Category Archives: Thermometers

2 sickened with campy; UK restaurant banned from serving lamb’s liver after food poisoning

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Two customers at Blanc Brasserie, in Covent Garden, London, were left ill after eating pink lamb’s liver which was not cooked thoroughly enough, a court has been told.

The Telegraph reports the restaurant has now been banned from serving the dish, after failing to heed a warning from council environmental health officers, Westminster Magistrates’ Court heard.

The food had “presented an imminent risk of injury to health because the process of cooking”, the court was told.

Blanc Brasseries will now pay £3,103 in costs and have confirmed they will comply with the order, as a spokeswoman said they were unable to cook the liver to council standards without compromising on taste.

“Brasserie Bar Co has not contested the EHO enforcement and will no longer serve liver in any of its restaurants,” she said.

“In order to serve liver and comply with Westminster Council, it would need to be overcooked to such an extent that our customers just won’t eat it.”

Liver has now been removed from the menu of all Blanc Brasseries.

Try using a tip-sensitive digital thermometer; cooks won’t have to turn meats into hockey pucks to satisfy perceived demands and could actually use data to ensure safety.

But since the taxpayer-funded UK Food Standards Agency relies on color – and piping hot — rather than data, why would anyone else have to?

Don’t wash raw chicken, use a thermometer for safety; Australian food safety types catching on

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Surveys still suck, but they can give an indication of food safety practices to investigate more rigorously.

The Australian Food Safety Information Council has released national survey data that shows 60% of home cooks in Australia are putting themselves at additional risk of food poisoning by washing whole poultry before it is cooked which spreads bacteria around the kitchen. A further 16% of those surveyed incorrectly tasted chicken to see if it is cooked properly rather than use a safe and accurate meat thermometer.

Food Safety Information Council Chairman, Dr Michael Eyles, says 6 in 10 home cooks in a national Newspoll survey washed whole chicken before they cooked it, with 5 in 10 washing chicken pieces with skin on and 4 in 10 washing skinless chicken pieces.

“According to a Food Standards Australia New Zealand survey 84% of raw chicken carcasses tested positive to the food poisoning bacteria Campylobacter and 22% to Salmonella. This is similar to the findings of other surveys overseas. Notified cases of illness from Campylobacter and Salmonella in Australia have almost doubled over the last 20 years. OzFoodnet estimates there are approximately 220,000 cases of Campylobacter infection each year with more than 75% transmitted by food and 50,000 cases of Campylobacter infection each year can be attributed either directly or indirectly to chicken meat.

”Home cooks are probably following what their parents or grandparents did in the past by washing poultry, not to mention probably patting it dry with a tea towel. Washing poultry splashes these bacteria around the kitchen cross contaminating sinks, taps, your hands, utensils, chopping boards and foods that aren’t going to be cooked like salads or desserts.

“Cooking poultry right through kills these bacteria, making it safe. However, 16% of those surveyed, rather than using a meat thermometer or checking if juices run clear and are no longer pink, say they eat some chicken to see if tastes cooked, with males significantly more likely to do this than females,’ Dr Eyles concludes.

Color is still a lousy indicator of safety, but at least they mention thermometers.

Any agency that wants to say it’s science-based should provide credible evidence; otherwise it’s just another food huckster hiding behind the impartir of science. Consumers can handle more information, not less, and some credible references would boost, uh, credibility.

Restaurant inspection and public health

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Do restaurant inspections improve public health? Do inspections reduce the incidence of foodborne illness associated with restaurants? Can inspection data be used to predict problem restaurants?

Previous research has been largely inconclusive, but researchers at the University of Minnesota attempted to parse inspection data and make it more useful for future inspections. The goal in all this is fewer sick people.

I agree when the researchers conclude, “Inspections provide feedback to the operator concerning the effectiveness of the establishment’s process controls, thus enabling the operator to focus on interventions and programs that can have the greatest impact. Despite their limitations, restaurant inspections are a valuable tool that can be used to verify the existence of appropriate preventative controls and an active managerial control system.”

But inspections are only one tool.

The abstracts for the two papers are below.

Health department inspection criteria more likely to be associated with outbreak restaurants in Minnesota

Petran, Ruth L.; White, Bruce W.; Hedberg, Craig W.

Journal of Food Protection®, Volume 75, Number 11, November 2012 , pp. 2007-2015(9)

http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/iafp/jfp/2012/00000075/00000011/art00012

Millions of routine restaurant inspections are performed each year in the United States, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has reported that a majority of foodborne illness outbreaks occur in restaurant settings. In an attempt to relate the data collected during inspections in Minnesota to illness likelihood, data from routine inspections conducted at outbreak restaurants were compared with data from routine inspections conducted at nonoutbreak restaurants. The goal was to identify differences in recorded violations. Significantly more violations were recorded at restaurants that had outbreaks. The majority of these violations were related to contamination in the facility and environment and to food handling procedures. Relative risks also were calculated for violations significantly more likely to occur at locations that had outbreaks of norovirus infection, Clostridium perfringensinfection or toxin-type illness, and Salmonella infection. These three pathogens are estimated to cause the majority of foodborne illnesses in the United States. Meta-analysis of composited data for the three pathogens revealed 11 violations significantly more likely (α < 0.05) to be identified during routine inspections at outbreak restaurants than during inspections at nonoutbreak restaurants. Application of this information permits assessment of health department inspection data in a consistent fashion. This approach can help identify criteria more likely to be associated with outbreak locations and allow operators to focus on interventions that will have the most significant impact in higher risk establishments.

