According to the West Plains Daily Quill, Ozarks Food Harvest received high marks on its food safety inspection from AIB International. For six years, southwest Missouri’s only regional food bank has held this superior food safety certification.
Except AIB – based in Manhattan, Kansas – has given superior plus plus ratings to some of the worst food offenders in the past decade: Peanut Corporation of America (which supplied the idiots at Kelloggs), DeCoster eggs and dozens more.
When Ozarks Food Harvest first received this certification in 2012, it was only the sixth Feeding America food bank of 200 in the country to do so.
The auditing tragedy is bad people taking money from people trying to do good.
Audits and inspections are never enough: A critique to enhance food safety
2012, Food Control
D.A. Powell, S. Erdozain, C. Dodd, R. Costa, K. Morley, B.J. Chapman
Internal and external food safety audits are conducted to assess the safety and quality of food including on-farm production, manufacturing practices, sanitation, and hygiene. Some auditors are direct stakeholders that are employed by food establishments to conduct internal audits, while other auditors may represent the interests of a second-party purchaser or a third-party auditing agency. Some buyers conduct their own audits or additional testing, while some buyers trust the results of third-party audits or inspections. Third-party auditors, however, use various food safety audit standards and most do not have a vested interest in the products being sold. Audits are conducted under a proprietary standard, while food safety inspections are generally conducted within a legal framework. There have been many foodborne illness outbreaks linked to food processors that have passed third-party audits and inspections, raising questions about the utility of both. Supporters argue third-party audits are a way to ensure food safety in an era of dwindling economic resources. Critics contend that while external audits and inspections can be a valuable tool to help ensure safe food, such activities represent only a snapshot in time. This paper identifies limitations of food safety inspections and audits and provides recommendations for strengthening the system, based on developing a strong food safety culture, including risk-based verification steps, throughout the food safety system.
Nikkie Sutton of The Morning Advertiser writes that a carvery operator that provides food in a West Midlands pub has been ordered to pay thousands of pounds after 20 diners contracted food poisoning.
A 94-year-old woman and several children became ill after eating at the pub last year and informed Dudley Council of their food poisoning symptoms.
IP Carvery, which makes the food on behalf of the Park Lane Tavern, in Cradley, pleaded guilty to placing unsafe food on the market in a case brought by Dudley Council at Wolverhampton Magistrates Court on 18 May.
A public apology was made to the court on behalf of IP Carvery’s director. The court also heard the company had employed a food-safety expert to advise them, inspect their facilities and train staff.
The food business was fined £1,350 and ordered to pay costs of £2,483.55 to Dudley Council and a victim surcharge of £120.
At the the hearing, the court heard how the diners ate at the carvery in a two hour slot on Saturday 2 April last year and 20 customers were confirmed to have suffered from Clostridium perfringens, that can be caused by the inadequate cooling of large joints of meat, leading to the formation of toxic bacteria, which survives cooking and then grows in the meat while cooling. It can cause illness shortly after being reheated and consumed.
Two leftover samples of turkey taken home by customers were found to be contaminated with the bacteria.
Environmental Health officers also visited the pub and found inadequate storage temperatures of cooked joints, a lack of monitoring of cooling times and temperature of cooked meats and inadequate record keeping.
The NSW Food Authority (that’s in Australia) reports a woman has been fined a total of $28,000 and ordered to pay professional costs of $25,000 after she pleaded guilty to four charges relating to the sale of unpasteurised or ‘raw’ milk in Goulburn Local Court.
On Thursday 8 June 2017, Julia Ruth McKay from Bungonia on the southern tablelands was fined under section 104 of the Food Act 2003 for selling milk which was not pasteurised in contravention of Food Regulation 2010, and for conducting a food business without a licence as required by the Regulation.
She also pleaded guilty to two charges under section 21 of the Act for selling unpasteurised milk that exceeded acceptable microbiological limits for standard plate counts and Listeria.
NSW Food Authority CEO Dr Lisa Szabo said Food Authority officers found that Ms McKay was operating a ‘herd sharing’ business whereby a person enters into a contract and purchase shares in a herd or individual cow and consequently receives raw milk produced by that herd.
“Claims that this doesn’t constitute the sale of food are false, the operation of a herd share arrangement can constitute food for sale under the Food Act,” Dr Szabo said.
“Milk for sale in NSW needs to be licensed with the NSW Food Authority to ensure it is subject to the stringent safety requirements of the Dairy Food Safety Scheme.”
