Tag Archives: California

Why a neurotoxin is closing crab season in California

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State officials have closed both recreational and commercial fishing for Dungeness and rock crab on the California coast north of Santa Barbara to the Oregon border, due to a large algae bloom that’s making the crab unsafe for consumption.

California's Dungeness crabsThe bloom, created by an organism called Pseudo-nitzschia, produces a neurotoxin called domoic acid that can build up in marine life. It causes vomiting, diarrhea and cramping in humans — and even death, in severe cases.

California’s Dungeness crabs are shipped across the U.S. and internationally, and the $60 million fishery is considered vital to the region’s small fishermen. Both the commercial and recreational fishery will open as soon as test samples show the crab is safe.

Clarissa Anderson, a research scientist at the Institute of Marine Sciences at the University of California, Santa Cruz, told NPR this bloom has been unprecedented in its extent and its persistence. It started in May and continued on to September.

The warm temperatures all along the North Pacific and off the West Coast are contributing to the persistence of this bloom and are allowing it to stay in the surface waters. We’re now starting to see that subside a little bit as we go into fall.

We know from weekly sampling that domoic acid levels, at least in the surface waters, have been coming down for the last two months. And they’re pretty low now.

The issue with the crabs is that toxin can persist in the sediments. And those crabs are feeding on all kinds of crustaceans and shrimp along the bottom. And so the crabs are bio-accumulating it in their flesh.

Campy in raw organic milk in Calif.

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The California Food and Drug Administration has ordered a state-wide recall of raw milk produced by milk Organic Pastures Dairy of Fresno.

colbert.raw.milkThat recall follows a quarantine order after Campylobacter was discovered in some of the company’s milk. The CDFA reported on Friday that no illnesses have been reported from people drinking the affected milk.

Under the recall order, Organic Pastures Dairy’s grade-A, raw milk with a code date of “OCT 24” on the containers must be pulled from store helves, and consumers are urged to dispose of any of this milk remaining in their refrigerators.

The bacteria was discovered during normal testing by the CDFA of the company’s milk, the agency reports.

98 sickened: Norovirus confirmed at Calif. Chipotle

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An investigation by the Ventura County Environmental Health Division (EHD) revealed that during the week of August 18, 2015, about 80 restaurant customers and 18 restaurant employees reported symptoms characteristic of a gastrointestinal illness.

norovirus-2The restaurant, in conformance with its own corporate policy, voluntarily closed the facility, threw out all remaining food products, cleaned and disinfected the facility including all food contact surfaces, and excluded all employees with symptoms from working in the restaurant. EHD staff conducted an inspection the following day to confirm that the food had been removed, the restaurant was adequately disinfected, and the 18 employees had been excluded from work.

As part of the investigation the EHD and Public Health staff interviewed affected customers and restaurant staff to determine when the illness began and what had been eaten. The EHD also ordered that all affected restaurant employees submit specimens for laboratory analysis in an attempt to determine the cause of the illnesses. As of Sep. 3, 2015, 7-out-of-18 samples tested positive for Norovirus. The employees with positive test results will continue to be excluded from the restaurant until subsequent laboratory analysis results are negative for the virus and the Public Health Division has cleared them to return to work. There have been no further reports of illness since the initial reports two weeks ago.

But don’t panic: 6 students sick with E. coli from same school in California

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An E. coli outbreak in Lodi, California has sickened six elementary school children, requiring one to be hospitalized. The children all attend the same elementary school, but the school has been ruled out as a source of the outbreak.

remaincalm.kevin.baconTwo students in Lodi’s Reese Elementary School’s combined second and third-grade class were confirmed on Monday to have become infected with the E. coli bacteria last week. The students were taken to the hospital when they first showed signs of becoming ill.

School principal Gary Odell realized something was going on last Tuesday. Feb. 24. “It came up a week ago. The secretary noticed that four students were out sick and one had gone to the hospital over the weekend. When the three others began showing symptoms, the nurse contacted (the San Joaquin County Department of Public Health),” Odell said.

Odell said the health department investigated the food services department, and the school cafeteria was given a clean bill of health. The bacteria was not coming from the school’s kitchen or the cafeteria. It is really not known where the first child got the infection because there are so many sources of a potential infection. It is just unusual for this many children from the same school to become infected in such a short time.

Parents weren’t notified of the outbreak until Monday evening after letters were sent home with their children. The principal explained the reason for the lateness of the notification, saying that once the health department took over, they had to follow their guidelines. This meant there had to be two confirmed cases before the public was notified to avoid a panic.

California’s Knott’s Berry Farm restaurant reopens after treatment for cockroaches

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California institution, Mrs. Knott’s Chicken Dinner Restaurant, reopened Thursday night after its permit was restored following treatment for a cockroach infestation, theme park officials said.

Knott's Berry FarmJason Soyster, a spokesman for Knott’s Berry Farm, referred to the infestation as an “isolated structural incident” and said the restaurant was reopened at about 9:30 p.m.

The eatery had its permit suspended at about 2 p.m.

California sushi restaurants allegedly bought rice filled with bugs, rat poop, and mold

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I don’t eat sushi. It’s a bit dodgy.

sushi.riceA new lawsuit alleges that rice sold to multiple sushi restaurants in California may have been “tainted” with ingredients like insects, rodent droppings, and black mold, CBS News reports.

Attorney Brian Kabateck told CBS2 that the rice is contaminated with “flush,” a.k.a. ingredients you definitely shouldn’t be eating. The case claims that Farmer’s Rice Cooperative sold the flush rice to thousands of California grocery stores and local restaurants.

