Tag Archives: Communication

CFIA says listeria silence was a mistake

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During the waning days of the Canadian listeria outbreak, a Canadian academic-type sent me a love letter, which said,
 
“I did hear awkward remarks about your organisation from several microbiologists I know. Your comments in CB confirmed what I heard. I heard other comments you made recently on the listeria outbreak, appalling, very poor comments. Please refrain making further comments, at least publicly.  You are hurting our profession.”

I guess if your profession is kissing the ass of industry and the federal government while people die and pregnant women risk miscarriage, then yes, I’ve been harming your profession.

But now, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency has taken to echoing the concerns – the “very poor comments” – that I have stated since the beginning of the listeria outbreak in Aug. 2008.

Robert Cribb of the Toronto Star wrote on Wednesday that,

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency could have done a far better job communicating with the public during this summer’s listeria outbreak, a top official at the federal agency concedes.

"There’s been a lot of hard questions asked … in terms of how we can get information to the public in as timely a way as possible," said Dr. Brian Evans, CFIA executive vice-president and chief veterinary officer of Canada. "I accept the criticism that there is a need for us to reflect and to do a much better job of informing (Canadians)."

Oh Brain Evans, where were you in August?

As I’ve written many times before, if Canadian cattle or chickens get sick, the public is told all about it. ??????If Canadian people get sick, not so much.

Cribb also writes that one CFIA initiative that will help in that regard is a newly formed advisory panel comprised of four prominent food safety experts. The panel will consult with the CFIA on best practices and possible changes to existing protocols.

That may help with listeria testing protocols but I can’t see how it will help with communications; especially since CFIA hasn’t announced who is on this advisory panel and what it is they will do. If you really want to do better, CFIA, don’t talk about it, do it. Oh, and clearly articulate your policy on when to go public about foodborne illness outbreaks. And warning labels.

My friend, Harshavardhan Thippareddi, a listeria expert and associate professor of food science at the University of Nebraska, was also quoted in the Star story, saying,

"While food safety should be the responsibility of individual companies, the regulatory agencies have the responsibility to verify that the food safety of the products produced is assured. Thus, the regulatory agency can, and I believe should, require companies to share any and all data that pertains to any safety issue, in this case listeria testing results."

Amen.

Oh, and to the author of the love scribble, awkward doesn’t begin to describe things. Amy and Ben and others around me are saints. But at least I am willing to state my evidence-based opinion publicly, with my name attached.

Listeria has been my worst nightmare for the past 9 months

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I’m a self-described food safety nerd. I don’t hide from this obsession, I embrace it.  But my fixation on everything food safety has led to much stress lately — for the past 9 months my food safety spidey-sense has been heightened more than normal as Dani and I have been expecting a baby.

And he finally arrived last week.

Our little dude, Jack Neil Chapman, showed up Friday morning at 4:11am (Yes, the Neil part is named after the greatest Canadian singer/songwriter, Neil Young — I’ll fight anyone who disagrees, Ari Gold style, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QGVoLsDS3t8&e)

Throughout Dani’s pregnancy I became the food police in our house — no soft cheeses or cold deli meats made it to Dani’s plate, most didn’t even make it in the house. Everything (and I mean everything) has been temped during cooking. I read pretty well every paper I could on listeria, and Doug and I discussed the merits of broad food surveys and listeria growth in blue-veined cheese. It was a bit ridiculous, but I hear that first time parents sometimes can be obsessive.

During the recent Canadian listeria outbreaks I selfishly felt vindicated for keeping the products out of our house — our view was that no matter what type of food safety system food processors had, we weren’t taking the risk. Maple Leaf is a huge company that can afford lots of food safety controls, spoke about their commitment to food safety, and even used the food safety culture term Doug and I are so fond of. But 18 people have so far died from listeria in their products.

When I held Jack for the first time, about 30 seconds after he was born, I first thought "Wow, you’re tiny and light, and you don’t smell as manky as I had thought you would" and soon after I thought about the parents, people just like us, who have been recently affected by listeria.  The victims include at least one miscarriage and  six babies born prematurely in Quebec resulting from the consumption of soft cheeses. A 6-week old Manitoba infant born with a listeria, not linked to either Maple Leaf or Quebec soft cheeses outbreak, also died last week. Those are the ones we know about.

