Category Archives: Email

Chicken Lickin’! factory workers are caught using their mouths to strip the bones from birds’ feet before selling them to the public in Thailand

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Are these chicken feet cooked before deboning, or raw?

Raven Saunt of the Daily Mail writes that factory workers were caught on camera using their mouths to strip the bones from chicken feet before selling them to the public. 

The footage was recorded by hygiene officials who visited the factory in Nong Khai, northeast Thailand, on Tuesday.

In the video, eight workers can be seen sitting down in front of plastic baskets full of chicken feet. 

Officials are standing around to watch them as they raise the feet to their mouths and begin tearing at them with their teeth.

The workers grip on to the bones before wrenching them out and spitting them to the ground.

The clip then jumps to show one of the workers using pliers to remove the bones from the feet which appears to take longer and leaves the foot looking distorted.

The video ends shortly after.

The footage was recorded by hygiene officials who visited the factory in Nong Khai, northeast Thailand, on Tuesday

Hygiene officials were outraged after learning that staff had been banned from using utensils by factory bosses who said it was ‘five times faster’ to process the chicken by mouth. 

They ultimately instructed the 31-year-old owner of the factory to change her methods. 

Provincial governor Ronnachai Jitwiset is now probing other factories in the region amid suspicions that others may be using the unhygienic method of food processing for one of the country’s most popular dishes.

He said: ‘There are several diseases that could be contagious through the saliva including influenza, herpes or even the hazardous like hepatitis A and B.’ 

Hygiene officials were outraged after learning that staff had been banned from using utensils by factory bosses who said it was ‘five times faster’ to process the chicken by mouth

Factory owner Nongluck Payakphrom explained that using pliers to strip the chicken feet was slow and inefficient but that she willing to change. 

She said: ‘When I first started the business we used pliers to strip the chicken feet but it took five minutes to finish one foot which is too long and the customers did not like the end product. 

‘I have changed the approach to let the worker use their mouth to strip it them the customer prefer it, which boosted sales. 

‘However, we understand that our approach has caused a backlash and we are happy to change.

‘The factory will be closed until the workers can use the pliers to process the feet as well as they do when using their mouths.’ 

Jimmy John’s and sprouts — again

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Remember when Jimmy John’s, the sandwich favored by university faculty department meetings and college students across the U.S., sickened hundreds of people across the U.S linked to raw alfalfa sprouts so they switched to raw clover sprouts and made more people sick?

It’s happened again.

Chris Koger of The Packer reported in late Dec. 2019 that Sprouts Unlimited, Marion, Iowa, is recalling clover sprouts, which have been linked to a cluster of E. coli cases under investigation in Iowa.

The Iowa Department of Inspections and Appeals is investigating the link between the outbreak and the product from Sprouts Unlimited, according to a Dec. 27 recall notice from the company.

The sprouts were shipped to Hy-Vee and Fareway Foods stores, and Jimmy John’s restaurants.

The retail packs in the recall are in pint containers with a blue label on the lid, according to Sprouts Unlimited. The Universal Product Code is 7 32684 00013 6 is on the bottom right side of the label.

The Iowa Department of Inspections and Appeals told Sprouts Unlimited the sprouts are epidemiologically linked to the outbreak. More tests are being conducted to determine the source, according to the recall notice.

We document at least 55 sprout-associated outbreaks occurring worldwide affecting a total of 15,233 people since 1988. A comprehensive table of sprout-related outbreaks can be found here.

Failures in sprouts-related risk communication

Food Control.2012. 10.1016/j.foodcont.2012.08.022

Erdozain, M.S., Allen, K.J., Morley, K.A. and Powell, D.A.

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0956713512004707?v=s5

Nutritional and perceived health benefits have contributed to the increasing popularity of raw sprouted seed products. In the past two decades, sprouted seeds have been a recurring food safety concern, with at least 55 documented foodborne outbreaks affecting more than 15,000 people. A compilation of selected publications was used to yield an analysis of the evolving safety and risk communication related to raw sprouts, including microbiological safety, efforts to improve production practices, and effectiveness of communication prior to, during, and after sprout-related outbreaks. Scientific investigation and media coverage of sprout-related outbreaks has led to improved production guidelines and public health enforcement actions, yet continued outbreaks call into question the effectiveness of risk management strategies and producer compliance. Raw sprouts remain a high-risk product and avoidance or thorough cooking are the only ways that consumers can reduce risk; even thorough cooking messages fail to acknowledge the risk of cross-contamination. Risk communication messages have been inconsistent over time with Canadian and U.S. governments finally aligning their messages in the past five years, telling consumers to avoid sprouts. Yet consumer and industry awareness of risk remains low. To minimize health risks linked to the consumption of sprout products, local and national public health agencies, restaurants, retailers and producers need validated, consistent and repeated risk messaging through a variety of sources.

