Tag Archives: Smiling Hara

Shared-use food facilities can benefit from shared knowledge around food safety risks

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I guess I’m a foodie. Or a food nerd, or whatever Slate and The Atlantic call people who are into food. I dunno, I’m not into labels. I do about half of our grocery shopping and cook about half of our meals. I look to a few celebrity chef’s cook books/websites for recipe inspiration and share soup and pancake recipes with Doug11399793.

A lot of what got me into this can be blamed on the Food Network, Top Chef and the Internet. So can my love for pork belly.

The rise of food-related entertainment and the coolness associated with trying coffee made from beans that have been crapped out of a cat have resulted in more people getting into the food business. Niche bakeries, bagged salad makers and tempeh processors (run by foodies, or for foodies) continue to pop up as entrepreneurs are finding retailers who want to market local, specialized products.

Small food entrepreneurs are among the most passionate folks I’ve encountered – especially when it comes to creating community support for their products and sharing what they’ve learned with peers. That’s one of the reasons that shared-use or community kitchens are on the rise.

Shared-use kitchens are places where a bunch of fledgling food businesses can get together, learn from each other, use common equipment and space and take advantage of marketing together. There are around 30 of these sites in North Carolina alone – and likely hundreds across the U.S. supporting thousands of food businesses.

From Susan M. Novick of the New York Times,

At A Taste of Long Island, which opened in July, Courtney Thompson, 28, of Glen Cove, and her father, Jim Thompson, 59, of Massapequa Park, provide both an 800-square-foot commercial kitchen space for use by budding food entrepreneurs and a 400-square-foot retail specialty food shop in which they may sell their products. (And most do.) Around 20 clients are working in their kitchen making products that range from pasta sauce to vegan energy bars.

At the site on Main Street in Farmingdale, the Thompsons offer private-use kitchen rentals 24 hours a day, seven days a week in four-hour shifts that cost $110 each. In addition, Ms. Thompson and her father offer private business consultations for $100 an hour. Mr. Thompson previously owned a chain of video stores and a mobile book-fair business; Ms. Thompson has a bachelor’s degree in advertising and public relations from the New York Institute of Technology and a master’s degree in career and technical education fromSUNY-Oswego, where she performed most course work online, she said. “We show people the most cost-effective way to get their food business set up,” she said (but how do they help the businesses evaluate and manage food safety risks? Who does that technical work? – ben).

The year-round retail market features Long Island-made, preservative-free foods that include pickles, ravioli and baked goods, as well as fresh produce from local farms and greenhouses. The company’s commercial kitchen clients provide about a third of the products featured in the market.

In 2012, an outbreak of Salmonella Paratyphi B linked to Smiling Hara Tempeh of Asheville, NC demonstrated that illnesses associated with a member/client business, or the introduction of contamination can impact all who use a shared-use facility. Smiling Hara’s issue was with a supplier and a process that wasn’t validated to reduce pathogens but the outcome was devastating – 60+ illnesses, over 10 hospitalizations.And the shared-use facility, Blue Ridge Food Ventures, was shut for a few weeks for investigation, clean-up and sanitation. That meant that the other clients couldn’t make their products. Big bucks for everyone involved.

These facilities are a great idea for fostering business but food safety should be a focus into the peer-support network, a lot of it comes down to what the facility’s operator knows about risks, how to manage them.

Distributor of Salmonella-contaminated tempeh starter named; Tempeh Online website shut down

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The investigation into the source of Salmonella Paratyphi B linked to Smiling Hara Tempeh now focuses on a Maryland company who distributed a fungal starter culture used to make the product. According to the Citizen-Times, North Carolina Dept of Agriculture and Consumer Services identified the distributor as Tempeh Online of Rockville MD.

A culture starter for tempeh, a bean product popular in vegetarian cuisine, was found to have the same type of salmonella that caused a county outbreak beginning as early as February, lab work by the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services confirmed Thursday.

The Rockville, Md., company, Tempeh Online, sold the starter culture to Smiling Hara Tempeh, which made the meat substitute in Candler.
Federal regulators have been involved, and the Buncombe County Health Department on Thursday said it is continuing to investigate.

“The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is already involved in tracing the origin of the ingredient to identify (the) source of contamination as well as the potential for other salmonella outbreaks in the U.S.,” according to a release from the Health Department. FDA spokesman Curtis Allen could not be reached for comment Thursday afternoon. Allen has said the administration has a policy against naming companies behind outbreaks.

State Department of Agriculture spokesman Brian Long had identified the distributor as Tempeh Online but said he didn’t know the producer of the culture, which is made up of fungal spores. Long said his department was in touch with the FDA, trying to find out if other tempeh makers in the state are using the culture. “We are concerned whether other tempeh makers in North Carolina are using this culture, but we haven’t received any distribution records from FDA, which would first have to review the maker’s and distributor’s records,” he said.

Smiling Hara Managing Executive Chad Oliphant said he began buying cultures from Tempeh Online after his regular company ran out.

On April 26, after state agriculture inspectors found the possibility of salmonella in Smiling Hara’s tempeh, Oliphant said he contacted the company. “Once this thing came up, I contacted him and he wasn’t really forthcoming in the conversation,” he said.

The Citizen-Times reports that the distributor could not be contacted and a call to a number listed on their website (which has since been taken down – but can be seen here with some internet magic) was answered but "said the the number was wrong and hung up after learning he was speaking with a reporter." Doesn’t seem like Tempeh Online is employing a positive food safety culture – they would be forthcoming with risk-reduction steps, sympathetic towards those affected by the outbreak and would be infoming customers/recalling their products to avoid similar incidents.
 

