Tag Archives: Japan

E. coli O157 found in raw beef liver; Japan contemplates ban

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As New York City and food pornographers elsewhere embrace raw meats, one country with a strong culture of raw beef is moving to ban some dishes.

In 2011, E. coli O111 in raw beef killed four and sickened at least 70 in Japan. On Friday, a health ministry panel proposed banning all raw beef liver served at restaurants, after it was discovered that it contains E. coli O157.

Japan Times reports the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry will swiftly refer the matter to the Food Safety Commission under the Cabinet Office. Once the commission compiles a report, the new ban could be incorporated in the Food Sanitation Law and come into effect as early as June.

Violations regarding raw liver, considered a delicacy, would be punishable by up to two years in prison or a maximum fine of ¥2 million.

 

Be careful; all risk management is be careful; E. coli O157 found in Japanese beef liver

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The Japanese health ministry said Thursday it has detected E. coli O157 inside beef liver for the first time, raising the likelihood that raw liver — considered a delicacy in Japan — may soon be banned from the dining table.

The findings, to be discussed by a ministry council next Tuesday, come as the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare has been considering whether to prohibit butchers and restaurants from selling raw beef liver, in the wake of food poisoning deaths from raw beef served at barbeque restaurants earlier this year.

The ministry found live E. coli bacteria of the strain in the livers of two of the about 150 cattle it has examined at meat inspection centers nationwide since summer.

The ministry said the outcome of genetic testing has also shown that the bacteria existed inside beef livers of more than one cow examined.

So far, the bacteria have been found only on the surface of beef livers and the ministry had been warning consumers to be careful when eating raw livers.

Restaurants have already been asked by the government to refrain from serving raw beef liver since July while the ministry considered the safety of consuming raw beef and raw liver.

Of the 116 cases of food poisoning from eating raw beef liver confirmed between 1998 and 2010, 20 were caused by enterohemorrhagic E. coli bacteria, according to the ministry.

In Japan, food poisoning cases haven’t cut appetite for ‘yakiniku’ raw meat cuts

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In May, 2011, five people were killed – including two children — and over 180 sickened with E. coli O111 after eating raw beef dishes at restaurants in Japan.

After initially blaming the Australian supplier, Yasuhiro Kanzaka, president of Foods Forus Co., which runs the Yakiniku-zakaya Ebisu chain, said the company had not conducted microbial tests at any of its outlets since July 2009, adding, "We’d never had a positive result [from a bacteria test], not once. So we assumed our meat would always be bacteria-free.”

The Japanese health ministry subsequently stated it planed to begin imposing new penalties for food safety violations as early as October, as current guidelines were nonbinding.

The agriculture ministry urged restaurants to ensure the trimming of all raw meat and to remind customers of the higher risks of food poisoning for children and the elderly.

It’s now December, and according to a report released last week, 59 of the 4,490 restaurants and meat suppliers inspected were providing raw beef cuts, including "yukke," to customers, despite new regulations requiring beef to be heated for at least two minutes in 60-degree water. Restaurants were also required to set up special sanitized workspaces to prevent bacterial infections.

The Tokyo metropolitan government report also revealed that none of the 59 locations serving the shredded raw meat met the new food safety standards issued in October.

"We have ordered the facilities that do not meet the standards to stop providing the dishes, and all of them have discontinued providing raw meat at this point," the metropolitan government said.

While the crackdown in Tokyo has ostensibly stopped yakiniku restaurants from serving yukke, some claim the strict regulation has only led restaurants to serve the dish under the table.

Although violations of the new safety rule can result in a fine of 2 million Yen or imprisonment of up to two years, the metropolitan government has only ordered the restaurants to stop providing raw meat.

Which is as effective as me telling my 3-year-old, “no” or “don’t do that.”

Would you eat a burger made from poop? Do you already?

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There’s a lot of talk about hamburgers in the run-up to Father’s Day and most of it is crap.

Literally.