Farm-to-fork food safety in Denmark: Campylobacter is prominent

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Burden of disease metrics is increasingly established to prioritize food safety interventions. We estimated the burden of disease caused by seven foodborne pathogens in Denmark in 2017: Campylobacter, Salmonella, Shiga toxin–producing Escherichia coli, norovirus, Yersinia enterocolitica, Listeria monocytogenes, and Toxoplasma gondii.

We used public health surveillance data and scientific literature to estimate incidence, mortality, and total disability-adjusted life year (DALY) of each, and linked results with estimates of the proportion of disease burden that is attributable to foods.

Our estimates showed that Campylobacter caused the highest burden of disease, leading to a total burden of 1709 DALYs (95% uncertainty interval [UI] 1665–1755), more than threefold higher than the second highest ranked pathogen (Salmonella: 492 DALYs; 95% UI 481–504). Campylobacter still led the ranking when excluding DALYs attributable to nonfoodborne routes of exposure. The total estimated incidence was highest for norovirus, but this agent ranked sixth when focusing on foodborne burden. Salmonella ranked second in terms of foodborne burden of disease, followed by Listeria and Yersinia. Foodborne congenital toxoplasmosis was estimated to cause the loss of ∼100 years of healthy life, a burden that was borne by a low number of cases in the population. The ranking of foodborne pathogens varied substantially when based on reported cases, estimated incidence, and burden of disease estimates.

Our results reinforce the need to continue food safety efforts throughout the food chain in Denmark, with a particular focus on reducing the incidence of Campylobacter infections.

Burden of disease estimates of seven pathogens commonly transmitted through foods in Denmark, 2017

Foodborne Pathogens and Disease

Sara Monteiro Pires, Lea Sletting Jakobsen, Johanne Ellis-Iversen, Joana Pessoa, and Steen Ethelberg

https://doi.org/10.1089/fpd.2019.2705

https://www.liebertpub.com/doi/abs/10.1089/fpd.2019.2705

Salmonella outbreak sickens dozens in Chile, linked to

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Outbreak News Today reported in Nov. 2019, a Salmonella outbreak in Maipú commune in Santiago Province has now affected 80 people, according to the Chile news source, T13 (computer translated).

This is up from 45 cases reported ill at the El Carmen Hospital with symptoms of Salmonella on Tuesday.

Health officials have linked to outbreak to the consumption of sushi at a Bokado sushi store.

“This is an important call for the preparation of these products, they must be cooked.  They must not use salmon or raw seafood, they  must use cooked products , ” said Health Seremi, Rosa Oyarce.

Bile acids open the door to Norovirus infection

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Researchers at the Baylor College of Medicine report some people call it the ship cruise virus, but norovirus can be found in many other places. People can catch this very contagious virus from an infected person, contaminated food or water or by touching contaminated surfaces. The virus causes acute gastroenteritis – the stomach and/or the intestines get inflamed, and this leads to stomach pain, nausea, diarrhea and vomiting. Noroviruses are the leading cause of foodborne illness.

Teams of researchers around the world have been working for more than four decades to find a way to grow this virus in the lab. Success came in 2016 from the laboratory of Dr. Mary K. Estes at Baylor College of Medicine, where she and her colleagues grew, for the first time, noroviruses in laboratory cultures of human intestinal epithelial cells.

This work, published in Science, represents a major step forward in the study of human gastroenteritis viruses because it is allowing researchers to explore and develop procedures to prevent and treat infection and to better understand norovirus biology.

“In the Science paper, we showed that bile, a yellowish fluid produced by the liver that helps digest fats in the small intestine, was key to successfully culturing certain strains of norovirus in the lab,” said Victoria R. Tenge, graduate student of molecular virology and microbiology in the Estes’s lab. “The work discussed here (of which Tenge is co-first author) shows the results of our continuing investigations to identify the bile components that are involved in promoting norovirus infection.”

The researchers worked with human enteroids, a laboratory model of human intestinal cells that retains properties of the small intestine and is physiologically active.

“Mini-guts, as we call them, closely represent actual small intestine tissue, and, importantly, they support norovirus growth, allowing researchers to study how this virus causes disease,” said co-first author Dr. Umesh Karandikar, a research scientist in the Estes lab.

The researchers discovered that bile acids and ceramide in bile were necessary for viral infection.

