storage or held at inadequate storage temperatures,” according to the health department.

Bonicki’s General Manager Karen Mead responded to the news with a prepared statement.

“We, the Bonicki’s family, apologize for the recent event,” she said. “We would like to thank the community, our loyal customers and the Muskegon County health department.”

On Friday, Ken Kraus, health officer at Public Health-Muskegon County, called the incident a teachable moment for others in the food service industry.

“We are relieved to know the cause and are working with the restaurant to improve their food storage practices,” he said in a news release. “While it may take a bit more effort, following proper food cooling and storage procedures is an important part in preventing foodborne illness.”