Own it: Gossip goes away

I knew I wouldn’t get into rehab Friday morning because I had been drinking at 3 a.m. in a vain attempt to go back to sleep.

Gotta blow zero to get into rehab, which I’ll do Monday.

But, as I said to one of my rehab buddies, whose life has spun out of control, yet he got 90% in the law courses he has taken, own it. Don’t be ashamed.

He said, I read your blog and it seems you had a falling out with Ben.

I said I’ve had a falling out with my wife of 13 years every week (she’s at hockey practice, 6 a.m. in Brisbane).

Ben, about the same.

Bad wiring.

Or, the people you are closest with and feel vulnerable enough to share your fears, are the ones to lash out at.

The produce industry needs a similar self-reckoning.

Candice Choi of APwrites that after repeated food poisoning outbreaks linked to romaine lettuce, the produce industry is confronting the failure of its own safety measures in preventing contaminations.

The E. coli outbreak announced just before Thanksgiving follows one in the spring that sickened more than 200 people and killed five, and another last year that sickened 25 and killed one. No deaths have been reported in the latest outbreak, but the dozens of illnesses highlight the challenge of eliminating risk for vegetables grown in open fields and eaten raw, the role of nearby cattle operations that produce huge volumes of manure and the delay of stricter federal food safety regulations.

A contested aspect of the regulation, for example, would require testing irrigation water for E. coli. The Food and Drug Administration put the measure on hold when the produce industry said such tests wouldn’t necessarily help prevent outbreaks. Additional regulations on sanitation for workers and equipment — other potential sources of contamination — only recently started being implemented.

We’ve been saying the same thing for over 20 years.

55 sick from Salmonella linked to long English cucumbers (the looooonnnnnggg ones)

The stories I have about cucumbers.

Especially the long ones.

But I’ve already been threatened with one lawsuit, and will not indulge further, other than the facts.

The Public Health Agency of Canada is collaborating with provincial public health partners, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency and Health Canada to investigate an outbreak of Salmonella infections involving five provinces: British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, and Quebec. The illness reported in Quebec was related to travel to British Columbia. At this time, there is no evidence to suggest that residents in eastern Canada are affected by this outbreak.

Based on the investigation findings to date, exposure to long English cucumbers has been identified as the likely source of the outbreak. Many of the individuals who became sick reported eating long English cucumbers before their illness.

(Those would be the ones grown in greenhouses, but I’m just speculating, rather than inviting a lawsuit from the Ontario Greenhouse Vegetable Growers who like to intimidate with threats of lawsuits, but know shit about growing up in Southern Ontario; bring it on).

As of November 27, 2018, there have been 55 laboratory-confirmed cases of Salmonella Infantis illness investigated in the following provinces: British Columbia (47), Alberta (5), Saskatchewan (1), Manitoba (1), and Quebec (1). The individual from Quebec reported traveling to British Columbia before becoming ill. Individuals became sick between mid-June and late-October 2018. Eleven individuals have been hospitalized. No deaths have been reported. Individuals who became ill are between 1 and 92 years of age. The majority of cases (60%) are female.

Raw is risky, Mods vs. Rockers: Apple cider from Virginia farm market recalled

Over two decades later and food safety types still have to deal with this shit – literally, because it’s shit in the cider. Don’t eat poop, and if you do, cook it.

Mountain Man Market of Cana has recalled their half gallon containers of apple cider because it has the potential to be contaminated with shiga-toxin producing E. coli.

The apple cider was sold at Mountain Man Market on Fancy Gap Road on and before November 10.

Their cider hasn’t been pasteurized, which means it can contain harmful bacteria.

The Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services found the potential contamination after routine testing, and the Division of Consolidated Laboratories (DCLS) found shiga-toxin producing E. coli. in the cider.

VDCAS and Mountain Man Market say they will continue investigating into how the apple cider got contaminated in the first place.

(Quadrophenia is so much better than Tommy and a modern masterpiece)

Raw milk convention goerers got sick from raw milk

Katie Burns of JAVMA News writes, what could be more wholesome than chocolate milk from an Amish farm?

In November 2015, the International Raw Milk Symposium in Anaheim, California, brought in unpasteurized chocolate milk from an Amish farm in Pennsylvania. The sale of raw milk is legal in California and Pennsylvania, but the interstate sale of raw milk is illegal. Authorities embargoed the chocolate milk and sent a sample to the Food and Drug Administration—turning up Listeria.

An investigation by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and state health departments found that Listeria isolates from the milk seized at the symposium were related to isolates obtained from two people in 2014. One person in California had been hospitalized and the other, a cancer patient in Florida, had died.

The investigation revealed some of the risks of raw milk and some of the complexities of buyers’ clubs, which can be so secretive as to involve drop points and burner phones for temporary use. The AVMA supports laws requiring pasteurization of all milk, but unpasteurized milk has a devoted following despite the safety concerns and varying legality among states.

48 sick: Raw is risky: Icelandic oysters cause noro at top notch restaurant

There’s nothing like people forking over huge coin only to end up barfing.

Irony is sometimes ironic.

The Iceland Monitor reports infected Icelandic oysters caused food poisoning for 48 individuals at Skelfisksmarkaðurinn, a relatively new restaurant owned by succcessful tv chef and restaurant owner Hrefna Sætran. Icelandic oysters are a novelty in Iceland as all oysters on menus until now have been imported from Ireland or other countries. 

The oysters were imported as youngsters and raised in Skjálfandaflói bay by company Víkurskel. This is the first time that the noro virus is confirmed in oysters in Iceland. 

Forty-four individuals ate oysters at the restaurant from November 8th to November 13th and four further individuals ate oysters between October 29th and November 4th. Oysters infected by the noro virus were on the menu during this period of time, confirms the Icelandid food and veterinary authority. According to the health authorities they found that the restaurant complied to all regulations and standards with regards to food safety and hygiene. 

 

120 sick: California wildfire evacuees face the misery of norovirus

The European Cleaning Journal reports that more than 120 people forced to flee the deadly California wildfires are now battling the norovirus to add to their woes.

Sick evacuees are being housed in separate shelters and active monitoring of all shelter residents is being carried out. Meanwhile, separate washrooms are being allocated to the ill and protective equipment is being supplied to medical staff.

Outbreaks of the norovirus is not uncommon in situations where hundreds of people live in close quarters, says public information officer for Butte County Public Health Lisa Almaguer. The health department is working with the Red Cross plus state and federal partners to reduce the spread of the illness.

One evacuee claims to have seen someone “puking into a toilet”, adding that health officials were urging all evacuees to wash their hands repeatedly, avoid handshakes and to use hand sanitiser before eating.

14 sick from Salmonella in raw milk cheese in France

Since the identification by Public Health France of cases of salmonella infection of people who consumed reblochon raw milk produced by the company La Fromagerie La Tournette, health authorities in connection with the company are mobilized to take all necessary measures for the protection of consumers (something may be lost in translation).

Following the traceability survey that has just been conducted, it was decided as a precautionary measure to withdraw from the sale and recall some reblochons whole and half reblochons raw milk manufactured on this site (sanitary mark FR 74.128 .050 EC) whose expiry dates are between 17/11 and 16/12/2018. Epidemiological, environmental and food traceability investigations are continuing to clarify the origin of the contamination.