And then I realized that, although I thought I did a great job managing risks in our house, I and the rest of the food safety world have probably failed many out there who haven’t reduced risks.  Not the individuals who made the choice to eat risky foods, but the parents who have never heard about listeria, the ones who ate risky foods without knowing that listeria is 20 times more likely to infect pregnant women or that listeria infections during preganancy are likely to cause miscarriages or stillbirth.   Who knows what effect our risk-reduction practices had on Dani’s pregnancy. Maybe things would have been fine without being so strict, but we weren’t interested in taking the chance.

I’m all about informed decisions around risk. I even think there is a place for raw milk consumption for adults.  But we had the info to make the decisions.  Info that came from a variety of places (for us it was primary resources, outbreak reports and review papers). Other parents rely on food safety professionals, like the health authorities, for info.

Last weekend was all about Jack, and I didn’t get back into reading FSNet until yesterday morning (I’m getting quite good at holding him and reading emails at the same time) and I came across Canada’s Chief Public Health Officer, Dr. David Butler-Jones’ advice concerning listeria, including the below:
*Wash your hands. This will help avoid many kinds of infections. Wash your hands in warm soapy water before preparing food, afterwards, and again before eating.
*Read labels and follow cooking and storage instructions for all foods. Make sure to check the “best before” date.
*Freeze or consume leftovers within four days of cooking. Always reheat leftovers until steaming hot before eating.
*Keep refrigerators clean and at a temperature below 4 C, or 40 F. Listeria can grow in the fridge, but the colder it is, the slower it grows. Install a thermometer in your fridge to be sure.
Those tips apply to all of us, all the time, and not just during an outbreak.

There are so many holes in his list of advice, many have nothing to do with listeria, and I don’t think there is evidence that supports many of his statements. Following the list of consumer blames, Butler-Jones did get into listeria with feel-good language: "For seniors, pregnant women, and those with weakened immune systems, or for those serving or caring for anyone in these groups, some extra precautions are very important as [various] foods pose some risk."  He ended his advice with "these steps form a simple approach to food safety."

The most important message missing from his list was: Don’t eat this stuff unless you are cool with the risks.

I sent an email to Doug (the subject line was "what a f*ing joke"), saying where was Dr. Butler-Jones when the outbreak was announced a month ago.  Did it really take a month for his staff to wake up and get some info out there?  A question echoed in the upcoming Canadian Medical Association Journal which says that the Public Health Agency of Canada should be the primary source of information for the public during a crisis and that Canada’s chief public health officer has not been the lead voice to inform the public.

So I guess my preachy message is along the lines of don’t eat poop (especially baby poop, though Jack’s hasn’t started to smell yet).We need to do a better job of creating a dialogue around food safety risks with specific target audiences — especially those at higher risk for foodborne illnesses.  And though the bureaucrats talk a lot, they need to be the real leaders in information — and forget about the fuzzy language that will make the minister happy.  Tell people to stay away from the risky stuff.
 

Cats eating better than their owners

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I’ve just started my first year of veterinary school, and after only two days into the program, I’ve been contacted by at least five pet food companies touting their premium pet food that is healthy for pets and tasty as well.  I suppose that pets enjoy the variety of flavors, but a new study from Australia suggests it’s doing more harm than good.

Deakin University scientist Dr Giovanni Turchini has discovered an estimated 2.48 million tonnes of forage fish – a limited biological resource – is consumed by the global cat food industry each year.

This puts cats ahead of people as far as consumption rates go; pet cats are eating an estimated 13.7 kilograms of fish a year, which far exceeds the Australian average (human) per capita fish and seafood consumption of around 11 kilograms.

Just as obesity has become a major epidemic among Americans, it is also an epidemic among pets.  These tasty canned foods with enticing flavors such as “shredded yellowfin tuna fare” only encourage pets to grow wider around the belly all while pet food companies continue to cook up new ideas for making cats want their food.

