We report a norovirus GIV outbreak in the United States, 15 years after the last reported outbreak. During May 2016 in Wisconsin, 53 persons, including 4 food handlers, reported being ill. The outbreak was linked to individually prepared fruit consumed as a fruit salad. The virus was phylogenetically classified as a novel GIV genotype.
Rare norovirus GIV foodborne outbreak, Wisconsin, USA
Emerging Infectious Diseases vol. 27 no. 4
Leslie Barclay, Tim Davis, and Jan Vinjé
Tyana Grundig, Greg Sadler and Asha Tomlinson report for CBC’s Marketplace (see below) that the last decade has seen recall after recall of tainted romaine lettuce coming into Canada from the United States. At least seven people have died, and hundreds have been sickened or hospitalized in both countries.
Toddler Lucas Parker was one of them.
In the fall of 2018, his parents, Nathan Parker and Karla Terry of Richmond, B.C., took Lucas and his siblings to Disneyland, their first trip outside Canada. But what they couldn’t know at the time was that a few bites of romaine salad Lucas ate one night at a small California roadside restaurant would change their lives forever.
Soon after that dinner, an outbreak of E. coli O157: H7 contamination spread across both Canada and the United States — eventually leaving 35 people hospitalized.
Like most people who get sick from this strain of E. coli, Lucas, then two years old, didn’t show symptoms right away. When he started feeling unwell, the family headed out for the long drive home. By the time he was in a Canadian hospital, the E. coli had shut down one of his kidneys and led to two brain injuries. There are no current treatments for E. coli that can help alleviate infections or prevent complications.
Lucas can no longer walk, talk or see.
“Lucas was just a beaming ray of light … he was a caring person … a cheeky boy, a loving brother,” said his father, Nathan Parker. “I remember him in the hospital waking up out of a coma and looking around, just lost, not talking, not walking, not moving much. Such a brain injury that his brain was so swollen that there was no comfort, there was nothing. It was just hell.”
Bill Marler, an American lawyer and food-safety advocate who has been fighting for food safety for almost 30 years, represents Lucas and his parents. Marler has filed suit on behalf of the family against the restaurant where they ate, as well as the farm and suppliers of the lettuce; the case is currently in the discovery phase in a court system slowed down because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Lucas, “is the most devastatingly injured human who has survived a food-borne illness outbreak — ever,” said Marler. “The fact that he survived at all and his parents care for him as gently and as caringly as they do is a testament to them.”
Young children and older adults are most at risk of developing serious complications from E. coli O157: H7 contamination. While most people simply experience an upset stomach, some develop life-threatening symptoms, including stroke, kidney failure and seizures — and some die.
Between 2009 and 2018, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) say they identified 40 food-borne outbreaks of infections from this strain of E. coli in the U.S. with a confirmed or suspected link to leafy greens.
Marler says he believes cows — and a society that values convenient, bagged lettuce — are to blame.
Outbreak News Today reports in a follow-up on the Yersinia enterocolitica outbreak in Sweden, The Swedish Public Health Agency says the outbreak of Yersinia enterocolitica is over.
During the period January and up to the beginning of February, twice as many people fell ill with Yersinia infection as during the same period in a normal year. Of a total of 53 cases of Yersinia enterocolitica, 33 were resident in the regions of Stockholm, Västra Götaland and Halland.
Isolates from 24 of these cases were typed by whole genome sequencing, and 16 outbreak cases with clustered isolates could be identified.
A contaminated batch of iceberg lettuce distributed to a restaurant chain is the suspected source of infection.
Nineteen people, nine of them children, have died from food poisoning in Madagascar after eating a turtle, sources said Thursday.
Thirty-four people were hospitalized on Monday in Vatomandry, in the east of the island, after eating the protected species, the Health and Food Safety Control Agency said.
Ten of them died, it said.
Another nine people, all of them children, died at home after eating meat from the same turtle, region’s governor said.
Health authorities have warned against eating turtles, as well two dozen species of fish, which feed on algae that can be toxic during the November-March hot season.
Dozens of food poisonings occur each year in coastal Madagascar and deaths are common.
Workers at two popular restaurant chains in China have been caught on undercover video reusing leftover food scraps and handling meals with filthy hands, according to a report.
Man Ling restaurant, which has 1,000-plus locations throughout China and markets itself as “healthy,” issued an apology to the public after the scandalous video emerged.
Joshua Rhett Miller of the New York Post reported employees were filmed using leftover food to cook congee – a classic Chinese rice porridge – as well as other revolting practices, the South China Morning Post reported Wednesday. They were also nabbed placing their unwashed hands on the grub.
