According to a food safety inspection report, an inspector found a live, large gray rat last week hiding in a meat slicer on a shelf in the back of Laurenzo’s Italian Market in North Miami Beach, Florida.
The inspector ordered a “stop use” on all food processing areas, the receiving area and on the receiving of food items.
The show opens with a bit of discussion about other podcasts, but quickly moves to the main subject at hand: a recent study on the increased isopropanol tolerance of certain bacteria found in hospitals. The guys weigh in on the strengths and weaknesses of the study, including it’s relevance to food safety, with some help via listener feedback. The next topic is Chipotle’s recent problem with Clostridium perfringens in their beans. 
The guys introduce a new segment on Canadian foods, before moving to listener feedback on fermented foods, CSPI, and thermometer calibration, times and temperatures, food dehydrators, handwashing, and double gloving. The show ends with a discussion of a recent cookbook recall.
Episode 162 is available on iTunes and here.
Show notes so you can follow along at home:
Notifications are back. Or at least we think they are. For the past few weeks we’ve put some posts up, but they never made it to our subscribers. After a few weeks of trying to figure out what was up, our technical folks think they’ve figured it out.
Here’s the test post:
I spent today making a bunch of food today in a home kitchen, being videoed, for science. 
We’re piloting a study that we’ll launch next year and wanted to know how the script and technology was going to work. This one involves using eye-tracking hardware to see where folks look. That’s me (right, exactly as shown) trying the mock technology on (we used Google Glass for the pilot).
Below is what I made.
According to Capitol Public Radio, some Californians are lobbying the state government to allow for commercial businesses to operate out of home kitchens.
Home cooks rallied at the state Capitol Wednesday in support of AB 626, a bill that would make California the first state to permit and regulate the small-scale sale of meals from home kitchens.
Oakland farmer Brandi Mac said the bill will provide economic opportunities to women, immigrants, and people of color that live in urban communities.
“We need to figure out what are some of the ways we can be able to get to employ urban farmers,” Mac said. “You can’t make money selling lettuce. But you can [make some money] if you make a Caesar salad.”
As careful as I was, I don’t think the meal, made in a consumer home, is ready for commercial prime time.
The first time I got an MRI was about four years ago in Tokyo after I passed out in a bowl of soup.
They didn’t find much.
Now that I randomly fall, my Australian doctor said go get a MRI.
So I just finished.
Some say it’s the booze, others say it’s CTE (chronic traumatic encephalapthy from too many pucks to the head, too many years playing linebacker where the coach said go kill the dude with the ball, the car crash, and too many falls as age advances.)
I don’t know what to expect, but remain optimistic for my partner and family.
Peace and love.
Chipotle’s head of food safety, Jim Marsden, has been conspicuously silent after at least 647 patrons at a single Chipotle restaurant in Powell (no relation), Ohio, were sickened with Clostridium perfringens.
As one of my colleagues said, Preventing C. perfringens is kind of like food safety 101. They must’ve had a massive temperature abuse situation.
In response, CEO Brian Niccol said Chipotle will start retraining all restaurant employees on food safety and wellness protocols next week.
Uh-huh.
#MeToo
A few years ago, my family and I embarked on a trip an all-inclusive resort in Mexico, a little get away from the hectic day to day musings in our lives. First day I decided to go for a jog and was bitten by a wild dog travelling in a pack. I was shipped off to Cancun to start rabies postexposure prophylaxis. Second day, contracted norovirus. Third day almost left.
Colette Crampsey of the The Daily Record reports:
Reece Russell and John English both fell ill after eating at all-inclusive resorts in Cancun.
Two holidaymakers have told of their ordeals after being crippled by food poisoning bugs in Mexico.
Reece Russell, 28, was infected with salmonella, which led to inflammation around his heart.
And John English, 51, ended up in hospital with bacterial gastritis. He has been left with long-term health problems and has had to give up being a football coach.
Both men fell ill after travelling to all-inclusive resorts in Cancun.
Reece, from Dunfermline, went to the resort with his parents and sister in June.
He said: “About a week after I came home, I started falling very ill. I woke up at 1am with chest pains. In hospital, a blood test showed I had a high level of protein in my blood caused by possible heart attacks.”
