Category Archives: E. coli

Enjoy the holidays and follow safe food practices

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As Christmas fast approaches, it is time for family and friends to get together and share in the festivities. This year my extended family and I have rigged together a massive outdoor spit and intend on roasting different cuts of meat all day. My job is to lather the meat with rosemary infused olive oil and ensure food safety. The latter is a given since my family knows my background and my less than par culinary skills. I’ll leave the cooking to my father-in-law and kids, I’ll make sure we have thermometers on hand.

The Boston Globe reports

One of the most rewarding parts of throwing a holiday bash is hearing the next day from guests reminiscing about how delicious and fun the prior evening was for all. What you don’t want to receive are messages about an impromptu afterparty thrown at the local emergency room. Food poisoning is a horrific holiday present to give folks as it’s a gift that could keep giving . . . for days.
The Centers for Disease Control estimates that 48 million people get sick from food poisoning each year, with 128,000 of them having to be hospitalized. Bouts of nausea, vomiting, stomach cramps, and diarrhea are not only unpleasant reminders that you ate some bad food, but this type of foodborne illness can accelerate to the point that is life-threatening. According to the CDC, 3,000 people die annually from food poisoning.
If children, pregnant women, older adults, and/or those with certain chronic conditions are on your guest list, they are even more susceptible to food poisoning because their immune systems might be weakened or not as strong as they need to be yet. To help you enjoy your holiday season without regret, here are five strategies to safeguard your guests:
Be mindful when making cookies and dough ornaments
If you are baking cookies or making raw dough ornaments at your party, you could be asking for trouble. While you shouldn’t eat raw egg-containing cookie dough or batter because of the increased risk of salmonella, that’s only part of the problem. According to the Food and Drug Administration, flour may contain bacteria that can also sicken you. In 2016, there was an outbreak of foodborne illness from bacteria called Shiga toxin-producing E. coli O121. Because of this, the FDA is now recommending that you don’t let children play with raw dough. If you or your guests come in contact with flour, make sure that all hands, work surfaces, and utensils are thoroughly washed when the baking and crafts are completed.
Alter Grandma’s homemade eggnog recipe
Sipping eggnog topped with ground cinnamon and nutmeg just screams holiday cheer. Unfortunately, making the traditional recipe with raw eggs will put you and your guests at risk. The CDC recommends that you swap out the raw eggs from the eggnog recipe for pasteurized eggs that can be found at many supermarkets. Even better, save yourself time and worry by buying pre-made eggnog that is already pasteurized. Just don’t tell Grandma. 
Roast a safe turkey or chicken — and don’t wash it first
In a study done by researchers at the CDC, poultry was found to be the most common cause of foodborne illness outbreaks in the United States. The good news is that proper cooking will kill nasty bacteria. To avoid food poisoning, get yourself a reliable food thermometer and make sure that it is inserted in the innermost part of the thigh, wing, and breast of the poultry. If the thermometer reaches a safe internal temperature of 165 degrees, you are good to go. Contrary to popular thought, don’t wash the poultry before cooking it. Giving your bird a bath in your kitchen sink will not wash away the bacteria, but it could splatter it in the sink and contaminate surrounding surfaces.
Buffer the buffet table
When putting food out on a buffet table, you need to remember to keep cold foods cold and hot foods hot. Cold foods, such as cooked shrimp and salads, should be placed on a pan of ice to help keep these items at 40 degrees or colder. Use heating trays to keep hot foods at 140 degrees to keep bacteria from multiplying to levels that can make folks sick. Better yet, only put out small portions of these foods at a time. When the platter is empty, replenish the buffet table with a new platter of food from the refrigerator or oven. When the party is over, perishable foods left at room temperature for two hours or more should be tossed.
Provide parting gifts that go the distance
If you are sending your guests home with leftovers, be mindful of the distance they have to travel. If they’ll be on the road more than two hours, perishables should be packed in a cooler with ice or cold packs that will keep the food at 40 degrees.

 

Sounds like Walkerton: More than 750,000 in NZ exposed to potentially unsafe drinking water

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Same old, same old.

Tracy Watkins of Stuff writes complacency, inept officials – a Government inquiry paints a frightening picture of the state of New Zealand’s drinking water, with at least 750,000 of New Zealanders drinking from supplies that are “not demonstrably safe” – a figure described as likely to be a “significant underestimate.”

