Smartest contribution to barfblog today; cooks know crap

Posted on June 6, 2013 by Douglas Powell

Change is afoot.

Over the next couple of weeks, the bites-l listserv will be changed to something else. We haven’t had the resources to archive all the stories, so we needed to come up with something different.

barfblog.com will continue with musings from me, Chapman, Hubbell and various food safety friends.

Probably not as often.

bites-l will be converted to a new daily listserv – the dailybarf — with new formatting.

If you want your food safety news fast and furious, subscribe to barfblog.com, facebook, twitter, whatever.

If you want the daily summary of all barfblog.com posts, plus all the food safety stories we didn’t have time to blog about but are still of interest, subscribe to dailybarf.

Some may want both.

You don’t have to do anything, this is just an advisory of things about to happen; I’m not sure when, and am interested to see the outcome.

But I am encouraged by the increased dialogue on barfblog.com, which will become the hub of all our food safety and child rearing activities.

From today:

“At culinary school, we were taught to gauge the doneness of beef by touching it. As a food safety consultant, I believe you are foolish if you don’t use a thermometer.”

Bye-bye bites; fired for bad attendance

Posted on March 29, 2013 by Douglas Powell

I love my job.

I love my wife and family.

So when Dr. Amy Hubbell, formerly of Kansas State University, was offered a faculty appointment at the University of Queensland in Brisbane, Australia, I was supportive.

I consulted with the dean of the vet college, and my dept. chair and, given the electronic and eclectic nature of my research, extension and teaching, they agreed to experiment with me being based in Brisbane.

I was hired by K-State in 2006 for my food safety outreach activities, research and teaching.

I was promoted to full professor in 2010 in recognition of successfully fulfilling those objectives.

I consistently publish 5-7 peer-reviewed journal papers per year, publish approximately 1,000 blog posts per year on barfblog.com, publish approximately 400 editions of bites-l per year, conduct approximately 600 media interviews per year, successfully graduate 2-3 graduate students per year, manage a research budget averaging $200,000 per year, and teach a food safety risk analysis graduate course by distance.

Today I was told my contract would not be renewed beyond June 30, 2013, because of bad attendance.

I had presented options for on-line course in food safety policy, a massive open on-line course (MOOC) in food safety, and was repeatedly told my performance as a faculty member was above average – but I’m getting fired for not being there to hold my colleagues hand during tea.

I love my wife and family. And that’s where my allegiance lies.

barfblog.com, bites and us

Posted on October 25, 2012 by Douglas Powell

barfblog.com seems to have migrated OK to its new home, and things are working, unlike those penis enlargement promos, which forced us to close the last site.

For those of you old-timers who followed us using RSS feeds (which I love, but Chapman says the younger kids don’t get RSS) you may need to re-subscribe to get it working.

We are still adding functionality.

This will still take awhile to sort out – our primary tech guru is Gonzalo, who’s now back full-time at vet school, and doing a Masters in Public Health, and has a wife and a young son, so I try not to bug him too much.

The daily listserv, bites-l (bites.ksu.edu) will stay the same for now, and readers can find everything there. If you need your hourly shot of food safety goop, follow us on Twitter (barfblog), facebook (Doug Powell), RSS or, subscribe to barfblog.com.

Spam attack: barfblog.com comments shutting down, site may as well

Posted on August 30, 2012 by Douglas Powell

Thank you, spammers, for adverts promoting generic penis enlargers. Your 300-500 comments per day have forced me to close all comments on barfblog.com.

We have been preparing a new site, with new software, over the summer, but it isn’t ready yet.

We will be moving as soon as we can.

In the meantime, barfblog.com will be of limited functionality, but news will continue to be available through the listserv at bites.ksu.edu.

2012 already here, here: bites, barfblog and food safety

Posted on December 31, 2011 by Douglas Powell

After whole-wheat banana bread for breakfast along with fruit, and a lunch of grilled lake perch and salad, the New Year was ushered in with something a little heavier – roast duck.

The year of the (temperature verified) duck?

I never know what the future holds but can tell you what we’ve been doing.

bites.ksu.edu and barfblog.com are complimentary and comprehensive resources for those interested in microbial food safety – the things that make people barf.

Too many people get sick each year from the food and water they consume. bites-l and barfblog.com are designed to inform and engage people in dialogue about food-related risks, controls and benefits, from farm-to-fork.

For rapid, relevant and reliable food safety news, subscribe to barfblog.com and follow us on twitter and facebook; for a daily, or twice-daily summary, including barfblog.com posts, subscribe to bites-l at bites.ksu.edu.

