Tag Archives: Mammoth Burger

Michelle Mazur, guest barfblogger: Risking your life for a meal?

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Most would shy away from fugu, or puffer fish, but the Japanese love it. The internal organs and skin of the puffer fish contain a deadly poison called tetradotoxin, which causes paralysis of the diaphragm and death due to respiratory failure. It must be prepared by licensed cooks in order to remove the poisonous areas. Though it’s a dangerous meal, it’s been eaten for centuries.

It’s not just that one-in-one thousand fish are poisonous; each fish comes packed with a dose of death if not properly prepared. Statistics from the Tokyo Bureau of Social Welfare and Public Health indicate 20-44 incidents of fugu poisoning per year between 1996 and 2006 in the entire country, leading to 34-64 hospitalizations and 0-6 deaths per year, for an average fatality rate of 6.8%

Not only is it deadly, but fugu is costly. Most people consider it to have a weak taste, but Japanese gourmets will disagree. Chefs spend 7 to 8 years training in order to be certified to serve this treat.

An outbreak of E.coli in spinach or Salmonella in tomatoes leads to national recalls and mass consumer aversion as products and produce become stigmatized. Yet a fish that is positively poisonous is still sought out in countries like Japan and Taiwan. There is some speculation as to how popular fugu would be if it was known to be completely safe. Would there be a sharp decrease in demand for the dish, or would it continue to be a special meal?

The acceptance of fugu in Japanese culture is completely opposite of the Japanese attitude towards beef with BSE (bovine spongiform encephalopathy) commonly known as mad cow disease. Any meat that is at risk for containing traces of BSE is immediately removed from the food supply. What is the difference between dying from Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, the human variant of BSE, and being poisoned by fish?

Whether it’s the taste of the fish or the thrill of knowing it could be the last meal, I plan to stick to salmon instead.
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Michelle Mazur is a first-year veterinary student at Kansas State University, hailing from Wichita, Kansas.  She is an avid dog lover, a crafty seamstress, and a bit of a workaholic. She recently spent two weeks in Japan and took a lot of pictures of bathrooms.

Camembert Wars: if this is progress, I’ll take mine pasteurized

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The AFP is reporting today that “real” camembert makers can rejoice. In addition to reducing the geographic boundaries of the camembert region, now the only camembert makers that will be recognized with the prestigious AOC (appellation d’origine contrôlée) label will:

–    use only raw milk;
–    have at least half of the cows providing the milk from Normandy origin; and,
–    ensure that their cows graze on Normandy pastures for at least 6 months of the year and fed hay the remainder of the time.

The grazing restrictions are new to the AOC conditions. I find them particularly surprising as research has shown that grass-fed or not, all cows can carry E. coli O157:H7.

The “real camembert” supporters apparently found the decision to be “undeniable progress.” Lactalis and Isigny-Sainte-Mère, two large companies that previously produced more than 80% of AOC Camembert, decided last year to begin heat-treating their milk as a safety measure.

Francophiles, can read today’s original story for themselves. The French clearly articulate that the raw milk camembert has a velvety taste compared to the pasteurized version, but that the traditional methods are more onerous because they require various testing measures to avoid pathogens such as listeria. According to my favorite food safety advisor, you cannot test your way to safe food. The new and improved camembert will have enhanced risks.

Fly in frozen baguette among food safety complaints

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A report for the U.K.’s Highland Council documented more than 160 food hygiene complaints that were investigated by officials last year, including one claiming a caterpillar was found in vegetables served at a table and another claiming to have found a fly in a frozen baguette.

The report by principal food safety officer Alan Yates also reveals that officials sent 1,168 warning letters to establishments alerting them to contraventions of public health legislation.

The report also shows officers carried out 2,958 visits across the north in connection with food hygiene, and 826 in connection with food standards – the composition and labelling of food.

The report comes as the Food Standards Agency (FSA) has proposed a UK-wide system to grade the hygiene of restaurants, cafes, supermarkets and other food outlets.

The results would be displayed on doors or windows, as well as on a website to allow consumers to check ratings, in an effort to improve standards and cut food poisoning.

The agency believes a national scheme is needed to replace the plethora of "scores on doors", with nearly half the 435 local authorities already having or being about to introduce their own systems. In some areas, consumers and the media have had to use freedom of information legislation to find out the verdict of hygiene inspectors.