What happened to cats eating regular dry food?  Though, even the dry food goes overboard for Fancy Feast, which touts three different flavors for the finicky cat.  With the slogan of “A bowl full of ‘I love you,’” Fancy Feast has definitely gone overboard in pampering cats.  If you love your pet, then why are you feeding it a high-fat meal?

The luxury products containing fish unfortunately are contributing to the overfishing problem worldwide.

Listeria recall: We’ve got pictures, Maple Leaf doesn’t

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Maple Leaf’s CEO Michael McCain says his company has a culture of food safety.  I’ve written about the food safety culture concept and believe that a big part of it is being ready for outbreaks and recalls.  They happen.  A lot.

I’m not sure what Mr. McCain and his team has done in preparation for this outbreak, but in March  I wrote about Quaker Oats handling of a recall due to Salmonella in some of their Aunt Jemima products:

"Quaker Oats has great information on their website already [less than 4 hours after the recall], with a nice graphic on how to handle the recall…. Especially love that people can sign-up for ongoing info — good preparation on Quaker Oats’ part."

It looked like they were ready for a problem, and already had the resources in place to get information out to their customers.

The thing I liked the most about Quaker Oats’ Aunt Jemima situation was that they had pictures of the recalled product. A company with a culture of food safety is ready for a recall, has a website with pictures and consumer-friendly information ready to go in anticipation, like Quaker Oats did.

Maple Leaf has a big list of recalled products (220, check it out here) but they don’t have any pictures of them. It’s not a superficial request to have some nice pictures to show folks what this stuff looks like, and where you can find the sometimes elusive codes/dates/establishment code.  It’s just good communication.  The FDA realized this, and last year started including pictures on their recall notices for products that they have deemed to be high health risks (after the Castleberry’s chili sauce recall). 

Sometimes I buy lunch meat.  Sometimes I even get the prepackaged stuff.  I don’t always know what brand it is, and I don’t know all the intricacies of the food system and get mixed up as to which parent company makes Shopsy’s.  The list system is confusing.

The Globe and Mail is reporting tonight that:
Maple Leaf is working with distributors to track down all 220 products from the Toronto site, which Mr. McCain told reporters could be anywhere in Canada. That could take as long as three to five days, he said during a news conference at the firm’s Toronto head office.

At about 7:50pm this evening I thought I’d take a look at whether I could find any of these recalled products at the grocery store and get some pictures to demonstrate where the codes can be found.

I found some.

About 2 minutes after entering Ultra Food and Drug in Guelph, I was able to find the recalled Maple Leaf’s EZee Sub Dagwood products, with the establishment code (denoted, I assume, by the "EST. 97B" still on the shelves.  That’s the bad news.

The good news is that I can use a real example of what one of the recalled products looks like and where the establishment code is.  Something that Maple Leaf hasn’t done.

Pregnant humans and cats can co-mingle

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My friend and OK hockey player Scott Weese seems to be having fun with his Worms and Germs blog. It’s a great resource for pet ownership, especially aspects of zoonotic disease.

Yesterday, Scott asked, are pregnancy and cats compatible? Amy, who’s six months pregnant, and I share our Manhattan home with two dogs and two cats (the cats are from Walkerton, Ontario, and made the trip to Kansas with me). Scott writes, and I didn’t know about the 24-hour infectious bit, that,

“Cats are the only animal species that can spread Toxoplasma in their stool. Shedding rates in cats are quite low, but can be higher in cats that go outside, hunt or are fed raw meat. However, it takes 24 hours or more for Toxoplasma in stool to be infectious (that means that fresh stool cannot spread Toxoplasma). That key point greatly reduces the risk of transmission from cats.”

Sure, if you clean the litter box regularly. That’s Amy with Crystal (right).
 

Setting Boundaries: Pets and your newborn baby

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My ex mother-in-law once told me that if I had a baby I would have to get rid of my cats. I replied, “No cats, no baby.” My step-brother’s cats mysteriously disappeared once his firstborn was old enough to crawl. Doug and I have two cats and two dogs and no intention of giving them up or sending them outdoors once the baby arrives. Sure, there’s dog hair all over the floors and it’s going to be a hassle learning to manage new and old responsibilities – and much more difficult to keep pet hair out of the baby’s mouth once she’s mobile. But we committed to the pets long ago and have been working on teaching them their order in the home.

