Tag Archives: unpasteurized

Finland to OK raw milk sales?

Posted on by
1

Sales of raw milk have been strictly regulated in Finland due to the risk of bacterial infections, but now the Ministry of Agriculture is preparing an ordinance based on the belief that no restrictions should be placed on milk sales, as long as producers and consumers carefully follow the directives handed down by authorities.

In June, several people fell ill after drinking raw milk bought directly from a farm in south-western Finland. They included a four-year-old who was hospitalized in intensive care.

Raw milk recalled for E. coli O157:H7 in New York

Posted on by
Reply

New York State Agriculture Commissioner Darrel J. Aubertine today warned consumers in and around Chautauqua County to not consume unpasteurized raw farm milk from Castle Farms due to possible E. coli O157:H7 contamination.

Castle Farms, located at 1051 Route 249 in Irving, New York, holds a Department permit to legally sell raw milk at the farm. Samples of the milk are routinely tested by the New York State Food Laboratory to determine if the raw milk is free of pathogenic bacteria.

A routine sample of the milk was taken on June 4, 2012 by an inspector from the Department’s Division of Milk Control and Dairy Services and subsequently tested and discovered to be contaminated with E. coli O157:H7. On June 7, 2012, the producer was notified of a preliminary positive test result and who volunteered to suspend raw milk sales until the sample results were confirmed.

Test results were confirmed on June 12, 2012 and the producer is now prohibited from selling raw milk until subsequent sampling indicates that the product is free of harmful pathogens.

To date, no illnesses are known by the Department to be associated with product from Castle Farms.

Fact fudging: what are risks associated with raw milk cheese?

Posted on by
1

The American Cheese Society has a, uh, cheese problem.

While regulators and retailers reassess the safety of raw milk cheese, ACS declared last week raw milk cheese ”when produced and sold under current FDA guidelines, can be consumed without unnecessary risk.”

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration began a comprehensive review of the 60-day aging rule in 2009. Officials said the review was done and was awaiting approval before release.

That was over a year ago.

The debate focuses on a federal rule that requires cheese made from raw milk to be aged for 60 days before it is deemed safe to eat. Aging allows the chemicals in cheese, acids and salt, time to destroy harmful bacteria. ?Scientists have found, however, that 60 days of aging is an overly simplistic guideline, in part because there are so many types of cheese and different ones may require different safeguards.

In one 2010 outbreak, 38 people in five states became sick from raw milk gouda made by Bravo Farms of Traver, Calif., and sold through Costco. In another outbreak, eight people in four states were sickened by bacteria traced to soft cheeses made by Sally Jackson, a pioneering cheesemaker in Oroville, Wash.

In Ms. Jackson’s case, investigators documented unsanitary conditions that could have played a role in making the cheese unsafe. And in the Bravo case, investigators charged the company with packaging cheese for sale before the required 60-day aging was complete.

The American Cheese Society (ACS) endorses current FDA raw milk cheese guidelines for manufacturers, including:

• producing cheese in licensed facilities that are routinely inspected on the local, regional, and federal level;
• producing cheese under the oversight of licensed dairy handlers; and,
• aging cheese for a minimum of 60 days before it is sold.

The majority (approximately two-thirds) of ACS members voluntarily exceed these standards by establishing and adhering to a Hazard Analysis & Critical Control Points (HACCP) plan, and following these additional ACS-recommended best practices:

• taking part in ongoing food safety education;
• regularly conducting product and environment testing;
• maintaining accurate and up-to-date records;
• seeking third party certification;
• building relationships with local, regional, and federal inspectors; and,
• adhering to all state and federal regulations and industry standards.

Shouldn’t any producer of potential risky food comply with food safety basics?

6 sick with campylobacter linked to raw milk from Pa. dairy store

Posted on by
2

Six people were infected with campylobacter linked to raw milk from the Family Cow dairy store in Chambersburg, Pa., including three in Maryland, the state Department of Health and Mental Hygiene said Friday.

The implicated milk comes in plastic gallon, half gallon and pint containers and is sold directly to consumers on the farm and at drop off points and retail stores in Pennsylvania. It’s illegal to sell unpasteurized milk in Maryland, though some consumers have reported getting it anyway at pre-determined drop off points.

In yet another entry into the we’ve-been-doing-it-this-way-all-our-lives-and-no-one-has-gotten-sick sweepstakes, Edwin Shank, a fourth generation owner of the Family Cow farm told the Baltimore Sun he’s never heard of a customer becoming sick from his milk, and no one on the farm has been sickened; through five generations his family has been drinking raw milk from their cows "for 100 years."

“We’re disappointed that this is being made to look definite when, one, the testing hasn’t been completed, and two, the test they did do came from an open jug of milk in one family’s refrigerator.”

