Aramark, another food safety gift: Bills would require food safety inspections for Mich. prisons

Posted on June 24, 2015 by Douglas Powell

When I was in prison, no one thought much about food safety. There was a cannery, and inmates prepared food, made pruno, and extracted revenge, I guess.

Prison kitchens in Michigan managed by contractors would be required to have food safety inspections under recently introduced bipartisan legislation.

Democratic Rep. John Kivela and Republican Rep. Ed McBroom announced the legislation Wednesday. It comes in response to recent news that inmates at a Jackson-area prison found maggots in a food preparation area.

Philadelphia-based Aramark Correctional Services operates Michigan’s prison food services as part of a three-year, $145 million contract.

The legislation would make prison kitchen facilities subject to the same routine food safety inspections that are required for other food establishments in Michigan. The contractor would have to pay for the inspections.

McBroom says it seems reasonable that prison kitchens “face the same strict inspections as required by any kitchen serving the public.”

Kansas prisons yield repeat food safety violations

Posted on January 5, 2015 by Douglas Powell

Dirty kitchen conditions and violations repeated for several months are among some of the more consistent findings in food safety inspections for Kansas prisons.

Although the corrections department adheres to Kansas Department of Agriculture food safety guidelines, like restaurants, it doesn’t rely on KDA staff to do the inspections.

Instead, both monthly and sporadic audits are conducted by Kansas Department of Corrections employees, some of whom work in the facilities they inspect.

“I hear what you’re saying in terms of looking like it’s all under one DOC umbrella,” said Jeremy Barclay, spokesman for the KDOC. “But we interact with so many different state agencies and branches of government and different divisions within the agency, that it’s pretty secure.”

The inspections cover the 19 months between January 2013 and July 2014. They include seven of the state’s 10 prisons and total 19 facilities, such as satellite units. The KDOC filled the request free of charge, because another entity already had requested the inspections. Inspections weren’t provided for the Topeka, Lansing and Larned juvenile correctional facilities because they weren’t in the original request.

The nearly 340 inspections show noncompliance and deficiencies month after month at several facilities.

The Kansas Juvenile Correctional Facility in Topeka, for example, repeated several mistakes for at least 10 months, including not taking proper temperature logs; not enforcing handwashing and glove use; not having employees and staff restrain hair properly; not keeping accurate chemical logs; and not having inmate staff up to date on food safety training.

Aramark holds the food service contracts in all the prisons, save the KJCF, which switched last October to Trinity Services Group after the service went out for bid. It was awarded a nearly $400,000 contract to work from October 2013 through June 2014.

In each prison, Aramark pays for a manager, an assistant manager and food service supervisors. Under them, are the inmates, Barclay said.

Inmate workers are supposed to be trained and supervised, but 20 inspections show those areas lacking for several months — half of which came from the KJCF.

Maggots in food among new prison complaints

Posted on July 16, 2014 by Douglas Powell

When I was in prison, the food wasn’t so bad, most of the poop had been cooked out, and I still get a giggle from my daughters when I say, bacon and egg for breakfast, because that was our choice in the gaol: one egg and bacon, or two eggs.

Reports obtained by The Associated Press through records requests found numerous problems reported since April, when the state took the rare step of fining the vendor because of contract failures.

The records show 65 instances where Philadelphia-based Aramark Correctional Services failed to provide food or ran out of it — usually the main course, such as hamburgers or chicken patties — while serving inmates, leading to delays and in some cases security concerns as inmates grew frustrated. Substitute items were provided in most cases.

On May 28, guards stopped breakfast “to preclude a mass demonstration” at Warren Correctional Institution in southwest Ohio by inmates upset at being served only white bread and peanut butter after the supply truck was apparently late.

The records also show several days when Aramark employees simply failed to show up and cases of unauthorized relationships between inmates and Aramark workers. Reports allege sexual activity between some inmates and workers.

Records also show five reports of maggots since January in food or the preparation process. Last month, for example, an Aramark employee notified a prison guard at Trumbull Correctional Institution that “one of the two serving lines had maggots falling out of the warming tray.”

Hundreds of inmates suffer food poisoning at Mexican prison

Posted on May 27, 2014 by Douglas Powell

Nearly 450 inmates required medical attention suffering food poisoning at a maximum security prison in western Mexico, Jalisco state authorities said.

“None of the (affected inmates) is in serious condition, nor did any require medical transfer,” the state public safety office said.

Officials did not mention the name of the prison, but media accounts identified the facility as Puente Grande.

Premier: food safety law violations carry low penalties in China

Posted on May 18, 2014 by Douglas Powell

Recently, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang mentioned the melamine incident in the executive meeting. He said, the reason for the tainted milk incident is the small punishments over violation of food safety laws. We should amend the law to give criminals the most severe punishment. However, citizens are not optimistic on the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) putting this into practice.

On May 14, Li Keqiang chaired a State Council executive meeting to discuss Food Safety Law (Revised Draft). Li Keqiang said that the criminals of 2008 melamine incident paid very little due to the limited laws and regulations even though the CCP dispatched a large number of police to clean up the milk powder and criminals.

Li Keqiang stressed: “They must be given most severe punishments by amending the law!”

Beijing lawyer Xie Yanyi:“The definition of who the criminal is is critical. If by criminals they mean the corrupt government regulators including public officials seeking rents, corrupt collusion between business and officials including self interest between officials and the milk producer, it may have an effect.”

