It came out of the sky: Salmonella infections in Europe

In recent months, more than three hundred cases of salmonellosis have occurred in various European countries and Canada, which are linked to each other. In the UK the cases could be partly traced back to frozen breaded poultry meat. The cause was contamination with the bacterium Salmonella Enteritidis, which causes gastrointestinal inflammation. Salmonella is not killed by deep freezing and can remain infectious at temperatures below zero degrees Celsius. The Robert Koch Institute (RKI) and the BfR are monitoring the situation together with the Federal Office of Consumer Protection and Food Safety (BVL). In Germany, the number of reported cases has currently risen to more than 20 in six federal states. In 2020, there were a total of about 10,000 reported cases of salmonellosis in Germany, most of which were caused by the consumption of contaminated food. In principle, foodborne infections can be avoided by paying particular attention to hygienic care when preparing raw poultry.

Due to the measures taken to contain the COVID 19 pandemic, people are currently cooking more often at home and, in the course of this, convenience products such as frozen goods are also being used more frequently. Sometimes it is not obvious at first glance whether such products contain pre-cooked or raw meat. Sufficient heating should always be ensured during preparation, especially of products containing raw poultry meat. In addition, bacterial contamination of other dishes via the raw meat and breading is possible. “Especially for children and elderly people there is a higher risk of getting sick from salmonella,” says BfR President Prof. Dr. Dr. Andreas Hensel.

Investigations by the official food monitoring authorities show that raw poultry and poultry meat products – including frozen products – can be contaminated with pathogens. In 2018, Salmonella was found in 5.6% of chicken meat samples examined and Campylobacter bacteria in every second sample. For this reason, the BfR encourages adherence to its recommendations on the handling and preparation of poultry and poultry products.

It is true that germs such as salmonella and campylobacter are killed during the preparation of poultry meat if the correspondingly high temperatures are reached during cooking. But by transferring these germs to hands, household utensils and kitchen surfaces, other food can become contaminated with these pathogens. If this contaminated food is not reheated before consumption, one can fall ill. Since salmonella can multiply in food at temperatures above 7 °C, there is a particular risk when eating food that is kept unrefrigerated for a long time, such as salads and desserts.

Therefore, the following general hygiene rules should be strictly followed when preparing raw poultry:

– Store and prepare raw poultry products and other foods separately, especially when the latter are not reheated

– Store fresh poultry at a maximum of +4 °C and process and consume until the use-by date.

– Defrost frozen poultry without packaging in the refrigerator (cover and place in a bowl to collect the defrost water).

– Dispose packaging materials carefully and discard defrost water immediately.

– Do not wash poultry, as the splashing water can spread germs; it is better to process it directly or dab it with a paper towel, which should be disposed of directly.

– Utensils and surfaces that have come into contact with raw poultry products or defrost water must be cleaned thoroughly with warm water and washing-up liquid before further use.

– Clean hands thoroughly with warm water and soap between each preparation step.

163 sick: CDC investigating new outbreaks of salmonella infections linked to backyard poultry

A CDC investigation notice regarding multistate outbreaks of Salmonella infections has been posted: https://www.cdc.gov/salmonella/backyardpoultry-05-21/index.html

Key points:

CDC and public health officials in several states are investigating multistate outbreaks of Salmonella infections linked to contact with backyard poultry.

There have been 163 people reported ill from 43 states.

34 people were hospitalized. No deaths have been reported.

The true number of sick people is likely much higher than the reported number, as many people recover without medical care and are not tested for Salmonella.

One-third of sick people are young children under 5 years.

Interviews with sick people show that contact with backyard poultry is the likely source of the outbreaks.

Backyard poultry can carry Salmonella germs even if they look healthy and clean. These germs can easily spread in areas where they live and roam.

Whether you are building your first coop or are a seasoned backyard poultry owner, know the risks of keeping poultry and the simple things you can do to stay healthy.

Steps to stay healthy around backyard poultry:

Always wash your hands for 20 seconds after touching the flock or flock supplies.

Keep flock and flock supplies outside the house to prevent spreading germs into your house.

Don’t let children younger than 5 years touch the birds (including chicks and ducklings) or anything in the area where the birds live and roam.

Don’t kiss or snuggle the birds, as this can spread germs to your mouth and make you sick.

36 sick: Salmonella braenderup outbreak in Sweden grows, part of international outbreak

Outbreak News reports that aIn a follow-up on the Salmonella Braenderup outbreak in Sweden, the Swedish Public Health Agency now reports a total of 36 confirmed outbreak cases reported from 13 different regions during the period 4 April to 15 May.

The cases of the disease are in the ages 0-95 years and 29 of the patients are women. The cases have been linked using whole genome sequencing (analysis of the bacterium’s genome).

The outbreak is international as several countries in Europe have identified cases of the same variant of salmonella. The source of infection is suspected to be a food that has been widely distributed both in Sweden and abroad.