Dr Szabo said statistics show that raw milk is a high food safety risk.
“Nationally and internationally raw milk products account for a small proportion of sales but a very large proportion of outbreaks,” she said.
“Unpasteurised milk could contain harmful bacteria such as E.coli, Salmonella and Listeria that can result in illness or even death.
The prosecution resulted from an investigation of Ms McKay by the NSW Food Authority in 2015 where samples of raw milk taken from an animal that was part of her herd share arrangement returned positive for the presence of Listeria.
The operation was immediately shut down by the NSW Food Authority and the Prohibition Order remains in place.
Dr Szabo said consumers need to be aware of claims that raw milk has superior nutritional value are unfounded.
Scott Allen of The Washington Post reports that fans took to the streets of Pittsburgh to celebrate the Penguins’ second consecutive Stanley Cup title on Sunday night, and a few of them brought catfish, which became a symbol of the runner-up Predators’ improbable postseason run.
Rather than waving the seafood around in revelry like a smelly, guts-filled Terrible Towel, or, I don’t know, stomping on the bottom feeders, more than one Penguins fan was pictured devouring a raw, bloody catfish during Sunday’s celebration. Look, I get it. Deep-frying those bad boys or firing up an electric grill in the middle of a large crowd would’ve been dangerous, but besides being absolutely disgusting, consuming raw catfish doesn’t seem like the safest idea. When was the last time you saw catfish on a sushi menu?
This is supposed to be on Channel 9 tonight at 6 p.m., about how Annerley, a suburb of Brisbane, is one of the top-5 places to buy.
I know a lot more about food safety.
We love our neighborhood, with its diversity, and great view, so it was as easy gig.
My stand-by soundbite is: When we moved here six-years ago, my wife picked the suburb – a 12-minute bike ride to the University of Queensland, and a 12-minute drive to the (ice) arena at Acacia Ridge.
In 1993, I thought the consummation of Hollywood and Nashville was complete when starlet Julia Roberts wed country music’s ugly duckling, Lyle Lovett.
They divorced less than two years later.
As the NHL Stanley Cup playoffs progressed, the last-seeded Nashville Predators demolished foe-after-foe, with star couple captain Mike Fischer and partner Carrie Underwood paving the way for another coupling of the weirdness and greatness that is America: Nashville and Smashville.
But I don’t think that Hank do it like that.
It didn’t happen, as Nashville finally lost to Pittsburgh in 6-games to close out a grueling National Hockey League season.
I write this while watching Sorenne and Amy on the ice, taking extra skating lessons, in the sub-tropics of Brisbane, as likely a hockey hotspot as Nashville.
Amy is happy Pittsburgh won because, she hates country music.
But baby … Lyle isn’t country, he’s something different.
I’ve been to Nashville several times, hung out on Music Row, hung out a Titans tailgate, and saw Lyle Lovett one night and John Prine the next at the Ryman Auditorium, The Mother Church of Country Music.
Now that my Nashville Predators have lost the Stanley Cup in a valiant, country-heartbreak ballad to Pittsburgh, I return to the more mundane mattes of foodborne illness.
PulseNet International advocates for public health institutes and laboratories around the world to move together towards the use of whole genome sequencing (WGS) to improve detection of and response to foodborne illnesses and outbreaks in the latest edition of Eurosurveillance.
PulseNet International is a global network of public health laboratory networks, dedicated to bacterial foodborne disease surveillance. The network is comprised of the national and regional laboratory networks of USA, Canada, Latin America and the Caribbean, Europe, Africa, the Middle-East and Asia Pacific.
The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) manages the EU/EEA food- and waterborne diseases and zoonoses network of public health institutes and laboratories, which work to ensure comparability of data and further ties to the global health community.
Mike Catchpole, Chief Scientist at ECDC says, “it is important for all partners worldwide to continue to work together towards the implementation and standardised analysis of whole genome sequencing.”
The article also states that a global standard method for primary sequence data analysis based on whole genome Multiple Locus Sequence Typing (wgMLST) and derived public nomenclature will be adopted.
This will facilitate the sharing of information within regional and global public health laboratory networks, increasing efficiency and enabling data to be compared across countries in real-time which is currently not the case. This is especially important due to international travel and trade.
Common steps for validation studies, development of standardised protocols, quality assurance programmes and nomenclature have been agreed.
