Category Archives: Decontamination Microbial

USA – Salmonella Enteritidis Outbreak at Nebraska Correctional Facility

Food Poisoning Bulletin

A Salmonela Enteritidis outbreak at a Nebraska correctional facility this year sickened at least 15 people, according to the CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR) for the week of July 15, 2022. The Lincoln-Lancaster County Health Department (LLCDH) notified the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services of two cases of laboratory-confirmed Salmonella in inmates on January 14, 2022.

The investigation linked consumption of mechanically separated chicken to the illnesses. Mechanically separated chicken is produced by separating edible meat from bone and cartilage under pressure. It is often used for use in institutions like prisons, jails, and correctional facilities because it’s cheap. A Salmonella Heidelberg outbreak linked to that product sickened at least nine inmates in Tennessee in 2015.

USA – Collaborating on Culture in the New Era of Smarter Food Safety – August 3rd Webinar

FDA

Date:
August 3, 2022
Time:
12:15 PM – 1:15 PM ET

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration and Stop Foodborne Illness External Link Disclaimer, a non-profit public health organization, are collaborating on a webinar series that explores food safety culture, one of the core elements in FDA’s New Era of Smarter Food Safety initiative.

The fourth webinar, called “What More Do You Want to Know About Food Safety Culture?,” will be broadcast live from the International Association for Food Protection 2022 Annual Meeting on August 3, 2022, at 12:15 p.m. ET. Speakers and attendees will engage in a question-and-answer session on an array of food safety culture topics. Registration is available for both in-person and virtual attendance.

The series, entitled “Collaborating on Culture in the New Era of Smarter Food Safety,” began on Thursday, November 4, 2021, with the session entitled “Key Concepts in Addressing Food Safety Culture as a Science – Not a Slogan.”

The second webinar in the series, called “Making Leaders Risk Aware and Push to Reduce Risk,” took place on Wednesday, February 16, 2022.

The third webinar, called “Building a Coalition of Food Safety Culture Champions Across Your Organization,” took place on May 18, 2022.

The New Era of Smarter Food Safety blueprint states that dramatic improvements in reducing the burden of foodborne illness cannot be made without doing more to influence the beliefs, attitudes, and, most importantly, the behaviours of people and the actions of organizations.

The webinar series will engage experts from the public and private sectors in a collaborative exchange of ideas and experiences related to the importance of a robust food safety culture in helping to ensure safe food production.

The series will have valuable information for both those well-versed on, and those just learning about, food safety culture.

Register Here External Link Disclaimer

Registration is required; a recording will be available after the event.

USA – New Era of Smarter Food Safety Blueprint

FDA

New Era for Smarter Food Safety Blueprint

The New Era of Smarter Food Safety Blueprint is centered around four core elements:

  1. Tech-enabled Traceability
  2. Smarter Tools and Approaches for Prevention and Outbreak Response
  3. New Business Models and Retail Modernization
  4. Food Safety Culture

These are the foundational pillars of the New Era of Smarter Food Safety, covering the range of technologies, analytics, business models, modernization and values that are its building blocks. These elements, working together, will help create a safer and more digital, traceable food system.

Research – Publisher’s Platform: Colonel Colon and his League of Faecal Fighters coming soon to help make your food safer

Food Safety News

Over a decade ago, the mom of two clients who both developed acute kidney failure after consuming E. coli O157:H7-tainted spinach sent me an unexpected present. The outbreak sickened over 205 people, killing five, sending hundreds to the hospital, many with life-altering complications. The gift was a bobble-head that bore a similarity to a younger version on me. On the base it said: “Colonel Colon and his League of Fecal Fighters.” It sits on my desk today.

I have always thought of doing something with the gift, and with the talent of my incredible niece, Janae Dueck, and borrowing from the work of the good food people at the FDA and FSIS, and idea is brewing of a way to help educate us all to be Fecal Fighters.

Over the next year we will be working on comic book, a cartoon video about the adventures of these superheroes, and a food safety jingle (thanks to my friend Vincent).

Read More at the Link Above

USA – FDA CORE Table Updated: Big Olaf Ice Cream Listeria Outbreak

Food Poisoning Bulletin

The FDA Core Outbreak Investigation Table was updated, with ten active investigations. The FDA states that the Listeria monocytogenes outbreak that has sickened at least 23 people is linked to big Olaf ice cream. The quote is, “For the Listeria monocytogenes outbreak, a product linked to illnesses is ice cream from Big Olaf Creamery, located in Florida.”

