Category Archives: E. coli

One way to control vermin….

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Shoot them.

Richard Allison reports
Milling wheat growers are being reminded not to use shotguns to control vermin in grain stores, as some flour mills have reported increasing amounts of lead shot being found among grain intakes.
Martin Savage, trade policy manager at the National Association of British and Irish Millers (Nabim), says while some shot can be screened out, a significant quantity may remain to contaminate end-products.
“Despite many attempts, it is impossible to determine whether the shot results from farmers shooting within grain stores or if it comes from shooting over standing crops,” he said.
See also: New significant wheat yellow rust strain is identified
He pointed to a recent case where a grower’s crops became contaminated after a neighbouring farmer operated a simulated “driven-game” clay shooting operation on adjacent land and the shot fell onto the nearby wheat crop.
However, Mr Savage added that it is difficult to understand how significant quantities of shot can result from this practice, and survive the harvesting process.
“Therefore, most of us believe that in the majority of these contamination cases, the shot comes from pest control within farm grain stores. Farmers should certainly never shoot within grain stores.”
Live cartridges
Of greater concern for some mills is the recent discovery of live ammunition.
“Flour millers have not only detected lead shot in wheat, but also found spent .22 cartridges and even live .410 cartridges at intake,” Mr Savage said.
He explained that the problem is that the milling process flattens the shot to paper-thin proportions that cannot always be found by the existing in-line metal detection systems.
In the past, there have been recalls of finished baked products which are not only very costly, but potentially damaging to the reputation of the food producer.
“We will always attempt to identify the loads containing shot and will not hesitate to seek compensation where problems occur,” Mr Savage said.

Fancy food ain’t safe food: UK E. coli cheesemaker edition

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Jane Bradley of the Scotsman reports an artisan cheesemaker which is embroiled in a court case with food hygiene authorities after being forced to withdraw its products amid an outbreak of E.coli which killed a three year old girl, has been named one of Britain’s top cheese producers in an industry awards ceremony.

Errington Cheeses, which is awaiting a court date against South Lanarkshire Council, which ordered the manufacturer to stop production of its raw milk cheeses amid an investigation following the outbreak of the food poisoning bug last summer, was given runner up in the Best Artisan Producer category at the Great British Cheese Awards. The Lanarkshire-based business also came runner up in the category of Best Blue Cheese for its Lanark Blue cheese, at the awards at Marcus Wareing’s Gilbert Scott restaurant in London, hosted by food website Great British Chefs.

The company is currently only making one type of cheese – made from ewe’s milk – pending its court case against South Lanarkshire Council. Owner Humphrey Errington, who launched the firm in 1985, has insisted that his cheese is not the source of the food poisoning outbreak – which saw 19 people hospitalised – and has claimed that the authorities, including Food Standards Scotland, are trying to curb production of raw milk cheese. A Just Giving campaign launched to help Errington cover its legal costs, raised £34,000 from supporters. Twitter user Artisan Food wrote: “Chefs vote of confidence @ErringtonCheese Resilience in face of harassment/bias/ignorance.” In March, an official report from Health Protection Scotland into the E.coli outbreak claimed that Errington’s Dunsyre Blue was the source of the bacteria.

2 sick with E. coli O157:H7 from Vermont’s Bread & Butter Farm

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Vermont Livestock Slaughter and Processing, LLC, a Ferrisburg, Vt., establishment, is recalling approximately 133 pounds of ground beef products that may be contaminated with E. coli O157:H7, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) announced today.

The ground beef was produced on July 24 and 25, 2017.  The following products are subject to recall:

* 1-lb. vacuum sealed packages containing “Bread & Butter Farm Ground Beef” with lot codes #072517BNB and #072417BNB.

The products subject to recall bear establishment number “EST. 9558” inside the USDA mark of inspection. These items were sold at Bread & Butter farm in Shelburne, Vt. (I could write a book about the BS in the pic, above; maybe I will).

On September 30, 2017, FSIS was notified of an investigation of E. coli O157:H7 illnesses. Working in conjunction with the Vermont Department of Health and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, FSIS determined the cooked beef burgers that were served at an event at Bread & Butter Farm was the probable source of the reported illnesses. Based on the epidemiological investigation, two case-patients were identified in Vermont with illness onset dates ranging from September 18, 2017, to September 23, 2017. Traceback information indicated that both case-patients consumed ground beef products at Bread & Butter Farm which was supplied by Vermont Livestock Slaughter & Processing. Vermont Livestock Slaughter and Processing, LLC is recalling the products out of an abundance of caution. FSIS continues to work with public health partners on this investigation and will provide updated information as it becomes available.

