Monthly Archives: August 2014

Roast-in-bag chicken is lower risk says poultry company

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Does roast-in-bag chicken chicken cut Campylobacter risks? A UK poultry business recently investigated by the Guardian for hygiene issues says it does.

Quoted in The Grocer, a Faccenda Foods official says by using their no-handle cook-directly-in-the-bag chicken consumers are safer.yourfile

“There is no need for consumers to handle food, which improves food safety at home and significantly reduces the risk from campylobacter,” said MD Andy Dawkins, who added the bag reduced the risk of cross-contamination from work surfaces or cutting boards.

In the week the FSA announced the first batch of quarterly results from its 12-month campylobacter survey, Faccenda said “unprecedented demand” had prompted it to ramp up development of roast-in-bag chicken. By the end of the year, it plans to expand the format – launched last September in Asda with seven flavoured whole chickens – into non-flavoured birds.

Responding to this week’s FSA results – which found campylobacter in 59% of fresh shop-bought chickens and on the outside of the packaging of 4% of birds – Dawkins said Faccenda would continue to invest to address the issue.

Campy on the outside of packaging could be problem for cross-contamination and I want to see some data for the claims that consumers handle these roast-in-bag products safer. Folks often don’t really know what people do with their products.

 

Food safety at temporary events and festivals costs money

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We use festivals as great weekend diversions for the kids. Every week I check out the local events schedule and take the boys anywhere that’s got cool stuff to see or do (including bouncy houses, simulated toboggan hills or bug displays). Usually there are fundraiser booths with burgers or bbq sandwiches.

Sometimes they are run by professional folks. Other times it is a cadre of well-meaning amateur food handlers.______2632069_orig

A couple of years back some public health folks got in political trouble for tossing away a bunch of problematic high risk sandwiches at a Windsor, Ontario fundraiser. The organizers claimed foul about the public health folks were doing their job – keeping unsafe food off of plates. Politicians jumped in and turned it into a circus about regulating ‘blue-haired grandmas‘.

What was lost in all the rhetoric was that good jurisdictions have food safety standards for all food being sold, regardless of where the funds to to, and that health authorities have a duty to ensure that the rules are being followed.

And that costs money.

According to Holly Meyer of the Post-Crescent Media , between $7500 and $10k are spent annually by the Appleton (Wisconsin) Health Department on temporary events and festivals. 

The Appleton Health Department uses permits, training and inspections to ensure food stands are operating properly, said Kurt Eggebrecht, the department’s health officer. Those efforts cost both the vendors and the taxpayers thousands of dollars every fiscal year, which runs from July 1 to June 30.

The food stand owners, like those who have to set up at the weekly Downtown Appleton Farm Market or annual Octoberfest, must apply for permits.

From July 1-31, the health department issued 83 permits, taking in $4,378. Eggebrecht said those numbers will jump in a couple of months because of Octoberfest.

The costs vary by permit, with nonprofit stands paying $30, temporary restaurants paying $123 and traveling retail stands paying $68.

The health department’s environmental staff also conducts inspections at the stands and spends time consulting and training with the vendors, Eggebrecht said. The department pays for the staff hours to perform the duties. They spent $10,406 in 2012-13, $7,480 in 2013-14 and $990 so far this year. (The totals exclude administrative, vehicle and fuel costs.)

Being a good community steward and passionate individual doesn’t make someone good at food safety. Investing resources into standards, verification and coaching certainly can help.

Faith-based food safety: Georgia peanut plant chief says we faked Salmonella tests

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A Georgia peanut plant manager testified Friday that his company had been shipping contaminated nuts with fake documents showing them to be salmonella-free before the plant was identified as the source of a nationwide outbreak that killed nine Americans and sickened more than 700.

peanut“In my mind, I wasn’t intentionally hurting anyone,” Sammy Lightsey told jurors at the trial of his former boss, Peanut Corporation of America owner Stewart Parnell, and two others.

Lightsey, who managed the plant from July 2008 until the company went bankrupt following the outbreak in 2009, pleaded guilty to seven criminal counts in May after agreeing to testify for prosecutors in exchange for a lighter sentence. He was the top manager at the peanut plant, reporting directly to Stewart Parnell.

