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.

A botulism outbreak a year later: ‘It was all just a big accident’

Posted on April 25, 2016 by Ben Chapman

A year ago a group of folks went to a fellowship event at a small town Ohio church; they ate a potluck meal including potato salad.

As the foodborne epidemiologists used to say, ‘it’s always the potato salad’; usually referring to staph toxin outbreaks – where dishes sit out at room temperature either in the preparer’s home, during the transport, or before everyone lines up to eat.

Except usually it isn’t (see our list of community meal outbreaks here).

But this time it was.

But it wasn’t staph; 22 community members got botulism. One died.

A year later, according to Fox 28, the community is still feeling the effects.

“It is more than a dream. It’s a nightmare anybody that lives through it will tell you it is a nightmare,” said Linda Large, whose husband Ben was the first victim diagnosed with botulism. Large credits the good Lord with getting her husband through a year of a debilitating illness.

“Believing in the Lord knowing that he was with me and he carried me through this, that is the only way, no other answer or explanation,” said Ben, 61 who has since retired early due to his health struggles. But the couple is thankful they are still around to enjoy ten grandchildren.

The family of Kim Shaw, 55, who died in the outbreak is still coming to grips with what happened.

Shaw’s husband, Christopher, said he has a new outlook on life after Kim’s passing.

Christopher said every morning he wakes up thinking the botulism outbreak was a dream. “I am patiently waiting for the dream to be over.”

As for the woman who brought the tainted potato salad to the potluck, Shaw said he doesn’t blame her.

“She made that potato salad with love. She canned those potatoes with love. Nothing I could say to that poor lady that would make her feel worse than she already does.”

Victims said they can never thank the community and the hospital workers enough for standing by them. The congregation said the crisis has made them stronger. There have been no more potlucks since the outbreak, but many more things shared.

“This is a family, a church family. It was all just a big accident, and we hope it will never happen again,” said Shaw.

Consumed frozen cherry/berry mix from Costco in Canada? You might have been exposed to hep A

Posted on April 25, 2016 by Ben Chapman

The often-missed Bill Keene was quoted in 2013 about using loyalty cards in an outbreak investigation ‘We rely on people’s memories, which are quite fallible, and on our interviews, which are quite fallible; Shopper club cards are a good source of finding out what people ate.’

Cards can be used to connect with members who purchased specific products if those products are part of an outbreak or recall – a tool to overcome the poor memories.

Lots of data is collected by retailers with every swipe of a loyalty or membership card: date, product, lot, location. CDC reported that the cards aided in an investigation into a 2009 outbreak of Salmonella montevideo linked to pepper (which was used as an ingredient in multiple foods).

And this frozen cherry/berry hepatitis A outbreak at a Canadian membership retailer in 2013 (sounds familiar).

It’s not failsafe though; folks, who, according to PHAC, sampled frozen berry dishes at Canadian Costco outlets recently, may not know they might have been exposed to hepatitis A.

CBC says go ahead and get an IgG shot at Costco quickly. Because it might not work for too long (based on the window of exposure).

Eastern Health’s chief medical officer David Allison is warning people who have eaten or handled contaminated fruit to get vaccinated within 14 days.

Allison said that one person in the province has contracted hepatitis as a result, but no other cases have been found. Twelve other cases have been identified in provinces across Canada.

According to Costco, approximately 1,600 households in the province have purchased the product.

While vaccines “aren’t easy to come by,” Costco is offering post-exposure immunization to those who have come into contact with the berries.

Add the correct amount of vinegar and check the pH

Posted on April 14, 2016 by Ben Chapman

One of the roles I inherited when I came to North Carolina is organizing the judges for annual home food preservation competition at the State Fair. The fair has a long history in scoring entries based on color, consistency, shapes and in some categories, taste.

According to the fair organizers we’re one of a handful of state fairs that allow judges to taste entries. During the 2014 competition a couple of judges tasted a canned product that was supposed to be pickled. If acidified correctly the safe processing step would be a boiling water bath.

One of the judges, as seasoned veteran of the process said she couldn’t taste any vinegar. We tested the pH was and it was 6.1; a nice environment for bot toxin production.

Someone probably forgot to add the vinegar. And that put a couple of volunteers at risk for a devastating illness.

Sort of sounds like what happened at HardyWares Preserves in Nova Scotia (that’s in Canada).