Reece was diagnosed with myopericarditis –inflammation of the membrane and muscle around the heart. Tests showed salmonella was to blame.
He said: “The doctors implied that if I hadn’t gone to hospital when I did, it would have been significantly worse.” 
Engineer Reece, who stayed at the Bahia Principe, had to miss two weeks of work. He is seeking compensation from travel firm TUI.
John stayed at Moon Palace hotel with wife Janice and their two children in July.
After eating at a Brazilian restaurant, the Scottish Gas worker was violently sick and was whisked to hospital.
John said: “They told me my magnesium levels were very low. If that happens, your organs can shut down and you can die. It was quite frightening.”
The couple had to fork out £4000 for treatment and a further £1500 on John’s release the next day.
He said: “I’ve lost 2st and doctors have told me my blood pressure is through the roof. I could be on tablets for the rest of my life.
“I’m having to give up football coaching, which is very hard for me.”
A Thomas Cook spokesman said: “We are sorry to hear Mr English became ill. We advise customers to tell their rep or hotel staff immediately if they are unwell so they can get the right support.”
A spokesman for TUI said: “We will be contacting Mr Russell directly to review the matter.
“We regularly audit all of the hotels we feature in respect of health and safety, including hygiene.”
The episode starts with a discussion on food safety media coverage, Chipotle and fish-related worms (anisakiasis and cod worms). Don and Ben then talk New Jersey, Thor, British scandals and get into a lengthy segment on how cockroaches, flies and other critters can impact the risk of foodborne illness. 
The guys then get into a bunch of listener feedback on lava rock and Clostridium botulinum control in canned beverages. The conversation goes to Toxoplasma and entrepreneurialism and Mongolian style grill cooking. The episode ends on the differences in food safety between 41°F and 42°F, in North Carolina.
Download the show on iTunes or here.
Show notes so you can follow along at home:
Emma started caring for Sorenne when she was an undergrad in child studies at Kansas State University about 9 years ago.
Emma writes she is so honoured to live in this country for so many reasons, and this is now definitely one of them. I highly recommend you Google Jacinda, because she’s doing lots of great things.
“This is The Prime Minister Of New Zealand, Jacinda Ardern. She’s 37. She’s the youngest female Head of Government in the world. She’s also the first western woman to give birth while in this position of power. Two days after the baby was born – with midwives, standard in NZ hospitals – she introduced her to the country during a press conference on the nightly news. It was really lovely. She named her Neve Te Aroha. Te Aroha means “The Love” in Māori. It represents all the names that were submitted (upon her request) from various tribes throughout the country, and was her attempt at capturing them all.
This is her and her partner, no, he’s not her husband (gasp!), walking to the press conference. He’s TV fishing show Host Clarke Gayford, and he will be staying at home with baby Neve when his lady goes back to running the country in 6 weeks. Clarke sports a snazzy sweater he picked up at the op-shop (second-hand store) in Gisborne, and thinks its just kinda logical and he gives up his day job to stay home and look after the baby.
A week after the birth on July 1st Jacinda introduced a $5 billion Families Package that she’d drafted on the floor of her friends house in Hastings – long before her pregnancy. It’s based on the knowledge that the first few years of a babies life are the most important. The package gives an extra $60 a week to families with new babies, and an extra $700 to families for winter heating costs as well (it’s cold as hell down there in the winter). It also increases the Paid Leave for new parents from 18 weeks to 22 weeks. She announced the details via Facebook live, from her couch, right after she’d finished breastfeeding the baby. Because Kiwis. Some of the most down-to-earth, no-drama-having, just-do-it kind of people you’ll ever meet.
And because Women. We really do know how to lead, and to do it well.
Yes, women do.
Amy’s been leading me around for the past five years as I go from drama to drama.
But as I get older I’m accepting that people won’t really care if I do an extra barfblog.com post before I go screaming into that night.
They may care about my family, so welcome to Jasper William Toth, brother to Emerson and second son of 2-of-4 daughter, Jaucelynn, back in Canada, who was born at 4:39 a.m. with the help of a midwife after a couple hours of labour at home.
