Tag Archives: herb

87 now sick from this kratom stuff in the U.S.

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The investigation has expanded to include outbreak strains from three additional serotypes of Salmonella: Salmonella Javiana, Salmonella Okatie, and Salmonella Thompson.

The same strains of Salmonella Okatie and Salmonella Thompson were found in samples collected from kratom and from ill people.

47 more ill people from 25 states were added to this investigation since the last update on March 2, 2018.

At this time, CDC recommends that people not consume any brand of kratom in any form because it could be contaminated with Salmonella.

Kratom is also known as Thang, Kakuam, Thom, Ketom, and Biak.

Kratom is a plant consumed for its stimulant effects and as an opioid substitute.

CDC, public health and regulatory officials in several states, and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration are investigating a multistate outbreak of Salmonella infections.

Epidemiologic and laboratory evidence indicates that kratom is the likely source of this multistate outbreak.

No common brands or suppliers of kratom products have been identified at this time.

Because no common source of Salmonella-contaminated kratom has been identified, CDC is recommending against consuming any kratom.

Since the last update on March 2, 2018, investigators identified ill people infected with other types of Salmonella, including Salmonella Okatie, Salmonella Javiana, and Salmonella Thompson. Epidemiologic and laboratory evidence has linked these additional Salmonella illnesses to consuming kratom.

Health officials continue to collect various leftover and unopened kratom products to test for Salmonella contamination. Investigators in California collected leftover Phytoextractum brand kratom powder from an ill person in that state. The outbreak strain of Salmonella I 4,[5],12:b:- was identified in this sample. As a result of these findings, PDX Aromatics recalled kratom powder sold online between January 18, 2018 and February 18, 2018.

Investigators in Oregon and Utah collected kratom powder from retail locations and online retailers where ill people reported purchasing kratom. Outbreak strains of Salmonella Okatie and Salmonella Thompson were identified in these samples. No brand information was available for the kratom products collected in Oregon. The ill person in Utah purchased kratom powder from the website kratoma.com.

State and local health officials continue to interview ill people to ask about the foods they ate and other exposures before they became ill. Forty (73%) of 55 people interviewed reported consuming kratom in pills, powder, or tea. Most people report consuming the powder form of kratom. People who reported consuming kratom purchased it from retail locations in several states and from various online retailers.

Despite the information collected to date about where ill people purchased kratom, a single common brand or supplier of kratom has not been linked to the outbreak. At this time, CDC recommends that people not consume any brand of kratom in any form because it could be contaminated with Salmonella and could make people sick. This investigation is ongoing and we will provide updates as needed.

Listeria found in NZ parsley

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I’m wary of the herbs.

italian.parsleyThey’re natural and groovy, but also microbiologically messy.

I grow them, but rarely eat them raw, and am considerate about crosss-contamination.

People are being urged to throw out bags of Italian parsley from a Nelson, New Zealand,  company after tests showed traces of listeria.

Traces of Listeria Monocytogenes, which can cause listeriosis, were found in 50-gram bags of Italian parsley sold by Riwaka-based Tasman Bay Herbs. The affected bags have a use-by date of up to June 27 and were sold to nine retail outlets in Auckland, Wellington, Nelson and Christchurch.

The stores were among those which recalled all Tasman Bay Herbs stock on Monday afternoon after a test revealed potential contamination.

Further testing showed the 50 gram bags of Italian parsley had traces of listeria contamination. All other products tested negative for listeria.

Why I’m wary about herbs: Study on farmers’ markets shows presence of Salmonella and E. coli

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Researchers in Chapman University’s (not that Chapman) Food Science Program and their collaborators at University of Washington have just published a study on the presence of Salmonella and E. coli on certain herbs sold at farmers’ markets. The study focused on farmers’ markets in Los Angeles and Orange counties in California, as well as in the Seattle, Washington, area. Specifically tested were samples of the herbs cilantro, basil and parsley. Of the 133 samples tested from 13 farmers’ markets, 24.1 percent tested positive for E. coli and one sample tested positive for Salmonella.

basil.salmonella“While farmers’ markets can become certified to ensure that each farmer is actually growing the commodities being sold, food safety is not addressed as part of the certification process,” said Rosalee Hellberg, Ph.D., and co-author on the study. “Certain herbs such as parsley, basil and cilantro have been implicated in many food outbreaks over the past two decades so our study focused specifically on the safety and quality of these three herbs.”

Hellberg and her research team visited 49 different vendors at 13 farmers’ markets in Los Angeles and Orange Counties in California, and in the greater Seattle area collecting 133 samples of the three herbs between the period of July and October 2013. Each sample was equivalent to one pound and was tested that same day for both Salmonella and E. coli using methods from the United States Food and Drug Administration Bacteriological Analytical Manual.

