Raw sprouts and sausage: There’s some hot STECs out there

Posted on October 15, 2016 by Douglas Powell

In 2011, one of the world’s largest outbreaks of hemolytic-uremic syndrome (HUS) occurred, caused by a rare Escherichia coli serotype, O104:H4, that shared the virulence profiles of Shiga toxin-producing E. coli (STEC)/enterohemorrhagic E. coli (EHEC) and enteroaggregative E. coli (EAEC).

The persistence and fitness factors of the highly virulent EHEC/EAEC O104:H4 strain, grown either in food or in vitro, were compared with those of E. coli O157 outbreak-associated strains.

The log reduction rates of the different EHEC strains during the maturation of fermented sausages were not significantly different. Both the O157:NM and O104:H4 serotypes could be shown by qualitative enrichment to be present after 60 days of sausage storage. Moreover, the EHEC/EAEC O104:H4 strain appeared to be more viable than E. coli O157:H7 under conditions of decreased pH and in the presence of sodium nitrite. Analysis of specific EHEC strains in experiments with an EHEC inoculation cocktail showed a dominance of EHEC/EAEC O104:H4, which could be isolated from fermented sausages for 60 days. Inhibitory activities of EHEC/EAEC O104:H4 toward several E. coli strains, including serotype O157 strains, could be determined. Our study suggests that EHEC/EAEC O104:H4 is well adapted to the multiple adverse conditions occurring in fermented raw sausages. Therefore, it is strongly recommended that STEC strain cocktails composed of several serotypes, instead of E. coli O157:H7 alone, be used in food risk assessments.

The enhanced persistence of EHEC/EAEC O104:H4 as a result of its robustness, as well as the production of bacteriocins, may account for its extraordinary virulence potential.

IMPORTANCE In 2011, a severe outbreak caused by an EHEC/EAEC serovar O104:H4 strain led to many HUS sequelae. In this study, the persistence of the O104:H4 strain was compared with those of other outbreak-relevant STEC strains under conditions of fermented raw sausage production. Both O157:NM and O104:H4 strains could survive longer during the production of fermented sausages than E. coli O157:H7 strains. E. coli O104:H4 was also shown to be well adapted to the multiple adverse conditions encountered in fermented sausages, and the secretion of a bacteriocin may explain the competitive advantage of this strain in an EHEC strain cocktail.

Consequently, this study strongly suggests that enhanced survival and persistence, and the presumptive production of a bacteriocin, may explain the increased virulence of the O104:H4 outbreak strain. Furthermore, this strain appears to be capable of surviving in a meat product, suggesting that meat should not be excluded as a source of potential E. coli O104:H4 infection.

Fitness of Enterohemorrhagic Escherichia coli (EHEC)/Enteroaggregative E. coli O104:H4 in comparison to that of EHEC O157: Survival studies in food and in vitro

Applied and Environmental Microbiology; November 2016 vol. 82 no. 21 6326-6334

Christina Böhnlein, Jan Kabisch, Diana Meske, Charles M. A. P. Franz and Rohtraud Pichner

http://aem.asm.org/content/82/21/6326.abstract?etoc

National Meat and Provisions recalls beef and veal products due to possible E. coli O26 contamination

Posted on October 15, 2016 by Douglas Powell

National Meat and Provisions, a Reserve, La. establishment, is recalling approximately 2,349 pounds of beef and veal products that may be contaminated with E. coli O26, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) announced today.

The raw non-intact beef and veal items were produced and packaged on Sept. 14-15, 2016. The following products are subject to recall: [View Labels (PDF Only)]

51.40-lb. of VACUUM-PACKED “BEEF GROUND COMPANY BURGER BLEND,” packed on 9/14/2016 with a lot number of “00028584” and case codes of 53085/CB136 in the upper left-hand corner of the label

50.00-lb. of VACUUM-PACKED “BEEF GROUND COURSE STEAK TRIM,” packed on 9/14/2016 with a lot number of “00028582” and case codes of 53080/02300H in the upper left-hand corner of the label

10.00-lb. of VACUUM-PACKED “BEEF GROUND FRESH,” packed on 9/14/2016 with a lot number of “00028583” and case codes of 53110/02300P in the upper left-hand corner of the label

50.00-lb. VACUUM-PACKED “BEEF GROUND CHIMES FINE,” packed on 9/14/2016 with a lot number of “00028581” and case codes of 56660/02300C in the upper left-hand corner of the label

51.46-lb. VACUUM-PACKED “BEEF GROUND COMPANY BURGER BLEND,” packed on 9/15/2016 with a lot number of “00028597” and case codes of 53085/CB136 in the upper left-hand corner of the label

10.00-lb. VACUUM-PACKED “BEEF FAT OF RIB CAP,” packed on 9/15/2016, with a lot number of “00028595,” and case codes of 50010/1138 in the upper left-hand corner of the label

