Shanghai Daily reports that the Shanghai Food and Drug Administration (SFDA) ordered LIST to immediately shut down all nine of its chain restaurants, as well as its central kitchen.
This demand for hygiene testing came after customers who ate at the popular chain’s establishments complained of gastrointestinal discomfort after eating.
At least 71 people suffered from food poisoning and received treatment at nearby hospitals. Most of the diners developed symptoms between July 16 and 18, though all are now said to have recovered.
Further tests will be conducted on more food samples as the investigation continues, and SFDA has warned of “severe punishment” for the chain once the investigation is complete.
This brings me back to my Kitchen Crimes days when we analyzed dishcloths and sponges from 13 Winnipeg homes and confirmed the presence of pathogenic microorganisms. Given that bacteria are all around us and providing a medium that is moist, porous and contains food particles left at room temperature, the following is not surprising.
Peter Dockrill of Science Alert writes
Scientists in Germany have conducted what they say is the world’s first comprehensive study of contamination in used kitchen sponges, and it backs up we already feared: these soggy, porous ‘cleaning products’ are positively teeming with living bacteria. Researchers led by Furtwangen University ran genetic sequencing on samples from 14 different used kitchen sponges and ended up finding 362 different types of bacteria happily lounging within all that comfortable, springy foam. Fortunately for you and me, the majority of this bacteria was in fact not harmful – but some of it was. “What surprised us was that five of the ten [types] which we most commonly found, belong to the so-called risk group 2 (RG2),” says lead researcher, microbiologist Markus Egert, “which means they are potential pathogens.” These included Acinetobacter johnsonii, Moraxella osloensis, and Chryseobacterium hominis – which the researchers say can lead to infections – plus Acinetobacter pittii and Acinetobacter ursingii. Of these, bacteria in the family Moraxellaceae was the most dominant kind found, backing up previous research on sponges. Since Moraxellaceae is also common on human skin, the researchers speculate that it might be people touching sponges that introduces this particular contamination. It’s also that we insist on then wiping these dense bug-ridden colonies over other, potentially clean surfaces in the house, including bench tops, appliances, and kitchen sinks.
What I would find more interesting is how much of what is on the sponge actually transfers over to a dish after the application of a detergent followed by a warm water rinse.
In addition to the sequencing, the team was able to visualise the presence of bacteria in the samples in 3D using a technique called fluorescence in situ hybridisation coupled with confocal laser scanning microscopy (FISH–CLSM). The visualisations reveal how the large surface area, moist foam, and scattered food matter within the sponge provide the perfect, incubating habitat for bacteria. So much so, in fact, that it’s almost hard to differentiate where the sponge (blue) stops and the bugs (red) start: “Sometimes the bacteria achieved a concentration of more than five times 1010 cells per cubic centimetre,” says Egert. “Those are concentrations which one would normally only find in faecal samples. And levels which should never be reached in a kitchen.”
The authors recommend changing the sponge on a weekly basis. Dischloths are no better.
I’d largely forgotten about my lab’s handwashing phase, probably because I was leaving the safety (shurley not) of Kansas and heading to Australia.
But was reminded from this excerpt in The New Yorker from Nate Dern’s “Not Quite a Genius,” to be published by Simon & Schuster:
Employees must wash hands.
Employees must wash their own hands.
Employees must wash their own hands after they use the restroom.
Employees of this restaurant must wash their own hands after they use the restroom.
Employees of this restaurant must wash their own hands (literally, not metaphorically) after they use the restroom.
Employees of this restaurant must wash their own hands (literally, not metaphorically) after they use the restroom, or else they are in violation of the health code.
Employees of this restaurant must wash their own hands (literally, not metaphorically) after they use the restroom, or else they are in violation of the health code, and, no, there is no practical way to regulate or enforce this rule.
Employees of this restaurant must wash their own hands (literally, not metaphorically) after they use the restroom, or else they are in violation of the health code, and, no, there is no practical way to regulate or enforce this rule, but, yes, we still ask, and trust that you will comply.
Employees of this restaurant must wash their own hands (literally, not metaphorically) after they use the restroom, or else they are in violation of the health code, and, no, there is no practical way to regulate or enforce this rule, but, yes, we still ask, and trust that you will comply, and, O.K., we apologize for the condescending tone of the posting of this rule, which seems to imply that without such a sign we would assume that our employees are disgusting children with no regard for their own hygiene.
