Yearly Archives: 2015

34 sick with Salmonella: Fancy food ain’t safe food, Melbourne edition

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Six people have been hospitalized and at least another 28 struck down by a Salmonella outbreak after attending High Tea in Melbourne’s prestigious Langham Hotel.

Check the egg-based dishes.

salm.langam.hotelHealth authorities investigating the outbreak have so far tracked down 66 people who attended the Langham’s luxury afternoon teas on July 11 and 12 and confirmed 34 cases of Salmonella, although the numbers may rise.

The Department of Health has confirmed six of the most serious cases had to attend hospital, but details of their condition have not been released.

Victoria’s latest Salmonella scare comes amid a worrying escalation in food poisonings, with confirmed salmonellosis cases soaring by an alarming 130 per cent in the past six years, to 3,693 cases in 2014.

Already this year there have been 2,124 Salmonella notifications, though Victorians are yet to hit the most dangerous months when warmer temperatures allow the bacteria to quickly multiply.

The Langham accommodates some of Melbourne’s most high-profile guests, but it is not yet known if any prominent clients have been caught up in the food poisoning.

Aioli, raw egg and food porn

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There’s a self-congratulatory culture within self-titled food advocates who care more about food porn than microbial safety – the things that make people barf.

aioliAnd why The New Times is becoming increasing irrelevant (and please, stop sending me those thrice daily e-mails about the latest subscription special).

Columnist Mark Bittman, advocate of many microbiologically dubious practices – I wonder if he’s has ever used a thermometer – writes that Alice Waters  is probably the most important American in food.

Bittman writes he wasn’t surprised to see her making the aioli — garlic mayonnaise to serve with the fish and its accompaniments — in the most inefficient and old-fashioned way possible: using a mortar and pestle to mash the garlic, a fork to whip up the emulsion and no lemon juice, vinegar or any other acid at all. It was the best mayonnaise I’ve ever tasted, but then again, she did use a wonderfully perfumed olive oil.

And probably a raw egg.

Consumer shell egg consumption and handling practices: results from a national survey

Journal of Food Protection®, Number 7, July 2015, pp. 1250-1419

Kosa, Katherine M., Cates, Sheryl C., Bradley, Samantha, Godwin, Sandria, Chambers, Delores

http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/iafp/jfp/2015/00000078/00000007/art00010

Abstract:

Numerous cases and outbreaks of Salmonella infection are attributable to shell eggs each year in the United States. Safe handling and consumption of shell eggs at home can help reduce foodborne illness attributable to shell eggs.

A nationally representative Web survey of 1,504 U.S. adult grocery shoppers was conducted to describe consumer handling practices and consumption of shell eggs at home. Based on self-reported survey data, most respondents purchase shell eggs from a grocery store (89.5%), and these eggs were kept refrigerated (not at room temperature; 98.5%). As recommended, most consumers stored shell eggs in the refrigerator (99%) for no more than 3 to 5 weeks (97.6%). After cracking eggs, 48.1% of respondents washed their hands with soap and water. More than half of respondents who fry and/or poach eggs cooked them so that the whites and/or the yolks were still soft or runny, a potentially unsafe practice. Among respondents who owned a food thermometer (62.0%), only 5.2% used it to check the doneness of baked egg dishes the they prepared such a dish. Consumers generally followed two of the four core “Safe Food Families” food safety messages (“separate” and “chill”) when handling shell eggs at home.

To prevent Salmonella infection associated with shell eggs, consumers should improve their practices related to the messages “clean” (i.e., wash hands after cracking eggs) and “cook” (i.e., cook until yolks and whites are firm and use a food thermometer to check doneness of baked egg dishes) when preparing shell eggs at home. These findings will be used to inform the development of science-based consumer education materials that can help reduce foodborne illness from Salmonella infection.

 

Horse and Hound and food fraud

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I only know Horse and Hound from the 1999 movie, Notting Hill.

But the magazine reports that the 2013 horse meat scandal shed light on fraudulent practices on a huge scale.

Horse_&_Hound_(magazine)More than two years on from the grim news, what has happened and what is being done to try and ensure that history does not repeat itself?

As well as the public’s horror, the issue also threw up other major questions.

In January 2013, a study by the Irish Food Safety Agency found equine DNA in processed beef products.

