A recent surge in reports of illnesses due to the parasite Cyclospora has prompted DSHS to investigate the infections in hopes of determining a common source. DSHS has received reports of 90 Cyclosporiasis cases from around Texas this year, including 78 in the last two weeks.
DSHS recommends thoroughly washing fresh produce, but that may not entirely eliminate the risk because Cyclospora can be difficult to wash off. Cooking will kill the parasite.
But what about cross-contamination?
It was about 2002 when someone posted a death threat on the door of my lab.
We had done comparative studies of consumer preferences for genetically engineered and conventional crops, and this person didn’t like the results (GE won).
I wasn’t too frazzled — I’m used to being called an asshole — but I had about 15 people working with me and they were, understandably, frazzled.
So we met with campus security – mall cops? – and they advised us on preventative steps.
Anti-vaxxers in the U.S. are employing similar tactics.
According to the Courier Mail, groups campaigning against vital immunization have started going further: harassing, intimidating and smearing the reputations of people who disagree with them.
They have sent their opponents death threats, published their private information online (a practice known as “doxxing”) and sent vicious letters to their employers.
Most disturbing of all, parents have seen their children targeted. A woman belonging to the pro-vaccination group Anti Vax Wall of Shame told Jezebel that her 11-year-old daughter had been sent a threatening Facebook message.
It read: “Your mother is a fat, ugly, lazy piece of s*** who tried to kill you. She is a bully and suffers from mental problems. She is under investigation for the hate groups and illegal computer crimes she’s committing. I hope you like your new home. You can thank me when you’re older.”
The woman said she had also received messages saying her husband had AIDS, her children were ugly and that her kids had rotting teeth.
The administrator of Anti-Vaxxers Wall of Shame, Allison Hagood, has had her address and photo posted in anti-vaxxer Facebook groups, along with comments calling her a “whore.”
Her employer, the University of Colorado, has received emails saying she shouldn’t be allowed to teach psychology. “There’s a core group that are irrational to the point of dangerousness,” said Hagood, who, for her part, insists that no posts on her “mocking” page are threatening or offensive, or identify any of the anti-vaxxers it satirizes.
The frightening trend has ramped up following Thursday’s passing of a Senate Bill called SB 277 by the California assembly, which will end vaccination exemptions on personal or religious grounds.
How about a Canadian angle on Canada Day.
When actor and fellow Canadian Jim Carrey gives advice on medical issues, my response is, stick to acting.
“California Gov says yes to poisoning more children with mercury and aluminum in manditory vaccines. This corporate fascist must be stopped.”
Sometimes people with a megaphone go outside their fields of expertise – I’m thinking Linus Pauling and vitamin C.
Coles is one of the two major supermarkets in Australia.
They recruit celebrity chefs like Heston-norovirus Blumenthal and Curtis-aren’t-I-handsome Stone, while Woolworth’s goes for Jamie-watch-all-the-food-safety-mistakes-I-make Oliver.
The new sales go on sale on Wednesday, just like it was 1978.
The Coles electronic flyer has this: No hormones, no thermometers, total BS.
Although Amy did find this at a local Coles, MasterChef branded food-porn crap thermometers reduced to clear.
Health officials now say 216 people have reported becoming ill after eating at Tarheel Q in Lexington, which was linked last week to a Salmonella outbreak.
Seven lawsuits have been filed against the barbecue restaurant, according to the Davidson County Clerk of Court’s office.
Tarheel Q voluntarily closed last week and said it would reopen Sunday, after customers who had eaten there got sick with symptoms consistent with Salmonella infection, most between June 16 and June 21. The restaurant, on U.S. 64, was still closed Monday morning.
Calls to the restaurant were not answered Monday.
A barbecue sample and a sample from a patient both tested positive for Salmonella, according to the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services.
According to a health inspections website linked to the county health department site, Tarheel Q was last inspected June 3 and received a score of 98, an A grade.
The Tennessee departments of Health and Agriculture have partnered to develop a mobile app that allows users to check any Tennessee restaurant inspection score no matter where they are located.
The free app, available for both iOS and Android, lets users view health inspection scores from Tennessee restaurants and retail stores that prepare food, including grocery stores and convenience markets. The first screen of the app displays a map showing restaurants near the user and the most recent score for each location. It also includes scores for hotels, hospitals, schools and food trucks’ central kitchens. Users will have access to the last three inspection scores for each business and if any violations were cited, the app provides information about what was not in compliance with the Tennessee Retail Food Safety Act.
Updated daily, the feature that makes the app different from Web-based inspection scores is the ability for users to personalize it to see what is most important to them. Locations can be saved to a Favorites list for quick access to scores, and search results can be filtered to show only locations that have scores within a certain range. The Restaurant Inspection Scores app was developed by NIC, Inc., Tennessee’s eGovernment Partner since 2000. To obtain the app, go to http://tn.gov/main/article/mobile-apps.
An Auckland real estate agent who mailed poo to a rival agent has been discharged without conviction.
Grant Campbell Tucker, 58, a director of Netrealty, appeared for sentence in the Auckland District Court on Tuesday after pleading guilty to posting a noxious substance.
The recipient of the package, David Beard, the lawyer of Tucker’s former employer Custom Residential, tendered a victim impact statement that detailed the impact on staff and the financial loss he had suffered because of the offending.
Judge Claire Ryan said Tucker posted the noxious substance on March 6, 2014, an offence carrying a maximum penalty of a $5000 fine.