Employees must wash hands. Greg has been fired.
Filion, K., KuKanich, K.S., Chapman, B., Hardigree, M.K., and Powell, D.A. 2011. Observation-based evaluation of hand hygiene practices and the effects of an intervention at a public hospital cafeteria. American Journal of Infection Control 39(6): 464-470.
Background
Hand hygiene is important before meals, especially in a hospital cafeteria where patrons may have had recent contact with infectious agents. Few interventions to improve hand hygiene have had measureable success. This study was designed to use a poster intervention to encourage hand hygiene among health care workers (HCWs) and hospital visitors (HVs) upon entry to a hospital cafeteria.
Methods
Over a 5-week period, a poster intervention with an accessible hand sanitizer unit was deployed to improve hand hygiene in a hospital cafeteria. The dependent variable observed was hand hygiene attempts. Study phases included a baseline, intervention, and follow-up phase, with each consisting of 3 randomized days of observation for 3 hours during lunch.
Results
During the 27 hours of observation, 5,551 participants were observed, and overall hand hygiene frequency was 4.79%. Hygiene attempts occurred more frequently by HCWs than HVs (P = .0008) and females than males (P = .0281). Hygiene attempts occurred more frequently after poster introduction than baseline (P = .0050), and this improvement was because of an increase in frequency of HV hand hygiene rather than HCW hand hygiene.
Conclusion
The poster intervention tool with easily accessible hand sanitizer can improve overall hand hygiene performance in a US hospital cafeteria.
Wilson, S.M., Jacob, C.J. and Powell, D.A. 2011. Behavior-change interventions to improve hand hygiene practice: A review. Critical Public Health 21: 119-127.
Despite the role of hand hygiene in preventing infectious disease, compliance remains low. Education and training are often cited as essential to developing and maintaining hand-hygiene compliance, but generally have not produced sustained improvements. Consequently, this literature review was conducted to identify alternative interventions for compelling change in hand-hygiene behavior. Of those, interventions employing social pressures have demonstrated varying influence on an individual’s behavior, while interventions that focus on organizational culture have demonstrated positive results. However, recent research indicates that handwashing is a ritualized behavior mainly performed for self-protection. Therefore, interventions that provoke emotive sensations (e.g., discomfort, disgust) or use social marketing may be the most effective.
Food company Ready to Eat has announced a Listeria outbreak in several of their pre-packaged meals. Ready to Eat, which produces ‘Muscle Fuel’ pre-made meals, said the meals affected are the ‘Vegetarian Chickpea and Pumpkin Rosti on Spinach Salad’ and the ‘Turkish Style Chicken & Rice’ with best before dates of August 4th, August 5th, August 6th, 2017. Other meals are unaffected, the company says. Any customers in possession of one of the affected meals are being urged to discard it immediately. In a statement, Ready to Eat CEO Hamish Coulter said they were horrified when they received the news. “To learn that one of our trusted produce suppliers has let us down is extremely disappointing.” The Hamilton-based company was informed on Friday afternoon that its supplier Vegeez had returned a positive result for Listeria in one of its recent batches of cabbage. On Friday evening the company contacted the 139 customers affected. Vegeez general manager Glen Reid said it had taken full responsibility for the “very rare” event. Mr Reid said in total there were 15 companies supplied with the affected cabbage, but all other companies managed to dump the product before using it. Mr Coulter apologised to the company’s customers and said they were putting in measures to ensure this did not happen again. The company has discontinued the use of coleslaw for the foreseeable future. If any customer has consumed what they believe to be a contaminated meal they are advised to seek medical advice. All customers will be contacted again this week with refunds issued.
I stumbled across an interested paper published in the Journal of Food Protection in February 2017 investigating the fate of Listeria monocytogenes , pathogenic Yersinia enterocolitica , and Escherichia coli O157:H7 gfp+inoculated in low numbers into ready-to-eat baby spinach and mixed-ingredient salad (baby spinach with chicken meat).
