Tag Archives: France

Soft-serve sucks in Belgium

Posted on by
Reply

Not just a problem for Toronto or Tori Spelling, Belgium also apparently has some issues with soft-serve and regular ice cream.

Albert sent along a link to a recent report by Test-Achats, a Belgian-based consumer group that anonymously sent researchers to 69 points of sale for ice cream and soft-serve in Belgium during the summer of 2008. Amy translated, and highlights of the report are below.

“Attention was essentially directed towards touristic sites like the Côte, the Ardennes, and various country towns. They bought ice cream cones and soft-serve. While making the purchases, they took the opportunity to evaluate the hygiene at the point of sale as well as of the personnel, the place where the counter or the soft-serve dispenser was located, the conditions for rinsing the ice cream scoop, etc. Immediately after the purchase, and in appropriate sterile and temperature conditions, the ice cream was taken to the laboratory to undergo detailed bacteriological testing. …

Apparent cleanliness was rarely noted during our visits: only 18 points of sale received a good or very good score for this category. In 8 cases, general hygiene at the point of sale was simply unacceptable… and added to that was a serious lack in the staff’s personal hygiene. A serious problem that was already underscored by Test Achats: the ice cream scoop. It was only rinsed under running water in 6 of the points of sale. This is however fundamental for serving ice cream in good hygienic conditions. Too often, the scoop was left resting in obviously unclean water or it wasn’t, in any case, cleaned before service. Finally, it is unacceptable that the ice cream counter or the soft-serve machine be located in full sunlight, exposed to outside air or that the ice cream be accessible to or touched by clients. However, this was the case in 11 locations.

The testing of 5 specific bacteriological parameters as well as the number of total germs gives a realistic image of the hygienic quality of the 70 samples analyzed. Fortunately the presence of Salmonella and Listeria was never detected, on the other hand, Escherichia coli (which can provoke enteritis or diarrhea) was detected in three cases. In two cases, staphylococcus was present, proof of a lack of the personnel’s hygiene.  …

Throughout the years and through successive studies, the results are obvious: the hygienic quality of ice cream is getting worse: 35% of ice cream cones and 61% of soft-serve are bad to mediocre. This is a completely unacceptable situation."

Handwashing at Local Hospital

Posted on by
Reply

My knowledge of foreign languages is limited to high school Spanish and learning while traveling. Thankfully, I have Amy, who translated all these French words into English, so I could understand what I was reading (and French-bites correspondent, Albert Amgar, who sent the story in the first place).

At Local Hospital of Penne-D’Agenais, France, Tuesday, June 16 was dedicated to handwashing. Representatives across all hospital services contributed in the “Clean Hands = Saved Lives” campaign. This included taking a training class, informing the public on handwashing, how handwashing contributes in reducing the risk of germs and soiling, and that handwashing reduces cross-contamination between people and objects. Handwashing is also suggested for the prevention of infectious disease spreading and foodborne illness [don’t eat poop].

Hands should be washed before and after handling food, after using the toilet or changing a diaper, and when taking care of others. Proper handwashing includes using soap, rubbing hands together fiercely, and drying with a paper towel.

Handwashing campaign in France

Posted on by
1

I’m taking over the handwashing blogging today while Megan recovers from the devastating 2-1 win by Pittsburgh over Detroit to win Lord Stanley’s cup.

I’m talking about hockey.

And I’m not sure Megan cared, but I did. Amy’s crushed.

Albert Amgar in France just e-mailed me about a new handwashing campaign being run by the French Ministry of Health. There are lots of pretty pictures available at http://www.sante-sports.gouv.fr/dossiers/sante/mission-mains-propres/IMG/pdf/Recap_affiches2.pdf

Albert was kind enough to translate one of the posters – it’s below. His English is a lot better than my French. But in honor of Albert, and Amy the French professor, and Katie who’s in Jemaine and Bret’s hometown of Wellington, New Zealand, I also once again present, Foux da fa fa (below).

 
 

In bad taste

Posted on by
Reply

As a follow-up to yesterday’s post about The Food Taster, bites.ksu.edu French correspondent Albert Amgar sent along this story from Le Monde, and French professor Amy translated.

In the Parisian restaurant La Fontaine de mars, where Obama ate dinner on Saturday evening, the cooks were stunned: an American secret service member tasted the dishes before they were served to the President of the United States. Nonetheless, this is a precautionary method as old as the earth, even predating Nero and Cleopatra. Who would dare get offended? God save Obama!

