Tag Archives: Mammoth Burger

Staph suspected in illnesses among Claudia Sanders patrons

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State health officials said that a staph bacteria may have sickened more than 137 people who ate an Easter buffet at Claudia Sanders Dinner House in Shelbyville.

Preliminary results from the Kentucky State Lab suggested that staphylococcus aureus might be the culprit in the food poisoning, although it’s not definitive since it was found in some stool samples and not others.

The restaurant served 3,100 people on
 aster Sunday. Ham is the chief suspect in the case, although officials are also exploring other possible contaminated food.

Claudia Sanders and her husband, Col. Harland Sanders, moved into a large white house on four acres on U.S. 60 in Shelbyville in 1959. They initially used the house as the headquarters for Kentucky Fried Chicken, but later put up a building next door for that purpose.

When the fast-food franchise was sold in the 1960s, the couple turned the building next to their home into a restaurant. Now owned by a former employee, the restaurant serves country-style food, including fried chicken.

Cattle abuse wasn’t rare occurrence

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Julie Schmit reports in USA Today Tuesday that the abuse of non-ambulatory cattle at a California slaughterhouse has renewed calls for a ban on the slaughter of such animals, and newly released government records show such mishandling in past years was more than a rare occurrence.

The Animal Welfare Institute, an animal-protection group, said that more than 10% of the humane-slaughter violations issued by the U.S. Department of Agriculture for the 18 months ended March 2004 detailed improper treatment of animals that couldn’t walk — mostly cattle.

The finding, drawn from USDA records the institute recently received in response to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request, is included in a report to be released Tuesday on humane-slaughter violations. It comes as the USDA steps up checks on conditions at the nation’s 900 slaughterhouses following abuses at Westland/Hallmark Meat, now at the heart of the biggest beef recall ever.

An undercover animal-rights worker at the plant used a video camera to document workers moving downed cows with forklifts, sticking them repeatedly with electric prods and spraying water down their noses to make them stand, allegedly to get them to slaughter (below).

The USDA called the actions "egregious violations of humane-handling regulations." American Meat Institute (AMI) spokeswoman Janet Riley called them an "anomaly."

But the USDA records obtained by the Animal Welfare Institute describe 501 humane-handling or slaughter violations that occurred at other slaughter plants. At one plant, a downed cow was pushed 15 feet with a forklift. Other companies were cited for dragging downed but conscious animals, letting downed cattle be trampled and stood on by others and, in one case, using "excessive force" with a rope and an electric prod to get a downed cow to stand, the enforcement records say.

As I wrote in Feb., the city leaders in Toulouse, France, figured out by 1184 that selling the meat of sick animals was forbidden unless the buyer was warned.

In the Middle Ages, violation of regulations ranged from fines to flogging to banishment._Hallmark/Westland Meat Packing Co. will be flogged in the media and the two-year recall should effectively banish the company.

But unlike 12th century France, USDA has access to the same video technology that a single undercover worker — not the five USDA inspectors on-site — was able to use to bring down a large corporation. Producers and processors who say their food is safe should be able to prove it. Producers and processors who say they treat animals humanely should be able to prove it.

 

Bubba stands for Boys Un-afflicted By Briefcases or Attaches (really)

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Ralph "Bubba" Miller, the proprietor of Bubba’s Barbecue in Charlotte, North Carolina, preaches food safety.

"Food safety is going to become a major issue in the future. With the quality of help going down, I see something disastrous happening."

The Charlotte Observer reports that in Miller’s world, ensuring food safety for customers is a matter of knowing the national standards for safe food handling and embracing them.

Miller points out that his restaurant, on Sunset Road near Interstate 85, consistently earns top scores from local health inspectors, adding,

"People will plan their trips around eating lunch and supper with us. This is a safe and clean place to eat."

Way to market food safety, Bubba. I’m with ya.

Even animal lovers can get E. coli

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Nathan Dalenberg was quite annoyed this week to find a letter from Kathryn Dalenberg (no relation) in the Gadsden Times in Alabama lamenting the inhumane handling of livestock at US slaughter facilities.

In his own letter today, Nathan points out that not all facilities are the same and cites the extensive steps his facility takes to ensure humane handling by all employees. "I myself am a big animal lover," he says, "and would not tolerate animal cruelty in my facility."

Nathan goes on to say that "just because I kill animals for a living and also eat them doesn’t mean I don’t love them."
 
Kathryn is an admitted vegetarian. Unfortunately for her, that doesn’t make her food any safer. As Nathan wrote: "Hope she never ate any of the E. coli contaminated spinach."

Here’s another line from Nathan that I also enjoyed: "When people speak or write about things they don’t know or haven’t seen firsthand, it makes them seem somewhat foolish."

Yep. Even animal lovers can get E. coli. Or Mad Cow… So whatever you choose to eat, please handle it properly. And don’t eat poop.

Superbug found in Canadian pork products

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Helen Branswell of the Canadian Press reports that Canadian researchers have found antibiotic-resistant Staph in pork products in available at Canadian retail stores:

[The discovery] raises questions about how the contamination occurred, how frequently it happens and whether it has implications for human health.

Just under 10 per cent of sampled pork chops and ground pork recently purchased in four provinces tested positive for methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus or MRSA, lead researcher Dr. Scott Weese reported Wednesday in a presentation to the International Conference on Emerging Infectious Diseases in Atlanta.

To date Weese’s team has tested 212 meat samples bought in four different provinces. Most were pork chops but the group also tested a few pork shoulder roasts and some ground pork.

