Tag Archives: Mammoth Burger

Mushroom farms step it up

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The American Mushroom Institute has announced,

“On December 18, 2008, Kaolin Mushroom Farms, the growing division of South Mill Mushroom Sales, was the first mushroom farm to pass the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Mushroom Good Agricultural Practices audit.”

Previously, South Mill had implemented HACCP plans at all its farms and processing facilities, which were (and still are) continuously self-monitored and regularly audited and approved by the AIB (American Institute of Baking).

South Mill’s website currently brags,

“We are proud of our record of consistently scoring in the 97 percentile or above in all our facility AIB Audits,” though AIB was the third-party auditor that gave Peanut Corp. of America superior ratings before it sickened 683 people in 46 states.

The USDA-approved Mushroom GAPs—in line with the FDA’s Guide to Minimize Microbial Food Safety Hazards for Fresh Fruits and Vegetables—provide standards for growers to implement and document, which can then be audited by outsiders. Dr. Luke LaBorde of Penn State University started putting together the science for the standards 10 years ago. That may have more teeth than AIB audits.

Auditors, like restaurant inspectors, only get a glimpse of what’s going on–in one area at one point in time. A framework of science-based practices, that are thoroughly documented and supported by a culture of food safety, has the capacity to inspire far more confidence than a third-party audit ever could.

John Pia of South Mill Mushroom Sales knows that food safety sells.

"Mushroom growers who do not embrace this inevitable industry direction will find themselves with no place to sell their product. While the cost of compliance is significant, the cost of non-compliance is devastating," he said.

Only two other commodities—leafy greens and tomatoes—have such commodity-specific GAP audit plans. To that end, the president of American Mushroom Institute, Laura Phelps, was quoted as saying,

"The mushroom industry can be proud of its pro-active approach to food safety by developing this program as a good business practice instead of as a response to pressure by regulators following a food safety incident."

That’s what a culture of food safety is all about. Now they just have to update their website.

Botulism Symptoms all the Days of Our Lives

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On Days of Our Lives today, Victor Kiriakis gave his opinion about Chloe Lane, “Hell, botulism is better than being married to her.” In food safety terms, that’s a very low blow.

Botulinum is a deadly toxin that comes from bacteria in soil and grows in warm, moist environments with no oxygen and low acidity. For example, it can grow on a baked potato wrapped in foil and left out on the counter. There have also been cases of poisoning in carrot juice, home-canned green beans, and enchiladas in France.

Botulism can cause serious complications such as paralysis and death.

Common symptoms include difficulty swallowing or speaking, facial weakness, double vision, trouble breathing, nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain and paralysis.

In infants, symptoms include constipation followed by "poor feeding, lethargy, weakness, pooled oral secretions, and wail or altered cry. Loss of head control is striking."

If having botulism is better than being married to Chloe, then Lucas better hope Victor, Kate, Sammy or even Daniel will ruin that wedding (you can vote online at nbc.com).

And p.s., Victor Kiriakis is played by John Aniston, the father of Jennifer Aniston IRL.

 

UK veterinarians want to tackle disease, not play Diversity Day

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Farmers Weekly Interactive reports that while farmers fight for their livelihoods, the entire UK Animal Health workforce of about 1700 staff will have to undergo workplace training, which includes learning how to play the drums and playing games.

One vet spoke of management’s attempt at Diversity Day (from The Office, right and below) by saying,

"… we wasted an entire day playing games, mucking about and banging drums.I am appalled that taxpayers are being asked to foot the bill for this when we are supposed to be fighting disease.”

A spokeswoman for Animal Health said,

"As well as strategy, aspects of the day focus on effective teamwork and how it can help Animal Health deliver better outcomes in the future.

"This was done in a fun and interesting way which involved staff doing activities together.”
 

Take care of your patrons, especially at ??340

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I’ve been following food porn backlash in the UK as a result of an outbreak of something at quasi-celebrity Heston Blumenthal’s restaurant, the Fat Duck.  Today Cold Mud picked up a blog post from one of the walking wounded who experienced  “two weeks of serious unpleasantness”.

The poster writes:

“The only things that felt a bit dodgy on the way down were the oysters. Neither of us is a huge fan, but we both ate them because we were determined not to miss out on anything. Anyway, we were eating in one of the most famous restaurants in the world so we were confident that there wouldn’t be anything wrong with them."

I especially love this quote; it demonstrates the power of trust in food sources — this guy is famous, I have a personal connection, I don’t want to miss out, he wouldn’t make me sick.

