Monthly Archives: February 2017

Food Safety News

When you put one of the toughest bugs on the planet in a match-up with some of the most delicate fresh foods, it doesn’t take a Vegas mathematician to figure the odds are against the food making it through a sterilization process undamaged.

Among the most delicate and most prone to carry foodborne illnesses are leafy greens. Among the most difficult to kill bugs is norovirus. But a microbiologist at the University of Minnesota-St. Paul is working on a solution.

As it turns out, norovirus, aka the stomach bug or the cruise ship blues, can’t stand up to cold plasma treatment and researcher Hamada Aboubakr has shown that at least one leafy green can survive the sterilization process with no apparent damage.

Outbreak News Today

Listeria, a common food-borne bacterium, may pose a greater risk of miscarriage in the early stages of pregnancy than appreciated, according to researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Veterinary Medicine studying how pathogens affect fetal development and change the outcome of pregnancy.

“For many years, listeria has been associated with adverse outcomes in pregnancy, but particularly at the end of pregnancy,” says Ted Golos, a UW-Madison reproductive physiologist and professor of comparative biosciences and obstetrics and gynecology. “What wasn’t known with much clarity before this study is that it appears it’s a severe risk factor in early pregnancy.”

CFS

<!–

–>

FSAI

Message:

As a precautionary measure, SuperValu is recalling the above batches of Wicklow Blue, due to the possible presence of Listeria monocytogenes. SuperValu is issuing point of sale recall notices requesting customers who have bought the implicated batch not to consume it.

Japan Today

TOKYO —

More than 950 staff members and students at seven elementary schools in Tachikawa, Tokyo, suffered food poisoning on Friday, the Tachikawa Board of Education and local health officials said.

According to the board, 954 students and staff reported symptoms such as vomiting and diarrhea on Friday evening and Saturday afternoon, Fuji TV reported. Five were hospitalized.

Following a meeting on Sunday afternoon, headmasters decided to close four of those elementary schools on Monday.

Health officials said all the students and staff got sick after eating lunches prepared by a supply center of school meals that prepared 3,000 lunches on Thursday.

FSA

Action taken by company

Morrisons is recalling the above product. Point of sale notices will be displayed in all stores that are selling this product. These notices explain to customers why the products are being recalled and tell them what to do if they have bought the product. Please see the attached notice.

Product recall notice: Morrisons Peppered Beef Slices(115.38 KB)

Science Alert 

When Spanish forces arrived in Mexico in 1519, the native population was estimated to be around 25 million. A century later, there were only around 1 million left, following several devastating outbreaks of disease brought in from overseas.

Despite plenty of speculation, the diseases that contributed to the collapse of Aztec society remain unconfirmed. But now scientists have presented the first DNA evidence of a bacterial species from one of the worst epidemics – and it suggests that a deadly outbreak of salmonella might have been involved.

FDA

Deutsch Kase Haus, LLC of Middlebury, Indiana, supplied MDS Foods with cheeses that have been found to be contaminated with the pathogenic organism Listeria Monocytogenes

HPS

FSS

Vol: 51 No: 07 Year: 2017 Type: Current Note