Yearly Archives: 2015

Chipotle seen and heard (there’s a lot going on)

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As norovirus was confirmed at a Boston-area Chipotle (marking the 5th confirmed outbreak in the past 6 months), Chipotle officials took the airwaves to talk about how they plan on responding.

Phil Wahba of Fortune writes that cases linked to a Cleveland Circle Chipotle have climbed to 120.Chipotle_Brandon.jpeg

Boston College said Wednesday the number of students suffering from symptoms consistent with the Norovirus is now 120, up from an estimate of 30 earlier this week. The school said, “Nearly all cases are related to students who ate at the Chipotle restaurant in Cleveland Circle” last weekend. Chipotle has temporarily closed that location.

According to Nation’s Restaurant News, Chipotle plans on doing some radical things (although they have yet to reveal the details of what their new standards are).

In a presentation to Wall Street analysts at the annual Bernstein Consumer Summit in New York, officials with the Denver-based chain laid out a plan for improving food safety that they contend will put Chipotle 10 to 20 years ahead of industry norms.

“We have this desire to be the safest place to eat,” said Steve Ells, Chipotle chairman, founder and co-CEO.

Meanwhile, Chipotle is investing heavily in food safety with new protocols that will include more testing of fresh produce.

Just as suppliers are asked to meet certain standards under the chain’s Food With Integrity mission, produce suppliers will be held to higher standards in terms of food safety, Ells said.

“There will be robust testing procedures that will need to be in place for all of our suppliers, whether large or small,” he said. “Some of the smaller suppliers might have a hard time implementing these robust testing procedures initially. We’ll help them. Not all will be on board, for sure, but we think most will.”

But, because “it’s impossible to test every tomato,” the chain is taking additional operational steps, Ells said.

For example, Chipotle has begun dicing tomatoes in a commissary, putting them through a “sanitary kill step” to eliminate pathogens, and hermetically sealing them for delivery to restaurants.

I’m interested in what this sanitary kill step is, and what data they have that validates it. Is it a 5- or 7-log reduction kill step? Or a 1- to 2-log reduction one?

The PR world is analyzing Chipotle’s communications reresponse and according to CNBC, they aren’t doing great.

“They’re not going far enough,” Gene Grabowski, who runs the crisis group at kglobal, told CNBC. “They’re not painting pictures with their words,” he said. “They’re still doing too much explaining.”

They aren’t really explaining enough what they actually plan – paint the picture of a company that has a good food safety culture, and implement it.

In related news, Chipotle stocks continue to fall, but have no fear, significant traffic driving initiatives (whatever those are) will bring the people back.

In a report published Wednesday, Sara Senatore of Bernstein maintained a bullish stance on Chipotle’s stock even though she acknowledged that Chipotle’s brand has been “diminished” following the recent E. coli outbreak. However, the analyst noted that once the CDC gives the “all clear,” the company should benefit from “significant traffic driving initiatives.

Senatore said Chipotle is likely to initiate a series of initiatives including an up-tick in “traditional marketing,” including social media outreach and direct mail – which may consist of buy-one-get-one free offers and other discounting that have “proven very effective” for the company in the past. Naturally, these initiatives will result in gross margin pressure in the near term, but margin recovery should “materialize over time” as management realizes efficiencies and benefits from improvements in technology and throughput.

Here’s a significant Traffic driving initiative for you.

Just breathe: Chipotle is dumb for blaming media and government

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In the midst of a media storm, with me and Chapman inundated with Chipotle-type requests at opposite ends of the globe, I think of U.S. President Bill Clinton’s press secretary, Mike McCurry, who wrote that before a shit-storm, he would go have a smoke in the basement of the White House, just to collect his thoughts.

norm.ullmanSo this is my diversion to collect my Chipotle thoughts.

Beehive honey was an iconic brand in Ontario, Canada, growing up.

They always had a booth at the food pavilion at the Canadian National Exhibition in Toronto, and usually brought in a professional hockey type to meet-and-greet.

It was only a couple of years since the Leafs had last won the Stanley Cup – so about 1969 – and I went to the Beehive booth and got Norm Ullman’s autograph.