According to the complaint, Farmer’s Rice Cooperative would “allow substances, such as insects, rodents and their soiling, bird remains, and black mold to be present in its processed rice.” The complaint also states that the restaurants and store owners thought they were purchasing U.S. No. 1 Extra Fancy rice, not the contaminated varieties they reportedly received. “This rice, although they claim it’s sushi grade, is as little as 15 percent sushi grade, and it’s adulterated with other inferior rices,” Kabateck told CBS.

6 sick from E. coli in Marin, Calif., no source IDed

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The Marin County Department of Health and Human Services and Environmental Health Services has concluded its investigation of an outbreak of E. coli last month that sickened six people, four of whom were children.

No single source of the infection has been identified and there have been no new cases since mid-September, according to a press release. There are up to 10 documented cases of E. coli a year in Marin, usually in isolated cases or small clusters.

Two children and two adults were hospitalized, but have since been discharged. 

4 sick in Calif. E. coli O157 outbreak; it’s the end of month, still no answers

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In mid-August, California health types said they expect to “have a probable origin by the end of the month” for an E. coli O157 outbreak that sickened at least four people in North County.

It’s past the end of the month.

While the identities of the sick have not been released other than to say they’re not all children, The Tribune learned independently that one of the people hospitalized was a 12-goat.petting.zooyear-old girl from the Creston 4-H Club who showed a dairy goat during the California Mid-State Fair.

The health department declined to disclose whether the fair is being investigated as a possible point of origin.

Mom of peanut allergy victim: Her last words were ‘I’m sorry’

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Louis and Joanne Giorgi sat together in the backyard of their Carmichael home Wednesday morning. They held each others’ hands and clutched tissues as they spoke publicly for the first time since their 13-year old daughter died from an allergic reaction to a dessert treat they had no idea contained peanuts.

“To have lost her is devastating,” Joanne Giorgi told KCRA 3’s Mike TeSelle.

KCRA Channel 3 reports Natalie Giorgi’s parents are speaking publicly in hopes of using their daughter’s death as a push for change, and a vehicle for educating the public about peanut-victim2-JPGthe seriousness of food allergies.

“This can be a catalyst for a paradigm shift, much the way seat belt use has changed since when we were kids,” Louis Giorgi said.

Natalie Giorgi died July 26 after eating a Rice Krispie treat that had been prepared with peanut products at Camp Sacramento on the final day of a multi-family camping trip, her parents said.

Giorgi had a documented allergy to peanuts.

“We had been there before. We had eaten their Rice Krispie treats before. We had never had a problem before,” Louis Giorgi said.

Giorgi said immediately after taking one bite of the treat, his daughter told her parents.

She had been dancing with friends when she took the bite.

“We gave her Benadryl like we’d been told,” Natalie’s father said.

Over the next several minutes, the Giorgis said their daughter showed no signs of a reaction whatsoever.

“I kept asking, ‘are you OK?’ She kept telling me she was fine, and she wanted to go back to dancing with her friends,” Natalie’s mom said. 

Natalie kept asking her parents to go back to her friends, but they kept telling her she had to stay with them, to make sure she was OK.

“Then suddenly, she started vomiting,” Louis said. “It spiraled downhill out of control so quickly.”

Natalie’s father, a physician, administered both of the EPI-Pens — used to slow or stop an allergic reaction — that the family carried with them.

A third was obtained from the camp and administered. None of them stopped her reaction. Her dad called 911.

“I did everything right, in my opinion. I couldn’t save her,” Louis Giorgi said.

Emergency responders who arrived later couldn’t save her, either.

“She had been fine, and had been talking to us. This was a worst-case scenario. One of the last things she said was, ‘I’m sorry mom,'” Natalie mother said as she wiped a tear away from her cheek.

The Giorgis said one of the many reasons they are sharing Natalie’s story is to convince skeptical parents that food allergies in children is very real.

More information can be found at Nateam.org.

138 sickened; norovirus outbreak confirmed at Calif. restaurant In Feb.

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Following weeks of investigation, an outbreak of norovirus in February at midtown’s Mulvaney’s B&L has been confirmed by Sacramento County public health officials. The investigation found that 138 people – including at least six food service workers – reported symptoms. One mulvaneys.b.l.13patron later tested positive for norovirus, and two food service workers tested positive for norovirus.

The Sacramento Bee says the report did not identify if norovirus was first introduced to the restaurant by a worker or patron. The outbreak occurred over six events, including a company dinner and family-style dinner – over four days in late February. A lawyer for Mulvaney’s first informed county health officials that a number of patrons had fallen ill.

Since the outbreak was limited to a specific range of dates, and no further cases of illness were reported, Mulvaney’s has continued to operate. The popular midtown eatery passed its most recent food facility inspection on Feb. 13.

The report entailed interviews with 256 patrons, and the consumption of Turkish coffee pudding, pickled beet salad and ham showed the greatest risk of norovirus exposure. On the contrary, some foods including rib-eye and mushroom pasta did not show a link to illness. The report theorizes these dishes were prepared by non-ill restaurant workers.

Chef and proprietor Patrick Mulvaney said he’s continuing to work with county officials to make sure a similar episode doesn’t happen again.

“Obviously, I was horrified and frustrated and confused about it,” said Mulvaney. “Since then we’ve worked hand in hand with the (county) medical officer and redoubled our efforts about handwashing.”