Someone in Japan made a hamburger out of human poop, the use-a-piece-of-metal-and-sear-your-tongue method of checking whether a burger is done is making the rounds, and someone else says 120F beef is safe.

The poop burger is the safest choice.

Because if you’re going to eat poop, at least cook it (and try not to cross-contaminate the kitchen).

My Health News Daily reports today researchers in Japan have synthesized meat from proteins found in human waste.

"In the food safety world we say, ‘don’t eat poop,’" said Douglas Powell, a professor of food safety at Kansas State University. "But if you’re going to, make sure it’s cooked."

The Japanese researchers isolated proteins from bacteria in sewage. The poop-meat concoction is prepared by extracting the basic elements of food — protein, carbohydrates and fats — and recombining them.

The meat is made from 63 percent proteins, 25 percent carbohydrates, 3 percent lipids and 9 percent minerals, according to Digital Trends. Soy protein is added to the mix to increase the flavor, and food coloring is used to make the product appear red.

The researchers came up with the idea after Tokyo Sewage asked them to figure out a use for the abundance of sewage in mud, Digital Trends says.

Powell is not familiar with the researchers’ method, but said he guesses that they are first heat-treating the sewage before they reap its resources.

"Theoretically, there’s nothing wrong with this," Powell said. "It could be quite safe to eat, but I’m sure there’s a yuck factor there," he said.

However, Powell said there is the potential for cross contamination in the laboratory where the poop meat is made. That’s why it’s a good thing the meat will eventually be cooked.

But what if the final product was not going to be cooked?

"I wouldn’t touch it, " Powell said.

Pass it on: Meat made from poop is safe, but you should cook it before you eat it.

Japan blames Australia for E. coli O157, which occurs naturally

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The blame game never ends.

It’s like getting divorced.

The Gyukaku restaurant chain in Japan, without offering any credible information about the microbial food safety steps it takes, has decided to blame Australian beef for an E. coli O157:H7 outbreak which sickened 20 of its customers at the Korean-style barbecue restaurant in Japan.

Maybe the owners should ask themselves, why are they serving raw beef?

Of the 20 people who became sick in Toyama prefecture, 15 were infected with the O157 strain of E. coli bacteria after eating at an outlet of the popular Gyukaku restaurant chain on May 6, local officials said yesterday.

The company said it had changed its Australian supplier, but a public health inspection of the affected restaurant did not find E. coli bacteria.

At least four people in Japan have died from E. coli O111 bacteria food poisoning since April after eating raw beef at a different low-price Korean-style barbecue restaurant chain.

It’s not the lower price. Cook cows. Fire invented for reason.
 

Police investigation on E. coli deaths in Japan; still missing the point about risks of raw beef

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In another example of Japan’s rapid response to food safety issues, the health ministry says it plans to begin imposing new penalties for food safety violations as early as October … as current guidelines are nonbinding.

The agriculture ministry urged restaurants to ensure the trimming of all raw meat and to remind customers of the higher risks of food poisoning for children and the elderly.

Foods Forus Co., operator of the Yakiniku-zakaya Ebisu restaurant chain — four customers of which died after eating raw beef dishes at its outlets — admitted Tuesday to having taken a lax attitude toward food safety and that it had stopped trimming meat to remove surface bacteria at its restaurants since July 2009, despite being aware of government guidelines to do so.

”We thought the meat had already been trimmed (at Yamatoya Shoten) and that it was alright” to skip the step at the restaurants, a Foods Forus executive told Kyodo News. ”We were careless regarding food safety.”

Police have questioned the president of Tokyo-based meat supplier Yamatoya Shoten and The Yomiuri Shimbun has learned Yamatoya sold meat it claimed was wagyu to Yakiniku-zakaya Ebisu but the meat also contained other kinds of beef.

Wagyu comes from native Japanese breeds of beef cattle, such as Japanese Black, Japanese Brown, Japanese Polled and Japanese Shorthorn, or crosses of such breeds.

