Tag Archives: food safety

It’s a cookbook: Swedish behavioral scientist suggests eating humans to ‘save the planet’

Posted on by
Reply

It’s not a novel idea: humans have imposed their will on planet earth. But it is short-sighted in that technology, learning from nature, can create a space for billions.

Paul Joseph Watson of Summit writes that a Swedish behavioral scientist has suggested that it may be necessary to turn to cannibalism and start eating humans in order to save the planet.

Appearing on Swedish television to talk about an event based around the “food of the future,” Magnus Söderlund said he would be holding seminars on the necessity of consuming human flesh in order to stop climate change.

Environmentalists blame the meat and farming industry for a large part of what they claim is the warming of the earth.

According to Söderlund, a potential fix would be the Soylent Green-solution of eating dead bodies instead.,

He told the host of the show that one of the biggest obstacles to the proposal would be the taboo nature of corpses and the fact that many would see it as defiling the deceased.

There are issues with Creutzfeldt-Jacob disease and To Serve Man is really a Soylent Green cookbook, but why would such details matter when a behavioral scientist is gassing on.

Listeria warning after sliced pastrami products affected across South Australia

Posted on by
Reply

Emily Olle of 7 News writes an urgent warning has been issued by SA Health after listeria was detected in sliced pastrami purchased from a variety of Foodlands, IGAs, butchers, continental delis, bakeries, cafes and sandwich bars.

South Australians, particularly pregnant women, the elderly and those with weakened immune systems, are advised not to consume the pastrami.

SA Health’s Acting Director of Food and Controlled Drugs Branch, Joanne Cammans, said as yet there have been no cases of Listeria infection reported to SA Health linked to the product.

Surveys still suck: Did the UK FSA discover that piping hot is a fairytale

Posted on by
Reply

The Food Standards Agency (FSA) have released their biannual findings from the general public attitudes tracker. This tracker highlights the behaviour, thoughts and reputation of food safety aspects throughout the year. Whenever there’s a scandal, a legislation change or a news piece surrounding the FSA’s points of interest, it’s going to have a public reaction. Whether good or bad, these reactions will shape and alter the way in which the public perceives food safety.

The FSA’s findings are based on 2,150 interviews from a representative sample of adults aged 16 and over across England, Wales and Northern Ireland. Fieldwork was carried out between 8th and 26th May 2019, as part of the regular TNS Kantar face-to-face-omnibus survey.

Questions cover several topics of interest for the Agency, including:

concern about food safety issues

awareness of food hygiene standards

awareness of the FSA and its responsibilities

trust in the FSA and the food industry

confidence in food labelling.

At wave 18, a new set of questions were added to monitor the public’s trust in the FSA as well as the wider food system.

One of the FSA’s strategic objectives is to ensure consumers have the information and understanding to make informed choices about where and what they eat. To help monitor performance against this objective, respondents were asked about their awareness of hygiene standards when buying food or eating out. At wave 18, 52% of respondents reported always being aware of the hygiene standards in places they eat out at or buy food from, and a further 33% said they were sometimes aware.

It’s fair to say that the public is now taking a greater interest in UK food safety standards, meaning there is less margin for error in the food industry. With nearly 80% of the UK public being aware of food hygiene standards when eating out, it’s imperative that you get your standards right first time. Partnering with a food safety company like ourselves is one of the best ways of ensuring you meet your legal obligations as a food business. Our experts are some of the best in the business are available around the clock to coach, advise, audit and help your business reach the highest level of food hygiene.

Piping hot is not a standard.

Break out the cognac: 100 + sickened by Salmonella in Bosnia

Posted on by
Reply

Salmonella is the cause of massive food poisoning in Tuzla Canton in Bosnia, the Cantonal Institute of Public Health confirmed for Vijesti.ba news portal.

“This morning, we received an official confirmation from the Institute of Microbiology of the University Hospital Tuzla that in the isolate, ie for three hospitalized patients, Salmonella bacteria was found, which was our suspicion,” said Blasko Topalovic, an epidemiologist at the Public Health Institute of Tuzla Canton.

According to the data of this Institute, more than one hundred persons were poisoned by food in Srebrenik. Most were from the area of this municipality but also from Gracanica, Gradacac and Tuzla. Some sought help at municipal health centers and some at UKC in Tuzla.

From the day of the poisoning to the present, a total of 61 people have come to the Infectious Diseases Clinic.

Of these, 13 were withheld from clinical treatment. Five children and eight adults were hospitalized.

It was 20 years ago today

Posted on by
Reply

Maybe not today, but I did talk with my friend Jim, and we didn’t talk about what we did 20 years ago, but instead talked about our kids, grandkids, and medical issues.

We’re getting old, but still out there.

My parents are old (80 and 77), and show no sign of slowing down. Here is my mother and father with Courtlynn (24, youngest of the four Canadian daughters) the other day in Ontario (that’s in Canada).



 

 

 

 

 

 

Duck egg warning after UK man dies of Salmonella

Posted on by
Reply

I don’t like the idea of backyard chickens, or chooks.

They are Salmonella factories.