The judge said the offending occurred after Tucker fell out with his former employer, John Wills, the director of Custom Residential.
Handwashing is important in preventing microbial cross-contamination. The US FDA Model Food Code requires that handwashing sinks have a sign or poster nearby that is visible to employees washing their hands.
This research collects and reviews existing handwashing signs and subjects them to quantitative analysis. An Internet search produced a database of handwashing signs. Lather time, rinse time, overall wash time, water temperature, water use, drying method, technique, and total number of steps were recorded.
Eighty-one unique handwashing signs were identified. Each sign had between one and thirteen steps. Thirty-seven signs indicated a specific lather time, with average time ~18 s. No sign suggested > 20 s lather, and none suggested < 10 s lather. Twenty-four signs recommended use of warm water. Two signs recommended 100°F (37.8°C) water and one recommended hot water. Sixty-two signs made a recommendation on drying hands, and fifty-three suggested using a paper towel.
Our analysis reveals that handwashing sign instructions can vary quite widely. Lack of consistent hand wash guidance on signage may contribute in part to a lack of handwashing consistency and compliance. Our study serves as a foundation for future research on handwash signage.
Quantitative analysis of recommendations made in handwashing signs
Food Protection Trends, vol. 35, no. 4, pp. 270-279, July 2015
Dane A. Jensen, Donald W. Schaffner
Food safety training is an important tool in preventing foodborne illness (FI), which affects millions of people each year in the United States and around the world and costs billions of dollars.
Training gives those working in the food service industry the knowledge and skills necessary to properly handle, cook and serve food.
The objectives of this research was to assess changes in knowledge of Public Health – Dayton & Montgomery County’s (PHDMC) Level One Food Safety Certification program participants, analyze which questions were most often answered incorrectly, and determine whether there was a relationship between quiz scores and primary job responsibility, using pre- and postquiz training data. The course teaches food safety topics, including handwashing, employee hygiene, correct cooking and holding temperatures, sanitization duties of the person in charge, and others. The participants are offered a quiz at the beginning of the course, and the same quiz is offered after completion of the two-hour training.
Pre-training and post-training quiz score data were obtained from approximately 692 participants completing the PHDMC Level One Food Safety Certification program from 2011 to 2013. Paired t-tests were used to evaluate change in scores overall, on individual questions, and by job responsibility. Quiz scores significantly improved both aggregately (20.6%) and in nine out of the ten questions. The temperature-related questions had the most incorrect answers (score range: 38% – 71%) but also showed the most improvement (improvement range: 28% – 49%). This research shows that PHDMC’s Level One Food Safety Certification class was associated with a change in knowledge of participants from pre- to post-training.
Increasing knowledge with food safety training at public health – Dayton & Montgomery County
Food Protection Trends, vol. 35, no. 4, pp. 262-269, July 2015
Matthew M. Tyler, Naila Khalil, Sara Paton
Research utilizing both survey and observational techniques has found that consumers do not accurately report their own food handling behaviors. The goal of this study was to objectively observe conditions related to food safety risks and sanitation in domestic kitchens in an urban environment.
Subjects (n = 100) were recruited from Philadelphia, PA. Homes were visited over a one-year period by two trained researchers using a previously developed audit tool to document conditions related to sanitation, refrigeration, and food storage.
Potential food safety risks identified included evidence of pest infestation (65%), perishable food stored at room temperature (16%), storage of raw meat above ready-to-eat foods (97% of homes where raw meat was present), and a lack of hot running water in the kitchen (3%). Compliance with correct refrigeration practices was also low, with 43% of refrigerator temperatures ≥ 41°F, and only 4% of refrigerators containing a thermometer. Consumers of minority race/ethnicity were more likely to have evidence of pest infestation in the home, lack a dishwasher and lack a cutting board in the kitchen, while Caucasian consumers were more likely to have an animal present in the kitchen during the audit visit.
Visual audit of food safety hazards present in homes in an urban environment
Food Protection Trends, vol. 35, no. 4, pp. 290-301, July 2015
Patricia A. Borrusso, Shauna Henley, Jennifer J. Quinlan
Two weeks ago, Disney World’s Animal Kingdom opened up a new sweet shop called Zuri’s and, in keeping with the animal theme, they decided to sell hippo, elephant, giraffe and tamarin poo in chocolate form. Because, of course.
They were quite literally selling crap.
And while the $3.99 (£2.50) ‘poop platter’ doesn’t look particularly appetising, it does sound pretty delicious.
The giraffe dung is actually a rolled fudge brownie with fresh caramel, while the elephant poo is in fact chocolate peanut butter fudge with rolled oats and yellow coconut flakes on top.
The tamarin poop, meanwhile, is made up of pretzel pearls coated in peanut butter fudge, and the hippo version is chocolate fudge brownie with peanut butter.
Food blogger Kim Button, who was lucky enough to sample a giraffe poo truffle ahead of its launch, wrote of the production process: ‘The animal handlers of Disney’s Animal Kingdom worked in conjunction with pastry chefs so that they perfected the look of the animal poop exactly.’
Of the taste, she added: ‘I can’t say they are the best treats I’ve ever eaten at Disney, but they are a conversation piece.’
So, yeah, not an overwhelming endorsement.
And it seems the world wasn’t ready for faux-poo sweets, with some dubbing them ‘classless’ and ‘trashy’ online. Inquisitr reports that the ‘treats’ were withdrawn from sale at the weekend because of guest complaints, although no official comment has been made by Disney.