All washing might do is “remove the snot that some 3-year-old blew onto the food at the grocery store,” says the ever-forthright Powell at Kansas State. Washing “lowers the pathogen count a little, but not to safe levels if it’s contaminated.”
I said that in a Feb.15, 2012 interview with USA Today.
And a coupe of days ago a former MS student and friend sent me this:
So sad. Kids developed hemolytic uremic syndrome from an E. coli infection in Wisconsin, source of contamination is unknown.
The La Crosse County Health Department is investigating eight cases of a “particularly nasty form” of the e-coli bacteria that forced the hospitalization of six children.
Some of the children have recovered and been released from the hospital, said Paula Silha, education manager at the Health Department who declined to name where the children live for privacy concerns.
The families are concerned about messages that might appear on social media, in particular, Silha said.
E-coli is a bacterial infection that is more common during the summer months. Cases can be linked or individual.
The variant in these cases, e-coli 0157, is “a particularly nasty form, which produces a toxin that can be harmful to the body organs such as the kidneys,” Silha said.
The hospitalized children had developed hemolytic uremic syndrome, a toxin that can damage kidneys, she said.
This form also is called shiga toxin-producing escherichia coli, and the Health Department is working with the Wisconsin Division of Health to contain the outbreak, Silha said.
The ongoing investigation has not identified a single source of infection or contamination.
The first reports came in early in the month, and additional people are being tested, she said.
E-coli is transmitted by eating contaminated food or water and by contact with fecal material from infected people or animals, she said.
Annual reports for the past several years indicate an average of two to three cases a year, although 30 were counted last year, Silha said, adding, “I cannot tell from the annual report if they were all related to one outbreak or if they came in a few at a time.’
Person-to-person spread of bacteria is possible and may occur in family settings, day care centers and nursing homes. Children younger than 5 and the elderly are the most susceptible to infection from e-coli.
The rest of the story can be found here.
Doug and Madelynn, 1987, first newspaper column.
Doug and Sorenne, 2013. This morning.
Madelynn, 1988, favorite pic I took and developed myself. Ol’ timey.
I would be a pissed off parent.
I’ve seen a lot of dumbass things involving food and my kids over the years, especially through schools, and I’ve always spoken up, but this is beyond stupid.
Who serves raw milk to kids in grade 4?
Laboratory test results show that the Campylobactor jejuni bacteria that caused diarrheal illness among 16 individuals who drank unpasteurized (raw) milk at a school event early this month in Raymond was the same bacteria strain found in unpasteurized milk produced at a local farm, .jpg)
according to officials from the Department of Health Services (DHS) and Western Racine County Health Department (WRCHD). A parent had supplied unpasteurized milk from the farm for the school event.
The farm did not sell the unpasteurized milk and there was no legal violation associated with the milk being brought to the school event. The farm is licensed and in good standing with the Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection.
And in an additional dumbass statement, Cheryl Mazmanian, director and health officer for the Western Racine County Health Department actually said, ‘As in similar cases, prevention comes down to washing hands and practicing good hygiene.’
How about don’t serve raw milk to little kids?
An updated table of raw-milk related outbreaks is available at http://bites.ksu.edu/rawmilk
At least 16 people have been sickened by an outbreak of foodborne illness which started at North Cape Elementary School in Wisconsin.
"We are in the process of doing an investigation," said Cheryl Mazmanian, director and health officer for the Western Racine County Health Department.
The incident apparently began about June 3 when a number of foods were served at a celebration for fourth-graders. Symptoms – diarrhea and similar gastrointestinal problems – were first reported about June 6, she said.
"Raw milk was served. We have not pinpointed it as that."
The 16 people infected includes family members who contracted the germs brought home .jpg)
from the school.
Mazmanian the public health type, actually said, As in similar cases, prevention comes down to washing hands and practicing good hygiene.
How about don’t serve raw milk to little kids?
A widening outbreak of shigella in northern Kentucky has residents keeping out of public swimming pools.
Eagle Country reports the Northern Kentucky Health Department says they’ve counted 74 cases, six of those in Boone County, as of June 7. The number of cases in an average year is 25.
The health department asks those who have been ill to stay out of the water for two weeks. .jpg)
Pools should also not allow non-potty trained children to be in them until further notice.