The latest numbers from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control has more than 1,000 Americans sick from backyard chicks and two deaths; 605 have been hospitalized.

In a related twist, duck eggs bought at a UK village fair have been linked to the death of Mr. Tavakoli, of Lindholme, Doncaster.

BBC News reports there has been a second case of salmonella involving someone who also said they ate duck eggs from the same farm – although this has not been confirmed as the source of infection.

The supplier of the eggs believes the salmonella came from elsewhere (magic)

The Food Standards Agency said eggs with the British Lion Mark were virtually free of salmonella, however this only applies to hens’ eggs.

Vulnerable groups are advised to avoid raw or lightly cooked duck eggs (above, right, are duck eggs from my friend and collaborator, Kate the vet, at Kansas State; we did research together but my department chair in firing me said I didn’t play well with others; what an asshole).

And I had to live through disco as a teenager.

Listeria in Spain: 3 miscarriages, almost 200 sick

Posted on by
Reply

Lucy Domachowski of the Daily Star writes that three pregnant women have suffered miscarriages and nearly 200 people hospitalised with listeria as an outbreak of the infection grips Spain’s holiday spots.

A nationwide alert has been sent out after listeria, a bacteria which can cause a type of food poisoning called listeriosis, was suspected in packaged pork.

Two of the miscarriages happened in Seville and the other in Madrid.

One devastated mother lost her baby at 32 weeks, while the others lost their little ones just eight weeks into pregnancy.

Most of the 197 cases have occurred in the southern Spanish region of Andalusia but people have fallen ill across the country, from Madrid to the island of Tenerife.

Spanish authorities have said as many as five pregnant women may have lost their babies to the outbreak, and three people may have died – but stats are yet to be confirmed.

Everyone’s got a camera: Texas mouse jumping into deep fryer at Bastrop Whataburger

Posted on by
Reply

Drew Knight of KVUE reports a video posted Sunday appears to show a mouse jumping into a deep fryer at a Bastrop, Texas, Whataburger restaurant.

Since it was posted just before 1 a.m. on Sunday, it has been shared more than 34,000 times by Facebook users.

According to the poster, Brushawn Lewis, he spotted the mouse himself at the Bastrop fast food joint. The Facebook page for that location, 401 TX 71, provided the following statement in the comments of his post:

“Thank you for bringing this to our attention. At Whataburger, cleanliness and food safety are top priorities for us. In this instance, we closed the restaurant out of an abundance of caution and notified pest control. The entire restaurant has since been cleaned and sanitized. We addressed this situation as quickly as possible, reinforcing procedures with our Family Members. While we’ll continue to be very diligent, it’s important to know there was no history of this type incident at this unit and there is no ongoing issue. A member of our team would like to reach out and address any concerns. Can you please share your contact information with us?”

The video was also shared on YouTube.

 

 

Johnny Cash responds to Nashville refusing to play his music.

Posted on by
Reply

I did it years before Johnny Cash (mine is 1980), but just in general (although I did have the Cash pic on my office door — the office I never used except to store stinky hockey equipment for me and Chapman once the lab folks complained).

Doug Powell responds to the support he has received from food safety types (with a few exceptions) since moving to Brisbane in 2011 to support his French professor wife.

 

Home-grown Cyclospora increasing in US

Posted on by
Reply

While cyclosporiasis cases are reported year-round in the United States, cyclosporiasis acquired in the United States (i.e., “domestically acquired”, or cases of cyclosporiasis that are not associated with travel to a country that is considered endemic for Cyclospora) is most common during the spring and summer months. The exact timing and duration of U.S. cyclosporiasis seasons can vary, but reports tend to increase starting in May. In previous years the reported number of cases peaked between June and July, although activity can last as late as September. The overall health impact (e.g., number of infections or hospitalizations) and the number of identified clusters of cases (i.e., cases that can be linked to a common exposure) also vary from season-to-season.

The number of reported cases of domestically acquired cyclosporiasishas increased from the previous month and remains elevated in the United States since May 1, 2019.

As of August 28, 2019, 1,696 laboratory-confirmed cases of cyclosporiasis were reported to CDC by 33 states, District of Columbia and New York City in people who became ill since May 1, 2019 and who had no history of international travel during the 14-day period before illness onset.

The median illness onset date was June 29, 2019 (range: May 1–August 13, 2019).

At least 92 people were hospitalized; no deaths were reported.

At this time, multiple clusters of cases associated with different restaurants or events are being investigated by state public health authorities, CDC, and FDA.

One multistate outbreak of Cyclospora infections has been linked to fresh basil imported from Siga Logistics de RL de CV of Morelos, Mexico . It is unknown at this time if other reported cases of Cyclospora infection in the United States this season are linked to fresh basil. This investigation is ongoing.

Many cases of cyclosporiasis could not be directly linked to an outbreak, in part because of the lack of validated molecular typing tools for C. cayetanensis.

States reporting cases: 33

Deaths: 0

Hospitalizations: 92

2019 domestically acquired cases of Cyclosporiasis

29.aug.19

CDC

https://www.cdc.gov/parasites/cyclosporiasis/outbreaks/2019/a-050119/index.html