Soon after taking the job, Lightsey said, he discovered that peanut paste was being shipped to Kellogg’s for use in peanut butter crackers the same day they were produced, without waiting the 48 hours it takes to receive results of lab tests for salmonella and other contaminants.

Rather than wait, Lightsey said, the plant would ship paste with lab results that actually came from different batches tested a week earlier, certifying they were negative for salmonella.

Lightsey said he confronted Michael Parnell, who handled the contract for Kellogg, one of the company’s biggest customers.

“I went to the office and called Mike Parnell and I told him we can’t do this; it was illegal and it was wrong,” Lightsey said. “He informed me it was set up before I got there and don’t worry about Kellogg’s, he can handle Kellogg’s.”

Lightsey said he didn’t push the issue further. He didn’t say if he ever discussed the fake lab results with Stewart Parnell.

In a related story, Russ Bynum of TribTown writes that jurors are learning a disconcerting fact: America’s food safety largely depends on the honor system.

“Could all these people have been charged criminally with something? The answer is, hell yes,” said Bill Marler, an attorney who claims to have won $500 million for victims of foodborne illnesses over the past two decades.

“I’m a firm believer in using the civil justice system to hold people accountable. But these criminal prosecutions have really got people’s attention,” said Marler. “It’s a completely different viewpoint that these CEOs and managers have when they’re facing jail time and fines that aren’t insured.”

Meanwhile, the FDA lacks the resources to regularly inspect food producers, and when outbreaks happen, they largely depend on their goodwill to find the source.

8 sick: Minnesota preliminary test results of petting zoo animals positive for E. coli O157

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The E. coli bacteria that sickened at least eight in the area came from a traveling petting zoo, according to preliminary test results released by the state on Friday.

goat.petting.zooThe Minnesota Department of Health received the positive preliminary test results after taking samples from animals that were part of the Zerebko Zoo Tran petting zoo at the Rice County Fair in mid-July.

Wally Zerebko, owner of Zerebko Zoo Tran in Bovey, said the preliminary results are inconclusive. As the Department of Health continues to investigate and await the final results, Zerebko and his animals remain at home.

“They are telling me lives are at stake, I know that,” he said. “That’s why I am at home and why I encouraged them to come down and test. … I’m not out here to get kids sick. I’m trying to make a living.”

Not cute with 300 sick from Salmonella linked to live poultry in backyard flocks

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The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that as of August 5, 2014, a total of 300 persons infected with the outbreak strains of Salmonella Infantis, Salmonella Newport, or Salmonella Hadar in 42 states and Puerto Rico, up from 251 in late June.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA• 31% of ill persons have been hospitalized, and no deaths have been reported.

  • Epidemiologic, laboratory, and traceback findings have linked this outbreak of human Salmonella infections to contact with chicks, ducklings, and other live poultry from Mt. Healthy Hatcheries in Ohio.

• 80% of ill people reported contact with live poultry in the week before their illness began.

  • Findings of multiple traceback investigations of live baby poultry from homes of ill persons have identified Mt. Healthy Hatcheries in Ohio as the source of chicks and ducklings. This is the same mail-order hatchery that has been associated with multiple outbreaks of Salmonella infections linked to live poultry in past years, including in 2012 and 2013.
  • CDC’s National Antimicrobial Resistance Monitoring System (NARMS) laboratory conducted antibiotic resistance testing on Salmonella isolates collected from 11 ill persons infected with the outbreak strains of Salmonella Infantis or Newport. Of the 11 isolates tested:

• Two (18%) were drug resistant (defined as resistance to one or more antibiotics).

• Mail-order hatcheries, agricultural feed stores, and others that sell or display chicks, ducklings, and other live poultry should provide health-related information to owners and potential purchasers of these birds prior to selling them. This should include information about the risk of acquiring a Salmonella infection from contact with live poultry.

◦  Read the advice to mail-order hatcheries and feed stores and others that sell or display live poultry.

◦  Consumers who own live poultry should take steps to protect themselves such as handwashing and no live poultry inside the house.

Hazelnut growers target food safety

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Heavily shaded hazelnut orchards may discourage salmonella from lingering on the ground, but the conclusions for growers remain uncertain, according to an orchard researcher.

hazelnut.tree.oregonGround temperatures in heavily shaded hazelnut orchards appear to fall below the temperature range in which salmonella thrives, compared to orchards with less shade cover, said Bruce Lampinen, a tree nut specialist with the University of California Cooperative Extension.