Mainland mother Jiang Yalin: “The State has laws, which are not obeyed. I won’t trust them or let people around me trust the milk powder because a burnt child dreads the fire. I think their credibility is declining continuously from all aspects. I will never use Chinese food if I can”

Experimentating with pruno leads to 8 cases of botulism in Utah

Posted on December 14, 2013 by Ben Chapman

The first case of food-related botulism recorded in the medical literature occurred in Germany in 1735 and was traced to uncooked fermented blood sausage. Food safety history guru (and pretty decent margarita recipe developer) Carl Custer pointed out in an IAFP workshop that botulism concerns (and regulatory responses) go back further than that. In the 10th century, Emperor Leo VI of Byzantium prohibited the manufacture of blood sausage because of repeated illnesses leaving folks paralyzed and dying not too long after exposure. Botulism (derived from botulus, the latin word for sausage) is a pretty nasty old-world illness. Clostridium botulinum spores are fairly common in soil and can germinate and outgrow into vegetative cells in anaerobic, low acid conditions. A byproduct of the cells’ multiplication is the toxin.

Mrs. Kalisz, my family studies teacher warned of the dangers of botulism by showing a bulging can of beans. She didn’t mention anything about partially-fermented sausages, under processed home-canned food, packaged seafood, foil-wrapped baked potatoes – or a homemade prison alcohol called pruno.

To make pruno, a sugar source (like fruit acquired from a prison lunch) is put into in a bottle or bag, the naturally occurring yeast should convert the carbs into alcohol – creating some low-cost wine. If the sugar source is acidic fruit the low pH will suppress the germination of C. bot spores. If a potato (also full of carbs) is added by the amateur microbiologist it can raise the pH enough to allow for outgrowth. According to a paper published by Williams and colleagues in the Annals of Emergency Medicine, this is likely what happened in a 2011 botulism outbreak traced to a Utah prison.

Twelve prisoners consumed pruno, a homemade alcoholic beverage made from a mixture of ingredients in prison environments. Four drank pruno made without potato and did not develop botulism. Eight drank pruno made with potato, became symptomatic, and were hospitalized. The prune recipe involved in this outbreak (see right) was provided by patient 4, who reportedly had cooked this recipe approximately 20 times previously without a potato. The prisoner’s rationale behind using a potato was that he thought it would “accelerate fermentation,” and he was “experimenting.”

Posted on November 23, 2013 by Douglas Powell

Seven inmates in Oklahoma state prisons have been hospitalized in the past three weeks with symptoms of salmonellosis.

Fourty-seven women at Eddie Warrior Correctional Center had symptoms of salmonellosis.

Of those who showed symptoms at the women’s prison in Taft, 18 had tested positive for salmonella by Thursday afternoon.

Another 37 inmates had salmonellosis symptoms at Jim E. Hamilton Correctional Center in Hodgen, Massie said. Five were hospitalized.

Lauri Smithee, director of the state Health Department’s acute disease service, told The Oklahoman the recent cases don’t rise to the level of an outbreak.

What? Prisoners are people too.

250 prisoners in Quebec City ill with food poisoning

Posted on March 10, 2013 by Douglas Powell

Some 250 prisoners and 25 employees of a Quebec City prison have been ill since last night with what the director of Public Health is calling food poisoning.

CBC News reports a dishwasher at the prison, in the Charlesbourg borough of Quebec City, may be the cause. The hot steam cycle of the machine, which sterilizes the dishes, had stopped working.

The dishwasher was reportedly installed four weeks ago.

The kitchen has been closed, and prisoners and personnel still at the detention centre were fed a catered lunch today.

7 inmates stricken with botulism from homemade hooch

Posted on November 26, 2012 by Douglas Powell

There are lots of ways to get contraband into prisons: with open visitation, the long kiss with a balloon full of whatever seemed popular; with closed access, the cigarette butt stuffed with goodies; or bribe a guard.

But those didn’t involve botulism.

For those who worked in the kitchen, homemade alcohol of some sort in various contraptions was convenient: fun with fermentations. But, things can go wrong (which is probably why they’re in prison).

CBS5 reports seven inmates are suspected of getting botulism from prisoner-made alcohol over the weekend in the Special Management Unit 1 on the Arizona State Prison Complex Eyman in Florence.

Starting Saturday four inmates were hospitalized because of severe illness, they are now undergoing treatment. A fifth man arrived late Saturday and two sick inmates arrived before noon Sunday. All seven inmates are now in the intensive care unit.

It is suspected that the inmates may have contracted the botulism poisoning from “hooch,” a prison homemade alcohol, that is made from fermented fruit. Samples of the hooch were sent for testing and officials are still waiting on the lab results for confirmation.

350 sick from Salmonella in chicken salad at Arizona prison

Posted on August 23, 2012 by Douglas Powell

Prison food is no picnic, what with the horse nuts (canned plums), dog food, Salmonella in eggs, and the rumored saltpeter.

The Arkansas Department of Health has confirmed the presence of Salmonella in chicken salad served at the Arkansas Department of Correction’s Tucker Unit on Aug. 4 that sickened hundreds of inmates with nausea and diarrhea.

Correction department spokeswoman Shea Wilson says footage from security cameras shows the chicken was cooked for three hours. But Wilson tells the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette that the chicken may have been left out for too long after it was cooked.

I didn’t know surveillance cameras could measure temperature. The chicken salad was prepared by inmates.

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