Author Archives: Casey Jacob

One dead man, one naked man extricated from Colorado exhaust vents last week

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Last Thursday morning, 49-year-old electrician Michael Goodspeed was found dead in an exhaust vent of a restaurant in Steamboat Springs, CO.

The Associated Press reports,

Goodspeed became wedged in a tapering section of the vent. The Routt County Coroner says it appears Goodspeed died of "positional asphyxiation".

Goodspeed and his coworkers were staying at the restaurant while doing work there before it officially opened. He climbed into the vent in an attempt to enter the restaurant after he was apparently locked out.

The next day, the manager of a Blackjack Pizza in Denver—about 150 miles away—discovered a younger man close to meeting the same fate.

According to the Denver Post, 21-year-old Andrew Baca was found dangling above the oven yelling, “Help me, help me,” after being stuck in a vent for five to six hours. 

Firefighters were able to extricate Baca from the vent with only minor cuts and abrasions, though his clothes were removed in the rescue effort.

Police said the intruder, though lucky to be alive, was being held for investigation of burglary and criminal mischief.

The AP noted that the restaurant was closed later that day. It is unknown whether this was by order of the police force or the health department.
 

Spider found at Tulsa Whole Foods

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An employee at Whole Foods Market in Tulsa, OK, recently caught a spider (below) roaming in the produce section.

The director of animal facilities at the University of Tulsa, Terry Childs, thought it to be a Brazilian wandering spider, or banana spider, which is considered to be the most deadly spider in the world. Childs said the spider likely came to the store in a bunch of bananas from Honduras.

A manager at the store said employees check the produce for spiders and insects, and believes that’s why the spider was discovered before it left the store.

Whole Foods said in a later statement,

"We take every precaution to inspect all of our produce as it arrives in the store and prior to it being merchandised on the sales floor. This incident is an extremely unusual circumstance, and one that we’ve never encountered before. We are confident that this will remain an isolated incident as we are very cautious when unpacking produce for our sales floor."

I can’t find this statement, so I’m not sure if the entire thing is so defensive and impersonal. I wonder whether the store or chain ever said sorry for the scare, or that they were glad no one got hurt.

Granted, the situation may not have been as dire as was first believed. The curator of aquariums and herpetology at the Tulsa Zoo, Barry Downer, saw video and photos of the spider (who has now been destroyed) and thinks it may have been a Huntsman spider—an arachnid that is harmless to humans.

Regardless of its true identity, the spider was perceived as a threat to shoppers and Whole Foods would do well to recognize that.

If anybody finds their statement, I’d love to check it out: casey.jo.jacob@gmail.com, or comment here for all to enjoy.
 

HACCP increases customer satisfaction

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The Eye of Dubai reports that the Tawam Hospital in Abu Dhabi has increased patient satisfaction by implementing a HACCP plan.

Were patients, staff, and guests previously dissatisfied with their foodborne illnesses, I wonder?

 The CEO of the hospital, Mr. Michael E. Heindel, was quoted as saying,

“By implementing food safety audits and ensuring that staff at Tawam adhere to food safety standards and procedures we have been able to increase patient satisfaction and meet the [requirements for HACCP certification].”

The article, titled Taste and quality of hospital food on the rise, mentions several other improvements in the service of food at Tawam Hospital and seems to credit all of them to the HACCP plan.

It appears the culture of food safety stirring at the hospital has raised enthusiasm for improved quality of service overall.

To that, I say, “Hooray for HACCP.”
 

Mushroom farms step it up

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The American Mushroom Institute has announced,

“On December 18, 2008, Kaolin Mushroom Farms, the growing division of South Mill Mushroom Sales, was the first mushroom farm to pass the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Mushroom Good Agricultural Practices audit.”

Previously, South Mill had implemented HACCP plans at all its farms and processing facilities, which were (and still are) continuously self-monitored and regularly audited and approved by the AIB (American Institute of Baking).

South Mill’s website currently brags,

“We are proud of our record of consistently scoring in the 97 percentile or above in all our facility AIB Audits,” though AIB was the third-party auditor that gave Peanut Corp. of America superior ratings before it sickened 683 people in 46 states.

The USDA-approved Mushroom GAPs—in line with the FDA’s Guide to Minimize Microbial Food Safety Hazards for Fresh Fruits and Vegetables—provide standards for growers to implement and document, which can then be audited by outsiders. Dr. Luke LaBorde of Penn State University started putting together the science for the standards 10 years ago. That may have more teeth than AIB audits.

Auditors, like restaurant inspectors, only get a glimpse of what’s going on–in one area at one point in time. A framework of science-based practices, that are thoroughly documented and supported by a culture of food safety, has the capacity to inspire far more confidence than a third-party audit ever could.

