Give the gift of poop

Posted on November 6, 2015 by Douglas Powell

Shitexpress will deliver a steamy pile of horse crap with a personalized message to your enemies — or twisted friends.

The Hong Kong-based service launched in November 2014 as a marketing experiment and has stuck around like dog doo on a sneaker tread.

“Yes, it’s legit,” CEO Peter (no last name) told The Huffington Post.

Peter says his firm earned $10,000 in its first month and has made more than 2,500 shipments. Take note, scatological Santas: Orders cost $16.95 for shipping to many places around the world, and can be done anonymously.

Popular China restaurant serves crayfish with bacteria, causes food poisoning

Posted on August 21, 2015 by Douglas Powell

Bacteria has been detected in crayfish served by a restaurant which had been ordered to suspend operation after an outbreak of food poisoning earlier this month.

Inspection reports showed that Vibrio parahemolyticus had been detected in food samples provided both by Zheng Wen Qi Crayfish Donburi restaurant and its customers, Yangpu District government said on Friday.

“Considering the restaurant staff’s nonstandard practices in dealing with the excessive quantity of food, the incident is deemed as a food poisoning case caused by food affected by Vibrio Parahemolyticus,” a district government notice said.

A number of diners suffered from diarrhea, stomach aches and vomiting after eating crayfish donburi — a dish of crayfish meat on a bed of rice — at the outlet. The restaurant was so popular before the accident that it was said to have served 1,300 portions of donburi on its second day of opening.

Vibrio in raw seafood a risk factor in China too

Posted on August 20, 2015 by Douglas Powell

As the number sickened by Vibrio rises to 72 in western Canada, researchers report on dietary and medical risk factors for Vibrio parahaemolyticus (VP) infection in the coastal city Shenzhen in China.

Methods: In April–October 2012, we conducted a case–control study in two hospitals in Shenzhen, China. Laboratory-confirmed VP cases (N = 83) were matched on age, sex, and other social factors to healthy controls (N = 249). Subjects were interviewed using a questionnaire on medical history; contact with seawater; clinical symptoms and outcome; travel history over the past week; and dietary history 3 days prior to onset. Laboratory tests were used to culture, serotype, and genotype VP strains. We used logistic regression to calculate the odds ratios for the association of VP infection with potential risk factors.

Results: In multivariate analysis, VP infection was associated with having pre-existing chronic disease (adjusted odds ratio [aOR], 6.0; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.5–23.7), eating undercooked seafood (aOR, 8.0; 95% CI, 1.3–50.4), eating undercooked meat (aOR, 29.1; 95% CI, 3.0–278.2), eating food from a street food vendor (aOR, 7.6; 95% CI, 3.3–17.6), and eating vegetable salad (aOR, 12.1; 95% CI, 5.2–28.2).

Conclusions: Eating raw (undercooked) seafood and meat is an important source of VP infection among the study population. Cross-contamination of VP in other food (e.g., vegetables and undercooked meat) likely plays a more important role. Intervention should be taken to lower the risks of cross-contamination with undercooked seafood/meat, especially targeted at people with low income, transient workers, and people with medical risk factors.

Risk factors for Vibrio parahaemolyticus Infection in a southern coastal region of China

Foodborne Pathogens and Disease. Ahead of print. doi:10.1089/fpd.2015.1988.

Liao Yuxue, Li Yinghui, Wu Shuyu, Mou Jin, Xu Zengkang, Cui Rilin, Klena John D., Shi Xiaolu, Lu Yan, Qiu Yaqun, Lin Yiman, Xie Xu, Ma Hanwu, Li Zhongjie, Yu Hongjie, Varma Jay K., Ran Lu, Hu Qinghua, and Cheng Jinquan

http://online.liebertpub.com/doi/abs/10.1089/fpd.2015.1988

Indiana Health investigating E. coli O157 cases in Fulton and Wabash counties after child death

Posted on August 13, 2015 by Douglas Powell

Tonight, Paul and Tracey Schaeffner mourn the loss of their 9-year old daughter, Destiny Smith outside the Rochester courthouse.

“She had a sweet smile, a sweet spirit, and a contagious laugh,” says Destiny’s mom, Tracey.

Smith’s family says she got sick with flu symptoms about ten days ago. Just a week ago today, she went to Riley Hospital for Children in Indianapolis. Family members say she was diagnosed with HUS (hemolytic Uuemic syndrome), and died just two days later.

