Author Archives: Douglas Powell

About Douglas Powell

A former professor of food safety and the publisher of barfblog.com, Powell is passionate about food, has five daughters, and is an OK goaltender in pickup hockey. Download Doug’s CV here. Dr. Douglas Powell editor, barfblog.com retired professor, food safety 3/289 Annerley Rd Annerley, Queensland 4103 dpowell29@gmail.com 61478222221 I am based in Brisbane, Australia, 15 hours ahead of Eastern Standard Time

Just cook it doesn’t cut it: 196 sick from E. coli O103 linked to ground beef

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The U.S Centers for Disease Control (CDC) reports several states, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service are investigating a multistate outbreak of Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli O103 infections linked to ground beef.

Ill people in this outbreak ate ground beef from many sources. Some ground beef has been recalled, but more product contaminated with E. coli O103 may still be on the market or in freezers.

Restaurants, retailers, and institutions should not sell or serve the following recalled ground beef products because they may be contaminated with E. coli O103 and could make people sick:

Grant Park Packing in Franklin Park, Ill., recalled 53,200 pounds of raw ground beef products on April 24, 2019.

Recalled products were sold in 40-lb. bulk cardboard boxes of “North Star Imports & Sales, LLC. 100% GROUND BEEF BULK 80% LEAN/ 20% FAT” marked “FOR INSTITUTIONAL USE ONLY” with lot code GP.1051.18 and pack dates 10/30/2018, 10/31/2018, and 11/01/2018.

Recalled products are labeled with establishment number “EST. 21781” inside the USDA mark of inspection on the boxes.

K2D Foods, doing business as Colorado Premium Foods, in Carrollton, Ga., recalledexternal icon approximately 113,424 pounds of raw ground beef products on April 23, 2019.

Recalled products were sold in two 24-lb. vacuum-packed packages in cardboard boxes containing raw “GROUND BEEF PUCK” with “Use Thru” dates of 4/14/19, 4/17/19, 4/20/19, 4/23/19, 4/28/19, and 4/30/19.

Recalled products are labeled with establishment number “EST. 51308” inside the USDA mark of inspection.

Investigators continue to trace other sources for ground beef eaten by ill people in this outbreak, and more product contaminated with E. coli O103 may be recalled.

Cook ground beef hamburgers and mixtures such as meatloaf to an internal temperature of 160°F. Use a food thermometer to make sure the meat has reached a safe internal temperature. You can’t tell whether meat is safely cooked by looking at it.

For hamburgers, insert thermometer through the side of the patty until it reaches the middle.

(Piping hot doesn’t cut it, UK).

Young girls in Finland are pretending to ride horses — inside the prancing phenomenon

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As I’m about to watch game 4 of the Stanley Cup final between St. Louis and Boston (that’s ice hockey for my Australian friends, and it’s on in background) I think of the Finnish trend of young girls prancing – pretending to ride horses.

According to a story in People, many young girls in the country have taken up the craft of “hobbyhorsing,” which sees them use a stick equipped with a toy horse’s head to dance and show off their riding skills at events.

While it may seem like the girls are simply pretending to ride their horses, it becomes as genuine as it can get at competitions, where they’ll learn how to care for their hobbyhorse just as if it were a real animal. They even pick its breed and gender.

Becoming a part of the country’s growing hobbyhorse community reportedly allows the girls to express themselves without fear of ridicule in something they may not find in school or in their neighborhood.

“The normal things, that normal girls like, they don’t feel like my things,” 11-year-old hobbyhorse enthusiast Fanny Oikarinen told the N.Y. Times.

 “Some are sports girls,” added Fanny’s friend, Maisa Wallius. “Some are really lonely girls. And some can be the coolest girl at school.”

Enthusiast Alisa Aarniomaki found online stardom thanks to her hobbyhorsing, but despite her popular videos, she was unsure about revealing her skills to kids at school.

Hobbyhorsing got the attention of filmmaker Selma Vilhunen, who released a documentary in 2017 about the craft.

“Little girls are allowed to be strong and wild,” Vilhunen said of hobbyhorsing. “I think the society starts to shape them into a certain kind of quietness when they reach puberty.

If it works for these girls, great. My five daughters all played or play (ice) hockey – the real kind.

Why does coffee make us poop? Scientists may have found the answer

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It’s a morning ritual for millions: a couple of cups of coffee followed by a couple of poops.

