Tag Archives: frozen

And so it goes: at least 6 sick from Salmonella in frozen chicken thingies in Minn

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State health and agriculture officials said today that six recent cases of salmonellosis in Minnesota have been linked to raw, frozen, breaded and pre-browned, stuffed chicken entrees. The implicated product is Antioch Farms brand A La Kiev raw stuffed chicken breast with a U.S. Department of Agriculture stamped cFunkyChickenHiode of P-1358. This product is sold at many different grocery store chains. Investigators from the Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) and the Minnesota Department of Agriculture (MDA) determined that six cases of Salmonella infection from August and September 2014 were due to the same strain of Salmonella Enteritidis. One person was hospitalized for their illness. “Our DNA fingerprinting found that the individuals were sickened by the same strain of Salmonella,” said Dr. Carlota Medus, epidemiologist for the Foodborne Diseases Unit at MDH. “The Minnesota Department of Agriculture collected samples of the same type of product from grocery stores and the outbreak strain of Salmonella was found in packages of this product.” There have been six outbreaks of salmonellosis in Minnesota linked to these types of products from 1998 through 2008. This is the first outbreak since improvements were made in 2008 to the labeling of these products. The current labels clearly state that the product is raw.  Salmonella is sometimes present in raw chicken, which is why it is important for consumers to follow safe food-handling practices. This includes cooking all raw poultry products to an internal temperature of at least 165 degrees Fahrenheit. “The problem arises when consumers don’t realize that they are handling and preparing a raw product,” according to Dr. Carrie Rigdon, an investigator for the MDA Dairy and Food Inspection Division. MDA and MDH officials advised that consumers with these products in their freezers, if they choose to use them, should cook them thoroughly. Other important food handling practices include hand washing before and after handling raw meat, keeping raw and cooked foods separate to avoid cross-contamination, and placing cooked meat on a clean plate or platter before serving. Consumers can find more information about safe food-handling practices on the MDH website at: www.health.state.mn.us/foodsafety. Symptoms of salmonellosis include diarrhea, abdominal pain and cramps and fever. Symptoms usually begin within 12 to 72 hours after exposure, but can begin up to a week after exposure. Salmonella infections usually resolve in 5 to 7 days, but approximately 20 percent of cases require hospitalization. In rare cases, Salmonella infection can lead to death, particularly in the elderly or those with weakened immune systems.

Direct video observation of adults and tweens cooking raw frozen chicken thingies 01.nov.09
 British Food Journal, Vol 111, Issue 9, p 915-929 
Sarah DeDonder, Casey J. Jacob, Brae V. Surgeoner, Benjamin Chapman, Randall Phebus, Douglas A. Powell
 http://www.emeraldinsight.com/Insight/viewContentItem.do;jsessionid=6146E6AFABCC349C376B7E55A3866D4A?contentType=Article&contentId=1811820
 Abstract:
 Purpose – The purpose of the present study was to observe the preparation practices of both adult and young consumers using frozen, uncooked, breaded chicken products, which were previously involved in outbreaks linked to consumer mishandling. The study also sought to observe behaviors of adolescents as home food preparers. Finally, the study aimed to compare food handler behaviors with those prescribed on product labels.
 Design/methodology/approach – The study sought, through video observation and self-report surveys, to determine if differences exist between consumers’ intent and actual behavior. chicken.thingies.raw.cook
Findings – A survey study of consumer reactions to safe food-handling labels on raw meat and poultry products suggested that instructions for safe handling found on labels had only limited influence on consumer practices. The labels studied by these researchers were found on the packaging of chicken products examined in the current study alongside step-by-step cooking instructions. Observational techniques, as mentioned above, provide a different perception of consumer behaviors. 
Originality/value – This paper finds areas that have not been studied in previous observational research and is an excellent addition to existing literature.

Can chlorine dioxide improve the microbiological safety of frozen blueberries?

