Tag Archives: Cross Contamination

13 sick, 9 hospitalized in Canadian E. coli O157:H7 outbreak linked to walnuts

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Late last night, Canadian health types issued a media release saying there were people sick from E. coli O157:H7 in several provinces linked to walnuts.

I noted that was really crappy risk communication – not being clear about what was known in terms of sick people and what was not known — which is expected of government agencies like Health Canada, especially when they proclaimed a couple of days ago they were a founding member of some international Center of Excellence in Food Risk Communication (it’s a website and sucks).

About an hour ago (2:16 p.m. Eastern, April 4, 2011) the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) announced there have been 13 cases of E. coli O157:H7 in Quebec, Ontario and New Brunswick (those are provinces in Canada). Nine individuals have been hospitalized and two cases developed hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS).

The strivers for excellence in food risk communication note:

“You can help reduce your risk of becoming ill by following safe food handling precautions:
? Clean counters and cutting boards and wash your hands regularly.
? Read labels and follow cooking and storage instructions for all foods.
? Make sure to check the "best before" date on all foods.
? Use warm soapy water to clean knives, cutting boards, utensils, your hands and any surfaces that have come in contact with food, especially meat and fish.
? Refrigerate or freeze perishable food within two hours of cooking.
? 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. Install a thermometer in your refrigerator to be sure.”

I have no idea how this applies to raw walnuts, like the ones I had on my salad for lunch (those yummy walnuts were from California, not Egypt, Lebanon, Syria, Turkey, Saudi Arabia or Iran, the places from where the fingered distributor, Amira Enterprises Inc. of St. Laurent, QC, imports things like walnuts.

And rather than toss out the suspect walnuts, Canadian health types recommend “consumers who have raw shelled walnuts in their home can reduce the risk of E. coli infection by roasting the walnuts prior to eating them. Consumers should place the nuts on a cooking sheet and bake at 350°F for 10 minutes, turning the nuts over once after five minutes.”

This does not account for the risk of cross-contamination with a virulent pathogen. My microbiology friends look forward to testing out this advice. I wonder what it was based on?
 

Research shows how easily bacteria can thrive and spread within family kitchens

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Colgate Palmolive and Don Schaffner (right, pretty much as shown) have hooked up to help spread awareness about safe kitchen practices.

Schaffner did a lit review, and I like that the press release has references – so many don’t; I don’t like that it repeatedly says food safety is simple and easy – it isn’t.

Research shows that E. coli, Salmonella and Staph can thrive on dishes and other kitchen surfaces.1 Whether putting away groceries or rinsing fresh vegetables, even the most careful cook can pass bacteria to new kitchen surfaces through the simple process of preparing a dish.

To help spread awareness about safe kitchen practices, the Palmolive® brand partnered with Donald W. Schaffner, Ph.D., renowned microbiologist and professor at Rutgers University. As an author of nearly 100 food microbiology studies, Dr. Schaffner was among the first to quantify how bacteria transfer during common kitchen tasks.

To demonstrate how easily cross-contamination can occur, Dr. Schaffner conducted a comprehensive review of his bacterial studies and those of leading universities and institutions worldwide that specialize in food safety research. Key research findings from this analysis include:

Bacterial Build-Up on Cutting Boards: Bacteria on a cutting board can double after 10 minutes of use, whether cutting raw meat or vegetables.2
Cutting Board Cross-Contamination: Ten percent of bacteria on a cutting board can transfer to lettuce while chopping.3
Survival of E. coli on Dishes: E. coli that remains on washed and dried dishes can survive up to three days.4

"Studies consistently demonstrate how easily bacteria spread throughout a kitchen – both bacteria-contaminated foods and hands can pass bacteria to dishes, cooking utensils and other ingredients," said Dr. Schaffner. "Yet, according to the research, even when cooks understand the ways bacteria can spread, they often fail to follow the simple precautions that can help reduce the risk of bacterial cross-contamination in the kitchen."

Consumers generally understand the causes of cross-contamination, such as not washing or changing the cutting board and other utensils between the preparation of meat and ready-to-eat foods.5 Despite this knowledge, many do not practice these safety measures while preparing meals. A recent study revealed that two-thirds of consumers failed to adequately wash hands after handling raw chicken, nearly 30 percent failed to wash or change the cutting board after cutting raw chicken and one-third failed to wash or change a knife used to cut raw chicken before cutting raw vegetables.6

"We know that consumers want to do everything they can to keep their kitchens clean and their families safe," said Dave Wilcox, Vice President, Product Safety, Regulatory & Quality, Colgate-Palmolive. "Using Ultra Palmolive® Antibacterial Dish Liquid to clean knife blades, dishes and other hard, nonporous kitchen surfaces throughout your cooking prep and clean-up process is a simple step that can help put your cooks’ minds at ease."

