But if some folks are going to push a point, expect some push back.
Risk comparisons depend on meals consumed. Not many Americans consume raw milk or raw milk cheese, yet the products are continuously the source of outbreaks.
The following abstract of a paper takes a stab at quantifying the per-meal problem.
Why has no one published about the imagined safety of raw milk products in a scientific journal?
Because it’s another food safety fairytale.
Until credible data is presented, all the naturalist wankers can take the advice of novelist Kurt Vonnegut, “Why don’t you take a flying fuck at a rolling doughnut? Why don’t you take a flying fuck at the mooooooooooooon?”
And stop wasting public health resources, assholes.
Outbreak-related disease burden associated with consumption of unpasteurized cow’s milk and cheese, United States, 2009-2014
Emerging Infectious Diseases, vol. 23, no. 6, June 2017, Solenne Costard , Luis Espejo, Huybert Groenendaal, and Francisco J. Zagmutt
https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/23/6/15-1603_article The growing popularity of unpasteurized milk in the United States raises public health concerns. We estimated outbreak-related illnesses and hospitalizations caused by the consumption of cow’s milk and cheese contaminated with Shiga toxin–producing Escherichia coli, Salmonella spp., Listeria monocytogenes, and Campylobacter spp. using a model relying on publicly available outbreak data. In the United States, outbreaks associated with dairy consumption cause, on average, 760 illnesses/year and 22 hospitalizations/year, mostly from Salmonella spp. and Campylobacter spp.
Unpasteurized milk, consumed by only 3.2% of the population, and cheese, consumed by only 1.6% of the population, caused 96% of illnesses caused by contaminated dairy products. Unpasteurized dairy products thus cause 840 (95% CrI 611–1,158) times more illnesses and 45 (95% CrI 34–59) times more hospitalizations than pasteurized products. As consumption of unpasteurized dairy products grows, illnesses will increase steadily; a doubling in the consumption of unpasteurized milk or cheese could increase outbreak-related illnesses by 96%.
The European Centre for Disease Prevention reports that since March 2016, four EU Member States have reported a total of 40 cases of a new Salmonella serotype with an antigenic formula 11:z41:enz15, which has never been described before. The cases have been reported from Greece (N=22), Germany (N=10), Czech Republic (N=5) and Luxembourg (N=3). Pulsed-Field Gel Electrophoresis (PFGE) and Whole Genome Sequencing (WGS) have confirmed the genetic closeness of the Salmonella isolates, suggesting a common source of infection. The latest case reports are from February 2017.
An epidemiological analytical study performed in Greece in 2016 found an association between infection and a sesame-based product. This hypothesis was confirmed by the identification of the same Salmonella serotype in sesame seeds in October 2016 in Germany. As sesame seeds have a long shelf life and new cases have been reported recently, it is likely that contaminated batches have been circulating in the food chain for several months in a number of Member States.
Although few new cases have been reported in the last three months, the outbreak still appears to be ongoing.
Maple syrup thefts in Quebec; adulterated olive oil from Italy; horse meat filler in the EU and apparently everywhere.
The mob’s got its fingers in all kinds of food fraud, but leave it to Wisconsin to quaintly produce a butter smuggler.
Whenever Jean Smith leaves her home in Waukesha, Wisconsin, to visit relatives out of state, she’ll stop in Nebraska to load up on blocks of Kerrygold butter, imported from Ireland, which is banned in the state that calls itself, “America’s Dairyland.”
“Ms. Smith brings back as much Kerrygold butter with her when she visits family in Nebraska,” said a civil lawsuit she and three other butter-lovers filed against Wisconsin in a state court last month. “She keeps large amounts of the butter in her home refrigerator in the hopes that she will have enough to last her until her next out-state trip.”
Kerrygold says the “winds, rain and warming influence of the Gulf Stream all contribute to the lush grass” where the Ireland-based company’s happy cows graze before they’re milked to create butter that’s “silky and creamy and glow a healthy, golden yellow.”
It may be specially crafted but the product is what’s called “ungraded butter,” which doesn’t carry the familiar USDA stamp of approval or in this case a Wisconsin grade. The state is the only one in the U.S. to declare it “unlawful to sell, offer or expose for sale, or have in possession with intent to sell, any butter at retail unless it has been graded.”
M. L. Nestel of The Daily Beast writes that Smith’s lawsuit is the first of three dealing with the butter law this year. In one federal lawsuit, Kerrygold accuses a competitor of trademark infringement for selling “Irishgold” butter. In another federal lawsuit, a small ungraded artisanal butter company called Minerva claims its butter is getting cut out of the Wisconsin market over an outdated technicality.
The 1953 law was rarely enforced until now, maybe because the grading process is grueling.
A grader has to assess in sequential steps the “flavor and aroma, body and texture, color, salt, package and by the use of other tests or procedures approved by the department for ascertaining the quality of butter in whole or part,” according to the state’s website on the matter.
The story goes on to outline the minutia of grading standards, protectionism and bullshit claims.
And, like most food porn, has nothing to do with safety.
That’s what it takes to adjust the brain wiring: from pianist to poet, Beatle to Stone, haberdasher to hockey player, from good to great.
