New Zealand (NZ) has a high rate of reported campylobacteriosis cases. Cross-contamination in home kitchens during poultry handling is considered to be the main factor in campylobacteriosis transmission. The main aim of this study was to measure NZ consumers’ food safety awareness and self-reported food safety practices associated with handling raw poultry. This study will contribute to the existing knowledge to explain the reasons behind the increase of campylobacteriosis incidents. Findings can help inform future consumer education campaigns to help reduce the incidence of campylobacteriosis in NZ. A cross-sectional survey comprised of 31 multiple-choice questions was designed, piloted, and utilized to collect information about the last time consumers purchased and prepared raw poultry at home. A street-intercept survey in public places, such as supermarkets in the Canterbury region, was used to recruit respondents for this study. A descriptive and inferential data analysis was performed, including a one-way ANOVA test used to compare the mean scored responses between the respondents among different socio-demographics. Overall, 301 valid responses were obtained. Scores, representing reported safe food safety practices ranged between 2 and 19 (maximum 21) with a mean score of 9.83 (standard deviation 3.50 with a standard error of 0.20). There was some variation of correctly answered questions by the respondents for food hygiene (25%), cross-contamination prevention (55%), temperature control and storage practices (49%), and food safety (52%). Approximately 30% of the respondents reported symptoms of a foodborne disease experience once to four times during the past 12 months. The study identified low adherence to current recommended food safety practices, including safe food storage and temperature control. The findings can be used to inform a communication campaign regarding food safety needs to be designed urgently in NZ to reduce the rate of campylobacteriosis.
The main pathogenic bacteria in food are Campylobacter and Salmonella. But Listeria in cheese and enterohemorrhagic Escherichia coli (ECEH) bacteria in young shoots have also made headlines in recent years.
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Smoked fish, what are the health risks?
04/16/2021 – Smoked fish are popular specialties in Switzerland. Consumed without cooking, they can become a food safety concern if hygiene rules are not respected during processing.
An assessment of the dietary risks associated with smoked fish was carried out as part of a pilot study in collaboration with the Office for Consumer Affairs of the canton of Vaud.
The study did not reveal any major risk, but follow-up should be ensured in order to maintain a high level of food safety and quality. The cantonal authorities concerned will keep this topic in their monitoring program and the FSVO plans to carry out a more detailed assessment.
Likewise, it is very important to wash your hands after coming into contact with animal products, as Campylobacter, Salmonella, Listeria and EHEC are transmitted from animals to humans. These diseases are called zoonoses.
Campylobacter
Infection with Campylobacter bacteria is the most common zoonosis in Switzerland, as in other European countries. It is the cause of gastrointestinal diseases in humans. The illness can last for about a week and in some circumstances may require hospitalization.
Campylobacter infection is characterized by abdominal pain, watery or bloody diarrhea, and an increase in temperature. Vomiting and high fever can also occur.
Infection is caused by contaminated food that has not been sufficiently cooked before consumption or that has come into direct contact with animals. In southern countries, contaminated water sources also represent a significant risk. The main source of infection, however, remains poultry meat.
According to data from the Federal Office of Public Health (OFSP), there are around 1,000 cases of Campylobacter infections each year. All patients do not consult their doctor, this figure is actually much higher. Overall, the number of cases has grown steadily over the past few years to reach around 7,500 during the year 2014.
Prevent Campylobacter infections
Campylobacter bacteria can survive in food, but cannot multiply there. Since contamination by Campylobacter does not affect foodstuffs, it is not possible to identify their presence by smell or appearance.
Campylobacter can be safely eliminated by thoroughly cooking the food at 70 ° C for at least 2 minutes by roasting, cooking or pasteurization. Freezing the food reduces the number of Campylobacter, without eliminating them completely.
Salmonella
Salmonella infection is most often manifested by inflammatory bowel disease with sudden onset of diarrhea, nausea, vomiting, fever, headache and abdominal pain. Salmonella infections are subject to notification .
