Katie Overbey: March gastro madness

Posted on March 25, 2015 by Ben Chapman

Katie Overbey, a food science graduate student at NC State who focuses on food safety communication and norovirus writes:

Basketball has been on my mind a lot this past week and I’ve wondered a few times what would happen if a team participating in the NCAA tournament fell victim to norovirus? Today, I got my answer.

San Diego State men’s basketball players and coaches got a bit more March Madness than they were counting on this past weekend when members of the team came down with GI illnesses before their game against Duke on Sunday. According to Fox Sports, multiple players, as well as the head coach, experienced symptoms, which sounds like norovirus (but wasn’t confirmed).

The trouble began when senior guard Aqeel Quinn came down with what the team thought was a case of food poisoning after eating a turkey sandwich Thursday.

Head athletic trainer Tom Abdenour said he started hearing that others weren’t feeling well by Saturday evening.

“Coach Fisher said he wasn’t feeling well after practice, then … there’s a text from this one, text from that one,” he said. “It was, ‘Wait a second, what’s going on here?'”

Abdenour said Fisher and assistant coach Brian Dutcher needed IVs on Sunday, while several players told him they weren’t feeling well at breakfast.

Abdenour said radio play-by-play announcer Ted Leitner was also battling the bug.

“That’s not fun to deal with that, but that had no impact on how we competed, what we did, how we played,” Fisher said. “That had no bearing on it.”

Intense GI distress of the norovirus variety doesn’t usually leave me in peak physical condition.

Why I don’t eat raw shellfish: Viruses in food

Posted on March 25, 2015 by Douglas Powell

The UK Advisory Committee on the Microbiological Safety of Food (ACMSF) has published its extensive review of viruses in the food chain. The ACMSF set up a group to revisit the issue of foodborne viruses in light of developments in this area. The final report considered the most important viruses associated with foodborne infections – norovirus, hepatitis A, and hepatitis E.

The report makes a number of recommendations for government departments, including the need for more research in certain areas, and for clear advice for consumers, for example on cooking shellfish and pork products and information on washing leafy green vegetables and soft fruit. The government will respond in due course when the recommendations have been considered in detail.

Professor Sarah O’Brien, Chair of the ACMSF, said: ‘Until recently it has been difficult to assess accurately the impact of foodborne viruses on public health. However, significant advances in our ability to detect viruses in food, coupled with up- to-date estimates of the burden of illness, highlighted in the ACMSF’s latest update, show us that viruses are very important, preventable causes of foodborne illness.’

Summary

In 1994, in response to the outcomes of a joint Advisory Committee of Microbiological Safety of Food (ACMSF) and Steering Group on the Microbiological Safety of Food (SGMSF) meeting, a Working Group was set up to investigate the science and epidemiology of Foodborne Viral Infections. The Working Group assessed the risk from viruses that were believed to be the primary cause of foodborne illness. This report provides an update to this information and provides a new focus on the viruses which are currently the major route of foodborne illness.

Since the publication of the 1998 report, with the exception of two minor risk assessments on hepatitis E and avian influenza, no formal review on viruses had been performed by the ACMSF. It was decided that as significant developments had been made not only in the detection of foodborne viruses, but also in the amount of information obtained from the Infectious Intestinal Disease (IID) Study in England (published in 2000), which indicated a significant disease burden from enteric viruses in the community, it was important that an Ad-Hoc Group was convened to revisit these issues and to provide an update to the 1998 risk assessment.

The FVI Group first met to begin their consideration in November 2010. Over 32 months, the Group met thirteen times to discuss all aspects of viruses in the food chain from farm to fork. As a starting point for the report, the Group reviewed the recommendations from the 1998 report and gave consideration as to whether these had been adequately addressed or were still relevant. At the same time the recommendations from the 2008 World Health Organisation (WHO) Viruses in Food: Scientific Advice to Support Risk Management Activities Matrix and CODEX Criteria, and the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) Scientific Opinion on an update on the present knowledge on the occurrence and control of foodborne viruses were reviewed.