The affected infection control units, municipalities, the National Food Administration and the Swedish Public Health Agency jointly investigate the outbreak at national level, while collaboration at international level is handled by the central authorities and coordinated by the European Anti-Infection Authority ECDC.

Warning not to eat certain melons due to salmonella contamination in UK

Buyers have been warned to get rid of melons sold this week in UK supermarkets, after certain types of fruit have been linked to cases of salmonella.

The Food Standards Agency issued an alert saying that “a large number” of stores were stocking the affected fruit, advising anyone who purchased it to wash their hands and affected surfaces thoroughly.

Customers should be able to identify potentially risky melons with stickers on the fruit, the agency added.

The possible source of several recent cases of salmonella in the UK is believed to be whole honeydew, cantaloupe and galia melons originating in Costa Rica, Honduras or Brazil.

These are likely to have been purchased by buyers on or before May 28, 2021.

The Food Standards Agency said: “If consumers are unsure of the country of origin of their galia, cantaloupe or honeydew melon, they are advised to discard the fruit as a precaution. “

The melons have been withdrawn from sale in stores, the agency added.

 

Face the face: Restaurant inspection adjudication

Administrative adjudication can serve as a quasi-judicial forum for resolving disputes resulting from government regulations. New York City recently required restaurants to post letter grades reflecting their compliance with food safety regulations and incorporated an easily accessible administrative adjudication system into its policy design. This study examines the implementation of this feature of the policy by using a regression discontinuity framework to explore the effects of the grading policy on adjudication processes and regulatory outcomes.

Quantitative data included 222,527 food safety inspection records (2007–2014); qualitative data included interviews, observations, and document review. Restaurants were more likely to have violations reduced and grades improved at adjudication when grades were at stake. Moreover, adjudication outcomes were highly sensitive to score differences near grade cut-points. Professional representatives helped restaurants to negotiate the interpretation of rules in the quasi-judicial proceedings, softening rigidity of regulations. Representatives’ expertise was consistent with being “repeat players,” which may distort the use of such forums to ensure justice and fairness.

This study illuminates the ramifications of including alternative dispute resolution systems in the implementation of regulatory policies.

By the letter of law? The effects of administrative adjudication for resolving disputes in NYC’s restaurant grading initiative, 27 May 2021

The American Review of Public Administration

Diana Silver, Micah Rothbart, Jin Yung Bae

https://doi.org/10.1177/02750740211016566

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/02750740211016566

Restaurant worker training effectiveness during covid-19

The restaurant business has turned into a dynamic and ever-growing industry. So, food safety must be a priority for these establishments, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. The aim of this study was to determine the effect of training intervention on the health and food safety knowledge, attitude, and self-reported practice (KAP) of restaurant food handlers during the COVID-19 pandemic.

This quasi-experimental study was conducted on 159 restaurant food handlers in Tehran, Iran. The training intervention was developed based on the latest global guidelines. The KAP of the subjects was measured before and after the training. Fisher’s exact test, paired t test, and repeated measures ANOVA were used for statistical analysis. Data analysis was done using the IBM_SPSS software. The total knowledge scores of participants were low (17.6%), moderate (35.2%), and good (47.2%) before training, which were changed to 5% (low), 23.9% (moderate), and 71.1% (good) after training. The total pretraining attitude scores were 0.6, 77.4, 18.2, and 3.8% that were changed to 0% (strongly negative), 49.1% (negative), 33.3% (positive), and 17.6% (strongly positive), respectively. Also, the self-reported practice scores of the participants before training were 1.3, 56, and 42.7 that were changed to 0% (weak), 26.4% (acceptable), and 73.6% (desirable) after the intervention, respectively. Paired t test results showed a statistically significant increase in all scores. The interaction of training with age and education was statistically significant in increasing the knowledge and attitude scores of the participants by the repeated measures ANOVA.

Improving the KAP of food handlers by health and food safety training can improve the status of restaurants and minimize the outbreak of pandemic diseases, including COVID-19, which is an effective step in community health. Thus, it is an urgent need for policymakers to design an online system of continuous food safety training for food handlers.

A quasi-experimental study on the effect of health and food safety training intervention on restaurant food handlers during the COVID-19 pandemic, 25 April 2021

Food Science & Nutrition

Fatemeh Mohammadi-Nasrabadi, Yeganeh Salmani, and Fatemeh Esfarjani

DOI: 10.1002/fsn3.2326

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/fsn3.2326

Hand washing only spiked temporarily during pandemic, hospital finds

European Cleaning reports that a US hospital study has revealed that while healthcare hand hygiene compliance soared early on in the pandemic, it fell back to pre-pandemic levels after just four months.

Woman washing her hands at the kitchen sink. There are vegetables out of focus in the background.

The University of Chicago Medical Centre used an automated hand hygiene monitoring system to track how often staff washed their hands or used sanitiser when entering and exiting a patient’s room between September 2019 and August 2020. Compliance trends were then analysed by researchers at the hospital.