A quick synopsis of the study showed that when mixed-ingredient salad was stored at 8°C during shelf life, only L. monocytogenes increased significantly, reaching 3.0 log CFU/g within 3 days. The 8°C reflects maximum refrigerator temperature storage in Sweden.
In plain baby spinach, only pathogenic Y. enterocolitica populations increased significantly during storage for 7 days, and this was exclusively at an abuse temperature (15°C). Thus, mixing ready-to-eat leafy vegetables with chicken meat strongly influenced levels of inoculated strains during storage.
The authors then translated the numbers into risks of infection. The risk of listeriosis (measured as probability of infection) was 16 times higher when consuming a mixed-ingredient salad stored at 8°C at the end of shelf life, or 200,000 times higher when stored at 15°C, compared with when consuming it on the day of inoculation. They conclude that efforts should focus on preventing temperature abuse during storage to mitigate the risk of listeriosis.
Söderqvist K1, Lambertz ST1,2, Vågsholm I1, Fernström LL1, Alsanius B3, Mogren L3, Boqvist S1. Fate of Listeria monocytogenes , Pathogenic Yersinia enterocolitica , and Escherichia coli O157:H7 gfp+ in Ready-to-Eat Salad during Cold Storage: What Is the Risk to Consumers? J Food Prot. 2017 Feb;80(2):204-212. doi: 10.4315/0362-028X.JFP-16-308.
Health inspection of the implicated premise reveals no food safety infractions one week after an incident involving a frog in a woman’s salad. That really doesn’t tell us much, what about the suppliers? Was an investigation conducted, if so, what happened? This is not the first time people have found extraneous things like frogs in their salads and may not be the last.
Anastasios Manaras of the The Weekly Observer writes
A woman from California was shocked and angry when she found a frog inside her salad in a well-known restaurant. Shawna Cepeda wrote a review of her restaurant experience on July 22, saying her salad was bitter. “I had eaten 4 spoons when I noticed it had a strange taste and I thought maybe the sauce was bitter and mixed the salad when I discovered a little frog. He warned the restaurant manager, who brought her another salad. Customer satisfaction and quality control are our highest priorities. We take incidents like this very seriously, “said Gabriel Levin, head of the BJ restaurant chain. He added that the company is conducting an internal investigation and will contact the suppliers “to make sure that something similar will not happen again in the future. Cepeda said she did not have to pay for her meal, but the restaurant asked her to pay for her drinks. The restaurant also gave her a $ 50 gift card. “It seems inconceivable to me that it has passed through the suppliers and reached the final customer without any notice,” says Cepeda. Cepeda also bothered that the restaurant staff did not notify other customers that lettuce in their salads might be contaminated.
“The restaurant was full. There were many children and I think that bothered me more. ” She added that after her meal in the restaurant she felt sick. On July 25, she visited a doctor who confirmed that she did not had salmonella, but she may had some bacterial infection and take antibiotics.
The Nevada County Public Health Department (NCPHD) has received reports of five young children with recent crampy abdominal pain and bloody diarrhea. Initial tests for three of the children have come back preliminarily positive for E. coli 0157:H7, which is the most commonly recognized Shiga-toxin-producing E. coli strain.
To date, no common food or animal exposure has been identified, but the Lake Wildwood Main Beach area has been a common recreational site among the cases.
NCEHD, in coordination with NCPHD and the Lake Wildwood Association, has temporarily closed the Main Beach access and swimming area associated with the Main Beach as a precaution to ensure public health and safety. Their staff collected water samples near the beach shoreline and the swim area. Test results received today show elevated fecal coliforms which are bacteria that can cause serious illness. For this reason, the Main Beach and swimming area will remain closed until levels fall. In addition, NCPHD and NCEHD advise no recreational swimming in the lake until additional beach areas have been tested. This is most critical for more vulnerable populations including young children, the elderly, pregnant women, and those with weakened immune systems.
Just when you thought you’d seen every possible bizarre foodie trend on Instagram, a truly stomach-churning craze comes along to surprise you.
Siofra Brennan of the Daily Mail writes people have been sharing images of their ‘juicy and tender’ meals of medium rare chicken, claiming it’s the best possible way to enjoy the meat, but their claims certainly haven’t gone down well with the masses.
People have described the craze as ‘salmonella waiting to happen’ with one stating that there’s a ‘special place reserved in hell’ for people who don’t cook their chicken properly.
