Monique Scotti of Global News is reporting that Health Canada is issuing a widespread recall of frozen No Name brand chicken burgers as part of a broader effort to reduce the number of salmonella-related illnesses across the country.
The specific product affected by the recall is No Name brand Chicken Burgers (1kg), with a best before date of Feb. 6, 2019. Any individual or restaurant with this product in their freezer is being told not to consume or serve the burgers.
The recall comes three months after the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) issued a press release warning of a rise in Salmonella Enteritidis infections over the past several years.
The Public Health Agency of Canada says it is now dealing with an outbreak of salmonella infections linked to poultry, including frozen raw breaded chicken products.
There were 59 cases of salmonella-linked illness across eight provinces between March and May, the agency reported on Monday, and 10 people have been hospitalized. No deaths have been reported. The majority of patients (61 per cent) are male, with an average age of 34.
“Several of the ill individuals involved in the outbreak reported having eaten No Name brand chicken burgers before their illness occurred,” said a press release.
“A food sample of No Name brand Chicken Burgers (1kg), with a best before date of February 6, 2019, tested positive for Salmonella Enteritidis.”
The risk to Canadians is low, the agency added.
Unless you get sick. Then the risk is really fucking high.
Andrew Thomson writes that hospitals and aged-care facilities providing meals to patients should be aware that Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ) has changed the Food Standards Code to require lupin to be declared when present in a food as an ingredient, or component of ingredients, including food additives and processing aids.
As at 26 May 2018, all foods must comply with the new requirement of declaring lupin in food.
Lupin is a high protein legume which is (GM-free and gluten-free) like soy and peanut and has the potential to be an allergen. Some people who are allergic to peanuts may also be allergic to lupin.
Lupin has not been commonly used in Australian or New Zealand foods. However, it can be found in a wide range of food products including bread, bakery and pasta products, sauces, beverages and meat-based products such as burgers and sausages. Gluten-free or soy-free products may sometimes contain lupin.
In light of the Victorian Coroner’s recent findings in regard to the death of Louis Tate, this is an issue all food service managers and chefs should be on top off and is discussed in the Winter Edition of the Australian Hospital + Healthcare Bulletin.
Bob Whitaker, Ph.D., chief science and technology officer for Produce Marketing Association (PMA), writes that because it provides inherently healthy, nutritious foods, the fresh produce industry is uniquely positioned to help solve the nation’s obesity epidemic. To do so, consumers must have confidence in the safety of the fresh fruits, vegetables, and nuts they eat and feed their families.
A green row celery field is watered and sprayed by irrigation equipment in the Salinas Valley, California USA
Following a large and deadly outbreak of foodborne illness linked to fresh spinach in 2006, the U.S. produce industry couldn’t wait for government or other direction. After finding significant knowledge gaps and a lack of data needed to build risk- and science-based produce safety programs, the industry created the Center for Produce Safety (CPS) in 2007.
CPS works to identify produce safety hazards, then funds research that develops that data as well as potential science-based solutions that the produce supply chain can use to manage those hazards. While two foodborne illness outbreaks in the first half of 2018 associated with leafy greens demonstrate the industry still has challenges to meet, CPS has grown into a unique public-private partnership that moves most of the research it funds from concept to real-world answers in about a year.
Each June, CPS hosts a symposium to report its latest research results to industry, policy makers, regulators, academia, and other produce safety stakeholders. Key learnings from the 2017 symposium have just been released on topics including water quality, cross-contamination, and prevention. A few highlights from those key learnings are summarized here, and for the full details, you can download the Key Learnings report from CPS’s website.
Know Your Water (we were doing that in 2002, long before youtube existed)
Irrigation water is a potentially significant contamination hazard for fresh produce while it is still in the field. While CPS research has revealed many learnings about agricultural water safety in its 10 years, many questions still remain. Meanwhile, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA)’s proposed Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) water testing requirements—which offers some challenges for producers in specific production regions—recently raised even more questions.
New CPS research illustrates the risks of irrigating with “tail water” from runoff collection ponds. With water becoming a precious resource in drought-stricken areas, the objective was to learn if tail water might be recovered and used for irrigation. We learned that differences among pond sites—for example, water sources, climate, ag management practices—can strongly influence the chemistry and microbiology of the water. Further, water pH can influence disinfection treatment strategies.[1]
CPS research continues to investigate tools for irrigation water testing, looking specifically at sample volumes,[2] and searching for better water quality indicators and indexing organisms including harnessing next-generation DNA sequencing.[3] Following a CPS-organized colloquium on ag water testing in late 2017, FDA subsequently announced it would revisit FSMA’s ag water requirements, and postponed compliance.
