Tag Archives: France

70 sickened at Paris-area rec center

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AFP is reporting that 70 people, including children between 3- and 12-years-oldwere victims of food poisoning Monday in a recreation center in Houilles.

Three children and one adult were transported to the hospital "for observation" and a dozen other victims had to be hospitalized.

Children who do not show symptoms have been returned to their families.

The origin of the food poisoning appeared to be meals delivered by a central kitchen, and tests are underway to identify the causative agent of intoxication.
 

Carrefour et Casino recall beef for E. coli O157

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Albert Amgar provided this story from Agence France-Presse about an E. coli O157:H7 beef recall, Nikki Marcotte translated, Amy Hubbell proofed and I embellished.

At least this French company is suggesting a temperature, but doesn’t say how that is to accomplished in a hamburger patty. And while thorough cooking to the appropriate temperature (the. U.S. says 160) will destroy the bad bugs, cross-contamination in any kitchen – home, food service, retail – is a huge issue and difficult to control. Here’s the story.

It was announced Friday that the Covial company, which specializes in ground and vacuum-packed beef, is recalling batches of hamburger and fresh ground beef sold in Carrefour et Casino stores under their own label due to a risk of food poisoning.

The products have been removed from the shelves; consumers have been asked not to eat these products in which the bacteria E. Coli O157:H7 was detected during a self-check, said Covial in a statement. To date, no consumer complaints have been reported, the statement said.

The recall affects 3.8 tons of products that have been sold in the Carrefour stores, Carrefour Market, Carrefour City, Carrefour Contact, Shopi, 8 À Huit, Marché Plus, Géant Casino and Casino supermarkets, according to the source.

The batches bear the following inspection stamp: FR 15 014 032 CE. The products’ expiration dates are July 6th and 7th for the Carrefour batches and July 7th for the Casino batches.

Those affected, for Carrefour, are the Aquitaine, Auvergne, Bourgogne, Centre, Franche-Comté, Haut-Rhin, Languedoc-Roussillon, Limousin, Midi-Pyrénées, Poitou-Charentes et Rhône-Alpes regions. For Casino, the center and the southwest quarter of the country are concerned.

Thoroughly cooking the hamburgers helps prevent the consequences of a contamination of this type, the bacteria is destroyed at 65°C (149 F). The E. coli O157:H7 bacteria can cause symptoms such as gastroenteritis, sometimes accompanied by a fever, within 10 days following the consumption of the contaminated hamburgers.

In rare cases, poisoning can be followed by severe kidney complications in children and in the elderly. Consumers can call 0805 803 134 (free from a land line).
 

Albert Amgar: Mandatory training in food service?***

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Our French colleague Albert writes recently on his blog,

I’m no expert on the commercial and institutional restaurant business, just a simple user.

I’m also not a fan of guides to good practices of which, in my opinion, we shouldn’t expect so much. The guide shouldn’t be a white cane for the blind when it comes to matters of hygiene and food safety. But I also know that some people have been waiting, according to a message published on la liste Hygiène on July 3, 2010, “…for at least 8 years, [for] the probable publication date of the Guide to Good Hygiene Practices for the food services industry.”

As such, le blog HysaConseil from Quebec tells us that, “Mandatory training in hygiene and safety, who does it concern?”

On November 21, 2008, a modification to the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food of Québec’s (MAPAQ) food regulation requires all business owners who are or are not licensed with MAPAQ to undergo training in hygiene and safety. Whenever food handling is done in his/her business, the owner must comply with regulations (convenience stores, pharmacies, bars, bed & breakfasts, butcheries, supermarkets, selling meat on the farm, etc…).

You can refer to the available guide to the application of regulations on MAPAQ’s website for more information on this regulation. All information is found at this site.
At a time when France has launched its Food Operation Holidays (see “The return of Operation Thunder”), here’s a measure that would be welcome for us! Is this obligation applicable for us? I don’t believe so according to certain reports we see (see “Hygiene in the food service industry”).

In the words of one AFSCA administrator (Belgium), “I currently use the carrot with the subcommittee on language simplification (referred to as cellule de vulgarisation). Now there is a stick behind the door: not only the administrative fines or the temporary closures, but we could also put the results of our inspections on the Internet, clearly online for the consumers.”

Mandatory training, scores or grades on the doors and online inspection results are the answers that Albert suggests to advance food safety in restaurant businesses.

Albert Amgar: The restaurant business, how to improve hygiene?

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Nikki Marcotte, a new student, tries out her translation skills on a piece from French food safety blogger, Albert Amgar.