According to CBC news the small Maritime food processor is pulling their mustard relish from the market because they made a mistake. And didn’t likely add enough vinegar to reduce the chance of botulism.

Larry and Margaret Hardy, from Necum Teuch, are the co-owners of HardyWares Preserves. They sell jams, jellies and relishes that they make in their home kitchen.

Their 250-millilitre bottle of mustard relish, packaged on Dec. 3, 2015, is being recalled by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency because the relish could permit the growth of the bacteria that leads to botulism.

“It was a shock, an absolute shock. Because we’ve had nothing of this nature before,” said Larry Hardy.

Hardy said the agency didn’t tell him botulism toxin had been found in the product, but rather that the acid level of the relish was too low — which meant the bacteria could grow.

“It’s definitely human error, but my biggest guess is that I was busy and I was working away, and I probably put in not enough vinegar into the product,” he said.

“Whatever I did, I upset the balance of it.”

The Dec. 3 batch of mustard relish contained 21 jars. Hardy says he has accounted for all but 10. He sold them at the Alderney Landing Farmers’ Market around Christmastime.

Pork-linked Salmonella outbreak led to 192 confirmed illnesses

Posted on April 14, 2016 by Ben Chapman

It’s MMWR day again. My favorite.

A few years ago we conducted a study in commercial kitchens where we acted as food safety voyeurs and watched 47 food handlers do their job for four days.

We counted and coded all the preparation actions we could see (in some kitchens we had 8 camera angles) and there was whole lot of cross-contamination.

One cross-contamination event per food handler.

Per hour.

The MMWR note from the field detailing a 2015 Salmonella outbreak linked to a Washington State pork processor highlights the impacts of lots of cross-contamination.

A total of 192 confirmed cases were reported from five states; 184 (96%) occurred in Washington (Figure). Patients ranged in age from <1 to 90 years (median = 35 years), and 97 (51%) were female. Among 180 patients for whom information about hospitalization was available, 30 (17%) were hospitalized; no deaths were reported.

On the basis of cases investigated before August 2015, a supplemental questionnaire that went into more detail in addressing meat and livestock exposures was developed. Among 80 patients (42% of all confirmed cases) who were interviewed, 59 (74%) reported eating pork during the 7 days preceding illness. This was significantly higher than the most recently published (2007) Foodborne Diseases Active Surveillance Network (FoodNet) population survey of healthy persons, in which 43% reported eating pork in the week before they were interviewed (p <0.001) (1).

WADOH and PHSKC investigation into the source of pork traced the pork consumed by 35 (59%) of the 59 interviewed patients who reported eating pork back to a U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service–inspected pork slaughter establishment in Graham, Washington. During the outbreak period, the establishment distributed whole hogs and pork parts, primarily from five farms in Montana and one in Washington, to Washington, Oregon, and Alaska. Among the 21 interviewed patients who did not report consuming pork before becoming ill, 13 had eaten at one of two restaurants or had shopped at one market where pork from the establishment was served. During June and July 2015, PHSKC inspections of these three facilities identified potential opportunities for cross-contamination of raw pork with other meat and produce, including inadequate employee handwashing and insufficient cleaning and sanitization of food contact surfaces and utensils used for raw meat. Food and environmental sampling by PHSKC at all three facilities yielded the outbreak strains.

There’s a lot of pork cooked and consumed in restaurants across the U.S. daily. And Salmonella in pork is a known issue, but there aren’t reported pork/Salmonella outbreaks every day. My guess is that incoming pork contamination levels were out of the ordinary as well.

Food Safety Talk 99: Are you familiar with the Haugh Unit?

Posted on April 13, 2016 by Ben Chapman

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.

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.

Episode 99 can be found here and on iTunes.

Don and Ben talk pickles, puppies, Lord Stanley and his cup, the Internet, eggs, coffee, deli slicers and cuisine from around the world. After Dark turns into taxes safety talk.

Below are some links to some of the things that they talked about:

Food Safety Talk 98: Klouty with a chance of meatballs

Posted on April 12, 2016 by Ben Chapman

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 98 can be found here and on iTunes.

This week Don and Ben open with the usual popular culture talk and then move into a discussion of norovirus-laden couches, Chipotle (again), and the safety of petting zoos. From there the discussion moves to lady balls, duck sliders, balls to the wall, and Blue Bell Ice Cream. The After Dark features more cowbell.

