Yearly Archives: 2015

Nerd alert: US FDA releases supplement to the 2013 Food Code

Posted on by
Reply

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has issued the Supplement to the 2013 Food Code. The update addresses recommendations made by regulatory officials, industry, academia, and consumers at the 2014 Biennial Meeting of the Conference for Food Protection.

nerd.finance.barfblogThe Food Code and its Supplement provide government and industry with practical, science-based controls for reducing the risk of foodborne illness in retail and foodservice establishments of all types. The Food Code and the Supplement are joint projects of the FDA, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the United States Department of Agriculture – Food Safety Inspection Service.

The Supplement modifies the 2013 Food Code to:

Expand the duties of the Person in Charge in a food establishment to include overseeing the routine monitoring of food temperatures during hot and cold holding.

Expand and clarify the type of information that should be included when a Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point Plan is required by a regulatory authority.

Emphasize that cleaning and sanitizing agents should be provided and available for use during all hours of operation.

Clarify the difference between Typhoid Fever and nontyphoidal Salmonellosis with regard to the reporting of illness and the exclusion and restriction of ill food employees.

Suggest that regulatory authorities ensure that inspection staff has access to the necessary training and continuing education.

The Food Code is the model for retail food regulations in all 50 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. The FDA encourages its state, local, tribal, and territorial partners to adopt the latest version of the FDA Food Code, including the Supplement to the 2013 Food Code.

FDA’s National Retail Food Team assists regulatory officials, educators, and industry in their efforts to understand, adopt, and implement, the FDA Food Code. Inquiries may be sent to: retailfoodprotectionteam@fda.hhs.gov or directly to a Regional Retail Food Specialist.

The 2013 FDA Food Code and its Supplement is available on the FDA website at http://www.fda.gov/FoodCode. 

 

 

Trypanosomiasis in Peruvian guinea pigs

Posted on by
Reply

After I posted about a man BBQing a guinea pig in a New York City park, an astute reader sent me a message saying The Last Supper by Zapata, in the Cuzco Cathedral shows the platter in front of Jesus holding a very large roasted guinea pig regarded as a delicacy and highly regarded for their taste.

guinea-pigThey are also apparently a vehicle for trypanosomiasis.

Guinea pigs have been a reliable snack in parts of Ecuador, Peru and Colombia for generations. Called cuyes in Spanish, the animals are reportedly easier to raise and breed than chickens, and are eaten en-masse during key holidays.

Chagas disease, American trypanosomiasis, is caused by the protozoan parasite _Trypanosoma cruzi_ (_T. cruzi_).

According to a study recently published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B, seasonal feasts may be “bottlenecking” domestic populations of the tasty rodents, causing them to become the ideal middlemen for ensuring that most kissing bugs in a region are carrying_T. cruzi_.

Spam burger in Sydney

Posted on by
Reply

Amy was born in Albert Lea, Minnesota, next door to Austin, MN, the home of Spam.

spam.burgersProving that it really is 1978 in Australia, a popular Sydney bar is now serving a Spam burger.

Bloody Mary’s in Sydney’s Darlinghurst is known for its Instagram-worthy, American diner-style creations and of course, top-notch Bloody Marys made with homemade tomato juice.

The spam burger costs $16 and comes with grilled spam, bacon, lettuce, tomato, pineapple, mayonnaise and mustard.

“We put it on the menu two weeks ago and it’s going off, it’s crazy,” owner Cinta Rockey told news.com.au.

Restaurant grading: 15 years in Toronto, 5 years in New York

Posted on by
Reply

It’s just a snapshot in time, but it’s a minimal tool to hold food providers accountable.

jake.gyllenhaal.rest.inspection.disclosureThe New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene reports that restaurants are performing better on inspection and are cleaner than ever:
• Nearly 60% percent of restaurants now earn an A on their initial inspection;
• Letter grading has vastly diminished the public health risks associated with dining out; there has been a 23 percent drop in violations from the peak in 2012; and,
• 91 percent of New Yorkers approve of restaurant grading, 88 percent use grades in making their dining decisions and 76 percent feel more confident eating in an A-grade restaurant.

Food safety costs money: OSI Group nearing $1 bn

Posted on by
Reply

US based meat supplier OSI Group has lost around six billion yuan ($967.6 million) since a food safety scandal in China last summer, a senior China-based executive for the firm told the official Xinhua news agency.

osi-logoThe report, published late on Tuesday, underlines how severe the impact of food safety scares can be in China, which has seen a series of stomach churning scandals from decades old meat to milk tainted with industrial chemical melamine which led to the deaths of at least six infants.
OSI Group said in January it had lost “hundreds of millions of dollars” in lost revenue in China since an undercover local media report alleged to show workers at its Shanghai Husi Food Co Ltd plant using out-of-date meat and doctoring production dates.