John Pia of South Mill Mushroom Sales knows that food safety sells.

"Mushroom growers who do not embrace this inevitable industry direction will find themselves with no place to sell their product. While the cost of compliance is significant, the cost of non-compliance is devastating," he said.

Only two other commodities—leafy greens and tomatoes—have such commodity-specific GAP audit plans. To that end, the president of American Mushroom Institute, Laura Phelps, was quoted as saying,

"The mushroom industry can be proud of its pro-active approach to food safety by developing this program as a good business practice instead of as a response to pressure by regulators following a food safety incident."

That’s what a culture of food safety is all about. Now they just have to update their website.

Where has that meat been?

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A news team in South Carolina used a hidden camera to catch nine area grocery stores reselling meat that had been returned to the store by members of the news crew.

Nine other stores tested by the team did not put the returned meat back in the display case. These stores were concerned that once the meat was outside of their control, it could be deliberately contaminated or allowed to get too warm – as they should be.

The same is true for meat coming to a store for the first time. Smart retailers use suppliers they can trust based on those suppliers’ openness about handling procedures.

Toronto police are currently alerting the public that a truckload of chicken breasts was stolen last week and has since been repackaged and sold.

Police photographs show that the stickers on the new packages tell consumers to keep the chicken refrigerated. Nice touch.

Retailers should know that consumers are not the first line of defense against foodborne illness.

What happened to the product before it was sold to stores? Did the thieves take the steps necessary to reduce the microbial risks associated with transporting raw meat? Could they prove it?

Peanut Corp. of America epitomized a business whose sole concern was turning a profit. I’m sure a crime ring would be quite similar.

So the big question is, did anybody ask?

Grocery stores who resell returned meat are taking the same risks as stores who sell meat from suppliers they know very little about.

It never hurts to ask questions.
 

When broccoli doesn’t make you barf

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My husband just sent me a link with a recipe for some amazing broccoli – The Best Broccoli of Your Life, in fact.

It was a blog post by The Amateur Gourmet, lauding the cooking style of The Barefoot Contessa.

The Barefoot Contessa loves roasting. Specifically, she loves roasting vegetables at a high temperature until they caramelize.

As the recipe for roasted broccoli is relayed, The Amateur Gourmet reveals a secret that the Contessa doesn’t share:

[D]ry them THOROUGHLY. That is, if you wash them.

I saw an episode of Julia Child cooking with Jacques Pepin once when Pepin revealed he doesn’t wash a chicken before putting it in a hot oven: "The heat kills all the germs," he said in his French accent. "If bacteria could survive that oven, it deserves to kill me."

By that logic, then, I didn’t wash my broccoli; I wanted it to get crispy and brown. If you’re nervous, though, just wash and dry it obsessively.

USDA agrees that, "It is not necessary to wash raw chicken. Any bacteria which might be present are destroyed by cooking." Though the temperature is measured in the food – not the oven.

You can be sure chicken is safe if a tip-sensitive digital thermometer reads 165 F in the thickest part of it.

Not much is said about temps for vegetables, though. I vaguely remember the test for ServSafe certification a few years ago suggesting they reach 135 F, but that’s not even out of the 40 F – 140 F “danger zone” and I have no science to back it.

I have seen the science on the internalization of pathogens in some produce and in such cases washing will not make vegetables any safer to eat.

So I might just cook it unwashed. Or I might be “obsessive.” Either way, I’ve got what I need to make an informed decision; it’ll be my choice and not my ignorance that leaves the possibility for pathogens in.

Obama wants Sebelius to seek out the science of health

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Being that I’m living in the middle of Kansas, I just caught a live broadcast of President Obama announcing his nomination of Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius to the head of the Department of Health and Human Services.

Media sources emphasize that, as Secretary of HHS, Sebelius would be implementing the president’s plans for health care reform, along with Nancy-Ann DeParle – an American expert on health care issues and Obama’s pick for “Health Reform Czar”.

However, Obama pointed out in his announcement that it’s not all about health insurance; the position is also responsible for the oversight of several agencies that serve as protective forces, including the FDA and the CDC.

The president alluded to changes in that area of the department as well, and noted the importance of science over politics when determining the best approaches to protecting the health of Americans.
 

Sebelius will have her work cut out for her on many levels, so I hope she holds that mind: Keeping the poop out of food safety policy is a great way to keep poop out of food.

Is it the last meal I ate that made me sick?

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Michael Bauer writes the Between Meals column for the San Francisco Chronicle. Yesterday Bauer responded to an e-mail from a reader who had met a friend for lunch one day and explained,

“We both became quite ill an hour or so after we finished our meal.”

The diner wanted to know what to do if the restaurant food made them sick. Bauer responded by saying,

“Most common forms of food poisoning take anywhere from four to eight hours to incubate.”

