125 students victims of food poisoning in French canteen

In yet another outbreak of foodborne illness in  France (which Amy helped translate this warm Sunday morning), 125 school students in Lambeth, near Lille, were stricken with fish_headsstomach pains, vomiting and headaches.

According to Marc-Philippe Daubresse, the Mayor of Lambeth, , this “slight” intoxication was due to the fish. But checks were requested to Sodexo, the provider of meals in the city.

French Ministers contract foodborne outbreak in Algiers

(translated by Amy hubbell)

During his visit to Algeria on December 16, France’s Prime Minister along with a few members of his government had the idea to go eat fish at a restaurant serving dishes local to Algiers. They fell ill, and came out the other side with a  raging foodborne illness, according to the Canard Enchaîné newspaper in today’s edition.

 The historic journey of the French delegation to Algeria ended not in one drama but in two, joked the satirical French weekly paper. The first was the witticism the French President let out during a dinner about Valls coming back from Algiers “safe and sound which is saying MC3_1544 Bejaia Bonitosa lot.” It was a joke that angered social media in Algeria and which the Algerian authorities only reacted to much later. The second drama, however, was not reported until the news was released by the Canard Enchaîné.

 On December 15, the French delegation led by Jean-Marc Ayrault went out to dine at the port in a fish and seafood restaurant. The result, as revealed by the satirical weekly paper: a raging case of foodborne illness. 

I’ll have snapper, scallops, bay bugs and tuna; stories about mislabeled fish make me want authentic

As Europeans and others try to decide if that burger or frozen lasagna is made with horsemeat, rampant food fraud has once again been snapper.feb.13confirmed in U.S. seafood.

So I had to have fish for dinner.

A two-year investigation of seafood by the world’s largest ocean conservation group, Oceana, found a fillet red snapper could be cheap tilapia; a pricey wild-caught salmon steak from Alaska could be farmed Atlantic salmon from Chile; sushi in a restaurant could be anything.

Elizabeth Weise of USA Today reports Oceana’s volunteers collected fish samples at 674 supermarkets, restaurants and sushi counters in 21 states and found several examples of fish fraud. For instance, 87% of the snapper samples were not snapper. White tuna was mislabeled 59% of the time. Between one-third and one-fifth of the halibut, grouper, cod and Chilean sea bass tested were mislabeled.

“Honestly, it was a surprise,” says Beth Lowell, who coordinated the survey for Oceana. “Everywhere we looked for seafood fraud, we found tuna.feb.13,jpgit. It’s consistent around the country.”

At sushi restaurants, 74% had at least one sample come back mislabeled. At restaurants, 38% had at least one problem sample; in grocery stores, 18% did.

Oceana wasn’t able to determine whether the mislabeling occurred at the supplier, distributor or retailer. Seafood goes through many hands, so it’s easy for someone to substitute it, partly because 84% of the seafood eaten in the United States is imported, according to Gavin Gibbons of the National Fisheries Institute, a seafood industry trade group.

The good news for consumers is that Oceana found mislabeling only in the highest-priced seafood. The five most commonly eaten seafood types in the United States are shrimp, canned tuna, salmon, pollock (used in fish sticks) and tilapia, Gibbons says. All are low-cost and not often substituted.

Oceana’s Lowell offers this advice for consumers:

– Ask questions at the restaurant or market about where the fish comes from.

– When possible, buy a whole fish. Fish look different even when their fillets look similar. ​

Ocenana’s Lowell told the N.Y. Times, “Even a relatively educated consumer couldn’t look at a whole fish and say, ‘I’m sure that’s a red snapper and not lane snapper.’ ”

Reading about all this fish made me hunger for the real thing, or at least some form of verification, so off we went off to our local fish monger.

For lunch we had a chunk of Sashimi grade Yellowfin Tuna. How did I know it was what it proclaimed to be? Fishmonger showed me the rest fish.bbq.feb.13of the fish out back.

For dinner we had some kind of snapper fished off New Zealand, along with scallops and bay bugs (and a pizza for Sorenne).

We’re fortunate to live close to such great seafood, but as fishmonger told me, mislabeling is rampant in Australia as well.

I’m a landlubber and wouldn’t know the difference, but DNA testing is becoming increasingly available and simple. Those retailers that are selling the real deal – and there’s a premium involved – should be able to collect valid data and use that to market their wares. Trust and faith ain’t worth much. Data is.

Temperature-verified Gulf snapper

Amy’s mom wants me to cook salmon while visiting us on Anna Maria Island in Florida. She says she can’t tell when it’s done

I said use a thermometer, and cook to about 120F (that should take care of the parasites).

But why preach when practice works better.

So off we went to the fishmonger in Cortez, a working fishing wharf on Sarasota Bay.

Following a delightful lunch of stone crabs, we had red snapper for dinner, accompanied by brown rice and baked veggies. The crab and snapper both came from the Gulf of Mexico.

I baked the snapper to about 130F, verified using my tip-sensitive digital thermometer I brought with me (I feel naked cooking without a thermometer).

The meal garnered rave reviews.

 

Is that a tapeworm you have or are you just happy to see me; ceviche, to eat or not

Gonzalo Erdozain asks, what to do when tired of writing a research paper? Cook, and then blog about it.