The Dog Whisperer, Cesar Millan, recommends that the dogs not even be allowed near the baby’s belongings at first to teach them that Baby is Alpha. Let them sniff at a distance until they know their place. When the dogs go for a walk, it should be behind the stroller, and they shouldn’t get unsupervised visitation, if they are allowed at all, in the baby’s room. It’s all about setting boundaries.

The Worms and Germs Blog by Doug’s ex-hockey buddy Scott Weese (he’s still a buddy but no hockey for Doug in Manhattan) recommends in “Old pet, new baby…new problems?” that we visit our veterinarian and the humane society to get advice on introducing the dogs and cats to the baby. Scott provides relevant downloadable pamphlets from the Calgary Humane Society in his blog post.
We want all four pets and the three of us to survive the transition without nips, scratches, or territory marking. We get enough of that from our friends and colleagues.

How modern science and old-fashioned detective work cracked the salmonella case

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Amy and I are back in Manhattan. We missed a hailstorm, the first tornado in 42 years, but we didn’t miss Salmonella in tomatoes.

We left Quebec City at 9 a.m. last Friday. National Public Radio Science Friday wanted me as a guest, and so did CNN. By 3:30 pm, we were in nowhere southwestern Ontario and I had to call the NPR studio — and they insisted on a landline.

So, after several pay phones didn’t work out, we found a lakeside motel. I hastily pleaded with the innkeeper for her phone. She said, "What’s it worth to you?"

I gave her $20.

That’s me doing my live interview on NPR (above, not exactly as shown; left, exactly as shown).

A couple of hours later we arrived at a TV studio in Toronto for a CNN interview. They said I was too late for Friday’s show, but they wanted the footage anyway and maybe they’d use it Monday.

They didn’t.

I’ve done dozens of radio interviews, and find myself defending public health types — why is it taking so long to find the source of Salmonella in tomatoes? What tomatoes should be avoided? I explain, but even through radio, can sense the listeners eyes glazing over. Public health has always been a largely thankless job  — whether local, state or federal.

So a big thank you to Elizabeth Weise of USA Today, whose story in this morning’s paper is an outstanding exposé of how the Salmonella in tomato case was cracked. It has become required reading in any of my courses.

To all the armchair quarterbacks that fill talk radio and Internet blogs, stop bitching and start producing. And move out of your parents’ basement.

If I was a tomato grower, this is what I would say — but only if it were true

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I started worked with Ontario Greenhouse Vegetable Growers in 1998. The general manager at the time, Denton Hoffman, saw the U.S. export market growing rapidly, and told me of his recurring nightmare … one he wanted to prevent.

"The phone rings and it’s a retailer on the U.S. east coast. He says he’s got a customer who says she got sick from eating my Ontario greenhouse tomatoes. What do I say?"

That was the challenge Denton laid out for my group in 1998. Using a risk analysis approach, we assessed the risks for all 220 or so Ontario greenhouse producers, developed management schemes, and communicated what we were doing to buyers, consumers, whoever.

We learned lots of things about building trust with individual growers (which means visiting their farms, not plopping them in a classroom and trying to make them HACCP experts), coming up with practical, farm-based solutions, and being on call 24/7 for when those phone calls come in (that’s me and Amber Leudtke, back in about 2001, in a greenhouse, above right).

But I could never get the group to take the final step and really promote their food safety program. I suggested putting a url on the stickers at retail that would link to a series of videos showing whoever wanted to see them the food safety practices undertaken by the growers.

During the latest Salmonella-in-tomatoes outbreak, a rep for Nature Sweet, a grower in San Antonio e-mailed me and said, what should we do? This grower does great things for food safety. So I told her.

The rep wrote me back last week and said,

"I spoke with you last week briefly about the tomato outbreak.  You made the suggestion about putting our company’s safety practices on blogs, YouTube, etc.  Well, we took your advice and have created a video that is up on YouTube.  Here is the link to the video if you’re interested to view it, http://www.youtube.com/naturesweettomatoes."