At the end of the post, the author discusses the lack of communication between the Fat Duck and ill patrons, and here’s where it all goes really wrong for me:

“The next day I went onto the Fat Duck website and sent them an email. At that point the news bulletins were saying that 40 or so diners had been affected and I wrote something to the effect of: ‘This has happened to us as well. We loved the meal and we’re not angry but count us among the walking wounded and let us know what’s happening.’
“We received no reply so I wrote quite a long letter. I haven’t received a reply to that either. I’m appalled because I was so entranced by Heston Blumenthal and he comes across as being very decent and clever. We had been so ill and, at the very least, we expected some kind of acknowledgment.  We really thought they would be interested in what had happened to us."

Dude, Captain Food Porn Blumenthal, you need to respond to patrons who got sick at your restaurant. It doesn’t matter whether contamination occurred in your restaurant, or if it was something contaminated prior to its arrival (Those dodgy oysters? Fresh sprouts? Whatever).  You are the face and brand associated with that meal. You have folks reaching out to you for info, or just to let you know what happened to them, you need to acknowledge it.  Tell them what you are doing to find out what happened, and how you manage food safety in your organization — especially how you assess safe suppliers.

In last week’s food safety infosheet  (you can download it here) we focused on the fallout of a Staphylococcus aureus outbreak associated with baked hams in Kentucky — a 72-year-old man died and a wrongful death suit has been filed against the operator.  Outbreaks like this one, and the Fat Duck happen all the time. It is on operators to be proactively identify risks with their products, address them and prepare for when things go wrong.  And answer emails from ill patrons. And post something on your website about the outbreak — have that stuff ready to go, because it’s one of the first places people will be looking.

Michelle Obama promotes fresh produce; how about microbiologically safe produce?

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The New York Times continues the fascination with all things Obama this morning as it reports on First Lady Michelle’s focus on fresh produce.

“You know, we want to make sure our guests here and across the nation are eating nutritious items. Collect some fruits and vegetables; bring by some good healthy food. We can provide this kind of healthy food for communities across the country, and we can do it by each of us lending a hand.”

In a speech at the Department of Agriculture last month, Mrs. Obama described herself as “a big believer” in community gardens that provide “fresh fruits and vegetables for so many communities across this nation and world.”

I am too. Brought the seedlings in yesterday as a temporary cold snap hit Kansas, but the greens and asparagus will soon be sprouting from the family garden. I also know fresh produce is also the biggest source of foodborne illness today in the U.S. That’s because it’s fresh, and anything that comes into contact has the potential to contaminate.

So, yeah Michelle, promote the produce, but organic and local do not mean safe. Play up those producers who responsibly manage microbial risks. And if you’re going to put your kids dining habits front and center, you really don’t want them barfing.

Kristen Schaal, otherwise known as Mel from Flight of the Conchords, offered her take on First Lady Michelle last night on the Daily Show.
 

 

 
 

Where has that meat been?

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A news team in South Carolina used a hidden camera to catch nine area grocery stores reselling meat that had been returned to the store by members of the news crew.

Nine other stores tested by the team did not put the returned meat back in the display case. These stores were concerned that once the meat was outside of their control, it could be deliberately contaminated or allowed to get too warm – as they should be.

The same is true for meat coming to a store for the first time. Smart retailers use suppliers they can trust based on those suppliers’ openness about handling procedures.

Toronto police are currently alerting the public that a truckload of chicken breasts was stolen last week and has since been repackaged and sold.

Police photographs show that the stickers on the new packages tell consumers to keep the chicken refrigerated. Nice touch.

Retailers should know that consumers are not the first line of defense against foodborne illness.

What happened to the product before it was sold to stores? Did the thieves take the steps necessary to reduce the microbial risks associated with transporting raw meat? Could they prove it?

Peanut Corp. of America epitomized a business whose sole concern was turning a profit. I’m sure a crime ring would be quite similar.

So the big question is, did anybody ask?

Grocery stores who resell returned meat are taking the same risks as stores who sell meat from suppliers they know very little about.

It never hurts to ask questions.
 

Keep poop out of the orchard

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At barfblog we’re all about community-generated content. It’s fun when someone emails with a food safety-related story or a picture for us to share.  Today’s content comes from a colleague and avid barfblog groupie who was driving through southern Georgia this morning and snapped the picture at right.

The pictured sign is posted at the entrance of a pecan and peanut company’s roadside market/shop. All I know about this unidentified business is that it distributes stuff like raw, roasted and nut products all over the U.S. 

Sure, it’s a good idea to keep dogs out of the food area of a store, but suggesting to take a walk in the orchard, an equally important food area, is kind of weird.

To me, it seems like the producer should be thinking their orchard is a food area as well. Sure, it’s really tough to control birds, deer and feral pigs, but inviting dogs to take a dump in the orchard (something that is controllable) probably isn’t a good idea.  In the climate of uncertainty around the effectiveness of pathogen reduction strategies in the nut industry, it’s an especially bad idea.

