Food porn excess: Woman uses $400 hair dryer to make roasted chicken

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Helen Rosner, a food writer for The New Yorker, uploaded a photo of herself using a $400 Dyson Supersonic Hair Dryer to blow dry a whole chicken.

“Happy snow day, I am using an astonishingly expensive hair dryer to remove all moisture from a chicken to maximize skin crispiness when I roast it,” Rosner writes in the post, which has earned over 1,600 likes and 100 comments.

Rosner went on to share the recipe for her roasted chicken, but fans were most interested in the first stage of her process – the hair dryer.

“For crisp skin, whether you’re cooking a chicken or a duck or a fish, you want there to be as little water moisture as possible, which is sped up by a fan. And that’s all a hair-dryer really is — a hand-held fan that you can pretty easily bring into the kitchen,” she said to Allure, likening the process to Food Network star Alton Brown using a box fan to make beef jerky.

 

Bob’s Red Mill Natural Foods gets Salmonella, and thinks it’s important to capitalize to push BS

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The press release from Bob’s reads like this:

Bob’s Red Mill Natural Foods is voluntarily recalling 2,099 cases of Organic Amaranth Flour (22 oz.), after recent testing revealed the presence of Salmonella in a single LOT of Organic Amaranth Flour (22 oz.) with a Sell By date of Nov. 26, 2015.

The recalled Organic Amaranth Flour (22 oz.) was distributed through retailers and distributors nationwide. This product and LOT was distributed in CA, FL, MI, ND, N, NY, OH, OR, TX, and WA starting June 11, 2014 and ended shipping on August 7, 2014

The recalled product is Organic Amaranth Flour (22 oz.) with a Sell By Date of 11/26/2015, LOT: 169617, which can be found on the side of the package, near the top of the panel. UPC: 0 39978 00911 1

While this product expired in November 2015, this product was found on the shelves of one retail store, and thus Bob’s Red Mill is recalling the product out of an abundance of caution.

How cautious is it to sell flour with shit three years past expiration?

Rats, Ireland and babies

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A crèche in Co Louth has been ordered to close after food safety inspectors discovered a rodent infestation in a pre-school room, baby room and nappy changing area.

The Food Safety Authority of Ireland (FSAI) has reported that six closure orders and one prohibition order were served on food businesses during the month of March for breaches of food safety legislation.

Among them was Aladdins’ Cave Montessori School and Crèche, Stoney Lane, Ardee, Co Louth. Also in Co Louth, a closure orders were served on Panda House, a take away at 43 Barrack Street in Dundalk.

Hab Foods, trading as Haji Baba, a wholesaler, was ordered to close a black container unit adjacent to its main building in the Cherry Orchard Industrial Estate, Ballyfermot, Dublin 10.

It was also served with a prohibition order and ordered to withdraw all minced lamb, diced beef, diced lamb and diced skinned chicken being supplied from the premises.

FSAI chief executive Dr Pamela Byrne said food business operators in Ireland “should fully understand that it is their legal responsibility to ensure they are maintaining a high standard of food safety throughout their food business. … Non-compliance by food businesses will not be tolerated and all breaches of food safety legislation will be dealt with to the full extent of the law.”

We play but agree, cause many of us do hockey

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After Chapman posted about the Humboldt Broncos’ terrible bus crash, I thanked him because, I didn’t know what else to say.

I’ve been playing, coaching and even sometimes administering local hockey for 51 years, and this stuff strikes deep into any parent who has swerved on a snow-covered Canadian road only to listen to the kid (me) complaining, ‘we need to get there.’

Chapman wrote, “I often tell people that all I really know is hockey, food safety and family; everything and everyone important to me falls in one of those buckets. …

“All I could think of is all the teams I have been part of, back to when I was just a kid until now. Those experiences have meant so much more than competition and sport.

“It’s exactly why I got into coaching.”

No. Chapman got into coaching because I was his graduate supervisor, and his responsibilities included helping to coach a 6-9-year-old girls rep hockey team from Guelph, and bailing me out of jail upon request.

(He will say he was coaching before, but it probably wasn’t as much fun).

In 2005, Chapman and I came up with barfblog.com, and the first post was about hockey and barfing.