HUS is a severe result of the bacterial infection: E. coli O157:H7.

Kendra Creighbaum of Rochester is a mother of two twin boys, Hunter and Tucker. Creighbaum noticed her two boys getting really sick back in May. The boys were both sent to Riley as well, staying there about a month when they were both released in early June.

She and her husband Kyle, say they came close to burying their sons, and can only half imagine the Schaeffner’s pain.

“Nobody deserves that,” says Kyle.

Now, the state department of health is investigating five new E. coli cases in Fulton and Wabash counties. They say two of those cases are confirmed. The Creighbaum and Schaeffner cases aren’t part of the new investigation as far as we know. The health department claims the two confirmed cases might have stemmed from a daycare center, but they’re still investigating that. They will not release the name of the daycare center under investigation.

Earlier reports based on electronic messaging put the number at 10 sick.

Friends and Family of Destiny Smith gathered outside the Rochester courthouse tonight, because they feel the Fulton County authorities haven’t been transparent with them about their investigations.

China’s top court demands heavy penalties for food safety violations

Posted on August 6, 2015 by Douglas Powell

China’s top court has demanded heavy penalties for companies and individuals who violate the country’s food safety laws, the official Xinhua news agency reported late on Wednesday.

The Supreme People’s Court said in a circular on Wednesday that companies selling food online should be held wholly liable for any safety issues affecting consumers and urged firms to compensate consumers more quickly.

The country’s main prosecutor also said that it had investigated 652 officials relating to misconduct over food safety protection, including for embezzlement and taking bribes, Xinhua reported. The probes took place since the start of 2014.

Road-side dairy milks goats and sells to passers-by in China

Posted on July 14, 2015 by Douglas Powell

An enterprising couple have been spotted milking goats by the side of the road, before selling bottles of the stuff to passers-by.

The unnamed pair were selling the fresh produce on a busy road in Xi’an, central China, last Wednesday, reported the People’s Daily Online.

The couple used empty 500ml water bottles to collect the milk straight from the udder. It was then sold to waiting customers for 10 Yuan (£1) per bottle.

Some experts have raised concerns about the safety of the milk as unpasteurised dairy may contain harmful bacteria such as E.coli.

Food fraud detection: Chinese team develops new method for rapid authentication of edible oils and screening of gutter oils

Posted on June 29, 2015 by Douglas Powell

The Food Safety and Technology Research Centre under the Department of Applied Biology and Chemical Technology of The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU) has developed a new method for rapid authentication of edible oils and screening of gutter oils. Authentication of edible oils has been a long-term issue in food safety, and becomes particularly important with the emergence and widespread use of gutter oils in recent years. However, the conventional analytical approach for edible oils is not only labor intensive and time consuming, but also fails to provide a versatile solution for screening of gutter oils. By setting up a simple analytical protocol and a spectral library of edible oils, the new approach is able to determine the authenticity of a labeled edible oil sample and hence screened gutter oils within five minutes.

The conventional approach for edible oil authentication involves labor-intensive and time-consuming sample pretreatment and the subsequent chromatographic separation to separate complex sample mixture before mass spectrometric detection, a commonly used technology for identification and quantitation of chemical compounds. The whole process takes a few hours to analyze one sample. On the other hand, identification of gutter oils mainly involves detection of certain food residue markers or toxic and carcinogenic chemicals in the sample. However, due to the vast diversity of gutter oils, and the fact that target compounds could be removed by processing, a universal strategy to screen gutter oils is not available at present.

PolyU researchers have developed a simplified method for direct analysis of edible oils using matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization mass spectrometry (MALDI-MS). In the new MALDI-MS approach, only simple sample preparation, automatic data acquisition and simple data processing are involved. High quality and highly reproducible MALDI-MS spectra results can be obtained using this method, and a preliminary spectral database of labeled edible oils available in the market has been set up. Since different types of edible oils have different MALDI-MS spectral patterns, the authenticity of an edible oil sample can then be determined within five minutes by comparing its MALDI-MS spectrum with those of its labeled oil in the established database. Since this method is capable of authenticating edible oils, it also enables a rapid screening of gutter oils, given fraudulent mislabeling is a common feature of gutter oils.

The related paper has been recently published on Analytica Chimica Acta, a leading journal in Analytical Chemistry. The research team will establish a more complete MALDI spectral library of various edible oils in the coming two years, and improve the library searching technique. In addition, more testing of edible oil samples with different MALDI-MS equipment will be carried out to further validate the new approach.