In Conseil National de l’Alimentation’s newsletter No. 13, dated June 11, 2010, we learn about health safety: an increased effort between the three unions of the Groupement National de la Restauration.

“Given the issues with health safety and nutrition in the catering business, these three entities (the National Institutional Restaurant Services Union, the National Fast-Food and Food Union, the National Union of Themed and Commercial Restaurants, all three members of the GNR) have decided to combine forces and work together on these common problems. Three work groups have been created, each with two representatives from each syndicate, all experts in issues of ‘hygiene’, ‘nutrition’ and ‘quality’.”

One of the work groups has devoted their time to food safety. What is their objective?

The goal of the work group, in regard to regulatory requirements and their recent developments, is to pool together technical skills and the scientific expertise required to validate certain methods of disease control common to various restaurant activities: time-temperature combinations/storage temperatures of foods in certain conditions, microbiological monitoring methods…

According to the Ministry of Agriculture, “Industrial and restaurant catering is comprised of commercial food services (approximately 15% of meals served) and collective food services (85% of meals served). The latter represents close to 4 billion meals.”

Collective food service professionals contribute to three different areas: education (school catering, 1 billion meals, and university catering), health and social services (hospital, nursing home and prison catering), and the workforce (business and administrative catering). Likewise, process hygiene criteria have been implemented.

The ministry also tells us that there are more than “…30,000 inspections conducted annually in the three large collective food service sectors, including nearly 13,000 in the school catering area. In particular, these checks are aimed at ensuring:
– good food preparation practices (in terms of the hygiene and handling of the equipment), transport and storage (with respect to the hygiene and handling of the equipment);
– the cold chain;
– the recommendations concerning the use of pasteurized eggs to prevent foodborne illnesses associated with salmonella.”

“More than 30,000 inspections…” of which we know nothing about, not even one annual statistic… (transparency, where are you?).

This blog, which is always ready to help food service professionals with these excellent initiatives, wishes to make a contribution with this recent publication from the barfblog team, see, “Food safety information posted in restaurant kitchens can improve meal safety.” Source: Chapman, Benjamin; Eversley, Tiffany; Fillion, Katie; MacLaurin, Tanya; Powell, Douglas. Assessment of Food Safety Practices of Food Service Food Handlers (Risk Assessment Data): Testing a Communication Intervention (Evaluation of Tools). Journal of Food Protection®, Volume 73, Number 6, June 2010, pp. 1101-1107(7).

This blog could also suggest to the Ministry of Food less opacity in these inspections so that the consumer is fully informed, and to maybe also think about the scoring system or grades on the doors of restaurants or to start slowly putting the inspection results online. Also look at the “smiley” example in Belgium (above right).
 

Lost in translation; going public with food safety information – France edition

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Albert Amgar, blogmaster of France’s coolest food safety blog, wrote me after I posted about the 88 people sick with Salmonella from dry sausage in France.

What I had missed was that although the outbreak had been on-going for at least 10 weeks, the French Institute for Public Health Surveillance did not publicly report the outbreak until May 28, 2010, and used a Salmonella naming system that would mean nothing to most people (Salmonella 4,12 :i :-).

No company was named, no statement was released by anybody telling consumers to beware certain foodstuffs.

It was the Belgians who did that, through a press release entitled, La société Salaisons du Lignon adopte le principe de precaution et lance un plan de rappel sur un produit: Saucisse sèche droite La Pause Auvergnate, that identified the Lou Mountagnard brand of dried sausages.

The pdf press release file is linkable through Albert’s blog at http://amgar.blog.processalimentaire.com/?p=8937, where he asks, in my broken English summation, why do French citizens, 88 who are confirmed ill, have to learn details about contaminated product from a city in Belgium? (The image, below left,  is from Albert’s blog.

I’m on a bus; I got food poisoning on a bus: 39 people hospitalized in Le Mans

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Ouest France reports that during the night between Friday and Saturday, the passengers on a school charter bus originating in Lot and traveling on the highway between Le Mans and Tours were stricken with malaise (they barfed a lot).

The bus stopped in Dissay-sous-Courcillon and several emergency vehicles were deployed around 2 a.m. Thirty-nine people, of which six were chaperons, were hospitalized in Le Mans. Twenty-two children were victims of food poisoning. At 10 a.m. Saturday, only one girl was still kept for observation.
 

88 sick with Salmonella from dry sausage in France

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Our man in France, Albert Amgar passed along this report of an on-going outbreak of Salmonella; translated by Amy Hubbell.