I’m not going to take up the academic and practical concerns with this simplification that gets used as mantra.
Biology is always messier.
Hockey camp at the beach over the weekend with 36 kids was great for the exercise, the repetition, and the bonding that lasts a lifetime.
So I’m always baffled when some restaurant owner who has devoted his lifetime – their 10,000 hours, to their craft — can lose it all in a microbiological minute.
Again, biology is messy.
Rachel Macpherson of The Sun reports that JB Christie has closed its Airdrie bakery in North Lanarkshire and ordered the immediate withdrawal of products after being linked to multiple cases of the potentially deadly virus.
NHS Lanarkshire announced nine patients had been treated with a further nine suspected cases of the bug.
Initial probes by health chiefs said the infection was possibly linked to the bakery, but a probe, including staff blood tests, failed to turn up any sign of the virus.
Jody Harrison of The Herald reports Andrew Chisholm, owner of JB Christie Baker’s, now intends to re-open both shops, saying that he viewed it as his “civic duty” to shut as soon as the link was made.
He said: “As a business, we have fully and voluntarily co-operated with Lanarkshire NHS and Environmental Health Officers during this process.
“As of this morning all staff at the bakery have been blood tested and have been found to be clear of the infection. Also as a precaution all have been vaccinated for Hepatitis A.
The baker said: “I have made my career in this industry and I bought the JB Christie business just over four years ago and I am proud to have done so.
Good on Chisholm for taking so-called swift action (but ‘major electrical issue,’ sorta douchebagish). Epidemiology works, so tests afterwards don’t mean much.
Neither do vaccinations.
If an owner devoted 10,000 hours to his craft to be award winning, vaccinating all employees against Hepatitis A should have been done before, not after a health risk emerged – real or not.
St Kilda midfielder Koby Stevens says his recent bout of salmonella poisoning left him feeling the sickest he has been in his life.
Daniel Cherny of the Sydney Morning Heraldreports that Stevens, 25, made a belated debut for the Saints in Launceston on Saturday, starring with 28 disposals and two goals as St Kilda thumped Hawthorn by 75 points.
Traded from the Western Bulldogs at the end of last season, Stevens’ first game for his third AFL club was delayed after a dodgy meal rudely interrupted his pre-season. “I got a bit of salmonella when we were away for the last JLT series game [in Albury],” Stevens said.
“I’m not sure where or what I ate, still trying to figure that one out! I ended up in hospital for about a week and lost about eight kilos so it took me a good three weeks to get over that.”
The midfielder – who also previously played for West Coast – said the illness had taken a significant toll on his body. “I’ve never been so sick in my life,” he said.
Did Stevens have any seafood with raw egg aioli or mayo?
And if a fit Aussie rules footballer can be felled for three weeks with Salmonella, what will it do to the rest of us?
As I sip tea and watch the Pacific waves roll into Coff’s Harbour from our 13th floor beachside apartment, resting for the next-of-so-far-12 hours on the ice at a weekend hockey camp we arranged for 36 kids from Brisbane, I ask myself: who the fuck drinks tea from deer antlers?
Lots of people.
Lots of North Americans make lots of money selling deer antler velvet to southeast Asians, especially Chinese, who value the ingredient in traditional herbal medicine.
Until it gives someone botulism.
Public health officials consider a single case of botulism a public health emergency, because it might foretell a larger outbreak, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC).
According to ProMed, velvet antler (<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Velvet_antler>) “is used as a drug in traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) that classifies many similar substances from a variety of species under the simplified Chinese name pinyin Lu Rong and the pharmaceutical name Cervi Cornu Pantorichum. The 2 common species used within the TCM system are Sika Deer and Red Deer. Within the TCM system it is prescribed by a doctor to a patient in the use to treat yang deficiency syndromes. In Asia, velvet antler is dried and sold as slices or powdered. The powder or slices are then boiled in water, usually with other herbs and ingredients, and consumed as a medicinal soup.
Velvet antler in the form of deer antler spray has been at the center of multiple controversies with professional sports leagues and famous athletes allegedly using it for injury recovery and performance enhancement purposes. In mid-2011 a National Football League (NFL) player successfully sued a deer antler velvet spray manufacturer for testing positive for methyltestosterone in 2009 for a total amount of 5.4 million.[19][20] In August 2011, Major League Baseball (MLB) added deer antler spray to their list of prohibited items because it contains “potentially contaminated nutritional supplements.”
On January 30, 2013, a professional PGA Tour golfer was caught unaware and openly admitted to the personal use of deer antler spray which contained a banned substance at the time. A week later the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) lifted the ban on deer antler spray, but with urgency, “Deer Antler Velvet Spray may contain IGF-1 (Insulin-like Growth Factor -1) and WADA recommends therefore that athletes be extremely vigilant with this supplement because it could lead to a positive test.” The consensus opinion of leading endocrinologists concerning any purported claims and benefits “is simply that there is far too little of the substance in even the purest forms of the spray to make any difference,” and “there is no medically valid way to deliver IGF-1 orally or in a spray.”
