There were some cucumbers from Mexico that made people sick.
3 people died, they won’t get over it.
Maybe the birds, maybe the water,
Maybe the sick included a daughter.
Tomatoes and cucs, do people think about that?
Or is it just easier to blame the cat.
30-second food safety stories.
It’s all true.
Here’s a video of a very determined rat carrying a slice of pizza down stairs and into our hearts.
The disturbing and oddly endearing 14-second video is going viral on Facebook and Twitter, being touted by many as “the most New York thing ever.” The YouTube clip was ostensibly shot in New York City on stairs leading down to the subway.
Why is it so popular? Well, it’s Monday. This has to be a metaphor for something.
Obviously, the Internet is having some fun with #pizzarat.
“I have taken the pizza wasted on the subway forgive me it was wasted on the ground forgive me it was so pizza and I’m a rat”
Thodoris Roussos stood in his butcher’s shop and pointed to a large white delivery truck at the curb.
For months, he had put off replacing the tires, because Greece’s financial crisis had cut into business. But recently, he upgraded the van with a set of good wheels at a price that could not be beat.
“Normally, the tires cost 340 euros, but no money changed hands,” Mr. Roussos said, beaming. “I paid the guy in meat.”
As Greece grapples with a continued downturn, bartering is gaining traction at the margins of the economy, part of a collection of worrisome signs for Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras who was re-elected on Sunday.
Graphic artists are exchanging designs for olive oil. Accountants swap advice for office supplies. In the agricultural heartland and on the Greek islands, informal bartering, which has historically helped communities survive, has intensified as more people exchange fruits, vegetables, other crops, equipment, clothing and services.
This is my go-to look for university administrators, bureaucrats, and hockey parents.
The bench is mine (thanks, Alex, for the pic).
There was this one-time, BC (before children), that Amy and I went to a hockey game in Phoenix and I waved at my friend Wayne, who was the coach, but he didn’t wave back.
The two guys behind us were typical Arizona-post-grad doucebags, and wouldn’t shut-up.
After hitting Amy for about the third time with their beers, I had to be pretend tough guy and tell them to back off.
But it was the idiotic level of conversation we remember.
This dude was going on about how he had a cougar in Boca, and he was so important because he got 50 e-mails a day.
I get about 1,000.
Only those who are insecure brag about that.
But who wants to brag about Boca, in Florida, with restaurant ratings like these?
Leading off in the Yuck category is Bonaccino Café, a little place near one of the east entrances of Town Center Mall (by the parking structure and Willams-Sonoma). They were temporarily closed and the inspection report indicates a total of 24 violations including 10 marked high priority. Here are some of the lowlights:
Employee failed to wash hands before changing gloves and/or putting on gloves to work with food. Cook washed hands and changed gloves upon request.
Stir Crazy in Town Center had 14 violations with 3 marked high priority.
There once was a guy who bought peanuts in Georgia and made them into butter.
Peanut butter.
His peanuts had Salmonella, and his products killed 9 people and sickened at least 714.
Stewart Parnell knew his products had Salmonella, but he lied, he lied.
He will no longer play tennis.
He will spend the next 28 years in jail.
30-second food safety stories.
Names and locations have been changed to protect, uh, identities.
So many questions.
Where did the carrots come from? Where did they go? How was $20 arrived at as the price? Does this fit into someone’s food safety plan?
In unrelated news, CDC estimates that about half of the foodborne illness in the U.S. is attributed to produce.
Food Safety Talk, a bi-weekly podcast for food safety nerds, by food safety nerds. The podcast is hosted by Ben Chapman and barfblog contributor Don Schaffner, Extension Specialist in Food Science and Professor at Rutgers University. Every two weeks or so, Ben and Don get together virtually and talk for about an hour. They talk about what’s on their minds or in the news regarding food safety, and popular culture. They strive to be relevant, funny and informative — sometimes they succeed. You can download the audio recordings right from the website, or subscribe using iTunes.
The show opens with a discussion of Don’s mic stand and quickly segues into “Linda’s Famous Cigar Story”, and Ben’s annual pollen throat. After a discussion of their various ailments, Don wishes Ben an almost 37th birthday.
Ben is currently expecting a new macbook, which was discussed on Episode 116 of the Talk Show. Don shares his recent experiences looking at Apple Watch in the Apple Store, and his preference for the Milanese Loop and his new burr grinder and aeropress.
When the talk turns to food safety, Ben talks about his work with Family & Consumer Sciences in North Carolina, (called Family and Community Health Sciences at Rutgers University) and how Ben has recently changed his training practices from classroom lecture to supermarket and restaurant inspection field trips based on inspiration from Dara Bloom.