 

The institute for sanitary surveillance is now investigating an outbreak of salmonellosis from Salmonella 4,12 :i :-, in collaboration with the concerned partners: the National Center for Salmonella Reference, The Laboratory for studies and research on food quality and processing from the French Food Safety Agency (AFSSA), the General Management of Health, and the General Management of Food. As of May 28, 2010, 88 cases of salmonellosis tied to this outbreak have been identified, of which 46 women and 42 men, aged from 1 to 89 years old (median age 8 years old). These cases are from 49 departments in France (Figure 1, below, left).

Forty-four cases have been investigated to date. Among these, 18 people have been hospitalized and have since returned home.

For the investigated cases, the symptoms appeared between March 15 and May 9, 2010.

The questioning of patients about the food they consumed during the 7 days preceding their illness showed a high frequency of consumption of dry sausage bought from the same brand.

A traceback showed that these sausages came from the same batch produced in a single firm in France, distributed nationally during the first two weeks of March 2010. The best by date for this batch extends from June 1 to 15, 2010.

The identified batch of dried sausage was recalled (consumer information was posted and communicated in a press release) by the producer on May 27, 2010.

Translator’s Note: A subsequent news search reveals that the recall is for the Lou Mountagnard brand of dried sausages. (France 24, May 28, 2010).

3 sailors die of food poisoning on oil tanker

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Agence France-Presse reports that three sailors have died of food poisoning on an oil tanker traversing the Channel between Britain and Europe, French maritime authorities said Wednesday.

The captain of the Marshall Islands-flagged Arionas reported the deaths overnight, French officials said, adding that the source of the food poisoning was not known.

French officials have sent a helicopter with two gendarmes and a doctor for a preliminary investigation. More gendarmes would be sent later to question the crew.

Fromgirls promote French raw-milk cheese

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Traditional French cheese is apparently as much about scantily-clad young women as it is about camembert, roquefort and brie.

New figures show raw-milk cheeses from rural France, which until the Second World War accounted for nearly all consumption, now make up just seven per cent of those eaten.

The Association Fromages de Terroirs (AFT), which aims to protect France’s traditional cheese culture, is now trying to fight back with a series of posters of “Fromgirls”, displaying women working in the industry.

Veronique Richez-Lerouge, of the AFT, said,

“The French have forgotten what real cheese is like. Buying cheese has become like buying a box of washing powder.”

Globalisation and safety regulations introduced by the European Union have played a part. Pasteurisation – the germ killing process – has helped wipe out many raw-milk cheeses. Workers are also eating more quick snacks at lunchtime, rather than sitting down to meals in traditional restaurants, whose cheese trolleys helped to forge the French national identity.

About scores on doors in Asian restaurants in France

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This is a blog post from our friend in France, Albert Amgar, translated by Kansas State French professor Amy Hubbell and the students in FREN 530: French Translation.

Labels, logos, and scores on doors have come up several times on this blog.

According to leParisien.fr on February 24, 2010 in "Asian restaurants are asked to take more care with their cooking," the Asian restaurant union is asking 12,000 caterers and restaurateurs to improve their food safety and quality. Their goal is to improve their ratings and it is not being met.

The “Quality Asia” label was created in October 2005 and it is given to Asian, Chinese, Japanese or Vietnamese restaurants and caterers whose cleanliness is certified. Five years later, only 12 addresses in the Parisian region and 5 in the rest of France (primarily in the North – AA) have been awarded this label. That’s a small number considering there are 12,000 food professionals in France and 8,000 in the Parisian region alone.

According to the website of the Asian Restaurant and Catering Union, the first audit is performed by an independent agency that checks the establishments’ performance and gives certification.

What is included in the Quality Asia Label?
– Welcoming guests according to traditions
– Offering and cooking Asian flavors from different regions according to European regulations
– Following the guidelines on the Quality Charter
– Submitting to a quality control every two years
– Making comment cards available to clients

What are the criteria for quality?

The first audit checks 142 control points of which 30 are reserved for the kitchen. These points are aimed at the welcome, the quality of management, service, delivery, proportion of quality to price, general cleanliness, general ambiance, facilities, materials, equipment, storage, preparation, expiration dates, traceability, safety and many other elements that ensure quality to the clients.

To be given the label, the food professional must receive 85% on the evaluation.

A new test is given every two years to check changes in the establishment and to ascertain whether the service is consistent with the label requirements and the demands of Quality Charter.

Restaurants with the label are recognized in several ways that attest to their quality:
How can you spot them? There are several ways: the logo, the Quality Charter, the certificate, and the customer satisfaction cards. You can find the restaurants here.