China seizes $625m of smuggled meat, some 40 years old

Posted on June 24, 2015 by Douglas Powell

I used to have a big chest freezer. It was a place where meat and frozen meals went to disappear.

My grandmother had this huge one in the basement, where she kept freezer-burned ice cream and her cash (she didn’t trust banks, or so I was told).

I’ve downsized to the little one on top of the fridge and am much more vigilant about stuff in, stuff out.

Chinese customs have seized around 3 billion yuan ($625 million) worth of smuggled meat, some more than 40 years old and rotting, the official China Daily said on Wednesday, the latest in a grim series of food safety scares.

Beijing toughened food safety rules in April to shake off a reputation for safety scandals that range from donkey meat tainted with fox DNA to milk contaminated with industrial chemical melamine that killed at least six infants in 2008.

Chinese authorities have launched a crackdown on beef and frozen meat smuggling, in addition to a campaign last year to stamp out the smuggling of farm products.

Authorities had busted 21 criminal gangs by June, leading to seizures of more than 100,000 tonnes of smuggled meat, including chicken wings, beef and pork, state news agency Xinhua said. In one bust, police in southern Hunan province arrested 20 people.

Customs officials found some of the meat was more than 40 years old, meaning it dated back to the 1970s. Other parts were rotten and decomposing, the China Daily newspaper said. It was not clear if the seized meat had been destroyed.

Industry sources say hundreds of thousands of tonnes of beef is being smuggled into China via neighbouring Hong Kong and Vietnam, from countries such as Brazil and India, to sidestep Beijing’s import curbs.

Meat can last for a long time if continuously frozen, but smuggled meat is often moved under poor storage conditions that lead to repeated thawing, making it eventually go bad.

Hard to change culture: Cats and dogs slaughtered at Chinese dog meat festival despite warnings

Posted on June 22, 2015 by Douglas Powell

Thousands of cats and dogs have been slaughtered at the Yulin Festival despite government promises to end the practice, which has been condemned internationally on grounds of animal cruelty.

Hundreds of traders gathered in China’s southern Guangxi province on Sunday for the annual feast, where dogs are served with lychees to mark the summer solstice.

Amid the slaughter, animal activists arrived with cash, saving hundreds of dogs and cats from certain death.

Local authorities failed to honour pledges to ban the festival following an online petition signed by half a million people.

Actor Ricky Gervais and singer Leona Lewis have denounced the festival, where animals are kept dozens to a cage before being electrocuted, burned and skinned alive.

On Sunday, campaigners blockaded streets, raided slaughterhouses and bought animals in an attempt to save them.

“Workers were blow-torching the carcasses to make them shiny and ready for shipment to restaurants,” said Peter Li, a campaigner for the Humane Society China.

Faith-based food safety: China’s middle class turns to organics

Posted on May 15, 2015 by Douglas Powell

It’s a familiar pattern: Consumers, in the face of food safety outbreaks, turn to whatever hucksterism is out there.

China is no different.

Market microbial food safety at retail to reduce the nonsense.

Emily Xu, a young mother who runs a children’s reading and writing studio in Shanghai, says food safety is a big concern for her and many of her friends, particularly since their children were born. “The more you learn about [food safety scandals] the more upset you will be. Sometimes you just feel helpless because you can’t change the air or you can’t change the soil, you can’t change the way farmers do the farming. And it seems the government can’t do anything to help. More and more, I have friends who choose to emigrate.”

Many urban residents seek out alternative food sources. Organic food and imported products have risen in popularity and are considered a safer option than the traditional “wet” markets where fresh vegetables, meat and fish are sold. In cities such as Beijing and Shanghai, the number of specialist and boutique food shops selling organic food is growing, especially among the Chinese middle class and expatriate community who have disposable income and are willing to pay a premium for good-quality, safe food.

Many city residents are buying directly from farmers they trust who grow vegetables without pesticides. Community-supported farms have become increasingly popular, says Wang, along with farmers’ markets. A small group of consumers has also begun to grow food themselves, sometimes renting land on the outskirts of the cities.

However, all of these options are relatively expensive and not open to most average-income families. Those who can’t afford the premium price of organic or imported food “basically have not much choice”, says Wang. She believes access to safe food should not be dependent on income. “Everyone has the right to safe food, it’s a joint responsibility of companies, the government and consumers ourselves to make this happen by altering chemical-intensive agriculture to a more ecological and sustainable way of growing food.”

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