Tag Archives: food safety

Everyone’ got a camera Red Rooster Australia edition

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Nick Hall of Franchise Business reports fast food chain Red Rooster has made the drastic decision to shut two Perth outlets after leaked photos raised concerns over food safety.

Images posted on Facebook appear to show cooked chickens piled into the back of a Red Rooster delivery vehicle; unwrapped, unrefrigerated and in seemingly unsanitary condition.

Furthermore, reports suggest the chickens were being transported on day when the Perth sun was at its deadliest.

Social media users slammed the outlet for its unsanitary practices, with many questioning why the chickens were placed in the back of the car in the first place.

“To me this looks like a store has ran out of chicken and someone has transferred these from one store to another,” one user speculated.

In response to the alleged food safety breaches, Red Rooster quickly moved to close Forrestfield store, along with another in Waypoint also under the same franchisee’s direction.

In a statement, Red Rooster confirmed that the stores would remained closed until investigations were finalised.

“These stores will remain closed while detailed investigations are conducted, required actions are taken and we are satisfied that the operating standards of these locations meet the high expectations of our strict brand standards,” the brand said.

“We have alerted the relevant authorities and are working with them closely while our local staff on the ground undertake the investigation and actions required to meet our brand standards.”

Chipotle: The food safety gift that keeps on giving

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In a previous life I was the scientific advisor for the Canadian Council of Grocery Distributors.

We would meet a couple of times a year, and I would provide my food safety thoughts on what was going on at retail, but what struck me was that the first three hours of every meeting were like a self-help therapy session.

These heads of food safety at major Canadian retailers would bemoan their diminishing status at the corporate level: No one cares about food safety until there’s an outbreak. Twenty years later, the song remains the same.

Alexis Morillo of Delish writes that Chipotle workers claim that food safety practices are at risk at the fast casual restaurant due to managerial procedures that cause workers to “cut corners.”

A total of 47 current and former Chipotle workers from New York City locations came forward about the malpractice in a report to Business Insider. This news follows recent allegations that the company has been violating child labor laws.

In the report obtained by Business Insider, workers outlined concerns about the way things are done behind the scenes at Chipotle. It said that many incentives like pay bonuses let other responsibilities like cleanliness audits and food safety fall to the wayside.

Workers said in the report that working at Chipotle is “highly pressurized environment” with goals that include “minimizing labor costs.”

It was also said that managers are often told in advance when a restaurant will be inspected for cleanliness so they can be prepared. Meanwhile, when an inspection isn’t taking place the cleanliness standard is much more laid back. In the past, people have questioned Chipotle’s safety standards because of the E. Coli outbreak a couple years back. The chain also has an interesting sick day policy, where there are on call nurses for workers to check if they’re actually sick.

Chipotle said in a statement to Delish that the company is committed to safe food and a safe work environment and that the pay bonuses actually incentivize workers to be even more precise when following company policies.

The song remains the same.

Recommend using a thermometer instead of piping hot: FSA food safety culture

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Jose Bolanos of the UK Food Standards Agency writes in Organizations, culture and food safety, 2020that FSA has a longstanding interest in organisational culture and its impact on the capability of a food business to provide food that is safe and what it says it is.

However, while there has been some work carried out on assessing organisational culture in some regulatory areas, there has been limited progress in the development of a regulatory approach specifically for food safety culture.

And on it goes in bureau-speak.

Can’t take an agency seriously when they still recommend that meat be cooked until piping hot.

13 sick: Salmonella outbreak in France linked to raw milk cheese

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Outbreak News Today reports that since November 2019, Public Health France reports investigating 13 cases of salmonellosis caused by Salmonella enterica serotype Dublin (S. Dublin) reported by the National Reference Center (CNR) of Salmonella (Institut Pasteur) due to the fact that the strains belong to the same genomic cluster.

The outbreak has been linked to the consumption of raw milk Morbier (cheese), purchased from different brands, health officials note.

The cases are spread over 7 regions of the country. Three cases died, though its not clear if the salmonellosis attributed to the deaths.

The analysis by the Directorate General of Food (DGAL) of cheese purchases from case loyalty cards made it possible to identify that the Morbiers bought by the cases came from the same supplier.

49 sick: Glazed eclairs cause mass poisoning in two Armenian provinces

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News Az reports the poisoning cases were reported in the town of Sisian in the southern province of Syunik and in Vanadzor and Stepanavan in the northern province of Lori.
According to the ministry, all the patients had symptoms of diarrhea, fever, and vomiting. A preliminary diagnosis said the cause of poisoning was an intestinal infection.

