Tag Archives: potato

Canned potato outbreak linked to two deaths in 2015

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I really am scared of botulism. Not in an irrational way – I get the risk calculation stuff.

Prevalence is low but consequence is way high. Like months of health problems. Which might lead to death before recovery.ChBGKI-WgAAoAh7

Tragically, the 2015 Lancaster Ohio botulism outbreak claimed a second life (initial reports cited one, Kim Shaw) according to My Fox 28.

A second woman passed away from the botulism contamination that poisoned 21 other people at a church pot luck last year.

The family of Marcella Barbee, 65, said she died in November 2015.

Barbee was a member of Cross Pointe Church and had contracted botulism following the church potluck and suffered from a number of health issues as a result.

Largest botulism outbreak in 40 years in US: Botulism at church potluck in Ohio, 2015

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The U.S. Centers for Disease Control reports that on April 21, 2015, the Fairfield Medical Center (FMC) and Fairfield Department of Health contacted the Ohio Department of Health (ODH) about a patient suspected of having botulism in Fairfield County, Ohio.

cannedpotatoes20091-300x214Botulism is a severe, potentially fatal neuroparalytic illness.* A single case is a public health emergency, because it can signal an outbreak (1). Within 2 hours of health department notification, four more patients with similar clinical features arrived at FMC’s emergency department. Later that afternoon, one patient died of respiratory failure shortly after arriving at the emergency department. All affected persons had eaten at the same widely attended church potluck meal on April 19. CDC’s Strategic National Stockpile sent 50 doses of botulinum antitoxin to Ohio. FMC, the Fairfield Department of Health, ODH, and CDC rapidly responded to confirm the diagnosis, identify and treat additional patients, and determine the source.

A confirmed case of botulism was defined as clinically compatible illness in a person who ate food from the potluck meal and had 1) laboratory-confirmed botulism or 2) two or more signs of botulism or one sign and two or more symptoms† of botulism. A probable case was a compatible illness that did not meet the confirmed case definition in a person who ate food from the potluck meal.

Among 77 persons who consumed potluck food, 25 (33%) met the confirmed case definition, and four (5%) met the probable case definition. The median age of patients was 64 years (range = 9–87 years); 17 (59%) were female. Among 26 (90%) patients who reported onset dates, illness began a median of 2 days after the potluck (range = 1–6 days).

Twenty-seven of the 29 patients initially went to FMC. Twenty-two (76%) patients were transferred from FMC to six hospitals in the Columbus metropolitan area approximately 30 miles away; these transfers required substantial and rapid coordination. Twenty-five (86%) patients received botulinum antitoxin, and 11 (38%) required endotracheal intubation and mechanical ventilation; no other patients died. Within 1 week of the first patient’s arrival at the emergency department, 16 patients (55%) had been discharged. Among 19 cases that were laboratory-confirmed, serum and stool specimens were positive for botulinum neurotoxin type A or Clostridium botulinum type A.

Interviews were conducted with 75 of 77 persons who ate any of the 52 potluck foods. Consumption of any potato salad (homemade or commercial) yielded the highest association with probable or confirmed case status (risk ratio [RR] = 13.9; 95% confidence interval [CI] = 4.6–41.8), followed by homemade potato salad (RR = 9.1; CI = 3.9–21.2). Of 12 food specimens collected from the church dumpster, six were positive for botulinum neurotoxin type A; five contained potato salad and one contained macaroni and cheese that might have been contaminated after being discarded.

The attendee who prepared the potato salad with home-canned potatoes reported using a boiling water canner, which does not kill C. botulinum spores, rather than a pressure canner, which does eliminate spores (2). In addition, the potatoes were not heated after removal from the can, a step that can inactivate botulinum toxin. The combined evidence implicated potato salad prepared with improperly home-canned potatoes, a known vehicle for botulism (3).

This was the largest botulism outbreak in the United States in nearly 40 years (Table). Early recognition of the outbreak by an astute clinician and a rapid, coordinated response likely reduced illness severity and facilitated early hospital discharge. This outbreak response illustrates the benefits of coordination among responders during botulism outbreaks. Close adherence to established home-canning guidelines can prevent botulism and enable safe sharing of home-canned produce (2).

Acknowledgments

Fairfield Medical Center, Lancaster, Ohio; Fairfield Department of Health, Lancaster, Ohio; Ohio Department of Health (ODH) Bureau of Infectious Diseases, Columbus, Ohio; ODH Bureau of Public Health Laboratory, Reynoldsburg, Ohio; ODH Office of Preparedness, Columbus, Ohio; Franklin County Public Health, Columbus, Ohio; Division of Foodborne, Waterborne, and Environmental Diseases, National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases, CDC; Strategic National Stockpile, Office of Public Health Preparedness and Response, CDC; Office of Regulatory Affairs, CDC.