About 25 years later, I met one of his nieces while on a family vacation.

But I didn’t know Beehive made cold-cuts. In New Zealand.

Premier Beehive NZ Limited are initiating a recall of their Beehive Shaved Champagne Ham (200g Family Pack, Use by Date: 26 JAN 2016, Batch 335322) after discovering that the product may contain Listeria.

recall-img-beehive-shaved-champagne-hamComments: The affected product should not be consumed.

There have been no reports of illness, however any person concerned about their health should seek medical advice.

Customers should return the product to their retailer for a full refund or phone 0800 506 701 with any queries.

This recall does not affect any other Premier Beehive NZ Limited product.

Waah: Chipotle only wants good press, sick people be damned, stock price going down

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On May 1, 2007, Chipotle Mexican Grill announced with much fanfare that it would begin using naturally raised meats in its burritos, tacos and salads served in the state of Kansas, in accordance with the company’s ongoing commitment to change the way Americans eat.


“We’ve committed to improve the quality of every ingredient we buy,” said Steve Ells, Chipotle’s founder, chairman and CEO in a press release.


It was all part of the company’s Food With Integrity campaign, an ongoing quest “to source the highest quality food from farmers who care deeply about the welfare of their animals, their land, and their communities.”

The hucksterism was immediately obvious at the time: “We definitely feel that it’s worth the increase in price, because the food quality will be that much better,” Russell said.

A few weeks later Amy and I were driving to Kansas City, and saw this BS billboard about hormones in meat, so I posted something on the early version of the blog.

chipotle_ad_2-300x154A QA dude from Chipotle called me the next day and was curious about why I thought Chipotle sucked at (microbial) food safety.

I told him some anecdotal – and research-based — stuff about how companies that are so focused on marketing whatever is trendy they tend to forget the microbial basics and get in trouble further on down the road.

Chipotle has been further on up the road for many years.

For the wrong reasons.

Chipotle joins a handful of sandwich joints that are favored by self-styled hipster university students and professors who should know better – Jimmy John’s immediately comes to mind with their recurrent raw sprout-related outbreaks, along with Whole Foods – who are so much marketing fluff and not so much data.<
No different than the government minister or university president who preaches the virtue of the private sector but continues to suckle on the public-sector teat.

In 2007, Chipotle stated that, “The hallmarks of Food With Integrity include things like unprocessed, seasonal, family-farmed, sustainable, nutritious, naturally raised, added hormone free, organic, and artisanal.”

That may be a record for most buzzwords in one sentence.

What’s missing is “microbiologically safe.”

As a lowly consumer, I can only hope that Chipotle holds its local suppliers to some sort of microbiological standards for food safety – maybe they cook the poop out of everything.

I don’t want to hear about how sustainable it is – unless Chipotle or anyone else is going to provide data on water use, greenhouse gas emissions, and microbiological loads on local produce versus the produce provided by the big ‘ole big guys. Do farmers get pissed that anyone thinks they can grow food to feed a bunch of people? Or do they just smirk, bemused?

Once again, Chipotle is the douchebag of fast food.

The 2009 season premier of South Park had a lovely sub-plot aimed at the sanctimonious Chipotle, and how their food makes your ass bleed.

Maybe Trey Parker and Matt Stone have been reading up on E. coli O157:H7 – or in the current case, E. coli O26 — symptoms.

You love to eat Chipotle, but you hate those blood stains in your underwear?

Now you can eat all the Chipotle you want, and still have clean underwear with ChipotliAway.

Stan: Why would you keep eating something that made you crap blood?

Cartman: Dude have you ever eaten Chipotle, it’s really good.

The once high-flying burrito (brothers) chain has seen its shares fall nearly 30% since October, and last week, Chipotle said same-store sales this quarter could fall as much as 11% because of the news.

At an investor conference on Tuesday, Chief Financial Officer Jack Hartung, laid a good chunk of blame of how big a problem this outbreak has become for Chipotle on two culprits: the government and the media.

That’s fairly inauthentic for a chain that allegedly prides itself on authenticity and has benefited tremendously from fawning media coverage.