Jaucelynn writes that Jasper is an impressive 9lbs 2oz and 21 inches long. We are all doing well and excited to start our journey as a family of four.
Jaucelynn was a 10-pounder.
Jasper is grandson #3 for me, and I couldn’t be prouder.
Funky blanket, Probably hot there.
There was this one time, in 2010, I got a phone call at 6 a.m. from the esteemed Michael Osterholm of the Minnesota food safety system.
My wife does a better Minnosotan accent, spending her yute in Albert Lea, eh?
He didn’t like the photo, right, made by the creative couple of Heather and Christian, who used to work in my lab, and opened the conversation with, “How could you print that?”
I said it was an accurate description of what had been publically known about the leafy greens folks since the E. coli O157 spinach outbreak of 2006 (I’m old, waiting for news on the birth of my third grandson).
He then told me he was a consultant for Fresh Express and that they had an excellent food safety system.
I said great, make it public, so people can judge on their own.
Fresh Express has now been linked to 395 cases of Cyclospora through their lettuce served at McDonalds.
U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., is pressing Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Scott Gottlieb for specifics about the investigation of the cyclosporaoutbreak linked to product sold by Fresh Express.
In an Aug. 3 letter her office released to the media, DeLauro said she wrote the letter “out of concern about the current outbreak of cyclosporiasis as well as the transparency and timeliness of your agency’s ongoing investigation.”
“Although once rare in the United States, parasitic outbreaks caused by cyclospora have become more common over the last several decades,” she said in the letter. “Many of these outbreaks have continually been found to be associated with imported fruits and vegetables.”
The recent outbreak is currently responsible for 395 infections — including 16 hospitalizations — across 15 states.
The parasite was first found when the FDA conducted testing on an unused package of Fresh Express salad mix, distributed to a McDonald’s restaurant, containing romaine lettuce and carrots.
The FDA states as of July 13, McDonald’s decided to stop selling the salads at restaurants impacted in Illinois, Iowa, Indiana, Wisconsin, Michigan. Ohio, Minnesota, Nebraska, South Dakota. Montana, North Dakota, Kentucky, West Virginia and Missouri.
In a July 20, statement, McDonald’s said the health and safety of their customers is their top priority.
“The health and safety of our customers and the people who work in McDonald’s restaurants is always our top priority. The additional states identified by the FDA and CDC are among the same states where a week ago we proactively decided to remove our lettuce blend in impacted restaurants and replace it through a different supplier. McDonald’s is committed to the highest standards of food safety and quality and we continue to cooperate and support regulatory and public health officials in their investigations. For those seeking additional information about Cyclospora, we encourage them to visit the CDC and FDA websites.”
Uh-huh.
Cyclospora sucks. My aunt, my mom’s sister, got it in Florida from basil, about a decade ago.
(Doesn’t she look amazing at 80, left.)
Cyclospora isn’t one of those things doctors routinely check for. Then you’re sick for about six weeks until some bright doc figures it out.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) issued an alert to the public on “beef, pork and poultry salad and wrap products potentially contaminated with Cyclospora that were distributed by Caito Foods LLC, of Indianapolis,” Indiana.
USDA also released a public health alert after Indianapolis-based food distributor Caito Foods “received notification from their lettuce supplier, Fresh Express, that the chopped romaine that is used to manufacture some of their salads and wraps was being recalled.”
“Fresh Express follows rigid food safety requirements and preventive controls throughout our supply chain that are carefully designed to mitigate against potential health risks. Working together with public health officials, we are hopeful a definitive source of the outbreak clusters will be identified soon.”
Uh-huh.
Still here, Mike. You can call me in Australia through Google voice 785-532-1925 and tell me what Fresh Express is doing, and why they are importing lettuce in the middle of North American summer.
We were driving home from Florida – to escape the Canadian winter for a week – and back then we’d do the 24 hours with four kids in one shot in early 1996, and this song came on an American radio station.
I thought it was awesome.
Then I said, is that Sloan?
We didn’t have Google or phone tethering back then, so just argued, as you do.
This youthful enthusiasm encapsulates everything I miss about universities and why I hate the smothering bureaucracy they have become.