A total of 16 samples had average E. coli counts considered to be unsatisfactory according to guidelines established by the Public Health Laboratory Service. When tested for Salmonella, 15 samples had suspicious growth but only one tested positive—a parsley sample from a Los Angeles County farmers’ market.

herb.tarlekOrange County farmers’ markets had the highest percentage of samples with E. coli growth followed by farmers’ markets in the greater Seattle area and Los Angeles County.

Salmonella symptoms include diarrhea, abdominal cramps and fever around 12 to 72 hours after consumption that can last four to seven days. Symptoms for pathogenic forms of E. coli include severe stomach cramps, diarrhea that often becomes bloody, and vomiting.

According to the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Economic Research Service, farmers’ markets have been increasing since 2009 near urban areas, particularly along the East and West Coasts. In August 2013, there were more than 8,000 farmers‘ markets listed in the USDA’s National Farmers’ Market directory.

The study was published in the Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture.

Herbal horses**t; products omit ingredients, contain fillers

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The majority of herbal products on the market contain ingredients not listed on the label, with most companies substituting cheaper alternatives and using fillers, according to new research from the University of Guelph.

The study, published today in the open access journal BMC Medicine, used DNA barcoding technology to test 44 herbal products sold by 12 food.fraud.adulterationcompanies. Only two of the companies provided authentic products without substitutions, contaminants or fillers.

Overall, nearly 60 per cent of the herbal products contained plant species not listed on the label.

Researchers detected product substitution in 32 per cent of the samples.  More than 20 per cent of the products included fillers such as rice, soybeans and wheat not listed on the label.

“Contamination and substitution in herbal products present considerable health risks for consumers,” said lead author Steven Newmaster, an integrative biology professor and botanical director of the Guelph-based Biodiversity Institute of Ontario (BIO), home of the Canadian Centre for DNA Barcoding.

“We found contamination in several products with plants that have known toxicity, side effects and/or negatively interact with other herbs, supplements and medications.”

One product labelled as St. John’s wort contained Senna alexandrina, a plant with laxative properties. It’s not intended for prolonged use, as it can cause chronic diarrhea and liver damage and negatively interacts with immune cells in the colon.

Several herbal products contained Parthenium hysterophorus (feverfew), which can cause swelling and numbness in the mouth, oral ulcers, and nausea. It also reacts with medications metabolized by the liver.

One ginkgo product was contaminated with Juglans nigra (black walnut), which could endanger people with nut allergies.

Unlabelled fillers such as wheat, soybeans and rice are also a concern for people with allergies or who are seeking gluten-free products, Newmaster said.

4 paralyzed after herb mix-up in Italy

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An Italian family of four has been left paralysed after the grandmother of the household accidentally garnished their pasta with a poisonous plant.

AFP reports Carmela Messina, 66, found the poisonous herb Devil’s Trumpet in some bushes near a market.

Believing it to be a bitter green broccoli variant, she took it home and devilstrumpetplanted it in her herb collection.

She sprinkled it on the family’s evening spaghetti on Monday and fell ill soon afterwards along with her husband, daughter and young grandson.

They were taken to hospital and put into a medically-induced coma after another family member found them collapsing and vomiting.

“I can’t forget the image of my mother and sister paralysed on the floor,” Maurizio Finocchiaro, Messina’s son, was quoted as saying.

“I saw my family members falling ill one by one. After my nephew starting being sick, I realised that all of their symptoms were related to something that they had eaten,” he added.

Devil’s Trumpet, which is officially known as Datura Metel, is highly toxic and can be fatal if ingested by humans or animals.

The four are still in hospital but doctors said they were confident the paralysis would be temporary.

413 sick with Salmonella after UK Street Spice festival

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Herbs and spices seem particularly prone to contamination, especially with Salmonella.

This time, uncooked curry leaves in a chutney left more than 400 people who ate at a street food festival with diarrhea and vomiting or salmonella poisoning, health officials have found.

The leaves were contaminated with several different bacteria, experts found, which led to 29 confirmed cases of salmonella at the Street Spice Curry leavesfestival in Newcastle in February and March.

Why is the public only hearing about it now?

Oh, right, it’s the UK.

An investigation by Public Health England (PHE) and Newcastle city council found 25 of the 29 cases had developed a strain of salmonella never found in people or food in Britain before.

According to an official report, further laboratory analysis suggested other organisms may also have caused illness including E coli and shigella.

Some of the 413 affected were found to have more than one of these infections at the same time.

No one will face prosecution because there was seen to be a lack of clear advice about the dangers of using raw curry leaves in recipes, and in general hygiene levels at the three-day event were good.