The National Center for Disease Control and Prevention said 41 patients were traced in Lori, and 8 in Syunik. Currently, 33 patients are still being treated in Lori and 8 in Syunik. Doctors assess the patients’ condition as satisfactory. According to the press service of the Food Safety Inspectorate, laboratory studies found salmonella in éclairs.

It said the Zeytun Sweet company was inspected but no violations of sanitary standards were found, but it turned out that the éclairs did not have a conformity assessment and did not have a safety certificate. Zeytun Sweet Company was ordered to ban the sale of the product and recall éclairs from the market and destroy them.

In addition, samples of eggs, oil, spread, as well as finished products used for the production of éclairs were taken for further examination.

UK coroner blasts health bosses for ‘inexcusable delays’ in reporting listeria outbreak after grandmother, 81, died from eating infected chicken mayonnaise sandwich in NHS hospital

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The headline sorta sums things up.

A coroner has slammed health officials for ‘inexcusable delays’ in reporting a nationwide listeria outbreak after a ‘much-loved’ grandmother died from eating an infected chicken mayonnaise sandwich while in hospital.

Alexander Robertson of the Daily Mail reports that Brenda Elmer’s family thought the 81-year-old was simply recovering from a recent operation, rather than battling the potentially life-threatening bacteria.

A coroner branded delays in reporting some listeria cases as ‘inexcusable’ and said it hindered the national response to last year’s outbreak of the infection.

An information ‘black hole’ also meant that warnings over the outbreak were delayed in reaching Mrs Elmer’s family, senior coroner Penelope Schofield said.

Mrs Elmer is one of five people thought to have died in last year’s national listeria scandal, linked to sandwiches that had been supplied to 43 NHS trusts.

It prompted a ‘root and branch’ review of hospital food in the UK by Public Health England.

But was the suspect mayo made from from eggs – a chef’s favorite but a public health nightmare – the story doesn’t say. And it was just as likely to be the meat rather than the mayo if the mayo was commercially prepared.

UK jurnos, I’ve given you some ledes, go find out.

Always question authority.

Kansas veterinary medicine researchers develop new method to improve food safety

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From a press release, as if you couldn’t tell:

Faculty members from the Kansas State University College of Veterinary Medicine have developed a faster, more efficient method of detecting “Shiga toxin-producing E. coli,” or STEC, in ground beef, which often causes recalls of ground beef and vegetables.

“The traditional gold standard STEC detection, which requires bacterial isolation and characterization, is not amenable to high-throughput settings and often requires a week to obtain a definitive result,” said Jianfa Bai, section head of molecular research and development in the Kansas State Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory.

The new method developed by Bai and colleagues requires only a day to obtain confirmatory results using a Kansas State University-patented method with the partition-based multichannel digital polymerase chain reaction system.

“We believe the new digital polymerase chain reaction detection method developed in this study will be widely used in food safety and inspection services for the rapid detection and confirmation of STEC and other foodborne pathogens,” said Jamie Henningson, director of the Kansas State Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory.

When ingested through foods such as ground beef and vegetables, STEC can cause illnesses with symptoms including abdominal pain and diarrhea. Some illnesses caused by STEC may lead to kidney failure and can be life-threatening.

“Some E. coli strains do not produce Shiga toxins and thus do not affect human health as much,” said Xuming Liu, research assistant professor. “Because cattle feces and ground beef can contain harmless or less pathogenic E. coli along with STEC, the most commonly used polymerase chain reaction cannot identify pathogenic E. coli strains in a complex sample matrix.”

The new digital polymerase chain reaction test was developed for research and food safety inspections that require shorter turnaround and high throughput, without sacrificing detection accuracy.

“While the current, commonly used testing method is considered to be the gold standard, it is tedious and requires many days to obtain results that adequately differentiate the bacteria,” said Gary Anderson, director of the International Animal Health and Food Safety Institute at the K-State Olathe campus.

The study, “Single cell-based digital PCR detection and association of Shiga toxin-producing E. coli serogroups and major virulence genes,” which describes the test design and results, was published in the Journal of Clinical Microbiology.

Nestle invests $200 million more in Aimmune after peanut allergy drug approval

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Saumya Joseph of Reuters reports Aimmune Therapeutics Inc said on Wednesday the health science arm of Nestle SA will invest an additional $200 million, days after the drugmaker won U.S. approval for its peanut allergy therapy, touted as a potential blockbuster.

