Tag Archives: University Of Guelph

Surprise: Research finds Canadians consumed fewer deli-meats after listeria killed 20

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This is why I stopped being interested in survey research, oh, about 15 years ago.

The University of Guelph today announced that a new survey had found a majority of Canadians have changed their buying and consumption behaviour following the recall associated with listeria in ready-to-eat meats. If people said so, it must be true.

"The listeriosis outbreak was not only associated with the death of 20 people and the illness of many others, but it also contributed to economic loss in the food industry," said Prof. John Cranfield of the Department of Food, Agricultural and Resource Economics.

Uh, yup.

"Before the food recall, consumers did not consider the potential risks of ready-to-eat meats to be significant," Cranfield said.

That’s because no one, even listeria guru Michael McCain, said anything about the risks.

So, with a lot of death, illness and massive media coverage, consumers became more aware.

The press release also says, in something that is tragically not interesting, that,

“Interestingly, although overall confidence in food safety in Canada remains high, consumers’ trust in food-chain stakeholders to protect them from listeria is only moderate, the researchers found. Farmers were judged to have the greatest ability to ensure the safety of food, whereas restaurants, grocery stores and the food-service sector were deemed to have the least ability.”

What farmers have to do with listeria in deli-meats is beyond me; maybe a university puckering a little too tightly to a constituency?

The press release gushes that,

“The survey is the second to be produced as part of the Guelph Food Panel, the first large-scale panel of consumers dedicated to food research. Developed by Henson, Cranfield and post-doctoral researcher Oliver Masakure, it allows researchers to accurately track changes in Canadians’ eating habits and measure consumer responses to issues such as food scares.”

20 dead isn’t a food scare. It’s a food screw-up.

Mixed messages from Guelph during E. coli O157:H7 outbreak

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There are now seven confirmed cases of E. coli O157:H7, all University of Guelph students, and 43 probable cases, as part of a larger Ontario outbreak believed to involve romaine lettuce.

Cameron Clark, health protection program manager with Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph Public Health said the outbreak served “as a reminder for anyone who ate at the campus from that date on, or has experienced symptoms of extreme diarrhea, stomach cramps, nausea and vomiting to contact public health.”

I thought it would be a reminder for food service to check their suppliers of lettuce and ask what is being done to ensure the microbial safety of fresh produce.

Clark also said it’s important to continually remind people to wash their hands to prevent human-to-human spread and to thoroughly wash fruits and vegetables.

Does continual reminding work? Or is it nagging? Is washing the lettuce in a Pita Pit wrap — believed to be the Guelph source — an effective consumer strategy?

E. coli O157:H7 hits Guelph, again

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Three months after University of Guelph spokesthingy Chuck Cunningham said, "It seemed to me like it was business as usual," after an E. coli O157:H7 outbreak struck 20 people, the same bug has struck again.

The Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph Public Health unit says that four confirmed cases of E. coli O157 are all U of G students. To date, the only commonality among the four students is that they ate at the Pita Pit in the University Centre, so as a precaution, the University is voluntarily closing the UC Pita Pit until Public Health completes its investigation.

In Aug., Cunningham said, "It’s a surprise and a shock to us that this has happened.”

So what is it now?

The great food safety school seems to have a lot of poop in their food.

In Aug., a  press release from the University said,

“Although health officials said it’s unlikely that the source of the outbreak will ever be identified, they believe it’s an isolated incident.”

How do they know it’s an isolated incident if the source of the outbreak is never identified?

For a self-proclaimed food safety school, Guelph really sorta sucks. Sorry for the sick kids.
 

Guess Who? Guelph food safety needs more than press releases

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I got a haircut yesterday.

There was some XM Satellite classic rock station on in the background, so I got to expound yet again about the Journey effect, Fargo Rock City and bad radio music in the Midwest, and Canadian bands who had made it big (a song by The Guess Who came on; I spoke with Burton Cummings on an airplane a few years ago, and was able to quip about Randy Bachman’s stomach surgery as he was sitting in with the band on Letterman the other night; Bachman and Cummings never registered the band’s name, The Guess Who, so some posers tour under that name, sorta like the Food Safety Network at the University of Guelph cause I didn’t bother to register the name).

I had just posted a blog about the E. coli O157 outbreak at the University of Guelph, and was all chatty about that, so I said to my hair person, Virginia, if you made 6-figures running some aspect of a university, and 20 people got sick from eating in one of your food service outlets, what would you say?

"I’d say I was sorry."

Me too.

“The University regrets any inconvenience or concerns this situation may have caused.”