The inquiry was sparked by the 2016 Havelock North gastro outbreak, which has now been linked to four deaths, and calls for a major overhaul of water supplies, including mandatory treatment.

The Government has now written urgently to all mayors and district health boards asking to check the water they are supplying meets current standards after the inquiry revealed 20 per cent of water supplies were not up to standard.

That 20 per cent affects 759,000 people, of which 92,000 are at risk of bacterial infection, 681,000 of protozoal infection and 59,000 at risk from the long term effects of exposure to chemicals through their water supply.

But that figure was likely to understate the problem, as it did not include more than 600,000 people who drink water from self-suppliers or temporary suppliers, or tourists to places like Punakaiki on the West Coast, which is under a permanent “boil water” notice.

The inquiry found that complacency about the state of New Zealand’s drinking water was common, yet the evidence showed that in many cases it was safer to drink tap water overseas than here.

But its most damning findings related to the Ministry of Health, which it described as inept and negligent in its oversight of a system in which non-compliance with safe standards was high.

The risks for contamination of the water supplies were detailed by the inquiry including damaged pipes, a huge number of private and unknown bores, and the close proximity of sewerage to drinking water assets, a factor that caused surprise among overseas experts.

The second part of the inquiry looked at broader water quality issues.

It found that lessons from Havelock North appeared not to have been learned – compliance figures in the 2016-17 period were still “alarmingly low” and “do not appear to reflect any increased vigilance by suppliers in the aftermath of [that] outbreak”.

“The inquiry found the falling compliance levels with the bacteriological and chemical standards particularly concerning. The decrease in compliance with the bacteriological standards results from an increased number of transgressions, an increased number of supplies with ineffective, delayed or unknown remedial action following transgressions, and an increased number of supplies with inadequate monitoring.

“Twenty-seven supplies failed entirely to take any remedial action after a transgression. In the aftermath of the bacteriological outbreak in Havelock North, these failures to respond effectively to transgressions or to monitor adequately are surprising and unacceptable.”

Food Safety Talk 141: Dot Zaaa

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Don and Ben talk about a self-inflicted hockey injury that Ben is dealing with that is causing him to lean differently. They also talk emails; raw milk and Listeria (and pasteurized milk and Listeria); biases and scientists looking at the same data and arriving at different conclusions. The conversation moves to famous microbiologists birthdays and a massive, tragic, outbreak of Listeria in South Africa. The show ends on Canadian satire and the Conference for Food Protection.

Episode 141 is available on iTunes and here.

Show notes so you can follow along at home:

Hucksterism fail: Ells out as CEO at Chipotle

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Joe Rubino of The Denver Post writes the man who turned a tiny burrito shop near the University of Denver into an international brand will soon be out as Chipotle Mexican Grill’s CEO.

Steve Ells, the founder of the Denver-based fast-casual chain, will leave his post as chairman and CEO to become executive chairman after a replacement has been found, the company announced Wednesday.

A committee that includes Ells and directors Ali Namvar and Robin Hickenlooper, wife of Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper, has been formed to find a leader with demonstrated turnaround expertise, the company said.

Whoever takes the job will be tasked with helping the chain climb out of protracted market malaise caused, in part, by outbreaks of foodborne illness linked to some of its restaurants, first in 2015, then again earlier this year. 

Co-CEO Monty Moran stepped down in December, leaving Ells with control of the company as it faced pressures from activist investor Bill Ackman, whose Pershing Square Capital hedge fund took a nearly 10 percent stake in September 2016. Ackman said then that he wanted improvement in Chipotle’s “operations, cost structure, management and strategy.”

E. coli: Flour fights not such a good idea

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In June, 2009, an outbreak of shiga-toxin producing E. coli (primarily O157:H7) in Nestle Toll House cookie dough sickened at least 77 people in 30 American states. Thirty-five people were hospitalized – from cookie dough.

The researchers could not conclusively implicate flour as the E. coli source, but it remains the prime suspect. They pointed out that a single purchase of contaminated flour might have been used to manufacture multiple lots and varieties of dough over a period of time as suggested by the use-by dates on the contaminated product.

The study authors concluded that “foods containing raw flour should be considered as possible vehicles of infection of future outbreaks of STEC.”

So it wasn’t much of a surprise when 56 people fell sick from with the outbreak strain of E. coli O121 from Dec. 2015 to Sept. 2016 were linked to raw General Mills flour.