References?

1"The importance of hygiene in the domestic kitchen: Implications for preparation and storage of food and infant formula." 2009. Perspectives in Public Health, March. Vol. 129 No. 2 l. http://rsh.sagepub.com/content/129/2/69.refs.html

?2 "Use of Microbial Modeling and Monte Carlo Simulation to Determine Microbial Performance Criteria on Plastic Cutting Boards in Use in Foodservice Kitchens." 2004. Food Protection Trends, Vol. 24, No. 1: 14-19.

3 "Quantification and Variability analysis of Bacterial Cross-Contamination Rates in Common Food Service Tasks." 2001. Journal of Food Protection, Vol. 64, No. 1: 72-80.

4 "The survival of foodborne pathogens during domestic washing-up and subsequesnt transfer onto washing-up sponges, kitchen surfaces and food." 2002. International Journal of Food Microbiology, Vol. 85 (2003): 213- 226.

5 "Bacterial Contamination of Hands Increases Risk of Cross-contamination among Low-income Puerto Rican Meal Preparers." 2009. Journal of Nutritional Educational Behavior, Vol. 41:389-397?

6"Cooking Practices in the Kitchen-Observed Versus Predicted Behavior." 2009. Risk Analysis, Vol. 29, No. 4. DOI: 10.1111/j.1539-6924.2008.01189.x

Blame the consumer – Nebraska-style

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Campylobacter is on the rise, so the Douglas County Health Department has decided to remind consumers they are the critical control point when it comes to food safety.

With 40 confirmed cases of campylobacter this year — 35 per cent of cases treated in an emergency department and 12 per cent requiring hospitalization – the health department reports 85 per cent of those who became ill had eaten poultry products and 32 per cent had handled raw meat. All of the cases have involved meals prepared in the home.

With 40 people, this percentage talk is fairly meaningless. The press release also does not state whether these campylobacter cases involved frozen chicken thingies. And yes, it’s important for consumers to handle any raw food like it’s toxic waste, but why isn’t the public health dude asking, why so much campylobacter in food?

Douglas County Health Director Dr. Adi Pour said,

“This illness can be prevented with just a little extra precaution. The cases range in age from less than one year to over 80 years of age.”

The release also states that,

“cooked food appears to have been contaminated when it was reintroduced to plates that previously held the meat which had dripped juice on the plate.”

If there are 40 cases of campylobacter in Nebraska that can be traced to cross-contamination via plates, this is a significant research finding and should be published immediately in a peer-reviewed journal. We have found in our own research that cross-contamination is much higher than anyone expects. But then the release goes into standard talk of “Clean, Separate, Cook, Chill,” so maybe this is speculation rather than a scientific assessment.

Don’t know, can’t tell. Maybe the people who write press releases should provide more information and be less patronizing.
 

Shurley some mistake: should packaged salads be washed again or not? (Not)

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There’s some merit in ignoring garbage food safety news stories so they don’t take on too much credibility.

But then, garbage should also be crushed, quickly, factually, and mercilessly, so it doesn’t get repeated forever.

The Consumers Union theatrics about bacteria found in bagged leafy greens has found new legs in Canada – always a week behind — in stories with quotes like, “If you buy ready-made salad greens, wash them before eating.”

This is bull poop.

The March issue of Consumer Reports says that tests on 208 samples of salads sold in bags or plastic containers, conducted by Consumers Union revealed that 39 per cent of the salads analyzed revealed the presence of several types of bacteria, including total coliforms and Enterococcus, both found “in the human digestive tract.”

The Canadian wire story says: “Translation: poop.”

Not quite.

Trevor Suslow of UC Davis told the Perishable Pundit that “a normal head of lettuce is colonized, not contaminated with, a diversity of microbiota, including diverse types of bacteria. Only a small fraction of the total normal bacteria on lettuce can be grown or cultured in the lab. The total numbers of bacteria on a leaf far exceed the number of a single group like the Total Coliforms that were a prime target in the survey. A smaller subset of Total Coliform bacteria are the fecal coliforms. We eat lots and lots of microbes all the time. …

“I am certainly not a medical or public health expert and I am simplifying this quite a bit just to ensure that you are aware that a total coliform or fecal coliform doesn’t necessarily indicate fecal contamination in the plant world. Their numbers on a leaf or fruit do not relate well to risk of illness or true and serious pathogens being present. When one follows standard protocols, developed for dairy, meat, drinking water, and wastewater reclamation, for example, for enumerating total coliform populations from plants, one often gets high numbers of these plant colonizers. They are very tough to wash off…”

“Purchasing packaged salads or whole heads is a matter of personal choice. We do both in my family. I always wash loose leaf lettuces to remove any adhering soil. I never wash packaged salads. I do not support or believe that re-washing packaged salads should be a recommendation for the home consumer. A large and diverse panel of experts published a comprehensive article in 2007 detailing the scientific evidence for the lack of benefit and the greater risk of cross-contamination in the home.”

