A new strain of a stomach virus has caused at least three outbreaks in San Luis Obispo County within the past month, according to local 
health officials.
All three outbreaks, two of which occurred in restaurants and one in a long-term care facility, were caused from a new strain of the Norovirus from Australia, GII strain.
Like most children, the students at Stone Corral Elementary School in Seville, Calif., here rejoice when the bell rings for recess and delight in christening a classroom pet.
But while growing up in this impoverished agricultural community of numbered roads and lush citrus orchards, young people have learned a harsh life lesson: “No tomes el agua!” — “Don’t drink the water!”
According to the New York Times, Seville, with a population of about 300, is one of dozens of predominantly Latino unincorporated communities in the Central Valley 
plagued for decades by contaminated drinking water. It is the grim result of more than half a century in which chemical fertilizers, animal wastes, pesticides and other substances have infiltrated aquifers, seeping into the groundwater and eventually into the tap. An estimated 20 percent of small public water systems in Tulare County are unable to meet safe nitrate levels, according to a United Nations representative.
In farmworker communities like Seville, a place of rusty rural mailboxes and backyard roosters where the average yearly income is $14,000, residents like Rebecca Quintana pay double for water: for the tap water they use to shower and wash clothes, and for the five-gallon bottles they must buy weekly for drinking, cooking and brushing their teeth.
It is a life teeming with worry: about children accidentally sipping contaminated water while cooling off with a garden hose, about not having enough clean water for an elderly parent’s medications, about finding a rock while cleaning the feeding tube of a severely disabled daughter, as Lorie Nieto did. She vowed never to use tap water again.
Chris Kemper, the school’s principal, budgets $100 to $500 a month for bottled water. He recalled his astonishment, upon his arrival four years ago, at encountering the “ghost” drinking fountains, shut off to protect students from “weird foggyish water,” as one sixth grader, Jacob Cabrera, put it. Mr. Kemper said he associated such conditions with third world countries. “I always picture it as a laptop a month for the school,” he said of the added cost of water.
Here in Tulare County, one of the country’s leading dairy producers, where animal waste lagoons penetrate the air and soil, most residents rely on groundwater as the source for drinking water. A study by the University of California, Davis, this year estimated that 254,000 people in the Tulare Basin and Salinas Valley, prime agricultural regions with about 2.6 million residents, were at risk for nitrate contamination of their drinking water. Nitrates have been linked to thyroid disease and make infants susceptible to “blue baby syndrome,” a potentially fatal condition that interferes with the blood’s capacity to carry oxygen.
I’m terrible at taxonomy. I’ve tried numerous times over 50 years to train my brain to identify things, but unless I really care about it, I don’t care.
I’m curious, and am constantly looking things up on the Internet, reading history, accumulating hockey or Neil Young trivia, but whenever Amy asks me, what’s that 
plant, or what’s that giant bug in our kitchen today, I shrug and say, don’t know.
Don’t care.
So when a Canadian colleague asked me about the jacarandas in Brisbane, I responded something like, oh, those trees with the purple leaves that are everywhere and contribute to the natural kaleidoscope that is Brisbane? They’re cool.
I also wouldn’t rely on my taxonomy non-skills to select wild mushrooms.
Unfortunately, Associated Press reports two residents of a Northern California assisted living facility have died and four others are hospitalized after eating soup with wild mushrooms prepared by a caregiver at the facility (who was among the sick).
Sheriff’s Lt. Mark Reed said the caregiver “just didn’t know” the mushrooms were poisonous.
Cantaloupe growers, packers and shippers in California say they’re hopeful the state’s new commodity-specific food safety program will bolster consumer confidence in their crop.
Jim Malanca, vice president of sales for Westside Produce Inc., Firebaugh, Calif., told The Packer several factors, including lingering effects from last fall’s listeria-tainted Colorado 
cantaloupe, probably contributed to this summer’s lethargic market.
