Tag Archives: florida

Basil from Florida recalled for salmonella

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Sanith Ourn Farm of Indiantown, Florida, is recalling Fresh Hot Basil herb because it may have the potential to be contaminated with salmonella.

The recalled Fresh Hot Basil was distributed to retailers and one wholesale location in WA, OR, and RI on August 23, 2011 and August 30, 2011. Hot Basil has a 5 day shelf life.

Three hundred and ninety pounds (390 lbs) of product was shipped in 10 lb. shipping containers marked with FLT DATE of 08/23/11 and 08/30/11. Retailers may have bundled or wrapped the hot basil in small foam trays prior to placing on retail shelves.

No illnesses have been reported to date in connection with this problem.

This issue was identified through routine sampling by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

Florida restaurants briefly closed by state inspectors

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Florida restaurant inspectors decided to flex some muscle recently and temporarily closed a bunch of restaurants across the state.

Vermin infestations and other critical violations of state sanitation and safety laws found by inspectors at three South Florida restaurants last week prompted the Florida Department of Business & Professional Regulation to temporarily close them.

Omar Seafoods, 2111 N.W. 10th Ave., Miami was temporarily closed Aug. 11 for 5 critical violations. A health and safety inspector observed ready-to-eat, potentially hazardous food prepared on site and held more than 24 hours that was not properly date-marked; there was no conspicuously located thermometer in a holding unit; a required consumer advisory for raw/undercooked animal food was not provided and was corrected on site and potentially hazardous food in the pastry hot box that contained beef and cheese was not held at 135 degrees Fahrenheit or above. Also, more than 50 live roaches were found in the kitchen: more than 40 were on a wire shelf, underneath prep tables, inside the oven and on the floor, and more than 10 roaches were seen in a storage room, 15-feet away from the kitchen.

L’Express Sandwisherie at SBS Tower, 2601 S. Bayshore Drive, Miami was closed Aug. 8 for operating without a license and 11 other critical violations that included no hand-washing sign, cleanser or drying provisions at an employee hand-washing sink; improper temperatures of hot and cold, potentially hazardous foods; an employee was observed preparing food, handling clean equipment or touching single-service items without washing hands; the food manager lacked proof of certification; sanitizer was not used in accordance with the manufacturer’s recommendations; a hand-wash sink was used for other purposes; no 3-compartment sink was provided and the men’s room was closed.

El Tio Coin Laundry & Cafeteria, 1664 N.W. 17th Ave., Miami was briefly closed Aug. 9 with 11 critical violations that included a rodent infestation. Other citations were for ready-to-eat, potentially hazardous food that was prepared on site and held more than 24-hours that was not properly date-marked; raw animal food stored over ready-to-eat food in a reach-in cooler; hand-washing sinks in rest rooms lacked drying provisions; no proof of required employee training provided; slime was built up in the ice machine; food was stored in ice used for drinks; a food preparation employee wore jewelry other than a plain ring on his or her hands/arms; there were no hand-washing signs at sinks used by employees; no conspicuously located thermometer in a holding unit; no chemical test kit for sanitizer at the 3-compartment sink or ware-washing machine and more than 63 fresh rodent droppings were found on kitchen shelves above the 3-compartment sink, underneath the microwave and grill table and on the floor.

Four Jacksonville-area restaurants — including three at River City Marketplace — were forced to temporarily close last week after a state inspector found excessive roach activity during routine, unannounced visits.

Wasabi Japanese Restaurant, A & D Buffalos and Salsarita’s Fresh Cantina each closed briefly to address conditions that posed "an elevated risk to the health, safety or welfare of the public."

A fourth restaurant, Pasta Market Italian Restaurant in Orange Park, also briefly closed to correct problems noted in an inspector’s report.
 

Florida case of vibrio linked to oysters

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“A raw oyster can be like a petri dish.”

So says Dr. Roger Danziger, a Bradenton (that’s in Florida) allergist, and why bacterial infections are why restaurant menus typically caution people against eating raw seafood.

The Manatee County Health Department is investigating a local case of a bacterial infection contracted from eating oysters.

Until the investigation is complete, the department is disclosing little about the case, including the possible source of the tainted oysters or even the date of the report.