10.83-lb. VACUUM-PACKED “BEEF GROUND CHUCK DAT DOG,” packed on 9/15/2016, with a lot number of “00028593,” and case codes of 56135/02150 in the upper left-hand corner of the label

10.23-lb. VACUUM-PACKED “BEEF GROUND CHUCK BRISKET BURGER,” packed on 9/15/2016 with a lot number of “00028596,” and case codes of 53060/208116120 in the upper left-hand corner of the label

5.00-lb. VACUUM-PACKED “BEEF STEAK CUBED 5#,” packed on 9/15/2016, with a lot number of “00028594,” and case codes of 50565/04902 in the upper left-hand corner of the label

10.00-lb. VACUUM-PACKED “BEEF GROUND CHUCK 10#,” packed on 9/15/2016, with a lot number of “00028592,” and case codes of 53015/02100 in the upper left-hand corner of the label

10.11-lb. VACUUM-PACKED “BEEF STEAK CUBED,” packed on 9/15/2016, with a lot number of “00028591,” and case codes of 50555/1100GJ in the upper left-hand corner of the label

10.32-lb. VACUUM-PACKED “BEEF GROUND CHUCK BRISKET 8 oz.,” packed on 9/15/2016, with a lot number of “00028585,” and case codes of 53050/05M8 in the upper left-hand corner of the label

9.98-lb. VACUUM-PACKED “VEAL SIRLOIN CUBED POLY BAGED,” packed on 9/15/2016, with a lot number of “00028590,” and case codes of 56070/0776 in the upper left-hand corner of the label

The products subject to recall bear establishment number “EST. M-22022” inside the USDA mark of inspection. These items were shipped to a distributor, as well as hotels, restaurants and institutions in Louisiana.

The problem was discovered when the establishment received a positive STEC sample during their quarterly E. coli testing program on Sept. 29, 2016. There have been no confirmed reports of adverse reactions due to consumption of these products.

Many clinical laboratories do not test for non-O157 Shiga toxin-producing E. coli (STEC), such as STEC O26 because it is harder to identify than STEC O157. People can become ill from STECs 2–8 days (average of 3–4 days) after consuming the organism. Most people infected with STEC O26 develop diarrhea (often bloody), and vomiting. Some illnesses last longer and can be more severe. Infection is usually diagnosed by testing of a stool sample. Vigorous rehydration and other supportive care is the usual treatment; antibiotic treatment is generally not recommended.

Foody World turns into Listeria World

Posted on October 15, 2016 by Ben Chapman

A Richmond BC (that’s in Canada) grocery store has been linked to six cases of listeriosis resulting hospitalizations. Health authorities are, according to Global News, unsure of the source.

Vancouver Coastal Health says customers should not consume any produce or ready-to-eat foods made at Foody World.

The health authority says at least six people have been hospitalized with signs of infection due to Listeria.

Customers are urged to throw out any food that may have been contaminated including ready-to-eat meat products, sushi, produce and baked goods purchased from the store since July.

Health inspectors have closed the store and kitchen and say the store will be reopened once all health and safety standards are met.

Going public: The hepatitis A case that wasn’t

Posted on October 15, 2016 by Ben Chapman

When there is a chance to protect public health you gotta go public with all the info you have, when you have it. Sometimes new information arises that changes things and makes it look like officials got it wrong – when they didn’t.

Last week, according to The Chronicle, a food handler tested positive for hep A – and it turned out to be a false positive.

A reported case of Hepatitis A at the Chehalis Shop’n Kart last week has been ruled a false positive by county health officials, meaning a worker in the store’s bakery was not infected and baked goods they handled were not contaminated.

An initial press release from the Lewis County Public Health and Social Services last week said a bakery worker tested positive for the virus, which causes an acute liver infection.

But a release issued Friday said this test was a false positive, meaning there was never an infection or risk to customers.

Shop’n Kart owner Darris McDaniel said the containment procedure cost his store thousands of dollars in product they threw away, while also damaging its reputation.

“In the future, if anything would happen again, we would ask for another test right away, because this sent up a lot of bad signals for our business when in fact it wasn’t true,” he said. “We did take the proper steps and acted very quickly.”

Norovirus sucks; here’s what it does to the body

Posted on October 15, 2016 by Ben Chapman

It’s the perfect human pathogen.

A 2015 CDC report on noro burden by Ben Lopeman describes the virus as “ubiquitous, associated with 18% (95% CI: 17-20%) of diarrheal disease globally, with similar proportions of disease in high- middle- and low- income settings. Norovirus is estimated to cause approximately 200,000 deaths annually worldwide, with 70,000 or more among children in developing countries.”

Express describes what happens when the virus infects.

The viral particles hit the stomach first, but it is only when they travel into the small intestine that the virus begins to multiply.