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Blueberries are prone to microbial contamination, with growth of bacteria, yeasts and molds during bulk freezing negatively impacting quality and marketability. As a follow-up to our previous work, the combined impact of ClO2 gassing and freezing rate on the microbiological quality of frozen blueberries was examined.

blueberry.lugSixteen lugs of blueberries (∼9.1 kg/lug) were stacked inside a large plastic container at a commercial blueberry processing facility. In each of four trials, one container was exposed to ClO2 gas (4 ppm) using three 3-kg sachets while one ungassed container remained untarped. Before and after commercial processing, 50-g samples of gassed and ungassed blueberries were quantitatively examined for mesophilic aerobic bacteria (MAB), yeasts, and molds. After processing, additional 50-g samples were placed in a −20 °C freezer under different conditions where the berries reached a temperature of −3 °C after 3 h (quick-frozen), 2 days (intermediate-frozen) and 5 days (slow-frozen). Fruit was sampled periodically during 6 months of frozen storage at −20 °C. MAB yeast and mold populations decreased ∼2 and 1 log CFU/g, respectively, in ClO2-gassed and ungassed fruit, with MAB, yeast and mold populations increasing ∼1 log CFU/g during quick freezing to −3 °C and ∼2 log CFU/g during intermediate and slow freezing to −3 °C. Based on these findings, ClO2 gassing followed by quick freezing provides an effective means for meeting the current microbiological standards being imposed by buyers of frozen blueberries.

 Efficacy of chlorine dioxide gas and freezing rate on the microbiological quality of frozen blueberries

ScienceDirect

Lei Zhang, Zhinong Yan, Eric J. Hanson, Elliot T. Ryser

Food Control, Volume 47, January 2015, Pages 114–119, DOI: 10.1016/j.foodcont.2014.06.008

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0956713514003375

Nottinghamshire fruit growers hit back at health scare as crops are given all-clear

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From the I’ve-been-doings-things-this-way-all-my-life files comes word that strawberry growers across Nottinghamshire, UK, say their product is “perfectly safe” in light of a report from  the European Food Safety Agency which described frozen strawberries, along with raspberries, as an “emerging public health risk” after being linked to cases of the potentially fatal norovirus in Europe.

strawberryIIn 2012, almost 11,000 people in Germany were struck down by Norovirus.

The Food Safety Agency report warned that fruits could be contaminated by dirty water used in irrigation or to dilute fertiliser, or a lack of hygiene in the packing and freezing processes.

However, there have not been any confirmed outbreaks in Britain.

Maybe theirs some confusion between frozen and fresh.

Suzannah Starkey, of Starkey’s Fruit in Southwell, said, “We don’t want the British people to fall out of love with strawberries – you can’t get better anywhere else. They are at their very best at the moment.

“All the Starkey family have eaten the strawberries all their lives, straight from the bush, and have never had a single problem.” Our strawberries are subject to very stringent hygiene standards. The pickers always wash their hands before picking and are subject to spot checks by health inspectors. The punnets are heat-sealed and rapidly chilled, and are maintained at that level until they are taken off the shelf by the customer.”

Responding to the European Food Safety Agency report, Laurence Olins, chairman of British Summer Fruits, the UK body dedicated to the promotion of British-grown soft and stone fruits, said: “The UK fresh fruit crop does not pose a public health risk.

“This report is based on out-of-date references relating to a very specific issue with frozen berries from developing countries, imported into other parts of Europe in 2012.”

Over 800 sick with Hepatitis A; between indifference and approximation

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Our Italian food safety friend, Luca Bucchini, provides an update on the ongoing Hepatitis A outbreak linked to frozen fruits.

An edited version is below, and something will probably be lost in translation.

In Italy, since the beginning of 2013 or shortly before, is currently the most significant outbreak associated with food seen in the western world after the German-based sprout outbreak of 2011.

The cases reported to the Italian authorities, and therefore serious enough to warrant medical attention, associated with berries are at frozen-berriesleast over 800, with a significant proportion of hospital admissions.

It is not surprising that during this epidemic the media have dealt with so little, instead devoting space to hypothetical risks, like GMOs, or of pigs brought before the Parliament.

But how is it possible that the epidemic, although slow, has not yet been stopped, and we do not know the origin (the origin is likely that there were crops irrigated with water contaminated with sewage in Eastern Europe, but do not exclude other possibilities).

At the same time, perhaps for the lack of pressure from public opinion, has definitely contributed little transparent action, slow and uncertain of the Italian authorities. Even the initial identification of the outbreak has not occurred in Italy, despite epidemiological signals of concern, but in Germany and the Netherlands, because of the tourists came back sick, in March, from holidays in Trentino.

At present, the clues on the origin of raw materials lead to Poland. From this country, according to the Italian documents, however, are arriving very little information to find a common origin. Community legislation imposes very specific: you should be able to go back to producing farms without difficulty. It is not clear, however, if the Poles have not applied the rules, or simply resisted requests for information Italian.