Shank said that he has a good relationship with the health department and wants customers to know that he disinfects his pipes after every milking and sends samples of milk for testing six times as often as is legally required. He’s been selling organic milk for six years and added raw milk three years ago because of strong demand.

A table of raw milk related outbreaks is available at http://bites.ksu.edu/rawmilk.

Maybe it could be served piping hot; UK raw milk dispenser ‘contravenes food hygiene regulations’

Posted on by
Reply

A major London department store is giving consumers the chance to buy unpasteurised milk, despite the government food watchdog’s claim that the move is illegal on public health grounds.

Raw milk, is banned from mainstream sale in England, Scotland and Wales. Its distribution is so tightly regulated that supermarkets and mainstream retailers are not allowed to stock it, although it can be sold directly by producers.

But the growing number of raw milk devotees are now able to buy it fresh from a vending machine in Selfridges food hall in London’s west end.

The Food Standards Agency (FSA) said the move was in contravention of food hygiene regulations designed to protect consumer health, and released a statement saying "discussions are still ongoing."

Raw milk dispensers are hugely popular on the continent, allowing customers to top up their own glass bottles. But the FSA says it may contain bacteria "such as salmonella and E coli that can cause illness."

It said it had informed Westminster City Council, which deals with the day-to-day enforcement of food safety and public health protection in its area, of the position and that it believed this had been passed on to Selfridges.

Selfridges said Westminster City Council knew it was selling the milk and claimed it had regulatory approval because the sales will be handled by a concession run by Longleys Farm, an established dairy farm.

The bottles carry a health warning demanded by the FSA that reads: "This organically produced raw milk has not been heat treated and may therefore contain organisms harmful to health."

Steve Hook of Longleys Farm, based in Hailsham, East Sussex, said he had been selling raw milk since 2007. "We pay fantastic attention to hygiene to ensure the strict bacteria tests conducted on the milk by the FSA are easily met."

Both Hook and Selfridges said they were not aware that they were doing anything wrong, and would keep selling the milk until they were officially ordered not to.

2 reports of campylobacter may be related to raw milk from NY farm

Posted on by
1

Consumers in Tompkins County, New York and surrounding areas not to consume unpasteurized raw milk produced at Jerry Dell Farm located at 39 Fall Creek Rd (RT 366) in Freeville, due to possible contamination with campylobacter.

The state Health Department received 2 reports of Campylobacter enteritis, from people who have consumed raw unpasteurized milk purchased from Jerry Dell Farm. Both patients have recovered.

Anyone who purchased milk from Jerry Dell Farm and still has the product should discard it immediately. Individuals experiencing gastrointestinal illness symptoms after consuming milk purchased from Jerry Dell Farm should contact their health care provider.

The farm has voluntarily suspended milk sales. The farm was first notified of the reported illnesses on September 22.

Confirmatory tests completed today at the New York State Food Laboratory found that the raw unpasteurized milk produced at Jerry Dell Farm, and collected on September 22, contained Campylobacter. This producer will be prohibited from selling raw milk until subsequent sampling indicates that the product is free of pathogens.

Salmonella outbreak in Ireland linked to raw milk

Posted on by
Reply

A 30-year-old man and his three-year-old niece were diagnosed with salmonella on a family farm in Kildare last year, the Health Protection Surveillance Centre has revealed in a report.

They both drank unpasteurised — or raw — milk produced by cows on the farm before contracting salmonella.

The warning comes as new legislation is to be introduced in Ireland later this year banning the sale of unpasteurised milk.

People get sick; there’s a reason for HACCP plans

Posted on by
Reply

This person sounds like a bad food safety manager.

New York City’s Village Voice ran a piece about the paperwork being required by health types in the form of HACCP plans (Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point).

“… the plans require chefs to map out a convoluted strategy for avoiding foodborne pathogens in potentially dangerous cooking techniques…. Sous vide came under scrutiny and was even banned temporarily in 2006 while the health department decided how to regulate the newfangled method. … Now restaurants desiring to use the sous vide method must have an approved HACCP plan to do so.”

Elizabeth Meltz, director of food safety and sustainability for the Batali Bastianich group, which includes Babbo, Del Posto, and food emporium Eataly, was quoted as saying,

"There was one E. coli outburst from apple cider, and now there’s a HACCP plan required to make it for mass consumption, too."

Maybe the E. coli outburst Meltz was referring to was in Oct. 1996, when 16-month-old Anna Gimmestad of Denver drank Smoothie juice manufactured by Odwalla Inc. of Half Moon Bay, Calif. She died several weeks later; 64 others became ill in several western U.S. states and British Columbia after drinking the same juices, which contained unpasteurized apple cider –and E. coli O157:H7. Investigators believe that some of the apples used to make the cider may have been insufficiently washed after falling to the ground and coming into contact with deer feces.