It enters the cells lining the intestine, making copies of itself and then the cells die, release more virus particles, and the process is repeated.

The immune system recognises that cells are ‘dying’ and as an immune response, antibodies travel to the small intestine and deactivate the virus. Experts say this is when the body will start to feel the effects of the virus – such as fever and nausea.

The virus causes the gut to become inflamed or irritated – which leads to vomiting and watery diarrhoea. This, medics say, is the body’s way of fighting the infection and trying to clear it from the body.

Pathogen in Mighty Taco’s bean-linked outbreak still unknown; supplier named

Posted on October 15, 2016 by Ben Chapman

Mighty Taco, a Western NY fast food chain is home of the uh, mighty tacos, and over 140 illnesses linked to refried beans.

According to TWC news, Mighty Taco named Pellegrino Food Products Co. as their bean supplier.

On Thursday, Mighty Taco named Pennsylvania company Pellegrino Food Products as the manufacturer of the bad beans. At least 142 people in Erie and Niagara counties who ate those beans between Sept. 23 and Oct. 6 complained of nausea and vomiting. No one has reported getting sick since Mighty Taco removed the beans.

The company also took to Facebook Thursday night to answer common questions that many customers had and ensured them this was a “isolated and unprecedented situation that we have not encountered in our 43 year history of serving the Western New York public.”

“Pellegrino Food Products Co., Inc. stands behind the quality of all of its products and takes food safety issues very seriously. Refried beans are manufactured exclusively for Mighty Taco. To Pellegrino Food’s knowledge, no root cause has yet been determined of the reported illnesses, and we are actively working with the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture in its investigation,” Pellegrino Foods Production Co. said in a statement.

Pellegrino Food Products website doesn’t say anything about the outbreak but does include this,

Our company started out in a small grocery store, where my parents sold peppers as a specialty item to hunters. We were the originator of the recipe to sell peppers in tomato sauce. Now, we’re a USDA and FDA approved food processing company. It’s still a family business with the same quality standards we had when we started.

OysterFest in Wellfleet MA to go on, without raw oysters, after 75 ill with noro

Posted on October 15, 2016 by Ben Chapman

I’ve eaten exactly one raw oyster ever.

It was at a reception for a food safety meeting in New Zealand.

I picked up the shell, dumped the contents (salt water and a slimy shellfish meat) into my mouth, getting about 50% of it on my shirt. I spent the rest of the night smelling like the beach.

I didn’t get noro from the bivalve experience. According to capecod.com 75 folks around Cape Cod, MA are ill with norovirus after eating raw oysters harvested in a month that ends in ‘r.’

The state has closed all shellfish beds in Wellfleet Harbor following an outbreak of suspected norovirus believed to be linked to shellfish from that area.

It comes just two days before the Wellfleet OysterFest, which attracts tens-of-thousands of people to the Outer Cape.

An official from the festival said the event will go on planned, but without any raw shellfish.

The Massachusetts Department of Public Health issued the ban Thursday afternoon after receiving reports of approximately 75 suspect cases of norovirus over the past two days.

A statement from the DPH said they were all primarily associated with eating raw shellfish at weddings and restaurants in the Outer Cape area.

All shellfish harvesters in the area and Town of Wellfleet officials have been notified about the closure.

All affected shellfish that was harvested on or after September 26 has been recalled and ordered not to be used.

Foodborne (1973-2013) and waterborne (1971-2013) disease outbreaks – United States

Posted on October 13, 2016 by Douglas Powell

This isn’t the detailed overview, but the annual overall snapshot of food and waterborne illness in the U.S.

My favorite part has always been the second figure. To avoid foodborne illness, move to Texas. That hasn’t changed since 1973.

All it means is, cowboys and girls don’t look too hard.

It’s just a little barfing – get over it

Foodborne Disease Outbreaks

During 1973–2013, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) received reports of 30,251 foodborne disease outbreaks with 742,945 outbreak-associated illnesses from the 50 states, Puerto Rico, the District of Columbia, and freely associated states/territories. An average of 738 (range: 298–1,404) outbreaks were reported each year.

The average annual number of foodborne disease outbreaks reported to CDC increased in 1998 in comparison to previous years, coinciding with the transition to an electronic reporting system, and decreased in 2009 in comparison to 1998–2008 coinciding with the transition to reporting through NORS (FDOSS and WBDOSS share an enhanced reporting platform, the National Outbreak Reporting System (NORS) (http://www.cdc.gov/nors). NORS also collects information on disease outbreaks with modes of transmission other than food and water, including person-to-person contact, animal contact, and environmental contamination.)