That report is available here. The conclusion is there is a greater chance of cross-contamination during the rewash of packaged greens. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration also states, “… there is no need to wash fresh-cut leafy greens again if they are labeled as "washed," "triple washed," or "ready-to-eat" on the package. Although not recommended, if end users do re-wash RTE fresh-cut leafy greens, having appropriate sanitary washing and drying conditions in the foodservice, retail or in-home food preparation environment to reduce the potential for cross contamination of fresh-cut RTE produce with human pathogens. “

The U.K. Food Standards Authority made a similar statement about no need for rewashing after the Brits had a row about the issue documented in Salad Smackdown ’08.

The issue is complicated, but for Consumers Union to come out with a soundbite about washing greens is great PR and lousy public policy. For journalists not to check is becoming standard for an industry in decline. For the producers of bagged leafy greens, this is an opportunity to tout your food safety efforts and market them at retail so consumers can choose.

The wooden board wins

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Food safety experts always recommend using two cutting boards, one strictly for meat and meat products and the other for fruits and vegetables to avoid cross contamination. Great advice, now what type of cutting board will reduce microbial counts after cleaning; plastic, wood, or marble?
 
Ninemsn reports:
 
Plastic comes a definite last and that’s because bacteria are able to breed in the cuts left by knives.
Marble came in second because bacteria spread everywhere. Marble also loses points because it’s tough on knives.
In the final wash-up, it was wood that blew the competition out of the water. This is no surprise to Professor Cliver. In many similar experiments, wood’s always been a winner.
Leila: "Why is wood so much better?"
Professor Cliver: "It’s a very porous material and the fluid is drawn into the wood by capillary action and if there are bacteria in the fluid they go in and they never come back alive."
Leila: "So the wooden boards kill the bacteria?"
Professor: "Well, they die off slowly. It may take a few hours, but all the same, they aren’t in a position to cause any trouble."
Leila: "So wood’s the way to go?"
Professor: "In my opinion."
But the professor adds a rider — be sure to choose a tight-grained hardwood board. If the wood’s too soft, those pesky bacteria can multiply in deep knife cuts.
 
 
I had the opportunity to swab a number of cutting boards when shooting the series Kitchen Crimes, both plastic and wooden boards. Microbial counts were consistently high because bacteria will hide in the cracks and crevices of the board rendering cleaning ineffective. It is important to toss or refinish your cutting board if it appears to be heavily grooved to prevent this from occurring.
 
Here are some tips on how to effectively clean and sanitize your board:
1. Wash with soap and water using friction.
2. Rinse with warm water.
3. Sanitize using a mild solution of bleach to water, approximately 5mL bleach to 500mL water.
4. Finally allow to air dry for optimum results.

Kitchen closed for cross-contamination

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Shangri La restaurant in Phoenix, AZ has failed its most recent inspection, and it’s no wonder why, reports Phoenix New Times.

Raw sprouts were too warm. There was no hand soap in the employee restroom. Opened cans of food were stored too long. Boxes of raw duck were in the wrong place, as was a bag of carrots. There were soiled sponges at the hand sink, cooked chicken without a date, and the sink on the cook line was starting to back up.

Directly from the inspection report,

"ICE MACHINE SOILED WITH BLACK & BROWN BUILD UP (INSIDE FRONT PANEL & UNDER PANEL WHERE CHUTE IS). … LARGE CUTTING BOARDS PITTED, SCORED & STAINED."

But that’s not Shangri La’s worst transgression…this inspection report underscores the importance of proper storage:

"TWO BOXES OF RAW CHICKEN BEING STORED AND DRIPPING OVER TWO BOXES OF LETTUCE…."

Inspection reports are available online in Phoenix, and the report for Shangri La can be found here.
 

Food safety vs food security

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My month-long break in Paraguay is coming to an end. It has been a hectic month – packed with family visits, celebrations, and of course, lots of [un-safe] food.

With concepts like “cross contamination”,  “meat temperature”, and “hand washing” floating around my head I’ve been able to look at things differently.  I concluded that we are decades behind the U.S. in terms of food safety. 

While Americans worry much about food safety, Paraguayans are more occupied with food security. Access to food is more important than stopping to think whether it’s safe or not. I even have a hard time explaining what food safety is. I am not surprised; I had no idea when I started working for Doug. Food safety topics are not in the news much and I have not heard people discussing about it.

To find out more, I’ve sat around the kitchen a lot. I tried a few times to explain to the cook why she should wash her hands every time she touches raw meat and goes on to something else. All I got back were looks of ‘you are just crazy’. Her food is still delicious.

