Tag Archives: Winnipeg

Fruit compote likely suspect as Winnipeg Folklorama E. coli outbreak fells 37

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Fruit compote may be the most likely culprit which sickened visitors to the Russian pavilion at Folklorama this past August, according to a report published by the Winnipeg Health Region.

The report details the probable cause of the verotoxigenic E-coli and its effect on 37 people who either attended the pavilion or who fell victim to secondary spread of the E. coli bacterium. Only three of the total 40 cases were not linked to the pavilion. In addition, the report offers a number of recommendations designed to reduce the risk of E-coli outbreaks in the future.

According to the "VTEC Outbreak 2010 Report," each person who was treated was interviewed to find the common connection with the pavilion. A study was then undertaken to determine the identity of the specific food item which was contaminated with E-coli, with 33 out of 34 people who attended the pavilion taking part.

Five patients were hospitalized with one case admitted to ICU and seventeen people visited an emergency room. There was one case of hemolytic uremic syndrome. VIP tour group attendees who had not been ill were asked to volunteer to be controls in the study.

The study looked at foods such as borscht, meatballs, a rice dish, and Russian juice (fruit compote). These four items were served together on the "Russian Combination platter." Analysis narrowed down the mostly likely choice to the compote over other sources, partially because the compote was served with both the vegetarian and non-vegetarian platters.

The most plausible source of contamination of the compote juice could have either been from cross-contamination from raw or undercooked ground beef – which is the most common source of E. coli in food products – which was also being handled at the same time in the kitchen or from E. coli contaminated apples used to make the compote.

Interviews with the kitchen staff revealed that most of the food was cooked in a pressure cooker. However, the compote juice was cooked in a separate pot. It was prepared by adding washed, unpeeled apples, blueberries and blackberries to boiling water. The fruit was bought fresh from a supermarket in Winnipeg.

Once boiled for five to 10 minutes, the compote juice was decanted into large 10-litre plastic pails. The boiled compote was then refrigerated until served cold. A new batch of compote was made every day. The only other food item that may have been cooked in the same pot was rice. The fruit was washed before boiling, kitchen staff wore gloves and practiced proper hand washing, and pots were washed and sanitized between use.

Food at folk pavilion suspected source of E. coli; 16 sick in Canada, kidney failure in child

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I don’t know what Folklorama is in Winnipeg (that’s in Canada) but food served at the Russian pavilion is the suspected source of an E. coli outbreak that has sickened 16 including one confirmed case at emergency rooms between Aug. 1 and Aug. 16.

The Winnipeg Free Press reports the parents of a two-year-old boy who suffered kidney failure want tougher food-handling rules imposed on the fair.

The boy’s mother said tests confirmed the boy had verotoxigenic E. coli and was in acute renal failure. The tot spent two nights in the pediatric intensive care unit and now has a central dialysis line in his neck and hip.

Executive director Ron Gauthier said nothing like this has ever happened before in Folklorama’s 41 years and he doesn’t know what potential changes the festival could make until the review is complete.
 

Rob Mancini: Use a thermometer, and use it right

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“A concierge is the Winnipeg equivalent of a geisha.”

I thought that line was so good on the television show, The Office, last night –when a few of the staff took a business trip to Winnipeg, Canada — that I wrote it down for future use.

So when telegenic public health inspector Robert Mancini of Winnipeg (former co-host of the television series Kitchen Crimes, right, pretty much as shown) e-mailed me about something he saw, I had my excuse to use the Winnipeg line.

Rob writes:

“Yesterday, upon walking into a restaurant kitchen to perform a routine inspection, the chef was actually using a metal stem thermometer to determine doneness of a hamburger patty. Naturally, this excited me until I asked the chef what temperature he was aiming for. He said 130?? F. Lovely.

“Just because a chef has a thermometer and uses it once in a while doesn’t really mean anything, they need to be aware of proper cooking temperatures. The chef, assuming that I was a health inspector (I guess all my fancy gadgets gave that away) used the thermometer to impress me and perhaps gain some extra bonus points.  It almost did as I scurried over, maybe too excitedly, but sadly left disappointed. Let’s get people talking about food safety.”

Delay in diagnosing listeriosis outbreak ‘inexcusable;’ inspectors union plays politics

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I’m in Kansas now, and while the InterTubes are sometimes broken, we’ve generally progressed beyond the stagecoach. UPS is a frequent guest at our mini-mansion on the hill.

I’ve taken to describing the delay in public advisories and test results in the Canadian listeria outbreak as being due to the time it takes to send samples by stagecoach to the national lab in Winnipeg. Unfortunately, a story in the K-W Record confirms this.

Dr. Don Low, medical director of Ontario’s provincial lab in Toronto, has finally joined me in calling the delay in test results when listeria emerged in mid-July, “inexcusable.”

"It is inexcusable to wait that number of days in order to get an answer back. The (Ontario) public health lab should be doing it. That has to change."

Meat samples travelled first from Toronto to a Health Canada lab in Ottawa, arriving on July 24, where they were tested for listeriosis.

It took until Aug. 5 — 12 days — for results to come back positive.

The samples were then shipped to Winnipeg’s national lab for "genetic fingerprinting" to determine whether the same strain of listeriosis in the meat matched blood samples from the victims.

Those test results, essential for tracking the source of the outbreak, took another 10 days to reach Toronto Public Health, says Dr. Vinita Dubey, the city’s associate medical officer of health.

When a salmonella outbreak hit the Southern U.S. only a month before Canada’s meat outbreak, testing was completed and public warnings were issued in a few days.

Meanwhile, Canadian politicians and bureaucrats were congratulating themselves on how well the system worked. What an embarrassment.

But don’t expect to hear any such criticism from the meat inspectors union. Instead, they launched a website and some public campaign during the Canadian election to hire 1,000 more meat inspectors who apparently will have listeria vision goggles which will allow them to better manage microbial risks. They have a bunch of other political points, all about securing jobs for inspectors, but not once did they mention, hey, people are dead and dying here. There’s too many sick people and we’re interested in having fewer sick people. Nope. Both the political and union leaders protect their own constituencies for political gain.

As Dr. Low says, it’s inexcusable.