They usually occur by ingesting contaminated food. The danger comes mainly from poultry, eggs, egg preparations, unpasteurized milk and meat products. Contamination through other animal products, utensils used, water, humans, etc. can occur throughout the food manufacturing process.
Prevent salmonellosis
Salmonella infections are fought on two levels:
the number of infected domestic animals should be reduced;
contamination of food with salmonella must be avoided and their multiplication stopped.
Listeria
In people without weakened immune systems, a Listeria infection is usually accompanied by mild symptoms or even no symptoms at all. People who are immunocompromised can experience a variety of serious symptoms, the outcome of which can be fatal. During pregnancy, a Listeria infection can lead to miscarriage or cause a child to have sepsis or meningitis when it is born.
Listeria transmission is caused by the ingestion of contaminated raw food, mainly of animal origin: meat, smoked fish, cold cuts, soft cheese. Transmission through contact with infected animals is rarer.
Prevent listeriosis
In the first place, the general rules of hygiene should be observed when in contact with food and animals. Pregnant women and people with weakened immune systems should in particular avoid raw vegetables, raw or undercooked meat as well as raw fish and seafood, soft cheese and cheese made from unpasteurized milk. .
Enterohemorrhagic Escherichia coli (EHEC)
The majority of people infected with EHEC have abdominal pain accompanied by cramping, a short-term fever followed by intestinal colic which becomes violent, and slightly bloody hemorrhagic diarrhea. In a minority of people, only watery diarrhea is observed. Cases of EHEC infections are very rare in Switzerland. The mortality rate reaches 3 to 5%.
Escherichia coli bacteria naturally belong to our intestinal flora. EHECs are a pathogenic line of these generally harmless bacteria. Infection occurs first by consuming contaminated animal foods, mainly undercooked ground beef and unpasteurized dairy products. Contaminated drinking water, young shoots, potatoes and unpasteurized apple juice can, for example, also contain EHEC. More rarely, cases of transmission of EHEC are observed through contact with animals or animal faeces.
Prevent EHEC infections
Since a very small number of infectious agents is enough to get sick, it is important to follow the general rules of hygiene. It is therefore strongly recommended to wash your hands thoroughly after having been in contact with animals and to cook the meat thoroughly when preparing meals. Raw food should always be stored in the refrigerator.
Sainsbury’s has recorded the worst Campylobacter in chicken results for the final three months of 2020 closely followed by Tesco.
Figures come from the top nine retailers in the United Kingdom publishing the latest quarter of testing findings.
The Food Standards Agency (FSA) threshold is 7 percent of birds with more than 1,000 colony forming units per gram (CFU/g) of Campylobacter.
Sainsbury’s reported 7 percent of chickens sampled were above 1,000 CFU/g in the fourth quarter of 2020 (4Q), compared to 2 percent in 3Q, slightly more than 4 percent in 2Q and about 3 percent in 1Q 2020.
In a recently published study, investigators from Norwich and Surrey have more than doubled the number of microbial species known to live in the chicken gut. As the health and wealth of humans is tied to the health and productivity of chickens, this lays down a key resource for all future studies on the gut microbiome of this important food animal.
With three times as many chickens as people on our planet, this ubiquitous food animal underpins human nutrition and health across the globe—whether through subsistence farming or intensive production, chickens supply more of our food than any other animal. Chicken meat is surging in popularity as a lower-carbon alternative to meat from other livestock, whilst eggs remain an important and affordable source of nutrition worldwide. However, poultry are also a source of antimicrobial resistance and of pathogens such as Campylobacter, Salmonella and E. coli that threaten human health.
A sizeable proportion of Salmonella and Campylobacter bacteria is still resistant to antibiotics commonly used in humans and animals, as in previous years, says a report released today by the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) and the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA).