It was evident that the frozen berries can remain in the freezer for months or years, which are often consumed without cooking and are used without heat treatment capable of killing viruses (boiling), even for ice cream cakes, ice cream and for many other typical products of consumption in summer. The Ministry of Health has not promoted, and does not endorse, any communication; news on the site is difficult to find.

The scientific data were already clear: the only safe treatment was boiling. But consumers were given mixed messages until September, and even today few know that the official advice is to consume the products only after two minutes of boiling, then without giving any indication as to the tens of thousands of bakeries and ice cream stores. In essence, it is hoped that the problem would pass on its own. Instead, with the berries still in the freezers, the epidemic has diminished in intensity but has not yet passed.

In Italy, the ASL often do not have the aggressiveness needed for epidemiological investigation, and the central coordination is poor. It is based on the analytical findings and, when the problem is of this nature, even from a purely economic point of view it is better to eliminate a suspect lot (not confirmed) more, than letting the problem continue. We are at the point that the most prestigious supermarket chains, industry and the inability of authorities to solve the problem, they said they no longer sell this type of product.

Unfortunately, this myth of a system far superior, and food consequently always free of problems, has become a mantra repeated uncritically, even by those who should have a professional duty to respect the available data.

Lack of transparency is not conducive to the most efficient firms, and any reliable health authority has not only an obligation to act diligently to avoid unnecessary alarms, but also to worry about the economic interests of specific and general. But this search for balance, entrusted to a third party mediator between producer and buyer, it does not work for consumers, for businesses the most virtuous, and the industry continues to have – in this case – the unsolved problem. 

49 now sick; Fingering pomegranate, keeping hepatitis A out of frozen berries starts at the farm

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State-sponsored jazz got something right: food safety for produce starts at the farm.

Nancy Shute of NPR reports the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that at least 49 people in seven states have gotten Hepatitis A from eating organic frozen berries.

Hepatitis A in frozen berries is not a new problem — though most recorded outbreaks have been small. Way back in the 1980s people got the same virus raspberryfrom frozen raspberries used to make mousse in Scotland. A 2003 outbreak in New Zealand was traced to a single blueberry farm. Finland banned serving uncooked berries in institutional settings after multiple outbreaks in the late 1990s.

Canada also has a hepatitis A outbreak caused by frozen berries. One last year in British Columbia came from a frozen berry blend with pomegranate seeds from Egypt.

Pomegranate seeds are also in the berry blend fingered in the new outbreak. According to the label, the berries were a cosmopolitan bunch — from the U.S., Argentina, Chile and Turkey. The manufacturer, Townsend Farms Inc. of Fairview, Ore., issued a recall notice yesterday. The berries were sold through Costco and Harris Teeter stores.

Growers and processors should be screening workers for symptoms of hepatitis A, says Juan Silva, a professor of food technology at Mississippi State strawberryUniversity. He says they also should be requiring good hygiene either through hand-washing or wearing gloves.

“You need constant training and awareness for supervisors and employees that they can cause this kind of problem,” Silva says. “Try to make them realize that they are responsible for the safety of people who eat the food.”

Cooking or pasteurizing food is one of the only reliable ways to kill the hepatitis A virus, Silva says. So you’ll probably be safe if you’re planning to make pie or cobbler.

But antimicrobial rinses haven’t proven to kill enough germs on fresh fruit to be worth their while. Irradiation kills bacteria, but it’s much harder to zap viruses, so that’s not a sure bet, either. And freezing food doesn’t kill the germs, alas. That’s how scientists keep the bacteria they study frisky.

“There’s no post-harvest intervention as of now that’s capable of eliminating the virus,” Silva told The Salt. “That’s why prevention is key.”

So what’s a smoothie lover to do?

No one’s suggesting getting vaccinated just to make smoothies, but as more and more people gain protection from the vaccine, outbreaks like these will pose less of a risk.

71 sick; ongoing multi-strain foodborne hepatitis A outbreak with frozen berries as suspected vehicle

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I love the frozen berries. Almost every night I put some in a bowl with oatmeal and milk or yoghurt, and by morning it’s all thawed and yummy and just really fabulous for my colon.

But there’s been this on-going outbreak in European countries that raises the risk specter.

