60 sick from Salmonella: yes, even co-ops can transmit foodborne disease and bacteria don’t care about your politics

The Boise Co-op says its Salmonella outbreak that has sickened dozens of Treasure Valley residents has been linked to raw turkey, tomatoes and onions in its deli department.

boise.coop.deliThe organic food store confirmed on its website that the salmonella outbreak started from its deli.

“According to CDHD, the salmonella contamination of the raw produce is a result of possible cross-contamination in our Deli department,” the store wrote on its website.

The latest news comes a day after some customers filed a lawsuit against the store.

 

Who flies with meat? 27kg of raw meat seized at Toronto airport

A traveler arriving from Egypt was found at Toronto Pearson International Airport with luggage filled with 27 kilograms of undeclared, raw meat last week.

who.throws.a.shoe_On June 9, Canada Border Services Agency officers found the partly frozen beef cuts, a whole goose and some smaller avian birds inside luggage.

The meat was found by a detector dog named Scout, in the baggage carousel of Terminal 1.

Any meat, animal hides, fruit, plants or insects must be declared to Canada Border Services agents. CBSA says that uninspected raw meat may damage Canada’s food supply, economy, environment and human health.

Chicago wins, I lose, TV chefs still suck

Now that the Chicago Blackhawks have entered dynasty town with three Stanley Cup wins in six years (Toronto is hopeless) and the wife is gloating because her team won and she got tenure, I’m at a loss for what I’ll watch as background while writing and cooking.

colbert.soccerThere’s TV chefs, but they’re dull.

One gloating Illinois reader suggested I watch soccer.

No.

But only a PR flunky could come up with this headline: America’s favorite chef warns of food poisoning epidemic.

America’s favorite chef, Chef Remi has thrown a word of caution to the public of a food poisoning epidemic during the warm season.

He’s got the usual tips but at least recommends a thermometer “such as the Chef Remi Cooking Thermometer.”

I look forward to the verification data.

Cooking instructions on Aussie meat pie suck

Sometimes, I go for comfort food.

meat.pie.label.2.15
Occasionally, when the women are at their respective schools and there’s a National Hockey League final game on (at 10:20 a.m here) I’ll indulge in a frozen meat pie – a staple in Australia.

It cost $0.75 because I always buy things on clearance.

And I always use a tip-sensitive digital thermometer because I don’t trust the instructions and I don’t trust my microwave.

In 2007, ConAgra pot pies – the equivalent of an Australian meat pie — sickened at least 272 people in 35 U.S. states.

The company was told to change the cooking instructions and recommend that consumers use thermometers to verify.

meat.pie.label.15Maybe Australians haven’t heard about that one: sometimes the news takes awhile by steamship.

I followed the instructions in my man-cave this morning, and after resting, the temperature was 120F (49C) in the middle and 175F (79C) on the edges.

I heated some more.

Microwaves are good for reheating, terrible for uniform cooking.

And who knows if any verification has been done on these cooking instructions.

A different kind of mile-high club: 12 ill on a flight to LAX

Illnesses happen on planes, and it’s miserable.

The Los Angeles Times reports that 12 passengers on a flight from Fiji to LAX fell ill with vomiting and nausea. Each of the affected flyers reported staying in the same hotel prior to the flight.

Maybe the best plane-related outbreak was one reported in Clinical Infectious Diseases a couple of years ago. I’d describe my poop and barf-related imagination as pretty good but I couldn’t have dreamt up the scenario that unfolded on a plane leaving Boston bound for Los Angeles in October 2008.F97B1678-9288-4E1F-A6DC-5C807461E2CA

Members of [the] tour group experienced diarrhea and vomiting throughout an airplane flight from Boston, Massachusetts, to Los Angeles, California, resulting in an emergency diversion 3 h after takeoff.

The problematic flight departed Boston on Oct 8, 2008, heading for Los Angeles and carrying among its passengers 35 members of a leaf-peeping tour group. (Four more members of the group had planned other routes home, while two had been hospitalized in the previous 2 days.)

The outbreak included a passenger with “multiple episodes of diarrhea, with at least 1 occurring in the aisle of the first-class section. The soiled aisle was not cleaned until after completion of the flight.”

Norovirus sucks; The Cowfish reopens after 50 illnesses and a deep clean

Last week I talked to a bunch of retail food safety folks at FMI Foundation’s Retail Food Safety Forum about norovirus (and other stuff). Part of my message was that once the perfect human pathogen is in a restaurant, grocery store, or cruise ship, it’s tough to get it out without some illnesses.

Part of the problem with noro (beyond the low mean infectious dose; environmental stability; and, 10^9 virus particles per gram of vomit/poop) is a vomit event can lead to particles floating through the air. And maybe moving 30 feet from the barf splatter. Check out Grace Thompson’s vomit modeling apparatus (below, exactly as shown) for more.

According to WCNC, The Cowfish, a popular sushi and burger joint in Charlotte, is about to reopen following a noro outbreak affecting over 50 staff and patrons. Mecklenburg County Medical Director Dr. Stephen Keener says the working theory, according to is that a patron or food handler had the virus, brought it into the system, and spread it.