It found that 29% of a tested Tesco’s everyday value burger was in fact horse meat.

The Food Standards Agency (FSA) ordered tests on processed beef products.

The following month, it found the meat content in a Findus beef lasagne was up to 100% horse meat.

Further tests took place, identifying horse meat in other supermarket products, and the FSA said all horses must be tested for bute — and be found negative — before entering the food chain.

World Horse Welfare chief executive Roly Owers said, “We believe that tougher checks at UK abattoirs have increased the under-the-radar trade of horses and ponies of a low market value to the continent, ostensibly for riding but in reality we believe many go for slaughter.”

Almost 10,000 horses were killed for human consumption in the UK in 2012, compared to less than 5,000 in 2013.

He added “probably thousands” of horses would be spared the “needless ordeal” of being exported for slaughter if the UK enforced its own laws.

100 workers sickened in Vietnam: Having a food safety conference doesn’t help

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Nearly 100 workers of a footwear company in HCM City’s Thu Duc District were rushed to hospitals on Wednesday evening allegedly for food poisoning.

vietnam.ngo_docThe workers reportedly suffered from stomach ache, vomiting and diarrhea after having dinner before the late shift.

Nguyen Thanh Binh, a doctor at the Emergency Department of Thu Duc District Hospital said that the workers displayed symptoms of food poisoning.

This food poisoning case occurred just a day before a conference in northern Thai Nguyen Province on food safety at collective canteens organised by the health ministry.

Deputy Health Minister Nguyen Thanh Long told the conference that more than 1,000 workers have been hospitalised for food poisoning after having meals at collective canteens in industrial zones and export processing zones each year.

 

Cleaner cantaloupes: Sanitizers for rock melon

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For health reasons, people are consuming fresh-cut fruits with or without minimal processing and, thereby, exposing themselves to the risk of foodborne illness if such fruits are contaminated with bacterial pathogens.

cantaloupe.salmonellaThis study investigated survival and growth parameters of Escherichia coli O157:H7, Salmonella, Listeria monocytogenes, and aerobic mesophilic bacteria transferred from cantaloupe rind surfaces to fresh-cut pieces during fresh-cut preparation. All human bacterial pathogens inoculated on cantaloupe rind surfaces averaged ∼4.8 log CFU/cm2, and the populations transferred to fresh-cut pieces before washing treatments ranged from 3 to 3.5 log CFU/g for all pathogens. A nisin-based sanitizer developed in our laboratory and chlorinated water at 1,000 mg/liter were evaluated for effectiveness in minimizing transfer of bacterial populations from cantaloupe rind surface to fresh-cut pieces. Inoculated and uninoculated cantaloupes were washed for 5 min before fresh-cut preparation and storage of fresh-cut pieces at 5 and 10°C for 15 days and at 22°C for 24 h. In fresh-cut pieces from cantaloupe washed with chlorinated water, only Salmonella was found (0.9 log CFU/g), whereas E. coli O157:H7 and L. monocytogenes were positive only by enrichment.

The nisin-based sanitizer prevented transfer of human bacteria from melon rind surfaces to fresh-cut pieces, and the populations in fresh-cut pieces were below detection even by enrichment. Storage temperature affected survival and the growth rate for each type of bacteria on fresh-cut cantaloupe. Specific growth rates of E. coli O157:H7, Salmonella, and L. monocytogenes in fresh-cut pieces were similar, whereas the aerobic mesophilic bacteria grew 60 to 80 % faster and had shorter lag phases.

 Efficacy of Sanitizer Treatments on Survival and Growth Parameters of Escherichia coli O157:H7, Salmonella, and Listeria monocytogenes on Fresh-Cut Pieces of Cantaloupe during Storage

Journal of Food Protection®, Number 7, July 2015, pp. 1250-1419

Ukuku, Dike O., Huang, Lihan, Sommers, Andchristopher

http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/iafp/jfp/2015/00000078/00000007/art00007

Still on every sandwich: Sprout safety in Australia

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Seed sprouts have been implicated as vehicles for numerous foodborne outbreaks worldwide.

sprout.apple.aug.14Seed sprouts pose a unique food safety concern because of the ease of microbiological seed contamination, the inherent ability of the sprouting process to support microbial growth, and their consumption either raw or lightly cooked.