None of the pork roasts carried the bacteria but an equal percentage of pork chops and ground pork did. The rates of positive MRSA tests ranged from zero per cent in one province to 33 per cent in another. Weese didn’t want to name the provinces.

What is most interesting to me are Weese’s comments about what food handlers actually do:

"If they do what they’re supposed to do in terms of meat handling, then it should be perfectly safe. But do people do that is the question?"

What food handlers do (whether in the restaurant, packing house, slaughter house or home) is an area of uncertainty, and there isn’t a whole lot of data around it.  We’ve been conducting some research of food handler practices using observation,  (T6-12, An Exploratory Study of Food-handling Practices at Church Dinners in Canada was presented at IAFP in 2007) and will be presenting some of our newest findings this summer at IAFP in Columbus, OH.

Food Network food safety sucks

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amateurchef123 writes,

"the food network has a responsibility to it’s (sic) viewers to present cooking that will not predispose them to 3 days of violent vomiting, fever, and possible neurological damage.

"I’m speaking, of course, about Ms. (Rachel) Ray’s complete refusal to adhere to national guidelines regarding the consumption of raw eggs and seafood.  To be fair, Emeril "Beer Belly" Lagasse, as well as Mario "Anyeurism" Batali also ignore these warnings, and regularly use raw eggs in many of their concoctions.  But these two individuals, obese and stinky as they may be, can actually cook, whereas Rachael Ray cannot."

The post goes on in a similar vein. I agree. Food safety (of the microbiological kind) usually loses to food porn on the Food Network.

Mallie’s big burger — did they use a thermometer?

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A Detroit-area restaurant owner said he believes he has broken the world record for ”largest hamburger commercially available.”

After 12 hours of preparation and baking, the 134-pound burger emerged Saturday at Mallie’s Sports Bar and Grill.

The ”Absolutely Ridiculous Burger,” made with beef, bacon and cheese, was delivered on a 50-pound bun, sells for $350, and orders require 24 hours’ notice. Flipping the burger required three men using two steel sheets.

That’s all nice, but did they use a thermometer to acquire data for doneness? Regardless of the size, stick it in.

Community dinner food safety: it’s what the volunteers do, not where they do it

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Here’s a letter to the editor I just sent in response to today’s editorial in the South Coast Standard-Times. The editorial deals with the denial of a permit for the Men Who Cook fundraiser due to inadequate kitchens.

Community gatherings around food awaken nostalgic feelings of the rural past — times when an entire town would get together monthly, eat, enjoy company and work together. The Men Who Cook fundraiser seems like it’s just that, an event created 20 years ago to promote community building, not spread foodborne illness (OUR VIEW: Taking food safety too far, February 22, 2008).
Despite the sense of kinship and best intentions, there have been at least 37 reported outbreaks of foodborne illness associated with homecooked products and community dinners in North America since 1973 (http://foodsafety.ksu.edu/en/article-details.php?a=3&c=32&sc=419&id=890)
In 1997, two elderly people died, more than 100 made a trip to the emergency room, and 700 more reported feeling ill after an annual church dinner of stuffed ham, turkey and fried oysters at Our Lady of the Wayside Parish in Chaptico, Md., population 100.
Tests showed that salmonella in the ham likely caused the illnesses. The nasty bugs that cause foodborne illness don’t distinguish between commercial and charitable food operations.
In September 2004, near Buffalo, N.Y., 28 confirmed cases of salmonella infection were reported following an annual community roast-beef dinner. Volunteers were not trained in food service and "didn’t quite understand the importance of maintaining a hot or cold temperature," investigators said. The beef was roasted on spits. The juices, collecting in a 5-gallon bucket at room temperature over the course of the day, was poured over the surface of ready-to-eat beef sandwiches. Scrumptious — except that the sandwiches were being drenched with salmonella bacteria. Interviews with attendees indicated about 1,500 of the 3,000 present were ill.
Community potluck dinners, where food is prepared behind the closed doors of private homes and church kitchens, can be hazardous. Unlike a restaurant kitchen, which is visited and approved by health inspectors, there’s little control over how the food is prepared, stored, handled or transported.
It’s possible to produce food safely in homes and non-commercial kitchens to continue these important community-building functions, but a strong (not adversarial) relationship between event organizers, home chefs and the health department is necessary. What is more important than the location of food preparation is knowing that the dedicated volunteers play by the rules when it comes to food safety.

If bars can use webcams, why can’t USDA?

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Maybe I’m missing some privacy thing, but an individual with a small video camera initiated the largest meat recall in U.S. history.

So why isn’t the U.S. Department of Agriculture making use of the same technology?

Public watering holes are jumping on the bandwagon.

The New York Times reports that bar Webcams are a growing phenomenon in cities like Boston, Denver, Chicago, San Diego, Minneapolis, and even tourist spots like Key West.

The idea is: with a Webcam installed in a bar or restaurant, potential customers can call up the live video stream online or by mobile phone so they can survey the crowd before venturing out.

People who want a quiet night can scout for a bar with a mellow scene, and those who want a lively night can look for the crowds. (Webcam bar promoters say it’s typically a 50-50 split between the two camps.)

For the promoters, the online traffic equals money. Relatively new services like Barmigo and Barseenlive sell flat-rate subscriptions to the bars for licensing the Webcams and promoting their sites, and other upstarts like Baroptic.com are seeking to sell advertisements to liquor companies like Coors and Bacardi to run against those video streams.