Reese and Jake brighten restaurant inspection disclosure

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Reese Witherspoon and Jake Gyllenhaal are the latest Los Angeles celebrities to brighten up the city’s letter-grade system of restaurant inspection disclosure, following Jessica Simpson and Larry David.

Here, Gyllenspoon pick up their morning drinks at Caffe Luxxe on Montana Avenue in Santa Monica, California on Sunday.

A philosophy of transparency and openness underlies the efforts of many local health units across North America in seeking to make available the results of restaurant inspections. Such public displays of information may help bolster overall awareness of food safety amongst staff and the public — people routinely talk about this stuff. It’s all about that food safety culture.

Michele Samarya-Timm, guest barfblogger: Poop and pools do not mix

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With Memorial Day on the horizon, people are gearing up for summer fun.  As the weather warms, people are anxious to start partaking of warm weather activities, including jumping into the nearest swimming pool. 

Before making that splash into swimming pool waters, we all need to be advocates for a splash of a different kind….the sudsing, scrub and splash of good handwashing…and we all need to make this an essential component of recreational water activities.

Outbreaks from recreational water are more common than we would like, and are especially more common than the average swimmer realizes.    Trace amounts of fecal bacteria can be carried into the pool by our hands as well as by our bottoms.  Chlorine kills germs, but it doesn’t work right away – it takes time.  In fact, without good hygiene practices, even the best-maintained pools can spread illness.  Poop and pools do not mix.

Standard signage at public pools often includes the rule:  “Shower before entering.”  Shouldn’t we also include the rule:  “Wash hands before entering pool?”    Good handwashing practices help prevent so many outbreaks, and we need to keep reinforcing the need to make handwashing as much a part of our daily lives as eating, sleeping, and –yes – having fun in our swimming pools.

Think healthy.  Be healthy.  Wash your hands!

May 19-25 is Recreational Water Illness Prevention Week 2008.  You can find additional information at www.healthyswimming.org
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Michéle Samarya-Timm is a Health Educator for the Franklin Township Health Department in New Jersey.  

Making Love or Making Camembert

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In an interview for CNN yesterday, the mayor of Saint-Loup de Fribois, France, Philippe Meslon said, "A camembert not made out of raw milk is like making love without sex.” This story, “France milks cheese for all its worth,” tracks the camembert business in Normandy and the struggle to earn the coveted Appelation d’Origine Contrôlée.

While I totally appreciate the tradition involved in making lait cru camembert (and personally love the taste), I still applaud the largest cheesemakers such as Lactalis and Isigny Sainte-Mère for choosing to heat-treat their milk. That safety measure meant that they consequently lost their AOC (“real camembert”) label, but it also meant significantly reducing the risks for their many consumers.

The mayor of Saint-Loup also says a Frenchman is “someone who cultivates with modern evolution his past. It’s someone who protects moral values, cultural values and artistic values, and when I say cultural values I would include camembert." That’s a nicely ambivalent statement supporting a staple of his region’s economy.

Normand cheesemaker, François Durand has 40 cows and the AOC label. He proudly claims that making cheese is about not cutting corners. "You have to have the passion. Yes it’s difficult because it means a lot of work. We make it all by hand.”

With recent changes in the large “industrial” cheeses, however, some camembert makers have been driven out of business. Michel Delorme says the new and stricter rules combined with his age made him stop producing handmade camembert. Although Durand misses his cheese, he’s kept some souvenirs such as his milk cans to remember his cheesemaking days.

Passion is important and nostalgia is nice, but the hundreds of years of tradition that go into camembert making in France need to include food safety practices to protect both French culture and consumers.

Two years in Kansas; barfblog turns 1; what’s next?

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On the seminal 1978 live album, You Had to Be There, Jimmy Buffett introduces one of his songs by saying (and this is a paraphrase cause my turntable is in a garage in Guelph and Chapman took all my good vinyl),

"People ask me, how can you write those sensitive songs and then that trash, and I say, sometimes I feel real sensitive and sometimes I feel real trashy."

That’s how I approach barfblog. Sometimes I’ve got information that I just have to get out there that’s snarky, insightful and relevant, and sometimes I just feel real trashy.

In the first year of barfblog.com, we posted 825 entries, increased the number of unique monthly visitors from 1,000 to 40,000 per month, got picked up by the N.Y. Times, David Letterman and dozens of other new and traditional media outlets, and sold a few hundred T-shirts (it’s better than door-to-door chocolate sales to fund students).