In 2011, there were:

• 482 bites-l posts;
• 4,817 bites-l articles posted;
• 6,760 bites-l (direct) subscribers in 61 countries;
• 1,186 barfblog.com posts;
• 279,000 barfblog.com hits (and many more);
• 21 food safety infosheets;
• 1 food safety video; and,
• 17 outbreak tables.

The articles collected have become much more focused due to improved Internet search capabilities, resulting in significant savings in research expenditures. Further, while the number of subscribers has remained steady, there are daily fluctuations in the bites-l list, with approximately 3 subscribers deleted and 3 added. This listserve activity keeps bites-l subscription list current and focused on the international food safety community – in 61 countries.

In 2010, a Food Safety Infosheets rapid review team was created to provide expert comment on factual material and includes: Dr. Trevor Phister (N.C. State), Dr. Don Schaffner (Rutgers University), Dr. Renee Boyer (Virginia Tech) and Dr. Michelle Danyluk (University of Florida).

All inforsheets are currently translated into Spanish (by MPH student Gonzalo Erdozain) and French (by France-based colleague Albert Amgar and Dr. Amy Hubbell).

In 2011, 20 peer-reviewed food safety infosheets were distributed to 455 direct subscribers (including 145 extension agents in 8 states), 6,760 bites listerv subscribers, 723 direct barfblog.com subscribers. Additionally, three direct subscribers were known to send infosheets to all of their organization’s outlets—a total of 1,350 sites and 300 support associates (an estimated 15,000 food handlers would have received these publications.

Video production has declined because of the high resource cost and need to focus activities. bites-l and barfblog.com will continue to focus on content and efficient, rapid, mass-distribution mechanisms.

Publications
1 book chapter
6 papers published
7 papers accepted/in press/submitted

Powell, D.A. 2011. Food safety, genetically engineered foods and perception in Comprehensive Biotechnology, Second Edition, Moo-Young M, (ed.) Elsevier p. 769-773.

Powell, D.A., Jacob, C.J., and Chapman, B.J. 2011. Blogs, infosheets and new media as academic scholarship in food safety research, education, and extension. Innovative Higher Education, published on-line ahead of print, DOI: 10.1007/s10755-011-9207-

Fillion, K., Powell, D. 2011. Designing a national restaurant inspection disclosure system for New Zealand. Journal of Food Protection, 74(11), 1869-1874.

Filion, K., KuKanich, K. S., Chapman, B., Hardigree, M. K., & Powell, D. A. 2011. Observation-based evaluation of hand hygiene practices and the effects of an intervention at a public hospital cafeteria. American Journal of Infection Control, 39(6), 464-470.

Wilson, S., Chapman, B, Powell, D.A. 2011. Understanding food safety information needs: using an information service as a research tool. Food Protection Trends 31:437-445.

Wilson, S.M., Jacob, C.J. and Powell, D.A. 2011. Behavior-change interventions to improve hand hygiene practice: A review. Critical Public Health 21(1): 119-127.

Powell, D.A., Jacob, C.J., and Chapman, B.J. 2011. Enhancing food safety culture to reduce rates of foodborne illness. Food Control, 22(6): 817-822.

If ya don’t get at it when ya get to it,   ya won’t get to it to get at it again

Posted on July 31, 2011 by Douglas Powell

Thoughtful words from Canadian philosopher, poet and plywood enemy, Stompin’ Tom Conners (he also wrote tomes such as Bud the Spud, The Hockey Song, and Sudbury Saturday Night).

The Australians apparently took pity on me and granted me a tourist visa in the absence of Canadian documentation (Canada is hopeless) so I’m headed out to rejoin my family. I will continue teaching by distance – this semester, which winds up today with a flurry of skype presentations by students scattered around the U.S. and elsewhere has been the most satisfying in years – and doing that research, writing, extension professoring thing. Just in a different time zone.

And I’ll be racking up a lot of frequent flier miles.

Amy was looking for something and she may find it in ~~Toronto~~ Brisbane. I hope there’s a Yonge St. like in Toronto.

13 sick from salmonella in cantaloupe; CDC update; salmonella in cantaloupe chart updated on bites

Posted on March 29, 2011 by Douglas Powell

As of March 29, 2011, 13 persons infected with the outbreak strain of Salmonella Panama have been reported from Oregon (5 cases), Washington (4 cases), California (2 cases), Colorado (1 case) and Maryland (1 case). Reported dates of illness onset range from February 5, 2011 to March 4, 2011. Ill persons range in age from less than 1 year old to 68 years old, with a median age of 12 years old. Sixty-two percent are male. Among ill persons, three have been hospitalized and no deaths have been reported.

