‘Only way to confirm that ground beef is cooked to a temperature high enough to kill harmful bacteria is to use a food thermometer’ Tyson recalls beef

Posted on June 4, 2015 by Douglas Powell

Guess the Brits didn’t get that line about using a thermometer.

And the freshness is guaranteed, but not the safety.

Tyson Fresh Meats, a Dakota City, Neb., establishment, is recalling approximately 16,000 pounds of ground beef products that may be contaminated with E. coli O157:H7, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) announced today.

The ground beef items were produced on May 16, 2015. The following products are subject to recall:

5 lb. chubs of “80% Lean Ground Beef.”

The products subject to recall bear the establishment number “EST. 245C” inside the USDA mark of inspection and a “best before or freeze by” date of June 5, 2015. These products were shipped to one distribution location in New York.

FSIS discovered the problem during a routine sampling program. Neither FSIS nor the company received any reports of illnesses associated with consumption of this product. FSIS and the company are concerned that some product may have been sold and stored in consumers’ refrigerators or freezers.

E. coli O157:H7 is a potentially deadly bacterium that can cause dehydration, bloody diarrhea and abdominal cramps 2–8 days (3–4 days, on average) after exposure the organism. While most people recover within a week, some develop a type of kidney failure called hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS). This condition can occur among persons of any age but is most common in children under 5-years old and older adults. It is marked by easy bruising, pallor, and decreased urine output. Persons who experience these symptoms should seek emergency medical care immediately.

FSIS routinely conducts recall effectiveness checks to verify recalling firms notify their customers of the recall and that steps are taken to make certain that the product is no longer available to consumers. When available, the retail distribution list(s) will be posted on the FSIS website at www.fsis.usda.gov/recalls.

FSIS advises all consumers to safely prepare their raw meat products, including fresh and frozen, and only consume product that has been cooked to a temperature of 160° F. The only way to confirm that ground beef is cooked to a temperature high enough to kill harmful bacteria is to use a food thermometer that measures internal temperature, http://1.usa.gov/1cDxcDQ.

Media with questions regarding the recall can contact Worth Sparkman, at (479) 290-6358 or worth.sparkman@tyson.com. Consumers with questions regarding the recall can contact the consumer hotline, at (866) 328-3156.

To gain trust, put facts up front (but only comfortably facts)

Posted on November 9, 2014 by Douglas Powell

If environmental groups can funnel millions into campaigns against genetically engineered foods, and develop databases on more than 80,000 items sold in groceries across the U.S. with details of ingredients and nutritional information, why is there no effort to provide microbial food safety information to consumers at retail – the bugs that sicken 48 million Americans each year?

According to the N.Y. Times, analysis of food products aimed at educating (informing, please – dp) consumers about what they’re buying is increasingly common. Whole Foods, for instance, recently began rating some of the produce it sells as good, better or best based on a variety of criteria, and the Cornucopia Institute will soon introduce a yogurt scorecard, ranking a wide variety of yogurts based on whether, say, they use high-fructose corn syrup or carrageenans, among other things.

The yogurt analysis, which took more than a year, follows work the organization has done to rate organic eggs and organic milk, among other products and ingredients. “Yogurt is perceived and marketed as a healthy product, and its popularity has really taken off because of that perception,” said Mark Kastel, co-founder of Cornucopia. “But there are a lot of synthetic chemicals in many yogurts, and as much added sugar as some candy bars.”

I’d be more concerned about the mold (Chobani?)

The Grocery Manufacturers Association (GMA) responded by saying the methodology was void of the scientific rigor and objectivity that should be devoted to any effort to provide consumers with reliable nutrition and food safety information.

But GMA isn’t about to start ranking foods by microbial safety – the stuff that makes people sick.

Retail Leader reports the Food Marketing Institute and Grocery Manufacturers Association recently launched a retail in-store program related to Facts Up Front, a voluntary initiative to display Nutrition Facts Panel information on the front of food packages. Facts Up Front labels display how many calories and how much saturated fat, sodium and sugar is in each serving. Some labels may also provide information about nutrients, such as fiber and calcium.

Nothing about the bugs that make people sick.

So while it’s nice that, as reported by The Packer, that the Safe Quality Food Institute has given Taylor Farms its Primary Producer of the Year award, no one who shops at retail would know about it.

Jason Kawata, director of quality assurance, using PR-approved flunky words, said, “There is no higher priority for Taylor Farms than food safety. We are committed to the highest levels of food safety day in and day out, and it’s an honor to be recognized for those efforts.”

In addition to adhering to Safe Quality Food Institute certification standards, Taylor Farms implements its SmartWash Solutions food safety and process control system in all facilities. Products are subject to a multi-stage wash with SmartWash, a safeguard against bacterial cross contamination.

Sounds great.

But how would anyone shopping for themselves or their families know?

Successful produce marketing requires digital tools – and selling safety at retail

Posted on November 4, 2014 by Douglas Powell

If you thought that the Internet and social media were passing fads and could be ignored as marketing tools, Dan’l Mackey Almy said think again.