Dr Kirsty Foster, chair of the outbreak control team and consultant in health protection with PHE, said, “However, herbs and spices are known to be potential sources of salmonella and other organisms, and have been reported in scientific literature as the source of infection in a number of outbreaks across the country.

“But it is unclear whether there is widespread understanding among food handlers and the public about the potential for infection when using these products raw.

“That is why we have reported our findings to the Food Standards Agency, recommending that advice is developed for the food industry and the public about the use of raw curry leaves.

“While this is being developed, our advice to the public is to cook curry leaves thoroughly if they are to be used in recipes and to be aware of the risk of infection if using them raw.”

Once again, HPA ignores the risk of cross contamination.

30 sickened; crypto outbreaks linked to herbs in Sweden, 2010

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According to the current issue of Eurosurveillance, one of Sorenne’s favorite journals, the number of sporadic cases of Cryptosporidium identified in the Stockholm county area increased above the expected limit during October 2010. Additionally, two food-borne outbreaks of cryptosporidiosis occurred in two other Swedish cities: Umeå (4 October) and Örebro (9 October). The outbreak investigations did not reveal any responsible food item, however fresh herbs were suspected. Thirty stool samples, originating from all three events, tested positive for Cryptosporidium oocysts. Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and subsequent restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) revealed that 27 individuals were infected with C. parvum, two with C. hominis, and one with C. felis. Using sequence analysis of the GP60 glycoprotein gene, a polymorphic marker with high intra-species diversity, we identified the same C. parvum subtype IIdA24G1 in samples from both the Umeå outbreak and the Stockholm area cases, thus indicating a possible outbreak in the Stockholm area and establishing a link between these two events. C. parvum IIdA24G1 has not previously been described in connection with a foodborne outbreak. For the outbreak in Örebro, another subtype was identified: C. parvum IIdA20G1e. These findings demonstrate that subtyping C. parvum isolates using GP60 gene amplification can be used to link cases in an outbreak investigation and we recommend its use in future similar events.

The complete paper is available at http://www.eurosurveillance.org/ViewArticle.aspx?ArticleId=20318.

Chinese billionaire dies after eating poisoned cat stew: police

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Chinese billionaire Long Liyuan died after dining on slow-boiled cat meat stew laced with the toxic herb Gelsemium elegans during a business lunch in the Guangdong province.

The case became an online sensation after the police said they had detained the local official, Huang Guang, who had also been hospitalized with food poisoning after the Dec. 23 lunch, in the city of Yangjiang.

The police now suspect that Mr. Huang slipped Gelsemium elegans into the stew while eating lunch with Long Liyuan, 49, who ran a forestry company, and another friend. To avoid suspicion, Mr. Huang apparently ate some of the stew himself. All three men were hospitalized, according to the police account, and Mr. Long died almost immediately.

The police discovered evidence that Mr. Huang had embezzled money from Mr. Long, and detained him on Dec. 30.

High bacteria levels in bean sprouts

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CBC News asked hockey goon and University of British Columbia microbiology type Kevin Allen to test 44 packages of sprouts for bacteria from across the country and he found lots.

There was no salmonella but Allen found 93 per cent tested positive for bacteria, and in some cases, high levels of enterococci bacteria, which is an indicator of fecal contamination.

"They [bacteria found] come from our intestinal tract and we don’t want the contents of our intestinal tract on our food," he said.

Sprouts are particularly susceptible to contaminants because they are grown in moist, warm environments, which are ideal for the rapid growth of bacteria, Allen said, adding that washing them before consuming them likely wouldn’t help.

"Personally, I don’t consume sprouts and I would not feed them to my children, either," Allen said.

Allen also tested 106 samples of bagged veggies and found 79 per cent of the herbs and 50 per cent of the spinach had similar bacterial contamination.

Allens report can be found at http://www.cbc.ca/manitoba/includes/pdfs/produce_survey.pdf. We all look forward to the results being published in a peer-reviewed journal before being further bandied about.

A table of North American raw sprout-related outbreaks is available at http://bites.ksu.edu/sprout-associated-outbreaks-north-america
 

Beware the herb; cilantro with salmonella

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Several fresh herbs are repeat offenders on the showing up contaminated list, this time cilantro.

Offcials with the California Department of Public Health said Friday certain fresh cilantro sold in grocery stores may be contaminated with salmonella.

No illnesses have been reported, but the cilantro is being recalled as a precaution.

The recalled cilantro was distributed by Tanimura & Antle of Salinas. It was sold in bunches containing a white twist-tie printed with blue lettering starting Jan. 14. The twist-ties contain the words “Produce of USA, Cilantro #4889” and have a blue Tanimura & Antle logo next to the UPC code 33383 80104.