Tag Archives: Rolling Stones

It’s still a problem: Quality audits in food companies and the examination of technical data sheets

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One of the main questions concerning raw materials and intermediates in the food industry is the definition of used ingredients by the legal viewpoint. In the ambit of quality management systems, the declaration of all possible components of a food or beverage product may concern or be correlated with some basic aspects, including the critical and reliable interpretation of technical data sheets concerning these products in the food and beverage industries by external and experienced auditors. Interestingly, the matter of technical data sheets appears to be always critical when speaking of food quality management.

In general, these documents should give clear answers, and auditors should be ready to understand and analyse these information. The aim of this chapter is to give reliable advices for interested food auditors with concern to the examination of technical data sheets for all possible ingredients in the food and beverage sector.

Springer Briefs in Molecular Science

Marco Fiorino, Caterina Barone, et al

https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-030-22553-7_3

Surveys still suck: How likely would you go back to a restaurant involved in a foodborne illness outbreak

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This study reports an investigation of the determinants of the likelihood consumers will revisit a restaurant that has had a foodborne illness outbreak, including the moderating effects of restaurant type and consumer dining frequency.

A scenario-based survey was distributed via Amazon’s Mechanical Turk to collect data from 1,034 respondents; the tally of valid responses was 1,025. Partial least squares-based structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) showed perceived vulnerability and perceived severity to be statistically significant; both also negatively affected customer intentions to patronize restaurants cited for serving foods that caused foodborne illness outbreaks.

Results suggest that type of restaurant is a significant moderator between perceived severity and customer intentions. The type of diner, however, based on frequency, does not moderate the relationships between perceived severity and perceived vulnerability and customer intentions to patronize restaurants that served food causing a foodborne illness outbreak (FBI).

Using protection motivation theory (PMT) (Rogers, 1975), this study’s findings contribute to understanding determinants and moderators of customer intentions to revisit restaurants after a foodborne illness outbreak.

Consumers’ return intentions towards a restaurant with foodborne illness outbreaks: Differences across restaurant type and consumers’ dining frequency

Food Control

Faizan Ali, Kimberly J. Harris, Kisang Ryu

DOI : 10.1016/j.foodcont.2018.12.001

http://m.x-mol.com/paper/921130

Beggar’s Banquet

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Beggar’s Banquet is 50 years old.

It marked the beginning of Rolling Stones greatness for the next three albums, from 1968-72.

Me and my best friend from high-school are both dying, one way or another, but we listened to Beggar’s Banquet, Let it Bleed, Sticky Fingers and Exile on Main Street for hours in my basement, about 1977, long after they were released.

I used to have Mick Taylor hair.

I also was lunchtime DJ for a couple of years in high school and would play a lots of Stones, Zeppelin, and others, while the kids all wanted disco.

This what I still use to get me going in the a.m.

Jigsaw puzzle: Salmonella cases double in Denmark

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Ben Hamilton of CPH Post reports there were twice as many salmonella outbreaks in Denmark in 2017 than in the previous year.

In total, there were 25 outbreaks, and 1,067 people became ill as a result.

The increase is partly blamed on improved ways of detecting outbreaks. ‘Whole genome sequencing’, for example, makes it easier to detect the same source of infection.

“We hope it can lead to a decline in salmonella cases in the long term,”  noted Luise Müller, an epidemiologist at Statens Serum Institut.

“It should enable us to become better at deducing why some foods are more likely to make people sicker than others.”

Danish-produced pork was the biggest culprit, while there were no cases sourced to chicken.

 Foodborne outbreaks in general are increasing. In 2017, there were 63, up from 49 in the previous year.

The biggest culprit is campylobacter, a bacterium that made 4,257 people ill in 2017.

Country Tonk: Australian coroner criticises woman who made toxic ‘moonshine’ contributed to deaths of 3 people in 2015

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The Deputy State Coroner has delivered a scathing report into deaths of three people in western New South Wales:

moonshine-australiaFound the consumption of “moonshine” contributed to their deaths

Woman who supplied homemade booze “targeted people with alcoholism”

Magistrate Helen Barry also said more people could die without tougher rules on the purchase of stills that are used to make alcohol.

An inquest found the illegal sale of homemade alcohol contributed to the deaths of the three residents of an Indigenous reserve near Collarenebri in February and March last year. They were aged in their 30s and 40s.

Norman Boney, his sister Sandra Boney and her partner Roger Adams consumed an unknown quantity of “moonshine” in the months before their deaths. It was supplied by another woman, Mary Miller.

Ms Miller denied selling the alcohol, but the coroner found “the overwhelming and only conclusion is that Mary Miller was in fact selling moonshine (homebrew) to the residents of Walli Reserve during the period of 2014 and 2015”.

Lavinia Flick, who was related to Mr Adams, earlier told the inquest the deaths had a huge impact on the community.

“The sadness that you feel, there are no words for it,” she said.

“Mary opened her shop the next day after they died like it was nothing.”

Ms Barry said it is impossible to disagree with Ms Flick’s conclusion that: “Mary targeted people with alcoholism. She targeted people with an addiction and disease. It was our people that were affected by it.”

The inquest was told distilling alcohol without a licence is illegal and easy to get wrong.

Professor Ian Whyte from the Department of Clinical Toxicology and Pharmacology at Calvary Mater Hospital in Newcastle gave evidence at the hearing.

“A relatively small dose can cause blindness and ultimately death.”

‘Gap in the legislation’ could have ‘fatal consequences’

The coroner said it was legal to purchase a still that holds less than 5 litres for the purpose of distilling water or essential oils.

But in practice, it can be used to illegally manufacture alcohol and “because there is no licensing requirement, that activity is likely to remain undetected unless there is a catastrophic event such as in the loss of lives such as those of Sandra, Norman and Roger”.