Some public pools, such as the Florence Aquatic Center, have closed while they undergo super chlorination.
I also never watched the West Wing, but am familiar with the Buterball hotline episode (see below) which has a special place in food safety pop culture, if there can be such a thing.
Yesterday, Butterball, LLC, the nation’s largest turkey producer, celebrated food safety month through a children’s coloring contest and a series of employee challenges at the company’s Mount Olive, N.C. facility. As part of the company’s commitment to providing healthy, wholesome products to consumers, these activities helped raise 
awareness of proper hand-washing, food preparation and illness prevention techniques.
(I thought food safety month was in Sept.?)
That’s nice, but rather than making consumers the critical control point, why doesn’t Butterball make its data on salmonella and campylobacter testing publicly available. Put some video cameras in the slaughter and processing facilities so people can see how turkeys are prepared for consumers.
Anita Colglazier, director of quality further processing at Butterball said,
“Butterball is a proud leader in food quality and safety and continually strives to strengthen its food safety programs to ensure its products are 100 percent safe for consumers.”
The facility hosted a coloring contest for the children of facility employees. While at work, associates participated in a hand washing challenge using “magic glowing bug lotion” and a black light enabling employees to see firsthand the areas that need extra scrubbing. Additionally, the facility posted food safety facts throughout the building to provide healthy tips for employees.
Coloring contests are cute; foodborne illness isn’t. Show me the data.
French police were investigating today how a bag of hashish resin blocks, eaten by kids who mistook them for breakfast cereal bars, came to be left in the grounds of a school.
The students told teachers that they found the package containing the "leafy-flavored breakfast bars" hidden between a bush and the school fence during recess Friday, Le Progres newspaper reported.
One child from the school for six to 11 year olds in Tarentaize, near St. Etienne, in central France, was rushed to the hospital later that evening by his 
worried mother, along with a piece of the "leafy" bar.
Tests confirmed the bar that contained cannabis resin, and the boy was sent home. None of the other children who ate the bars became ill.
U.K. chef Heston Blumenthal is attempting to ensure some children in hospital get their required intake of protein, by dishing up pizzas topped with deep fried worms.
Blumenthal’s interest in the children’s diets was sparked by a visit to Liverpool’s Alder Hey hospital where he noticed pizza on the menu.
“Thick dough and a thin layer of dried cheese and tomato on it, with potato waffles 
and baked beans. Where’s the protein?”
“The kids loved it,” Blumenthal said. “One kid didn’t like it. I’d injected one with ketchup. He said: ‘I don’t like that. It’s not the worm – I don’t like the ketchup’.”
Is there a protein shortage in the U.K.?
In the fall of 1998, I accompanied one of my five daughters on a kindergarten trip to the farm. After petting the animals and touring the crops — I questioned the fresh manure on the strawberries –we were assured that all the food produced was natural. We then returned for unpasteurized apple cider.
The host served the cider in a coffee urn, heated, so my concern about it being unpasteurized was abated. I asked: "Did you serve the cider 
heated because you heard about other outbreaks and were concerned about liability?" She responded, "No. The stuff starts to smell when it’s a few weeks old and heating removes the smell."??
I’m all for farm visits, local markets, petting zoos, but I want the operators to have a clue about the dangerous bugs that make people – especially little kids – sick.
What I haven’t written about before is that I called the local board of education after the farm visit and insisted the specific farm be removed from future school visits because it was obvious the operators were clueless about the dangerous microorganisms that can sicken kids.
And it happens a lot.
The U.K. Health Protection Agency reported today in Emerging Infectious Disease that it recorded 55 outbreaks of gastrointestinal diseases, such as E.coli and cryptosporidium between 1992 and 2009.
Lead author Dr Fraser Gormley, a HPA epidemiologist, said,
"Handwashing is the single most important prevention step in reducing transmission of gastrointestinal infections after handling animals and it’s .jpg)
crucial that handwashing in young children should be supervised, especially after touching or petting animals or their surroundings on a visit to a farm."
Those ‘Visitors Must Wash Hands’ signs are not enough. Operators need to take this seriously. So do education officials who send kids to substandard farms. If farms and petting zoos want to make money off school visits, they should actively promote handwashing and microbial awareness; if not, no school visits.