The Cowfish voluntarily closed its doors after norovirus is believed to have made about 50 people sick last week.

They original closed the doors to the restaurant as a precaution. The second time they closed, they brought in professionals to clean. Something they didn’t do the first time.

NBC Charlotte pulled up the most recent health inspection report. The restaurant was cited for hands not being clean and properly washed.

The health department still hasn’t found the cause of the illness and released this statement: ‘Cowfish management has been proactive and in constant contact with the Health Department.”

The owner of the restaurant calls this a regrettable situation and says, ‘We also will continue to work with health officials to be sure we are doing everything possible to protect the health and safety of our guests and employees.’

Bringing in some professionals who have compounds that are effective against noro (CDC advises 1000-5000ppm of chlorine for contaminated surfaces).

 

Another conference, another call for better communication on food safety

I figured out about 30 years ago that calls for better communication were really just a stalling tactic.

collaboration.powellNo one, it seemed, wanted to get dirty and figure out how to communicate better, so I devoted a lot of my research to that task.

Dr Bernhard Schwartlander, WHO Representative in China, has called for enhancing the communication, trust, and international cooperation to safeguard food safety during the 2015 International Conference on Food Safety held on Monday.

“The risk communication, trust, and international cooperation are essential to help ensure food safety”, he said.

Collaboration is overrated. If a farmer or company has great food safety, go out and brag about it, rather than nodding in conference meetings that yes, this is important, and then going back to sleep.

French outraged – aren’t they always — by ‘fake cheese’ expose

The widespread use of “fake cheese” has outraged France’s gourmands after a television documentary secretly filmed artificial substitutes being produced by the country’s food manufacturers.

french.cheeseRestaurateurs and food critics in the nation celebrated for its fine cheeses called for new food labelling rules to be introduced after France 2 television revealed the proliferation of vegetable fat-based substitutes.

“Consumers are being misled,” Xavier Denamur, a restaurant owner, told The Daily Telegraph.

“This is an area where we French should be setting an example, but instead we’re victims of the global craze for junk food.”

Undercover reporters filmed the practice at French wholesale manufacturers of ready meals such as pizzas, lasagne and burgers.

Cheese substitute products are produced without fresh milk and often contain processed palm oil. Substitutes are easier to store and handle than real cheese, and are significantly cheaper.

 

Texas cops shut down girls’ ‘illegal’ lemonade stand

Whenever one of my five daughters turn about six-years-old, they want to go into business, because they’ve discovered the value of money.

lemonade_standChores aren’t enough.

They want to get expand their cash sources.

Homemade jewelry, pet sitting, and the traditional lemonade stand.

Texas sisters Andria, 8, and Zoey Green, 7, wanted to raise about $100 to take their dad to Splash Kingdom as a Father’s Day present, so they set up a traditional neighborhood lemonade stand.

According to ABC affiliate KLTV, about an hour later and after a $25 profit, Overton police showed up and shut the lemonade stand down because the Green sisters did not have a “Peddler’s Permit,” which comes with a $150 fee.

“We had kettle corn and lemonade. The lemonade was for 50 cents and the kettle corn was a dollar, but if you got both it was a dollar.” Zoey told KLTV.

And while the city agreed to waive the $150 permit fee for the Green sisters, they found out they also need approval from the health department.

A Texas law prohibits the sale of any food items that could spoil without proper temperature control and lemonade is included. In addition to a permit, a health inspection must take place before a permit is granted.

The law does not have exceptions based on the age of the vendor.

The girls’ mother, Sandi Evans, said, “I think that’s ridiculous. I think they’re 7 and 8 and they’re just trying to make money for their own cause.”

“You get a permit from the city to serve this?” the officer asked the mother of the girls.

“I didn’t know I had to,” the mother answers.

“Yes ma’am,” says the officer.

“Really? For a lemonade stand?” says the mother, “I had no clue.”

The surprised mom asked, “Okay, can I run down and get one real quick?”

“Yes ma’am,” the officer replies.

The mother adds, “I knew we had to for garage sales and stuff like that, but I didn’t know kids had to for a lemonade stand.”

The girls and their mother were told that a health department inspection of the family kitchen was required because the food was prepared there.

Texas House Bill 970 requires a government inspection and permit for any food that must be regulated by time or temperature control in order to prevent spoilage. Since the lemonade and kettle corn could grow bacteria, a permit and inspection was required.

The law was passed during the 2013 Texas legislative session.

In 2011 a group of kids who set up a lemonade stand outside the Congressional Country Club in Montgomery County, Maryland, were fined $500 for not having a vendor’s permit.

 

 

E. coli burden: 25 years later, Florida dad matches 66 pints of blood given to save son

Brad Kolhoff was 7 years old when he was infected with E. coli, which caused his kidneys to shut down. He needed more than 5 dozen blood transfusions to stay alive — and he got them, thanks to donors.

kolhoff.blood.donorFather Richard Kolhoff said, “When we were first told his chances of survival were not all great, we just went through the process. I really didn’t have a lot of time to sit and think and worry. My son, when he was in the first grade, took 66 units of blood products, and I considered it my personal debt to repay.”

Richard has been donating pint by pint for the last 24 years to give back the 66 pints that saved his son.