One employee even pulled out pork ribs from a pot of leftover soup and used them to cook Chinese yam and meat congee for other diners, according to the report.
“Yeah, it’s leftover,” a Man Ling worker told the undercover reporter from Fujian Television when asked if there was any food safety issue.
“It’s OK to cook again.”
Man Ling, renowned for its cut-price offerings, sells more than 180 million bowls of congee each year, according to one food ordering data analysis app.
Its store in Fuzhou, in southeastern China, was shut down earlier this week following the scandal, and the chain apologized Monday for “disappointing” its customers, according to the South China Morning Post.
Australia is a hard country with massive droughts, massive rainfalls every 10 years (like now) and quite weird behavior.
Stories like the following appear daily. The weird ones.
Heath Parkes-Hupton of The Australian writes a mum accused of putting feces in her son’s cannula as he writhed in pain at a Sydney hospital was heard being asked by her sick child “why are you doing this to me”, a court has heard.
The boy’s mother is facing a special hearing at Downing Centre District Court for allegedly poisoning her then nine-year-old son through his cannula while he was a patient at The Children’s Hospital at Westmead in September 2014.
The woman, a mother of four who can’t be named, denies infecting the boy and has pleaded not guilty to using poison to endanger a life.
His blood culture later tested positive to the bacteria E. coli.
The mother’s barrister Pauline David told the court on Thursday there were a number of possibilities that could explain how the boy became infected.
Crown witness and nurse Lindie Brown, who was working at a unit manager at the ward where the boy was a patient, told the court he became “very unwell” during one of her shifts.
The court heard the boy had a temperature of 40C and began experiencing rigors – or shaking.
He was also complaining of pains in his back, stomach and head and asked for medicine to “take the pain away”, the court heard.
Ms Brown told the court she then heard the boy ask his mother “why she was doing this to him”.
He then said words to the effect of “you could have put something in my cannula when I was asleep”, Ms Brown said.
The hearing before Judge Justin Smith continues.
Due to its ability to colonise, grow and form in niches in food manufacturing environments, the management of Listeria monocytogenes can be complex, particularly for food manufacturing small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs). In addition to an effective food safety management system, the perceptions of risk, control and responsibility within a food manufacturing business are important influential factors associated with the management of L. monocytogenes. Research exploring managerial perspectives of L. monocytogenes in food manufacturer SMEs is lacking. Consequently, this study conducted in-depth interviews (n=10) with technical leaders from food manufacturing SMEs to ascertain factors that may influence listeria management, such as factors associated with cultural dimensions.
Perceived risks associated with L. monocytogenes were related to business reputation and consumer health impacts, but such events were perceived to be unlikely. Technical leaders reported having clearly defined and well executed processes to ensure food safety; but for some, L. monocytogenes, as a single pathogen was seldom considered. Despite acknowledging that “everyone” had responsibility for ensuring control of the pathogen, technical leaders indicated that the ‘people’ attributes associated with organisational culture were difficult factors to control and manage. Trust in staff ability to assure food safety was widely discussed, with technical leaders acknowledging that food handlers may not necessarily have specific knowledge regarding L. monocytogenes. Some technical leaders perceived themselves as having the greatest levels of responsibility for L. monocytogenes.
Overall, technical leaders perceived a medium level of risk, with high levels of control and high levels of responsibility for L. monocytogenes. Optimistic bias, illusion of invulnerability, illusion of control, and perceived attribution of responsibility are discussed, which may hinder implementation of effective listeria management in SME food manufacturing businesses. Consideration of specific pathogen risks in food manufacture in relation to food safety cultural dimensions may assist development of highly targeted and effective interventions.
Exploring listeria monocytogenes perceptions in small and medium sized food manufacturers: technical leaders’ perceptions of risk, control and responsibility
Food Control
Ellen Evans, Emma Samuel, Elizabeth Redmond, Helen Taylor
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foodcont.2021.108078
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0956713521002164
Background: Every year about 600 million –—almost 1 in 10 people in the world –—fall ill after eating unsafe food, and more than 400,000 people die. Public Health Inspectors (PHIs) perform important roles and have numerous responsibilities in efficiently protecting public health from foodborne illnesses (FBIs). Some of these roles and responsibilities include undertaking food safety assessments, enforcing local food safety legislation, and providing support to food establishments (i.e., restaurants) regarding the minimization of food safety risks. The processes of qualifying and training PHIs, and ensuring timely addressing of their professional needs are essential for the successful and safe development of the food industry in any country. At the same time, there is a significant knowledge gap in the food safety area in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries, including Saudi Arabia, which is related to the lack of a detailed understanding of the major issues preventing, or interfering with, the implementation and improvement of a food safety inspection approach.