It is not likely that the two diners were sickened by food eaten an hour before they felt ill.

A handy table from the FDA’s Bad Bug Book shows that the only bacterial foodborne illness known to show symptoms in fewer than two hours is Staphylococcus aureus. (That’s because this particular bacterium produces toxins before it’s even eaten; others don’t produce toxins until they’ve been sitting in your gut for a while.)

Even then, the average time between eating Staph-contaminated food and feeling sick is 2-4 hours. Very few feel sick in just an hour.

A physician commenting on Bauer’s response suggested that the two friends could have been exposed to a gastrointestinal virus earlier in the week that finally showed symptoms after eating at the restaurant together.

Rotavirus takes about two days to make you sick and symptoms of a norovirus can appear in a day or two.

After getting a few more details from the reader, Bauer said,

“I figured that it might have been spoiled fish, since what was consumed was fried and any off flavors might have been masked. However, tracing it back for sure is extremely difficult.”

Depending on the pathogen, a person with a foodborne illness will either start vomiting within a few hours or have diarrhea within a few days. In either case, the last thing you ate is often not the culprit.

A friend of mine, who is now a dietitian, has been keeping a food journal since high school. If she’s ever hit with a foodborne illness—and goes to the doctor, has a stool sample tested, discovers which bug made her sick, and remembers when she started feeling bad—she’ll have an excellent shot at figuring out which food made her sick and where she ate it.

If a sick person can only remember the last place they’ve eaten, though, they’re not considering all the possibilities—including the most likely possibilities.
 

The sucess of perceived safety as seen in kosher foods

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A recent survey by Mintel found that Americans choose to buy kosher foods because of perceptions of quality (62%), healthfulness (51%), and safety (34%) over religious reasons.

Similar trends have also been seen in the UK and Canada.

Krista Faron, a senior new product analyst at Mintel, was quoted by meatprocess.com as saying,

“Particularly in the recent past, Americans have been overwhelmed by food safety scares. People are very concerned and having some certification on the foods they buy can appease some of those fears.”

She also explained where many consumers find that comfort.

“The presence of the kosher mark itself suggests that there is [an inspection] process in place. It is all about consumer perception that there is some sort of formalized methodology…My sense is that consumers probably couldn’t tell us what kosher meant, but the kosher mark is reassuring,” she said.

While kosher processing meets certain religious standards, there is no scientific basis for the perception of heightened safety. Imagine, then, what the marketing of actual food safety measures within a company could do for business.

Since a Mintel report in December 2007, kosher has continued to be the number one individual claim for new American food products.

"Microbiologically safe" could blast it out of the water.

Looking out for the farmers of the “safest food in the world”

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This summer at the Kansas State Fair, I felt like I was getting a lot of strange looks. I tried to brush it off, telling myself that it was no crime to have never slopped a pig or stolen eggs from under a roosting a hen—I should still be welcome at the fair.

I was positive there were other non-farm girls there. Probably even some that grew up in the city; I, at least, shared a property line with a cow pasture. But people just kept staring.

I really got embarrassed when a representative from the Farm Bureau Federation started to laugh out loud and point at me.

When it finally donned on me that I was wearing my Don’t Eat Poop t-shirt that day, I turned to let him read the back: Wash Your Hands.

I explained that I worked for an organization that wants to turn the public’s attention to food safety.

He seemed to think that particular method was effective. “But do you make farmers look bad?” he asked while raising one eyebrow.

I told him we felt it was important that everyone does their part, from the farm to the fork.

He smiled, but I think he remained skeptical.

I raised my eyebrow today at a press release in which the director of congressional relations in the California Farm Bureau National Affairs and Research Division, Josh Rolph, was quoted as saying,

"Congress and the new administration will be sure to consider changes to the way the government oversees the safety of food production. We want to make sure that any changes don’t prove to be burdensome to farmers, who are growing the safest food supply in the world."

I wish I could meet this guy and stare strangely at him. If anyone’s going to claim to grow the safest food in the world, they’re going to have to take some pains to prove it.

“The nation’s farming community understands the need to improve food safety, Rolph said, but the farm-level impact to producers must be considered in any new food safety proposals.”

Salinas vegetable farmer Dirk Giannini referred to the surge in food safety action plans following the outbreak of E. coli from spinach in 2006, and explained that a frenzy of “non-scientific ideas” were putting farmers out.

"And don’t get me wrong,” said Giannini, “The farmers do not want to jeopardize anyone’s health or life—we have the safest food supply in the world. But the scientific-based decisions are the ones that we need to move forward."

Of course any actions to increase the safety of the food supply should be backed by scientific evidence, but public claims of safety should have the same foundation.

To the farmers who grow the food I appreciate every day: In your products and in your claims, Don’t Sell Poop.