Tag Archives: Australia

Australian food has bacteria: don’t tell consumers ’till after Christmas

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Food Science Australia found in a survey of Australian food that E. coli was present in 69 per cent of poultry, 29.7 per cent of beef and 18.1 per cent of pork, but only 1 per cent of lettuce.

Poultry also tested positive for campylobacter (40 per cent) and salmonella (21.9 per cent).

The Australian reports the results were written into a report for the Department of Health and Ageing that was expected to have been released by the end of November.

But when The Australian requested and paid for a copy under Freedom of Information laws, the department advised that it would be delayed. The Food Regulation Standing Committee had agreed to a food industry request to hold off releasing the report until after the lucrative Christmas period.

In a laundry list of safe-food handling practices, the story says that authorities recommend consumers “cook chicken, minced or boned meats, hamburger, stuffed meats and sausages right through until juices are clear, and serve hot food steaming hot.”

Sigh.

Color is a lousy indicator. Use a digital tip-sensitive thermometer. It makes people better cooks.
 

136 hospitalized; Australian bakery fined $40,000

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The Sydney Morning Herald reports that the Sydney bakery responsible for a food poisoning outbreak that affected 319 people, of whom 136 were admitted to hospital, has been fined more than $40,000 for breaches of the Food Act.

The NSW Food Authority closed French Golden Hot Bread, in Homebush West, in March last year after tracing a salmonella outbreak to the egg mayonnaise served with its pork and chicken rolls.

Contrary to government regulations, the egg mixture was not heat-treated or kept below the specified 5 degrees.

A faulty refrigerator was also blamed for the elevated temperature of the mayonnaise, which allowed the bacteria to develop.

The Herald also reports this morning that more than half the local councils in New South Wales, the Australian state that contains, Sydney, have not fined any food businesses caught breaking food safety laws in the past four years, raising fears that much of the state has no effective protection against food poisoning from unhygienic restaurants and cafes.

Figures provided by the Office of State Revenue, which collects payments for fines imposed by councils, show that since 2004 only 67 out of more than 150 councils imposed any fines on restaurants and takeaway food businesses flouting hygiene laws.

"If you never issue a fine, they will laugh at you," said Des Sibraa, a former chief food inspector for NSW and now a food safety consultant.

He said the only conclusion to be drawn from the fact so many councils did not issue any fines was that many of them did not have serious inspection regimes.
"There is a place for warnings, but only for any minor matters, not for anything serious … Some councils are not doing anything," Mr Sibraa said.

It’s tragic to be hip if the science sucks — turkey advice

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The U.K. Food Standards Agency is so tragically hip they’ve gone viral.

Except they call it ‘viral,’ encasing the word in what speakers would call “air quotes” or what  Jon Stewart of the Daily Show recently called “dick fingers.” I call it bad writing.

The Agency has launched a new ‘viral’ marketing campaign, which raises awareness to the dangers of eating week-old turkey and gives tips to protect people in the UK from festive food poisoning. …

The new 60-second video aims to raise awareness of bad food hygiene and give some key advice on the safe handling of Christmas leftovers. The shocking but amusing film features a family that hasn’t been following the Agency’s advice on food hygiene. Diarrhoea might be the Christmas gift that keeps on giving, but do you really want to give it to your family?

The Agency advises leftovers should be:

* cooled as quickly as possible (within one to two hours) and kept in the fridge
* reheated only once, until piping hot
* eaten within two days

Who said the film was shocking? Or funny? And what does piping hot mean?

The Australians, who are just entering the hot summer weather, are more reasonable and recommend cooking to 75C (167F).

The origin of poultry cooking recommendations has been pondered many times on barfblog.com.

Currently, Health Canada suggests consumers cook turkey until the temperature of the thickest part of the breast or thigh is at least 85C (185F), though no one knows why.

A few decades ago, the USDA was also recommending that thigh meat reached 180-185F and breast meat reached 170F.

When asked why a couple years back, a manager of the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture Meat and Poultry Hotline said, "I’ve looked all over and I really have no idea. I think it happened sometime back in the 1980s, but I don’t know what it was based on."

One of my research assistants, Casey Jacob, dug up a New York Times article from 1990 in which an assistant supervisor of the Hotline admitted that a turkey cooked until the breast meat is 160F and the dark meat is 170F was "microbiologically safe," but that the agency recommended the higher temps just to be on the safe side.