The peer-reviewed summary of the outbreak investigation was published last week in The New England Journal of Medicine.

Abstract below:

In 2016, a multijurisdictional team investigated an outbreak of Shiga toxin–producing Escherichia coli (STEC) serogroup O121 and O26 infections linked to contaminated flour from a large domestic producer.

Methods

A case was defined as infection with an outbreak strain in which illness onset was between December 21, 2015, and September 5, 2016. To identify exposures associated with the outbreak, outbreak cases were compared with non-STEC enteric illness cases, matched according to age group, sex, and state of residence. Products suspected to be related to the outbreak were collected for STEC testing, and a common point of contamination was sought. Whole-genome sequencing was performed on isolates from clinical and food samples.

Results

A total of 56 cases were identified in 24 states. Univariable exact conditional logistic-regression models of 22 matched sets showed that infection was significantly associated with the use of one brand of flour (odds ratio, 21.04; 95% confidence interval [CI], 4.69 to 94.37) and with tasting unbaked homemade dough or batter (odds ratio, 36.02; 95% CI, 4.63 to 280.17). Laboratory testing isolated the outbreak strains from flour samples, and whole-genome sequencing revealed that the isolates from clinical and food samples were closely related to one another genetically. Trace-back investigation identified a common flour-production facility.

Conclusions

This investigation implicated raw flour as the source of an outbreak of STEC infections. Although it is a low-moisture food, raw flour can be a vehicle for foodborne pathogens.

Shiga toxin–producing E. coli infections associated with flour

N Engl J Med 2017; 377:2036-2043, November 23, 2017, DOI: 10.1056/NEJMoa1615910

Samuel J. Crowe, Ph.D., M.P.H., Lyndsay Bottichio, M.P.H., Lauren N. Shade, B.S., Brooke M. Whitney, Ph.D., Nereida Corral, M.P.H., Beth Melius, M.N., M.P.H., Katherine D. Arends, M.P.H., Danielle Donovan, M.S., Jolianne Stone, M.P.H., Krisandra Allen, M.P.H., Jessica Rosner, M.P.H., Jennifer Beal, M.P.H., Laura Whitlock, M.P.H., Anna Blackstock, Ph.D., June Wetherington, M.S., Lisa A. Newberry, Ph.D., Morgan N. Schroeder, M.P.H., Darlene Wagner, Ph.D., Eija Trees, D.V.M., Ph.D., Stelios Viazis, Ph.D., Matthew E. Wise, M.P.H., Ph.D., and Karen P. Neil, M.D., M.S.P.H.

http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa1615910

New proposed changes to the Regulations under the Health Protection and Promotion Act in Ontario

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New proposed changes to the Regulations under the Health Protection and Promotion Act (HPPA) in Ontario (Canada) are intended to modernize and ensure public health programs and services remain current to protect the health of Ontarians. A couple of the major highlights to the proposed changes to the Food Premises Regulation include mandatory on-site disclosure of inspections and mandatory food handler training for one person on shift at all times. There are a number of other modifications that include amendments to cleaning and sanitizing, temperature control and food handling.

The Ontario Food Premises Regulation was outdated and a number of concerns, in particular, with cleaning and sanitizing requirements have to come light a number of times in the past by industry and Regulators alike. Glad to see the modernization of the Regulation. However, when reading further into the proposed changes, one proposed amendment to another Regulation under HPPA is to remove the professional qualifications requirements for public health inspectors. Public health inspectors undertake specialized education and training in their field followed by a rigorous process of becoming Certified. Why remove their professional qualifications? They are highly trained on how to conduct food safety inspections, pool inspections and any other public health related inspections. Removing their qualifications in Ontario will not only provide inconsistency in Canada, they will also lose credibility.

Anecdote to anecdote

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One of the common conversations held between food safety nerds is about the predictable meme-like sharing of phrases that folks use to explain why they do risky things like eat undercooked foods or wash their poultry and other stuff. It usually goes like: ‘I’ve been doing this for a long time, with no consequence. 

Risk doesn’t work like that. And that’s what I told Brian Handwerk at Smithsonian Magazine.