To examine seed sprout safety in the Australian state of Victoria, a survey was conducted to detect specific microbes in seed sprout samples and to investigate food handling practices relating to seed sprouts. A total of 298 seed sprout samples were collected from across 33 local council areas. Escherichia coli was detected in 14.8%, Listeria spp. in 12.3%, and Listeria monocytogenes in 1.3% of samples analyzed. Salmonella spp. were not detected in any of the samples.

A range of seed sprout handling practices were identified as potential food safety issues in some food businesses, including temperature control, washing practices, length of storage, and storage in proximity to unpackaged ready-to-eat potentially hazardous foods.

Microbiological Safety and Food Handling Practices of Seed Sprout Products in the Australian State of Victoria

Journal of Food Protection®, Number 7, July 2015, pp. 1250-1419

Symes, Sally, Goldsmith, Paul, Haines, Heather

http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/iafp/jfp/2015/00000078/00000007/art00021

Controlling Salmonella cross-contamination in tomatoes

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Tomato Best Management Practices require Florida packers to treat tomatoes in a flume system containing at least 150 ppm of free chlorine or other approved sanitizer.

tomato.traceabilityHowever, research is needed to determine the ability of these sanitizers to prevent the transfer of pathogens from contaminated to uncontaminated tomatoes, particularly under realistic packinghouse conditions.

The goal of this research was to assess the minimum levels of sanitizer needed to prevent Salmonella cross-contamination between tomatoes in a model flume system under clean conditions and conditions where organic matter was added.

Inoculated tomatoes (ca. 8.3 log CFU per tomato) were treated along with uninoculated tomatoes in a model flume system containing 0, 10, or 25 ppm of hypochlorous acid (HOCl) under organic loading conditions of 0, 500, or 4,000 ppm of chemical oxygen demand (COD). In the absence of HOCl, uninoculated tomatoes were highly contaminated (ca. 5 log CFU per tomato) by 15 s. No contamination was detectable (<2 log CFU per tomato) on uninoculated tomatoes when HOCl was present, except with 10 ppm at 4,000 ppm of COD, suggesting failure of 10 ppm of HOCl as a sanitizer under very high organic loading conditions. In the presence of HOCl or peroxyacetic acid, Salmonella was undetectable (<1 log CFU/ml) in the model flume water samples after 2 and 30 s, respectively. Upon enrichment, none of the uninoculated tomatoes treated with 25 ppm of HOCl for 120 s were positive for Salmonella, even in the presence of organic loading at 500 ppm of COD. Based on these findings, 25 ppm of HOCl may be adequate to prevent cross-contamination when the concentration is properly maintained, COD does not exceed 500 ppm, and tomatoes are treated for at least 120 s.

Further validation in a larger commercial setting and using higher organic loading levels is necessary because managing HOCl at this low concentration is difficult, especially in a recirculating system. The use of less sanitizer by packers could reduce chemical and disposal costs.

Control of Salmonella Cross-Contamination between Green Round Tomatoes in a Model Flume System

Journal of Food Protection®, Number 7, July 2015, pp. 1250-1419

Gereffi, Scott,  Sreedharan, Aswathy, Schneider, Keith R.

http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/iafp/jfp/2015/00000078/00000007/art00006

Source safe food: Cook, clean, chill separate doesn’t cut it

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In related things Philly, Don Sapatkin writes that back in 2002, with at least 85 people sickened by Salmonella, Bucks County health inspectors discovered that kitchen workers at a Lone Star Steakhouse on Route 1 were washing tomatoes and raw chicken in the same sink. They shut the place down until an additional sink could be installed to prevent cross-contamination.

philadelphia.food“We thought we had it nailed,” recalled Bill Roth, who oversees food safety for the county health department.

Not exactly. When the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention analyzed victims’ stool samples, Roth recalled, they noticed something completely different: The same strain of Salmonella had been found elsewhere. Connecting the dots, federal investigators traced the outbreak to contaminated tomatoes from a Virginia farm that were making gastrointestinal life very unpleasant for hundreds of people in 26 states.

The missing-sink violations cited by inspectors at the local steakhouse had nothing to do with it.

The case illustrates both the strengths and weaknesses of restaurant inspections. On the one hand, they catch only a tiny percentage of potential problems, and only on the day that inspectors visit. On the other hand, they keep restaurateurs on their toes – using the same sink to rinse raw produce and uncooked poultry is a recipe for diarrhea, even if it wasn’t the cause that time.

