A New South Wales naturopath allegedly put a breastfeeding mother on a raw food diet to cure her baby’s eczema before putting her on a water only diet.
Marilyn Pauline Bodnar, who runs the the Health and Vitality Centre from her Leppington home, pleaded not guilty to recklessly causing grievous bodily harm to the eight-month-old and failing to provide for a child causing danger of death at Fairfield Local Court yesterday, The Daily Telegraph reports.
The baby’s mother has been charged with the same offences but is yet to enter a plea.
From February to April last year Bodnar, 59, treated the mother, who came to her to help cure her newborn son of eczema.
She allegedly convinced the mother, who cannot be identified, that the only way to help the baby was to adopt a diet of raw vegetables, fruit and seeds.
The court heard the mother was “intimidated by the accused” and made to feel guilty for using steroid creams to treat the eczema “as it was best to use nothing to allow the skin to breathe”.
Bodnar allegedly told the mother “Are you 100 per cent raw? You have to be 100 per cent raw if you want to see your son heal.”
Police allege that when the baby developed a fever Bodnar told the mother to adopt a water only diet, telling her that her baby would not get better if she ate.
When the child was six months old his mother asked Bodnar if she could feed him vegetable puree but the naturopath allegedly advised her to put raw food in a net and let the infant suck it.
Bodnar is also accused of telling the mother to feed the child goat milk.
When the child vomited it up Bodnar allegedly told the mother it was good because it eliminated the toxins that caused the eczema.
After a week of vomiting the mother took the baby to a doctor who advised her to get the infant to hospital immediately
When the baby was admitted to The Children’s Hospital at Westmead he weighed 6.39kg, placing him in the zero percentile for baby boys his age.
Before the diet the baby was developing normally and reaching his milestones, the court heard.
The baby has been removed from his mother’s care.
Bodnar is on bail but has been banned from treating anyone under 16.
The Box Village Bakery in Sylvania has been closed as the Food Authority investigates whether it could be the source of the outbreak.
There are reports that those who fell ill may have eaten chicken rolls or chicken schnitzel rolls from the bakery.
Dr Mark Ferson, public health director for south-east Sydney, told 2UE radio that as of yesterday there had been 40 people who attended Sutherland and St George hospitals with symptoms of food poisoning.
He said salmonella had been found in some of the patients.
“We think about 13 of those have been admitted to hospital. People started becoming sick on Friday and the hospital informed us on Sunday that they were getting a number of patients in.”
Listeria may cause illness in pregnant women and their unborn babies, the elderly and people with low immune systems. Any consumers concerned about their health should seek medical advice. The product can be returned to the place of purchase for a full refund.
Raids on the Sizzle Bento and Roll-A-Sushi, owned by parent company World Fashion Food Pty Ltd, uncovered a cockroach infestation, a dishwasher that recycled dirty water, and food being defrosted and stored on the floor.
World Fashion Food Pty Ltd was sentenced by Special Magistrate Margaret Hunter in the ACT Magistrates Court on Monday on 11 criminal charges for the breaches of food standards.
Court documents said health authorities discovered a cockroach infestation, a dishwasher that repeatedly recycled dirty water, and an overheated display cabinet during raids at the now closed Sizzle Bento store in Woden Plaza in May 2011.
Cleanliness and food storage breaches were again detected during a second inspection in September 2011.
Pictures tendered in court showed food safety inspectors encountered cockroaches in the food preparation area.
Court documents said the sushi display cabinet had been set at about 10 degrees, instead of the recommended 5 degrees or less.
Woolworths has pledged to keep eggs in refrigerated cabinets as it continues a nation-wide revamp of its stores.
It is understood dozens of Woolies outlets have had new cabinets installed in the past year, allowing stores to keep fresh eggs chilled below seven degrees, which helps prevent the spread of the harmful salmonella bacteria.
The rollout comes as experts have warned about egg-related salmonella cases, which are on the rise around the country, leading to serious illness and hundreds of hospital admissions each year.
Coles, however, would not disclose if any of its stores would keep eggs refrigerated in response to these calls, prompting shoppers to criticise the company across its social media platforms.
“I will be buying my eggs in Woolworths until you return to displaying them in a chilled area,” one shopper wrote on the company’s Facebook page.
A NSW personal trainer wrote how he had stopped buying eggs from Coles while another shopper pointed out: “It even says on the carton: keep refrigerated.”