Pulsenet international: Vision for the implementation of whole genome sequencing (WGS) for global food-borne disease surveillance
Eurosurveillance, vol. 22, issue, 23, 08 June 2017, C Nadon , I Van Walle, P Gerner-Smidt, J Campos, Chinen, J Concepcion-Acevedo, B Gilpin, AM Smith, KM Kam, E Perez, E Trees, K Kubota, J Takkinen, EM Nielsen, H Carleton, FWD-NEXT Expert Panel, DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.2807/1560-7917.ES.2017.22.23.30544
PulseNet International is a global network dedicated to laboratory-based surveillance for food-borne diseases. The network comprises the national and regional laboratory networks of Africa, Asia Pacific, Canada, Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean, the Middle East, and the United States. The PulseNet International vision is the standardised use of whole genome sequencing (WGS) to identify and subtype food-borne bacterial pathogens worldwide, replacing traditional methods to strengthen preparedness and response, reduce global social and economic disease burden, and save lives. To meet the needs of real-time surveillance, the PulseNet International network will standardise subtyping via WGS using whole genome multilocus sequence typing (wgMLST), which delivers sufficiently high resolution and epidemiological concordance, plus unambiguous nomenclature for the purposes of surveillance. Standardised protocols, validation studies, quality control programmes, database and nomenclature development, and training should support the implementation and decentralisation of WGS. Ideally, WGS data collected for surveillance purposes should be publicly available, in real time where possible, respecting data protection policies. WGS data are suitable for surveillance and outbreak purposes and for answering scientific questions pertaining to source attribution, antimicrobial resistance, transmission patterns, and virulence, which will further enable the protection and improvement of public health with respect to food-borne disease.
Whole genome sequencing (WGS) for food-borne pathogen surveillance and control- Taking the pulse
Next-generation sequencing (NGS) is transforming microbiology [1]. With the increased accessibility and decrease in the costs of sequencing and the optimisation of the ‘wet laboratory’ components of NGS i.e. the quality and throughput of DNA extraction, library preparation and sequencing reactions, whole genome sequencing (WGS) of bacterial isolates is rapidly revolutionising clinical and public health microbiology. WGS is a ‘disruptive technology’ that has the potential to become a one-stop-shop for routine bacterial analysis. By replacing multiple parallel steps in the microbiology diagnostic cycle, which currently involves traditional and molecular methods, it achieves accurate and speedy species identification, inference of antimicrobial susceptibility and virulence and high-resolution subtyping [2].
Typing of food-borne pathogens was one of the earliest applications of WGS [3] and proof-of-concept has been demonstrated for the superiority of WGS over traditional typing methods such as pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE), multilocus variable-number tandem repeat analysis (MLVA) and multilocus sequence typing (MLST), for a range of high priority food-borne pathogens, including Salmonella enterica, Listeria monocytogenes, Campylobacter species and Shiga-toxin producing Escherichia coli [4]. Applications of WGS include the investigation of food-related outbreaks and surveillance to delineate the local, regional and global genomic epidemiology of pathogens and to attribute the infection source. WGS thus supports risk assessment and guides interventions for prevention and control of infections.
A growing number of (public health microbiology) laboratories and governmental agencies employ WGS in their routine practice and food-borne pathogen surveillance and even more are expected to enter this field in the near future. Thus the maturation of food-borne pathogen surveillance into the WGS era is very timely.
In order for WGS to be adopted as the new gold standard for tracking of food-borne pathogens, a key element of food-borne disease control, there is a need for robust, standardised, portable and scalable methods for analysing WGS data. However, the notable diversity of bioinformatics tools and approaches used for bacterial WGS to date, as evident from a recent survey by the Global Microbial Identifier project [5], creates a tremendous challenge for harmonising surveillance and investigation of food-borne illness, especially across geographical borders and different sectors. Calling variants based on analysis of single nt polymorphisms (SNPs) as it is being done in many food-borne outbreak investigations, offers maximal resolution and discriminatory power but is very difficult to standardise. Therefore, approaches based on gene-by-gene analyses, collectively referred to as ‘extended MLST’, such as core genome (cg) or whole genome (wg)MLST may be advantageous [6], and have been advocated in other public health settings, such as Legionnaires’ disease control [7].
PulseNet was established in the United States (US) more than 20 years ago as a laboratory network for molecular epidemiology based on standardised PFGE analysis and later expanded globally. PulseNet has been successful in engaging many players in the field of food safety on a global scale and in creating a platform for data sharing and comparison of clinical, veterinary and food isolates in over 80 countries and it has a proven track-record in supporting molecular surveillance [8]. Nevertheless, some issues remained unresolved such as creation and implementation of a global nomenclature, which is important for communicating molecular epidemiology results, both scientifically as well as operationally.
