Author Archives: Ben Chapman

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.

Michigan Carrabba’s outbreak confirmed as norovirus

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Last week I was part of a panel with Aron Hall and Chip Manuel at the Food Safety Summit. For an hour and a half we talked burden, outbreaks, sanitizers, vomit and social media. The conclusion was there’s a bunch a noro in the U.S.; it sticks around for a long time in the environment; and, restaurants are a popular place for outbreaks. Like Carrabba’s Italian Grill in Delta Township, MI.635991863436297897-IMG-2401

The department announced the findings Wednesday afternoon, but it was not clear how many people were sickened in the outbreak. The agency said in a news release and on its Facebook page that more than 100 people became ill after eating at the restaurant over two days in May. But Greg Cabose, the agency’s community services supervisor, disputes the number of people stricken. He declined to give a total Wednesday, but earlier this week pegged the figure who became ill at closer to 30.

All of the people who were sickened ate at the restaurant on May 7 or May 8, the department said. Carrabba’s voluntarily shut down on May 10 after a visit from Health Department officials. The restaurant was cleared to reopen May 12 and there have been no sickness complaints since.

FSIS releases final mechanically tenderized beef labeling rule

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I don’t order steaks at restaurants very often; it’s not for safety reasons, it’s because I can buy good ribeye or fillet and grill it at home.china_use_2

About once a week I make a spinach salad with pears, blue cheese and toasted walnuts served with sliced steak. I like to sear the outside to about 220F – and keep the inside around 130F. Something I can do with little risk if my meat is fully intact.

I don’t buy mechanically tenderized meat.

At least I don’t think I do. As a consumer, up until now I’ve been at the mercy of the butcher/meat counter. I ask questions. Folks tell me it’s not tenderized.

Soon, I’ll be able to look for a label. According to Meating Place, USDA FSIS’s final rule on mechanically tenderized beef labeling was just released.

The rule was two years in the making and requires that the product names of the affected products include the descriptive designation “mechanically tenderized,” “blade tenderized” or “needle tenderized.” Raw products that are destined for foodservice or home cooking have to include cooking instructions that recommend that mechanically tenderized beef be cooked to a minimum internal temperature of 145 degrees followed by a three-minute rest time.

The new rule is intended to address issues with the blades or needles used to mechanically tenderized meat cuts, which can introduce pathogens from the surface of the meat into the interior. If not fully cooked, then, the pathogens could make diners sick the same way a rare or medium rare burger can.
Consumers have been getting messages about fully cooking their burgers, however, whereas they are more likely to cook mechanically tenderized steak on the rare side, the same they way would with an intact cut.

About 11 percent, or 2.6 billion pounds, of beef products sold in the U.S. have been mechanically tenderized, according to USDA data. Deputy Undersecretary Al Almanza said the new rule comes in response to six outbreaks of illnesses linked to bacterial contamination in mechanically tenderized meat since 2000.

‘I’m a sympathetic vomiter and can’t handle the smell’ Dad texts mom after kid pukes

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I used to be a sympathetic vomiter; like Lard Ass Hogan style.

And then I had kids, and cleaning up vomit became a daily event.

A few years ago Jack puked on a plane. The flight attendants responded quickly, and provided me with plastic bags to contain the pukey clothes and coffee pods to manage the smell. Because there are some sympathy yackers out there.

Like the dad who texted an excellent kid puke-driven narrative to his wife that went viral today.

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It is called barfblog.

Romper writes about listeria, misses some context

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Romper, a site targeting new moms (from the same folks who run Bustle) deconstructs recent listeria events and sorta misses stuff, but there are some gems for the nerds:

Listeria is a wild bacteria

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As opposed to the domestic ones.

it’s possible that a listeria contamination happened before the veggies were frozen, hence that “voluntary recall” qualifier for companies.hqdefault

Huh?

Want to ensure listeria doesn’t live…refrigerate.

Uh no. Not quite

If you feel icky about bacteria, forget about what your grandma said and toss that pasta. If not, go for it. Just microwave them at least.