In particular, Hartung took issue with what he characterized as the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Protection’s (CDC) way of reporting developments in the outbreak, specifically the manner in which the CDC has been reporting one incident at a time rather than a quick, broad probe.

“It’s been fueled by the sort of unusual, even unorthodox, way the CDC has chosen to announce cases related to the original outbreak in the Northwest,” Hartung told Wall Street analysts. “They’ve done that a couple of times now and they’re not announcing new cases – they’re simply announcing new reporting to them from local health agencies.”

Get over it Jack, that’s the way public health works.

Chipotle said after it has an all-clear from the CDC, it plans to issue full-page open letters in newspapers (who reads newspapers?), as well as some “critically placed interviews” to tell consumers the issue is over and the steps it has taken and to invite them back into the restaurants. Its plans also include more traditional marketing than it has done before and increased use of direct mail, which could include offers such as a buy one, get one coupon.

Other communication plans include social media outreach, a way the company has long communicated with its biggest fans. Chipotle stopped sending its sometimes humorous tweets out to the public when the issue began, with no tweets from Oct. 31 through Nov. 8. It has been responding with direct tweets in recent days but its last mass message from @ChipotleTweets appears to have been posted on Dec. 3 — the day before additional E. coli cases were confirmed by the CDC and the company issued its sales outlook.

Despite all of the attention and the sharp decline in sales following the outbreak, Chipotle said it has been studying consumer feedback about E. coli since Nov. 1 and has found only 57% of its customers know about the issue.

So I guess 43% do.

PR fairytale.

The company has made changes to its food safety protocols. Among them, it is now dicing tomatoes and chopping cilantro in commissaries, where the produce is sanitized and hermetically sealed before being delivered to restaurants. A similar procedure is being used for lettuce, while items such as avocados and jalapenos are still prepared in the restaurants, the company said.

At this point, Chipotle does not plan to raise prices due to the higher food safety costs. It left open the possibility of such price increases starting in 2017, after it has let the costs crimp its margins and worked on improving its efficiencies.

Have no doubt, hipsters, Chipotle is a business, leveraging sound bites to make a buck.

Too bad if you barf.

 

‘Lambing Live’ featuring E. coli O157: UK farm shop admits failures

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In April 2014, at least 15 people, primarily children, who visited a petting farm in Lancashire were stricken with E. coli O157.

When the outbreak was first reported, the UK National Farmer’s Union reassured people that petting farms are safe as long as hygiene rules are followed and that they should continue to go despite the E. coli outbreak.

_87104305_huntleys_googleNot quite.

You people are assholes.

There have been outbreaks where pathogens have been aerosolized and that handwashing was not a significant control factor.

Yesterday, a UK court heard that four children suffered potentially life-threatening kidney failure after an E. coli outbreak at a Lancashire farm shop.

Huntley’s Country Stores, near Preston, admitted health and safety breaches at a lambing event in April 2014.

The four children needed life-saving kidney dialysis with one needing three operations and blood transfusions.

The farming attraction was fined £60,000 and told to pay £60,000 costs at Preston Crown Court on Monday.

In total, 15 people were struck down by the bug – 13 of them children – with nine needing hospital treatment. A further 15 possible cases were also recorded.

The court heard the tragically typical litany of errors:

  • visitors allowed uncontrolled access to lambs – children could enter animal pens and roll in feces-covered straw;
  • during bottle-feeding, lambs were allowed to climb onto seats, leaving them soiled with feces;
  • pens had open bar gates allowing contaminated bedding to spill onto main visitor area;
  • animals were densely packed, allowing bacteria build-up; and,
  • hand washing basins meant for visitors were used to clean animal feeding dishes.

Juliette Martin, of Clitheroe, took her daughter Annabelle, 7, to the ‘Lambing Live’ event at Easter last year.

lambing-live-prestonThe youngster, who had bottle-fed a lamb, suffered kidney failure and needed three operations, three blood transfusions and 11 days of dialysis.

Mrs Martin said: “If we ever thought that by feeding lambs that our daughter would be fighting for her life we would never have visited Huntley’s.”