Gillesberg et al. report in Eurosurveillance this week that a foodborne outbreak of hepatitis A in Denmark was notified to other countries on 1 March 2013. A case–control study identified frozen berries eaten in smoothies as potential vehicle. In the following weeks, Finland, Norway frozen.strawberryand Sweden also identified an increased number of hepatitis A patients without travel history. Most cases reported having eaten frozen berries at the time of exposure. By 17 April, 71 cases were notified in the four countries. No specific type of berry, brand or origin of berries has yet been identified.

In February 2013, Denmark registered a higher than usual number of notified patients with hepatitis A virus (HAV) infection who had no travel history 2–6 weeks before symptom onset or other known risk factors for HAV infection. Concurrently, viruses from six hepatitis A patients who had been notified since October 2012 were shown to be genotype IB with the same sequence across 1,231 nucleotides of the capsid protein VP1 gene, including the VP3/VP1 and VP1/2A junctions (GenBank accession number KC876797). An outbreak investigation was initiated and an urgent enquiry was posted through the European Epidemic Intelligence Information System for food- and waterborne diseases (EPIS-FWD) on 1 March 2013, asking if any other countries had also seen an increase in the number of domestic patients with HAV infection. The sequence was also shared within the International HAV laboratory network managed in the Netherlands.

Following the urgent enquiry, Finland, Norway and Sweden also reported an increase in the number of patients with HAV infection who had no history of foreign travel. Each country identified one or more cases with HAV genotype 1B that had identical sequences to the HAV of the Danish cases. The outbreak is still ongoing. 

The following outbreak case definition was defined in Denmark and applied in all four countries, except that Sweden only includes cases from 1 December 2012 onwards and Finland is not excluding cases with other potential risk factors.

A probable case is defined as a person living in Denmark, Finland, Norway or Sweden with clinical illness compatible with HAV infection and positive for HAV IgM antibodies, no travel history outside of Nordic countries two to six weeks before onset of symptoms or having other known HAV risk factors, such as intravenous drug use, homelessness or male-to-male sexual contact and symptom onset on 1 October 2012 or later.

The full report is available at:

http://www.eurosurveillance.org/ViewArticle.aspx?ArticleId=20467

Loaded pistol found packed in frozen NM meat

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A bizarre find in a package of meat at a grocery store has law enforcement agencies from New Mexico and Colorado wondering where the gun came from.

So far everyone involved with the case has said they’ve never seen this one before. A worker unwrapping frozen meat at Albertsons found a handgun and ammunition packed with it.

A worker at a Roswell Albertsons opened a case of frozen ribs in the meat section and made the discovery Wednesday.

“I have personally never heard of this in 13 years,” said Sgt. Jim Preston of the Roswell Police Department.

The worker told his supervisor and turned the semi-automatic Rock Island Armory .38 Super along with seven rounds of ammo found with it over to police.

Preston told KRQE News 13 this gun is rarely seen in this area.

There are a couple clues to the mystery. According to the police report, the meat package came from the Swift Packing Plant in Greeley, Colo., and the date on the package is June 8, 2011.  

News 13 spoke with Greeley police who said their gang unit is exploring what occurred during that time to determine whether the gun may have been involved in any crimes there. 
Police said the pistol has not been reported stolen. 

8 sick; Frozen berries in BC may contain hepatitis A

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I loves me the frozen berries; they’re a mainstay of my diet, along with all the fresh berries I can plant, buy and consume.

Maybe the British Columbia Centre for Disease Control (BCCDC) has hepatitis A on its mind, what with the employee at a Victoria retailer testing positive earily this week, but the public is now being warned not to consume Pomeberry Blend frozen berries manufactured by Western Family because it may be linked to the hepatitis A virus.

The BCCDC and regional health authorities are investigating eight cases of hepatitis A that have occurred over the past two months in BC. Five out of eight of these cases are known to have consumed the Pomeberry product and an investigation is ongoing. This product has been distributed through Save-On-Foods and Overwaitea.

While there is no direct link yet, as a precaution, anyone who has the Pomeberry Blend product in their refrigerator or freezer is advised not to consume it, and to discard it. This blend contains frozen pomegranate seeds, blueberries, strawberries and cherries. No other frozen berry products from Western Family are a concern at this time.

This is a precautionary alert as the investigation continues and more information should be available next week. There is currently no recommendation for people who have consumed the product to receive vaccine since the overall risk to the public is very low. This will be reassessed as further information becomes available.

Cook that frozen turkey, it’ll take longer, try not to kill relatives

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Roasting a frozen bird can produce a better turkey.