The funding brings Nestle’s total investment to $473 million, increasing the Swiss company’s stake to 19.9% of Aimmune’s outstanding stock and voting power.

Aimmune shares rose 5.7% in early morning trading, after falling 11% on Tuesday. Its therapy, Palforzia, was approved on Friday after markets close.

Nestle’s investment is an incremental positive for Aimmune’s shares, which have seen some weakness due to investor worries over financing, Piper Sandler analyst Christopher Raymond wrote in a note.

“With this additional investment, we think the prospect of an outright take out by Nestle (or anyone else for that matter) has to be factored in more than before,” Raymond said.

Nestle has been trying to become a “nutrition, health and wellness” company, with its Nestle Health Science unit playing a pivotal role, as packaged food sales slow amid changing tastes.

The unit invested $145 million in Aimmune in 2016, followed by $30 million as part of the drugmaker’s public offering in February 2018, and another $98 million in November 2018.

Aimmune would use the latest Nestle investment to fund the launch of Palforzia, which is the first approved therapy for reducing and potentially eliminating allergic reactions to peanuts in children.

Food safety culture in Brazilian restaurants

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Food safety culture may establish the right environment for adequate food handling and management, reducing violations of food safety regulation, especially those related to foodborne disease outbreaks.

This study aimed to evaluate differences among elements of food safety culture in food services at low or high-risk for foodborne diseases. This study was conducted with 63 managers and 333 food handlers from 32 food services located in the metropolitan region of Campinas, State of São Paulo, Brazil. The following elements of food safety culture (considering the technical-managerial and human routes) were evaluated: management systems, style, and process; leadership; organizational commitment; food safety climate (communication; self-commitment; management and coworker support; environment support; risk judgment; normative beliefs and work pressure); and risk perceptions. In the technical-managerial route, restaurants were categorized as low- or high foodborne disease risk restaurants.

For the evaluation of food safety management systems, a validated checklist was used. In the human route, food safety climate analysis was performed by evaluating five elements applied exclusively to food handlers. High-risk restaurants presented a higher percentage of violation in most aspects related to food safety regulation and physical structure. Leadership and knowledge of low-risk restaurants’ managers presented a higher level when compared to high-risk restaurants’ managers, showing that in the first group managers acted as mediators of safe practices. Food handlers from low-risk restaurants presented higher scores in food safety knowledge, organizational commitment, and food safety climate when compared to food handlers from high-risk restaurants. In restaurants with lower risk for foodborne diseases, the elements of food safety culture were better evaluated, indicating fewer violations of food safety regulation. In these restaurants, a consistent food safety climate was perceived within the technical-managerial route.

This result shows that fewer violations of food safety legislation, especially those involving high-risk foodborne disease, were a positive outcome of an improved FS-culture. In this sense, it is possible to improve food safety by applying, evolving and maturing the concepts of FS-culture in restaurants in Brazil.

Food safety culture in food services with different degrees of risk for foodborne diseases in Brazil

Food Control

Marcel Levy de Andrade1, Elke Stedefeldt2, Lais Mariano Zanin3, Diogo Thimoteo da Cunha

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foodcont.2020.107152

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0956713520300682

16 sick with Campy linked to ‘runny’ uncooked pate at UK golf club

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There are so many outbreaks linked to improperly prepared foods at golf clubs. Maybe the fancy, outrageous clothes make people feel immune to dangerous bacteria.

Sixteen guests were food poisoned and had “cramps and diarrhoea” after eating “runny” uncooked chicken liver pate at an Essex golf club.

The club’s then-operating company Crown Golf Operators Ltd, have now been fined £60,000, after the guests fell ill after eating at Stapleford Abbots Golf Club in Romford on June 17, 2017.

After playing golf that day around 24-25 guests sat down for a three-course meal, which included the pate as a starter and a carvery for mains from a set menu.

Within a day after this meal, 16 of the guests reported being ill. Some of them were ill for up to two weeks and some had to be hospitalised.

On January 29, Crown Golf Operators Ltd, were sentenced at Basildon Crown Court after pleading guilty to placing food on the market at the Romford club that was unsafe and unfit for human consumption.

The head chef at the club, Chris James, who was a co-defendent and had cooked the chicken liver pate, entered a not-guilty plea. At his trial last year, he was offered a formal caution, which he accepted.

Stapleford Abbots Golf Club is currently under new ownership after it was sold and taken over in February 2019.