7 sick with Hepatitis A linked to frozen pomegranate in Australia

Posted on April 7, 2018 by Douglas Powell

I’m not a fan of pomegranates, and I’m really not a fan of the way the NSW Food Authority announces recalls.

Here’s what they said.

The NSW Food Authority advises:
Entyce Food Ingredients is conducting a precautionary recall of its Creative Gourmet Pomegranate Arils 180g from Coles Supermarkets nationally, due to potential Hepatitis A contamination.

Product details:

Creative Gourmet Pomegranate Arils 180g, frozen, plastic snap lock bag

All Best Before Dates up to and including 21/03/20

Consumers should not consume this product and should return it to the place of purchase for a full refund.

If you are concerned about your health you should seek medical advice.

What they didn’t mention but ABC did is seven people have been diagnosed with hepatitis A after eating frozen pomegranate purchased at Coles supermarkets, prompting NSW Health to warn anyone who bought the product to throw it out immediately.

Dr Vicky Sheppeard, director of communicable diseases at NSW Health, said it was working with the state’s Food Authority to determine whether the infection could be definitively linked to the Coles frozen pomegranates, despite the fact that each person affected had eaten the product.

I get the difference between NSW Health and the NSW Food Authority. But mention how hard is it to mention there are sick people so consumers can judge how much they should pay attention.

Vaccines still work.

Canadian family tested for HIV after catheter found in ice cream tub; Australian kids pricked at supermarket

Posted on July 19, 2017 by Douglas Powell

There’s some weird things in food.

A family gathering in Quebec to celebrate the arrival of a new baby boy suddenly turned sour this weekend when someone discovered a piece of a catheter inside the ice cream the family was eating.

Three people had already started eating the Coaticook brand ice cream flavoured with pecan nuts, chocolate and double caramel when one of the guests – the new grandfather of the family – felt something hard in his mouth.

He spit it out and saw it was a piece of a catheter.

There was something dark on the tip and the family couldn’t tell if it was caramel or blood.

“He put it in his mouth and found the tip of syringe,” Carole-Anne Christofferson told Radio-Canada.

“He’s the worst off, the most affected. He’s not even able to speak about it.”

Coaticook said it will be conducting an internal investigation into what happened.

Representatives for the ice cream producer say it’s the first time the company receives a complaint like this.

Based on the product’s lot number, they know the exact date the ice cream was made and are checking surveillance video.

The company maintains it is safe to consume its products.

“We have so many internal controls here and in food production in general, that having something like that show up in a food item, it’s not normal,” said Jean Provencher, the owner of Coaticook.

Yeah, but it apparently did: try empathy.

In Australia, two children have been pricked by a hidden syringe in separate incidents at Coles supermarket in Melbourne’s north-west, which is being described by police as “malicious.”

The first incident happened at the supermarket on Pascoe Vale Road, Broadmeadows, on Monday at 1:30pm, when a child was pricked by a needle hidden under a rail.

Another child was pricked about an hour later, and the needle was then discovered by the mother.

A spokesperson for Coles said the supermarket was working with police to investigate the incident.

“Our thoughts are with the customers affected by this event and their families,” the spokesperson said in a statement.

Recall reality: Make the best before dates bigger, I can’t see a damn thing

Posted on May 5, 2016 by Douglas Powell

I report on recalls every day, and usually don’t think much about it unless people are barfing.

This morning, Unilever recalled 1.25 and two-litre Blue Ribbon ice cream tubs sold across Australia due to cases of plastic pieces causing injury risks.

I thought, maybe that’s what’s in the freezer?

Affected products have a best before date between April 28, 2017 and April 27, 2018 and shouldn’t be eaten, the company said in a statement on Wednesday night.

According to reports the plastic pieces found their way into the ice cream via machinery during the production process at Unilever’s Minto factory where Blue Ribbon products are made.

The recall is a “precautionary measure” and tubs with a best before date from April 28, 2018 are not affected, the statement said.

Products can be returned to the place of purchase for a full refund.

I got the ice cream out of the freezer.

I put on my reading glasses.

I couldn’t see a damn thing.

Amy had a look and finally found the date, and we eventually made it out to say, best before March 21, 2018 (right, exactly as shown).

So I wandered off to the local Coles supermarket, and they refunded my $4.90.

I wandered over to the ice cream isle, and the Blue Ribbon was gone (left, exactly as shown).

Well done.

Everyone’s got a camera: Australian supermarket duopoly edition

Posted on May 4, 2016 by Douglas Powell

A Brisbane man says he will stop shopping at Coles after he found dozens of tiny insects in a sealed packed of pasta.

Masood Rahimi, 29, said he bought the 500g packet of Coles brand Bowties pasta in New Farm over a week ago.