1Ohio Department of Health; 2Epidemic Intelligence Service, CDC; 3Division of Foodborne, Waterborne, and Infectious Diseases, National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases, CDC; 4Fairfield Department of Health; 5Fairfield Medical Center.

Corresponding author: Carolyn L. McCarty, wmw8@cdc.gov, 614-728-6941.

References

Sobel J. Botulism. Clin Infect Dis 2005;41:1167–73.

National Center for Home Food Preservation, US Department of Agriculture. USDA complete guide to home canning, 2009 revision. Washington, DC: US Department of Agriculture; 2009. Available at http://nchfp.uga.edu/publications/publications_usda.htmlExternal Web Site Icon.

Sobel J, Tucker N, Sulka A, McLaughlin J, Maslanka S. Foodborne botulism in the United States, 1990–2000. Emerg Infect Dis 2004;10:1606–11.

*Botulinum neurotoxin and botulinum neurotoxin–containing species of Clostridium are subject to the select agent regulations (42 CFR Part 73).

†Symptoms of botulism include blurred vision, diplopia (double vision), dizziness, slurred speech, thick-feeling tongue, change in sound of voice, hoarseness, dry mouth, and dysphagia (difficulty swallowing). Signs of botulism include extraocular palsy (paralysis of eye muscles), ptosis, sluggishly reactive pupils, facial paralysis, palatal weakness, impaired gag reflex, musculoskeletal weakness or paralysis, and objective evidence of declining respiratory function.

Canned potatoes used in potato salad likely culprit in botulism outbreak

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Home canning is not something to mess around with. Low acid foods need to be processed using a pressure canner to inactivate Clostridium botulinum spores – boiling water baths (like what is used for pickles and jams) won’t do it.

According to the Columbus Dispatch, home-canned potatoes used in potato salad are the likely vehicle that caused over 20 illnesses and a death last week in Ohio.

State health officials say this afternoon that potato salad made with home-canned potatoes is the likely source of a deadly botulism outbreak at a Lancaster church potluck.cannedpotatoes2009

Last week, the Ohio Department of Health said tests showed that six food samples taken from the April 19th potluck had tested positive for botulism.

Sietske de Fijter, chief of the Bureau of Infectious Diseases for the state, said health officials were able to narrow the likely food culprits by interviewing nearly everyone who became ill – as well as those who didn’t – at the potluck.

Case-control study is the next step to confirm.

More needles found in potatoes at Canada’s Cavendish Farms

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Cavendish Farms has confirmed that more potatoes with needles in them have been found at their New Annan, P.E.I. production facility.

potato-needles-720The discovery was made between Dec. 27 and 28.

A representative for Cavendish Farms said Monday that the affected potatoes were harvested in 2014 and that an investigation has narrowed down their farm of origin. These needles (they did not say how many) did not come from Linkletter Farms Ltd. like those found previously.  

They did not, however, say where these new potatoes were from or what led them to believe they are not from Linkletter Farms Ltd.

This would mark the first time tampered potatoes have been traced back to a second farm.

Since October there have been 10 potatoes with needles shoved in them reported to P.E.I. RCMP, though the original discoveries were made in several provinces. All the needles, until now, came from bags of table potatoes from Linkletter Farms Ltd.

“Our established food safety processes and technology worked as they were designed. Food safety is the number one priority for Cavendish Farms,” said Bill Meisner, vice-president of operations.

“The needles were detected through our hazard analysis critical control point processes and technology. Our employees responded as trained. We have full confidence in our safety processes and the safety of our product.”

PEI potato growers offer reward in tampering case

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Coral Beach of The Packer writes the Prince Edward Island (that’s in Canada) potato industry is offering a $50,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of those responsible for recent tampering incidents involving sewing needles being embedded in fresh potatoes.

potato.needleThe needles have been found by consumers, according to officials with the PEI Potato Board, and have involved fresh potatoes from Linkletter Farms, owned by Gary Linkletter, chairman of the industry board.

Linkletter did not attend the board’s Nov. 10 press conference on the reward, citing conflict of interest concerns because his company has been the victim of the tampering incidents. In an interview with The (Montreal) Guardian, Linkletter said the tampering incident were limited to his farm and were not an industrywide occurrence.

“For the health of Linkletter Farms and the entire industry, we know we all wish to see this incident resolved as quickly as possible,” said PEI board general manager Greg Donald in a news release issued after the press conference.

