Monthly Archives: March 2018

All Africa

The Namibian ministry of health has reportedly instructed food inspectors to remove products that are likely linked to listeriosis from shelves in shops all over the country.

This came after reports this week said that the southern African country had recorded its first case of listeriosis, with a 41-year-old man said to be fighting for his life in a hospital in Windhoek.

A BBC report quoted the country’s health minister Bernard Haufiku as saying that the man became ill after eating a vienna sausage from a butchery in the north of the capital.

All Afica

South Africa: Listeriosis Scare – 3 500 Tons of Polony and Cold Meat Returned So Far

Tiger Brands had recalled 3 500 tons of its Enterprise ready-to-eat, chilled meat products by Monday.

This, as it awaits the outcome of a report it commissioned on why the ST6 strain of listeria was found at its Polokwane facility, its spokesperson said on Wednesday.

“The first recall went extremely well,” Nevashnee Naicker said of the company’s “no receipt required” policy, which it used to get customers to return affected products, including polony, viennas, salami and other cold meats.

On March 4, Minister of Health Aaron Motsoaledi said at least 180 people had died from listeriosis from January 1, 2017 to March 2, 2018, and there were 948 confirmed cases.

He said an investigation had traced the ST6 strain of the listeria bacteria, believed to be causing the deaths, to the company’s factory in the Limpopo capital.

CFS

“Food Safety Focus” provides a channel of communication between the Centre for Food Safety (CFS) and the general public. Its main objectives are to arouse the awareness of the community on current food safety issues, both local and overseas, as well as the actions undertaken by the CFS in relation to these issues; to provide professional and easy-to-understand information on various food hazards and their public health risks and to promote food safety through enhancing communication with the food trade and public.

Academic Journal

Currently, a problem related to public health is resistance to antibiotics because bacteria have been identified to be resistant. It has been reported that bacteria have developed resistance mechanisms to evade the effect of drugs, especially antibiotics. A resistance mechanism to antibiotics is biofilm formation. The biofilms are microbial communities embedded in an extracellular polymeric matrix and are ubiquitous in the microbial world. In recent years, there has been a special interest in studying new antimicrobial strategies to solve the great problem of resistance to antibiotics; thus, the use of essential oils could be an alternative to fight infections caused by biofilm forming bacteria. It has also been reported that essential oils have antiviral and antibacterial properties. In the present work, the effect of Thymus vulgaris on growth and biofilm formation of uropathogenic Escherichia coli was studied. This study demonstrated the strong effect of T. vulgaris essential oil on the growth and biofilm formation of uropathogenic E. coli.

FSA

CFIA

Recall details

Ottawa, March 14, 2018 – Community Natural Foods Ltd. is recalling cardamom pods sold in bulk from the marketplace due to possible Salmonella contamination. Consumers should not consume the recalled product described below.

The following product has been sold in bulk at Community Natural Foods stores located in Calgary, Alberta.

Xinhuanet 

Image CDC

BISHKEK, March 13 (Xinhua) — Fourteen people, including four children, were hospitalized after a mass botulism food poisoning outbreak in southern Kyrgyzstan, the Health Ministry said Tuesday.

It said three of them are in a serious condition. An epidemiological investigation has been conducted and all patients have received the anti-botulinum serum.

The first case of food poisoning in the city of Uzgen in the Osh region was reported on March 11. According to preliminary data, the poisoning occurred due to eating homemade canned vegetable salad.