“It’s very difficult to put your finger on ― everything that’s going on economy-wise, weather-wise and food safety-wise,” he said. “We’ve done as much as we can to make sure our food is safe for consumers, and we document everything.”
In response to last fall’s listeria outbreak, California cantaloupe growers and handlers enlisted the help of university and other food safety experts to develop a mandatory food safety program.
Members of the Dinuba-based California Cantaloupe Advisory Board unanimously approved the program in May.
Colace, who is also vice-chairman of the board, said he believes the program already has helped bolster confidence among retailers and buyers. But consumers may be a different story.
“I think the biggest thing is to educate the public that we have a piece of fruit that is very safe,” he said.
Then market food safety directly to consumers – at retail.
Canadians are being warned by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency not to eat Tanimura & Antle brand Romaine Lettuce from Salinas, Calif. because it may be contaminated with E. coli O157:H7.
The affected product, Tanimura & Antle brand Romaine Lettuce, produce of USA, is sold in a plastic package containing 1 head of lettuce. The package bears the UPC0 27918?? The affected product was sold at retail from August 8, 2012 through August 17, 2012.
This product has been distributed in Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta, British Columbia, Nunavut and Yukon.
There have been no reported illnesses associated with the consumption of this product.
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Oysters from the Drakes Bay Oyster Co. in Marin County, California, have been linked to an outbreak of Vibrio parahaemolyticus that has sickened at least three people.
KTVU reports the company is conducting a voluntary recall of the affected oysters, which include shucked oysters in 9 ounce, 1 pint, 1 quart and half-gallon jars and tubs, lot Nos. 363 through 421.
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Affected in-shell oysters are sold individually or in bags sized from 1 dozen to 10 dozen, and marked with harvest tags between July 17 and Aug. 8.
Anyone in possession of the affected oysters should throw them away immediately, health department officials said.
When California lettuce growers were courting Canadian hacks on a paid junket, they probably didn’t talk too much about the possible links between several E. coli O157:H7 outbreaks and California Romaine lettuce that were being uncovered at the same time.
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Or the sick people.
The Sponge-Bob-Colbert leafy greens cone of silence was once again deployed.
Phyllis Entis of eFoodAlert confirms tonight that Romaine lettuce grown on a
California farm is the probable source of E. coli O157:H7 illnesses that were reported in April and May in California, New Brunswick and Quebec.
The binational outbreak sickened at least 18 people in New Brunswick (Canada) and nine residents of California. At least one resident of Quebec also was infected with the same outbreak strain.
The New Brunswick outbreak victims ate at Jungle Jim’s, a restaurant in Miramichi, between April 23rd and April 26th, and had consumed romaine lettuce, either in a salad, as part of a wrap, or as a garnish on hamburger. Most of the nine California victims had eaten at a single (unnamed) restaurant in April 2012, according to information provided by Ronald Owens (Office of Public Affairs, California Department of Public Health). A case control study implicated lettuce as the source of the California outbreak. No information has been released on the Quebec cases(s).
California was notified in May by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) that CDC had learned of an outbreak in Canada, caused by the same strain of E. coli O157:H7 as the California illnesses. Traceback investigations carried out by Canada and California both led to a single California farm that supplied lettuce to the California restaurant and to Jungle Jim’s in New Brunswick. Lettuce from the implicated fields was also supplied to Quebec.
At the same time, Marie-Andree Guimont wrote a lovely puff piece in divine.ca after her educational – and funded – trip to Monterey, California, to see how leafy greens are grown.
“Awareness of food safety has allowed us to change the culture among producers, said Scott Horsfall, CEO of California LGMA, with a straight face. “They are proud of their training, and it .jpg)
therefore becomes their badge of honor.”
The Leafy Greens Marketing Agreement would be a lot more credible if they’d come clean about outbreaks and data, instead of ole’ timey public relations crap, buying off would-be journalists, one at a time. And governments. Canadian regulators will only accept leafy greens entering the country that are LGMA-certified. No idea why.