The agency now recommends that consumers cook poultry to an internal temp of 165F.

Casey tells that tale here:

“When USDA microbiologists finally got around to conducting validation studies in 2000, they figured out that a 7 log reduction in Salmonella could be achieved instantly at 158F and beyond.

“In 2006, NACMCF decided (through scientific studies, of course, not random number generation as may have been used previously) that foodborne pathogens and viruses, such as Salmonella, Campylobacter, and the avian influenza virus, were destroyed when poultry was cooked to an internal temperature of 165F.

“And thus the scientifically validated American recommendation of 165F was born.”

Here are the refs. Enjoy your Christmas dinner.

National Advisory Committee on Microbiological Criteria for Foods. 2006. Response to the questions posed by the Food Safety and Inspection Service regarding consumer guidelines for the safe cooking of poultry products. Adopted March 24, 2006. Arlington, VA.

United States Department of Agriculture, Food Safety and Inspection Service. 2005. Time-temperature tables for cooking ready-to-eat poultry products. Available at:
http://www.fsis.usda.gov/OPPDE/rdad/FSISNotices/RTE_Poultry_Tables.pdf. Accessed November 23, 2008.

Amy and I will be having lamb.

And this is the real deal, Kingston, Ontario’s very own, Tragically Hip.
 

‘Yuletide yobs’ barfing out of control

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The folks in Geelong, Australia, southwest of Melbourne, are tired of “yuletide yobs” barfing on their shop windows and store fronts.

The Geelong Advertiser quotes a Faulls Shoes spokeswoman as saying her employees were forced to clean up urine, vomit and even blood up to twice a week.

“Our doorway is set back from the street and they do it in there and it goes under the door.”

Banjos Bakehouse manager Joanne Etheridge said the streets of Geelong were in a disgusting state on weekend mornings.

"It would be nice if they could just hold it in until they got home or do it in a bin. The mess from nightclubbers is disgusting. Who is going to want to sit amongst that?”
 

Food politics reaches a new low: GE equated to Hitler

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Australian food guru or food idiot Margaret Fulton joined other celebrity chefs in comparing genetically engineered canola to Hitler in launching the Greenpeace True Food Guide Canola Edition 2009 in Sydney.

"They’re going to control the world. We thought Hitler was a bad fella … these guys could show him a thing or two – and they’re creeping up on us quietly without guns or anything like that, but the poison is there."

Individual genetically engineered crops should go through safety assessments, which they do in most countries, and consumers should be able to choose what they like. Instead of Hitler comparisons, maybe the Greenpeace-backed chefs of Australia should focus on not making their customers barf, and not showing up in the name and shame directory of wayward restaurants.
 

Australian ice cream positive for poop – but whose poop is it?

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The New South Wales Food Authority announced a few hours ago that a sample of the gelato allegedly served to a family at the Coogee Bay Hotel in Sydney, Australia, has tested positive for fecal matter.

The sample, a small residual amount of gelato and faecal matter on a tissue, was provided by Stephen and Jessica Whyte this week.

The NSW Food Authority began an investigation yesterday and carried out a brief test that confirmed the nature of the provided sample.

It will now perform a more detailed DNA-based test that will determine if the fecal matter is animal or human, and the sex of the "provider."

The results of that test will not be known for up to a week. However, because of the length of time since the incident, it was unclear whether the tests could provide a clear outcome in the murky matter.

Meanwhile, the lawyer for the Whytes, the family who say they found the brown stuf, said the DNA testing of staff was a distraction.

The hotel also released a statement late yesterday that said the three-litre container from which the scoops of gelato had come had been cleared of any contamination.
 

Sydney Pizza Hut fails third cockroach inspection by the Australian name-and-shame squad

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Think a few small bugs won’t hurt you?  Think again. Cockroaches are one of the most commonly noted pest insects.  They can cause chaos in the food safety standards of a restaurant because they transport harmful microbes on their body surfaces and through their droppings.  Cockroaches are also found to be a common allergen for humans.

Last week, after two previous warnings about cockroaches in the kitchen, food safety inspectors returned to a Sydney, Australia Pizza Hut only to discover a cockroach in the food preparation area of the kitchen.

The store was issued with a $650 fine for not taking steps to eradicate the pests, and a second fine for not having warm running water in the kitchen for staff to wash their hands…The Pizza Hut was one of 22 premises the Food Authority fined in its blitz in recent days, in which it issued a total of 27 fines.
They will join more than 175 outlets on the authority’s website, launched last year to "name and shame" businesses that do not comply with NSW hygiene laws.