Using a theoretical predictive tool for the analysis of recent health department inspections at outbreak restaurants and relation of this information to foodborne illness likelihood

02.nov.12Journal of Food Protection®, Volume 75, Number 11, November 2012 , pp. 2016-2027(12)

Petran, Ruth L.; White, Bruce W.; Hedberg, Craig W.

http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/iafp/jfp/2012/00000075/00000011/art00013

Because U.S. restaurants are inspected at least annually against criteria in the U.S. Food and Drug Administration Model Food Code, large amounts of data are generated and
should be systematically reviewed. The purpose of this study was to determine the relationships among the data obtained through health department inspections, the contributing factors to foodborne illness identified by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the risks of outbreaks of norovirus, Salmonella, and Clostridium perfringens infection associated with a specific restaurant. These agents were chosen for the analysis because they cause the majority of foodborne illnesses. A theoretical predictive assessment tool was built that extracts data from routine health department inspection reports for specific restaurants to establish a risk profile for each restaurant and identify the likelihood of a norovirus, Salmonella, or C. perfringens outbreak at that restaurant. The tool was used to examine inspection reports from restaurants known to have had confirmed norovirus, Salmonella, and C. perfringens outbreaks. Although evaluation of an extensive data set revealed lack of an overall association between outbreak inspection scores and routine inspection scores obtained at outbreak restaurant locations, certain specific violations were significantly more likely to be recorded. Significant differences in types of violations recorded during outbreak and routine inspections were determined. When risks based on violation type can be identified, targeted actions may be able to be prioritized and implemented to help decrease illnesses.

Color doesn’t cut it when cooking burgers – French edition

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Our French food safety friend, Albert Amgar, sent along a statement from retailer Carrefour involving a recall of hamburger and patties contaminated with E. coli O 157: H7 and produced by Elivia Eloyes.

“In general, it should be noted that cooking (ie the disappearance of the pink color) hamburgers and chopped meat products helps prevent the consequences of such contamination … these recommendations for cooking are most appropriate when the meat is intended for young children and the elderly.”

What’s more appropriate is a tip-sensitive digital thermometer because 30 per cent or so of hamburger will turn brown before it is actually cooked to a safe temperature.

Color is a lousy indicator: stick it in.

Sometimes, chicken comes raw: KFC Ontario version

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Color is still a lousy indicator to determine whether food has been safely cooked. But sometimes it’s obvious, usually by biting into semi-still-frozen burgers; Amy got to experience that once in Manhattan; I did in New Zealand years ago; and now some dude in Ontario (the one in Canada) whose friend posted this pic to Reddit over the weekend.

“Fried Chicken #FAIL. My friend ordered a chicken burger from KFC & it came back raw. Yes he ate that bite that’s missing.”

In the comments, the user explains that that sandwich in question was purchased in Ontario, Canada, where the information on the packing is written in both French and English. PFK stands for “Poulet frit a la Kentucky.”

Mary Poppins isn’t cooking my burger

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Steaming hot right through is the new piping hot.

Maybe it’s more scientific, in some alternative universe.

Andrew Wadge, Mr. Science at the U.K. Food Standards Agency, gets it sorta right in his latest missive when he writes that it doesn’t matter where the beef comes from, hamburger caries a risk of E. coli, Salmonella and other bugs.

“Our advice for burgers made from any type of meat therefore continues to be the same as for cuts of pork; they should always be cooked until steaming hot right through.”

Science Man also says it’s “safe to eat rare beef or lamb steak because searing the outside surface of a piece of steak, such as when cooked rare, will kill any bugs that might have contaminated the outside.”

But that doesn’t account for the potential risk from blade-tenderized cuts.

And hamburger can be pink and safe. Color is a lousy indicator. Use a thermometer and stick it in. It’s science-based.

 

Salmonella in the sand: blame the bandicoots

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Last weekend I had the chance to renew my friendship with Sam from Sydney.

She’s the communications manager for the New South Wales Food Authority (the state where Sydney is located in Australia), She booked an inexpensive room for me and Chapman and his only girlfriend one ANZAC day back in 2002.

This is our respective gangs last weekend at Bondi Beach in Sydney (right, exactly as shown; I wore shorts, the others were ridiculous). Amy now gets it when I say, Bondi is awesome.

A short boat ride north of Bondi is Manley beach, which has been plagued with Salmonella in the sand for years.

