Ben Chapman

About Ben Chapman

Dr. Ben Chapman is a professor and food safety extension specialist at North Carolina State University. As a teenager, a Saturday afternoon viewing of the classic cable movie, Outbreak, sparked his interest in pathogens and public health. With the goal of less foodborne illness, his group designs, implements, and evaluates food safety strategies, messages, and media from farm-to-fork. Through reality-based research, Chapman investigates behaviors and creates interventions aimed at amateur and professional food handlers, managers, and organizational decision-makers; the gate keepers of safe food. Ben co-hosts a biweekly podcast called Food Safety Talk and tries to further engage folks online through Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and, maybe not surprisingly, Pinterest. Follow on Twitter @benjaminchapman.

Lucky’s Taproom patrons aren’t so lucky; foodborne illnesses linked to Dayton restaurant

Today I talked to a restaurant operator about something they wanted to do that was risky. After talking about what could go wrong, the operator said ‘I don’t want to make people sick, I’ll figure something else out.’

Making patrons sick is bad business.6980

According to WHIO, a Dayton restaurant has closed as health officials investigate the source of illnesses.

The health department received the first report of Lucky’s patrons and employees being ill on Monday and samples have been sent to the Ohio Department of Health for testing, said Health Commissioner Jeff Cooper.

The testing will identify what specifically the people are suffering from, Cooper said.
Cooper said they are currently still collecting samples and conducting interviews, in part to determine whether there was a particular food or dish that all the sick people ate.

Drew Trick, owner of Lucky’s, confirmed this afternoon that the restaurant and bar voluntarily shut down at least through Friday while health officials test produce and other items to try to determine what caused the food-borne illness that affected both customers and employees.

“We’re doing everything we can to ensure our customers are safe when we reopen,” Trick said.

“We have bleached every square inch of this establishment” and have thrown out all produce and other food items to ensure the threat is eliminated, the restaurant’s owner said.

I wonder if some of those sick employees were working while ill.

Hepatitis A cluster in Northern British Columbia

A few weeks ago CDC released a progress report on hepatitis A in the U.S. has been reduced from over 30 cases/100,000 people to less than 1/100,000. Most of the reduction has come since vaccination for the virus has been recommended.

I’m not sure what the rates look like in Canada but the good folks of Dawson Creek, British Columbia (that’s in Canada) are dealing with a cluster of hep A illnesses.

Health officials continue to investigate the source of the outbreak, which made five people sick earlier this year.

Northern Health spokesperson Jonathon Dyck said the health authority has not had any reports of new cases since January. “We are still in an outbreak monitoring situation, as we have to go through that process before our medical health officers officially make a decision if it’s over,” he told the Alaska Highway News.

There’s wood in my cheese: Listeria edition

A couple of weeks ago many private label brand parmesan cheeses made by Castle Cheeses were the subject of late night show jokes, and Facebook shares, after FDA documents showed misbranding and the use of cellulose as filler.

CBS News followed up and surprise, there was some Listeria at the plant too.

Alex, I’ll take word origins for $200: Listeria edition

I’m a sucker for history. There’s lots of cliches about it, but I find the stories of how we got today’s food safety world fascinating.

Back in the early days of Food Safety Talk, Don and I talked about some of the history of food safety and food microbiology. A lot of our material came from text that good friend and margarita connoisseur Carl Custer pulled together as well as IAFPs 100 year anniversary document.

EID has a regular feature on the history of disease word origins and this month’s topic is Listeria.

Listeria [lis-teʹre-ə]

A genus of small, gram-positive, rods, Listeria was first isolated by Murray in 1924 as Bacterium monocytogenes. In 1927, Pirie proposed the genus Listerella in honor of British surgeon Sir Joseph Lister (1827–1912), an early advocate of antiseptic surgery. It was not until 1939 that Pirie realized that this genus had already been taken by a slime mold (also named in honor of Lister, by Jahn in 1906). In 1940, he proposed the alternative name Listeria. The mouthwash Listerine was also named after Lister, in 1979 (1879, thanks for the clarification commenters -ben) by Lawrence and Bosch, when in was marketed as a surgical antiseptic.

References

Hof H. History and epidemiology of listeriosis. FEMS Immunol Med Microbiol. 2003;35:199–202. 

Pirie JH. Listeria: change of name for a genus bacteria. Nature. 1940;145:264.

 

Resort at center of #MoChunk outbreak pays ill guests

The return on investment for food safety is tough to quantify. Not having an outbreak doesn’t result in increased sales or better brand penetration. Having an outbreak is bad news. Not only does a business often close while the problem is addressed and the brand or reputation takes a hit but there’s usually a settlement with patrons or guests.Mohonk_Mountain_House_2011_View_of_Mohonk_Guest_Rooms_from_One_Hiking_Trail_FRD_3205

Like the hundreds of guests of Mohonk Mountain House in 2014 who got norovirus along with their views of the Catskills.  Patrons went to Twitter and talked about their experiences using the hashtag #MoChunk.