In this issue of Eurosurveillance, an article by Nadon et al. [9] describes the next generation of PulseNet International, which is evolving into harnessing WGS. This initiative represents a wide collaboration between many leading agencies and stakeholders in this area, including the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) and the Public Health Agency Canada (PHAC), just to name a few. The authors illustrate the technical and practical aspects of adapting the network. Notably, PulseNet International has chosen an extended MLST approach, specifically, wgMLST, as its default phylogenetic analysis tool, which should underpin a standardised and efficient nomenclature-based system. Different technical and practical aspects are reviewed and discussed, mainly focusing on information technology (IT) and bioinformatics aspects (data storage, computing power, nomenclature, data sharing), methods for validation and quality control/quality assurance. Nadon et al. highlight complexities surrounding the implementation of WGS for food-borne disease surveillance, with respect to readiness at individual country and regional levels and delineate how PulseNet plans to address these.
The evolution of PulseNet International is very encouraging and will reinforce the use of NGS in the area of food safety. That said, challenges remain that need to be addressed by the public health community. There is a need for user-friendly bioinformatics solutions that will enable automated analysis of bacterial genomes by non-experts in bioinformatics to extract valuable information in a time-efficient manner. Such solutions should offer as much backwards compatibility as possible with current typing methods since the global transition to WGS is expected to be gradual. It should also offer an efficient strain/allele nomenclature that facilitates inter-laboratory work. Moreover, bioinformatics solutions should also factor in the developments in the field of DNA sequencing, particularly long-read single molecule sequencing platforms and portable sequencing devices which are increasingly being used. While WGS of food-borne pathogens has now become the new gold standard for food-borne pathogen typing, other techniques such as strain typing and characterisation using proteomics (particularly matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionisation (MALDI) time-of-flight (TOF) mass spectroscopy) or DNA arrays are rapidly evolving and should be carefully evaluated [10]. The field of metagenomics is also rapidly advancing and culture-independent microbiology, enabling genomic analysis of pathogens directly from sequenced clinical or environmental samples (as opposed to cultured isolates), is just around the corner [11]. When laying the foundations for global food pathogen surveillance networks for the coming years, we need to be mindful of such future developments.
Different from current protocols in which only typing results are shared, the transition to genome-based surveillance inevitably involves the sharing of complete sequence data. This has many implications, not only with respect to data storage, analysis and sharing infrastructures, but also aspects such as data ownership, privacy and transparency, pertaining to both genomic sequences and the related metadata. These issues should be proactively addressed in order to provide reassurance concerning data protection and create flexible solutions that will facilitate the timely sharing of public health data by as many partners as possible.
Finally, the transition to WGS-based surveillance needs to ensure sufficient quality is maintained in order to meet national and international regulatory requirements. Nadon et al. rightfully emphasise in their paper, the importance of validation, quality control and standardisation. One major aspect in making this transition and that needs to be considered is the human factor. The successful implementation of WGS-based surveillance on a global scale requires careful planning, building of capacity and training of public health and microbiology personnel to develop local readiness, especially in limited resource settings. Care should be taken to address the ‘softer’ issues, including possible cultural, political and cross-sector barriers, which together with economical, management and operational aspects could greatly influence the successful implementation of WGS.
This is a fascinating time for public health microbiology, and initiatives such as the integration of WGS as proposed by PulseNet International, are central for leveraging recent technological advancements for the benefit of public health surveillance.
The kids in Idaho are alright. Thanks to University of Idaho’s Josh Bevan and the rest of the IFT Intermountain section, I’m in Sun Valley, Idaho taking in the sites after talking some food safety stuff. I gave a talk Friday morning (slides here) on things we’ve seen on barfblog that some might consider emerging issues (kimchi, tempeh, kombucha, sous vide) and a bit on where mere mortals in the kitchen might get food safety information.
One of the things I talked about was illnesses from handling and/or eating raw flour – current with Canadian’s experiencing their second outbreak in a few months.