Below are some links to some of the things that they talked about:

I think I’ll just stay here and drink: Merle Haggard dead at 79

Posted on April 6, 2016 by Ben Chapman

Before Powell left Guelph he called me up to give me a bunch of old records he had in his house. I took all the Neil Young, the Stones and the Clash.

And a Willie Nelson album.

That Willie Nelson album led me to Merle Haggard, who is my kind of country artist. Beer, whisky, horses and trucks. 05-og

Merle died today, and while Pancho and Lefty is probably Willie and Merle’s most famous collaboration, one of my favorite albums of 2015 was Django and Jimmie.

The comma matters when it comes to new food, safety measures

Posted on April 5, 2016 by Ben Chapman

I got all excited when two of my worlds collided yesterday.

Sort of.

As I scanned the news headlines I saw ‘Rays open at Tropicana Field with new food, safety measures’ from WFLA.

The Toronto Blue Jays, my team, are in Tampa Bay this week opening the season vs. the Rays.

I figured this was a response to a 2010 investigative report by ESPN on stadium food safety (which begat about 40 other stadium food exposes). In November 2014, ESPN’s Outside the Lines ran a story about Jon Costa, an Aramark employee at Kaufmann Stadium who reported frustration with his bosses over not being able to address food safety problems; Costa was later fired.

Except, the article isn’t about food safety at a stadium. It’s about new food. And new safety measures.

As ground crews were hard at work Sunday morning, prepping Tropicana Field for the Rays home opener, cooks were also making some delicious preparations in the kitchen there. This week, the Rays unveiled new food options for fans available this year, including the debut of Pipo’s Café, which serves Cuban sandwiches, empanadas and fried plantains. Also new at the “Trop” this season, new Major League Baseball safety guidelines that were put in place to keep fans safe. Last December, the Commissioner of Baseball recommended clubs to implement or maintain netting that shields from foul balls near both ends of the dugouts and within 70 feet of home plate.

Oh well, at least Blue Jays ace Marcus Stroman led Toronto to a win yesterday.

34 E. coli O157 cases now associated with Oak Leaf Farm in Connecticut

Posted on April 1, 2016 by Ben Chapman

According to a Connecticut Department of Public Health update the confirmed cases of E. coli O157 jumped over the past couple of days.

DPH is investigating 34 confirmed cases of E. coli O157 infection linked to the farm. The patients range in age from 10 months to 45 years, with a median age of five years. The patients include six adults and 28 children 14 years old and under; 18 of the children are age five years or under. In total, nine patients have been hospitalized with four still in the hospital. Three of the hospitalized patients have been diagnosed with hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS), a rare but serious illness that affects the kidneys and blood clotting system.

A table of animal contact-linked outbreaks can be found here.

EHS-Net reports retail deli slicers cleaning and sanitizing not up to guidance

Posted on March 31, 2016 by Ben Chapman

It’s MMWR day again. The best day of the week.

Retail deli slicers have been identified as a Listeria harborage sites. Courtenay Simmons and colleagues published some work last year that showed food contact surfaces in delis (like slicers) are important spots for cleaning and sanitizing.

CDC’s EHS-Net and others published the results of a 2012 project that shows less than half of surveyed managers and employees reported that slicers were cleaned and sanitized every four hours, as recommended by FDA (and included in the 2013 Model Food Code). Chains faired significantly better than independents in their reported cleaning and sanitizing practices.

Half of managers (49.5%) said that slicers were fully cleaned at least every 4 hours (Table 1). The remaining managers said that slicers were fully cleaned less frequently. Workers reported that 63.0% (393 of 624) of slicers were fully cleaned at least every 4 hours. Deli-level aggregation of these worker-reported data indicated that in 45.8% of delis, all slicers were fully cleaned at least every 4 hours (Table 1). In the remaining delis, at least one slicer was fully cleaned less frequently. Managers and workers agreed on cleaning frequency in 79.0% of delis (215 of 279, r = 0.587, p<0.001).

Multiple regression findings indicate that chain delis reported more frequent slicer cleaning than did independent delis, and delis with more slicers, serving more customers, and selling more chubs daily reported more frequent slicer cleaning than did delis with fewer slicers, serving fewer customers, or selling fewer chubs daily. These characteristics are likely indicators of deli size, and these data are consistent with other findings suggesting that both chain and larger establishments’ food safety practices tend to be better than those of independent and smaller establishments.

People say and do different things; but self reporting is usually optimistic.

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