Pranjal Mehar of Tech Explorist reports that one study found that 29% of participants needed to use the bathroom within 20 minutes of drinking a cup of coffee.

But why?

In the search for the appropriated answer, scientists in Texas fed rats coffee with gut bacteria in Petri dishes. They found that coffee suppressed bacteria and increased muscle motility, regardless of caffeine content.

Scientists additionally examined changes to bacteria when the fecal matter was exposed to coffee in a petri dish, and by studying the composition of feces after rats ingested differing concentrations of coffee over three days. The study also documented changes to smooth muscles in the intestine and colon, and the response of those muscles when exposed directly to coffee.

The study found that growth of bacteria and other microbes in fecal matter in a petri dish was suppressed with a solution of 1.5 percent coffee, and growth of microbes was even lower with a 3 percent solution of coffee. Decaffeinated coffee had a similar effect on the microbiome.

Xuan-Zheng Shi, Ph.D., lead author of the study and associate professor in internal medicine at the University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston said, “When rats were treated with coffee for three days, the ability of the muscles in the small intestine to contract appeared to increase. Interestingly, these effects are caffeine-independent, because caffeine-free coffee had similar effects as regular coffee.”

After the rats were fed coffee for three days, the overall bacteria counts in their feces were decreased. According to scientists, further study is required to determine whether these changes favor firmicutes, considered “good” bacteria, or enterobacteria, which are regarded as negative.

Muscles in the lower intestines and colons of the rats showed increased ability to contract after a period of coffee ingestion, and coffee stimulated contractions of the small intestine and colon when muscle tissues were exposed to coffee directly in the lab.

‘Contamination of wheat poses a foodborne illness risk’

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Following up on Chapman’s coverage of the current outbreak of E. coli O26 in flour that has sickened at least 17 people, researchers have concluded that little information is available regarding microbial pathogens in wheat and wheat flour. Information about microbial pathogens in wheat is needed to develop effective methods to prevent foodborne illnesses caused by wheat products.

From 2012 to 2014, we conducted a baseline study to determine the prevalence and levels of pathogens in wheat samples taken before milling. A total of 5,176 wheat samples were tested for enterohemorrhagic Escherichia coli (EHEC), Salmonella spp., Listeria spp., and L. monocytogenes. Positive samples were assayed for most probable numbers (MPNs), and isolates were fingerprinted by pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE). The rate of detection of each pathogen tested was as follows: Salmonella was in 1.23% of the samples (average level of 0.110 MPN/g), EHECs occurred in 0.44% of the samples (0.039 MPN/g), and Listeria spp. occurred in 0.08% of samples (0.020 MPN/g), but L. monocytogenes was not detected.

The PFGE assessment found a high diversity for all organisms. All EHEC PFGE patterns (22 of 22) were unique, and 39 of 47 Salmonella patterns (83%) were unique. These results indicate a diverse background of naturally occurring organisms. These findings suggest that the microbial contamination is coming from diverse sources and provide no evidence in support of a specific pathogen load. Altogether, our surveillance study shows that contamination of wheat with pathogens is clearly evident and poses a foodborne illness risk.

Occurrence and levels of salmonella, enterohemorrhagic Escherichia coli, and listeria in raw wheat

June 2019

Journal of Food Protection vol. 82 no. 6 pp. 1022-1027

Samuel Myoda, Stefanie Gilbreth, Deann Akins-Leventhal, Seana Davidson, and Mansour Samadpour

https://doi.org/10.4315/0362-028X.JFP-18-345

https://jfoodprotection.org/doi/full/10.4315/0362-028X.JFP-18-345

Smartphones to enhance foodborne illness surveillance

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The collection of comprehensive data on both food exposure history and gastrointestinal symptoms associated with foodborne illness is typically challenging because of poor compliance with data collection methods. Smartphone technology provides a convenient tool with which to collect data on food consumption behavior and foodborne illness.

Ethica, a smartphone-based application used to acquire, store, and analyze data on human behavior, was evaluated as a potential supplement to current data collection strategies. The purpose of this study was to assess the compliance rates, advantages, and drawbacks of a smartphone-based method of collecting food history and foodborne illness data from a sample of volunteers.

