Risk communication sucks, everyone needs innovative food safety stories

Posted on December 31, 2018 by Douglas Powell

Consumers in most developed countries have greater access to safer food than ever before, yet the issue of consumer perception on the safety of the food supply, the control infrastructure and existing and new process technologies is often not positive.

A series of high profile food incidents, which have been ineffectively managed by both the regulators and the industry, and where there has been a failure to be open and transparent, have sensitised a proportion of consumers to scary stories about the food supply. There has been concomitant damage to consumer confidence in (i) the safety of food, (ii) the food industry’s commitment to producing safe food and (iii) the authorities’ ability to oversee the food chain.

Threats to consumers’ health and their genuine concerns have to be addressed with effective risk management and the protection of public health has to be paramount.

Dealing with incorrect fears and misperceptions of risk has also to be addressed but achieving this is very difficult. The competencies of social scientists are needed to assist in gaining insights into consumer perceptions of risk, consumer behaviour and the determinants of trust.

Conventional risk communication will not succeed on its own and more innovative and creative communication strategies are needed to engage with consumers using all available media channels in an open and transparent way. The digital media affords the opportunity to revolutionise engagement with consumers on food safety and nutrition-related issues.

Moving from risk communication to food information communication and consumer engagement

Wall, P. G., & Chen, J. (2018). Moving from risk communication to food information communication and consumer engagement. Npj Science of Food, 2(1). doi:10.1038/s41538-018-0031-7

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/329324755_Moving_from_risk_communication_to_food_information_communication_and_consumer_engagement

It’s explained by shit in irrigation water: Santa Barbara farm first fingered with outbreak strain of E coli O157 in Romaine lettuce that sickened 59 in US, 28 in Canada: Tumble those dice

Posted on December 14, 2018 by Douglas Powell

Welcome to Washington, D.C., Frank, and government PR.

On Nov. 20, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warned the American public of a multi-state outbreak of E. coli O157:H7 linked to romaine lettuce and advised against eating any romaine lettuce on the market at that time.

According to FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb, M.D. and FDA Deputy Commissioner Frank Yiannas, we have new results to report from this investigation tracing the source of the contamination to at least one specific farm. Based on these and other new findings, we’re updating our recommendations for the romaine lettuce industry and consumers.
Today, we’re announcing that we’ve identified a positive sample result for the outbreak strain in the sediment of a local irrigation reservoir used by a single farm owned and operated by Adam Bros. Farms in Santa Barbara County.

The FDA will be sending investigators back to this farm for further sampling. It’s important to note that although this is an important piece of information, the finding on this farm doesn’t explain all illnesses and our traceback investigation will continue as we narrow down what commonalities this farm may have with other farms that are part of our investigation. While the analysis of the strain found in the people who got ill and the sediment in one of this farm’s water sources is a genetic match, our traceback work suggests that additional romaine lettuce shipped from other farms could also likely be implicated in the outbreak. Therefore, the water from the reservoir on this single farm doesn’t fully explain what the common source of the contamination. We are continuing to investigate what commonalities there could be from multiple farms in the region that could explain this finding in the water, and potentially the ultimate source of the outbreak.

As of Dec. 13, our investigation yielded records from five restaurants in four different states that have identified 11 different distributors, nine different growers, and eight different farms as potential sources of contaminated romaine lettuce. Currently, no single establishment is in common across the investigated supply chains. This indicates that although we have identified a positive sample from one farm to date, the outbreak may not be explained by a single farm, grower, harvester, or distributor.

At the same time, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control updated its warning to advise U.S. consumers to not eat and retailers and restaurants not serve or sell any romaine lettuce harvested from certain counties in the Central Coastal growing regions of northern and central California. If you do not know where the romaine is from, do not eat it.

Some romaine lettuce products are now labeled with a harvest location by region. Consumers, restaurants, and retailers should check bags or boxes of romaine lettuce for a label indicating where the lettuce was harvested.
- - Do not buy, serve, sell, or eat romaine lettuce from the following California counties: Monterey, San Benito, and Santa Barbara.
  - If the romaine lettuce is not labeled with a harvest growing region and county, do not buy, serve, sell, or eat it.
  - The Public Health Agency of Canada has identified ill people infected with the same DNA fingerprint of E. coliO157:H7 bacteria in Canada.

120 sick: California wildfire evacuees face the misery of norovirus

Posted on November 30, 2018 by Douglas Powell

The European Cleaning Journal reports that more than 120 people forced to flee the deadly California wildfires are now battling the norovirus to add to their woes.

Sick evacuees are being housed in separate shelters and active monitoring of all shelter residents is being carried out. Meanwhile, separate washrooms are being allocated to the ill and protective equipment is being supplied to medical staff.

Outbreaks of the norovirus is not uncommon in situations where hundreds of people live in close quarters, says public information officer for Butte County Public Health Lisa Almaguer. The health department is working with the Red Cross plus state and federal partners to reduce the spread of the illness.

One evacuee claims to have seen someone “puking into a toilet”, adding that health officials were urging all evacuees to wash their hands repeatedly, avoid handshakes and to use hand sanitiser before eating.

103 sickened at Egyptian wedding

Posted on September 30, 2018 by Douglas Powell

Mariam Nabbout of Step Feed reports 103 wedding guests got food poisoning from meals they were served at a marriage ceremony. Before the arrests, the incident was reported to Al Zakazik Police Station, who then launched an investigation into the matter.