However, the ID number of the carcass from which the beef in question was taken showed the animal was raised by a dairy farmer in Fukushima Prefecture.
According to the farmer, "If the meat was sold as wagyu beef, it’s fraudulent labeling."

Yamatoya Shoten removed bones and fat from the meat, divided it into small portions, sterilized it with alcohol and sealed it in vacuum packs, according to the sources. It was then shipped directly to Yakiniku-zakaya Ebisu outlets, they said.

The police said they plan to investigate the processes used in distributing the meat and whether proper hygiene was maintained.
 

Food safety disasters nothing new in Japan

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In June 1996, initial reports of an outbreak of E. coli O157:H7 in Japan surfaced in national media.

By July 1996, focus had centered on specific school cafeterias and two vendors of box lunches, as the number of illnesses approached 4,000. Lunches of sea eel sushi and soup distributed on July 5 from Sakai’s central school lunch depot were identified by health authorities as a possible source of one outbreak. The next day, the number of illnesses had increased to 7,400 even as reports of Japanese fastidiousness intensified. By July 23, 1996, 8,500 were listed as ill.

Even though radish sprouts were ultimately implicated — and then publicly cleared in a fall-on-sword ceremony, but not by the U.S. — the Health and Welfare Ministry announced that Japan’s 333 slaughterhouses must adopt a quality control program modeled on U.S. safety procedures, requiring companies to keep records so the source of any tainted food could be quickly identified. Kunio Morita, chief of the ministry’s veterinary sanitation division was quoted as saying "It’s high time for Japan to follow the international trend in sanitation management standards."

Japanese health authorities were terribly slow to respond to the outbreak of E. coli O157:H7, a standard facilitated by a journalistic culture of aversion rather than adversarial. In all, over 9,500 Japanese, largely schoolchildren, were stricken with E. coli O157:H7 and 12 were killed over the summer of 1996, raising questions of political accountability.

The national Mainichi newspaper demanded in an editorial on July 31, 1996, "Why can’t the government learn from past experience? Why were they slow to react to the outbreak? Why can’t they take broader measures?" The answer, it said, was a "chronic ailment" — the absence of anyone in the government to take charge in a crisis and ensure a coordinated response. An editorial cartoon in the daily Asahi Evening News showed a health worker wearing the label "government emergency response" riding to the rescue on a snail. Some of the victims filed lawsuits against Japanese authorities, a move previously unheard of in the Japanese culture of deference.

Fifteen years later, with at least four dead and 100 sick from E. coli O111 served in raw beef at the Yakiniku-zakaya Ebisu barbecue restaurant chain, Japanese corporate, political and media leaders are still struggling.

Under Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry guidelines, only meat that meets strict standards–such as being processed on equipment exclusively for handling meat for raw consumption and in a meticulously hygienic environment–can be shipped to be eaten raw.

However, the decision on what meat can be served raw is left up to the restaurant serving it. The wholesaler who sold the beef in question to the Yakiniku-zakaya Ebisu chain reportedly told a public health center that the meat it shipped "was supposed to be eaten after being cooked."

The sanitation guidelines have no binding power and have largely been ignored. The health ministry, for its part, has long failed to stringently push industries to comply with the sanitation standards.

To ensure people can eat raw meat without fearing for their health, the government must review the regulations for the entire meat preparation process.

Anrakutei Co., a Saitama-based yakiniku barbecue chain, stopped serving yukke at its 250 outlets, mainly in the Kanto region, on Tuesday.

"We’ve been providing the dish to customers based on strict quality control, but customers’ concerns make it difficult to continue to serve it," a public relations official of the company said.

Anrakutei said the company conducts bacteria tests on the Australian beef it uses for yukke three times–first before it is purchased, again before it is sent to the company’s meat processing plant and finally before it is shipped to outlets. At the plant, the meat is processed separately from other food materials to prevent it from coming into contact with bacteria, the company explained.

There is no discussion of what is being tested, and how valid those tests are at picking up a non-O157 shiga-toxin producing E. coli like O111 There is no verification that anyone is testing anything.