A food sampler (male or female) must have excellent taste buds and a certain taste for danger. But his job is really not to be a food taster. He has no right to give his opinion about the menu, the cooking method or preparation of a dish.

The only thing expected of him is to verify the innocuousness of the food destined for the presidential palace. After having brought the spoon to his mouth, a disapproving pout would have a disastrous result. The disgusted look of a food sampler would be in bad taste.

Why limit such precautions to food? While less sudden, some poisons are as dangerous as arsenic or rat poison. There are innumerable heads of state, deprived of efficient food samplers, who were politically killed by an excessive appetite for power.

The Food Taster

Posted on by
Reply

I’ve been working my way through Peter Elbling’s 2003 novel The Food Taster, for about a year. It’s sorta always there but I just can’t get that excited about the main character, Ugo, and his struggle to survive as he tastes countless dishes to protect a much loathed but important 16th Century Italian Duke (Federico). 

Amy has written while at this point in history simply having food was a luxury, the formerly starving peasant, Ugo, learns that he can no longer enjoy his food. Although now an expert at identifying ingredients and seasonings (right up there with today’s top food pornographers) he is constantly afraid of being struck by a mystical potion.  His backwards, yet perhaps scientifically accurate, strategy is to slowly expose himself to all sorts of potions and poisons to build up (immuno) resistance should he actually be struck.

The N.Y. Times reported in 2006 that Saddam Hussein once sentenced his elder son, Uday, to be executed after he beat Mr. Hussein’s food taster to death in front of scores of horrified party guests, but later rescinded the order.

In Medieval times men of power had tasters who valiantly sampled their food in case an enemy tried to poison them.  This practice was built on a myth that survives today – if you get food poisoning, it’s from the last thing you ate, and the symptoms will commence rather immediately. 

Last week, reports surfaced that U.S. President Obama had his own food taster present to sample dinner in a French restaurant. Not so, said Presidential spokesthingy Robert Gibbs, but a Secret Service dude may have been watching things.

I hope so. Most people, including chefs, know nothing about food safety. A couple of years ago, Amy and I had the privilege of an after-hours chat with some FDA-types who spoke of the precautions they would take when preparing safe salmon for Laura Bush and any other meal fit for a President. They had thermometers. And knew how to use them.

Science says: wine-in-a-box OK

Posted on by
1

That’s a relief. I love my vino in a box, or from a box. In Maubisson, France, I’d bike to the store, and the dude would fill up a 2 litre bottle with Bordeaux from a box. Awesome.

Gary J. Pickering, senior author of a study in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry says that for some reason the researchers can’t explain, wines stored in Tetra Pak-brand cartons had the lowest levels of unwanted chemicals, called methoxypyrazines.

One possibility, Pickering said, is that the chemicals escape through the carton’s innermost layer, made of polyethylene, and then attach to an adjacent layer made of aluminum foil.

The best storage method for preventing that problem, the study found, was a bottle sealed with a screw-cap – which, like the cardboard carton, has some connoisseurs wrinkling their refined noses.

From France to Kansas City: foodborne illness in schools

Posted on by
Reply

Several headmasters from the Haute-Garonne and Tarn primary schools in France simultaneously informed the health authorities of the occurrence of digestive disorders of low severity among students.

A retrospective cohort study, conducted through self-administered questionnaires among approximately 3,000 students and teachers who had participated in two meals in 36 schools concerned, was initiated to confirm the existence of a foodborne outbreak and its origin. …

This large-scale foodborne outbreak illustrates the main factors that encourage the occurrence of foodborne outbreaks (multiple malfunctions in the preparation of meals), and stresses the importance of associating the epidemiological, veterinary and microbiological investigations in the early management of the alert, as well as the first management measures (eviction of sick personal) to avoid major consequences in collective catering.

Meanwhile in Missouri, two Lee’s Summit kindergarten students have been hospitalized with salmonella.

The kids, a boy and a girl, have been enrolled in Richardson Kids Country during the school year. The Health Department has not determined if their illness is related to the school.

Hamburgers in France, steak tartare in the Netherlands linked to shiga-toxin E. coli

Posted on by
Reply

Epidemiological studies conducted in France show that beef burger consumption is the main risk factor of a serious disease caused by Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli bacteria or STEC.

