Now, a trial has begun for two former executives of French frozen food company SEB, charged with a “deliberate violation of safety obligations” that put customers at risk and caused involuntary injuries. Their trial began on Tuesday, June 6, and the two men face prison if convicted.
SEB has since gone out of business.
According to The Local, in 2011 a two-year-old boy named Nolan Moittie was one of 17 people in France who became seriously ill after eating steak hachés, or chopped steak patties, that were contaminated with E. coli bacteria, and which had been sold frozen at a Lidl grocery store. The illness caused the two-year-old boy to have a heart attack and fall into a coma while in the hospital.
But neither man is accepting responsibility and the defense is claiming that the illness from the minced beef was a result of consumers not storing and preparing them properly.
Just cook it doesn’t cut it.
“Money as they say, won’t bring you happiness, and it won’t help my son get back to how he was before,” his mother Priscilla said.
Steak hachés are a staple dish in France, particularly among children. In 2009 some 250,000 tonnes were sold, half of which were sold as frozen products.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), are assisting state and local officials in assessing the risk of hepatitis A virus exposure from contaminated frozen tuna sourced from Sustainable Seafood Company, Vietnam, and Santa Cruz Seafood Inc., Philippines. If unvaccinated consumers have consumed the recalled product within the last two weeks, post-exposure prophylaxis may help prevent hepatitis A virus infection.
Prior to FDA’s announcement, Hilo Fish Company alerted its customers and distribution partners directly to let them know about the company’s voluntary recall of certain tuna products on May 18. The FDA received records from the company or its distribution partners indicating that they sold frozen tuna to the establishments listed on the FDA’s website. The FDA is working with Hilo and other distributors to ensure that the companies remove product from the market. The table containing the names of establishments have been updated.
It is the responsibility of the Hilo Fish Company to notify its customers about the voluntary recall. It is also the responsibility of any company that received a recall notice from Hilo Fish Company to notify its customers. The establishments identified on the FDA’s website should have received a notice from Hilo Fish Company or their direct supplier. If they have not, they should reach out to their suppliers for more information. Any company that has questions about the voluntary recall or has affected product and did not receive notice should contact the FDA at 1-800-SAFEFOOD.
Food-types think the berries are the same ones from the 2015 outbreak.
Yes, berries are good, yes companies will source the cheapest supplier where night soil may be rampant, and yes this story is weird.
Here’s what happened:
In 2015 Creative Gourmet’s Mixed Berries and Nanna’s range of frozen berries were owned by the same company.
Ivone Ruiz, the General Manager of Entyce Food Ingredients told Choice magazine, “We purchased the Creative Gourmet brand and some existing stock reserves from Patties in late 2015. The stock had been extensively tested by independent accredited laboratories, all of which cleared the batch for traces of the hepatitis A.”
Testing is a necessary evil, but doesn’t tell anyone much about safety.
Food Standards Australia and New Zealand suggests the batches are related. “These cases have an identical sequence [of hepatitis A] to that of the cases from the 2015 outbreak,” says a spokesperson. “This product was not in the market at the time of the 2015 recall.” A representative from the Department of Health and Human Services in Victoria suggests how the batch could have evaded testing. “There is a possible link. They came in at a similar time to [Nanna’s] berries, but they came in before the test-and-hold [procedures were] put in place at the border,” spokesperson Bram Alexander tells Choice.
Creative Gourmet Mixed Berries contain strawberries, raspberries and blackberries from China, as well as blueberries sourced from Canada.
The berries are packaged in China before being shipped to Australia and are then repackaged in Melbourne.
Entyce says it’s decreasing its reliance on berries sourced from China having recognized “a level of concern that exists in the community.”
“When we took over the Creative Gourmet brand, over 95 percent of the fruit was sourced from China; we have brought this figure down to 5 percent,” Entyce’s Ruiz tells Choice. “With a number of sourcing contracts expected to cease shortly, 100 percent of all fruit used in the Creative Gourmet brand will be sourced from Canada, Chile, Brazil and Vietnam.”
The food safety regulator issued the “precautionary” recall on Friday, asking anyone who had bought the Creative Gourmet Frozen Mixed Berries 300-gram product with a best-before date before January 15, 2021 to return it immediately to the supermarket for a refund.
About 45,000 packets of the berries are affected. The berries were sourced from Canada and China and packed in Australia.
Entyce stopped sales of the suspect berries after the 1st reported case on 4 May 2017, but the actual recall did not start until a month later on 3 Jun 2017.