From CBC news (home of Hockey Night in Canada and topical food safety news):
A new, separate recall involves a batch of Rogers 10-kilogram all-purpose flour possibly contaminated with E.coli and sold at B.C. Costco stores.The recall was triggered by a Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) investigation after five people in B.C. all became infected with the same strain of E.coli.The B.C. Centre for Disease Control tested the Rogers flour purchased by one of the victims who fell ill after eating raw dough. It contained the E.coli strain O121.Rogers Foods says a direct link to its flour product has not yet been proven and that it’s working with the CFIA on investigating the situation.The company stresses that people can protect themselves by not eating raw flour or dough — the cooking process helps kill any lingering pathogens.”We must emphasize that flour is a raw agricultural product and must be thoroughly baked or cooked before eating,” Rogers Foods said in a letter to customers.
Also this week, Schaffner posed a question to a Facebook group of food safety nerds, ‘E. coli in flour: So always there and now we see it, or new problem?’
My guess, instep with lots of the responses, is it has been there in low levels resulting illnesses. But they looked sporadic with the long shelf life of the product and commingling.
Back in Idaho, I shared some of the materials that from a workshop on STEC in flour that Natalie Seymour and I organized. Karen Neil of CDC, Tim Jackson from Nestle and Scott Hood from General Mills spoke about challenges in flour food safety. The workshop focused on stuff like, there’s no kill step in the milling process, there’s literally tons of commingling and although it’s not intended to be eaten raw – sometimes it is (in cookie dough, cake mix).
And a risk factor in the 2016 Gold Medal-linked outbreak was kids handling raw tortilla and pizza dough in restaurants. There’s some other stuff known about flour – generic E. coli species have been found in flour in NZ. A survey conducted on wheat and flour milling in Australia showed no detectable Salmonella, 3.0 MPN/g of generic E. coli and 0.3 MPN/g of B. cereus recovered on average from 650 samples (from two mills).
Don and Ben get down and dirty with shower habits, trips to Idaho and calendar best practices. They go in-depth on the science of handwashing, including temperatures and lathering styles including a creepy mechanical pigskin hand simulator. The show ends with a response to Roderick on the Line’s question on keeping bacon fat on the stove and listener followup on home pasteurized eggs.
On May 26, 2017, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency said Ardent Mills is recalling various brands of flour and flour products due to possible E. coli O121 contamination.
Now, CFIA has gotten in on the act – 17 days after BCCDC –announcing on June 7, 2017 that Rogers Foods Ltd. is recalling Rogers brand All Purpose flour from the marketplace due to possible E. coli O121 contamination.
The following product has been sold from Costco warehouse locations in British Columbia.
Brand Name: Rogers, Common Name: All Purpose Flour, Size: 10 kg, Code(s) on Product: MFD 17 JAN 19 C, UPC: 0 60179 10231 8
This recall was triggered by findings by the CFIA during its investigation into a foodborne illness outbreak. The CFIA is conducting a food safety investigation, which may lead to the recall of other products.
There have been reported illnesses that may be associated with the consumption of this product. Further lab testing is underway to confirm the link.
West Australians are being warned to avoid eating raw or partly cooked eggs because of a surge in cases of salmonella food poisoning.
Reports of salmonella gastroenteritis are at records levels and have been linked to particular molecular types associated with eggs.
The WA Health Department said yesterday there had been 713 reported infections from salmonella typhimurium by the end of April, which was more than four times the usual number.
The infection was commonly associated with consumption of foods containing raw or under-cooked eggs.
“There are two molecular subtypes, PFGE1 and PFGE43, that are currently causing most of this increase,” she said.
“Epidemiological evidence from investigations of identified localised outbreaks and a large case-control study of community cases indicates that eating raw or runny eggs is a significant cause of illness. This includes breakfast dishes containing eggs, and desserts and aioli made with raw eggs.”
Environmental investigations indicated some outbreaks had been caused by poor handling of egg products at the food manufacturing and preparation level and by consumers.
The department said that while eggs were a good source of vitamins and minerals, like many other foods they could be contaminated with bacteria, including salmonella. It was important to handle and prepare eggs safely to reduce the food poisoning risk.
“The department recommends that people don’t use cracked or dirty eggs in raw egg dishes,” she said.
“If possible, it is best to avoid any uncooked foods or dishes that contain raw egg.
“This is because it is impossible to guarantee the safety of eating raw eggs and dishes that contain unpasteurised raw egg products.”
Except AIB – based in Manhattan, Kansas – has given superior plus plus ratings to some of the worst food offenders in the past decade: Peanut Corporation of America (which supplied the idiots at Kelloggs), DeCoster eggs and dozens more.