The video is also below. Sure, I’d rather see a farmer than the marketing dude, and the intro will have to be redone for future use, but the rest is great.

And they spelled it out in a press release:

Our greenhouse growing practices are the foundation of our food safety program:

• The water supply used in our greenhouses is self-contained, filtered, and secure. Water from each well and each greenhouse farm is continuously monitored and tested for purity by our staff and by third party experts.
 
• We use only natural fertilizers.

• Our tomatoes are picked under sanitary conditions.

• Food safety begins with the seed. Our tomato seeds are always naturally selected, disinfected and germinated under sanitary conditions.

• Within each greenhouse, we control and monitor all intakes – water, nutrients, and pest control.

In addition to our greenhouse practices, we also employ the following food safety initiatives:

• Regulate all aspects of tomato production and processing, as well as employ the best agricultural practices.

• Monitor all of our systems continuously to ensure that our produce exceeds the highest food safety standards and FDA guidelines. In addition to our adherence to HACCP-based safety practices, we follow rigorous training, growing, packing, and shipping standards.

• Use a food safety coding system that provides us with traceability of every case and pallet of tomatoes to the greenhouse in which they are grown. In addition, each individual selling unit has a comprehensive food safety tracking code.

• Test, monitor, and audit our products, our water, our processes, and our procedures regularly with staff and third-party experts.

I can quibble about details. But it’s a great start, and, like transparency in risk assessments, now that it’s out there, it can be improved. It’s a lot better than just telling consumers to wash their tomatoes or it’s local so it’s safe.

Health Canada can’t help themselves — ruins tomato PR effort with BS

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There’s been lots of silly statements in the latest Salmonella-in-tomato outbreak. For example, at right is the sign from The Pad in Topeka, Kansas (photo by Stephanie Maurer). I have no idea which Dept. of Ag. inspected the tomatoes, and I’m not sure what they thought they’d find by looking. I’ll be revisiting the risk communication highlights in the coming weeks.

One press release stood out yesterday. Health Canada decided to "remind Canadians of the importance of proper handling and preparation of fresh tomatoes in order to prevent foodborne illness."

Uh-oh. Sure washing can remove some amount of pathogens and dust, but not much. As Robert Tauxe, Deputy Director, Centers for Disease Control Division of Foodborne, Bacterial, and Mycotic Diseases, pointed out at a session sponsored by the New York Academy Of Sciences in April, "Washing might be logical, but it turns out that it removes very few pathogens."

Reminds me of past outbreaks when various groups have tried to advise consumers to control problems that were quite out of their control — like Salmonella in tomatoes (see, pathogens in produce; once inside they ain’t being washed off at all).

The Health Canada effort concludes by stating

"… there are as many as 13 million cases of food-related illnesses in Canada every year. Many of these illnesses could be prevented by following proper food handling and preparation techniques."

Why do the PR thingies feel it necessary to add on such a meaningless statement about proper handling and preparation in an outbreak that does not appear to involve food handling and preparation? Food safety for produce begins on the farm, and then all the way through the farm-to-fork system. But especially, for fresh produce, on the farm. Canadian taxpayers deserve better.

United Egg Producers to launch new website

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I’m on my way to Toronto, weather permitting, to speak at the Ontario Veterinary Medical Association annual meeting about one of my favorite topics — ever-evolving food safety messages and mediums.

I’ve always been a fan of Marshall McLuhan and read all his stuff 25 years ago. The cameo he did in Woody Allen’s Annie Hall, where McLuhan tells some pompous professor that he doesn’t understand his theories at all and is not qualified to teach, is so … apt.

So after 10 years of urging agriculture and food groups, really anyone who wants to get out there — to stop complaining and get out there — they’re starting to do it. The American Meat Institute posted its first youtube video a few months ago.

Now, United Egg Producers is getting ready to launch the new website USA Egg Farmers.

This website, available in February, will allow consumers online access to information about egg production and the UEP Certified animal welfare program, which covers ethics and science-based standards to deliver good hen welfare.

The new website will also include live broadcasts of UEP animal welfare conferences, as well as farm tours and interviews with producers.
Sure, people will take shots at you, but that’s what happens when you stick your head up. Better than bitching in backrooms.