We influenced the formation of public policy in many ways but our favorite was getting mentioned in the Wales E. coli inquiry, where I used the Bill Murray Groundhog Day analogy. And I got to meet Bill Murray in Manhattan and give him a poop shirt. Showing that microwaves may be a lousy way to cook pot pies was kinda fun. Safest food in the world? Shurley you must be joking.

The Internet means, unlike Jimmy in 1978, you don’t have to be here … in Manhattan (Kansas). But you can subscribe. http://barfblog.foodsafety.ksu.edu/subscribe.html

What’s next? You’ll find out soon enough.

And I’m still with that girl.

Food safety in Seattle

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The Dali Lama is at the hotel next door, Chris Rock is doing standup at a theatre down the street, and I’m sitting at Seattle University with a bunch of food safety geeks.

Wouldn’t have it any other way.

What I learned from Marler’s food safety conference in Seattle for the past two days is:

• the supposed experts are as confused as mere mortals when it comes to food safety solutions;

• faith-based food safety systems are as common as I thought they might be; and,

• there’s a whole lot of supposedly smart people who can’t be bothered to edit themselves to their allotted time.

Marketing food safety at retail may be a way to create a food safety culture from farm-to-fork.

Oh, and they protest about everything in Seattle.

Hamburger Habits: Is Medium Safe?

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I’m a reformed medium-rare hamburger eater. Before I met Doug, I always wanted my hamburgers pink in the middle and frankly had no clue that this was a potentially risky habit. Now that I’ve learned hamburger needs to be cooked to 160 F to be safe, however, I rarely eat hamburger unless Doug cooks it at home. That’s the only way I can assure that the cook is using a meat thermometer and knows how to properly do so.

Tonight, though, I’m in Buffalo, NY and I had dinner with two British friends in a rowdy Irish pub. While I intended to order salad, the pickings were few on the menu and I settled on a cheeseburger with fries. The waitress asked me, “How do you want that cooked.” Somewhat startled and without my food safety arsenal beside me, I said, “Medium.” I hate well-done hamburger because of the texture, but I wanted my burger safe. How could I tell her that?

My burger came and was very medium rare looking … very pink in the middle and done on the outside. I ate it. The whole thing. And it tasted good. And now I’m thinking about my foolish behavior and wondering if I’ll get e. coli. I know that color is a lousy indicator and I know it’s not likely I’ll get sick. But without the thermometer, how can you be sure?

Greenhouse vegetable food safety: Watch those dirty boots

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The April 2008 issue of Journal of Food Protection contains a cool paper on a survey of Salmonella and E. coli at a greenhouse tomato farm in Mexico. During 2003 and 2004 the authors sampled over 1600 product and environmental samples, before, during and after a couple of environmental disturbances: a flood and the entry of wild animals (opossums, mice and sparrows).

The authors isolated Salmonella Montevideo, Salmonella Newport, and strains of the F serogroup  from tomatoes and go on to state that almost all of the Salmonella Newport strains were isolated from samples collected during or immediately after the flood.

Analysis by pulsed-field gel electrophoresis revealed that some Salmonella Montevideo isolates from tomatoes, opossums, and mice displayed identical genetic patterns, suggesting that these wild animals represented a potential source of contamination.

The fun part of paper is that the authors suggest that dirty work shoes were also thought to be an important vehicle for dissemination of Salmonella into (and possibly throughout) the greenhouses (especially after being worn during the flood incident):

Contaminated worker shoes may be vehicles for contamination with enteric pathogens, from either outside the greenhouses or from one facility to another. The levels of E. coli on personal shoes were higher than those of working  shoes were before the flood. However, there was a higher  level of contamination with Salmonella and E. coli on  working shoes compared with personal shoes after the flood.

The authors go on to say that sanitary mats intended to reduce pathogen movement may not be all that effective the real-world application:

Working shoes were provided by management to the workers to wear inside the greenhouse at the suggestion of our research group after finding that personal shoes were positive for E. coli, even after shoes received a disinfection treatment with quaternary salts solution (800 ppm) on a sanitary mat. However, working shoes were not used exclusively inside the greenhouse, but were also worn to go from one facility to another. Shoes have seldom been mentioned as vehicles of contamination in food production areas. This dissemination mechanism of enteric pathogens should be considered as an important control point  during working procedures in greenhouses.

It’s unclear whether this is just a notable finding, or if it represents a real risk in moving pathogens around food production systems, and needs some further investigation.  Probably don’t want to use boots to stomp garlic though.