Anyone sick? How was the Salmonella detected? More Australian mysteries.
Energetic Greens has recalled Organic Sprouts Salad (Broccoli, sunflower and radish) from local greengrocers and IGA stores in northern NSW (New South Wales)nand the 
Mullumbimby, Bangalow and Glorious Organic Farmers Markets due to Salmonella contamination. Food products contaminated with Salmonella may cause illness if consumed. Any consumers concerned about their health should seek medical advice.
President Obama escaped the White HouseCoupe Burger.menu with 5 young people and they hit up a very cool, neighborhood burger joint, according to TMZ, with almost no advanced notice. The 5 young people are all working on the Affordable Care Act.
At the time we posted this, they were all still at The Coupe in Columbia Heights.
We’re told Obama is enjoying a Coupe Burger — “Our classic with fried onion rings, sauteed mushrooms and sharp cheddar. And get this … we were told fries, but turns out the side is spinach.
There’s some fast-food workers strike in the U.S., so, according to The Braiser, Umami Burger decided to serve a ‘money’s no object’ burger.
The New York City outpost of LA’s burger chain Umami Burger announced on Facebook a new burger on the menu, called “M.N.O. (Money’s No 
Object).” It costs $75. Its Facebook description:
Imagine all that dry-aged Bryan Flannery wagyu beef, vintage wine port reduction, freshly shaved white Alba truffles and oh yeah, that Grade A Hudson Valley foie gras.
What I care about is the heaping helping of vomit-inducing sprouts on the burger.
Cancer sucks. So does foodborne illness, like for the 53 people, primarily women, who died in Germany in 2011 from eating raw sprouts.
A holistic wellness coach who says she felt “dirty” after eating a non-organic veggie burger at a Byron Bay cafe has apologized after an online “rant” about the food she was served.
‘Wellness warrior’ Jessica Ainscough vented on her blog after eating a burger she believed was 100 per cent organic, only to later discover it was 
‘not totally’ chemical-free.
The holistic health coach, who was in Byron Bay last week, follows a strict organic diet after overcoming cancer without using modern medicine.
In a June 18 post titled ‘BEWARE OF ORGANIC CAFES THAT LIE TO US’, Ms Ainscough said she was ‘pissed off’ that Manna Haven Cafe falsely claimed to be ‘vegan, raw and organic’.
The 26-year-old said she had initially been excited to find somewhere ‘safe’ for lunch and ordered the veggie Burger thinking it was organic.
The not-for-profit cafe’s menu describes its Big Burger as being ‘cancer fighting rather than cancer causing’ and vegan, low glycaemic index and a superfood.
“If a cafe claims to be organic and charge prices that reflect this, we should be able to trust that what they’re serving us is just that. Otherwise, it’s false advertising and on par with green washing.”
One of the cafe’s founders Anita Carvill saying she was shocked by the backlash.
“There was nowhere that said the burger was 100 per cent organic so I’m not sure how she got that impression,” Ms Carvill said.
“The options on the sign are just options, there is no false advertising.
Ms. Ainscough respoinded that, “The word ‘organic’ is the green light that tells us it’s safe to eat. It doesn’t matter if some of the ingredients are organic – if they’re mixed with conventional ingredients the whole dish is rendered poisonous to those of us who have to be so pedantic for the sake of our health and lives.”
Then avoid the sprouts. They tend to make people barf.
Brad Pitt toured Sydney Harbour and tried Vegemite, first time for the Missouri native.
I got to hang out at Darling Harbor in Sydney and chat with some Australian produce folks; some wanted to talk more, some wanted to throw me in the 
Harbour with concrete shoes.
Amy, my lovely and loving partner, quipped, “a typical Powell talk. Now get Sorenne ready and let’s go” or something like that.
(She’s actually a great counselor for my whines, anxieties and insecurities.)
I was speaking at the Australian Produce Marketing Association gabfest about food safety culture stuff.
I asked the delegates if they enjoyed the raw sprouts on their salad the night before, stated how many times I go to food safety things and get served raw sprouts (even in my own university) and suggested why that may not be a great idea.
(30 minutes after I was done talking, yet another sprout recall, this time Salmonella in Canada.)
I told them how we took the kid out to get some chips along Darling Harbor, and since they were served with aioli, I asked the server if the aioli was made with raw eggs (because Australia has a raw egg problem, most recently 140 sick in Canberra). She didn’t know but asked the chef, and the answer was yes.
I asked for tomato sauce instead (ketchup).
I complimented the Expo Center for having paper towels in the bathrooms, a rarity in Australia, but that the water flow was almost non-existent and two-
out-of-three sinks did not respond to the hand activation (vigorous water flow, rubbing and the friction of drying with paper towel are the key components of good handwashing).