“Put it this way,” said David Damsker, director of the Bucks County Health Department. “If you leave some children alone, they will be responsible. Some other children, take away parental supervision . . . and some places would be incredibly horrendous.”

Bucks provides restaurants with a lot of supervision. Its inspectors automatically visit the vast majority of the county’s 2,600 food establishments every six months – twice as often as routine inspections are performed in Philadelphia and every other county in the region except Montgomery (also twice a year).

Repeat inspections to follow up on violations are scheduled within 10 days, Bucks County officials said, compared with 30 in the city.

Yet Bucks finds fewer violations. And fewer violations mean fewer repeat visits – every inspection is a surprise – to follow up on the routine inspection.

Inspectors there recorded an average 1.1 serious violations per visit in 2014 compared with 1.6 for Philadelphia, according to an Inquirer analysis of inspection reports. The disparity was greater for all violations combined: 3.2 per inspection in Bucks vs. 6.0 in Philadelphia.

Whether the lower number of violations in the county means Bucks restaurants are cleaner is unclear. Philadelphia may simply have a higher proportion of full-service restaurants, which do more complex food preparation than convenience stores or other food establishments. That means more can go wrong, and can be spotted by inspectors.

But food safety officials in Bucks County speculated that their policy of routine inspections twice a year – a goal that most localities don’t have the resources to meet – are responsible for the difference.

“We go more for education than for enforcement,” Damsker said. More-frequent routine visits give kitchen workers a better understanding of food-safety issues, he said.

The emphasis on education has gained traction nationwide over the past decade. Throughout the region, most jurisdictions, including Philadelphia, now perform what are known as “risk-based inspections.”

They put a higher priority on violations that are known to increase the risk of foodborne illness than on cosmetic issues such as missing ceiling tiles. One of the highest priorities – and among the most common violations – is having an employee present at all times who is trained to recognize problems such as a refrigerator that isn’t quite cold enough to kill harmful bacteria.

100 lawyers and students sickened: Lawsuit filed against Chinatown restaurant in Philadelphia

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A lawsuit has been filed against a Chinatown restaurant after about 100 lawyers and law students attending a private Lunar New Year dinner in February said they developed food poisoning.

Joy Tsin LauSamantha F. Green, a Philadelphia lawyer who attended the event at Joy Tsin Lau on 10th and Race streets and who said she was diagnosed with the norovirus, filed the lawsuit, citing a “sordid history of health code violation and food-borne illness.”

A copy of the document filed in the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas on Monday was obtained by Philly.com, which reported the story.

Green’s lawyer wrote in the lawsuit that Joy Tsin Lau was cited for 249 health code violations by the Philadelphia Department of Health in the past six years.

The document also stated that on the morning after the dinner, Green began to feel ill and “raced to the emergency room at Pennsylvania Hospital in agonizing pain. Following nine hours of vomiting, she was unable to consume anything but bananas and tea for four days.”

The lawsuit also noted that 17 days before the banquet, a city health department restaurant inspector allegedly declared that management practices at Joy Tsin Lau allowed “unacceptable public health or food-safety conditions,” and four days after the food-poisoning incident, another city inspector allegedly found “41 violations that indicated a chronic inability to adhere to basic food safety standards.”

The most recent complaint by the city was filed May 6, but a July 6 court date on the complaint was canceled.

A representative of Joy Tsin Lau did not comment on the lawsuit or past complaints. The restaurant currently remains open.

Means little to me says widower: NZ men and company fined $200K over Listeria meat sold to hospital

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New Zealand is an island, but to say they’ve never had a problem with Listeria in cold cuts is to ignore history.

listeria4So much like Canada in 2008, and the U.S. in 1998. Listeria kills.

After two cold-cut related deaths in New Zealand in 2012, a health spokesthingy said they “routinely hands out brochures” and it no longer provides chilled pre- cooked meats to patients.

Do people really have to die before changes are implemented? Isn’t that why dieticians are in hospitals? Does anyone with a medical background know anything about Listeria?

It’s not like it’s something new.

Pay attention.

The widower of a woman who died in the Listeria outbreak at Hawke’s Bay Hospital in 2012 said the fines imposed on a meat company, its director and a staff member meant little.