In September 2019, baseline monthly hand hygiene compliance levelled out at 54.5 per cent across all units, peaking at 75.5 per cent. On March 29, 2020 – when anxiety about the pandemic was running high – hand hygiene compliance hit a daily peak of 92.8 per cent across all hospital units. And it hit 100 per cent across those units that were temporarily given over for the exclusive use of COVID-19 patients.

However just four months later in August 2020, monthly compliance levels had dropped back to 56 per cent, researchers found.

The results of the study, published in JAMA Internal Medicine, considered various factors that may have contributed to the March 2020 jump in compliance including staff members’ increased awareness of the importance of hand washing during the pandemic.

Presence of listeria in sausages from Catalonia and distributed throughout Spain

The En24 reports the Spanish Agency for Food Safety and Nutrition (AESAN) has received updated information from Catalonia, through the Coordinated System for Rapid Information Exchange (SCIRI), on the presence of ‘Listeria monocytogenes’ in different meat products heat-treated elaborated in the Embotits D’Oix establishment, extending the product recall to batch 2115 of the same products.

With the information available no case has been confirmed in Spain associated with this alert, although it is recommended that people who have the products included in this alert at home refrain from consuming them and return them to the point of purchase.

Although the Catalan health authorities already informed AESAN on April 16, they have now provided new information regarding the withdrawal of different heat-treated meat products produced in the establishment due to the presence of Listeria monocytogenes and lack of sanitary guarantees.

In the course of the investigations carried out, the Catalan Public Health Agency has extended the product recall to batch number 2115, of the same products affected by this notification. With the new information, the data of the products involved in this alert are: Botifarra d’ou, Bull blanc, Botifarra negra, Botifarra de fetge and Botifarra all julivert.

In addition, the batches involved are: 2106 2107; 2108; 2109; 2110; 2111; 2112; 2113; 2114 and 2115. The distribution has been made in Catalonia, Aragon, Balearic Islands, Castilla-La Mancha, Valencian Community and Madrid. This information has been transferred to the competent authorities of the autonomous communities through the SCIRI, in order to verify the withdrawal of the affected products from the marketing channels.

Listeria outbreak linked to queso fresco made by El Abuelito Cheese Inc. closed

Fast Facts

Illnesses: 13

Hospitalizations: 12

Deaths: 1

States: 4

Recall: Yes

Investigation status: Closed

Don’t eat any soft cheeses like queso fresco, unless they are labeled “made with pasteurized milk.” This is especially important if you are pregnant, aged 65 or older, or have a weakened immune system due to certain medical conditions or treatments. This is because you are at higher risk for severe Listeria illness.

Be aware that Hispanic-style fresh and soft cheeses made with pasteurized milk have caused Listeria outbreaks, including this outbreak. Although pasteurization of milk kills Listeria, soft cheeses made from pasteurized milk can still become contaminated if they are produced in facilities with unsanitary conditions.

Listeria in RTE foods at retail, Costa Rica

Listeria monocytogenes is a pathogenic bacterium associated with RTE meat products sold at the retail level. The objective of this research was to determine the prevalence of Listeria monocytogenes in RTE meat products sold at retail in Costa Rica and to study the factors associated with the levels of contamination; analyzed factors include hygienic practices within stores (cutting techniques, microbial contamination of products) and the behavior of the isolates (persistence against antimicrobials and transfer potential).

A total of 190 samples of RTE meat products were collected and analyzed for the presence of coliforms and Listeria species. Isolates of L. monocytogenes were then evaluated in terms of resistance to disinfectants (quaternary ammonium compounds and chlorine) and their transfer potential from food contact surfaces (knife and cuttingboards). Overall Listeria spp. prevalence was 37,4% (71/190); L. innocua was present in 32,1% (61/190) of the products and L. monocytogenes was found in just 2,6% (5/190) of the samples. Most of the contaminated samples were cut with a knife at the moment of purchase (44,2%). When analyzing practices within the stores, it was observed that L. monocytogenes transfer from inoculated knife to “salchichón” was higher for samples cut right at the beginning of the experiment. Also, L. monocytogenes transfer from inoculated cuttingboards was independent of the number of slices but contamination from plastic was higher than wood. Regarding L. monocytogenes resistance to disinfectants, average reductions of 2,6 ± 1,1 log CFU/mL were detected after 6 minutes of exposure to 200 ppm of chlorine; however, chlorine resistance varied among the strains. Prevalence of L. monocytogenes in RTE meat products sold at retail could be associated with handling practices within the stores; further studies are necessary to estimate the impact of these practices on the overall risk for consumers.

Presence of listeria monocytogenes in ready-to-eat (RTE) meat products sold at retail stores in Costa Rica and analysis of contributing factors, 2021

Journal of Food Protection

Karol Calvo-Arrieta 1Karol Matamoros-Montoya 1María Laura Arias-Echandi 1Alejandra Huete-Soto 1Mauricio Alberto Redondo-Solano 2

doi: 10.4315/JFP-21-020

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34047780/