Bottom line, CPS research demonstrates that growers must thoroughly understand their irrigation water before they can accurately assess cross-contamination risk. CPS’s findings clearly point to the need to take a systems approach, to understand and control the entire water system to help achieve produce safety. Long term, this may mean prioritizing research into ag water disinfection systems to better manage contamination hazards that can also operate at rates needed for field production. Cross-Contamination Can Happen across the Supply Chain
While conceptually and anecdotally the fresh produce industry knows that food safety is a supply chain responsibility, research is needed that documents the role of the entire supply chain to keep fresh produce clean and safe from field to fork. At the 2017 CPS Research Symposium, research reports were presented focusing on cross-contamination risks from the packinghouse to retail store display.
In the packinghouse, CPS-funded research found that wash systems can effectively control cross-contamination on fruit, when proper system practices are implemented.[4] Post-wash, CPS research involving fresh-cut mangos also demonstrated that maintaining the cold chain is critical to controlling pathogen populations.[5] Across the cantaloupe supply chain, CPS studies show food contact surfaces—for example, foam padding—are potential points of cross-contamination.[6] See the full 2017 Key Learnings report for details, as these brief descriptions only scratch the surface of this research.
CPS studies clearly demonstrate that food safety is a supply chain responsibility—a message that must be internalized from growers and packers to transporters, storages, and retailers to commercial, institutional, and home kitchens. While translating this research into reality will present engineering and operational challenges, our new understanding of produce safety demands it. Verifying Preventive Controls
The produce industry must know that its preventive controls are in fact effective. That said, validation can be tricky. If validation research doesn’t mimic the real world, industry ends up fooling itself about whether its food safety processes work—and the human consequences are real.
Numerous scientists presented research at the 2017 CPS Research Symposium that validates various preventive controls, from heat treating poultry litter[7] to pasteurizing pistachios[8] to validating chlorine levels in wash water systems.[9] Some researchers effectively used nonpathogenic bacteria as a surrogate in their validation studies, while another is working to develop an avirulent salmonella surrogate, and another. Wang used actual Escherichia coliO157:H7 (albeit in a laboratory).
Importantly, CPS research finds that the physiological state of a pathogen or surrogate, and pathogen growth conditions themselves, are critically important to validation studies.[10] Meanwhile, suitable surrogates have been identified for some applications, the search continues for many others.
The research findings described here are just some of the real world-applicable results to emerge from CPS’s research program. To learn more, download the 2017 and other annual Key Learnings reports from the CPS website > Resources > Key Learnings page at www.centerforproducesafety.org.
We were doing these videos in the early 2000s, long before youtube.com existed, and weren’t quite sure what to do with them. But we had fun.
The Fulton County Medical Examiner’s Office classified Dr. Timothy Cunningham‘s death as “suicide by drowning,” though it remains unclear how exactly he first entered the water.
Cunningham, a Harvard-educated epidemiologist with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, was last seen alive leaving work Feb. 12, after complaining that he felt ill.
The chief medical examiner, Dr. Jan Gorniak, told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution that toxicology testing found marijuana in Cunningham’s system, but there were no other significant findings.
His body showed no other signs of trauma, according to authorities.
According to the autopsy report, Cunningham’s parents told police that he did have frequent mood swings but that he had never been officially diagnosed with depression or any other mental illness.
The scientist, 35, was a team leader in the U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps. His career had been marked by accomplishments including co-authoring 28 publications, focusing on how health issues affect minorities. He also worked on numerous public health emergencies, including the Ebola outbreak and the Zika virus.
“Tim was always the golden boy,” a colleague at the CDC previously told PEOPLE.
In his position Cunningham prominently studied heath patterns related to race, gender and geography. For his work, the Atlanta Business Chronicle featured him last October as one of its “40-Under-40” rising stars in the region.
“He expressed a strong desire to improve the health of others,” journalist Tonya Layman, who interviewed Cunningham for his Chronicle profile, told PEOPLE. “I was really impressed with his intellect and his passion for the work he was doing.”