Using this information along with data on disease burden in the community and outbreak data (from IID and IID2) the Group agreed the scope of the report and what viruses would be its main focus. It was decided that that due to their potential impact and the paucity of data in this area, norovirus, hepatitis E and hepatitis A would be the main focus of the report, although many of the recommendations would also be applicable to other enteric viruses.

During its consideration, the Group reviewed available data on commodities contaminated at source, i.e. bivalve shellfish, pork products and fresh produce and reviewed data on risks associated with infected food handlers. Environmental contamination was reviewed with consideration given to testing methods such as polymerase chain reaction (PCR), person-to-person transmission and food handlers. The Group also considered the engagement with industry and other Government departments (OGDs) regarding environmental conditions of shellfish waters and its impact on norovirus.

A review of data on issues regarding food contact surface contamination, including survivability and persistence was considered along with options for control at all stages of the food chain e.g. thermal processing, storage etc. The thermal stability of hepatitis E was considered with data presented on the increasing occurrence of the disease particularly in older UK males and the recent case control study on the association with processed pork products.

In order to obtain sentinel data the group investigated the important issue of knowledge gathering and surveillance data regarding foodborne viruses. The current limitations of the data were discussed along with what type of data was needed to provide more useful/accurate information on foodborne virus outbreaks. This review included looking at outbreaks from an Environmental Health Officer (EHO) perspective and how they prioritise what they investigate and the data they collect.

Finally, the group reviewed the consumer perspective on risk. This included looking at how risk is presented and information distributed, as this was likely to impact on any future risk assessment.

Within the report the Group has endeavoured to prioritise the recommendations by separating these into those that will inform risk assessments and those that will impact on risk assessments. Full details are provided in the report; however, key recommendations include:

A better understanding of ‘’foodborne viral disease’ (Chapter 3) is required by investigating the correlation between infective dose and genome titre. Molecular diagnostics, typing and quantification should also be used to better understand the burden of virus contamination in foodstuffs. Work is also recommended to develop the methods used to assess norovirus and hepatitis E infectivity in food samples. This would better inform surveys and could potentially be applied to routine monitoring.

Improved ‘routine surveillance and investigation of foodborne viruses’ (Chapter 5) is required with Government agencies developing a single integrated outbreak reporting scheme. A joined up approach that would also involve the annual consolidation of records would reduce the chance of underreporting outbreaks. Further to this, reliable methods for norovirus whole genome sequencing should be developed to enable virus tracking and attribution.

More research on the ‘contamination of food’ (Chapter 6) through sewage contamination is recommended. In particular work should investigate the effectiveness of sewage treatment processes in reducing norovirus concentrations, including the use of depuration on shellfish species and disinfection treatments. Similarly, research is needed to identify the most effective means of decontaminating ‘fresh produce’ post-harvest (Chapter 7).

With the emerging risk of hepatitis E in pigs, the Group recommends work is undertaken to investigate the heat inactivation of hepatitis E in ‘pork products’ (Chapter 8). Research on the effect of curing and fermentation on hepatitis E in pork products is also recommended.

The full list of conclusions and recommendation are presented at the end of each subject area and are consolidated in Chapter 12 for ease of reference.

The assessments made and conclusions reached by the Group reflect evidence oral and written drawn from the scientific community, Government departments and Agencies, EFSA and the scientific literature. The Group’s full conclusions, identified data gaps and recommendations are brought together at the end of this report. The ACMSF accepts full responsibility for the final content of the report.

Cameras are everywhere: Newfoundland uni probing student complaints of raw, mouldy food

Posted on March 25, 2015 by Douglas Powell

The food service at Memorial University in St. John’s, N.L. is looking into complaints of spoiled meals, after photos of mouldy and raw products allegedly served at a campus dining hall were posted to social media.

A collection of photos and complaints were posted online Monday, alleging that the students were being served spoiled, unsafe food. The photos include images of a fly on a taco plate, undercooked pork chops, and a mouldy lemon.

The author of the lengthy post complained that students living in residence are forced to purchase meal plans that cost between $2,200 and $2,300 per semester, but the food being served to them is not edible.