In Napier District Court on Wednesday Bay Cuisine was fined $130,000, company director Garth Wise was fined $32,500 and production manager Christopher Mackie was fined $30,000.

The charges related to their supplying Listeria-contaminated meat to Hawke’s Bay Hospital and others, and for intentionally deceiving regulators by omitting test results that revealed the contamination.

Sound familiar?

The health board discovered cold ready-to-eat meats supplied by the company were contaminated in July 2012, after several Listeria cases had been linked to the hospital kitchen.

Patricia Hutchinson, 68, and an 81-year-old woman died after contracting listeria. Two other people were infected.

Robin Hutchinson, who held his wife of 46 years as she passed away, said “the fines imposed mean little to me”.

listeria.sweden“Even now there has not been a single word or remorse. For those people to have contacted myself and the Napier victim’s husband would have cost a tax deductible phone call. My feelings are they must jointly have a conscience of steel,” he said.

Hutchinson remained angry at the health board for providing cold meats to immuno-compromised patients such as his wife when Health Ministry advice was that such people should avoid it.

A DHB spokeswoman said the pre-packaged meats provided by Bay Cuisine had been tested and had shown negative results for listeria.

The Health and Disability Commisisoner had investigated the matter and found no fault by the DHB, she said.

DHB chief executive Kevin Snee said the company should have faced more serious charges.

The fines imposed on Wednesday brought some closure to the effects of the 2012 outbreak, but “the district health board remains of the view that it would have preferred to see the company facing more severe charges that reflect the seriousness of those acts, and the toll those actions have taken on people’s lives”.

Outside court an MPI spokesman said the charges laid against the company were the most severe available under the Animal Products Act, and anything more serious, such as manslaughter, would need to be laid by police.

Hawke’s Bay detective sergeant Mike Foster said the matter had been fully investigated by police and advice from the Crown had been that there was insufficient evidence to lay a criminal charge.

Judge Bridget Mackintosh said the decision to deceive had been intentional and the offenders must have known the risk their offending posed to those people at greatest risk of contracting listeria.

A subsequent editorial in the the Dominion Post says Bay Cuisine has got off far too lightly, and doesn’t the whole episode also reflects very badly on the regulator, the Ministry of Primary Industries?

This is a lamentable business and it raises the most serious questions.

The company stands condemned for intentionally deceiving MPI by not telling it about test results that showed its cold meats were contaminated by Listeria.

But MPI is also to blame in this matter, although they seem to have escaped any punishment.

When its tests found that meat from the company was contaminated, it did not inform the DHB because it didn’t know the meat was going to the hospital.

ITALY-G8-G5-AGRICULTURE-FARMThe obvious question is: why didn’t it know? Why didn’t it ask the company where it was sending the meat?

Wasn’t that an obvious query for a public health regulator? Isn’t the public entitled to think that the regulator would show more curiosity about the possible destination consumers of infected meat?

Snee says the DHB would have liked to know the result of the MPI tests earlier, but he was “not interested in relitigating events” that occurred three years ago.

This is a most unfortunate remark.

Unless we learn from history we are doomed to repeat it. Do we know that MPI has learned from its slackness back in 2012?

One of the fortunate results of this whole sad case is that both the company and  the regulator’s shortcomings have been exposed.

The company has been fined; the regulator will suffer a deserved dent in its reputation.

But Robin Hutchinson says neither he nor the husband of the other victim has heard “a single word of remorse” from the company.

If that is so it is a disgrace.

The New Zealand Meat Processors Association responded it is confident the industry is doing enough to stop Listeria-contaminated food from entering the market.

Environmental and Scientific Research was sent 62 unopened Bay Cuisine cold-meat packages and all were found to contain Listeria.

Company employees lied and told the district health board that a batch of corned silver side tested negative for listeria, although it had actually tested “presumptive positive”.

Meat Processors Association chair Nick Harris said this is a very rare case and he can’t believe a company would deceive customers.

“This is absolute top of mind of all manufacturers. Listeria is a very difficult organism and our industry works very, very hard to ensure that these types of situations don’t occur,” Harris reports.

“There’s probably 1000 tonnes of product produced each week in New Zealand and, as we mentioned, it’s the first case ever.”