Samples of the meal were sent to a lab for testing

Police have since obtained samples of the food served at the wedding from leftovers stored at the groom’s house. The rice and meat dish that was served to the guests will now be tested for suspected contamination.

News of the incident is all over Twitter.

Young and fearless

Posted on August 3, 2018 by Douglas Powell

We were driving home from Florida – to escape the Canadian winter for a week – and back then we’d do the 24 hours with four kids in one shot in early 1996, and this song came on an American radio station.

I thought it was awesome.

Then I said, is that Sloan?

We didn’t have Google or phone tethering back then, so just argued, as you do.

This youthful enthusiasm encapsulates everything I miss about universities and why I hate the smothering bureaucracy they have become.

Things that are cool about Canada on this Canada Day (and it ain’t us)

Posted on July 1, 2018 by Douglas Powell

Wayne Gretzky

Neil Young

Dan Ackroyd

Phil Hartman

Robbie Robertson

Alexander Graham Bell

SCTV

Lorne Michaels

Kids in the Hall

Blue Rodeo

Leslie Neilson

Tragically Hip

Frederick Banting

Sloan

Massey-Ferguson

Manners

Hockey (the ice kind, and the girls kind)

And the warmth and understanding for an 18-year-old who killed two other guys in a 1981 car crash.

G turns to D: From one chord to another

Posted on June 14, 2016 by Douglas Powell

It was 20 years ago today that Sloan released their third album, One Chord to Another.

I first heard the song, Everything You’ve Done Wrong, driving home from Florida with the family and said, that sounds like Sloan. But it doesn’t. And I like it.

That album/CD would become a mainstay of my lab as I became a shiny, happy professor in Sept. 1996.

I’ve had lots of nostalgia in the past few weeks, hanging out with some long-time food safety buddies (the best way to fix food safety – close all the takeaways and fire all the vets), chilling in France, being quoted on food safety for Ramadan in a publication in Pakistan, and getting interviewed for a professoring job.

But nostalgia only goes so far.

I will always (attempt) to teach someone to skate.

I never turn down a request from students (but almost always from bureaucrats).

I love my wife and children.

Surveys still suck but this involves Chipotle, so it’s fun (for me)

Posted on February 28, 2016 by Douglas Powell

The Daily Meal asked the public what impact, if any, the six-foodborne-illness-outbreaks-in-six months has had on the number of times they dine at Chipotle.Dan Myers writes 450 people responded, and here are the results:

I’ve never eaten at Chipotle, and I’m not about to start now: 5.9%

I’ve cut back on dining there, but haven’t completely stopped: 6.8%

I held off during the outbreak, but will start eating there again now that it’s over: 13.8%

It didn’t affect my Chipotle addiction at all: 21.8%

I’ve stopped dining there completely: 46.5%

Nearly half of all respondents have sworn off Chipotle completely, while only a relatively small percentage is planning on returning at all! At the other end of the spectrum, however, more than 20 percent of respondents remained loyal throughout the outbreak, food poisoning risk be damned. These loyalists weren’t enough to fend off a major drop in sales, however.

Chipotle has spent millions of dollars trying to woo customers back, and will continue to spend more, and the chain is confident that this plan will work. But if nearly half of its customer base swears the chain off for good, can it ever really recover?

Sloan slams lawyers again

Posted on March 28, 2010 by Douglas Powell

Americans don’t get The Tragically Hip, but they seem to like the pop-oriented tunes of Nova Scotia’s Sloan when introduced – although no one down here has heard of them.

The 1996 Sloan song, Autobiography, often comes to mind when I read dribble from the blog, Defending Food Safety, written by some lawyers somewhere.

When you find you’re a conformer
Take pride and swallow whole
But if you’re trying to climb the ladder
Don’t let people walk over you
Because that’s just what they’ll do

The latest swallow had to do with an entry that begins,

“It’s no secret that virtually all foods are safe if handled properly. Indeed, according to FDA, most food-borne (sic) illnesses are avoidable if consumers follow proper food handling techniques. This is true whether consumers are shopping for products, transporting them home or preparing them in their kitchen."

I’m not sure what consumers have to do with contaminated peanut butter, pet food, pot pies, frozen pizzas, bagged spinach, carrot juice, lettuce, tomatoes, canned chili sauce, hot peppers and white pepper.

And I’m not sure where such lawyerly assertions about the source of foodborne illness come from – we’ve written a peer-reviewed article about where foodborne illness happens and argue it’s the wrong question.

Contaminated food for resale found during Michigan traffic stop

Posted on October 11, 2008 by Douglas Powell

Driving the long stretches of big sky country in Kansas, the mind can wander. I wonder what’s in that rental truck up there, the one I may pass in the next hour. Maybe it’s a load of fresh produce in a truck that was moving chickens the week before; maybe it’s a widely popular Canadian band tyring to break into the U.S. where they are unknown; maybe it’s a crystal meth lab.

The Grand Rapid Press reports that during a routine traffic stop at the eastbound Int. 96 weigh station near Ionia this week, motor carrier officers discovered a large quantity of perishable food being transported in a nonrefrigerated rental truck.

Inspectors discovered a case of Biofeel, a yogurt drink included in a nationwide import alert on dairy products originating from Asia because of the melamine contamination of baby food and milk products in some Asian countries.

Inspectors seized and destroyed more than 2,000 pounds of food products, including tofu, dairy, meat, seafood and noodles. They also seized 200 pounds of beef that had not passed USDA inspection.

And since that video of the Canadian band I like is no longer available on youtube, here’s a different version, circa 1999.

barfblog

safe food from farm to fork

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