 “Interestingly, we also discovered that bile acids stimulated the process of endocytosis in mini-guts, which was not previously appreciated. Endocytosis is a normal cellular process that cells use to acquire materials from their environment,” said corresponding author, Dr. Mary K. Estes, Cullen Foundation Endowed Professor Chair of Human and Molecular Virology at Baylor College of Medicine and emeritus founding director of the Texas Medical Center Digestive Diseases Center.

Their findings led the researchers to propose that as bile acids activate endocytosis, they create a stage that norovirus takes advantage of by riding along with it to enter the cells and subsequently replicate, causing disease.

 “This strategy works well for a food-borne virus,” said co-first author Dr. Kosuke Murakami, who was working in the Estes lab during most of this project. He is currently at the National Institute of Infectious Diseases in Tokyo. “As people ingest food, the body’s normal response is to secrete bile into the small intestine. Noroviruses contaminating food piggyback on this natural bodily response to invade cells in the small intestine, replicate and cause disease.”

The current study is published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

‘You treat your body as a temple, I treat mine as a tent’ Looking on the bright side may be good for your health

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Faith-based food safety hasn’t done much.

Faith-based attitudes may do about the same.

I try to be optimistic, but as Kurt Vonnegut wrote, maybe I just have bad wiring.

It’s been one hell of a challenge to take on the falls and the life changes, and would be easier if I didn’t fall and currently have 8 broken ribs and a broken collarbone, but no worse than anyone else.

Jane Brody of the New York Times writes, my husband and I were psychological opposites. I’ve always seen the glass as half-full; to him it was half-empty. That difference, research findings suggest, is likely why I pursue good health habits with a vengeance while he was far less inclined to follow the health-promoting lifestyle I advocated.

I’m no cockeyed optimist, but I’ve long believed that how I eat and exercise, as well as how I view the world, can benefit my mental and physical well-being.

An increasing number of recent long-term studies has linked greater optimism to a lower risk of developing cardiovascular disease and other chronic ailments and to fostering “exceptional longevity,” a category one team of researchers used for people who live to 85 and beyond.

Admittedly, the relationship between optimism and better health and a longer life is still only a correlation that doesn’t prove cause and effect. But there is also now biological evidence to suggest that optimism can have a direct impact on health, which should encourage both the medical profession and individuals to do more to foster optimism as a potential health benefit.

According to Dr. Alan Rozanski, one of the field’s primary researchers, “It’s never too early and it’s never too late to foster optimism. From teenagers to people in their 90s, all have better outcomes if they’re optimistic.”

I project pessimism, but am eternally internally optimistic.

I’m trying to share that instead of sharing the asshole bit.

At least 96 sick from Salmonella linked to cut fruit

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Queensland, or maybe all of Australia, has banned single-use plastic bags at supermakets.

No biggie for me, I always have my knapsack.

But it would be more meaningful if Australian retailers could set aside their perverse fetish of wrapping every piece of cut fruit or veggie in plastic.

Fresh-cut presents unique risks and needs to be kept close to 4 C to limit microbial growth.

That ain’t happening at retail.

I have shared my evidence-based concerns with the supermarket, Coles, and they have done, nothing.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control reports that on December 7, 2019, Tailor Cut Produce recalled its Fruit Luau cut fruit mix as well as cut honeydew melon, cut cantaloupe, and cut pineapple products because they have the potential to be contaminated with Salmonella.

These products were not sold directly to consumers in grocery stores.

These products were sold for use in institutional food service establishments such as hospitals, long-term care facilities, schools, and hotels.

Food service and institutional food operators should not sell or serve the recalled products.

The recalled fruit products were distributed between November 15 and December 1, 2019.

Twenty-seven hospitalizations have been reported. No deaths have been reported.

Since the last update on December 11, 85 additional ill people have been reported from 11 states.

These illnesses started during the same time period as the illnesses reported on December 11, but were not confirmed as part of the outbreak at that time.

Epidemiologic and traceback evidence indicate that cut fruit, including honeydew melon, cantaloupe, pineapple, and grapes, produced by Tailor Cut Produce of North Brunswick, New Jersey, is a likely source of this outbreak.

 

They still suck: Chipotle hit with 13,000 child labour violations

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I started working when I was 9-years-old, biking out to the Brantford private golf course on weekends and weekdays during the summer and carrying a heavy bag of clubs around a 5-mile-course.documented my time in the bullpen, where we would wait for our name to be called.

The 1980 movie, Caddyshack, perfectly and accurately captured me in 1973.

By the time I was 13, I had a couple of regular gigs so I didn’t have to wait around, and was caddying for the club pro around Ontario (that’s in Canada) who would give me an extra $10 for every stroke under par.

In high school I often worked the graveyard shift at the gas station, pumping petrol in the middle of the night, trying not to get robbed and then going off to fall asleep in grade 12 math and French.