I asked her how often her kids have diarrhea. She said, not often, maybe once or twice a month. I asked her if she’s worried about it, she answered she’s not, it’s a normal part of being a kid. 

Or maybe our stomachs are used to handling salmonella and E. coli better than others. It’s hard to know. When I moved to Kansas two years ago I survived on rice and toast for a week because I couldn’t stop barfing.

But sitting back and recalling some of my experiences on this side of the world, I am surprised I have not yet barfed once (not counting the New Years party, when I had too much champagne).

A couple of weeks ago I went to eat one of my favorite meals – steak sandwich – better known as lomito. The best place I know is just a few blocks away – a humble-looking lomito stand. I took a bite out of my lomito and realized the meat was still pink on the inside. Out of the corner of my eye I spotted the mayonnaise tub by the grill.

I wondered how long the mayo (probably home-made, with raw egg) had been sitting out in the heat. I wondered where he kept the raw meat or how he knew if it was done or not. Should I ask? I resolved that some things are better left unknown. I finished munching and handed him the money. He grabbed the bills with bare hands, put them in a box, and continued flipping steaks. (Note: the pic to the right is actually another lomito I ate during a short visit to Brazil, but that’s pretty much how it looked like)

We do have nice restaurants where things like these don’t happen or at least we don’t see them happening. But in a broader picture, citizens and leaders of the country have plenty to figure out before they can tackle food safety concerns.

In the meantime, I will keep savoring the lomitos, chipa guazu, sopa paraguaya, asados, and such. For me, it is still awesome [un-safe] food.

Pedigree pet food and pregnancy: Managing cross-contamination risks at home

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I am now 6 ½ months pregnant and still somewhat peacefully coexisting with our four pets. But pregnancy has meant giving special attention to handwashing and avoiding cross-contamination.
Although I thought I was being overly cautious, on Sept. 13 Pedigree small crunchy bites and Pedigree large breed complete nutrition dry pet food products were recalled due to possible Salmonella contamination (see http://www.wormsandgermsblog.com/2008/09/articles/animals/dogs/pet-food-recall-salmonella/). This appears to be the same food we feed our dogs and I know one of them was throwing up outside yesterday. Of course … she also likes to eat grass and other vomitous materials.

In addition to pet food which may contain pathogens, I pay close attention to the handling of dog treats which have been found problematic in the past. Our dogs have been getting their fill of bones lately because we haven’t had the usual time and energy to devote to their exercise. I try to avoid touching the dog bones when I take them out of the package and I wash the scissors I use to cut the packages open. I always wash my hands afterwards.

It really isn’t easy to think about washing hands every time you feed and pet the dogs, but the following are things I am trying to do to keep me and my future baby safe:

  • regularly wash the dog dishes
  • wash my hands every time I fill the dog water and food bowls (the dogs eat and drink, spreading any microbes from one bowl to the next)
  • wash my hands after opening treats and/or giving them to the dogs
  • wash the scissors after opening treat bags
  • wash my hands after playing with the pets
  • avoid letting the dogs lick my face of hands
  • wipe down the counter where pet treats have touched

These steps are all much more difficult for me than they sound. I’m usually very playful and affectionate with my pets, even though I no longer allow the dogs on the bed or couch. It’s also very difficult to think about handwashing when you are out on a walk with the dogs and give them treats as part of a training process. In those cases I just remind myself not to touch my face or use a wet wipe when I have one handy.

I am still learning after years of taking it for granted that my dogs’ food was safe. Food safety, even for pets, is not simple.

For human symptoms of salmonella poisoning, check out http://barfblog.foodsafety.ksu.edu/2008/06/articles/salmonella/salmonella-symptoms/

According to an article in the North Country Gazette (April 3, 2007) related to a past pet food recall:

Pets with salmonella infections may be lethargic and have diarrhea or bloody diarrhea, fever, and vomiting. Some pets will have only decreased appetite, fever and abdominal pain. Apparently well animals can be a carrier and infect other animals or humans. If your pet has consumed the recalled product and has these symptoms, please contact your veterinarian.
 

Wanna learn how to cross contaminate? Watch the Today Show

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Anyone see the Memorial Day edition of the Today Show? Amy and I are set up in an apartment in Montreal and the channel selection is limited, so it was on in the background.

Apparent BBQ guru John Willoughby (right) was on, preparing Grilled cowboy steak with barbecued leeks and wholegrain apricot mustard. The video is available for viewing at http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/24828622#24828622.

Willoughby shows how simple it is to cross-contaminate — directly or indirectly —  and to remain completely unaware of the transfer of potentially dangerous microorganisms from raw meat to hands and tongs, and back to cooked meat and clean plates.

Cross-contamination is simple — and it happens everyday on TV, in food service and in the home. One approach may be to think like a microorganism — be the bug — and take steps to contain the bug, without going all Howard Hughes.