Poulter battles illness to hold Masters golf lead

Posted on December 16, 2011 by Douglas Powell

England’s Ian Poulter held onto a two-stroke lead heading into the third round of today’s Australian Masters at the Victoria Golf Club, despite battling a potential foodborne illness.

"I woke up this morning and wasn’t feeling too good. I don’t know if it was something I ate. I was struggling out there this morning even before I got to the range. I would have taken 68 before I set off today. I just got a bug and hopefully I’m through it so I can come out strong tomorrow."

Nothing says pageantry and grace better than a pro golfer spewing on one of those plush greens on national TV. It reminds me – not the pro gofler part — of Chapman and Naylor at a long-ago golf trip when an improbable hole-in-one led to a seemingly endless bar tab that had to be consumed that night. Those boys felt the effects the next morning. On the plush terrace of the first tee.

Wales starts restaurant inspection disclosure; mom of E. coli child death says system sucks

Posted on October 2, 2010 by Douglas Powell

I know golf is boring. I only play the game when I don’t want to be with my wife. I like my wife, I don’t golf anymore.

The golf world is all a twitter with the Ryder Cup being held in Newport, Wales. Amy and Sorenne and I were there in January to visit the Powell family tree.

But in the food safety world, Wales is probably most famous for its terrible food safety failings in 2005.

Sharon Mills, the mother of 5-year-old Mason Jones, who was tragically killed in a 2005 E. coli outbreak in Wales that sickened 160 school kids, said the U.K. Food Standards Agency is putting the interests of businesses before public safety.

Abby Alford of the Western Mail reports that Mills comments came as the roll-out of a new food hygiene rating scheme, which will grade the cleanliness of more than 30,000 Welsh food retailers, began Friday.

Ms Mills, of Deri, near Bargoed, Caerphilly, said: “The FSA’s decision not to base ratings on existing environmental health inspection reports provides a get-out clause to failing restaurants, cafes, shops, pubs and takeaways, as does the decision not to make it mandatory for them to display their rating.”

Environmental health officers in the 22 local authorities have been told to award the food hygiene ratings from 0 for the worst to five for the best, based on routine inspections carried out after today. Businesses are inspected at six, 12 and 18-month intervals depending on the risk they pose. After their next inspection their rating will be uploaded to a dedicated website www.food.gov.uk/ratings.
Ms Mills said it would be months before the ratings would be made available to the public.

An FSA spokeswoman said it was not feasible to launch the scheme with all Welsh food businesses listed from the outset. But she added that within a 12-month period the highest risk categories of food businesses would have been visited at least once and their score ratings would be available.

Regarding mandatory display of the ratings, she said it would have required a change in legislation, which would have resulted in an “unwelcome delay” in implementing the scheme.

This is bureaucratic nonsense which the FSA has become famous for, especially its piping hot cooking recommendation.

Ms Mills said,

“It was this soft-touch approach which allowed William Tudor to continue trading and which ultimately led to the 2005 outbreak which cost Mason his life.”

Nuevo Folleto Informativo: Skokie Country Club en Glencoe, Illinois, relacionado con un brote de Salmonella

Posted on July 13, 2010 by Douglas Powell

Traducido por Gonzalo Erdozain
Resumen del folleto informativo mas reciente:
– El brote resultó  en 37 casos confirmados, 50 posibles casos  y 8 hospitalizaciones.
– Las reuniones han sido reubicadas  por la clausura  de la cocina.
– Preparadores de alimentos pueden transmitir Salmonella sin presentar síntomas
– Solo el 3% de los casos de salmonelosis son reportados oficialmente.
Los folletos informativos son creados semanalmente y puestos en restaurantes, tiendas y granjas, y son usados para entrenar y educar a través del mundo. Si usted quiere proponer un tema o mandar fotos para los folletos, contacte a Ben Chapman a benjamin_chapman@ncsu.edu.
Puede seguir las historias de los folletos informativos y barfblog en twitter
@benjaminchapman y @barfblog.

Salmonella at Illinois golf course continues to grow; 29 confirmed sick; 50 additional cases suspected

Posted on June 30, 2010 by Douglas Powell

I rarely golf anymore. Same thing happened when I had young kids before. Although Amy insists it’s no problem for me to disappear for 6 hours to hit a little white ball, it just doesn’t seem cool. And it’s boring. I miss hockey.

But me and Chapman have witnessed some terrible food safety at golf courses over the years.

In August, 2005, during the halfway point of the annual International Association for Food Protection golf tournament in Baltimore, a burley, 50-ish goateed he-man requested his hamburger be cooked, "Bloody … with cheese."

His sidekick piped up, "Me too."

Our golf foursome of food safety types were alternately alarmed and amazed, but ultimately resigned to conclude that much of what passes for food safety advice falls on deaf ears.

I asked the kid flipping burgers if he had a meat thermometer.

He replied, snickering, "Yeah, this is a pretty high-tech operation."

The young woman taking orders glanced about, and then confided that she didn’t think there was a meat thermometer anywhere in the kitchen; this, at a fancy golf course catering to weddings and other swanky functions along with grunts on the golf course.

The Cook County Department of Public Health continues to investigate an outbreak of Salmonella enteritidis at the Skokie Country Club in Glencoe, IL. Currently, there are 29 laboratory-confirmed cases including seven hospitalizations associated with this outbreak.

CCDPH officials continue to follow-up on more than 50 additional reports of gastrointestinal illness from individuals who ate at the country club.