The best way to deal with cockroaches is to prevent them before they become present.   Keep kitchen surfaces clean and store food off the ground.  However, if a restaurant already suffers from cockroaches, the problem should be eliminated and the reason behind the infestation should also be addressed.  There are various chemicals and traps available for cockroaches, some more traditional than others.

For more information about cockroach infestations, visit: http://www.cdc.gov/nasd/docs/d001201-d001300/d001251/d001251.html
You can also view an FSN infosheet about cockroaches at http://bp3.blogger.com/_Pzk3AzZPULs/R1cP6_KHaiI/AAAAAAAAAFA/MwcjU8l0_y0/s1600-h/iFSN-infosheet-12-5-07.jpg

Manager served ice cream allegedly containing poop; chef offers his DNA for testing

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The gelato caper gripping Australia had several twists and a couple of great soundbites Tuesday morning (Australia time).

The Sydney Morning Herald reported that security camera footage of an incident in which staff at the Coogee Bay Hotel allegedly served a family a cup of gelato laced with human faeces shows the dessert being delivered to the family by the restaurant’s manager. …

"She was concerned about the family’s experience and she had the idea of offering a complimentary dessert to try and make some amends," said the hotel’s general manager, Tony Williams.

Meanwhile, the family’s lawyer, Steven Lewis, of Slater & Gordon, also rubbished newspaper reports the family had links to a rival pub as a "Kevin Bacon … six degrees of separation [defence]. My question is: ‘Did Kevin Bacon put the faeces in the ice-cream?"’.

Stephen and Jessica Whyte, along with their three young children and another family, were at the hotel to watch the NRL grand final, but after a series of complaints became suspicious when they were given a free bowl of gelato. "The real issue is that we were fed, as a family, shit, at someone’s pub," Mr Whyte told 2UE.

Yesterday the NSW Food Authority announced it was investigating, and the hotel’s management confirmed it had contacted Maroubra police in preparation for possible criminal charges against anyone who might have tampered with food at the hotel.

Meanwhile, the head chef at the Coogee Bay Hotel, Adam Wood, who had tendered his resignation before the incident and had continued to work at the hotel for several weeks afterwards, offered to put himself up for DNA testing.

Mr Wood’s arrival was trumpeted by the hotel’s general manager, Tony Williams, in a media statement about the hotel’s revamped beer garden this month.

"Executive Chef Adam Wood [was] poached from Japan where he headed up kitchens for the Swissotel, Osaka and Foreign Correspondent’s Press Club of Japan in Tokyo and brings extensive five star international and three hat experience with him," the statement read.

Why he resigned only weeks after being heralded as the hotel’s most senior chef remains unclear.

Bastille Day in Melbourne: Kangaroo at a French restaurant

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“What’s kangaroo doing on a French menu? Have you seen a French kangaroo?”

So asked the older woman as she perused the menu at one of Southbank’s eateries along the Yarra river in Melbourne, Australia.

I’ve been to Melbourne many times over the years, including a brief solo trip last year once my visa was approved. No troubles this time, my moral turpitude is apparently valid and it’s a lot nicer to be here with Amy. And she brought me.

This is Milton and me (left, exactly as shown). We were basking in the Melbourne sunshine this a.m. along Southbank, and struck up a conversation with Milton. He says he likes the stars system that is apparently being used as a form of restaurant inspection disclosure in some parts of Victoria, and he wants to see more. Milton said (unprompted) that he didn’t think the stars really meant anything, didn’t make the food any safer and was just a snapshot in time, but it made people more aware of food safety issues and people talked about it.

Couldn’t have said it better.

Amy and I are in Melbourne until Sunday. She has a conference, I plan to write and hang out in cafes on Lygon Street.

More children wearing diapers to Australian schools

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Australia’s Courier Mail reports that children as old as five are being sent to school in nappies because their parents cannot be bothered toilet-training them.

The problem has become so widespread that Education Queensland is drawing up a toilet-training fact sheet amid calls from teachers’ groups that nappy-wearing children be banned from attending school. …

State School Principals Association president Norm Hart has written to Education Queensland, citing concerns that the problem could result in litigation – with teachers possibly accused of molestation.

"Toilet training is a parental responsibility and not something that should be taught at school.”