I told them about a whole bunch of outbreaks, and one grower said I used scare tactics, and I said 33 people dying from eating rock melon (cantaloupe) wasn’t really a scare tactic, just what’s out there.
Like the 99 now sick from Hepatitis A in organic frozen berries.
I talked about food safety culture, tools like infosheets, repeated, rapid, reliable and relevant messages, about Frank and Chris and Ben and Amy and how they had all influenced my thoughts on the topic, but that to really seal the culture deal, growers and retailers had to brag about it.
I talked about the cantaloupe growers in California who have adopted some mandatory audit-inspection things, and all the problems and outbreaks that happen with places that have audits and inspections, and that big boys and girls take care of their own problems and get help when they need it.
I said how disappointed I was that as a consumer, there will be no label on these inspected cantaloupe, so as a consumer, I have no way of knowing whether a particular grower had even thought about microbiological food safety or was any good at it.
I tried to be triumphant and said, this isn’t a crisis, it’s an opportunity, for all you good Australian growers to get ahead of the curve, put in place the data collection and risk management efforts, the food safety culture, and go brag about it.
All the usual stuff.
And largely, the usual response.
I’m thankful for the opportunity to chat with growers and retailers – I always liked that – and thankful for the opportunity to clarify in my cobwebs a few things about what I should be doing.
But I’m no Brad Pitt.
I don’t want to be.
And get your finger out of the Vegemite. You don’t know where that finger’s been.
Following WalMart two years ago and numerous food service firms several years ago, The Kroger Co. – a supermarket chain that operates a huge number of stores, including the Dillons in Manhattan, Kansas — today announced its decision to no longer sell sprouts due to its potential food safety risk.
“After a thorough, science-based review, we have decided to voluntarily discontinue selling fresh sprouts,” said Payton Pruett, Kroger’s vice president of food safety. “Testing and sanitizing by the growers and safe food handling by the consumer are the critical 
steps to protect against foodborne illness. Sprouts present a unique challenge because pathogens may reside inside of the seeds where they cannot be reached by the currently available processing interventions. Out of an abundance of caution, the Kroger Family of Stores will no longer sell fresh sprouts or procure other foods that are produced on the same equipment as sprouts.”
Pruett added that the company is open to revisiting this policy when new technologies and practices show that farmers can consistently produce sprout seeds that do not internalize pathogens, and when sprout processing environments can be enhanced for safety and cleanliness.
Deliveries of sprouts into Kroger distribution centers and stores will be discontinued on October 22, 2012.
Kroger employs more than 339,000 associates who serve customers in 2,425 supermarkets and multi-department stores in 31 states under two dozen local banner names including Kroger, City Market, Dillons, Jay C, Food 4 Less, Fred Meyer, Fry’s, King Soopers, QFC, Ralphs and Smith’s.
After the German E. coli O104 outbreak that killed 53 people last year and sickened over 4,000, along with the ridiculous public statements and blatant disregard for public safety taken by sandwich artist Jimmy John’s in the U.S., we reviewed the sprout-related literature and concluded:
• raw sprouts are a well-documented source of foodborne illness;
• risk communication about raw sprouts has been inconsistent; and,
• continued outbreaks question effectiveness of risk management strategies and producer compliance.
We document at least 55 sprout-associated outbreaks occurring worldwide affecting a total of 15,233 people since 1988. A comprehensive table of sprout-related outbreaks can be found at http://bites.ksu.edu/sprouts-associated-outbreaks.
Erdozain, M.S., Allen, K.J., Morley, K.A. and Powell, D.A. 2012. Failures in sprouts-related risk communication. Food Control. 10.1016/j.foodcont.2012.08.022
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0956713512004707?v=s5
Abstract
Nutritional and perceived health benefits have contributed to the increasing popularity of raw sprouted seed products. In the past two decades, sprouted seeds have been a 
recurring food safety concern, with at least 55 documented foodborne outbreaks affecting more than 15,000 people. A compilation of selected publications was used to yield an analysis of the evolving safety and risk communication related to raw sprouts, including microbiological safety, efforts to improve production practices, and effectiveness of communication prior to, during, and after sprout-related outbreaks. Scientific investigation and media coverage of sprout-related outbreaks has led to improved production guidelines and public health enforcement actions, yet continued outbreaks call into question the effectiveness of risk management strategies and producer compliance. Raw sprouts remain a high-risk product and avoidance or thorough cooking are the only ways that consumers can reduce risk; even thorough cooking messages fail to acknowledge the risk of cross-contamination. Risk communication messages have been inconsistent over time with Canadian and U.S. governments finally aligning their messages in the past five years, telling consumers to avoid sprouts. Yet consumer and industry awareness of risk remains low. To minimize health risks linked to the consumption of sprout products, local and national public health agencies, restaurants, retailers and producers need validated, consistent and repeated risk messaging through a variety of sources.