And many food safety types agree.

Elizabeth Weise of USA Today writes the technique involves a hot oven, an icy bird and six hours to hang out with your relatives.

While the technique turns out not to be new, it’s gaining traction because of a Web publication outlining how to do it by Pete Snyder of the Hospitality Institute of Technology and Management, which does safety training for food companies.

"The breast is still moist and the dark meat is still tender," Snyder says from his office in St. Paul. It’s also excellent for food safety "because you didn’t drip that nasty turkey juice on everything in the refrigerator for four days."

Donald Schaffner, a food microbiologist at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, N.J., says from a safety perspective Snyder’s right. "A frozen turkey is going to spread less contamination around your kitchen than a thawed turkey."

Snyder tested the technique because "I had been one of those people that had woken up at 7:30 in the morning and the turkey was still frozen." But being a food-safety professional, he decided to throw in a few temperature-measuring thermocouplers.

He placed them at various points on multiple frozen turkeys as they roasted. What was happening in the oven, he found, was "the first half of the cooking period thaws the turkey and then the second half roasts it," he says.

His technique is simple:
Take one frozen turkey, 12 to 13 pounds.
Place a low wire rack on a cookie sheet with low sides.
Remove the plastic cover from the turkey.
Put the turkey on the rack.
Put it in a 325-degree oven.
Wait 4½ to five hours.
Eat.

Snyder recommends using a cookie sheet or another baking sheet with a low rim, not a high-sided roasting pan. "You want the hot oven air to evenly circulate all around the turkey," he says.

He also recommends putting the turkey on a rack on the pan so that the hot air can circulate underneath, as well.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s food-safety experts agree with Snyder. Kathy Bernard of USDA’s Meat and Poultry Hotline says "you can cook a turkey from a frozen state, the only thing you need to know is that it takes one and a half times longer to cook" than a thawed bird.

The technique is well known to the folks on the Butterball Turkey Talk-line. They get "lots" of calls on the topic Thanksgiving morning, says Carol Miller. She has been answering frantic questions for 27 years out of the Naperville, Ill., office.

The ideal final temperatures for the turkey is 160 degrees at the breast and 185 for the legs. But Snyder doesn’t think a thermometer is necessary because you can tell when the leg has reached 185 because "it will wiggle back and forth really easily" because the connective tissues will have begun to dissolve at that temperature, he says.

USDA isn’t so keen on the "wigging the leg" method of testing for doneness. "You need to use your food thermometer, you need to make sure the turkey should register 165 in the innermost part of thigh and the thickest part of the breast," Bernard says.

Butterball’s Miller says this is the time to canvass the neighborhood. "You really need a meat thermometer. If you don’t have one, give a guest a call and see if they can bring one. Or go to a convenience store. Or knock on a neighbor’s door."

The one area where Snyder and other turkey experts differ is on the matter of the neck and giblets, which in most commercially prepared turkeys will be placed in the neck and body cavity.

Snyder says that after about 2½ to three hours the turkey will have thawed enough that you can "carefully" pull them out of the warming bird to start to make stock. "You can leave them in, but then you don’t have them for the gravy," he says.

Butterball’s Miller disagrees. The bag they come is "designed to go through that heating process, so that’s not a problem." Trying to remove a slippery bag tucked deep in a turkey straight out of a hot oven — especially when everyone’s stressed about getting things done on time — just isn’t necessary. "They’re just as happy staying right where they are. That’s our recommendation and we’ve been doing this for 30 years."

The one thing you can’t do with a frozen turkey is deep fry it, because the frozen liquid can cause the oil to boil over, Snyder says. "That would be very, very dangerous."

Edmonton woman finds glove in package of frozen chicken wings

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Madina Najmeddine considers chicken wings to be her guilty pleasure, but when she prepared a batch of Pinty’s Honey Garlic Wings on Tuesday, she got much more than she bargained for.

"My initial reaction was ‘Oh my god!,’ and my second reaction was ‘I’m going to be sick,’" Najmeddine said.

What initially appeared to be several chicken wings clumped together was instead revealed a glove – balled up and covered in sauce.

"You know that gloves handling chicken may be clean, but now your hand’s in the glove and I have your glove and that’s kind of disgusting," she said.

Global News attempted to contact Pinty’s Delicious Foods in Burlington, Ont. several time Thursday, but no calls were returned. Najmeddine is determined to get some answers.