The worst was when I was 10 or 11. I was playing AAA hockey in my hometown of Brantford Ont., and we were off to an out-of-town game. My parents (bless them) usually drove, but obligations meant I had to get a ride with a friend on the team. About half-way to the arena, I started feeling nauseous. I tried to ask the driving dad to pull over, but it came on so fast, I had to grab the closest item in the backseat, an empty lunchbox. 
I filled it.

And more.

Back in the 1970s, the coach’s main concern was that we win. I was the starting goaltender almost every game, while the backup sat on the bench. We had something to prove because we were from Brantford, the city that had produced Wayne Gretzky just a couple of years earlier and everyone was gunning for us. 

I tried to get myself together to play. No luck. We got to the arena and I promptly hurled. 

And again.

I couldn’t play, and, unfortunately, couldn’t go home. So the rest of the team went out for the game, as I lay on a wooden bench in a sweat-stenched dressing room, vomiting about every 15 minutes. 

Such tales are not unique.

Whenever I spark up a conversation with a stranger, and they discover I work in food safety, the first response is: “You wouldn’t believe this one time. I was so sick” or some other variation on the line from American Pie, “This one time, at band camp …”

But the stories of vomit and flatulence are deadly serious. In 1995, a 5-year-old died in Wales as part of an E. coli O157:H7 outbreak that has sickened some 170 schoolchildren. Four people in the Toronto region were sickened with the same E. coli several weeks ago after drinking unpasteurized apple cider. Over 20 people are sick with the same bug from lettuce in the Minnesota area. And so it goes.

How did my game end? I could hear the various cheers but was lost in dizziness and nausea and sweat, wondering when this would end. 
The trip home was uneventful; I was drained — figuratively and literally.
We lost.

Thanks to all the Australians I hung out with today and asked me about the Humboldt Broncos’ and hopefully I provided some insight into the role of (ice) hockey in the small and large communities throughout Canada.

Blame the consumer, cruise edition

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‘The simple fact is that if people washed their hands, there would be no norovirus,’ that’s what Royal Caribbean CEO Michael Bayley said in an  interview in Business Insider published this week.

Nope. It’s not that simple. Handwashing is a factor, but so is showing up ill, so is how surfaces are cleaned and sanitized (and with what compound). Norovirus isn’t just a handwashing or cruise patron problem. And if it was, and  was so simple we wouldn’t see 20 million + illness annually in the U.S.

The article has another gem, 

But personal hygiene isn’t always enough, according to Michael Osterholm, director of the University of Minnesota’s Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy. In addition to physical contact, the illness can also spread from an infected person’s respiratory system, which means that simply breathing the same air as an infected person can leave you vulnerable.

Huh? The virus can be aerosolized and then deposited on surfaces dozens of feet away from a vomit event – but it’s not a respiratory illness.

Humboldt Broncos tragedy

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I often tell people that all I really know is hockey, food safety and family; everything and everyone important to me falls in one of those buckets.

This weekend I travelled to St. Paul, Minnesota to watch the NCAA Frozen Four (the national division 1 championships) with a hockey buddy, and couple of his former teammates. As my friends and I sat at a brewery talking about the games we had seen the night before, I checked Twitter and read short blurbs on the developing story of the Humboldt Broncos’ terrible bus crash.

Reports of fatalities and the individuals lost populated my timeline throughout my weekend.

All I could think of is all the teams I have been part of, back to when I was just a kid until now. Those experiences have meant so much more than competition and sport.

It’s exactly why I got into coaching.

The image to the right, three teammates, with bleached-blonde hair (dyed in team unity for the playoffs), lying in hospital beds, linking hands will always be with me.

This tragedy is overwhelming.

Florida woman mistakes 37-week pregnancy for bad Chinese food

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Jake Newby of USA Today reports Crystal Gail Amerson, 29, of Pensacola Florida, said she woke up around 4 a.m. Sunday with stomach pains that had her running back and forth between the bathroom and bedroom for more than an hour. 

“I had Chinese food the night before and I kind of figured maybe I had food poisoning or something like that,” Amerson said. 

But it turned out there was nothing wrong with the General Tso’s chicken Amerson ate the previous night. Unbeknownst to her, she was actually 37 weeks pregnant and was on the verge of giving birth to her second son. 

Amerson called off work at 5 a.m., and an hour later, as the pain worsened, she woke her fiancé up because they needed to call an ambulance. 