According to the post, the school’s dining services are now being handled by Aramark, a U.S.-based food services company.

“Over the course of this year, every meal is a gamble,” the post read. “The only truly safe foods which pose no threat of food poisoning/disgusting experiences are toasts and cereals. I personally have had uncooked eggs, raw cod fish, uncooked chicken breasts/chicken pot pie, food with hair baked in, and several other equally disgusting occurrences.”

The lengthy post also included complaints that were posted to the MUN Dining Services Facebook page, and responses from the page administrators.

An online petition has also been created, calling on the university to enforce higher food quality and health standards at the dining hall.

In response to the complaints, a statement was posted Wednesday to the MUN Dining Services Facebook page, stating that the dining services department is “very concerned” about the images posted to social media.

“We have brought in a team of food safety experts to assess our operations and ensure that we are providing a positive, safe and healthy dining environment for students, faculty, visitors and staff,” the statement said.

A town hall meeting is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, for students to voice their concerns about the university’s food services.

Why is the university responding with an antiquated town hall meeting instead of aggressively circulating proof of the safety of the food? Oh, maybe that doesn’t exist.

Prepared Indian foods recalled for botulism concerns in Scotland

Posted on March 25, 2015 by Douglas Powell

A range of pre-prepared Indian foods from the Mrs Unis brand have been recalled by the Food Standards Agency following concerns over the Edinburgh-based company’s procedures to control Clostridium botulinum.

The brand, headed by veteran businesswoman Shaheen Unis, dubbed “Scotland’s curry queen”, was ordered to withdraw a range of ‘atmosphere packed’ products – including six different tyypes of pakora – from sale as a “precautionary measure”. The FSA said that there was “not enough evidence” to show that the products are safe to eat, warning that the process controls at the company’s factory at the Peffermill industrial estate, which provides foods for the retail, catering and wholesale market, were not effective in their ability to prevent the growth and toxin production of the bacterium.

Cities using social media to police restaurants

Posted on March 25, 2015 by Douglas Powell

While cities like Guelph, Ontario, are being dragged into the age of public disclosure, countries like Singapore have been training and using restaurant patrons as gumshoes for a decade to help public health types identify possible infractions through the use of cell phones (with nifty cameras).

The U.S. is slowly catching on, using Yelp to check health inspection scores for eateries in San Francisco, Louisville, Kentucky, and several other communities.

Local governments increasingly are turning to social media to alert the public to health violations and to nudge establishments into cleaning up their acts. A few cities are even mining users’ comments to track foodborne illnesses or predict which establishments are likely to have sanitation problems.

“For consumers, posting inspection information on Yelp is a good thing because they’re able to make better, informed decisions about where to eat,” said Michael Luca, an assistant professor at Harvard Business School who specializes in the economics of online businesses. “It also holds restaurants more accountable about cleanliness.”

In recent years, dozens of city and county health departments have been posting restaurant inspection results on government websites to share with the public. Turning to Yelp or other social media, or using crowd-sourced information to increase public awareness, is the next logical step, some officials say.

“Yelp is a window into the restaurant. The restaurateurs don’t want a bad (health) score on Yelp. They’ll be more attentive about getting the restaurants cleaned up and safer,” said Rajiv Bhatia, former environmental health director for the San Francisco Department of Public Health.

“It’s also valuable because it allows the public to see the workings of a government agency, and puts some pressure on the agency to do its job,” said Bhatia, a physician who is now a public health consultant.

The National Restaurant Association, the industry’s trade group, said that while it supports transparency and consumers’ access to information, it worries that because inspection standards differ from city to city, Yelp users might not be familiar with rating terminology and therefore could draw incorrect conclusions.

David Matthews, the association’s general counsel, also said the timing of postings is crucial because restaurants often correct findings and generate different ratings after a re-inspection.

Luther Lowe, Yelp’s director of public policy said putting health scores and inspection results in an accessible place where consumers already are searching for restaurant information makes a lot more sense than “relying on those clunky (health department) dot-gov websites.”