In 2013, a total of 792 single-state exposure outbreaks were reported with 11,786 illnesses by 47 states and Puerto Rico (Table) (Figure 2); an additional 26 multistate outbreaks (i.e., exposure to the implicated food occurred in more than one state) with 1,530 associated illnesses also were reported. CDC periodically publishes more detailed annual summaries describing the implicated foods, etiologic agents, settings, and points of contamination associated with foodborne disease outbreaks (http://www.cdc.gov/foodsafety/fdoss/data/annual-summaries/index.html).

Waterborne Disease Outbreaks

During 1971–2013, CDC received reports of 1,957 waterborne disease outbreaks with 642,782 outbreak-associated illnesses from 50 states and six freely associated states/territories. An average of 46 waterborne outbreaks was reported each year (Figure 1). In 2013, a total of 55 outbreaks causing at least 2,824 illnesses occurred in 21 states. No multistate outbreaks were reported; waterborne disease outbreak data for 2013 are preliminary (Table) (Figure 3). CDC periodically publishes more detailed summaries of waterborne disease outbreaks associated with recreational water and of waterborne disease outbreaks associated with drinking water (http://www.cdc.gov/healthywater/surveillance/surveillance-reports.html).

Reported outbreaks represent only a small fraction of all foodborne and waterborne illnesses that occur each year and the outbreak data reported here are subject to limitations. Outbreaks caused by certain pathogens or vehicles might be more likely to be recognized, investigated, or reported. Some illnesses reported as sporadic (i.e., not outbreak-associated) are likely not recognized as being part of a reported outbreak or might be part of an undetected outbreak. In addition, all outbreak-related illnesses might not be identified during an investigation, smaller outbreaks might not come to the attention of public health authorities, and some outbreaks might not be investigated or reported to CDC.

Reporting practices for foodborne and waterborne disease outbreaks vary among states and territories, which might have differing definitions or interpretations of which events are reportable and unique laws related to disease outbreak reporting. Thus, variations in reporting rates by state or territory might reflect variations in levels of effort and funding for foodborne and waterborne disease outbreak investigation, rather than true differences in outbreak incidence rates by state. NORS maintains a dynamic database; this report includes data available on May 1, 2015, for foodborne disease outbreaks and May 4, 2015, for waterborne disease outbreaks; data published in this Summary might differ from those published earlier or later.

Foodborne disease outbreaks are defined as two or more cases of a similar illness resulting from ingestion of a common food. Waterborne disease outbreaks are defined as two or more cases of a similar illness linked epidemiologically by time and location to exposure to water or water-associated chemicals volatized into the air.

Norovirus outbreak sickens dozens linked to ‘party place’ in Hong Kong

Posted on October 13, 2016 by Douglas Powell

Something was lost in translation, so I asked my friend from China, what’s a party place?

She told me it was a gathering spot that can cater to large events — 2-3,000 people — and called it an infection centre.
An ideal place to circulate Norovirus.

Health officials with Centre for Health Protection (CHP) of the Department of Health (DH) announced the investigation of a norovirus outbreak that has sickened at least two dozen in a party place in Sham Shui Po.

The 24 patients, including 13 children (six boys and seven girls) and 11 adults (three men and eight women) aged from 1 to 39, have presented with fever, vomiting and diarrhea since October 1. Among them, 18 sought medical attention while five of them have been discharged after hospitalization. All patients are now in a stable condition.

The stool specimen of one child tested positive for norovirus upon laboratory testing by the hospital concerned. Investigations are continuing.

In addition, health officials are investigating two outbreaks of acute gastroenteritis (AGE) in two kindergartens in Tai Po and Tin Shui Wai. An etiology has not been determined.

The outbreak at the kindergarten in Tai Po involves eight males and 13 females, comprising 18 pupils aged 3 to 5 and three staff members. They have presented with vomiting, diarrhea and fever since September 29. Fourteen of them sought medical attention and none required hospitalization.

The outbreak at the kindergarten in Tin Shui Wai involved eight boys and 13 girls aged between 2 and 5. They have presented with diarrhea and vomiting since October 3. Eleven pupils sought medical attention while one of them required hospitalization.

All three facilities have been visited by health officials and received advice concerning proper and thorough disinfection, disposal of vomitus, and personal and environmental hygiene. The three places have been put under medical surveillance.

Food Safety Talk 110: Drumsticks and Cornettos

Posted on October 13, 2016 by Ben Chapman

Food Safety Talk, a bi-weekly podcast for food safety nerds, by food safety nerds. The podcast is hosted by Ben Chapman and barfblog contributor Don Schaffner, Extension Specialist in Food Science and Professor at Rutgers University. Every two weeks or so, Ben and Don get together virtually and talk for about an hour.

They talk about what’s on their minds or in the news regarding food safety, and popular culture. They strive to be relevant, funny and informative — sometimes they succeed. You can download the audio recordings right from the website, or subscribe using iTunes.

Episode 110 can be found here and on iTunes.

This week’s episode has some audio quality issues towards the end. Listen to find out why. As usual, here are show notes so you can follow along at home.