Operations at Shanghai Husi, which supplied meat to McDonald’s Corp and Yum Brands Inc, were suspended following the reports. Local authorities launched an investigation into the matter and OSI’s chief executive said he was appalled over misteps at the plant.
OSI China’s vice president Lu Yong told Xinhua on Tuesday the firm had suffered the near $1 billion loss since the scandal last July and that many factories were still suspended

1 dead, 248 sick from Salmonella at Tarheel Q

Posted on by
Reply

One person has died in connection to the Salmonella outbreak at Tarheel Q, the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services said Wednesday.

tarheel.qA total of 248 cases have been identified as of Wednesday.

According to DHHS, of the 248 cases:

55 percent are male

41 percent are between the ages of 20 and 49

20 percent have visited their provider

13 percent have visited the emergency department

6 percent have been hospitalized

1 death has been identified

Since the outbreak, six people have filed lawsuits against the restaurant.

Tarheel Q, located on Highway 64 West in Davidson County, re-opened Wednesday morning.

 

181 sick with Salmonella from chicks

Posted on by
Reply

The U.S Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that public health, veterinary, and agriculture officials in many states and the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (USDA-APHIS) are investigating four multistate outbreaks of human Salmonella infections linked to contact with live poultry.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAAs of June 29, 2015, 181 people infected with the outbreak strains of Salmonella have been reported from 40 states.

33 ill people have been hospitalized. No deaths have been reported.

Epidemiologic, laboratory, and traceback findings have linked these four outbreaks of human Salmonella infections to contact with chicks, ducklings, and other live poultry from multiple hatcheries.

Eighty-two (86%) of the 95 ill people who were interviewed reported contact with live poultry in the week before their illness began.

CDC’s National Antimicrobial Resistance Monitoring System (NARMS) laboratory conducted antibiotic resistance testing on Salmonella isolates collected from seven ill people infected with one of the outbreak strains.

All seven isolates were susceptible to all antibiotics tested on the NARMS panel.

Antibiotic resistance testing continues on additional isolates collected from ill people infected with the outbreak strains.

Backyard flock owners should take steps to protect themselves and their families:

Always wash hands thoroughly with soap and water right after touching live poultry or anything in the area where the birds live and roam.

Do not let live poultry inside the house.

 

Pay attention when staff barf: 96 sickened from Cowfish in NC

Posted on by
Reply

At least 96 people were sickened during the Norovirus outbreak at The Cowfish restaurant in early June, according to county health department records obtained by the Observer.

norovirusThe records, obtained through a public records request, provide the fullest account yet of the extent of the illnesses at the popular SouthPark sushi and burger bar.

Records show one Norovirus case was confirmed by a state Department of Health and Human Services laboratory. Ninety-five others were deemed “probable” by health officials. Just one person reported visiting a hospital.

The outbreak prompted the restaurant to close twice, once on June 5 and again on June 10. It reopened June 16.

Cowfish owner Alan Springate, responding by email to questions from the Observer, said his staff began to suspect a problem late in the day on Friday, June 5, when a customer reported some members of his party had become ill in the preceding two days.

Wednesday and Thursday of that week, two other guests had reported illnesses, but the restaurant had suspected a problem with a food item, calamari, which both guests had consumed. Cowfish removed the item from its menu and contacted its suppliers.

The person reporting on June 5 had not consumed calamari, though. At that point, “we began to consider the possibility that we were dealing with something other than a food issue,” Springate wrote.

After the Cowfish posted news of its closing on Facebook June 6, others began coming forward to report they’d been sickened. The restaurant contacted each of them and shared details with the health department, Springate said.

By the time the restaurant knew something was amiss on June 5, at least nine of the restaurant’s roughly 140 employees had been sickened, according to a report by state health inspector Nicole Lee. The first fell ill May 31, she wrote.

Springate’s email said that while some employees had called in sick, “nothing raised a red flag.”

“It’s critical to understand that although we now know we were experiencing an uptick in illness, many employees had not yet notified us because they were not scheduled to work,” he said.

 

Stroke me, stroke you: Ex-Iowa egg farm manager avoids jail in 2010 Salmonella outbreak

Posted on by
Reply

A former Iowa egg farm manager will avoid jail time after cooperating with investigators in a criminal prosecution stemming from a 2010 salmonella outbreak.

egg.dirty.feb.12U.S. District Judge Mark Bennett sentenced Tony Wasmund to four years of probation Tuesday after the government said he provided “substantial assistance” in the salmonella case. Bennett imposed no restitution or fine on Wasmund, of Willmar, Minnesota.

Wasmund worked for egg tycoon Jack DeCoster, whose Iowa operations caused the outbreak that prompted the recall of 550 million eggs and sickened thousands.

Under a plea deal, Wasmund pleaded guilty in 2012 to his role in bribing a U.S. Department of Agriculture inspector to allow sales of eggs that didn’t meet federal standards. He cooperated in an investigation that led to convictions of DeCoster and his son Peter.

The pair were sentenced in April 2015 to three-month terms in prison for introducing adulterated food into interstate commerce.