Or maybe the outburst was in Maryland last year when seven people got sick drinking unpasteurized cider; three were hospitalized.

Maybe the outburst was in Iowa, when eight were stricken with E. coli o157:H7 after drinking unpasteurized cider.

Maybe it was one of the 31 other outbreaks of illness we’ve document linked to unpasteurized juices – primarily apple cider. The complete table with body count is available at
http://bites.ksu.edu/fresh-juice-outbreaks.
 

Blessed are the cheesemakers: feds arrest cheese that sickened 38

Posted on by
Reply

An outbreak of E. coli O157:H7 first became public in Nov. 2010, and would eventually sicken at least 38 people in several U.S. states. Investigators believe the source was Dutch Style Gouda Cheese produced by Bravo Farms of Traver, California from raw milk and sold primarily at Costco and Whole Foods Market stores.

The artisan cheese maker temporarily shut down.

Bravo was forced to quarantined stockpiles of cheese, and — no real surprise – of the 24 unpasteurized cheese samples investigators took, 15 tested positive for listeria and one tested positive for E. coli O157:H7.

According to the L.A. Times today, state and federal investigators found at least 50 live flies flitting around a processing area at Bravo. They also reported that a rabbit hopped out of a storage room, and a dairy worker scratched his chin then handled milled cheese with his bare hands.

On Thursday, U.S. marshals and Food and Drug Administration agents arrived at the cheesemaker and seized the Gouda, along with piles of Edam and blocks of white cheddar. All told, investigators have locked up more than 80,000 pounds of cheese. Prosecutors say it is all headed for the garbage disposal.

Worried that the cheese would somehow reach the public, and acting to shift the case from state to federal jurisdiction, the Justice Department used a civil legal mechanism to arrest a product — food — and essentially impound it.

Prosecutors filed a civil complaint in federal court in Sacramento last week that lists the cheese — not the farmers who made it — as defendants.

John Sheehan, director of the FDA’s dairy division, said the inspections came from concerns "about raw-milk cheese made under artisanal conditions" and a flurry of nine artisan cheese recalls last year. As of October, the FDA had inspected 102 facilities, some big, some small. Of the 147 samples taken, 32 tested positive for listeria. The inspections continue.

Bravo, which is cooperating with federal officials, has been cleared to make cheese again. It’s using pasteurized milk.

Let’s do the time warp again: Baugher’s to pasteurize cider after E. coli outbreak

Posted on by
Reply

In October, 1996, 16-month-old Anna Gimmestad of Denver drank Smoothie juice manufactured by Odwalla Inc. of Half Moon Bay, Calif. She died several weeks later; 64 others became ill in several western U.S. states and British Columbia after drinking the same juices, which contained unpasteurized apple cider –and E. coli O157:H7. Investigators believe that some of the apples used to make the cider may have been insufficiently washed after falling to the ground and coming into contact with deer feces.

In the fall of 1998, I accompanied one of my four daughters on a kindergarten trip to the farm. After petting the animals and touring the crops –I questioned the fresh manure on the strawberries –we were assured that all the food produced was natural. We then returned for unpasteurized apple cider. The host served the cider in a coffee urn, heated, so my concern about it being unpasteurized was abated. I asked: "Did you serve the cider heated because you heard about other outbreaks and were concerned about liability?" She responded, "No. The stuff starts to smell when it’s a few weeks old and heating removes the smell."

Yesterday, Baugher’s Orchard and Farm in Westminster, Maryland, announced to local fanfare – and some customer distress — that it will change the way it produces apple cider in the future after E. coli infections were linked to the product this fall.

Dr. David Blythe, medical epidemiologist from the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, said environmental and product testing of the apple cider was conducted in November and December in an attempt to confirm a link between seven cases of a specific strain of E. coli infections that began appearing in mid-October that was believed to be associated with the consumption of Baugher’s unpasteurized apple cider.

Three of the seven cases resulted in hospitalization. Five of the seven cases were children younger than 18. All afflicted people recovered and those hospitalized were discharged, Frances Phillips, Deputy Secretary for Public Health from the DHMH said.

Blythe said the E. coli strain was not found in any of the tested samples, but that they were not able to test from the batch of apple cider that is suspected of causing the sickness.

Though they cannot make any conclusions from the testing, Blythe said the information collected, like interviews from those affected by the E. coli strain, still points to the apple cider as what made people sick.

Dwight Baugher, farm manager, said they are not currently making any apple cider. The company typically makes cider from about mid-September through mid-March.

"There’s no way of knowing if we had anything to do with it," he said.

Though they have not found out the source of the E. coli strain, they are working on changing the apple cider production process to include pasteurization.