4 stricken with E. coli O157 in Norway

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Since August 2017, the Norwegian Institute of Public Health has found the same variant of the bacterium E. coli O157: H7 in 4 persons.

The Norwegian Institute of Public Health was informed in mid-August 2017 of a child with E. coli O157: H7 infection that developed hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS) and was a resident of Møre og Romsdal. In addition, the Norwegian Institute of Public Health has detected the same bacterial strain in 3 adults with diarrhea symptoms living in Hedmark, Buskerud and Hordaland.

“We have good procedures on how we monitor infection with EHEC infection,” says Director General Line Vold at the Institute of Public Health. We collaborate with the Norwegian Food Safety Authority, the municipal authorities and the Veterinary Institute. Depending on the need, interviews are conducted by the sick, as well as possible sampling in relevant foods and close contacts. Since the patients reside in different counties, the investigation of the outbreak is coordinated by the National Institute of Public Health.

“None of the investigations around these cases have so far revealed any common source of infection. This work takes time and is complicated. It is not always possible to find the source of infection, ” says Line Vold.

3 with HUS linked to raw milk on Isle of Wight

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Isle of Wight, known to most Western kids as the home of a groovy rock and jazz festival, is now home to three people have a potentially fatal kidney condition following an outbreak of E. coli which has been linked to unpasteurised milk from a farm.

Three Isle of Wight patients are being treated in hospital for hemolytic uremic syndrome, a complication of E. coli that can lead to kidney failure.

Another four people affected by the bacteria have made a good recovery, Public Health England said.

The source has been traced to Briddlesford Lodge Farm near Newport.

Dr Ishani Kar-Purkayastha from Public Health England said the raw milk had been removed from sale.

“We are asking anyone who has raw milk purchased from Briddlesford Farm on, or before Monday, 25 September 2017, to either return it to the farm or dispose of it,” he said.

In a statement, the farm said: “We are especially concerned about the well-being of those affected by this bug, and we wish them and their families every good fortune at this terrible time.”

The outbreak has been identified as the E. coli 0157 strain, which caused the death of a three-year-old child in Scotland in 2016.

 

Insulated school lunch bags-a good idea

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My wife and I have been preparing lunches for my 6-year old son since he started back at school earlier this month. He’s half Italian, half French meaning that his lunches are 5 course meals, the veal piccata needs to be refrigerated….

Stephanie Casanova reports:

Using a brown paper sack as a lunch bag for a turkey sandwich could be unsafe, according to a Kansas State University food safety specialist.
Paola Paez, research associate professor for Kansas State University’s Center of Excellence for Food Safety Research in Nutrition Programs, says instead of a brown paper bag, use insulated lunch bags and sanitize them frequently.
“If we are sending a deli sandwich or other perishable food, we don’t want to use paper bags because they cannot keep food at proper temperatures,” Paez said. “When food does not stay at the right temperatures, bacteria can grow and make food unsafe for our children to eat.”
Hot food should be kept above 140 degrees Farenheit or 60 degrees Celsius, and cold food should be kept below 41 degrees Farenheit or 5 degrees Celsius, Paez said. The food needs to be kept at safe temperatures from the refrigerator to the lunch bag to the lunch table at school. That means the lunch bag, an important variable in that process, must be insulated, Paez said.
Still, just tossing cold or hot food inside an insulated bag is not enough to keep it properly chilled or warmed until lunch time, Paez said.
For cold food, she recommends placing two frozen items — such as two ice packs or an ice pack and a frozen water bottle — on either side of the meal.
“If students bring a frozen bottle of water, it does double duty because it keeps the food cold and it will be thawed enough to drink by lunch time, so the child can stay hydrated,” Paez said.
Hot foods, such as soups, should go into insulated containers especially designed for that purpose, Paez said. Some containers are made to hold hot or cold food, but others can insulate only hot or only cold food.
“It is important to choose the right one depending on the type of food the student is bringing,” Paez said.
If packaging hot food, 10 minutes before packing the lunch, pour boiling water into the container and let it sit a few minutes. Then, dump out the boiling water, put the hot food into the container and close it tight. That process will heat the container and help the food stay hot longer, Paez said.
At the end of the day, the inside and outside of the lunch bag need to be cleaned and sanitized to prepare the bag for the next use.