Research – Risk factors for campylobacteriosis in Australia: outcomes of a 2018–2019 case–control study

BMC

Campylobacter kswfoodworld

Background

We aimed to identify risk factors for sporadic campylobacteriosis in Australia, and to compare these for Campylobacter jejuni and Campylobacter coli infections.

Methods

In a multi-jurisdictional case–control study, we recruited culture-confirmed cases of campylobacteriosis reported to state and territory health departments from February 2018 through October 2019. We recruited controls from notified influenza cases in the previous 12 months that were frequency matched to cases by age group, sex, and location. Campylobacter isolates were confirmed to species level by public health laboratories using molecular methods. We conducted backward stepwise multivariable logistic regression to identify significant risk factors.

Results

We recruited 571 cases of campylobacteriosis (422 C. jejuni and 84 C. coli) and 586 controls. Important risk factors for campylobacteriosis included eating undercooked chicken (adjusted odds ratio [aOR] 70, 95% CI 13–1296) or cooked chicken (aOR 1.7, 95% CI 1.1–2.8), owning a pet dog aged < 6 months (aOR 6.4, 95% CI 3.4–12), and the regular use of proton-pump inhibitors in the 4 weeks prior to illness (aOR 2.8, 95% CI 1.9–4.3). Risk factors remained similar when analysed specifically for C. jejuni infection. Unique risks for C. coli infection included eating chicken pâté (aOR 6.1, 95% CI 1.5–25) and delicatessen meats (aOR 1.8, 95% CI 1.0–3.3). Eating any chicken carried a high population attributable fraction for campylobacteriosis of 42% (95% CI 13–68), while the attributable fraction for proton-pump inhibitors was 13% (95% CI 8.3–18) and owning a pet dog aged < 6 months was 9.6% (95% CI 6.5–13). The population attributable fractions for these variables were similar when analysed by campylobacter species. Eating delicatessen meats was attributed to 31% (95% CI 0.0–54) of cases for C. coli and eating chicken pâté was attributed to 6.0% (95% CI 0.0–11).

Conclusions

The main risk factor for campylobacteriosis in Australia is consumption of chicken meat. However, contact with young pet dogs may also be an important source of infection. Proton-pump inhibitors are likely to increase vulnerability to infection.

Research – Genomic analysis of Listeria monocytogenes from US food processing environments reveals a high prevalence of QAC efflux genes but limited evidence of their contribution to environmental persistence

Researchgate

Background Quaternary ammonium compound (QAC) efflux genes increase the minimum inhibitory concentration of Listeria monocytogenes ( Lm ) to benzalkonium chloride sanitizer, but the contribution of these genes to persistence in food processing environments is unclear.

The goal of this study was to leverage genomic data and associated metadata for 4969 Lm isolates collected between 1999 and 2019 to: (1) evaluate the prevalence of QAC efflux genes among Lm isolates from diverse US food processors, (2) use comparative genomic analyses to assess confounding factors, such as clonal complex identity and stress tolerance genotypes, and (3) identify patterns in QAC efflux gene gain and loss among persistent clones within specific facilities over time.

Results The QAC efflux gene cassette bcrABC was present in nearly half (46%) of all isolates. QAC efflux gene prevalence among isolates was associated with clonal complex (𝛘 ² < 0.001) and clonal complex was associated with the facility type (𝛘 ² < 0.001). Consequently, changes in the prevalence of QAC efflux genes within individual facilities were generally attributable to changes in the prevalence of specific clonal complexes. Additionally, a GWAS and targeted BLAST search revealed that clonal complexes with a high prevalence of QAC efflux genes commonly possessed other stress tolerance genes. For example, a high prevalence of bcrABC in a clonal complex was significantly associated with the presence of the SSI-1 gene cluster ( p < 0.05). QAC efflux gene gain and loss were both observed among persistent populations of Lm in individual facilities, suggesting a limited direct role for QAC efflux genes as predictors of persistence.

Conclusion This study suggests that although there is evidence that QAC efflux genes are part of a suite of adaptations common among Lm isolated from some food production environments, these genes may be neither sufficient nor necessary to enhance persistence. This is a crucial distinction for decision making in the food industry. For example, changes to sanitizer regimen targeting QAC tolerance would not address other contributing genetic or non-genetic factors, such as equipment hygienic design which physically mediates sanitizer exposure.