The cooking in this case is a misnomer – I prepared ceviche. It has different iterations with varied ingredients, but as a food safety nerd, the one constant element of concern (which makes it ceviche) is raw fish “cooked” with lime juice. Eating this dish a few years ago would have been easy, but with three years of food safety research and two years of vet school under my belt, I just know a bit too much about the risks involved. Yet, here I am, preparing it.

Besides the well-known possibility of a bacterial contamination, like Salmonella (as in a recent sushi outbreak), Listeria (of special concern for pregnant women and immunocompromised individuals), or Vibrio, I happened to recall a parasitology lecture about Diphyllobothrium latum, a.k.a. broad tapeworm (although not a true tapeworm, we will call it that to spare you the details as to what qualifies as a true tapeworm).

D. latum is becoming more common in developed countries due to the increasing popularity of dishes based around raw fish (e.g., ceviche, sushi, sashimi). Doing some research, I found a paper where the acidity of the lime lowered the Vibrio numbers down to a safe level, while another study found lime acidity to have no effect on Salmonella. Listeria seems to be less resistant to acidic condition when kept at 7º C, and since ceviche is refrigerated for two hours while the fish “cooks,” the risk of Listeria could be reduced (I would still never feed this to a pregnant woman or immunocompromised individual).

Regarding the tapeworm, I didn’t find anything specific about lime juice, but the FDA makes the following recommendation:

“Parasites (in the larval stage) consumed in uncooked, or undercooked, unfrozen seafood can present a human health hazard. Among parasites, the nematodes or roundworms (Anisakis spp., Pseudoterranova spp., Eustrongylides spp. and Gnathostoma spp.), cestodes or tapeworms (Diphyllobothrium spp.) and trematodes or flukes (Chlonorchis sinensis, Opisthorchis spp., Heterophyes spp., Metagonimus spp., Nanophyetes salminicola and Paragonimus spp.) are of most concern in seafood. Freezing and storing at -4°F (-20°C) or below for 7 days (total time), or freezing at -31°F (-35°C) or below until solid and storing at -31°F (-35°C) or below for 15 hours, or freezing at -31°F (-35°C) or below until solid and storing at -4°F (-20°C) or below for 24 hours is sufficient to kill parasites. FDA’s Food Code recommends these freezing conditions to retailers who provide fish intended for raw consumption.”

I used cod, and found no evidence of it ever being involved in a tapeworm infection; but it could be possible. And if I end up with a tapeworm, I will let you all know. As for my kitchen clean-up, I did the same as when I deal with any raw meat: clean and disinfect all surfaces and stuck all utensils in my dishwasher.

3 with botulism in Canada; certain Lotus Fine Foods salted and cured fish (fesikh) recall expanded

The public warning issued on April 19, 2012, has been expanded to include additional products.

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) is warning the public not to consume the salted and cured fish products (fesikh) described below because they may be contaminated with Clostridium botulinum.Toxins produced by this bacteria may cause botulism, a life-threatening illness.

There have been 3 reported illnesses associated with the consumption of this product.

The following vacuum packaged fish products are affected by this alert: whole fesikh mullet and cut up fesikh mullet in oil. These products were sold in packages of varying count and weight, bearing no code or date information.

These products were sold from Lotus Catering and Fine Food, 1960 Lawrence Ave. E, Toronto, ON, on or before April 17, 2012.

FDA targets two California seafood producers over Listeria, Clostridium

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 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."

Traces of listeria found in Vancouver ready-to-eat fish products

Kevin Dr.-Dreamy Allen, (right, sortof as shown) found traces of listeria in ready-to-eat fish products sold in Metro Vancouver, according to this boring University of British Columbia press release.

There’s so much Kevin Dr.-Hockey-Goon Allen material to work with, but UBC went with the boring and predictable.

Allen tested a total of 40 ready-to-eat fish samples prior to their best before date. Purchased from seven large chain stores and 10 small retailers in Metro Vancouver, these products included lox, smoked tuna, candied salmon and fish jerky.

The findings – published in a recent issue of the journal Food Microbiology – show that listeria was present in 20 per cent of the ready-to-eat fish products. Of these, five per cent had the more virulent variety of Listeria monocytogenes.

Allen says although the Listeria monocytogenes levels in the ready-to-eat fish products met federal guidelines, the bacteria can multiply during handling and storage – particularly toward the end of shelf life.

“Additional handling of ready-to-eat foods in stores, such as slicing, weighing, and packaging, may increase the potential for cross-contamination,” says Allen. “While listeria bacteria can be killed by high heat, most people eat these fish products without further cooking. What this means for consumers is that pregnant women, the elderly and anyone with a compromised immune system should be aware of the health risks.”

A digital thermometer for Father’s Day – a love story

 As Father’s Day comes to a close in Australia – it’s celebrated the first Sunday in Sept., after the first day of spring, Sept. 1 – I tried out my gift, a digital thermometer Amy found for me at the Big W for $18.

Somewhat pricey, but everything in Australia is, the Ekco digital thermometer performed well on the basa fillets I baked for dinner along with sweet potato and corn on the cob. Future improvement: list on packaging whether the thermometer is tip-sensitive or not. How’s a consumer to know?