Health types may want to figure out a policy for going public about outbreaks. Finding out later just further erodes any remaining credibility.
A table of leafy green related outbreaks is available at http://bites.ksu.edu/leafy-greens-related-outbreaks.
The California Department of Public Health (CDPH) Director and State Public Health Officer Dr. Ron Chapman today warned consumers not to eat soups from One Gun Ranch and Organic Soup Kitchen because they may have been improperly produced, making them susceptible to Clostridium botulinum.
Ingestion of botulinum toxin from improperly processed canned foods may lead to serious illness and death. No illnesses have been linked to any of the affected products at this time.
One Gun Ranch, a Malibu company, manufactured the following varieties of soups: Campfire Kitchen Cauliflower Soup, Heirloom Tomato Fennel Gaspacho Soup, Sequoia’s Skinny Spiced Coconut, Parsnip, and Turmeric Soup, Ossian’s Pumpkin Stew, and Freddy’s Firegrilled Meatballs. The soups were sold in 16-ounce glass jars with screw-on metal lids. Photographs of the affected soups’ packaging and labels are available on the CDPH website.
The soups were only sold at Pacific Palisades Farmers Market located at Swarthmore Avenue and 
Sunset Blvd., Pacific Palisades, CA on May 13, 2012 and June 3, 2012.
Organic Soup Kitchen, a Santa Barbara company, manufactured the following soups: Fire Roasted Yam, Curried Potato Leek, Curry Lentil Bisque, Tomato Bean and Wild Herb, and Mediterranean Chipotle Chili. The soups were sold under the Organic Soup Kitchen label and are packaged in one-quart glass jars with screw-on metal lids. Photographs of the affected soups’ packaging and labels are available on the CDPH website.
The soups were sold between June 6, 2011 and May 6, 2012, at the following farmers markets:
Calabasas Farmers Market located at Calabasas Road and El Canon Avenue, Calabasas, CA 91302 (Saturdays)
Studio City Farmers Market located at Ventura Place between Laurel Canyon Boulevard and Radford Avenue, Studio City, CA 91604 (Sundays)
CDPH is working with both companies to ensure these products are no longer available for sale.
Discoveries of Clostridium botulinum and Listeria monocytogenes at two separate California fish processors has prompted the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to step in.
Grub Street Los Angeles reports FDA is looking to close down Blue Ocean Smokehouse in Half Moon .png)
Bay and Yamaya in Torrance.
While Yamaya is offering to temporarily halt production and destroy all its existing products after the discovery of Listeria monocytogenes, the FDA is apparently trying to completely shut down Blue Ocean Smokehouse, citing refusal to comply with government demands after an inspection in October uncovered the presence of Clostridium botulinum in the company’s vacuum-packed hot and cold smoked products.
Inspectors claim the Half Moon Bay plant practices poor sanitation, while one regulator notes, "The company has ignored warnings by the FDA and the California Department of Public Health by continuing to sell seafood that puts consumers’ health at risk."
After recurring rumors of an outbreak, raw milk, raw nonfat milk and raw cream produced by Claravale Farm of San Benito County is now the subject of a statewide recall and quarantine order announced today by California State Veterinarian Dr. Annette Whiteford. The quarantine order came following the confirmed detection of campylobacter bacteria in raw cream.
Consumers are strongly urged to dispose of any product remaining in their refrigerators with code dates of .jpg)
“MAR 27” and earlier, and retailers are to pull those products immediately from their shelves.
On March 19, Claravale Farm voluntarily ceased distribution of its products after the California Department of Food and Agriculture made a preliminary positive finding of campylobacter in raw cream. The stoppage of distribution included goat milk, as well. No illnesses have been definitively attributed to the products at this time. However, the California Department of Public Health is conducting an epidemiological investigation of reported clusters of campylobacter illness where consumption of raw milk products may have occurred.