Probably not the best cooking source because of the uneven heat.

At least they got this correct:

Different kinds of food are processed, cleaned, and distributed in many places.

Yep.

Don’t like your inspection result? Change your restaurant’s ownership

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It seems like a lot of work but NBC Bay Area reports there is a loophole in erasing inspection history – good and bad – change the ownership.

But a name change alone doesn’t change how the managers and staff address food safety.

“It’s not for me to make sense of it, it is what the law requires us to do,” said Stephanie Cushing, who heads the city’s restaurant inspection process as the Director of the San Francisco’s Department of Environmental Health.dohevhiomwpyri5adsqz

Cushing’s team of 30 field inspectors make daily checks at restaurants across the city to ensure they comply with health and safety codes, but she acknowledges those inspection reports are promptly removed from the city’s website once a restaurant files paperwork to indicate changes in ownership of the business, even if managers and employees remains largely the same.

Cushing’s team of inspectors are no strangers to a Chinese restaurant at 5238 Diamond Heights Boulevard. Even though the sign on the building says All Season, don’t expect to find that name anywhere on the city’s online database of restaurant inspection reports. A

ccording to city records, the business changed its name to Harbor Villa last year, as well as a change in ownership, which required the city to remove the inspection history for All Season restaurant from the city’s website.

While the restaurant listed new company officers in 2014, the Investigative Unit discovered that ownership was still under the same corporation.

Last year, the restaurant filed another change of ownership, and listed a new corporate name, but the two officers of that corporation stayed the same.

Even after the restaurant name change, Harbor Villa was forced to close on two more times for serious health and safety violations, including a cockroach infestation.

I dunno how many places go through the process and the paperwork of changing company officers and names, but it seems like managing food safety risks is probably easier. And better for business.

Going public: Hepatitis A in Houston edition

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The Houston Health Department is following the mantra of share what you know, what you don’t know and be available for questions following a hepatitis A incident in Houston, TX.

According to 2 Houston, a student at Stephen F. Austin high school was diagnosed with hepatitis a and public health department officials alerted students, parents and staff that there they may have been exposed. Transmission of the virus happens when the poop of an infected person ends in someones mouth either through hands, objects, food, or drinks.stone_cold_steve_austin_01

Dates of exposure are April 20 to May 11 and Health Department officials are visiting the school to engage with the community for public information/Q&A sessions.

There are probably lots of students who work at restaurant/retail stores who also work at Stephen F. Austin.

Who will build the first E. coli tricorder?

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I’m into HBO’s Silicon Valley, the parodic look at tech start-up companies that kind of reminds me of the academic world. At the end of season 1, the Pied Piper crew debuts their compression tool at TechCrunch Disrupt – sort of a cross between the Napoleon Dynamite dance scene and Survivor for tech companies. Sort of the same thing that a group of UC Davis folks will go through when they debut a hand-held pathogen detection system.

Marc Pollack, a Ph.D. student in the UC Davis Microbiology graduate group, and Jeremy Warren, a former postdoc in Plant Pathology, leave Davis at 5 a.m. every weekday morning to commute to IndieBio, a startup accelerator in a narrow alley just south of Market Street in the heart of San Francisco.xprize

It’s where, for four months, they will represent the rest of their team and strenuously refine the business idea behind Astrona, a pathogen detection startup that originated as one of 13 UC Davis interdisciplinary research programs funded by a grant from the Office of Research.

The product they are trying to create is a hand-held device that can be used to detect a variety of pathogens—including foodborne pathogens like E. coli—at all stages in the food supply chain, from fields to restaurants. And the detection technology is applicable to broad range of pathogens, offering potential for other uses such as in the medical field.

Astrona’s technology emerged out of a unique interdisciplinary research seed-funding program, Research Investments in Science and Engineering (RISE). In 2012, the university made a bold investment of $10.8 million to fund the RISE program, assembling teams of experts from different disciplines to address global challenges. Astrona arose from one of 13 teams that received funding from the program, bringing together experts in the fields of plant pathology, food science, electrical engineering and computer engineering.