I spoke with my friend Gary this a.m., and told him once again how much I appreciated him throwing a few bucks my way while I actually tried to think about food safety issues.
He asked if I was going to the International Association for Food Protection meeting in Tampa this year.
I said, nah, I’m not a prof, no funding, although it would be fun to catch up with everyone, and stay at Anna Maria Island once again, about 90 minutes from Tampa.
We live in Brisbane, we’re used to Florida in the summer.
But the surrounding restaurants sorta suck.
The Wicked Taco Cantina, 101 7th St. N., Bradenton Beach, was cited on May 24 for holding cold food at temperatures above 41 degrees, including pico de gallo, guacamole and sour cream. The establishment also was cited for improper hand washing procedures. Per the report: “Server handled soiled dishes or utensils and then picked up plated food, served food, or prepared a beverage without washing hands. Observed employee handle dirty dishes from customers table, then prepare a personal beverage at soda machine. Observed employee use ice scoop. No hand washing observed. Observed server handle dirty dishes from customers table, sweep floor then make a customer’s beverage. No hand washing observed.”
The hand-washing violation was again noted on an inspection two days later. In the May 26 inspection report, the inspector said corrective action was taken.
On Thursday, inspectors visited The Beach House, 200 N. Gulf Drive, Bradenton Beach, to check on a violation they cited the restaurant for during a May 19 inspection: “Potentially hazardous (time/temperature control for safety) food cold held at greater than 41 degrees Fahrenheit,” per the report. Items in the cooler included dairy mix, raw shrimp and tomato sauce. Similar issues were observed with other coolers in the restaurant. The inspectors noted that corrective action was taken on the same day.
I chatted with my 70ish-year-old mother the other day, and she said the rain had let up enough in Brantford, Ontario (that’s in Canada) so that she could cut the lawn.
She didn’t mention anything about tornadoes.
Ashifa Kassam of The Guardian reports a Canadian man’s commitment to lawn care has earned him international fame, after social media lit up with a photo of him mowing the lawn as a large tornado loomed on the horizon.
On Friday evening, as dark clouds began to gather near Three Hills, Alberta, Theunis Wessels paid little mind. Instead his thoughts were focused on the busy weekend that lay ahead for the family.
The list of chores he was hoping to get done included cutting the lawn. “I had to get it cut,” he told CTV News. “A lot of things happening over the weekend. Children were attending swim meets and some other sporting events over the weekend, so I had to make sure I got it done.”
He began mowing the lawn while his wife was napping. His nine-year-old daughter, nervous about the swirling twister gathering behind him, urged him to come inside. When he refused, she woke up his wife.
His wife, Cecilia Wessels, came out shortly after and snapped a few pictures, including one that captured her husband casually mowing the lawn against the dramatic backdrop of the tornado. It was the first time anyone in the family, originally from South Africa, had seen a tornado.
“I did ask him if he was coming inside with that thing in the clouds when I turned to come inside and he calmly said no,” she told the Associated Press.
I’ve always enjoyed the time I spent in New Zealand.
Maybe not as much as U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson when he arrived in Wellington.
US media travelling with Tillerson were surprised by the number of people flipping the bird at Tillerson as his motorcade sped through town.
New York Times correspondent Gardiner Harris said he had been in a lot of motorcades but even he was taken back by the negative reaction.
“I’ve been in motorcades for a couple of years now … I’ve never seen so many people flip the bird at an American motorcade as I saw today,” Harris said.
Harris wasn’t the only one who noticed – US protection officers travelling by with Tillerson were overheard joking about the “warm” Wellington welcome.
The Courier Mail reports that residents north of Brisbane (we’re southsiders) are being advised to boil all their tap water before drinking it following fears the water supply has been compromised.
Unitywater says the advise applies to 3,500 residents in Petrie and Old Petrie Town.
In a statement, Unitywater said residents should boil water for the next 24 hours, or until the water quality has returned to normal.
Residents have been advised to use cool boiled water or bottled water when brushing their teeth, drinking, washing and preparing food beverages, making ice, bathing infants or preparing baby formula.
“This is a rare event and Unitywater is working closely with Queensland Health to resolve the situation as quickly as possible,” the statement said.
Unitywater is currently flushing the mains in the area and supplying water from an alternative reservoir.
“We are also taking regular samples to monitor the water quality.”