The shopper revolt came as another expert joined calls urging stores from large supermarkets to small grocers to be part of an unbroken chain of cold storage for eggs.
Professor Peter Collignon, an infectious diseases expert at Australian National University’s medical school, said eggs must be treated just like raw meat and kept in a refrigerator at all times.
“I’m always surprised by the lack of anxiety about this,” he said. “We ought to make the product safer, and we do that by refrigerating it, even at the supermarket.”
Coles declined to comment on Sunday.
It had previously released a one-line statement – “Coles adheres to all health and safety regulations regarding egg storage” – and responded to complaints on social media by denying it was an issue.
Peter Scott, an associate professor at the University of Melbourne’s veterinary school, said keeping eggs chilled in all retail stores would not make a big difference to rising salmonella infection rates.
“For the limited time the eggs are stored at the supermarket unrefrigerated it is, black and white, not significant,” he said.
Dr Scott, who also works as a consultant for the poultry industry, stressed that poor practices at farms, where “dirty eggs” are graded and used when they shouldn’t be, combined with poor food-handling practices, particularly in catering or at restaurants, have been the main culprits behind large outbreaks of the food-borne illness.
“You need two consecutive events: an egg contaminated with salmonella and then the [growth] in a raw egg dish,” he said.
“When [eggs] are made into one of these raw egg products, the replication of salmonella is very dramatic, and that’s where all the food poisoning is coming from.”
He said it was crucial for supermarkets to think about cold storage and egg-related salmonella prevention because the risk of an outbreak, leading to serious illness and hospitalisation, can arise at any point from the farm to the home.
“It is a priority. We’ve seen lots of outbreaks. We should be doing multiple things to try and prevent salmonella occurring.”
Under food safety laws, Australian eggs are washed, inspected for cracks, graded and kept in cool rooms on farms before being transported in refrigerated trucks to reduce the risk of bacterial survival.
But Brian Ahmed, president of the egg group at the Victorian Farmers Federation, said keeping eggs refrigerated in supermarkets remains the “missing link” in the food safety chain.
“It should be treated exactly like raw meat – don’t look at an egg any different way,” he said.
Connor Thomas, adjunct senior lecturer in microbiology at the University of Adelaide, also urged grocery stores to keep eggs in a cool environment.
“That way you minimise the growth, increase the storage time, and minimise the risk,” Dr Thomas said.
The calls come as the rate of salmonella infections rises across the country, with up to 40 per cent of cases linked to contaminated eggs.
In 2015 there were 58 cases per 100,000 people in Victoria, twice the infection rate of 10 years ago, health department data shows.
Food Standards Australia New Zealand last updated egg safety laws in 2011, but left out a retail requirement for cool storage because it concluded temperature was not a factor in spreading salmonella here if eggs are clean and intact.
A spokeswoman said the strain of salmonella present in Australia cannot grow on egg shells, though it could contaminate other foods or get inside the egg when its protective membrane breaks down or the egg is cracked.
“It was acknowledged that refrigeration during retail storage may enhance the quality of eggs,” she said.
“However, this option was excluded early in the standard development process due to the nature of egg shell contamination in Australia and the substantial cost of implementing such an option.”
But Dr Thomas said eggs have been continually implicated in illness and it’s difficult to predict when an outbreak is going to happen, so it is vital to maintain a chain of food safety protection.
The death of a three-year-old boy in 2014, which was linked to the consumption of unpasteurised bath milk, prompted changes to dairy licences in Victoria, including the mandatory addition of bittering agents to stop people drinking what was being marketed as cosmetic milk.
Reg Matthews, from Lakes Entrance in Gippsland, said he had now shut down his Miranda Dale Dairy and sold off his cows because he had not been able to recover from the changes.
“We had a five-year plan put in place, and that came to fruition in late 2014, just about the same time that the raw milk was discontinued,” he said.
The ship Pacific Eden, which docked in Sydney on Monday morning, has been accused of being a “floating disaster” and some passengers are seeking a refund.
Several passengers have contacted the Herald, claiming a norovirus gastrointestinal outbreak has affected a large number of passengers.
But a spokeswoman for P&O, which owns the ship, disputes the allegations. She said only 11 out of 1500 passengers aboard are ill, including five who were in isolation on Saturday. That number had reduced to two by Sunday.
This is about the same rate as the general population at any time, she said.