It wasn’t until he was about to open it on Sunday when a friend noticed something moving around inside.

Mr Rahimi said there were maybe 50 to 100 bugs inside the packet, which he threw away.

He said he made a video of bugs and uploaded it to Coles’ Facebook page but didn’t think it would cause an impact.

At Woolworths, a mouse was found eating biscuits in the bakery aisle.

South Australian man Mickey Young was shopping at Woolworths Port Lincoln at the weekend when another shopper noticed a mouse eating a biscuit inside a display cabinet in the bakery aisle.

Mr Young, who is a baker himself, began filming the mouse eating the sweet treat before it ran off.

Woolworths has launched an investigation and begun pest control following the sighting.

Australian recall notices continue to suck: Listeria in pate

Posted on March 11, 2016 by Douglas Powell

Once again: It only takes a few hundred times for things to sink in with the bureaucracy protecting public health in Australia.

Not the front-line workers, but the plutocracy in suits, fretting about their pensions, golden handshakes, and whether their kids will go to the best schools to meet the right people.

Food Standards Australia and New Zealand says Just Entrees Pty Ltd has recalled Brandy Port and Sage Pate, Cracked Pepper Pate and Chicken Liver Pate from Coles in NSW, ACT, QLD, VIC, TAS and NT due to Listeria monocytogenes contamination.

How was the Liseriai detected and by whom? Is anyone sick?

These are basics that are usually covered in U.S. and Canadian press notices written by highly paid press thingies.

Not so in Australia, diving for the lowest common denominator.

Australian supermarket edict on porn but not food safety

Posted on December 18, 2015 by Douglas Powell

Coles is one of the two major supermarkets in Australia.

They recruit celebrity chefs like Heston-norovirus Blumenthal and Curtis-aren’t-I-handsome Stone, while Woolworth’s goes for Jamie-watch-all-the-food-safety-mistakes-I-make Oliver.

Coles also has a unique set of priorities.

Coles won’t install hand wipes like most U.S. supermarkets have, to deal with inadequate meat packaging and dripping bacterial-laden juices because they cost $0.05 each, put has decided to pull thousands of copies of Harper’s Bazaar Australia magazine featuring a nude Miranda Kerr on the cover because the store’s executives deemed it “inappropriate”.

However, the retail giant has been unable to elaborate on what was the catalyst for the decision to impose the censorship on behalf of its shoppers.

Use a thermometer: Coles BS guide to how to know if steak is done

Posted on July 1, 2015 by Douglas Powell

Coles is one of the two major supermarkets in Australia.

They recruit celebrity chefs like Heston-norovirus Blumenthal and Curtis-aren’t-I-handsome Stone, while Woolworth’s goes for Jamie-watch-all-the-food-safety-mistakes-I-make Oliver.

The new sales go on sale on Wednesday, just like it was 1978.

The Coles electronic flyer has this: No hormones, no thermometers, total BS.

Although Amy did find this at a local Coles, MasterChef branded food-porn crap thermometers reduced to clear.

Raw milk in the same fridge as pasteurized at Banana Joe’s supermarket in Sydney

Posted on February 23, 2015 by Douglas Powell

While the Australian state of Victoria has taking steps to limit the sale of bath milk, linked to a child’s death and three other cases of hemolytic uremic syndrome, the stuff was found on sale yesterday alongside regular milk in a Sydney supermarket (that’s in the state of New South Wales).

Banana Joe’s supermarket in Marrickville was yesterday selling raw milk alongside pasteurized products.

The milk, Cleopatra’s Bath Milk, retails for $8.73 for a two liter bottle and is labeled “cosmetic skin treatment only”.

Despite displaying this legally required warning, the raw milk is packaged almost identically to regular milk and was displayed in the same fridge as other milk products.

The store manager, who gave his name as AJ, had “no concerns at this time” selling the products in the same fridge as regular milk as they were not on the same shelf.

He said he had ordered the milk in at the request of a customer but added that he had only sold “one or two bottles.”

A Coles supermarket in Western Australia was found to be selling unpasteurized goat’s milk, according to an intrepid reader, which has, I’ve been told, since been removed.

31K fine for Australian Coles over out-of-date food

Posted on May 20, 2014 by Douglas Powell

Supermarket giant Coles has been fined $31,500 for displaying food beyond its use-by date at its McLaren Vale store in South Australia.

Lawyers for the company pleaded guilty in Adelaide Magistrates Court to seven counts of breaching the food code and prosecutors dropped another 15 counts.

Magistrate David Whittle on Thursday imposed the fine and also ordered Coles to pay $10,000 in legal costs for Onkaparinga Council.