“I think it’s human nature to live anecdote to anecdote. If I’ve been undercooking my burger for 20 years and I’ve never gotten sick, I’m very comfortable with that. You can tell me about the risk, but I’ve never seen it realized. On the flip side, I know people who’ve lost loved ones to foodborne illness and they look at things drastically differently.”

I also got in a plug for environmental sources of pathogens, and that animals might not always be involved:

There’s also growing evidence that these pathogens can survive for a long time in soil and other environments, says Chapman, citing recent ilness outbreaks stemming from almonds, peanut butter and flour that seem to have no discernible animal sources. “Increasingly we’re opening up our minds and saying the environment might also be a pretty decent source for hosting foodborne pathogens,” he says.

Happy Thanksgiving

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Thanksgiving is a great time to be thankful and to celebrate with family and friends. Happy Thanksgiving to all my friends in the US. In Canada, Thanksgiving fell on October 9th, my family and I celebrated with lots of good food and friends. We decided not to go with the traditional turkey and ended up making lasagna, enough to feed a small army. Tonight to share in the festivities with my friends to the South, my 6-year old son and I intend on making Turkey and will cook the bird to an internal temperature of 74C (165F).

FOX 5 reports

A catering company whose food may have sickened hundreds of workers during a company Thanksgiving dinner has voluntarily shut down while the investigation is going on.
Complaints have been all over social media and prompted a health department investigation into a possible Salmonella outbreak.
Employees at the TOYO Tire plant in White, Georgia Were sounding off on social media. They said a number of the 1,800 people who ate a catered Thanksgiving meal last week got Salmonella poisoning.
The meal spanned 2 days. Workers who are out sick said they aren’t sure when they will be back. They said they started getting sick Thursday and so did their coworkers.
FOX 5 News spoke with an employee’s wife took her husband home from the hospital with Salmonella information packets and a handful of prescriptions.
“They gave him two bags of fluids, did blood work did a salmonella culture, gave him some IV antibiotics and um basically he’s being treated for salmonella poisoning,” said Stephanie, who didn’t want us to use her last name.
Stephanie’s husband started getting sick Thursday night and got progressively worse over the weekend. He said he’s not the only one out of work Monday.
“I can only speak from what I know for sure,” said Stephanie. “My brother in law was in the emergency room yesterday and was also treated for salmonella poisoning and several of my husband’s coworkers that he has spoken to he has directly spoken to have been sick and were in the ER.”
When asked how many people are out of work and how many people are out from sickness, this is the statement a TOYO spokesperson provided:
“The health and safety of our employees is our highest priority. We are cooperating fully with health authorities as we seek to determine the cause of these illnesses.”
A representative at the district health department who said both the caterer and TOYO are cooperating. They wrote:
“While we suspect this is a foodborne-related outbreak, that hasn’t been confirmed. Cause of the outbreak is not yet known; the illness or illnesses have not yet been confirmed.”
Cultures will take days to officially identify Salmonella and the health department said it could be next week before they name a cause.

 

Power of media, Broadway actor claims he was ill after dining at Chipotle

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Kate Taylor of Business Insider writes:

Chipotle’s shares dropped after a Broadway star blamed the burrito chain for a recent illness.
“I, as you can see, am in the hospital and I have fluids in my arm because the food did not agree with me and I almost died,” People reported that Jeremy Jordan, a Broadway actor and star of “Supergirl,” said in an Instagram story on Thursday.
The story of Jordan’s illness picked up media coverage over the weekend.
On Monday, Chipotle’s stock fell up to 5.9% — the lowest level in almost five years, according to Bloomberg.
Chipotle denied any link between Jordan’s illness and the chain.
“We were sorry to hear Jeremy was sick and were able to get in touch with him directly regarding where and when he ate,” spokesman Chris Arnold said in an email to Business Insider. “There have been no other reported claims of illness at the restaurant where he dined. We take all claims seriously, but we can’t confirm any link to Chipotle given the details he shared with us.”
The reaction shows just how susceptible Chipotle is to concerns about food safety.
In 2016, the company’s stock dropped 3.5% after a single report on Twitter said that someone had gotten sick after eating at a Manhattan Chipotle.
Chipotle is still struggling to build sales following an E. coli outbreak in late 2015 that sickened more than 50 people in 14 states.
In October, Chipotle’s shares fell nearly 12% after missing expectations for its most recent quarter. The company’s revenue reached $1.13 billion in the quarter, falling short of the $1.14 billion estimate.