Maybe I should start bringing my own food, like Hannibal Lector, when flying out of Brisbane.
Brisbane City Council and Queensland Health officers closed the airport-based Alpha 
Flight Catering on Thursday after the company’s own quality assurance processes picked up traces of listeria on equipment.
At least they found the contamination, acted on it, and made it publicly known.
Alpha Flight Catering provides food to both Virgin and Emirates airlines.
I got to fly business class on Emirates earlier this year, which happens about once every 10 years. Sprouts on the shrimp. They need some food safety people.
I have apparently evolved into a 78-year-old-3-pack-a-day blues singer, or Kathleen Turner, based on the croaks coming out of me at 3 a.m. as I chatted with 
foodie, radio host and barfblog.com groupie Katy Keiffer, of Heritage Radio in New York.
It was early.
We talked about sprouts, fresh produce, cross-contamination and alternatives to faith-based food safety.
The 30-minute podcast is available at:
VietNamNews reported that up to 40 per cent of tested bean sprout samples sold in Ha Noi’s markets are infected with harmful bacteria, including E. coli, prompting national food safety officials to call for tightened controls on raw vegetables.
Head of the Plant Protection Department Nguyen Xuan Hong warned consumers to eat well-cooked sprouts instead of raw ones.
Meanwhile Jelle Kuijper, interim manager of the recently formed European Sprouted Seeds Association, said new EU rules, which may take effect in 2013, will only work if 
everyone, from top to bottom, participates.
I’ll stick with our view.
Erdozain, M.S., Allen, K.J., Morley, K.A. and Powell, D.A. 2012. Failures in sprouts-related risk communication. Food Control. 10.1016/j.foodcont.2012.08.022
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0956713512004707?v=s5
Abstract
Nutritional and perceived health benefits have contributed to the increasing popularity of raw sprouted seed products. In the past two decades, sprouted seeds have been a recurring food safety concern, with at least 55 documented foodborne outbreaks affecting more than 15,000 people. A compilation of selected publications was used to yield an analysis of the evolving safety and risk communication related to raw sprouts, including microbiological safety, efforts to improve production practices, and effectiveness of communication prior to, during, and after sprout-related outbreaks. Scientific investigation and media coverage of sprout-related outbreaks has led to improved production guidelines and public health enforcement actions, yet continued outbreaks call into question the effectiveness of risk management strategies and producer compliance. Raw sprouts remain a high-risk product and avoidance or thorough cooking are the only ways that consumers can reduce risk; even thorough cooking messages fail to acknowledge the risk of cross-contamination. Risk communication messages have been inconsistent over time with Canadian and U.S. governments finally aligning their messages in the past five years, telling consumers to avoid sprouts. Yet consumer and industry awareness of risk remains low. To minimize health risks linked to the consumption of sprout products, local and national public health agencies, restaurants, retailers and producers need validated, consistent and repeated risk messaging through a variety of sources.
In an Aug. 2/12 warning letter made public last week,, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration told Henry’s Farm In. of Woodford, VA that, “We inspected your soybean sprout and mung-bean sprout manufacturing facility on April 30, May 1-4, and 10, 2012. This inspection was conducted in response to a sample of your of soy bean sprouts collected by the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services (VDACS) and 
that yielded Listeria monocytogenes. In this letter we summarize violations we observed and set forth steps you may take to demonstrate your correction.
During the inspection, FDA collected samples of finished JJBS soybean sprout, P-Natto soybean sprout, and mung-bean sprout as well as environmental samples from your facility and your well water. We notified you with a letter dated June 5, 2012 that our laboratory analysis of sample 752567, which consisted of ten approximately 100-gram sub-samples of JJBS soy bean sprout product, yielded Listeria monocytogenes. We acknowledge your cooperation in recalling your soybean sprouts from the marketplace, ceasing of all production activities, and voluntarily disposing of all in-process products.
Our investigators also documented numerous insanitary conditions and practices that may have contributed directly or indirectly to contamination of your sprouts with pathogens and filth. Accordingly, the soybean sprouts and mung-bean sprouts grown in your facility are adulterated within the meaning of Section 402(a)(4) of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (the Act) [21 U.S.C. § 342(a)(4)] because they have been prepared, packed, or held under insanitary conditions whereby they may have been contaminated with filth or rendered injurious to health.