Through a combination of user-triggered and prompted microsurveys, meal descriptions, and photo food diaries, the food consumption behavior of 96 university students was investigated over a period of 10 weeks. During the first 10 days of the study, 95% of participants used the time-triggered microsurveys and 51% of participants used the digital image features of the app to report food consumption history at least twice per day. Approximately 34% of participants used at least one of the reporting features to report at least one episode of vomiting or nausea during this period, and 29% reported at least one episode of diarrhea; only 7% sought medical care.

The smartphone-based method of data collection used in this study allowed capture of uniquely detailed food history data and data on gastrointestinal symptoms associated with foodborne illness that were not reported to medical practitioners and public health.

This enhanced ability to gather in-depth information from sentinel and at-risk target populations could support foodborne illness surveillance. Compliance rates, advantages, and limitations discussed in this study can guide the development of future data collection strategies.

Compliance rates, advantages, and drawbacks of a smartphone-based method of collecting food history and foodborne illness data, June 2019

Journal of Food Protection vol. 82 no. 6 pp. 1061-1070

Patrick Seitzinger, Nathaniel Osgood, Wanda Martin, Joanne Tataryn, and Cheryl Waldner

https://doi.org/10.4315/0362-028X.JFP-18-547

https://jfoodprotection.org/doi/full/10.4315/0362-028X.JFP-18-547

Family reserve

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I’m so proud of my parents for staying in contact with the Canadian kids and their great grandchildren.

This is my mom and dad on the left, and mom’s sister and her husband on the right, at the occasion of their 60th wedding anniversary. Everyone in the pic is in their 80s, except my mom, but she’ll be there soon. (I love uncle Dave’s shirt, I own several)

When did 80 become the new 50?

The girls are the daughters of Homer the Canadian asparagus king (100 acres) and my cousin is crafting a living on his farm now that they are in full asparagus season.

Urine smells throughout Ontario at this time of year.

Canadian daughter 2-of-4 had a birthday party for her 4-year-old son, so here are some pics.

Daughter Courtlynn wasn’t there because she lives in B.C. and that’s like flying from Australia to anywhere.

Here’s the slide show, courtesy of my mother, and my contributions to the world:

Madelynn, 32, 1 boy:

 

 

 

 

Jaucelynn, 29, 2 boys (that’s a Doug stare, both of them, depending on my mood.

The birthday boy and family, followed by Madelynn and Braunwynn.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

West Coast Courtlynn, Amy and Sorenne, and one of the reasons I can’t play hockey anymore, but can still write (not exactly as shown). I will not go gently into that dark night.


Outbreak investigation of Salmonella infantis linked to Del Monte vegetable trays, spring 2019

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The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is inspecting the Del Monte facility that produced vegetable trays that the Wisconsin Department of Health Services linked to an outbreak of salmonellosis. The facility is in Kankakee, Illinois.

On May 21, 2019, the Wisconsin Department of Health Services announced that vegetable trays produced by Del Monte Fresh Produce Inc. and sold at Kwik Trip convenience stores in Wisconsin and Minnesota are linked to three illnesses in Wisconsin and one illness in Minnesota.

According to Wisconsin authorities, these patients reported becoming ill between April 13 and April 27, 2019, and Kwik Trip has voluntarily removed all Del Monte vegetable trays from their stores.

The FDA, CDC and state authorities from Wisconsin and Minnesota continue to investigate the cause and source of the outbreak and the distribution of products.

This outbreak is not related to the Cyclospora infections linked to Del Monte vegetable trays in 2018.

Just like my partner is saddened about me: Jamie Oliver ‘saddened’ after UK restaurant empire collapses; never knew shit about food safety

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My family, some of my friends, and most importantly my partner, have sold me out in the name of, we just want you to get better.

I tell them for years there’s weird things going on in my head, since I started taking pucks there in 1967, now they just want to lock me up.

I’d rather be creative.

And not like Jamie Oliver.

Celebrity chef Jamie Oliver has issued an emotional statement after his UK restaurant chain collapsed into administration, putting at least 1300 jobs at risk.

The celebrity chef’s firm Jamie’s Italian Limited – which includes 23 Jamie’s Italian restaurants and 15 Barbecoa outlets – has appointed KPMG as administrators.

In a statement, Oliver said he and staff had “put our hearts and souls into the business” and described the administration as a “difficult time for everyone”.

He said: “I am deeply saddened by this outcome and would like to thank all of the staff and our suppliers who have put their hearts and souls into this business for over a decade. I appreciate how difficult this is for everyone affected.

Crocodile tears.