 

Hepatitis A transmission: Door knob edition

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There’s a lot of hepatitis A going around in Southern California. With an outbreak going through the homeless population in a couple of counties and potential exposure of fruit cart patrons, there’s lots of paranoia.

The San Diego Tribune asks, can you get hep A from a door knob (this outbreak’s version of a toilet seat can give you HIV). My friend, colleague, and virologist extraordinaire, Lee-Ann Jaykus answers the call:

Lee-Ann Jaykus, a microbiologist at North Carolina State University who specializes in hepatitis and other types of food-borne illness, said that, while it is definitely possible for this bug to linger on a surface — maybe for weeks — it’s not likely.

She noted that only one activity is known to spread a hepatitis A infection: Accidentally ingesting a tiny amount of an infected person’s feces.

Even though this microbe is tough enough to live on surfaces for extended periods, it would take quite a large amount of material, she said, to actually have a transfer occur.
“It’s not impossible, but the chances are very slim. You would need people walking around with a lot of poop on their hands all of the time to be causing a problem in the general population,” Jaykus said.

Research shows that the chance of transference decreases with each thing that person touches after their hands are contaminated, she said. And dry surfaces tend to be less prone to collecting and holding substances than wet surfaces.

So, an infected food service worker who does not adequately wash his or her hands after going to the bathroom is more likely to transfer the illness to a moist, cold piece of lettuce while building your burger than a homeless person is to leave behind a significant contamination on the door handle of a downtown restaurant.

In all cases, Jaykus added, the bit of bad stuff would have to make it into your mouth. So, in the context of public transportation, just don’t lick anything at your local bus stop and wash your hands before putting them near your mouth. You should be just fine.

Kids develop HUS in Wisconsin

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So sad. Kids developed hemolytic uremic syndrome from an E. coli infection in Wisconsin, source of contamination is unknown.

The La Crosse County Health Department is investigating eight cases of a “particularly nasty form” of the e-coli bacteria that forced the hospitalization of six children.
Some of the children have recovered and been released from the hospital, said Paula Silha, education manager at the Health Department who declined to name where the children live for privacy concerns.
The families are concerned about messages that might appear on social media, in particular, Silha said.
E-coli is a bacterial infection that is more common during the summer months. Cases can be linked or individual.
The variant in these cases, e-coli 0157, is “a particularly nasty form, which produces a toxin that can be harmful to the body organs such as the kidneys,” Silha said.
The hospitalized children had developed hemolytic uremic syndrome, a toxin that can damage kidneys, she said.
This form also is called shiga toxin-producing escherichia coli, and the Health Department is working with the Wisconsin Division of Health to contain the outbreak, Silha said.
The ongoing investigation has not identified a single source of infection or contamination.
The first reports came in early in the month, and additional people are being tested, she said.
E-coli is transmitted by eating contaminated food or water and by contact with fecal material from infected people or animals, she said.
Annual reports for the past several years indicate an average of two to three cases a year, although 30 were counted last year, Silha said, adding, “I cannot tell from the annual report if they were all related to one outbreak or if they came in a few at a time.’
Person-to-person spread of bacteria is possible and may occur in family settings, day care centers and nursing homes. Children younger than 5 and the elderly are the most susceptible to infection from e-coli.

The rest of the story can be found here.

Environmental Public Health Week

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This week is Environmental Public Health Week that celebrates the outstanding work Environmental Health Officers (EHO’s) do on a daily basis. This years theme is “Honouring Traditions, Inspiring Innovation.” In a world of constant change, EHO’s are faced with challenging circumstances and events that require innovation to safeguard public health while relying on traditional methods. This week we celebrate all of their efforts and accomplishments.

 

Heston or Hugh? Sous-vide risk

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Scientists from Public Health England analysed 34 meals from restaurants, hotels and pubs which were mostly made up of chicken or duck breast cooked in a water bath.

They found the ‘sous-vide’ method of simmering vacuum-packed foods in a water bath could increase the risk of food poisoning.

The technique, pioneered by celebrity chefs like Heston Blumenthal, is lauded for its ability to preserve flavour and texture, but it braises food well below the 100C boiling point of water

Sales of sous-vide machines, which can cost up to £400, are reported to have increased by around 300 per cent in recent years in the UK 

The results, in the journal Epidemiology and Infection, showed ten had ‘unsatisfactory’ levels of bacterial contamination and another eight were borderline.

Microbiologist Professor Hugh Pennington, who investigated the deaths of 21 people in Scotland in 1996 from an outbreak of E.coli, said: ‘I would not want to eat anything that had not been heated through properly.’

I’ll go with Hugh.