The U of G community was shaken up by the serious outbreak of E. coli on campus, said Chuck Cunningham, U of G’s director of communication and public affairs.

"It’s a surprise and a shock to us that this has happened," he said.

Steps have been taken to ensure that food operations on campus are safe, Cunningham said, adding that he bought a salad from a university cafeteria for lunch yesterday.

"It seemed to me like it was business as usual," he said.

I’d start by looking at suppliers, follow through to employee handling, handwashing policies  and whether sick employees are pressured to work. This ain’t rocket surgery.

A press release from the University said yesterday that,

“Although health officials said it’s unlikely that the source of the outbreak will ever be identified, they believe it’s an isolated incident.”

How do they know it’s an isolated incident if the source of the outbreak is never identified?

The press release also states that information about E. coli is available through the Ontario Ministry of Health.

Doesn’t the University of Guelph have some food safety group that bills itself as a “Reliable Information Source” and runs a phone line to answer food safety questions?  I must be having a Guess Who moment again.

Love that Canadian flag.

Canadian bureaucrats still aren’t that into me

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I keep hundreds of bureaucrats occupied.

They just aren’t that into me.

Which is fine.

I know this because I used to play hockey with a bunch of them. Also, I see how many are subscribed to the listservs. And I get a lot of requests, and messages sent in error about some particular e-mail, or hooking up with a co-worker after work.

Seriously, run a listserv that goes to a few hundred thousand people, and someone’s going to hit reply to the wrong address now and then; there’s some bored bureaucrats out there.

This whole Food Safety Network thing started out of my basement back in 1993. Some folks from Health Canada, which evolved into the Public Health Agency of Canada, were there from the beginning, and we wrote a paper about early listserv experiences.

A couple of years ago, Health Canada decided to stop offering any financial support – in this case, a few grand a year. The reason: I may have made a quip about a Health Canada minister or policy and someone got huffy.

Of course, no one from Health Canada or PHAC unsubscribed from the listservs. They just complained that Doug was a “loose canon.”

Yes, science and democracy is all about sitting quietly and listening to propaganda. A similar dig at the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, rumor has it, led the University of Guelph and its former vp research to cut off any contact with me. Oh, and confiscate all the money that was left. It’s pathetic that a bunch of Guelph people still walk around and proclaim, with straight faces, their excellence in food safety risk analysis, especially the communication part; on the dime that I raised.

Then I got this request last Thursday from PHAC in Guelph:

“I’ve been given the task to review keywords to search for media articles connected to our program areas (foodborne, environment and zoonotic diseases) from our agencies (sic) global media monitoring program – Global Public Health Intelligence Network.   As many of our staff find the daily FSNET emails useful, I was wondering if you could share with us your process and the keywords you use to search media headlines to ensure you are inclusive of all relevant sources for your listserv.   Please let me know if this request is feasible.”

Set up Google alerts. Use keywords like food safety and vomit. Anything else I can help you with?

University of Guelph: ‘We take pride in our food services and food safety’ and our ability to infect people with E. coli

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At least four people have been stricken with E. coli at the University of Guelph – two food handlers, one university faculty, and one conference attendee.

So says the health unit, in a local newspaper report. The university didn’t actually say anything, other than to issue a Kremlinesque request to talk to people who’ve been barfing.

“In the interests of the health of our community, the University is posting this bulletin. Representatives of Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph Public Health are investigating a possible E. coli outbreak.

“Symptoms of E. coli include diarrhea, stomach cramps, nausea and/or vomiting. If you or a family member recently had, or currently has any of those symptoms, please call Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph Public Health at 1-877-844-8653. For more information about E. coli go to www.wdghu.org”

A university spokesthingy did tell the paper, "We take pride in our food services and food safety."

Risk communication 101: Better to come clean up front than let the details slowly – or explosively – shit out.

It’s too hot for hell to have frozen over but …

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Seven years after a newspaper series focused attention on restaurant inspection in Toronto, the local paper in the sleepy borough of Guelph, Ontario, 40 miles down the road, has seen fit to run a story about four local restaurants getting fined for food safety infractions.

It’s the first local coverage I can recall. And I lived there a long time.

In 2004 I had a student call the local health unit and ask for inspection information about a few Guelph restaurants. She was told to file a written request with the Board of Health and await a response in the mail; 4-6 weeks.

So while seemingly every jurisdiction in Canada and the U.S. was figuring out the best way to make restaurant inspection information public and meaningful — even Jessica Simpson, exactly as pictured, left,  gets it — the city of Guelph, Canada’s self-proclaimed food safety center, did what it does best — be a bureaucrat.