However, fans are absolutely insistent that it’s the best way to eat the poultry with one declaring that if you’re not having your chicken medium rare, ‘you’re doing it wrong’.
People seem particularly keen to find out what firebrand chef Gordon Ramsay thinks of the debacle, frantically tweeting him images of the offending dishes to get his opinion.
His thoughts remain, as yet, unknown.
(Who gives a fuck?)
Earlier this year Australian Morgan Jane Gibbs found worldwide notoriety with a Facebook snap of a plateful of very pink pieces of chicken with the caption: ‘Just made chicken medium rare chicken strips.
‘They’re so good can’t believe I’ve never tried it like this before,’ she said.
‘Can’t wait to dig into this with my homemade salad and veges. #healthy #newyearsresolution #clean #cleaneating’
Unsurprisingly the post has gained notoriety online as people tried to figure out if Ms Gibbs is being serious with her nauseating dish.
While the post by Ms Gibbs was most likely a joke, the image itself was of a legitimate dish, origination from a blog promoting tourism in the Japanese region of Shizuoka and the recipe for chicken tataki; chicken seared over hot coals and served raw.
Chicken sashimi is another Japanese dish where the bird is served raw, chefs manage to avoid the issue of pesky food poisoning by serving the meat as fresh as possible and raising the chickens in a hygienic environment.
That’s some microbiological poultry manure (check your organic garden).
To avoid the risk of food poisoning, the NHS recommends that chicken must be cooked through so that the meat is ‘no longer pink, the juices run clear and it’s steaming hot throughout.’
No wonder the UK is messed up about chicken, the government-types can’t get advice right.
Friday, The Southwest Utah Public Health Department issued an update and stated that “It has been determined that the likely source of the disease was infected animals, followed by person-to-person contact. Several livestock tested positive for the E. coli strain involved in this outbreak.”
The owners of affected livestock have been notified and given guidance about how to proceed. The health department says tests of water systems, nearby springs, ground beef, produce and dairy products in the area were all negative. There have been no new cases reported in connection with this outbreak since July 9.
The family of 6-year-old Gabriella Fullerton of Hildale confirmed their daughter died of kidney failure as a result of E. coli. Fullerton and another young boy who lives nearby died while several other people were sickened.
We conducted a retrospective cohort study of diners who ate at the restaurant on 19 and 20 June 2015. Diners were telephoned and a questionnaire recorded symptoms and menu items consumed. An outbreak case was defined as anyone with laboratory confirmed Salmonella Typhimurium PT9 (STm9) or a clinically compatible illness after eating at the restaurant.
Environmental health officers inspected the premises and collected food samples. We contacted 79/83 of the cohort (response rate 95%); 21 were cases (attack rate 27%), and 9 had laboratory confirmed STm9 infection. The most commonly reported symptoms were diarrhoea (100%), abdominal pain (95%), fever (95%) and nausea (95%). Fifteen people sought medical attention and 7 presented to hospital.
The outbreak was most likely caused by consumption of duck prosciutto, which was consumed by all cases (OR 18.6, CI 3.0–∞, P<0.01) and was prepared on site.
Salmonella was not detected in any food samples but a standard plate count of 2×107 col- ony forming units per gram on samples of duck prosciutto demonstrated bacterial contamination. The restaurant used inappropriate methodology for curing the duck prosciutto. Restaurants should consider purchasing pre-made cured meats, or if preparing them on site, ensure that they adhere to safe methods of production.
An outbreak of salmonellosis associated with duck prosciutto at a Northern Territory restaurant
CDI, vol 41, no 1, 2017, Anthony DK Draper, Claire N Morton, Joshua NI Heath, Justin A Lim, Anninka I Schiek, Stephanie Davis, Vicki L Krause, Peter G Markey
In this first post-IAFP recording, Don and Ben talk freeze talk freeze-tolerant Trichinella, Blue Apron arrival temperatures, the Fonz and the challenge of a food bank recall. Chipotle (and the company’s employee paid sick leave policy) make an appearance.
Shanghai Daily reports that the Shanghai Food and Drug Administration (SFDA) ordered LIST to immediately shut down all nine of its chain restaurants, as well as its central kitchen.