“It’s main stay,” said the president and chief executive officer of Irving, Texas-based DMA Solutions. “What will change is Facebook will go through phases and Twitter will go through phases. What we have to do is figure out how to use those tools to reach those audiences.”

Mackenzie Michel, marketing manager, agreed.

“If marketing is important to your company…then digital marketing absolutely is an essential part of that,” she said.

Vicky Boyd of The Packer writes their comments came during the morning educational workshop, “Competitive Marketing in the Digital Workshop,” Aug. 17, at the PMA Fresh Summit.

But the choice isn’t either digital or more traditional media, which include television, radio and billboards, Almy said.

Instead, companies should choose from among all media to find the best mix to reach their audiences.

I’d add, sell safety at retail: because some producers and companies are better.

Chipotle, repeat sanctimonious violator

Posted on August 1, 2014 by Douglas Powell

I don’t tire of trashing Chipotle, because sanctimonious, self-centered assholes deserve to be called out.

Erin Van der Bellen and Russ Ptacek report for WUSA that health inspectors temporarily closed: Chiptole, 13501 Connecticut Avenue, Aspen Hill, Md. and Karen’s Deli, 1700 Research Blvd., Rockville, Md.

They all passed re-inspection and are back in business.

In July 2013, health inspectors closed Chiptole on Connecticut Avenue in Aspen Hill after the agency got a complaint from a customer who stated “….there was a dead roach in food…” and “no hot water provided at all sinks.”

Chipotle is now sourcing beef from Australia; guess that’s sustainable.

Ruth Reichl writes in the New York Times that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration fails on food, but that “an increasing number of major food companies, including Whole Foods, Chick-fil-A, Chipotle, Applegate and Panera Bread, have gotten on board, proof that as we vote with our wallets and our roasting pans, producers will rise to meet us.”

Market food safety at retail, rather than nonsense.

Just market food safety at retail, government is hopeless: FSA plan to name and shame supermarkets selling Campylobacter chicken ditched after pressure from retailers

Posted on July 23, 2014 by Douglas Powell

Maybe there’s something lost in translation; I’m barely starting to understand Australian.

But if I read this right, the piping hot UK Food Standards Agency has put retail over public health after scrapping plans to regularly name and shame supermarkets selling chicken contaminated with Campylobacter.

Lots of chuckles next time FSA proclaims they are a science-based agency.

According to the Daily Mail, FSA had promised to carry out regular surveys of chicken sold on the high street and publish the results, including the names of the stores, every three months.

The idea was that the public naming and shaming exercise would put pressure on the stores to clean up their chicken and reduce the food poisoning risk to customers.

However, the officials at the watchdog now want to scrap this idea and instead only publish data on the number of birds that are contaminated without identifying the stores involved.

The move has been condemned by a leading academic, who suggested it was driven by pressure from the industry and Government departments, who are keen support supermarkets, farmers and processors.

The changes represent a major victory for the commercial interests of the big retailers, putting concerns for their sales and profits ahead of consumer safety and their right to know what they are eating.

The fact that the supermarkets have managed to water down the scheme is just the latest evidence as to how lobbying by big business has driven a change in official policy on food and health issues.

Similar lobbying killed off a plan for a blanket ban on junk food snacks and drinks from displays around supermarket check-outs.

The FSA recently revealed that more than one million people are falling victim to food poisoning every year with supermarket chicken named as the greatest threat.

Campylobacter, which is most often found on raw chicken, is the biggest cause of food poisoning in the country.

An official study published in 2009 revealed that two in three of all fresh chicken on shelves was contaminated with campylobacter. More than one in four – 27 per cent – were classed as being highly contaminated.

Despite the fact the FSA has asked supermarkets and farmers to make combatting campylobacter a top priority, the situation appears to have shown no improvement since then.

An FSA paper on the food poisoning caused by campylobacter warned: ‘In addition to the attendant economic costs, cases cause inconvenience, discomfort and misery to those who become infected and a small proportion of cases result in death or long-term consequences, such as reactive arthritis, irritable bowel syndrome and Guillain-Barré syndrome, the latter of which affects the peripheral nervous system.’

Despite the clear threat, the FSA’s executives are now asking its board to redraw the rules for its surveys to ensure the stores selling contaminated chicken are not identified in its quarterly results.

A paper prepared by officials states this is in response to ‘legitimate concerns expressed by the industry and other government departments’. The references to other departments relates to the food and farming department, DEFRA, which sees itself as a champion of British farmers, including those producing chicken.

The FSA paper states: ‘In the last update to the Board in March 2014 it was stated that the FSA intended to release the full results, including the names of the retailers and processors, of testing of around 1,000 samples every 3 months during the survey, with the first results published around June/July 2014.’

However, it says it has now decided to change this approach because there is a risk the results will be incomplete and misleading and it would – in some way – be unfair to the stores.

The FSA said: ‘One of the drawbacks of this approach is that no interpretation can properly be placed on interim raw data until the full year’s sampling is complete and fully analysed.

The watchdog’s board is being asked to approve this new approach at a meeting tomorrow.

Erik Millstone, the Professor of Science Policy at the University of Sussex, condemned the move to let the supermarkets off the hook.