This inspires Don to talk about the work he’s doing to help documentary film makers doing a story on shelf life dating of foods especially milk. Ben shares some of the myths circulating about expired milk including this bogus article from Livestrong, and the work he’s doing on expired food and food pantries.
From there the discussion moves to other shelf life myths including the egg float or shake tests, and why they are bogus, as well as places to go for good egg information, because someone on the Internet will always be wrong.
The discussion turns to recalled hummus recall messaging and Ben’s post hockey snacking tips.
As the guys wrap up the show they briefly talk about Blue Bell ice cream and the doses of Listeria that might have made people sick and the future of food safety given the advances in molecular biology, clinical microbiology and whole genome sequencing. Ben shares some final thoughts on Salmonella in spices and how whole genome sequencing might impact that industry too.
In the brief after dark, Ben and Don talk about yoga, and getting healthy, the Turing Test, and the new Star Wars movie trailer.
Food micro geek Don Schaffner of Rutgers University responds in a point-counterpoint style discussion of antibacterials in soap and effectiveness.
According to the story, a new study published in the Journal of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy found that antibacterial handwash is no more effective than plain soap at killing bacteria.
In recent years numerous products have appeared on the shelves claiming they were effective in killing 99.9 per cent of all germs.
But Korea University scientists investigated the effect of triclosan, the most commonly used active antiseptic ingredient in soap, in everyday conditions on bacteria such as MRSA, salmonella and listeria.
In recent years numerous products have appeared on the shelves claiming they were effective in killing 99.9 per cent of all germs. That’s actually a regulated label claim. And it’s not “99.9 per cent of all germs.” It’s 99.9 percent (3 log reduction for the math nerds) of certain regulatory-specified organisms under specified test conditions.
One central key weakness of the study is that authors state in their methods, “Antibacterial soap had the same formulation as plain soap except that it contained 0.3% triclosan.” While this might seem to be a good idea from the science perspective, it turns out that soap formulation is a tricky business. For antimicrobials to be optimally effective, the formulation might need to be adjusted. You can’t just throw sh*t in at ‘the maximum allowed by law’ and expect it to work.
According to American Family Physician, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that each year, one in six Americans will experience a foodborne illness.
The most common causes in the United States are viruses, such as norovirus; bacteria, such as Salmonella, Escherichia coli, Campylobacter, and Listeria; and parasites, such as Toxoplasma gondii and Giardia. Resources are available to educate consumers on food recalls and proper handling, storage, and cooking of foods. Diagnosis and management of a foodborne illness are based on the history and physical examination. Common symptoms of foodborne illnesses include vomiting, diarrhea (with or without blood), fever, abdominal cramping, headache, dehydration, myalgia, and arthralgias. Definitive diagnosis can be made only through stool culture or more advanced laboratory testing. However, these results should not delay empiric treatment if a foodborne illness is suspected. Empiric treatment should focus on symptom management, rehydration if the patient is clinically dehydrated, and antibiotic therapy. Foodborne illnesses should be reported to local and state health agencies; reporting requirements vary among states.
Foodborne illness can be caused by a multitude of microorganisms such as viruses, bacteria, and parasites. Foodborne illness is a worldwide problem, and U.S. outbreaks often garner media attention and result in food recalls. Foodborne illnesses are becoming a greater challenge because of new and emerging microorganisms and toxins, the growth of antibiotic resistance, increasing food contamination caused by new environments and methods of food production, and an increase in multistate outbreaks.1 There are more than 250 identified pathogens that cause foodborne illness. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that one in six Americans (approximately 48 million) will become sick from a foodborne pathogen each year, resulting in 128,000 hospitalizations and 3,000 deaths.2 Most foodborne illnesses, hospitalizations, and deaths are caused by one of eight common pathogens: norovirus, nontyphoidal Salmonella, Clostridium perfringens, Campylobacter, Staphylococcus aureus, Toxoplasma gondii, Listeria monocytogenes, and Shiga toxin–producing Escherichia coli 2 (Table 13). E. coli is commonly divided into two broad types, Shiga toxin–producing—of which E. coli O157:H7 is the best studied—and non-Shiga toxin–producing, which includes enteropathogenic, enteroinvasive, enteroaggregative, and diffusely adherent E. coli. New pathogens emerge constantly, whereas others decrease in significance or disappear altogether. Predicting the emergence or disappearance of specific pathogens—other than in the setting of an identified outbreak—is difficult and has not significantly prevented or limited foodborne illnesses.