In the absence of meat goggles that can magically detect dangerous bacteria, eating raw hamburger remains a risk.
 

Excuse me, while I kiss the pavement; gestures won’t get rid of E. coli O111 in raw beef

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Yasuhiro Kanzaka, president of Japanese barbecue restaurant chain Yakiniku-zakaya Ebisu fell on his sword and kissed the pavement at the company’s headquarters in Kanazawa in Ishikawa Prefecture on May 5, 2011.

This is of little comfort to the four dead and 70 sick from E. coli O111 in raw beef served at the restaurants which was never tested because, “We never had a positive result, so we assumed our meat would always be bacteria-free.”

In a supreme case of reactive rather than proactive food safety policy, the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry said it will introduce stricter standards for the handling of raw meat and penalties for violators.

The ministry aims to quickly establish the standards in line with the Food Sanitation Law, and will seek advice from a food safety panel and other concerned bodies, ministry officials said Thursday.

Here’s the advice: don’t serve raw hamburger.

Oh, and authorities on Friday afternoon raided the corporate headquarters of Yakiniku-zakaya Ebisu and a wholesale distributor connected to the outbreak. They probably have those bacteria-vision googles.

At least 20 of the 70 sick are in critical condition.
 

’We never had a positive result, so we assumed our meat would always be bacteria-free’

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One of the dumbest food safety quotes ever, but characteristic of food safety failures.

Or any failure within an organization.

Those who study engineering failures – like the BP oil well in the Gulf, the space shuttle Challenger, Bhopal – say the same thing: human behavior can mess things up.

In most cases, an attitude prevails that is, “things didn’t go bad yesterday, so the chances are things won’t go bad today.”

And those in charge begin to ignore the safety systems.

Listeria counts go up in a processing plant, no worries, we’ll get to it tomorrow.

News out of Japan on food safety outbreaks is often difficult to come by because of a prevailing culture of patriotism. But some gems do leak out.

Daily Yomiuri Online reported yesterday the operator of a yakiniku barbecue restaurant chain linked to four deaths and 70 illnesses from E. coli O111 in raw beef admitted it had not tested raw meat served at its outlets for bacteria, as required by the health ministry, since 2009.

Yasuhiro Kanzaka, president of Foods Forus Co., which runs the Yakiniku-zakaya Ebisu chain, said during a press conference Monday at the firm’s headquarters in Kanazawa, "We’re not strict enough [about food safety]."

The company said it had not conducted such tests at any of its outlets since July 2009. "We’d never had a positive result [from a bacteria test], not once. So we assumed our meat would always be bacteria-free," Kanzaka said.

Kanzaka said no restaurant would be able to satisfy the ministry’s current standard for uncooked beef.

"The government should make it actually illegal to serve raw meat that doesn’t meet the standards as yukhoe or in other dishes," he said.

I have no idea what the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry testing requirements are for restaurants serving raw meat, but I do know restaurants can’t test their way to safe food.

This is how four people die and 70 are sickened by E. coli O111.
 

Japan E. coli O111 outbreak claims fourth victim, 70 ill

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Jiji Press reported this morning that a woman died Thursday of food poisoning from E. coli O111 in central Japan, bringing the total number of deaths linked to a raw meat dish served at a restaurant chain to four, while 70 others have fallen ill.

She went to a restaurant in Tonami, Toyama prefecture, with her family, including another woman who died Wednesday. The two had eaten yukhoe, a dish similar to tartare, served at the eatery run by Foods Forus Co, based in nearby Kanazawa.

A 6-year-old boy also fell ill and died Friday after eating the dish at the same restaurant.

Another boy died a week ago in nearby Fukui prefecture after eating the same dish at another of the company’s restaurants.

Jiji reported that 70 other people were suspected to be suffering from food poisoning after eating at the company’s restaurants. One of them, confirmed to be infected with the E coli O111 strain, is in critical condition.