The department did identify the infection as stemming from the bacteria species Vibrio vulnificus.
 

Heston stopped serving raw oysters; FDA links cholera outbreak to Florida raw oysters; at least 9 sick

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After making 529 people sick in a March 2009 outbreak of norovirus at his Fat Duck restaurant, Heston Blumenthal says he has stopped serving raw oysters.

At least that’s what he told the New Zealand Herald yesterday.

"I’ve not served an oyster in here, in the Crown, in the Duck or in London since that happened. I don’t know if I’ll ever change."

Today, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration advised consumers, restaurant operators, commercial shippers and processors of shellfish not to eat, serve, purchase, sell or ship oysters from Area 1642 in Apalachicola Bay, Fla. because the oysters may be contaminated with toxigenic Vibrio cholerae serogroup O75.

• Nine persons have been reported with illness. For eight, the illness was confirmed as caused by toxigenic Vibrio cholerae O75; laboratory confirmation is pending in the other person. No one was hospitalized or died.

• All ill persons reported consumption of raw or lightly steamed oysters.

• Traceback indicates that oysters harvested from Area 1642 in Apalachicola Bay, Fla., between March 21 and April 6, 2011, are associated with illness.

Cucumbers test positive for salmonella, recalled in 9 states

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Food safety recalls in the absence of illness are an indicator the system is sorta working. They happen routinely, but in a food safety Internet culture that promotes repetition rather than analysis, the risk becomes amplified.

I do pay attention to unique vehicles. Salmonella in sprouts, happens all the time; salmonella in cucumbers, not so much.

A North Carolina company is recalling thousands of cucumbers that could be contaminated with salmonella.

L&M Companies Inc. of Raleigh, North Carolina said Friday there have been no reports of illness with its cucumbers, and none of its other products are involved.

The company says it decided on the recall after federal inspectors found salmonella last week on cucumbers at a Florida business. They were harvested on a south Florida farm at the end of March.

The cucumbers were distributed whole and in bulk in cartons marked Nature’s Delight with a lot number of PL-RID-002990. They were sent on April 7 to wholesalers in New York, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Tennessee, Mississippi, Nebraska, Texas and Wyoming.
 

Florida norovirus fallout: publicly naming restaurant may limit harm to others

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When outbreaks of foodborne illness are suspected, health types struggle with how much information to publicly provide and when. There are so many uncertainties, and every situation has its own specifics based on potential future exposure, lethality of the agent, and getting it wrong. There aren’t any guidelines, and every county, state and federal department seems to make it up with each outbreak.

What about the collateral damage?

The St. Petersburg Times reports this morning that two days after the Hernando County Health Department (that’s in Florida, north of Tampa) issued an alert that people had gotten sick after eating at an unidentified restaurant on U.S. 19 in Spring Hill, independent restaurant owners along the busy corridor began to feel the ripple effects of the announcement.

Nadia Gauthier, manager of The Restaurant, said Thursday that business dropped by nearly half of what she was expecting as word quickly spread through the community.

"People were definitely talking about it," Gauthier said from the eatery at 3438 Commercial Way. "It seemed like they were scared to eat in a restaurant."

In the following days, concerned diners flooded the Health Department and local media with calls. Most demanded the name of the suspect eatery, noting that by not identifying the place, it painted all Spring Hill restaurants with unfair suspicion.

C.P. Damon, owner of Nellie’s Restaurant in Weeki Wachee, said he saw a 50 percent decline in business.

"It hurt us really bad," Damon said. "Our customers stopped coming because they thought they were going to get sick eating here."

Perhaps his worst day was St. Patrick’s Day, when his staff had prepared corned beef and cabbage for what he expected would be a robust holiday crowd. By 3 p.m., Damon decided to send two cooks and other workers home.

On Wednesday, the Health Department confirmed that more than 100 people had been stricken with norovirus after dining at or coming in contact with someone who dined at Kally K’s Steakery & Fishery, 3383 Commercial Way, Spring Hill.

But when the agency released its original alert on March 15, it declined to name the restaurant, citing its ongoing joint investigation with the state Department of Business and Professional Regulation.

Damon thought that was bad policy.

"It became a guessing game that was based on a lot of rumors," Damon said. "No one wants to eat where they think they’re going to get sick. And with no way of knowing, they just stopped coming."