In humans, high proportions of resistance to ciprofloxacin, an antibiotic commonly used to treat several types of infections, were reported in a specific Salmonella type known as S. Kentucky (82.1%). In recent years, S. Enteritidis resistant to nalidixic acid and/or ciprofloxacin has been increasingly reported in several countries. The increasing occurrence of fluoroquinolone and/or quinolone resistance in these types of Salmonella probably reflects the spread of particularly resistant strains.
In Campylobacter, resistance to ciprofloxacin is now so common in most countries that this antimicrobial has limited use in treatment of Campylobacter infections in humans.
A decreasing trend has also been observed in the prevalence of extended-spectrum β-lactamase (ESBL)- producing E. coli in samples from food producing animals from 13 Member States between 2015 and 2019. This is an important finding as particular strains of ESBL-producing E. coli are responsible for serious infections in humans.
Combined resistance to two critically important antimicrobials – fluoroquinolones and third generation cephalosporines in Salmonella and fluoroquinolones and macrolides in Campylobacter – remains low. These critically important antimicrobials are commonly used to treat serious infections from Salmonella and Campylobacter in humans.
The rate of E. coli bacteria in samples from food producing animals that respond to all antimicrobials tested also increased. This was observed in nine Member States over the period 2014-2019.
The report was based on antimicrobial resistance monitoring data collected by Member States as part of their EU regulatory obligations and jointly analysed by EFSA and ECDC with the assistance of external contractors.
The Washington Department of Health reports five lab-positive campylobacteriosis cases in individuals who consumed Dungeness Valley Creamery raw milk. The raw milk was purchased in Clallam, Skagit, Kitsap, and Clark Counties.
Dungeness Valley Creamery has issued a voluntary recall of all raw milk product with a ‘Best By’ date of April 13, 2021, or earlier. These products may be contaminated with Campylobacter bacteria, which can cause serious illness. The recalled product is bottled in gallon, half-gallon, quart and pint containers. It was sold to customers in western Washington in the on-farm store, outside retail stores and drop-off locations. Health officials urge consumers not to drink any Dungeness Valley Creamery raw milk product with a ‘Best By’ date of April 13, 2021, or earlier, and to discard any leftover product, or return it to the place of purchase.
“Unpasteurized raw milk can carry harmful bacteria and germs. Foodborne illnesses can be caused by many different foods; however, raw milk is one of the riskiest,” said Dr. Scott Lindquist, State Epidemiologist for Communicable Diseases.
Almost 20 children in Norway have fallen sick after a farm visit that included drinking unpasteurized, raw milk.
Health officials reported 17 people became ill after the farm trip, including 16 children aged 3 to 5 years old. Most were infected with Campylobacter but a few patients were also diagnosed with infections from the parasite Cryptosporidium after contact with animals.
The children fell ill after the farm visit in Viken, a county in Eastern Norway, where they were served raw, unpasteurized milk as part of their packed lunch. Pasteurization kills bacteria, viruses and parasites often found in raw milk.
The Norwegian Food Safety Authority (Mattilsynet) and the Norwegian Institute of Public Health (Folkehelseinstituttet) recommend that children, pregnant women, the elderly and those with weakened immune systems avoid drinking raw milk, because infections can have serious consequences for them.
The number of reported cases of illnesses caused by Campylobacter and Salmonella bacteria in humans in Europe appear to level off over the past five years, according to the latest zoonoses report released by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) and the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC).
Campylobacteriosis, the most frequently reported gastrointestinal disease in the EU since 2005, affected more than 220,000 people in 2019. Salmonellosis was the second most frequently reported zoonosis in the EU, with around 88,000 people affected.
Of the 66,113 ready-to-eat food samples – foods that did not require cooking before consumption – 0.3% tested positive for Salmonella . Of the 191,181 non-ready-to-eat food samples, 1.5% tested positive. 18 of the 26 Member States reporting on programs to control Salmonella in poultry populations met all their reduction targets, up from 14 in 2018.
The next most frequently reported diseases are shiga-toxin-producing Escherichia coli (STEC), yersiniosis and listeriosis. The trend in confirmed human cases of listeriosis remained stable between 2015 and 2019, after a long period of increase. 2,621 cases were reported in 2019, mostly affecting individuals over the age of 64. It is the most serious disease, with high rates of hospitalization (92%) and mortality (17.6%).