Collaborative investigative efforts of state, local, and federal public health and regulatory agencies have linked this outbreak to eating cantaloupe. On March 22, 2011, Del Monte Fresh Produce N.A., Inc. voluntarily recalled cantaloupes. Consumer should not eat recalled cantaloupes and restaurant and food service operators should not serve them. The cantaloupes, grown in and shipped from Del Monte Fresh’s farm Asuncion Mita in Guatemala, have a light brown color skin on the exterior with orange flesh. The recalled cartons of cantaloupes are dark brown cardboard with the “Del Monte” logo in red lettering and “cantaloupes” in yellow lettering on a green background. The cantaloupes have the lot codes: 02-15-24-10, 02-15-25-10, 02-15-26-10 and 02-15-28-10. No illness has been linked to cantaloupes from other sources.

An updated table of salmonella-in-cantaloupe outbreaks and recalls is available at:
http://bites.ksu.edu/cantaloupe-related-outbreaks.

bites, barfblog and food safety

Posted on March 7, 2011 by Douglas Powell

bites.ksu.edu and barfblog.com are complimentary and comprehensive resources for those interested in microbial food safety – the things that make people barf.

Too many people get sick each year from the food and water they consume. bites and barfblog are designed to inform and engage people in dialogue about food-related risks, controls and benefits, from farm-to-fork.

For rapid, relevant and reliable food safety news, subscribe to barfblog.com and follow us on twitter; for a daily, or twice-daily summary, including barfblog.com posts, subscribe to bites-l at bites.ksu.edu.

Dr. Doug Powell of Kansas State University, and associates, provide credible, current, evidence-based information on food safety and make it available through multiple media. Sources of food safety information include government regulatory agencies, international organizations such as the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), peer-reviewed scientific publications, recognized experts in the field and other sources as appropriate.

barblog.com
barfblog.com is where Drs. Powell, Chapman, Hubbell and assorted food safety friends offer evidence-based opinions on current food safety issues. Opinions must be evidence-based — with references — reliable and relevant. The barfblog authors edit each other, often viciously.

Twitter and Facebook
Breaking food safety news items that eventually appear in bites or barfblog are often posted on Twitter and Facebook for faster public notification.

Infosheets
Food safety infosheets are designed to influence food handler practices by utilizing four attributes culled from education, behavioral science and communication literature:
• surprising and compelling messages;
• putting actions and their consequence in context;
• generating discussion within the target audiences’ environments; and
• using verbal narrative, or storytelling, as a message delivery device.

Food safety infosheets are based on stories about outbreaks of foodborne illness sourced from bites and barfblog and include the following: discussion of a foodborne illness outbreak; discussion of background knowledge of a pathogen (including symptoms, etiology and transmission); food handler control practices; and emerging food safety issues. Food safety infosheets also contain evidence-based prescriptive information to prevent or mitigate foodborne illness related to food handling.

bites-l listserv
The bites.ksu.edu listserv is a web-based mailing list that provides information about current and emerging food safety issues, gathered from journalistic and scientific sources around the world and condensed into short items or stories that make up the daily postings. The listserv has been issued continuously since 1993 and is distributed daily via e-mail to thousands of individuals worldwide in academia, industry, government, the farm community, journalists and the public at large.

The listserv is designed to:
• convey timely and current information for direction of research, diagnostic or investigative activities;
• identify food risk trends and issues for risk management and communication activities; and
• promote awareness of public concerns in scientific and regulatory circles.

The bites listserv functions as a food safety news aggregator, summarizing available information that can be can be useful for risk managers in proactively anticipating trends and reactively address issues. The bites editor, Dr. Powell, does not say whether a story is right or wrong or somewhere in between, but rather that a story is available today for public discussion; barfblog is where contributors express their evidence-based opinions on food safety issues.

Research
Researchers associated with bites and barfblog conduct an array of food safety research, including:
• effectiveness of food safety messages and media in public discussions of food safety issues, such as the risks of listeria to pregnant women, legislation related to raw milk, public availability of restaurant inspection data, and the safety of fresh produce, are evaluated through qualitative and quantitative methods;
• observational research methodologies are used to quantify individual food safety behaviors from farm-to-fork, to enhance handwashing compliance, thermometer use, food packaging information and interventions that can reduce the number of people that get sick from the food and water they consume; and,
• evaluation of food safety policy and alternatives.