In a statement, Health Department spokeswoman Ann-Gayl Ellis defended the agency on Thursday, saying, "In any event of this type, until the health department has confirmed clinical results that provide a credible link to the source, it will not issue specific information on the restaurant in question."

Does that apply to something like a listeria outbreak, with its 30 per cent kill rate? Doubtful.

Kally K’s manager Christina Malo said her restaurant has suffered as well, and laments that so many people were affected by the norovirus.
 

Lab results confirm norovirus in Florida restaurant outbreak

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Over 100 people who ate at an unnamed restaurant north of Tampa a couple of weeks ago have been confirmed to have been part of a norovirus outbreak.

But now they’ve named the restaurant.

(What are public disclosure procedures? When does public health have a responsibility to go public with information about an outbreak, especially if it will prevent additional people from barfing?)

Hernando Today reports local health-types have confirmed norovirus in at least three of those 100 sickies, who dined at Kally K’s Restaurant between March 6-11.

Among the positive results was at least one of the employees of the restaurant.

Uh-oh.

The owner of Kally K’s is complying with Health Department recommendations that no employees who tested positive for this virus will be involved in food handling or preparation until follow up tests are negative. The restaurant continues to cooperate in this ongoing investigation.
 

Health officials probe outbreak at unnamed Florida restaurant

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Hernando Today reports that Paul and Alice Andrews, 87, of High Point, enjoyed a dinner the night of March 6 at the same restaurant along U.S. 19, north of Tampa.

They didn’t regain their appetites for the rest of the week, they said.

They spent most of last week resting at home because the virus they suffered through sapped them of their strength.

"I’ve never ever encountered anything like this," said Alice Andrews. "It was just terrible."

Andrews and her husband were two out of numerous people who filed reports with the Hernando County Health Department, which quickly launched an environmental health investigation, according to a media release.

Ann-Gayl Ellis, an agency spokeswoman, said the investigation kicked off after several people reported "symptoms of gastrointestinal illness" as of Friday.

Ellis did not reveal the name of the restaurant that was probed, but Andrews and his wife confirmed Tuesday they had gotten sick — along with a half-dozen more of their friends — after dining at the same Spring Hill restaurant.

The name of the business is being withheld by Hernando Today because the case is still open.

Ellis said of the 45 or so filed reports with her agency, most of them had eaten at the same restaurant while the others lived with or came in contact with those who had dined there.

A woman who manages the restaurant said the health department had sent two people to inspect the business Monday. They stayed for five or more hours and found nothing wrong with the food or the temperatures used to cook the food, she said.

Nina Mattei, a health department spokeswoman, said five stool samples were collected and sent to a Tampa laboratory to determine what organism caused the illnesses. The tests should be completed within the next few days, she said.

Ellis said the symptoms the Andrews suffered from were consistent with the norovirus, which can be transferred by food, water and from person to person.

"They need to close that place down and sanitize that entire area," said Andrews of the restaurant.

She had eaten there "several times" prior to last Sunday, but doesn’t plan to return.
 

Sports bar in Florida Keys closed because of lotsa mice poop

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As I continue to search out my inner Jimmy Buffet or Keith Richards, I was saddened to hear that a Duval Street bar and restaurant in the Florida Keys was busted by state authorities on Thursday for having a dirty kitchen.

The Big ‘Uns Sports Bar and Grill at 218 Duval St. was closed after inspectors found fresh rat droppings, everywhere.

That included 27 "fresh" and "semi fresh" rodent droppings under the cook line, reach-in coolers, pizza oven and a prep table.

Big ‘Uns remained closed and shuttered on Friday, missing out on 2,000-plus cruise ship passengers flooding the lower end of Duval.
 

Do not stand on toilets; a graphical illustration

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We’ve seen a lot of toilets along the highways and byways while making the 19-hour drive from Arkansas to Anna Maria Island, Florida, including a couple of special ones in the middle of the night on Alabama back roads (it was a shortcut).

I told the woman encased in her plastic booth at a Shell station off I-75 in northern Florida that the men’s room was out of paper towel: she sneered.

But the best sign came from the toilets at the Southbank splash park and playground in Brisbane, Australia, where people apparently have a unique approach to using the facilities.