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police have been investigating the tampering for several weeks. During the first week of November members of the RCMP told The Guardian the investigation was delayed because growers had to stop X-raying harvested potatoes in order to get in the remaining crop.

Military food safety with mashed potatoes and ‘some stuff with lettuce’

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Army Times reports that what began as a line of defense against biological warfare has been unleashed on unsuspecting victims in an Army laboratory — 150 mashed potatoes, to be exact.

Potato Head2The result could speed up the Army’s food-testing process, and even help save lives in the event of an outbreak caused by a foodborne pathogen. Which brings us back to the potatoes: 75 of them were infected with Salmonella for a recent test, and researchers at the Army’s Edgewood Chemical Biological Center found all of them using a Mass Spectrometry Proteomics Method.

Tests that try to grow cultures of suspected pathogens to determine their presence take at least three days, said Mary Wade, head of ECBC’s Point Detection Branch — sometimes up to a month. Spectrometry takes four hours, at most. The test itself, after the questionable foodstuff is prepped for examination, takes minutes.

And unlike other methods that focus on a particular suspected toxin, this one can target any invader that’s been “genomically sequenced,” Wade said, including thousands of types of bacteria and viruses, even fungi and parasites.

The project began as a way to gauge environmental samples — air, water, even blood — for exposure to bacteria, Wade said. That was before the Army’s Public Health Command expressed interest.

“We were not, at the time, necessarily doing food work,” Wade said. “Some stuff with lettuce.”

Initial tests on spuds, a favored subject because of its consistency, showed promise four or five years ago, she said. That eventually led to the larger-scale potato testing, and the recent test led to further program expansion, according to a June 9 ECBC release, including sending the MSPM equipment to Camp Zama, Japan.

Statistics for foodborne illnesses are kept at the Defense Department level, a spokeswoman for PHC said: According to DoD figures, more than 2,700 service members came down with salmonellosis from 2002-2012, and more than 12,300 suffered from “other bacterial food poisoning.”

Tracking such illnesses isn’t an exact science — many service members likely wouldn’t report mild symptoms of food poisoning, and those who do report stomach or intestinal problems are grouped in categories that may or may not involve foodborne pathogens. More than 61,000 troops had “ill-defined intestinal infections” from 2002-12, DoD data show, and almost 380,000 reported suffering from diarrhea.

Blame the consumer: E. coli O157 sickens 250 kills 1 in UK; FSA responds by telling consumers to wash veggies; just like cook your meat, it’ll be fine

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Potato and leek soup is a standard in my kitchen, using chicken stock made from the weekly roast chicken.

I’m not sure what else leeks are used for, and they can contribute to some fantabulous gas, but they are a mess to clean: dirt and soil is engrained throughout the white part of the vegetable. I give them a rinse under tap water and then slice for soup. But the risk is with cross-contamination – leeks are grown in soil and whatever microorganisms are within the white bits are going to drip on the counter and elsewhere.

Be the bug, follow the bug.

The folks at the U.K. Food Standards Agency whose idea of science-based verification is to cook meat until it is piping hot, have apparently decided that E. coli O157:H7 – the dangerous kind – found on or in leeks, is the consumers’ responsibility.

Almost two months after revealing 250 people were sickened and one died with E. coli O157:H7 phage-type 8 over the previous eight months, linked to people handling loose raw leeks and potatoes in their homes, FSA has today launched a new campaign reminding people to wash raw vegetables to help minimize the risk of food poisoning.

No information on how 250 became sick over six months and the public wasn’t told, no information on farming and packing practices that may have led to such a massive contamination that so many people got sick, no information on anything: just advice to wash things thoroughly so that contamination can be spread throughout the kitchen.

Today’s FSA announcement says, “The campaign is in response to E. coli outbreaks in Britain and abroad this year including one linked to soil on raw vegetables and another caused by contaminated sprouted seeds.”

Washing sprouts does nothing, especially if the contamination is within the seed, as it most likely was in the E. coli O104 outbreak in Europe earlier this year.

The campaign messages include:

• always wash hands thoroughly before and after handling raw food, including vegetables;
• keep raw foods, including vegetables, separate from ready-to-eat foods;
• use different chopping boards, knives and utensils for raw and ready-to-eat foods, or wash thoroughly in between preparing different foods; and,
• unless packaging around vegetables says ‘ready-to-eat’ you must wash, peel or cook them before consuming.

Consumers, you are the critical control point for microorganisms that will rip out your kidneys. And you’ll be paying for the PR campaign to tell you to do better.