How Canadian: Restaurant food safety reporting needs review in Guelph

Posted on March 25, 2015 by Douglas Powell

According to this editorial, it seems like the Guelph-area public health unit can take extra steps to make the community more aware of food safety issues at local eateries.

Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph Public Health’s latest records show it has recently flagged 152 area eateries with food safety violations that could cause food poisoning.

However, unless someone went through the health unit’s posted database for such issues, there would be no public notification surrounding these findings. What’s more, there is no obligation for local eateries to even draw the public’s attention to the existence of recent health unit inspection results, let alone make available, on-site, a report of such findings relating to their food operation.

The health unit touted its present, public food safety inspections database related to local eateries when the online tool was launched in 2013. It suggested the system was a big improvement over what had been in place in this regard. That was true. What it replaced was an opaque system for the public that required requests for the food safety records of eateries to be made to the health unit for its release, on its timing.

However, even when the Check Before You Choose program emerged, it lagged behind best practices elsewhere in the public health field — even in southern Ontario.

Since 2001, Toronto Public Health’s DineSafe has been a leader in this sector. Where the Guelph-area health unit obliges citizens to do their research and dig for potentially concerning restaurant food safety records, the Toronto system makes eateries prominently post the results of the latest health unit inspections on-site. What’s more, the reports are colour coded, so it can be seen at a glance whether an eatery received a pass (green), a yellow report (conditional approval), or a red (closure order) in their latest inspection.

The Toronto system has its critics. Some fault DineSafe as a “name and shame” initiative that may also give a false sense of food safety security to diners. However, DineSafe’s introduction coincided with a period where the rate of food safety compliance jumped at local eateries and stayed higher.

A version of the system has since been adopted in several other regional health unit venues and in other international jurisdictions.

Fancy food ain’t safe food: UK Hell’s Kitchen edition

Posted on March 25, 2015 by Douglas Powell

The owner of an award-winning café must pay out thousands for food safety offences that include leaving raw chickens next to a block of cheese.

Helen Pattinson, 47, who ran Hell’s Kitchen, in Stockport centre, until it closed in summer 2013 was found guilty of eight breaches of the Food Safety Act.

She was fined £2,550 with £5,000 costs at Manchester Crown Court on Thursday following inspections in September 2012 and again in May 2013.

After the first inspection the café, on Hillgate, was given a zero hygiene rating. It had been named as producing the best builders’ breakfast in Stockport in 2012.

The other most serious offences were deemed to include food being washed in sinks full of dirty equipment, a build up of food debris on the counter, dirty walls and having a dirty pie warmer.

Blue Bell outbreak: Faith-based food safety doesn’t get rid of Listeria

Posted on March 25, 2015 by Douglas Powell

An outbreak of listeria that contributed to the deaths of three people has been traced to a second production facility operated by Blue Bell Ice Cream.

Blue Bell spokesman Gene Grabowski said Tuesday that a contaminated 3-ounce cup of ice cream was traced to a plant in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma. Ten products recalled earlier this month by the company were traced to a production line at a plant in Brenham, Texas, where the company is based.

The recall began when five patients at Via Christi St. Francis hospital in Wichita, Kansas, became ill with listeria while hospitalized. Officials determined at least four drank milkshakes that contained Blue Bell ice cream. Three of the patients later died.

The contaminated 3-ounce cup was found at the hospital.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control reports that all five people were hospitalized at the same hospital for unrelated problems before developing invasive listeriosis—a finding that strongly suggests their infections were acquired in the hospital.

Three deaths were reported among these five patients.

Of the four ill people for whom information is available on the foods eaten in the month before Listeria infection, all four consumed milkshakes made with a single-serving Blue Bell brand ice cream product called “Scoops” while they were in the hospital.

The Kansas Department of Agriculture’s (KDA) laboratory isolated Listeria monocytogenes from a previously unopened, single-serving Blue Bell brand 3 oz. institutional/food service chocolate ice cream cup obtained in March 2015 from the hospital associated with this outbreak.