Hepatitis A possible for Colorado golf course patrons

Posted on June 9, 2010 by Douglas Powell

Someone didn’t wash their hands and may have placed their poop in ice, drinks and fruit at Desert Hawk, part of the Pueblo West golf course in Colorado.

The Pueblo City-County Health Department announced that transmission of hepatitis A may have occurred on May 31, 2010, at the course.

Dr. Christine Nevin-Woods, Public Health Director at the Pueblo City-County Health Department, said,

“People who had ice, cold drinks with ice, or cut fruit on May 31, 2010 at Desert Hawk at Pueblo West golf course may be at risk for developing hepatitis A.”

Nevin-Woods says that people who consumed these drinks and ice items on this date should receive an injection of hepatitis A immune globulin or vaccine on or before June 11.

Questions and concerns will be addressed by calling the Health Department at 719-583-4942 or 719-583-4531.

Golfers file lawsuit against club because of watercooler full of feces and urine

Posted on March 30, 2010 by Douglas Powell

I really like Amy.

She’s annoying and neurotic, but no worse than me, and who isn’t?

So I won’t be going on the annual golf trip with the boys from Guelph. I went last year because it was part of a North Carolina road trip, but took Amy and Sorenne and spent the couple of days doing my best Herb Tarlek impersonation from the television show, WKRP in Cincinnati, with, “I thought we were supposed to bring our wives?”

When I do golf, I bring my own water, from the municipal tap.

Three golfers in Clearwater, Florida, have filed a lawsuit against Countryside Country Club, alleging they got sick from club watercoolers that contained "adulterated water." A press release from the Law Office of Tragos & Sartes indicates that the cooler on the golf course’s eighth hole was vandalized and contained feces and urine.

The lawsuit claims that on July 18, 2009, the men were golfing and drank from the water cooler. It was hot, so they said they were "guzzling" the water. Upon noticing an "unnatural taste," one of the plaintiffs opened the container and discovered urine and feces.

His son immediately "became ill and vomited on the tee box at hole number 8," while he and his father later developed fevers and other symptoms.

Are third party food safety auditors as effective as financial ratings agencies?

Posted on March 17, 2010 by Douglas Powell

I used to go on this annual golf trip that originated out of Guelph and ended up somewhere in Virginia or North Carolina about this time of year because it was relatively warm to people from Ontario and ridiculously cold to people in the south.

We got cheap rates.

I don’t golf much anymore. I like my wife.

One of the guys I used to regularly golf with worked for one of those financial ratings companies. He gave everyone golf balls. He was a bit tense last year, what with the financial meltdown and my endless taunting.

I thought of that person watching this bit from The Daily Show last night where Jon Stewart attempts to explain the underpinnings of the U.S. financial crapshoot.

And I couldn’t help think about the role of third-party food safety auditors in some of the spectacular (and tragic) outbreaks of foodborne illness in the past few years.

In the video below (takes a few minutes to get into it) use the words “food safety auditor” instead of third-party financial rating whenever it comes up.

Substitute money with safe food.

The Consumer Protection Agency is like the proposed single-food inspection agency; do people in Washington, D.C. really just play shuffle the chairs?

Substitute Peanut Corporation of America for Lehman Brothers, and Jimmy for AIB.

Sigh …

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Putt while you poop – for those who take forever

Posted on February 25, 2010 by Douglas Powell

When Chapman first got a blackberry, he e-mailed me and proudly proclaimed, “I’m in the bathroom” (but not exactly like that).

Others I know spend hours on the toilet with their iPhones. Me, I just take my computer – need that full keyboard.

But for others looking to while away the time and improve their golf game, then this may be for you.

It’s the Potty Putter.

There’s also the bizarrely named, Tea Time Toilet Potty Puter, “for that person in your life that takes their time” and the “Piddle Poop n Putt – Potty Putter."

New International Food Safety Network Infosheet — Foodborne illnesses prompt fine at golf course in Western New York

Posted on July 3, 2008 by Ben Chapman

It may not surprise regular readers of barfblog that we selected an outbreak linked to a golf course for this week’s iFSN infosheet; we’ve chronicled food safety at a golf course in the past. During the past week there have been reports of two outbreaks traced to golf courses, one in Wheaton, IL and, the inspiration for the infosheet, in Niagara Falls, NY.

Click here to download the infosheet.

Prestigious Australian golf club investigated over suspected food poisoning

Posted on March 8, 2008 by Douglas Powell

My old — and we’re all getting old — hockey/Guelph buddies are golfing in Myrtle Beach this weekend, the annual getaway (right is my friend Steve, upon learning that the universe had been altered and I won putting last year).

I took a pass this year, as my youngest daughter and her friend are going to hang out in Manhattan (Kansas) for a week. Can you think of a better place to spend spring break?

So I thought about the food safety at the new course the boys are trying out this year as one of Queensland’s most prestigious golf courses came under investigation after as many as 15 wedding guests fell ill from suspected food poisoning last weekend.

Queensland Health and the Ipswich City Council have launched an investigation into Brookwater Golf Club after guests fell ill while attending a wedding reception on Saturday.

Late last year, the club appointed leading Brisbane chef Russell Armstrong as its executive chef and launched a new a la carte dinner menu. Mr Armstrong also has his own signature restaurant – Salt on Armstrong – in Brisbane City.

On its website, Brookwater claims it supplies wedding guests with "innovative seasonal menu selections, featuring the freshest regional cuisine."

Hope they got the food safety basics together. In August, 2005, during the halfway point of the annual International Association for Food Protection golf tournament in Baltimore, a burley, 50-ish goateed he-man requested his hamburger be cooked, "Bloody … with cheese."