The report also looks at the cause of outbreaks of foodborne illness in the EU, i.e. outbreaks in which two or more people contract the same disease after consuming the same contaminated food. Salmonella remains the most frequently detected agent and causes 926 outbreaks; the number of outbreaks due to S . Enteritidis , on the other hand, has declined. The most common sources of outbreaks of salmonellosis were eggs and egg products. Noroviruses in fish and fishery products cause the greatest number of outbreaks (145) with “strong evidence” involving a food source.
A total of 5,175 outbreaks of foodborne illness were reported in 2019, a decrease of 12.3% from 2018.
The report also contains data on Mycobacterium bovis / caprae , Brucella , Yersinia , Trichinella , Echinococcus , Toxoplasma gondii , rabies, Q fever, West Nile virus and tularemia.
The aims of this study were to evaluate the ability of Campylobacter jejuni isolated from a poultry slaughterhouse to form biofilm in the presence and absence of Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and the effect of surface (stainless steel, polystyrene), temperature (7, 25, and 42 °C), and oxygen concentration (microaerophilic and aerobic conditions) on the formation of biofilm. The genes ahpC, cadF, clpP, dnaJ, docA, flaA, flaB, katA, kpsM, luxS, racR, and sodB, related to biofilm formation by C. jejuni, were also investigated. All isolates formed biofilm on stainless steel and on polystyrene, in both aerobic and microaerophilic atmospheres, including temperatures not optimal for C. jejuni growth (7 and 25 °C), and biofilm also was formed in the presence of P. aeruginosa. In dual-species biofilm on stainless steel, biofilm formation was 2–6 log CFU·cm−2 higher at 7 °C for all isolates, in comparison with monospecies biofilm. Ten genes (ahpC, cadF, clpP, dnaJ, docA, flaA, flaB, luxS, racR, and sodB) were detected in all isolates, but katA and kpsM were found in four and six isolates, respectively. The results obtained are of concern because the poultry C. jejuni isolates form biofilm in different conditions, which is enhanced in the presence of other biofilm formers, such as P. aeruginosa.
Raw unpasteurised drinking milk from Central Hawke’s Bay producers Lindsay Farm is being recalled following a detection of Campylobacter as part of their routine testing programme. Lindsay Farm is a registered provider of raw milk.
The recall affects Lindsay Farm brand organic raw drinking milk with a use by date between 6 March 2021 and up to and including 21 March 2021. The affected product is sold in the Hawke’s Bay region at seven registered depots and home deliveries. The product is sold in 2-litre plastic bottles.
Campylobacter bacteria can cause severe gastrointestinal illness in people, and can be particularly serious in young people, the elderly, pregnant women and people with weakened immune systems.
New Zealand Food Safety’s national food compliance services manager, Melinda Sando, says people with Lindsay Farm organic raw drinking milk at home should visit the MPI recalls website to check if it is among the batches of recalled product.
“If you have any of the recalled product, throw it out or return it to your supplier, or heat to 70°C and hold at this temperature for one minute. If you don’t have a thermometer, heat the milk until it nearly reaches a boil (or scald the milk) before drinking it.
“Raw milk is inherently more risky than pasteurised milk because the process of pasteurisation kills harmful bacteria. You can get sick from consuming raw milk. If you have health concerns after drinking the product, seek medical advice.
“Campylobacter symptoms include muscle pain, headache and fever followed by watery or bloody diarrhoea, stomach pain and nausea. Symptoms typically develop 2 to 5 days after infection and last between 3 to 7 days.”
In people with weakened immune systems, such as those with a blood disorder, with AIDS, or receiving chemotherapy, Campylobacter occasionally spreads to the bloodstream and causes a life-threatening infection.
Human campylobacteriosis is a notifiable disease in New Zealand. That means any cases must be reported to public health authorities.
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