Lampinen presented his findings during a recent summer tour of the hazelnut industry in Oregon’s Willamette Valley, which was organized by the Nut Growers Society.

The results in Oregon hazelnut orchards were greatly different than in California almond and walnut orchards, where heavy shade cover seems to improve conditions for salmonella, he said.

Those crops are grown in warmer regions where heat can discourage the pathogen, so heavy shade cover in California actually “pushes” temperatures into the ideal range for salmonella, Lampinen said. In cooler Oregon, temperatures were pushed below that range.

However, the findings are based on limited data and need more s

Ekka winds: is handwashing really enough to prevent petting zoo outbreaks?

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Even though it’s 70F during the day in the depths of winter, the Ekka winds, as the locals call them, have hit hard.

There’s a nasty flu strain going around that knocked all of us out for 10 days even with a flu shot, because, getting old and all that.

ekka.petting.zooWe all missed hockey last week, and the guy I coach with just called to say he’s knocked out for this weekend.

The Ekka is the Queensland state fair.

When I ask locals if they go to the Ekka, they say, no, everyone gets sick.

Last year was particularly bad, as at least 50 were sickened with E. coli O157.

There has been no public follow up, no reference to what is being done to improve the situation this year, and no chance we’ll be attending.

Queensland Health, in all its taxpayer-funded splendor, wrote yesterday that visitors to this year’s Royal Queensland Show (the Ekka) are reminded of the importance of washing their hands after interacting with animals.

This year’s show will feature a redesigned animal nursery to minimise the risk of illness due to contact with animals. This will ensure that everyone leaving it must exit through specially designed hand washing stations.

According to Queensland Health, the most important precautionary measure to minimising this risk is timely hand washing, particularly after animal petting or feeding, and avoiding contact with potentially contaminated articles such as animal bedding.

That’s nice, but incomplete. Many pathogens can be aerosolized, and have been in previous petting zoo outbreaks.

A table of petting zoo outbreaks is available at https://barfblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/Petting-Zoo-Outbreaks-Table-4-8-14.xlsx.

Best practices for planning events encouraging human-animal interactions

Zoonoses and Public Health

G. Erdozain , K. KuKanich , B. Chapman  and D. Powell

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/zph.12117/abstract?deniedAccess

Educational events encouraging human–animal interaction include the risk of zoonotic disease transmission. It is estimated that 14% of all disease in the US caused by Campylobacter spp., Cryptosporidium spp., Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli (STEC) O157, non-O157 STECs, Listeria monocytogenes, nontyphoidal Salmonella enterica and Yersinia enterocolitica were attributable to animal contact. This article reviews best practices for organizing events where human–animal interactions are encouraged, with the objective of lowering the risk of zoonotic disease transmission.

UK pizza co. fined 10K

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A pizza company in St Albans has been fined nearly £10,000 after inspectors said it breached hygiene regulations.

Pizza Go Go in London RoadParizon Limited, which runs Pizza Go Go in London Road, has been fined £4,900 for failing to keep premises and equipment clean and breaching safety regulations.

The City and District Council successfully prosecuted the company for 16 offences after inspecting the premises in November last year. The case was heard by the West Hertfordshire Magistrates’ Court in Watford on Monday (4 Aug).

The court ordered the company to pay the £4,900 and to also make a contribution to the Council’s costs of £5,000. The company was also requested to pay a victim surcharge of £35, totalling £9,935.

Florida restaurants to receive letter to follow inspection sign rule

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Palm Beach County is sending out reminders to restaurants about a rule that most have not been following.

A 2006 ordinance required restaurants to post a sign on the door or window letting customers know that they can request to see the restaurant’s latest inspection report.

But a recent Dirty Dining investigation found that few restaurants had the signs posted. Some restaurant owners and managers told us they weren’t aware of the rule.

The county ordinance was passed as a way to make sure customers could know what inspectors are finding in the kitchens of restaurants. 

The inspection records detail if the restaurant has a rat or roach problem. It also shows if a restaurant has gotten in trouble for not serving food at the correct temperature and other safety and sanitation issues.

Palm Beach County is sending out nearly 4,000 letters this week. Customers should soon start seeing the signs in the windows.