The departure of the 55,820 tonne cruise ship from Sydney on December 16 was delayed three to four hours to allow the crew to sanitise the ship after an outbreak of gastro on the previous trip. Yet the spokeswoman said she understood the previous cruise had a similar number of people who were sick with norovirus.
Yvonne Hubscher of the Sunshine Coast said she had seen children running along a deck singing, “We’re all living on a spew ship.”
She said the captain had mentioned that there had been 247 cases of norovirus on the previous trip. Many others had been sick on this trip.
Other passengers also contacted the Herald with similar allegations, including Cherie Butcherine from Dundas Valley.
The number affected by the outbreak is far higher than the 11 reported ill by a P&O spokeswoman on Sunday. It was the second outbreak of the Pacific Eden’s short life – she joined the fleet on November 25 after being purchased and refurbished by P&O.
But disease was only one of the young cruise liner’s problems. Guests who spoke to Fairfax Media also complained of mouldy bathrooms, a dearth of toilet paper, flooding, leaks and poor customer service.
“It was worse than a one-star motel, basically,” said Cherie Butcherine, who was travelling with her husband, mother and daughter Alexa. “We were just devastated to have to stay on board.
“There was food all over the floor, the bathroom was absolutely disgusting, it was covered in mould.”
Gourmet Organic Herbs has recalled its Ground Coriander sold in fruit and vegetable shops, health food stores and independent retailers, including IGA supermarkets in NSW, QLD, VIC, TAS, SA and WA.
The product is being recalled due to microbial (salmonella) contamination.
Product details are:
Gourmet Organic Herbs Ground Coriander in 30g sachet
Best Before dates – 6/AUG/17 and 21/OCT/17
Consumers should not consume this product and should return it to the place of purchase for a full refund. If you are concerned about your health, you should seek medical advice.
Each recipe focuses on a safety issue and is followed by information on the correct way to prepare, store and cook food.
Van de Vorstenbosch has worked in the food safety industry for 15 years, selling products to hospitality and medical businesses.
While the book was written for hospitality workers, van de Vorstenbosch said it was useful for everyone.
“The biggest hurdle I’ve got is selling food safety solutions when people don’t want to talk about it,” he said. “If you talk about food safety it is boring, but if you talk about food poisoning it is very personal . . . we all care about not getting food poisoning.”
In Dec. 2014, four children in the Australian state of Victoria developed hemolytic uremic syndrome linked to Shiga-toxin toxin producing E. coli in unpasteurized bath milk produced by Mountain View farm. One child died, and another developed cryptosporidiosis.
The Victorian government quickly banned the sale of so-called bath milk, which although labeled as not fit for human consumption, was a widely recognized way for Australian consumers to access raw milk.
As part of ongoing actions to address the sale of raw milk, the NSW Food Authority has enacted a range of proactive monitoring and compliance activities, which included the seizure of approximately 68 litres of unpasteurised dairy products in the Sydney area.
Minister for Primary Industries, Niall Blair, said retailers are on notice that claims the product is used for bathing will not wash.
“While there are no food businesses in NSW licensed by the NSW Food Authority to produce raw milk for cosmetic purposes, we know that some retailing businesses are sourcing this product from elsewhere to sell it,” Mr. Blair said.
“Raw milk is a high food safety risk – the sale of raw milk for human consumption is illegal in Australia and this kind of farcical deception won’t be tolerated. It was apparent to the NSW Food Authority that the sale of raw milk products at these premises was not for cosmetic reasons.
“The NSW Food Authority will continue to address retail businesses selling raw milk as bath milk and the NSW Government is committed to working with other states in an effort to find a national solution to the broader issue of the sale of raw milk.”
Results from samples taken from the recent product seizures showed elevated levels of E. coli. Unpasteurised milk contains harmful bacteria such as E. coli, Salmonella and Listeria that can result in illness or even death.
The NSW Government will continue removing raw milk from NSW shelves. Random checks of retailers will continue, in line with the Food Authority’s policy of escalated enforcement.
Another area of focus is the practice of ‘herd sharing’, where a person enters into contract and purchase shares in a herd or individual cow to receive raw milk produced by that herd.
Claims that this does not constitute the sale of food are false: the operation of a herd share arrangement can constitute food for sale under the Food Act 2003. 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.
Marilyn Pauline Bodnar, who runs the the Health and Vitality Centre from her Leppington home, pleaded not guilty to recklessly causing grievous bodily harm to the eight-month-old and failing to provide for a child causing danger of death at Fairfield Local Court yesterday, The Daily Telegraph reports.