Is Foster Farms a food safety pioneer or a persistent offender?

Posted on July 11, 2014 by Douglas Powell

Dan Charles of NPR reports that Foster Farms, a chicken producer in California, just can’t seem to stop bleeding bad news.

An outbreak of Salmonella linked to Foster Farms poultry has sickened at least 621 people in 29 states and Puerto Rico since 2013, shows no signs of stopping.

But Foster Farms may now be one of the country’s cleanest, safest sources of chicken products. That’s according to the USDA, which has been testing chicken parts that are processed at Foster Farms plants.

After the USDA threatened to shut down the plants in October, the company called in food safety experts and set up new to eliminate salmonella contamination. It’s made a difference, the government says. At Foster Farms plants, fewer than 5 per cent of chicken parts test positive for salmonella. At other companies, it’s typically about 20 per cent.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California called on other chicken companies to follow Foster Farms’ example. David Acheson, former chief medical officer of the USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service and a former associate commissioner for foods at the Food and Drug Administration, praised the company for being “willing to devote the time and resources to becoming a world leader in food safety.”

If Foster Farms or any other company wants to be a real food safety leader, testing data will be publicly available and microbial food safety will be marketed at retail so consumers can choose – and not just choice amongst soundbites.

Marketing food safety? China’s vice-premier calls for food-safety credit system

Posted on June 12, 2014 by Douglas Powell

Vice-Premier Wang Yang urged food safety authorities to hasten the establishment of a credit system to better inform the public of both the good and bad producers.

He made the remarks on June 10 at a forum of the China Food Safety Publicity Week.

Highlighting the respect for morality, laws and regulations, the event held by 17 government agencies, including the China Food and Drug Administration, aims to help improve China’s food safety and raise public awareness.

“The government should ensure a healthy market order to allow for fair competition, and crimes in the food sector must be severely punished,” he said.

He also demanded strict monitoring of the entire process of food production, processing and sales to safeguard food safety and quality.

Although the general food safety situation in the country has become better and stable, problems still exist, he said.

Consumers and industry associations should also participate in the food safety supervision to help secure a better-regulated food market, he added.

To improve public access into food safety information and knowledge, a mobile application about food and drug-related information was launched by the administration at the event.

Users can use the app to track latest news and information on food, drugs, function food, cosmetics, and medical appliances.

What have the Romans ever done for us? Sanctimonious Super Bowl adverts

Posted on January 28, 2014 by Douglas Powell

Chobani yogurt suffered some serious quality issues in Aug. 2013, and persistent consumer complaints has led the company to respond to declining sales with a full public accounting of quality control measures with a Super Bowl ad.

On Feb. 2, when Fox broadcasts Super Bowl XLVIII, two brands of Greek-style yogurt, Chobani and Dannon Oikos, have bought commercial time in the game.

A 60-second Chobani commercial — in the first Super Bowl appearance for the No. 1 brand of Greek yogurt — is scheduled for the third quarter. The spot, featuring a new theme, “How matters,” is the start of a multimedia campaign that includes ads in digital and social media, events and a public relations effort. The “How matters” campaign is to continue after the Super Bowl with elements like commercials during the Winter Olympics and the Academy Awards.

What Chobani believes it offers is summarized by an announcer’s declaration: “A cup of yogurt won’t change the world. But how we make it might.”

Especially if it has mold that makes people barf.

Post-Super Bowl, Chipotle Mexican Grill will release “Farmed and Dangerous,” a four-part comedy series on the TV-streaming service Hulu that takes a satirical look at industrial-scale farming.

“Farmed and Dangerous,” billed as a “Chipotle original series,” hopes to promote the company’s concerns about sustainable agriculture and the humane treatment of animals used for meat. This stealth marketing strategy, Chipotle executives say, is not about “product integration,” but “values integration.”

Food safety would be an important value.

Market microbial safety and back it up; A&W Canada fail

Posted on September 25, 2013 by Douglas Powell

Following in the hormone-free hucksterism footsteps of Chipotle and Tyson in the U.S., Coles in Australia, and countless others, A&W Food Services of Canada has proclaimed it will not serve beef with added hormones or steroids and only beef that contains no added preservatives or additives.

“More and more Canadians are looking for beef that’s been raised without added hormones or steroids, and we’re proud to serve this better beef to burger lovers across the country,” Paul Hollands, president and chief executive officer, A&W Food Services of Canada, said in a news release. “When you eat one of the burgers from the A&W burger family, you can be assured that not only is it going to taste fresh and delicious, but also that we have sourced the beef from select ranches that are at the leading edge of sustainable practices.”

The company’s “Better Beef” program works with several ranches worldwide, including Spring Creek in Vegreville, Alberta; Meyer in Helmsville, Mont.; and Teys in Australia.

Each of the ranches that are part of A&W’s program have rigorous verification systems to track the cattle, their feed and their care to ensure the beef meets A&W’s specifications.

Rigorous verification? Like all the outbreaks linked to foods that underwent rigorous verification?

Market food safety, rather than fear. Because some companies are better.

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