Purpose: There are two key approaches towards food safety inspection at the food establishments across the globe —the traditional approach and the risk-based (modern) approach. The traditional approach typically focuses on reactive measures towards problems once they have been identified. In contrast, the risk-based approach recommended for adoption by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) has a more proactive character, whereby it attempts to identify and address food safety issues before they actually become a public threat. The transition of Saudi Arabia to the risk-based food safety approach raises important questions about the professional needs of the Saudi PHI workforce for and during such a transition. Therefore, guided by the Knowledge-to-Action (KTA) framework, the aim Page | v of this Thesis was to identify the knowledge and skills needs of the PHIs in Riyadh to conduct risk-based food inspections, including any barriers and factors that may influence the effectiveness of the inspection process.
Methods” This research was conducted in two phases using both qualitative (phase 1) and quantitative (phase 2) methods and utilising a sequential exploratory design. In the first phase, seven semi-structured interviews were conducted with four PHIs, two senior Environmental Health Mangers (EHMs) and the Coordinator of the Food Safety Diploma. The reason for the inclusion of the EHMs and the Coordinator in phase 1 was to obtain different perspectives. Then, the information gathered from these interviews and the knowledge and skills framework of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), were used to inform the development of the survey in the second phase. A survey was deemed to be a best fit in the current study to capture a large cohort of PHIs’ perceptions. A total of 502 PHIs were invited to participate in phase 2 and 301 completed and submitted it, resulting in a 60% response rate. Findings Results revealed that the levels of formal qualification of PHIs in Riyadh are significantly lower than in other developed and developing countries. Female PHIs typically have lower levels of knowledge and skills compared to their male counterparts. In addition, according to the conducted qualitative (Phase 1) and quantitative (Phase 2) investigations, the majority of participants demonstrated only limited levels of understanding and knowledge about Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points (HACCP) principles, food sampling techniques, food microbiology and the English language as a communication tool with restaurant staff.
Resuls: Leading towards the anticipated transition to risk-based food inspections in Saudi Arabia, special attention was focused on the professional needs of PHIs and issues that influence their performance, including on-going professional training. In particular, deficiencies in regular training and in the overall training arrangements to PHIs were also demonstrated by the current study. Additionally, lack of job satisfaction was another major finding of the study, with the highest levels of dissatisfaction being expressed with regard to motivation at the workplace, and the lack of support and security provided by the management. It was also found that a large proportion of PHIs in Riyadh regarded the existing food safety laws and regulations are generally inadequate and not sufficiently clear. These were the issues constituting the greatest perceived obstacles for the effective performance of PHIs and an effective transition toward the risk-based inspection approach in Riyadh. In addition, the obtained outcomes could also be generalised to other regions of Saudi Arabia and possibly, other GCC countries.
Investigating Riydah’s public health inspectors’ ability to conduct risk-based food inspection, and their professional needs, 2021
Queensland University of Technology
Sultan Abdullah Alsaleh
https://eprints.qut.edu.au/208321/1/Sultan%20Abdullah%20R_Alsaleh_Thesis.pdf
CBC’s Marketplace (that’s a TV show in Canada) notes that Canada has been hit by a number of romaine lettuce recalls. We set out to the U.S., where the majority of our leafy greens come from, to dig up why E. coli outbreaks continue to plague our food supply. We meet one B.C. family whose lives have been forever changed by a contaminated salad (thanks to Bill Marler for posting on this).
Louise Gould of the New Zealand Herald reports that Central Hawke’s Bay organic milk producer Lindsay Farm is recalling its raw unpasteurised drinking milk due to campylobacter being detected.
The Ministry for Primary Industries said campylobacter was detected as part of Lindsay Farm’s routine testing program.
The recall affects the farm’s brand Organic Raw Drinking Milk with a use-by date between March 6 and up to and including March 21, 2021.
It’s not the first time the family-owned and operated farm in Waipukurau has had to recall its products.
Last year a 6-year-old girl was hospitalised with campylobacter illness after drinking their raw milk, which prompted MPI to order a recall.
The young girl’s family publicly backed the milk in the aftermath and remain regular consumers of the product.
New Zealand Food Safety’s national food compliance services manager Melinda Sando said people with Lindsay Farm organic raw drinking milk at home should visit the MPI recalls website to check if it is among the batches of recalled product.
She advised that anyone who has any of the recalled products should dispose of them or return them to the supplier, or heat the milk at 70°C and hold at this temperature for one minute.
According to MPI campylobacter bacteria can be potentially fatal, especially for those with weak immune systems.