Keep the dog poop out of the orchard.

Positive approach to poor restaurant reviews

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“THIS PLACE SUCKS” isn’t exactly something you expect to read on the shirt of a server when ordering lunch, but it’s an example of the uniform at Pizzeria Delfina in San Francisco. The restaurant has taken poor comments published on Yelp, a public review website, and made t-shirts out of them, reports The New York Times (see picture, right, from the article).

[W]hen customers order a margherita pizza with fior di latte mozzarella, tomato and basil, their server might bring it to them wearing a T-shirt that reads: “The pizza was soooo greasy. I am assuming this was in part due to the pig fat” under a rating of one out of five stars.

Anne Stoll, who owns Delfina with her husband Craig Stoll, said,

“We were just having fun with Yelp. It kind of takes the seriousness out of it and pokes fun at it a little bit. We really have no recourse. Anyone can write anything they want on Yelp. There are no checks and balances, so this is our way of being able to have a voice.”

Yelp reviews for Delfina aren’t all bad. A glance at the website shows a fair share of positive review, with an average rating of 4 out of 5 stars, though some comments may just be an attempt to get on a shirt  (see right).

Delfina openly discloses poor reviews, turning negative comments into something that gets patrons talking, ultimately creating positive marketing. Restaurants confident in the safety of their product will use a similar approach, making their inspection results public regardless of judicial regulations, and challenging the inspection process. Instead of complaining that inspection is an unfair representation of what goes on in a restaurant, take a proactive approach and disclose these flaws to the public, or in the case of Delfina, flaunt the bad reviews with pride.
 

Queering Ratatouille

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eatmedaily.com reports that UCLA French professor Laure Murat will present, “Queering Ratatouille: A Rat Reclaiming French Cuisine” this afternoon. Having just returned from the NeMLA (which Doug lovingly calls NAMBLA) annual meeting in Boston, my first thought was ratatouille is the perfect dish to represent queering. Then I realized this is a talk about a gay rat in a cartoon.

Ratatouille is a relatively safe dish from a food safety perspective. It’s a combination of vegetables like eggplant, zucchini, green bell peppers, tomatoes, garlic, onions and the like, simmered or roasted together until the flavors meld into a gorgeous Mediterranean flavor. Any unsavory microorganisms should be amply cooked out by the time it is ready to serve.
 

Peanut butter outbreak’s impact on small businesses

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Karla Cook writes in tomorrow’s New York Times that the Peanut Corp of America-linked Salmonella outbreak’s reach has not been limited to multi-national companies:

Small businesses in all corners of the United States bought potentially tainted peanut products from the Peanut Corporation of America and are now part of one of the largest food recalls ever in this country. There is the chef in Las Vegas, for instance, who used them in protein bars, the packager of nuts and dried fruits in Connecticut, the cannery in Montana that sold chocolate-covered nuts and the ice cream manufacturer in New York State.

While big companies like Kellogg, Kraft and General Mills have the experience and staff to handle recalls, many small businesses have never had to deal with anything like this.
Some have had to keep employees on overtime or hire additional help to handle the recall-related work — records have to be searched to identify and track products, and replacement products manufactured. And company officials say they are spending a lot of time reassuring their customers.
“It’s not our fault this recall went through,” said Tom Lundeen, who co-owns Aspen Hills Inc., in Garner, Iowa, which makes frozen cookie dough for fund-raisers. “We do everything correct and we have an incredibly high level of quality control, and we still have to pay for the mistakes of P.C.A.”

Yep, exactly – this outbreak has demonstrated the complexity and interconnectedness of the food system — which has largely been built on trust in suppliers or the results of their third-party audits.

Jenny Scott, a microbiologist and vice president of science policy and food protection for the Grocery Manufacturers Association, a trade group in Washington, said small businesses need to know their suppliers’ food safety culture and practices, and whether the suppliers are capable of doing the right thing. Last week, she helped teach a Web seminar for 60 participants, “The Ingredient Supply Chain: Do You Know Who You’re in Bed With?” 

Like it was straight out of the pages of barfblog — although trying to assess the food safety culture and supplier practices is difficult, it’s not impossible. Creating and fostering the openess and transparency of food production through marketing food safety, with companies opening their doors can help buyers make decisions.

Benjamin Chapman, food safety extension specialist at North Carolina State University in Raleigh, went further. “If you’re in the peanut butter industry, you need to be thinking about salmonella,” he said. Learning about suppliers is challenging when the supplier is not local, and the layers of the national food system are difficult to pierce.