According to the Poughkeepsie Journal the resort is settling a class action suit for $875,000.

The lawsuit was filed in February 2014 when class representatives of the lawsuit Louis Bellotti and Anna Marie Bellotti of New Jersey, “acting on behalf of themselves and those similar situated,” brought the lawsuit against Mohonk Mountain House, according to the notice. The Bellottis were two of the many stricken by the norovirus, which according to the notice, led to “nausea, vomiting, diarrhea and/or abdominal pain” as well as lethargy, weakness, muscle aches, headaches and fever.

According to the class action notice, subject to upcoming court approval, the Mohonk Mountain House has agreed to a settlement fund of $875,000 to resolve this litigation. Of that amount, $290,868 will be paid out of the settlement for “costs and expenses related to the suit.” Plaintiffs Bellotti and Bellotti will “apply to the court” to receive $10,000 each, with the remaining funds being distributed to class members who participate in the settlement.

In the 12-page lawsuit filed in state Supreme Court, attorney Donald W. Boyajian of Albany claimed gross negligence, stating that Mohonk knew the norovirus was present and failed to warn visiting guests who stayed at the resort between late January and early February of that year.

Bring us your poop; Michigan researcher wants students noro isolates

Outbreaks can be a source of inspiration for research. Even while there are still folks getting sick.

A decade ago we observed hand hygiene practices during an outbreak at the University of Guelph.stool

According to the Detroit Free Press, University of Michigan microbiologist Christiane Wobus is hoping to find noro isolates from multiple students ill with the pathogen from a current outbreak.

Scientists at the University of Michigan have recently become approved to collect samples to study norovirus – a nasty bug that spreads fast, just ask the more than 100 students at U-M struck with it earlier this month. It’s hard to grow the norovirus in the lab, so scientists are looking for stool samples from people who currently have norovirus or have had it in the past three days.

They want you to collect the sample in a closable plastic container and drop it off. “We’ll test your fecal sample in our lab for the presence of norovirus,” the study description says. “If positive, we will use your sample as a source of norovirus in basic science studies. If negative, your sample will be destroyed. Thus, the fecal sample will be stored in the laboratory without identifying information for future research indefinitely or until used up.”

In related news, students at a couple of Charlotte schools are suspected to have norovirus, and one of those schools will close tomorrow for thorough cleaning/sanitizing.

“We know today (Thursday), 63 students did not come to school,” Dr. Marcus Plescia, Mecklenburg County Health Director, said. “We’re assuming the majority of them are from this infection and today (Thursday) an additional seven students were sent home because they were having symptoms.”

Several dozen students at Wingate University reported symptoms including nausea, vomiting and diarrhea. Officials are testing to confirm.

Poorly made pesto led to two botulism cases in 2014

Mrs. Kalisz, my middle school family studies teacher warned of the dangers of botulism by showing the class a bulging can of beans (which she kept in a ziplock bag). One of my classmates picked it up while she was demonstrating something and she freaked out like he was shaking a grenade.

I’ve been afraid of botulism ever since.newpesto72_large-229x300

The first case of food-related botulism recorded in the medical literature occurred in Germany in 1735 and was traced to uncooked fermented blood sausage. Food safety history guru (and pretty decent margarita recipe developer) Carl Custer pointed out in an IAFP workshop that botulism concerns (and regulatory responses) go back further than that. In the 10th century, Emperor Leo VI of Byzantium prohibited the manufacture of blood sausage because of repeated illnesses leaving folks paralyzed and dying not too long after exposure.

Botulism (derived from botulus, the latin word for sausage) is pretty nasty.

The spores, found commonly in soil turn into vegetative cells and secretes neurotoxins when the conditions are right: high pH, no oxygen and temperatures between 41F and 106F.

Sorta like jarred pesto stored at room temperature.

According to my favorite weekly publication, MMWR, two individuals got botulism from contaminated pesto in 2014 linked to a California business.

The two patients reported sharing a meal of baked chicken breasts, boiled pasta, steamed vegetables, and company A Pine Nut Basil Pesto on July 13 at approximately 8:30 p.m.