Tiffany Wong of Fox 8 reports a video of rats dashing around a French Quarter restaurant is getting a lot of attention online.
Pest control experts say it’s a common sight this time of year, and businesses can take preventative measures.
The Facebook video shows several rats scurrying over counter tops, a cutting board and plates after-hours in the eatery. Some seeing the video for the first time say it’s no big deal.
“I would take that with a pinch of salt. I mean, it is what it is. I wouldn’t worry about that. I would just go somewhere else, I’d walk by,” Sylvia Currie said.
“I mean, we live by the river. There’s river rats, and I’ve been to a restaurant that has like, you see a rat running back every now and then,” Stephen Medina said.
Others, however, say there’s no way they’d eat there.
“We’re spending our good hard-earned money and actually bringing our families here to eat, and that type of distraction I think would be a real big turn off to people,” John Haluska said.
The State Health Department said they would address the issue if they knew which restaurant it was.
“Showing us the video of the rodents, yes, that can be shocking, that can be oh my goodness. It’s a shock value, but you’re not being helpful. You need to tell us where it is and then we can go in and do what we do,” said Tenney Sibley with the State Health Department.
The department said it regularly inspects restaurants, depending on their risk factors.
“If we’re doing a regular, a routine inspection and we come across rodents or rodent droppings, or some kind of indications there are rodents, absolutely. That’s what we would call a critical violation,” Sibley said.
Patricia Talorico and Meredith Newman of Delaware Online report a video of rats scurrying among among hamburger buns at a Brandywine Hundred Burger King led to the eatery’s closure Friday and over the weekend “due to gross unsanitary conditions.”
The video was posted at 7:53 p.m. May 31 by Wilmington resident Shantel Johnson on her Facebook page. It’s unclear how Johnson obtained the video at the store at 2802 Concord Pike.
Her post said: “Don’t go to Burger King on 202 (rats are) running all over their buns … (at) Wilmington Delaware Concord Pike.”
The state Division of Public Health Office of Food Protection received a complaint on June 1 and video footage appeared to show rodents in bags of rolls at the Burger King at 2802 Concord Pike, according to Andrea Wojcik, spokeswoman for the Division of Public Health.
State health inspectors went to the restaurant at 11:45 a.m. June 1 to conduct a visual inspection of the premises and the complaint was founded, according to a report.
According to the inspection report, rodent droppings were found on and inside of the hamburger and chicken sandwich rolls. The plastic covering and the rolls themselves were chewed by the rodents. Wooden pallets that the rolls were stored on had droppings on them, the report said.
Droppings also were found in the floor near the ice machine, the water heater, under dry storage, near syrup storage boxes and behind fryers, the report said.
Seven pallets of buns and rolls were discarded due to the contamination, the report said. The inspector noted that during her visit, chicken sandwich rolls were being used. They were then discarded.
In addition to the rodent droppings, the restaurant’s ceiling was leaking in the kitchen near the storage and food line, the report said. Flies were coming from a drain close to where the rolls and buns are stored.
Brian Duggan of the Reno Gazette Journal reports that more than two years after they got sick from eating E. coli-tainted chocolate mousse cake at two Reno restaurants, six children are now awaiting a Washoe judge to approve their financial settlements, according to court records.
The six Reno-area children were all plaintiffs in a lawsuit that followed Washoe County’s worst-ever E. coli outbreak that also sickened two other children and 17 adults.
The outbreak started in October 2015 when the tainted dessert was prepared in a mixing bowl that had been used to process raw meat at Reno Provisions. The cake was later served at Heritage, located inside the Whitney Peak Hotel, and South Reno’s Twisted Fork.
Owner Mark Estee later closed Reno Provisions. Estee was a consulting chef at Heritage, which was later changed into the Roundabout Grill. Twisted Fork is still in business and has passed all of its restaurant inspections since the 2015 outbreak with no violations, according to Washoe County Health District data.
In all, the children will get $2.5 million — 90 percent of that shared between two boys who had extensive stays at the UC Davis Medical Center to treat their injuries, according to court records.
Estee did not return requests to be interviewed for this story. A representative with Twisted Fork and victims of the outbreak also declined comment.
Brent L. Ryman, who represented Reno Provisions, said several lawsuits were initially filed by victims of the outbreak in 2015 and 2016. Those lawsuits were later consolidated into one case that ended in financial settlements without the need for a trial. The settlements with the adults who got sick are private and did not require a judge’s approval.