Teaching
• A graduate program in food safety risk analysis – including food safety, language, culture and policy — is being developed and will include distance-education.
• Courses are currently taught in food safety risk analysis, and food safety reporting.

Information
• Dr. Powell is the publisher and editor of bites and barfblog. Dr. Ben Chapman of North Carolina State University is the assistant editor.
• bites and barfblog are produced by a diverse team of secondary, undergraduate and graduate students as well as professionals who create multilingual and multicultural food safety and security information, including weekly food safety information sheets, and multimedia resources.
• Research, educational and journalistic opportunities are available for secondary, undergraduate and graduate students through bites.ksu.edu and barfblog.com.

Dr. Powell, a professor of food safety at Kansas State University, is the author of 42 peer-reviewed journal articles, 10 peer-reviewed book chapters and 1 peer-reviewed book. His cv is available at http://bites.ksu.edu/powell_cv.

Links
bites and barfblog may include links to other sites, which are provided as a convenience and as an additional access to the information contained therein. bites and barfblog are not responsible for the content of any other sites or any products or services that may be offered through other sites.

Accuracy, Completeness and Timeliness of Information on the Site
The bites and barfblog folks strive to provide accurate, complete and current information. The materials on this site are provided for general information only, and any reliance upon the material found on this site will be at your own risk. We reserve the right to modify the contents of the site at any time.

For more information, please contact us.

barfblog, bites and food safety

Posted on November 3, 2010 by Douglas Powell

There’s no shortage of food safety press releases, repeated and regurgitated using funky new media tools; there is a shortage of evidence-based, incisive approaches that challenge food safety norms and may eventually lead to fewer sick people.

barfblog.com is the fastest way to stay current on food safety issues. Powell, Chapman and assorted food safety friends offer evidence-based opinions on current food safety issues. Opinions must be reliable – with references — rapid and relevant.

Anyone can subscribe directly to barfblog.com and receive an e-mail immediately when something new is posted. Go to barfblog.com and click on the ‘subscribe’ button on the right side of the page.

Food safety infosheets are designed to influence food handler practices by utilizing four attributes culled from education, behavioral science and communication literature:
• surprising and compelling messages;
• putting actions and their consequence in context;
• generating discussion within the target audiences’ environments; and
• using verbal narrative, or storytelling, as a message delivery device.

Food safety infosheets are based on stories about outbreaks of foodborne illness. Four criteria are used to select the story: discussion of a foodborne illness outbreak; discussion of background knowledge of a pathogen (including symptoms, etiology and transmission); food handler control practices; and emerging food safety issues. Food safety infosheets also contain evidence-based prescriptive information to prevent or mitigate foodborne illness related to food handling. They are available in several languages.

The bites.ksu.edu listserv is a free web-based mailing list where information about current and emerging food safety issues is provided, gathered from journalistic and scientific sources around the world and condensed into short items or stories that make up the daily postings. The listserv has been issued continuously since 1994 and is distributed daily via e-mail to thousands of individuals worldwide from academia, industry, government, the farm community, journalists and the public at large.

The bites listserv functions as a food safety news aggregator, summarizing available information that can be can be useful for risk managers in proactively anticipating trends and reactively address issues. The bites editor (me – dp) does not say whether a story is right or wrong or somewhere in between, but rather that a specific story is available today for public discussion.

If you only want to receive specific news, use RSS feeds.

RSS (Rich Site Summary, or Really Simple Syndication) is a format for delivering regularly changing web content. Many news-related sites, weblogs and other online publishers syndicate their content as an RSS Feed to whoever wants it.

If you only want stories about food safety policy, or norovirus, go to bites.ksu.edu and click on that section. Then click on the RSS symbol, and add to your reader. barfblog.com is also available as a RSS feed.

Breaking food safety news items that eventually appear in bites-l or barfblog.com are often posted on Twitter (under barfblog or benjaminchapman) for faster public notification.

These are the various information products we deliver daily, in addition to research, training and outreach. Sponsorship opportunities are available for bites.ksu.edu, barfblog.com, and the bites-l listserv.

Any money is used to support the on-going expenses of the news-gathering and distribution activities, and to develop the next generation of high school, undergraduate and graduate students who will integrate science and communication skills to deliver compelling food safety messages using a variety of media. Research, training and outreach are all connected in our food safety world.

barfblog

safe food from farm to fork

Tag Archives: bites