Patient A received the pesto from a family member who had purchased several jars in May 2014 at a farm stand in San Clemente, California. Health officials in California collected and analyzed an unopened jar of the pesto from this family member’s house. It was found to have a pH of 5.3 and water activity* of 0.965

On July 29, 2014, CDPH began an investigation and discovered multiple jarred food items, including the Pine Nut Basil Pesto, available for sale on company A’s website (VR Green Farms -ben) and farm stand. Neither company A nor the pesto manufacturer had permits or registrations allowing them to legally manufacture or sell canned food, including food in jars, in California. CDPH investigators identified a lack of knowledge of safety issues involved with jarring foods and inadequate acidification and pressurization practices. There were no records indicating that critical factors (e.g., pH, time, and temperature) were monitored during production. Invoices showed at least 39 jars of pesto were produced in 2014. After discussing the link between the cases in Ohio and company A pesto, company A voluntarily recalled all jarred food products. On July 30, CDPH posted Internet and social media notices warning consumers not to eat company A’s jarred foods.

Know the hazards associated with your products. Know how to manage those hazards. Actually do it. Don’t give people botulism.

Nosestretcher alert: don’t reheat these foods

The New Zealand Herald says there are 5 five foods that shouldn’t be reheated because of risks. The headline and lede aren’t helpful.

Three of them are cited for foodborne illness reasons:

1. Chicken

As well as other poultry, it’s well known chicken requires careful preparation and cooking to avoid salmonella contamination.3cca9502c5860cc6a373976ef8c0d896

The main issue with reheating chicken in a microwave, as opposed to other methods, is that the heatwaves don’t evenly cook all parts of the food.

How about cook it to 165F in the first place – and then reheat to and check with a digital tips-sensitive food thermometer.

2. Rice

According to the Food Standards Agency, the storage of rice is crucial. Being left out at room temperature provides the perfect breeding ground for spores which could be the cause of vomiting and diarrhoea.

3. Potatoes
Like rice, potatoes require proper storage after cooking. Otherwise they provide conditions ideal for bacterial growth. Leaving them at room temperature, particularly when they’re covered in tin foil, can result in the growth of Clostridium botulinum (botulism). They need to be cooled and refrigerated. Reheating them won’t kill off the bacteria either.

Or, leaving these foods at room temperature is risky. Reheating isn’t a factor.

A decade of Lm in Denmark

Kvistholm Jensen and colleagues analyzed 559 clinical Listeria monocytogenes isolates from 2002-2012 using 2-enzyme PFGE and conducted serotyping. They found clustering of some common patterns that could either be a large linked source. or maybe a few types from unrelated foods. Not sure.

In Denmark, the annual incidence of listeriosis increased from 0.5 cases per 100,000 population in 2002–2003 to a peak of 1.8 cases in 2009 and 0.9 cases in 2012, and is now among the highest incidences reported globally (8,9). Similar increasing trends have been reported from other European countries during the same period (4). The high but variable incidence calls for further examination of the possible explanations. We retrospectively analyzed trends related to patient data and PFGE- and MLST-types of L. monocytogenes strains occurring in Denmark during 2002–2012. In addition, we assessed the possible association between clinical aspects of the disease and strain genotype.Lars+Eller+Boston+Bruins+v+Montreal+Canadiens+htM5Ay-dtO8l

Our findings show that retrospective typing of isolates gives new insight into the epidemiology of listeriosis. By PFGE typing, we found a high diversity of L. monocytogenes in clinical cases but also a small number of frequent types representing a substantial fraction of all cases. Possibly, these types represent epidemiologically linked cases (outbreaks) or, alternatively, ubiquitous types present in many unrelated food sources and infections

Bangladesh health officials use traditional media to look for illness clusters

New York City and Chicago have been using social media as a supplemental tool to identify illness clusters and connect with potential victims.

Developing countries, where laboratory-based surveillance infrastructure is low, may use traditional media as an outbreak indicator. The cost is relatively low and it can provide a starting point.

Like in Bangladesh. A study published in EID details how traditional media clips have helped their surveillance activities.

The national rapid response team, consisting of key staff members from IEDCR, received a daily email containing all identified health-related newspaper articles and video clips. The team examined each news item and decided whether it warranted an outbreak response on the basis of expert clinical and epidemiologic knowledge; public health importance (e.g., number of cases and deaths reported, severity of symptoms); and verification by local health officials. For the purposes of this analysis, IEDCR retrospectively created a database of reported events sent by the media scanning company, which included the number of reported events, outbreak etiology, news source, and the outcome of each investigation. The outbreaks reported were classified by media type, etiology, and season.

Key informant interviews consistently indicated that the system was simple, flexible, timely, and acceptable because it used existing media infrastructure and required only minimal costs to contract with a company to compile daily reports of news items. Changes to the system could be implemented effectively through frequent communications between the media scanning company and IEDCR. The system was widely acceptable by all stakeholders and was considered a valuable component of disease surveillance in Bangladesh.