“The stomach pains were just excruciating and I could hardly move,” Amerson said. “I think it was about 6:30 (a.m.) when (the ambulance) got there. … It escalated so quickly that I was having contractions and we figured out kind of what was going on because at first we really didn’t know what was going on.” 

So how was it possible that Amerson didn’t realize she was pregnant?

Amerson had already been through one pregnancy but said she was never the type to feel a lot of the symptoms typically aligned with pregnancy, such as morning sickness. She also said she didn’t notice much weight gain. 

“I gained a little bit of weight, but I think with my first baby I didn’t notice either,” Amerson said. “I never gained that pregnancy shape, really. And then I wear scrubs to work because I work at a retirement home for Alzheimer’s and dementia patients. So I guess the way they fit me as well, it was hard to notice anything or tell anything.”

Vaccines work: Will low-cost shots for restaurant workers tame the hepatitis A outbreak in Kentucky?

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Darla Carter of Insider Louisville reports the city is taking aim at the hepatitis A outbreak by offering low-cost vaccination shots to food-service and hospitality industry workers such as restaurant employees.

The Louisville Metro Department of Public Health and Wellness and the University of Louisville Global Health Center have teamed up to provide the service at a discounted price of $25 per shot, with the restaurant or business paying the fee.

“It’s a significant discount,” said health department spokesman Dave Langdon, noting that the typical rate is more like $65 to $100 a dose.

Against the Grain, a Louisville brewery and restaurant, is among the businesses that have stepped up to get some workers vaccinated.

“We care for our employees and want them to be well and we care for our customers and want them to be well,” co-owner Adam Watson said. ” … Any place that handles food, it’s probably a wise decision to try and get this done.”

The discounted shots are part of an effort to stop an outbreak that has led to nearly 200 cases of acute hepatitis A in the Louisville area, according to the health department. At least one person has died.

Locally, the highly contagious liver infection mainly has stricken the homeless and people who use drugs. It’s usually spread when a person unknowingly ingests the virus from objects, food or drinks contaminated with small amounts of stool from an infected person, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The health department and its partners have given shots to thousands of people at high risk, such as the homeless, and is urging restaurants and other food handlers to practice good sanitation and hygiene as the Kentucky Derby approaches in May.

Also, by taking advantage of the discounted shots, businesses “certainly would be helping to prevent the spread of hepatitis A throughout the community,” Langdon said. “Also, they would be protecting themselves against the potential bad publicity and loss of business that might come with having one of their workers identified with being infected with hepatitis A.”

7 sick with Hepatitis A linked to frozen pomegranate in Australia

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I’m not a fan of pomegranates, and I’m really not a fan of the way the NSW Food Authority announces recalls.

Here’s what they said.

The NSW Food Authority advises:
Entyce Food Ingredients is conducting a precautionary recall of its Creative Gourmet Pomegranate Arils 180g from Coles Supermarkets nationally, due to potential Hepatitis A contamination.

Product details:

Creative Gourmet Pomegranate Arils 180g, frozen, plastic snap lock bag

All Best Before Dates up to and including 21/03/20

Consumers should not consume this product and should return it to the place of purchase for a full refund.

If you are concerned about your health you should seek medical advice.

What they didn’t mention but ABC did is seven people have been diagnosed with hepatitis A after eating frozen pomegranate purchased at Coles supermarkets, prompting NSW Health to warn anyone who bought the product to throw it out immediately.

Dr Vicky Sheppeard, director of communicable diseases at NSW Health, said it was working with the state’s Food Authority to determine whether the infection could be definitively linked to the Coles frozen pomegranates, despite the fact that each person affected had eaten the product.

I get the difference between NSW Health and the NSW Food Authority. But mention how hard is it to mention there are sick people so consumers can judge how much they should pay attention.

Vaccines still work.

Over 20 affected by outbreak of stomach virus in Norway

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The Norwegian Tourist Association (DNT) reported on Sunday that cases of a contagious stomach virus have broken out at some cabins at Hardangervidda. A total of 23 people were affected, reported the association

“It’s a hard problem when our people at our cabins get sick. We do our best to take care of them,” said Henning Hoff Wikborg, CEO of DNT Oslo and Omegn in a press release on Sunday.

Those who are ill have been isolated in their own room, and have access to their own toilet, or have been transported and accommodated in hotels, according to Wikborg.