A quantitative risk assessment for the consumption of beef burgers containing STEC by the Agence Francaise De Securite Sanitaire Des Aliments concluded that almost 50% of children under the age of 5 eat well-done beef burgers (as well as 29% and 24% of 5-10 year olds and 10-15 year olds respectively). The proportion of beef burgers consumed rare increases with the children’s age: 10%, 17% then 20% for each of the age groups defined (under 5, 5-10 year olds and 10-15 year olds). Regarding the effectiveness of cooking (a frozen beef burger being pan-fried and turned over once), it should be noted that cooking “rare” is associated with a percentage of STEC destruction of 0% to 87% ; “medium” 37% to 96% and “well done” 94% to 99.8%. Concerning the consumption habits that prevail in French households today, these results highlight the importance of the length of cooking on STEC destruction (currently not enough), and the hygiene of beef burger production.

A place to start might be to accurately define what rare, medium and well-done actually mean, as quantified by time and temperature

Eurosurveillance reports that the Netherlands experienced a nationwide outbreak of Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli (STEC) O157 with onset of symptoms from the end of December 2008 until the end of January 2009. A total of 20 laboratory-confirmed cases were linked to the outbreak strain, serotype O157: H-, stx1, stx2, eae and e-hly positive.  The investigation into the source of this outbreak is still ongoing, but evidence so far suggests that infection occurred as a result of consuming contaminated raw meat (steak tartare). 

Child stricken with HUS in France; link to frozen ground beef patties

Posted on by
Reply

Our French correspondent Albert forwarded a press release issued yesterday by the French Ministry of Health and Sports; Amy translated.

Following notification on February 11, 2009 to InVS (The French Institute for Public Health Surveillance) of a case of hemolytic uremic syndrome in a child who is hospitalized in the Parisian region, health authorities have begun an investigation to identify the source of contamination.

The tests done on the child indicated he or she was infected with E. coli.

Among the foods consumed was frozen ground beef patties on which tests were conducted. The results of these tests were relayed today to health authorities and demonstrated the presence of E. coli. The link between this case and the consumed food will only be confirmed after further testing which is currently in progress.

While waiting for those results, the authorities have asked the producer to proceed with a  recall of CERGEL brand frozen ground beef patties sold in boxes of 10 with a best-by date of 10/31/09.

The health authorities are asking people who have bought these patties to not eat them and to return them to where they were purchased.

The Ministry also has some general advice, which seems a bit lacking, but maybe it got lost in translation.

Generally you are reminded that:

–    Ground meat ordered at the butcher shop must be consumed that day and frozen ground meat must be used without any prior defrosting;

–    Cooking the ground beef patties through to the center prevents the consequences of E. coli contamination. The bacteria is destroyed by a temperature of 65°C (149°F). Children and pregnant women should not consume rare meat.

–    Hemolytic Uremic Syndrome (HUS) is an illness most frequently originating in food, rare in France, and potentially serious for the very young and very old. It can cause acute renal insufficiency in children under the age of 3.
 

Watching the trainwreck that is diarrhea

Posted on by
Reply

There’s a certain appeal to trainspotting – or watching an impending trainwreck. It’s appalling and compelling at the same time. Ben and I went to a Sloan concert in Guelph several years ago and we wanted to leave they were so bad – and Sloan is usually great – but had to stay and watch where they would descend to next.

It was worth the wait.

Amy the French professor has a similar obsession. There’s some woman who writes a blog about her meaningless life in France and Amy is hooked. Amy finds this woman’s blog posts meaningless, facile and unbelievably stupid. And she reads it every day.

Recently, French blogger’s daughter had, as Ben likes to say, the squirts: diarrhea at daycare. Mom says, “Our daycare is pretty cool about letting her (diarrhea daughter) come.”

Diarrhea in a daycare is not a good thing, but hey, poop happens. Not so sure about the quality control when the kid’s runny poop ends up on the bandage of her finger that mom had accidentally attempted to sever using a bedroom door. Read the blog and it may make sense; or want to kill yourself.

Surprisingly, the newspaper in Pembroke, Ontario, near the Barry’s Bay cottage owned by the parents of my high school girlfriend, has some tips for kids with the squirts.

Prevent the spread of viruses. Clean your hands and your child’s hands often, especially after using the toilet or changing a diaper. Use soap and warm water, or hand sanitizer. If hands are dirty, hand sanitizers won’t work, you’ll need to wash with soap and water first.

Amy and I have been changing a lot of diapers. We wash our hands. And despite some fantastically explosive messes, haven’t gotten baby shit on the kid’s fingers.