In May, 2008, children’s playgrounds were closed on Sydney’s Northern Beaches after a rare form of salmonella, paratyphi B var java, normally linked to tropical fish, sickened 23 toddlers. The sand was replaced at a cost of $140,000 but subsequent testing showed the same Salmonella had returned.

Over three years later, and once again, part of the popular children’s playground at Winnererremy Bay was closed after testing revealed the presence of Salmonella bacteria in the surface bark.

Three children were taken to hospital with severe diarrhea, vomiting and stomach pain during the gastro outbreak on the northern beaches between 2007 and 2009. A further 72 people, mostly young children, became ill.

Health types reported today the cause was long-nosed bandicoots pooing in the sandpits.

At the time, health authorities could not determine the source of the salmonella. There were theories it came from dirty nappies, cockroaches or the feces of rats, ducks and ibis.

In a paper published last month in the U.S. Centers for Disease Control’s journal Emerging Infectious Diseases, investigators from NSW Health said children ate the sand carrying the bacteria. The bacterium has been traditionally associated with imported ornamental fish.

The investigators found that one central depot that delivers sand to playgrounds was a ”common factor” in all contaminated playgrounds and that the depot was situated in a ”wild bushland setting.’

Most places in Australia are a wild bushland setting.

During tests of fecal and cloacal samples from 261 animals, the investigators found the salmonella strain in ducks, rats, possums and a dog, but by far ”the most were from a marsupial species native to the local area, the long-nosed bandicoot”, the paper said.

”Although sand from the central depot was a common factor in all contaminated playgrounds where case-patients contracted the illness, the infection source for this facility remains unknown,” the paper said. ”It was located in a wild bushland setting, and it is feasible that transmission of the bacterium from local wildlife occurred.”

The authors wrote that their study identified accidental sand ingestion as a ”previously unrecognised pathway for humans acquiring illness caused by S. enterica var. Java.”

Locked in the trunk of a car: be kind to your food

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What better excuse to air one of the best – and most disturbing – videos by Canada’s Tragically Hip in honor of Canada Day (July 1) than a study of food being violated by temperature in the trunk of your car.

This study assessed the potential microbial hazard posed by temperature increases on refrigerated and frozen food stored in car trunk exposed to sunlight. The internal temperatures in the trunk and of food items (egg, milk, tofu, fresh meat, and frozen meat) stored in it during summer were measured at 10 min intervals for up to 3 h (12:00 PM to 15:00 PM). Trunk temperature steadily increased from 32.3 °C up to 41.5 °C, with longer exposure times. Food temperature also increased substantially during this period, reaching 33.5 °C (frozen meat), 35.3 °C (milk), 35.6 °C (tofu), 37.0 °C (egg), and 38.4 °C (fresh meat). Cloud cover and solar radiation affected car and food temperature, with lower cover and higher radiation associated with higher food temperatures (7.1 °C higher in the car trunk when compared to a situation of extensive cloud cover and low radiation, and 6.9 °C higher for eggs, 5.9 °C for milk, 5.0 °C for tofu, and 7.4 °C and 5.5 °C for fresh and frozen meat, respectively). The temperature of refrigerated foods (egg, milk, and fresh meat) reached 20 °C within 40 min (tofu: 60 min) and 30 °C within 90–110 min (tofu: 130 min). The temperature of frozen meat reached to danger zone (5–60 °C), which is associated with bacterial growth, after 90 min.

Consumers should therefore realize the importance of time–temperature control, particularly in warm and sunny weather. Purchased foods should be transferred to a refrigerated environment as fast as possible, and the car trunk should be avoided. The present results can be used for consumer education, contributing to the recognition of the importance of food safety.

Highlights

? The temperature of foods stored in car trunk exposed to sunlight can increase severely. ? Refrigerated foods’ (fresh meat, egg, and milk) temperature quickly reached 20 °C within 40 min ? Frozen meat reached danger zone (5–60 °C) temperatures after 90 min in the car trunk. ? Cloud cover and solar radiation affected car and food temperature.

Temperature increase of foods in car trunk and the potential hazard for microbial growth
Food Control, Volume 29, Issue 1, January 2013, Pages 66–70
S.A. Kim, S.J. Yun, S.H. Lee, I.G. Hwang, M.S. Rhee
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S095671351200299X

Hate is a strong word, especially for thermometers

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There’s a 10-minute segment of Gordon Ramsey determining food is appropriately cooked by color and fingers (although some of the pieces were so ridiculously raw even I could have fingered the meat and concluded it was raw).

After the chef-wannabes repeatedly fail to meet expectations of their daddy, one chef decides to use a thermometer to make sure she gets it right.

“A thermometer. The day we need that to cook a breast of chicken — you, get out.”

I have no idea why people watch this crap, although we all have our own crap, and as master salesmen Herb Tarlek said decades ago, tacky sells. Thanks to my military friend for sending it along.