James Wilkinson of the Daily Mail reports that customers of celebrity-endorsed California cupcake shop Sprinkles have been given paws for thought after footage emerged of a giant rat scurrying across its shelves.
The video, entitled ‘Rat in cupcake store/live Ratatouille’, shows the rogue rodent scampering over empty shelves in the store, which was closed overnight.
On Monday chief marketing officer Jennifer Warner told KTLA 5: ‘We deeply regret that an unfortunate set of circumstances, including a structural malfunction, lead to this incident.’
Sprinkles, which is owned by Cupcake Wars judge Candace Nelson, started in Beverly Hills in 2005. Its Glendale branch opened three years ago.
According to the Sprinkles website, other celebs that favor the chain include Blake Lively, Katie Holmes, Barbra Streisand and Ryan Seacrest.
For the past 25 years, all I’ve heard is we can’t adopt new technology because consumers don’t want it.
Bullshit.
Consumers don’t know what they want until they are offered it.
We sorta proved that in 2000 when we offered genetically engineered and conventional sweet corn and potatoes for sale at a farmer’s market.
The big stores wouldn’t let us in, because they were terrified to let moms and dads know that sweet corn and potatoes was grown with pesticides.
Corporate assholes.
Which allowed the anti-GE crowd to come up with some conspiracy shit that resulted in a death-to-science banner on my lab door.
Move out of your parent’s basement, get a life.
Bruce Cran of the Consumers Association of Canada told CTV News the federal government has done “an incompetent job” informing Canadians that irradiation is safe and he worries that a lack of action could lead to a deadly outbreak.
“They need to promote an understanding so Canadians can make an informed choice, and they’re not doing that for whatever reason,” Cran said. “This is not only a safe practice, it’s one that many of us would like to be able to use.”
“Our members would absolutely support it,” said Robin Horel, president of the Canadian Poultry and Egg Processors Council.
“But we haven’t pushed hard because … the companies that produce chicken and turkey are concerned about what the consumer response would be.”
It’s called leadership.
Yes, leaders get some arrows in the back, but it’s been decades, either get behind science or suffer down the road.
My cousin the asparagus farmer bills his crop as genetically-engineered free. But anyone in the know knows that asparagus has been bred using multiple techniques over the years so it is absolutely genetically modified.
I asked him once if a fungal resistant GE asparagus came along, would he plant it.
He shrugged.
I have full respect for any farmer that can make a living doing whatever, getting gullible consumers to buy whatever.
There is a long history of food fairy tales, most famously linked to Dr. Kellogg in Michigan.
Anna Madison, a spokeswoman for Health Canada, said in an email the federal government would not promote irradiation since it does not engage in promotional activities.
Bullshit.
Health Canada promotes all kinds of bad food safety advice, from handwashing to thermometer use.
Rick Holley, professor emeritus of food microbiology and food safety at University of Manitoba, says irradiation is safe and is even more important for chicken than for ground beef. Chicken causes more illness in Canada, he said.
Holley said salmonella is naturally present on a lot of chicken and the gastro-intestinal bacteria campylobactor is present on all of it, regardless of whether a bird is free-range or factory.
“Both of these organisms occasionally kill, but because they make more people ill who recover, then the emphasis is not placed on them to the same extent as E. coli O157 in hamburger,” said Holley, who suggested that irradiating chicken could cut food-related illness in Canada by 25 per cent.
Natasha Rigler of the UK Sun reports the TV show, Love Island, is set to return for its third series on Monday night but producers are worried it could be ruined by a nasty illness currently sweeping Majorca.
Given that Love Island is filmed on the Med island, producers have taken the step of making sure all contestants and crew are covering themselves in anti-bacterial and anti-viral hand gels to prevent infection.
The bug, which causes sickness and diarrhåea, could throw the show into chaos if it took hold in the villa.
A source told the Daily Star: “Infection spreads fast in a hot climate and it would ruin months of planning.
“The show is about sexy young people hooking up in the sun – vomiting or diarrhea would not be a good look.”
Caroline Flack (right) will return to host Love Island for the third year running on Monday evening.
In May 2012, the Institut de veille sanitaire summarized the outbreak, and revealed 17 children were sickened, 16 from E. coli O157-O177 and 1 due to E. coli O157-O26.
The E. coli infection caused irreversible damage, and while Moittie survived and is now eight years old, he can’t talk and no longer has the use of 80 percent of his body. Doctors say the damage is irreversible.