A spokesman for the farm shop in Samlesbury said: “Everyone at Huntley’s Country Stores deeply regrets that its Lambing Live event in 2014 resulted in the serious ill health of children and an employee.

“At the time of the events, and following the reports of the outbreak of E. coli, the company co-operated with South Ribble Borough Council and has accepted responsibility in court for failings in the assessment of risks.”

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

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

03.Apr.14

Zoonoses and Public Health

Educational events encouraging human–animal interaction include the risk of zoonotic disease transmission. ‘It is estimated that 14% of all disease in the USA 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.

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/zph.12117/abstract?deniedAccessCustomisedMessage=&userIsAuthenticated=false

E. coli O157 in chicken salad: FDA can’t find it in celery-onion mix, but epi still counts (maybe it was an herb)

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JoNel Aleccia of The Seattle Times writes that federal food-safety officials haven’t nabbed a culprit after all in an E. coli outbreak tied to Costco chicken salad that sickened 19 and led to the recall of 155,000 food products last month.

costco-rotisserie-chickenOfficials with the Food and Drug Administration said Tuesday that tests failed to identify E. coli O157: H7 from a sample of celery and onions from Taylor Farms Pacific Inc., of Tracy, Calif.

“The ongoing investigation has not identified a specific ingredient responsible for the illnesses,” the FDA wrote in a statement.

The celery-onion mixture was identified as the potential source of contamination in Costco rotisserie-chicken salad that was linked to 19 illnesses in seven states as of Nov. 23.

That was based on five preliminary tests by the Montana Department of Health, which indicated the presence of the bug in chicken-salad samples from a Montana Costco. In response, Taylor Farms voluntarily recalled multiple products that contained the celery mix on Nov. 26, followed by an expanded recall a week later.

Costco pulled the chicken salad from store shelves on Nov. 20 and stopped production.

Still, that doesn’t mean the bug wasn’t in the samples, only that later tests couldn’t find it, the FDA noted. The samples were analyzed with a rapid test to screen for bacteria. But later analysis may have failed to find the germ because other bacteria could have grown, too; there were too few of the bacteria in question to detect; they may have been hard to isolate; or they could have died off over time.

“This does not let celery off the hook,” said Craig Wilson, Costco’s vice president of food safety and quality assurance.

The salad was composed of chicken, high-acid salad dressing and the celery/onion mix. Only the vegetables have been known to be associated with E. coli outbreaks, Wilson noted.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control said the ongoing investigation is working to identify which specific ingredient in the chicken salad is linked to illness. The celery and onion diced blend has not been ruled out as a source of the outbreak. Updates will be provided when more information is available.

Certified organic but not certified Salmonella-free

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The NSW Food Authority advises:

ground_organic_coiranderGourmet Organic Herbs has recalled its Ground Coriander sold in fruit and vegetable shops, health food stores and independent retailers, including IGA supermarkets in NSW, QLD, VIC, TAS, SA and WA.

The product is being recalled due to microbial (salmonella) contamination.

Product details are:

Gourmet Organic Herbs Ground Coriander in 30g sachet

Best Before dates – 6/AUG/17 and 21/OCT/17

Consumers should not consume this product and should return it to the place of purchase for a full refund. If you are concerned about your health, you should seek medical advice.

Can satire sell food safety? Rotten Food Cookbook

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Amy got me a present, The Rotten Food Cookbook, featuring recipes such as:rotten.food.cookbook

  • Oysters KilledPatrick;
  • Chicken Seizure Salad;
  • Banana Spit; and,
  • Puking Duck.

The book is by Shane van de Vorstenbosch of Baulkham Hills, NSW, Australia.

Designed to teach people about the importance of food safety, the satirical book is filled with recipes that are sure to result in food poisoning.

Each recipe focuses on a safety issue and is followed by information on the correct way to prepare, store and cook food.

Van de Vorstenbosch has worked in the food safety industry for 15 years, selling products to hospitality and medical businesses.

While the book was written for hospitality workers, van de Vorstenbosch said it was useful for everyone.