I’ve always worked and have concluded after years of therapy I need to work.

I started bashing Chipotle about 2006, when driving through Kansas City with a trailer full of stuff as I moved to Manhattan, Kansas, to follow a girl, and cited this billboard.

Any company focused on this stuff usually meant they were somewhat oblivious to basic food safety.

Unfortunately for all the thousands of sick people over the next 14 years, I was right.

I tried to call them out for the food safety amateurs they were.

Now it appears that feel-goody Chipotle don’t know much about child labour laws.

Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey ordered the largest child labour penalty ever issued by the state against the Mexican restaurant chain after finding an estimated 13,253 child labour violations in its more than 50 locations.

“Chipotle is a major national restaurant chain that employs thousands of young people across the country and it has a duty to ensure minors are safe working in its restaurants,” Healey said in a statement.

“We hope these citations send a message to other fast food chains and restaurants that they cannot violate our child labour laws and put young people at risk.”

The fine detailed that Chipotle had employees under the age of 18 working past midnight and for more than 48 hours a week.

Teenagers told investigators their hours of work were so long that it was preventing them from keeping up with their schoolwork. The company also regularly hired minors without work permits.

The settlement total is closer to $US2 million, including penalties for earned sick time violations in which managers granted employees paid time off only for certain illnesses.

I’m sure those tired kids have Chipotle food safety at the top of their priority list.

What is the temperature of your fridge?

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I used to use these semi-disposable thermometers in my old-school fridge, but when we bought our Brisbane house we bought a new fridge which displays the fridge and freezer temps continuously (although I should check on how to validate).

The fridge also has an ice and water dispenser, which I used to have but lost in the divorce or move(s), it’s all a blur now.

 A transdisciplinary observational study, coupled with a web-based survey, was conducted to investigate refrigerated storage of food, in five European countries.

The investigated consumer groups in this study were: young families with small children and/or pregnant women, elderly people, persons with an immunodeficient system, and young single men.

The refrigerator temperature was monitored for approximately two weeks using a temperature data logger. Variables such as country, income, age of refrigerators, education, living area, refrigerator loading practices had no significant effect (p > 0.05) on the overall average fridge temperature, whereas consumers’ practices showed a significant influence (p < 0.05) on registered temperature values.

Compared to temperatures inside the fridges belonging to young families and young single men group, the temperatures inside refrigerators belonging to elderly was in the temperature danger zone (5–63 °C). The lowest temperatures were recorded in UK consumers’ refrigerators, whereas the highest were in French households. Presence of Listeria monocytogenes was confirmed in three refrigerators out of 53 sampled (two in Romania and one in Portugal).

The most vulnerable category to food safety risks is represented by elderly persons with low education, unaware of safe refrigeration practices and the actual temperature their fridges are running.

Time-temperature profiles and listeria monocytogenes presence in refrigerators from households with vulnerable consumers

Food Control vol. 111 May 2020

LoredanaDumitrașcua, Anca IoanaNicolaua, CorinaNeagua, PierrineDidierb, IsabelleMaîtrec, ChristopheNguyen-Theb, Silje ElisabethSkulandd, TrondMøretrøe, SolveigLangsrude, MonicaTruningerf, PaulaTeixeirag, VâniaFerreirag, LydiaMartensh, DanielaBordaa

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foodcont.2019.107078

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S095671351930667X?via%3Dihub

Careful with that boar: 90 sick with trichinosis after eating raw sausage in Italy

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ProMed reports 90 persons presented to the Infectious Diseases Hospital Amedeo di Savoia, Torino, North-West Italy between 24 Dec 2019 and 10 Jan 2020 after consuming raw sausages from a wild boar hunted in the area of Susa Valley, 50 km [31.1 mi] away from Torino, in late November 2019.

All of them either were symptomatic (fever, muscle and/or abdominal pain, nausea) or had peripheral blood eosinophilia over 500/cmm, or both. IgG serology for trichinella was performed by immunoblot (Trichinella E/S IgG kit, EFFEGIEMME, Milan, Italy) and resulted positive in 48/90 (53.3%), allowing a diagnosis of confirmed trichinella infection.

Otherwise, a diagnosis of suspected trichinella infection was made with a negative serology, probably due to performing the test too early, before the development of antibodies or possibly a false negative result. In a few cases (under 10 cases) an alternative diagnosis was considered.

All patients were treated with oral albendazole 400 mg twice daily for 10 days and prednisone 50 mg/day.

Most likely, all patients were infected after eating meat from a single animal, given the low prevalence of the infection in this area: no human case has ever been detected in Torino province, and only one wild boar has been found positive for trichinella at microscopy in Susa valley in the last 10 years.