Pollack and Warren have created a detector (although not quite a product prototype) that they are debugging in time for Demo Day, which will take place this summer. All 15 teams in the spring cohort will participate. The event usually draws about a thousand attendees.

Even though it’s still a few months off, Warren says getting ready for the presentation feels very rushed. “Our science works, but we need to be able to get up there and show how it works. We have seven minutes to wow everybody.”

Dear Abby: how do I avoid botulism?

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Doug introduced me to John Prine about 15 years ago. I’ve got a bunch of Prine albums in my iTunes and Dear Abby, from Sweet Revenge is a great kitchen sing-along song.

Food safety questions pop up in the Dear Abby-type advice columns, this weeks version from Telegram.com.

Q: How do I avoid botulism poisoning in my potato salad and deviled eggs during the summer picnic season? I am very concerned about this.220px-Pauline_Phillips_1961

— Chris Snashall, Grove City, Ohio

A: Let’s first distinguish between botulism and other forms of foodborne illnesses.
Botulism is a severe illness in which a nerve toxin produced by the bacterium Clostridium botulinum causes paralysis — and in severe cases, death.

Botulism is most often caused by food that isn’t properly home-canned. Typically it results when low-acid foods (such as potatoes or green beans) are not pressure-canned; the high temperature of that process is required to make them safe.

Because the botulinum toxin is destroyed by high temperatures, people who eat home-canned foods should, to ensure safety, consider boiling the food for 10 minutes before eating it. (or follow evaluated, science-based recipes/processing times -ben)

Other common causes of botulism are home-made herb or garlic oils that aren’t refrigerated, and potatoes that have been wrapped in foil to bake and either not kept hot enough or refrigerated in the foil. In both cases, the bacteria are left at a temperature at which they can multiply rapidly. (first they go from spore form to vegetative cell and then secrete the toxin while multiplying -ben).

Unless you are making your potato salad and deviled eggs with home-canned foods, botulism should not be a concern.

In 2015, home canned potatoes used in potato salad caused one of the largest bot outbreaks in the U.S. with over 20 illnesses and two deaths.

Food Safety Talk 101: The Dalmatian episode

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Food Safety Talk, a bi-weekly podcast for food safety nerds, by food safety nerds. The podcast is hosted by Ben Chapman and barfblog contributor Don Schaffner, Extension Specialist in Food Science and Professor at Rutgers University. Every two weeks or so, Ben and Don get together virtually and talk for about an hour.dalmatiansf6

They talk about what’s on their minds or in the news regarding food safety, and popular culture. They strive to be relevant, funny and informative — sometimes they succeed. You can download the audio recordings right from the website, or subscribe using iTunes.

Episode 101 can be found here and on iTunes.

Show notes so you can follow along at home.

Vibrio, from raw oysters, and cirrhosis aren’t a good combination

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Vibrio is one of the nastier foodborne pathogens, one of the reasons why I don’t go near raw oysters (the other being that I just don’t like them).

It’s particularly a problem with folks with existing liver problems.

Nazir and colleagues provide an example in the British Medical Journal.

Oyster-Vancouver, B.C.- 07/05/07- Joe Fortes Oyster Specialist Oyster Bob Skinner samples a Fanny Bay oyster at the restuarant. Vancouver Coastal Health now requires restaurants to inform their patrons of the dangers of eating raw shellfish. (Richard Lam/Vancouver Sun) [PNG Merlin Archive]

We present a case of a 40-year-old man with decompensated alcoholic liver cirrhosis presenting with atraumatic cellulitis of one extremity and severe sepsis that rapidly progressed to compartment syndrome despite broad-spectrum antibiotics. Local cultures following debridement revealed Vibrio vulnificus, and subsequent history revealed consumption of raw oysters 48 h before presentation. Our case points out the unique susceptibility of those with cirrhosis and elevated iron saturation to Vibrio septicaemia, as well as the rapidity and severity of the disease progression.