Tempeh outbreak has lots of nasty consequences; illnesses are the biggest

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I’ve got a puking toddler and a nauseous wife (with diarrhea). The toddler’s symptoms showed up suddenly yesterday as he yacked at a play date (all over a friend’s back). The vomit continued off and on for the rest of the night. This morning Dani said she wasn’t feeling well and has been grabbing sleep in chunks while I attempt to manage the chaos.

It’s a bit funky around here (and not in a George Clinton way) with sheets and blankets in a constant cycle of wash/contaminate. I’m not optimistic about my chances in avoiding whatever this is. 

While I focus my daily activities on trying to reduce how many people get sick from foodborne illness, this stuff becomes more personal when my kid is hit with some bug. Who knows whether it’s noro (hopefully) or something more serious – I just hope it runs its course quickly. I feel helpless beyond trying to make him comfortable and smile, post-retch.

Maybe we picked the pathogen up through our dirty kids playing with other dirty kids at the gym childcare, or from my son’s preschool, or maybe it was foodborne. Who knows. But the consequences suck.

There’s a bunch of Salmonella Paratyphi B floating around Western North Carolina linked to Smiling Hara Tempeh (and secondary infections still coming out from folks in contact with or taking care of sick people) and the consequences of this outbreak also suck.

At least 60 cases of salmonellosis (including 8 hospitalizations) along with days of friends and family members caring for and worrying about the ill. I empathize with the helplessness that many of them likely feel. This outbreak, and others affect real people; these numbers aren’t just statistics.

My colleagues at the North Carolina Dept of Ag and Consumer Sciences have fingered the starter culture for the tempeh making process as the source in this outbreak (sounds like it was found in unopened bags).

The finding raises more questions – Who is the supplier? Who else did they sell the stuff to? Did Smiling Hara ask them to test for pathogens (growth of Salmonella and E.coli in tempeh have been documented in the literature). And how many folks who use this starter also make an unpasteurized tempeh product from it?

Beyond the primary players (Smiling Hara and the not-yet-named supplier) Blue Ridge Food Ventures, the shared use kitchen that housed the tempeh production, and also home to more than 20 other businesses, was shut down for a while. Environmental swabs were taken (all negative for Salmonella) and post-outbreak cleaning and sanitizing steps were followed. Big bucks for everyone involved.

Following the starter culture link, Chad Oliphant of Smiling Hara issued a statement saying:

“For us it means that we’ve identified the point of entry. It had nothing to do with our sanitation, protocol or Blue Ridge Food Ventures. It did not originate in Asheville and it was unknowingly passed along to us. So it’s a big relief to us. Now we can look at moving forward — it’s up to the FDA to trace this further.”

During a press conference on May 4th Oliphant was asked if there was anything Smiling Hara is going to do in the future to prevent illnesses like this. He said yes, but said they weren’t sure what changes would be.

For the sake of those customers who became ill (and the secondary infections) here’s some suggestions: demand more proof of microbiological safety from suppliers of starter cultures; let employees and customers know tempeh is a raw product and needs to be treated as such; and develop innovative ways to compel customers about risk-reduction steps.

None of this will likely be a big relief to those affected – getting over symptoms probably will be.
 

Message should be cook and don’t cross-contaminate tempeh; western North Carolina Salmonella Paratyphi B outbreak up to 37 cases

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There are now 37 people confirmed sick with Salmonella Paratyphi B linked to tempeh. Buncombe County Health Department in North Carolina has outlined three paths for infection: folks who have eaten tempeh (from Smiling Hara); others who have connections to someone ill with Salmonella Paratyphi b (person-to-person); and, a third group that is under further investigation to determine if there are other sources of contamination.
 
According to the update (and big props to the Buncombe Co health folks for releasing daily updates):
 
Confirmatory lab results are expected later this week that should confirm whether the tempeh is a match to the type of Salmonella associated with the current outbreak. At this time we cannot assure people that if they stay away from the tempeh that they won’t get sick. Health officials appreciate the precautionary measures taken by Smiling Hara, who recalled their tempeh product while awaiting confirmation that the tempeh is directly linked to this outbreak.
 
On the Smiling Hara Tempeh website, the product is marketed as a raw food and unpasteurized:
 
ONCE SMILING HARA TEMPEH IS THAWED YOU HAVE 5 DAYS TO COOK IT (for Listeria concerns? -ben).  For best taste and highest nutrtional value do not re-freeze. Our Tempeh is a raw food and is intended to be cooked.  In the heating process some of the probiotics and digestive enzymes will die, however, some will be retained and the mushroom qualities remain in full.  After eating our product regularly you will notice the cleansing effect it will have on your body, and how good you will feel after a “happy belly” meal including Smiling Hara Tempeh, vegetables, and grains.
 
It’s unclear from the available information whether illnesses have been linked to consuming this product at restaurants or in the home (or both). And it’s really unclear what folks were doing with this product once in the kitchen: did they know it was raw? Did they know there was any potential risk? Was the product labeled and did anyone follow the label directions?
 
Cross-contamination also could be a factor here – it’s likely that folks in the kitchen treat this stuff more like leeks and potatoes than raw chicken. Inadequately cleaned leeks and potatoes were thought to be responsible for an E. coli O157:H7 outbreak in the UK that sickened 250 people over months.