Two of the boys developed serious kidney complications because of the E.coli infection, said Bill Marler, a Seattle-based attorney who represented nine of the plaintiffs in the case.
“This is a rare and tragic case and I offer my sincere condolences to the woman’s family,” Professor Phillips said.
“The majority of people infected with hepatitis A recover fully and the woman’s death is the only death linked to this recalled product nationally to date.
“The incubation period for hepatitis A is generally 15-50 days, so we don’t anticipate further cases because the product was recalled two months ago.
“While we expect most people would have disposed of the recalled product, we urge everyone to double-check freezers and remove any affected products.
“Fresh pomegranate and frozen Australian-grown pomegranate products are not affected.”
Her death had been referred to the Coroner.
The Creative Gourmet 180g frozen pomegranate arils, which are sold at Coles supermarkets, were first recalled in April after a hepatitis A outbreak in New South Wales.
Then in May, SA Health again reminded people to throw away the product, made by Entyce Food Ingredients, after 11 linked hepatitis cases.
Professor Phillips said some 2,000 packets of the fruit — grown in Egypt — were sold.
Of those, 226 packets were returned, but he said they believed many more were thrown away as instructed by health authorities.
He said it was “very rare” to die from hepatitis A.
“Most people usually recover without any consequences but occasionally this does happen,” he said.
He would not say if the woman suffered other medical conditions.
SA Health was told about the woman’s death yesterday, Professor Phillips said.
“We have come out as soon as we found out about it.”
He wrote on the bakery’s Facebook page, “Have been coming to this bakery for years. At least once a fortnight, for a Sunday morning pie and ice coffee with the fam.
“This all stops today untill [sic] I hear that the place has got its s**t together.”
The review went on to list exactly why he was disappointed by his pie and coffee.
“1. Pie wasn’t even warm,” the first point read.
“2. Tasted like it was microwaved than grilled. Had that weird raw pastry taste.
“3. My ice coffee is out of date. Today is the 3rd my ice coffee ran out on first.
“The nutella donuts scored them the second star.”
The customer commented on how cold the pie was, and that his flavoured milk was out of date.
But his review was met with hostility, when the local bakery responded and called him a “w**ker”, a “gutless troll” and a “little b**ch”.
“F***ing keyboard worrier,” the post from Howard Springs Bakery read.
“Does it make you feel like a man to post this bulls**t. Get a life you w**ker.
“Say you been going for years and have 1 bad pie and crack the sads like a little b**ch. If you weren’t satisfied, take it back for a refund or exchange instead of jumping on your phone last a right pr**k.
“Staff make mistakes, its life, it happens, get over it. Let me know where you work and I’ll have the staff member come and review you. Gutless Troll. Not nice is it.”
The 51-year-old allegedly rode her mount through the drive-through section of a pub in Logan, Queensland (not far from Brisbane) while more than four times the legal alcohol limit.
Officers from Springwood went to a tavern on Wembley Road at 11.30pm last night after the woman refused to leave.
The female was arrested and taken to Logan Central Police Station, where she allegedly provided a positive reading of 0.226 percent (4X the legal limit).
Officers took the horse to the police station too.
She was charged with being in charge of a horse while under the influence of liquor.
She will appear in Beenleigh Magistrates Court on June 26.
Queensland Police, said: “Police want to remind the public that drink driving does not just mean a vehicle, it can include a horse.”
The episode starts with a discussion on old TV shows that the guys should have watched. Ben and Don then talk about food pantries and frozen chicken items that look cooked but are raw. The guys then chat cookie food safety, insurance policies, traceability and blockchain in Romaine. The conversation goes to a Twitter exchange started by FDA commissioner Scott Gotlieb that Don joined that got to J. Kenji Alt-Lopez (and back to Don) that ended with the grind-your-own-beef-is safer question. The episode ends with a discussion on kimchi fermentation and parameters need to safely make it in restaurant kitchens.
The specific product affected by the recall is No Name brand Chicken Burgers (1kg), with a best before date of Feb. 6, 2019. Any individual or restaurant with this product in their freezer is being told not to consume or serve the burgers.
“A food sample of No Name brand Chicken Burgers (1kg), with a best before date of February 6, 2019, tested positive for Salmonella Enteritidis.”