Research – Effect of citral on the thermal inactivation of Escherichia coli O104:H4 in ground beef

Journal of Food Protection

The objective of the present study was to analyze the combined effect of heat treatment (55 to 62.5 °C) and citral (0 to 3%) on the heat resistance of Escherichia coli O104:H4 inoculated in ground beef. Inoculated meat packages were immersed in a circulating water bath stabilized at 55, 57.5, 60 and 62.5 °C for different times. The surviving microbial cells were counted in tryptic soy agar. A factorial design (4 x 4) was used to analyze the effect and interaction of heat treatment and citral. The results showed that heat and citral promoted E. coli O104:H4 thermal inactivation, suggesting a synergistic effect. At 55 °C, the incorporation of citral at 1, 2 and 3%, decreased D values (control: 42.75 min) by 85, 89, and 91%, respectively ( p < 0.05). Similarly, other evaluated temperatures exhibited a citral concentration-dependent effect ( P < 0.05). In conclusion, the findings could be a valuable tool for the food industry in designing a safe thermal process for inactivating E. coli O104:H4 in ground beef under similar thermal inactivation conditions.

Research – Microbiological quality of ready-to-eat salad products collected from retail and catering settings in England during 2020-21 

Journal of Food Protection

Salad and other fresh produce were collected in England from retail and catering during 2020-21 and  were tested for Salmonella, Shiga-toxin producing Escherichia coli (STEC), Listeria , Bacillus cereus , and generic E. coli. Of the 604 samples collected , 57% were from retail and 43% from catering: 61% were either salad leaves or salad leaves mixed with other products. Equal numbers of samples were prepacked or loose and 50% were refrigerated at the time of sampling. Combining results for all microbiological parameters, 84% were interpreted as satisfactory, 12% as borderline and 4% as unsatisfactory. One sample (prepacked  leaves, cucumber and tomato from a caterer) was categorised as unacceptable/potentially injurious due to detection of STEC O76, no STEC from human infections in the UK matched this isolate. No Salmonella enterica were detected but L. monocytogenes was recovered from 11 samples, one at 20 CFU/g the remainder at <20 CFU/g. B. cereus was detected at borderline levels (10 3 – <10 5 CFU/g) in 9% of samples and at an unsatisfactory level (>10 5 CFU/g) in one. E. coli were detected in 3% of samples at borderline (20 – <10 2 CFU/g) and in 4% at unsatisfactory (>10 2 CFU/g) levels. There was a significant association between the detection of L. monocytogenes and borderline/unsatisfactory levels of E. coli . There were no generic risks detected in association with the higher levels of B. cereus, STEC or Listeria but elevated levels of E. coli were predominantly confined to loose products from the UK and collected from caterers in the summer or autumn of 2021. Amongst the L. monocytogenes isolates, only one matched that from human cases and was recovered from a prepacked mixed salad from a catering business in 2021. This isolate was the same strain as that responsible for a multi country outbreak (2015-18) associated with Hungarian-produced frozen sweetcorn: no link to the outbreak food-chain was established.

Research – Antimicrobial Susceptibility and Molecular Characterization of Escherichia coli Recovered from Milk and Related Samples

MDPI

There is a rising concern about illnesses resulting from milk consumption due to contamination by pathogenic microorganisms including Escherichia coli. This study examined the occurrence and antimicrobial susceptibility of E. coli isolated from cow milk and related samples. Furthermore, partial sequencing was done to ascertain the genetic relatedness and possible cross contamination among the samples. In all, 250 samples, that is, 50 each of raw milk, cow teat, milkers’ hands, milking utensils, and fecal matter of cows, were cultured for the identification of E. coli. E. coli was detected in 101/250 samples (40.4%). Milk and fecal samples recorded the highest percentages of 68.0% and 66.0%, respectively. Forty-two (42) E. coli strains examined for antimicrobial resistance showed an overall 25.5% resistance, 15.0% intermediate resistance, and 59.5% susceptibility. The isolates had a high level of resistance to teicoplanin (100.0%), but were susceptible to chloramphenicol (95.2%) and azithromycin (92.9%). The Multiple Antibiotic Resistance (MAR) index pattern ranged from 0.1 to 0.5, and 40.5% exhibited multiple drug resistance. The E. coli strains formed 11 haplotypes, and a phylogenic tree analysis showed relatedness among the isolates in other African countries. This observation is an indication of cross contamination among the milk and its related samples. View Full-Text