Our resident non-aging television personality and food safety dude, Rob Mancini, writes that he’ll be speaking at the CASA Educational Conference on May 2nd, 2017 in Saratoga Springs, NY regarding his research on alternate modes of food safety training.
The importance of training food handlers is critical to effective food hygiene; however, there have been limited studies on the effectiveness of such training.
Food safety training courses are administered worldwide in attempts to reduce outbreaks in food service, retail and temporary food service establishments. However, food handlers often exhibit a poor understanding of microbial or chemical contamination of food and the measures necessary to correct them.
Studies suggest that the provision of a hands-on format of training would be more beneficial than traditional classroom-based programs. The delivery of such a program may assist in changing ones’ food safety behaviours and aid in the retention of knowledge that are necessary to reduce the incidence of foodborne illness.
In grade 10, I would race home on my bicycle at lunch to take in 30 minutes of animated joy that was a predecessor to all the satire 40 years later of pompous American superheros, and I was convinced the writers were all stoned.
Greatest TV cartoon ever (read the start of the wiki entry to get of how deepl weird the show was and how we are living it today).
Today’s weirdest non-political animation is the pooping unicorn, which has reached its demographic epoch in the same way that 7-year-olds hang posters of Michael Jackson or Katy Perry, when a friend of daughter Sorenne asked, “Do you know what the colorful unicorn is?
But is the unicorn effect spreading like diarrhea?
As Caroline Bologna of Huffington Post writes, when a Missouri mom named Rebecca asked her daughter, Audrey, how she’d like to celebrate her third birthday, the toddler had only one theme in mind: “poop.”
“For months, every time we mentioned her party, Audrey requested ‘poop balloons and a poop cake,’” Rebecca told The Huffington Post. “I tried suggesting other themes, but she always insisted on poop.”
Ultimately, she and her husband decided to “embrace the weird” and give Audrey the party she wanted.
The unconventional party took place in October at the family’s home in St. Louis.
The guests played “pin the poop,” enjoyed a poop emoji-shaped piñata filled with Tootsie Rolls and Hershey’s Kisses, and received whoopee cushion favors. Rebecca even dressed in a poop costume.
The mom said everyone loved the party and thought it was hilarious. “I expected the grandparents to question it, but they all just laughed when I told them,” she added.
Rebecca believes the birthday party embodied her daughter in many ways. “Audrey is definitely her own person,” she explained. “I hope she always has the confidence she has now. She is so funny and the best big sister.”
Rebecca hopes Audrey’s party can inspire other parents in the throes of birthday planning.
Peter Andrey Smith of the New York Times writes that on a recent trip, Cliff Kapono hit some of the more popular surf breaks in Ireland, England and Morocco. He’s proudly Native Hawaiian and no stranger to the hunt for the perfect wave. But this time he was chasing something even more unusual: microbial swabs from fellow surfers.
Mr. Kapono, a 29-year-old biochemist earning his doctorate at the University of California, San Diego, heads up the Surfer Biome Project, a unique effort to determine whether routine exposure to the ocean alters the microbial communities of the body, and whether those alterations might have consequences for surfers — and for the rest of us.
Mr. Kapono has collected more than 500 samples by rubbing cotton-tipped swabs over the heads, mouths, navels and other parts of surfers’ bodies, as well as their boards. Volunteers also donate a fecal sample.
He uses mass spectrometry to create high-resolution maps of the chemical metabolites found in each sample. “We have the ability to see the molecular world, whether it’s bacteria or a fungus or the chemical molecules,” he said.
Then, working in collaboration with U.C.S.D.’s Center for Microbiome Innovation — a quick jaunt across the quad from his lab — Mr. Kapono and his colleagues sequence and map the microbes found on this unusually amphibious demographic.
He and his colleagues are looking for signs of antibiotic-resistant organisms. Part of their aim is to determine whether, and to what extent, the ocean spreads the genes for resistance.
Many antibiotics used today derive from chemicals produced by microbes to defend themselves or to attack other microorganisms. No surprise, then, that strains of competing bacteria have also evolved the genetic means to shrug off these chemicals.
While drug resistance comes about because of antibiotic overuse, the genes responsible for creating resistance are widely disseminated in nature and have been evolving in microbes for eons. Startlingly, that means genes giving rise to drug resistance can be found in places untouched by modern antibiotics.
Several years ago, researchers identified antibiotic-resistant genes in a sample of ancient permafrost from Nunavut, in the Canadian Arctic. William Hanage, an epidemiologist at the Harvard School of Public Health, was among those showing that these genes conferred a resistance to amikacin, a semi-synthetic drug that did not exist before the 1970s.
“There was a gene that encoded resistance to it in something that was alive 6,000 years ago,” he said in an interview.
Another group led by Hazel Barton, a microbiologist at the University of Akron, discovered microorganisms harboring antibiotic-resistance genes in the Lechuguilla Cave in New Mexico. These bacteria, called Paenibacillus sp. LC231, have been isolated from Earth’s surface for four million years, yet testing showed they were capable of fending off 26 of 40 modern antibiotics.
It’s all cool research, but all I could think of was Celebrity, a skit by The Kids in the Hall.