“The biggest hurdle I’ve got is selling food safety solutions when people don’t want to talk about it,” he said. “If you talk about food safety it is boring, but if you talk about food poisoning it is very personal . . . we all care about not getting food poisoning.”

Tru dat.

rotten.food.cookbook.dec.

Boston chipotle closed after 80 illnesses; employee worked while ill

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Things aren’t good for Chipotle. Here’s the list of recent outbreaks: E. coli in Seattle, Salmonella in Minnesota, Norovirus iportland-press-herald_3512878-300x235n California and E. coli O26 and in at least 9 states. All of that since July.

And now, according to NBC news, over 80 ill Boston College students (and probably others) have been linked to a eating at a Chipotle in Cleveland Circle. Environmental health folks shut the restaurant following an investigation revealed an employee worked while ill.

Not good.

City health officials ordered the outlet closed after an inspection showed the cooked chicken used to make burritos, tacos and other dishes was being kept at too low a temperature, an employee worked while showing signs of illness and because of the reports of possible foodborne illness.

Chipotle said it had voluntarily closed the restaurant in the Brighton section of the city.

“All 80 students have confirmed that they ate at the Chipotle Restaurant in Cleveland Circle during the weekend,” Boston College said in a statement.

“All have been tested for both E. coli and the norovirus. Test results will not be available for at least two days.”

 

Vietnam voters express food safety worries to President

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Food hygiene and safety and the level of public debts were two major concerns voters in HCM City’s District 4 expressed during their meeting with State President Truong Tan Sang and the city’s National Assembly members on Sunday.

vietnam.food.safetyNguyen Trong Nhuong told Sang that he was greatly worried at seeing people use prohibited agents in cattle and vegetable farming, and since it would affect people’s health, the Government should take steps to stop it.

Authorities should enforce the Law on Food Hygiene and Safety from the farm to the processing plant, and top leaders should be held accountable in places where unsafe food is found, he said.

Another voter, Chung Cuong Sanh, said he was disappointed with the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development’s reply to a question about food hygiene and safety at the recent session of the National Assembly.

After hearing from the public, the President said food safety is among the top issues concerning people, admitting the situation is becoming increasingly serious despite regular inspection by authorities.

Toxo in meat – US edition

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Toxoplasma gondii is a global protozoan parasite capable of infecting most warm-blooded animals. Although healthy adult humans generally have no symptoms, severe illness does occur in certain groups, including congenitally infected fetuses and newborns, immunocompromised individuals including transplant patients.

toxoplasma-gondii-life-cycleEpidemiological studies have demonstrated that consumption of raw or undercooked meat products is one of the major sources of infection with T. gondii. The goal of this study was to develop a framework to qualitatively estimate the exposure risk to T. gondii from various meat products consumed in the United States.

Risk estimates of various meats were analyzed by a farm-to-retail qualitative assessment that included evaluation of farm, abattoir, storage and transportation, meat processing, packaging, and retail modules. It was found that exposure risks associated with meats from free-range chickens, nonconfinement-raised pigs, goats, and lamb are higher than those from confinement-raised pigs, cattle, and caged chickens. For fresh meat products, risk at the retail level was similar to that at the farm level unless meats had been frozen or moisture enhanced.

Our results showed that meat processing, such as salting, freezing, commercial hot air drying, long fermentation times, hot smoking, and cooking, are able to reduce T. gondii levels in meat products. whereas nitrite and/or nitrate, spice, low pH, and cold storage have no effect on the viability of T. gondii tissue cysts. Raw-fermented sausage, cured raw meat, meat that is not hot-air dried, and fresh processed meat were associated with higher exposure risks compared with cooked meat and frozen meat.

This study provides a reference for meat management control programs to determine critical control points and serves as the foundation for future quantitative risk assessments.

Qualitative assessment for Toxoplasma gondii exposure risk associated with meat products in the United States

Journal of Food Protection, Number 12, December 2015

Miao Guo, Robert L. Buchanan, Jitender P. Dubey, Dolores E. Hill, Elisabetta Lambertini, Yuqing Ying, Ray H. Gamble, Jeffrey L. Jones, and Abani K. Pradhan

http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/iafp/jfp/2015/00000078/00000012/art00013