“Because of the gap in the legislation, there is the potential for fatal consequences.”

Ms Barry said she would send these findings to the Commonwealth Attorney-General and Minister for Finance for their consideration.

Toxo in cat poop threatens Hawaiian monk seals

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Two wildlife issues have collided in Hawaii, pitting one group of animal defenders against another in an impassioned debate. The point of contention? Deadly cat poop and the feral felines that produce it.

hawaiian-monk-sealsFederal researchers believe feces from the legions of stray cats roaming Hawaii is spreading a disease that is killing Hawaiian monk seals, some of the world’s most endangered marine mammals. Some conservationists advocate euthanizing those cats that no one wants, and that has cat lovers up in arms.

“It’s a very difficult, emotional issue,” said state Sen. Mike Gabbard, chairman of a committee that earlier this year heard a proposal to ban the feeding of feral cats on state land. The panel abandoned the bill after an outcry.

“It struck a nerve in our community,” he said.

The problem stems from a parasite common in cats that can cause toxoplasmosis, a disease that has killed at least five female Hawaiian monk seals and three males since 2001, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

“While eight seals may not sound like a lot of animals, it actually has pretty large ramifications for an endangered population where there’s only about 1,300 seals in existence at this point in time,” said Michelle Barbieri, veterinary medical officer for NOAA’s Hawaiian monk seal research program. Scientists believe monk seals become exposed by ingesting contaminated water or prey.

Stray cats, meanwhile, have no predators in Hawaii and have ballooned in numbers across the state. Some 300,000 feral cats roam Oahu alone, according to marketing research commissioned by the Hawaiian Humane Society in 2015.

Respectable Leafy greens food safety hucksterdum

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To finish my tri-part Rolling-Stones inspired critique of leafy greens bullshit –outbreaks are only confirmed with direct testing and Bill Keene would be rolling in his grave — the Leafy Green Marketing Agency has done what all bureaucracies do:

Made a website.

With a dollop of PR hackerdom and an underpinning of how to tell the story better – tell the story better — The California Leafy Greens Marketing Agreement (LGMA) has updated its website to provide easier access to news, information, and resources on leafy greens food safety and the program created in 2007.

The home page of the revised website takes users to the most current news item, highlights the organization’s current Twitter post, and is followed immediately by two of the most-visited sections of the website: the LGMA’s mandatory Food Safety Practices and its list of Certified LGMA Members.

With continual outbreaks involving dangerous pathogens on leafy greens., the California-based self-appointed Leafy Greens Marketing Association has been reduced to the tried, twisted and why not twerking, public relations strategy of telling the story better.

But good stories rely on good data, And consumers have no clue which companies are better at providing reduced E. coli or Salmonella spinach and lettuce.

Because they aren’t told.

Early research/North American outbreaks

Fresh fruits and vegetables were identified as the source of several outbreaks of foodborne illness in the early 1990s, particularly leafy greens (Table 1).

Date Product Pathogen Cases Setting/dish State
Apr-92 Lettuce S. enteriditis 12 Salad VT
Jan-93 Lettuce S. Heidelberg 18 Restaurant MN
Jul-93 Lettuce Norovirus 285 Restaurant IL
Aug-93 Salad E. coli O157:H7 53 Salad Bar WA
Jul-93 Salad E. coli O157:H7 10 Unknown WA
Sep-94 Salad E. coli O157:H7 26 School TX
Jul-95 Lettuce E. coli O153:H48 74 Lettuce MT
Sep-95 Lettuce E. coli O153:H47 30 Scout Camp ME
Sep-95 Salad E. coli O157:H7 20 Ceasar Salad ID
Oct-95 Lettuce E. coli O153:H46 11 Salad OH
May-96 Lettuce E. coli O157:H10 61 Mesclun Mix ML
Jun-96 Lettuce E. coli O153:H49 7 Mesclun Mix NY

Table 1. Outbreaks of foodborne illness related to leafy greens, 1992-1996

Powell, D.A., Jacob, C.J. and Chapman, B. 2009. Produce in public: Spinach, safety and public policy in Microbial Safety of Fresh Produce: Challenges, Perspectives, and Strategies ed. by X. Fan, B.A. Niemira, C.J. Doona, F.E. Feeherry and R.B. Gravani. Blackwell Publishing, pp 369-384.

So, as could have been predicted 20 years ago, the California Leafy Greens Marketing Agreement (LGMA) has completely revised its website to provide easier access to a wealth of news, information and resources concerning leafy greens food safety, and this important program created in 2007

Why did it take the outbreak in the fall of 2006 to compel the leafy green types industry to embrace the kind of change the sector has heralded since 2007? And at what point will future evidence be deemed sufficient to initiate change within an industry in the future?

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Shattered: UK FSA annual science report published

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I saw the Rolling Stones in Buffalo in 1981. We stayed up all night, and drove from Guelph, crossing the border about 4:30 a.m. George Thorogood opened in the rain, and was awesome, followed by Journey, who sucked (hence the Journey effect) and then the Stones.

barfblog.Stick It InThe UK Food Standards Agency is the Journey of the food safety biz: they make other agencies look good.

Catherine Brown, the chief executive of the Food Standards Agency, writes in the annual science report that it demonstrates “science is at the heart of everything we do.”

It’s hard to take that seriously from a group that recommends piping hot, steaming hot, and cooked until the juices run clear.

There’s no mention of thermometers.

Brown also writes, “A fundamental principle in this process is to maintain a clear distinction between the independent, expert assessment of risk, and decisions on risk management.”

The U.S. got rid of that in 1997.

But Journey was popular back then.