On March 23, 2015, Blue Bell Ice Cream of Brenham, Texas, announced a recall of 3 oz. institutional/food service ice cream cups (with tab lids) of the following flavors: chocolate, strawberry, and vanilla.

CDC recommends that consumers do not eat recalled products and that institutions and retailers do not sell or serve them.

Investigation into whether other products were produced on the same line as the 3 oz. institutional/food service ice cream cups is ongoing, and new information will be provided as it becomes available.

Listeria monocytogenes was previously isolated from the following Blue Bell brand ice cream products collected from Blue Bell Creameries facilities in Texas, South Carolina, or both in 2015: ice cream Scoops, Chocolate Chip Country Cookie Sandwiches, and Great Divide Bars.

Whole genome sequences of Listeria monocytogenes strains isolated from these ice cream products were highly related to sequences of Listeria strains isolated from four patients in this outbreak.

Blue Bell Creameries reported that these products were removed from the market in March 2015. However, contaminated ice cream products may still be in the freezers of consumers, institutions, and retailers.

6 sick with campy: California warns of raw milk

Posted on March 25, 2015 by Douglas Powell

California Department of Public Health (CDPH) Director and State Health Officer Dr. Karen Smith today warned consumers that the consumption of unpasteurized (raw) dairy products may cause serious illness. Six Northern California residents have recently been diagnosed with campylobacteriosis, a bacterial infection that can come from consuming contaminated raw milk.

A recent investigation conducted by CDPH identified multiple bottles of Claravale Farm raw milk that tested positive for Campylobacter. Under the direction of the California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA), Claravale Farm has initiated a recall of the affected product.

Although the sale of raw milk from some dairies is legal in California, CDPH does not recommend drinking raw milk or raw milk products or giving raw milk, colostrum, raw cream or other raw milk products to children. Raw milk products sold in California are required to carry a warning label:

“WARNING: Raw (unpasteurized) milk and raw milk dairy products may contain disease-causing microorganisms. Persons at highest risk of disease from these organisms include newborns and infants; the elderly; pregnant women; those taking corticosteroids, antibiotics or antacids; and those having chronic illnesses or other conditions that weaken their immunity.”

Boo-hoo: Australian raw milk pushers losing thousands under new laws

Posted on March 25, 2015 by Douglas Powell

New Victorian laws governing the sale of unpasteurised milk are costing organic dairy farmers thousands of dollars.

The death of a three-year-old boy last year, as well as three additional cases of hemolytic uremic syndrome in children under 5-years-old prompted the State Government to bring in new laws this year.

Dairy farmers must add a gagging agent to their milk, to make it unpalatable, if they want to sell it as raw or bath milk for cosmetic purposes.

Simon Schulz, a third generation dairy farmer from the state’s south-west, said he was unable to add a gagging agent and still keep his organic certification.

He said his family now pasteurised all its milk.

Adam Jenkins, the recently installed president of the United Dairy Farmers of Victoria, the state’s peak dairy lobby group, said, “People have made comments about how old farmers drink their own milk out of the vat or we give it to our neighbours. At the end of the day, that’s not really the discussion.”

Mr Jenkins said he understood the need for farmers to supply niche markets to maintain their incomes.

He said the biggest issue facing the raw milk industry was ensuring a safe supply chain from the farm to customers’ houses.

“You can’t just say ‘yes, we’re going to have it’ and have no quality assurance process,” Mr Jenkins said.

“I agree the [government] has done the right thing – maybe gone too hard, too quick – but maybe we need to relook at it. If people are really that keen on that, then they can pursue their own advocacy towards that.”

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safe food from farm to fork

Yearly Archives: 2015

Katie Overbey: March gastro madness

Why I don’t eat raw shellfish: Viruses in food

Prepared Indian foods recalled for botulism concerns in Scotland

How Canadian: Restaurant food safety reporting needs review in Guelph

Fancy food ain’t safe food: UK Hell’s Kitchen edition

Blue Bell outbreak: Faith-based food safety doesn’t get rid of Listeria

6 sick with campy: California warns of raw milk

Boo-hoo: Australian raw milk pushers losing thousands under new laws