Council inspectors found the out-of-date items, which included salami and shaved ham, in April last year.

In a later statement, Coles said the company took food safety seriously and its SA stores had an outstanding record in that area.

“We set high standards and when we do not meet them we take accountability and fix the problem,” the company said.

Shopping for safety, consumers left wondering at Coles

Posted on February 28, 2014 by Douglas Powell

Talk less, do more.

That’s what I’m telling 5-year-old Sorenne as she explains for the eighth time she’s about to go get her shoes on, so we can walk to school.

And after 20 years of food safety stuff, it’s my go-to response to any corporate head of food safety.

I understand that talking has a role, that meetings have a role, but only if they translate into tangible outcomes. With food safety, for me, that has always meant, will fewer people barf?

A month ago, Amy proclaimed, based on her acquired food safety knowledge, that she may have sickened Sorenne after a serving of frozen chicken thingies from Coles (that’s a supermarket chain in Australia).

The label did not indicate whether they were fully cooked and frozen, or frozen raw.

Raw, frozen not-ready-to-eat entrees purchased in retail and prepared in the home have been identified as a significant risk factor for salmonellosis. From 1998 to 2008, eight separate outbreaks have implicated undercooked chicken nuggets, chicken strips, and stuffed chicken entrees.

I guess someone other than my mother and Ben and Amy read what I write, because someone from Coles e-mailed me in response to the Jan. post to say: “Kansas State’s loss is Australia’s gain and it would be great to talk to you to 1) answer your query on nuggets (apologies it took so long, that’s not acceptable and we will put that right) and 2) to explore opportunities to get your unique insight into Australian retail and your experience’s so far.”

We talked.

He said him and Jackie Healing, who spoke today at the Global Food Safety Initiative shindig in California, would love to come and visit with me and go through a local Coles on a food safety tour.

Those chicken nuggets? Flash fried so the breading sticks, but not cooked to a microbiologically safe temperature. Nothing on the label, no cooking instructions for microbiological safety. How would a consumer know?

I never heard back.

That’s normal; lots of talk, little action. I’ll go hang out with my 5-year-old.

Self-reported and observed behavior of primary meal preparers and adolescents during preparation of frozen, uncooked, breaded chicken products

01.nov.09

British Food Journal, Vol 111, Issue 9, p 915-929

Sarah DeDonder, Casey J. Jacob, Brae V. Surgeoner, Benjamin Chapman, Randall Phebus, Douglas A. Powell

http://www.emeraldinsight.com/Insight/viewContentItem.do;jsessionid=6146E6AFABCC349C376B7E55A3866D4A?contentType=Article&contentId=1811820 

Abstract:

Purpose – The purpose of the present study was to observe the preparation practices of both adult and young consumers using frozen, uncooked, breaded chicken products, which were previously involved in outbreaks linked to consumer mishandling. The study also sought to observe behaviors of adolescents as home food preparers. Finally, the study aimed to compare food handler behaviors with those prescribed on product labels. 

Design/methodology/approach – The study sought, through video observation and self-report surveys, to determine if differences exist between consumers’ intent and actual behavior.

 Findings – A survey study of consumer reactions to safe food-handling labels on raw meat and poultry products suggested that instructions for safe handling found on labels had only limited influence on consumer practices. The labels studied by these researchers were found on the packaging of chicken products examined in the current study alongside step-by-step cooking instructions. Observational techniques, as mentioned above, provide a different perception of consumer behaviors.

 Originality/value – This paper finds areas that have not been studied in previous observational research and is an excellent addition to existing literature.

Mathiasen, L.A., Chapman, B.J., Lacroix, B.J. and Powell, D.A. 2004. Spot the mistake: Television cooking shows as a source of food safety information, Food Protection Trends 24(5): 328-334.

Consumers receive information on food preparation from a variety of sources. Numerous studies conducted over the past six years demonstrate that television is one of the primary sources for North Americans. This research reports on an examination and categorization of messages that television food and cooking programs provide to viewers about preparing food safely. During June 2002 and 2003, television food and cooking programs were recorded and reviewed, using a defined list of food safety practices based on criteria established by Food Safety Network researchers. Most surveyed programs were shown on Food Network Canada, a specialty cable channel. On average, 30 percent of the programs viewed were produced in Canada, with the remainder produced in the United States or United Kingdom. Sixty hours of content analysis revealed that the programs contained a total of 916 poor food-handling incidents. When negative food handling behaviors were compared to positive food handling behaviors, it was found that for each positive food handling behavior observed, 13 negative behaviors were observed. Common food safety errors included a lack of hand washing, cross-contamination and time-temperature violations. While television food and cooking programs are an entertainment source, there is an opportunity to improve their content so as to promote safe food handling.

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