Tainted powdered milk formula from Belgium has been recalled in Russia after more than a dozen babies were struck down with Salmonellosis.
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Category Archives: Food Illness
Irish Cheese Recall – High Level Listeria monocytogenes
| Wicklow Farmhouse Cheese: Wicklow Blue Irish Farmhouse Cheese (“a mild creamy blue veined brie cheese”); pack size: 150g, approval number: IE1915EC | |
| Batch Code: | BATC11326B; best before date: 31/01/2012 |
| Country Of Origin: | Ireland
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Wicklow Farmhouse Cheese Ltd is recalling a batch of cheese as outlined above, due to the detection of a high level of Listeria monocytogenes. No other products at this stage are known to be affected by this recall. Investigations at the manufacturing premise are underway.
US – Cold Smoked Salmon – Listeria monocytogenes
A Maine food processing and storage company destroyed its cold smoked salmon product under the supervision of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration after inspectors found Listeria monocytogenes within the firm’s facility and on processing.
Based on conditions at Mill Stream Corp. of Hancock, Maine, FDA investigators ordered an administrative detention of the firm’s cold-smoked salmon product, a ready-to-eat food, during an inspection in December 2011. Once the food was detained, Mill Stream Corp. agreed to voluntarily destroy the cold-smoked salmon, under FDA supervision.
The FDA may order the detention of food when an investigator has a reason to believe that the food is adulterated or misbranded. Food subject to an FDA detention order may not be moved, without agency permission, until the agency releases it or the detention order expires. A detention order may remain in place for up to 30 days
USDA – $25 Million to E.coli STEC Research
The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) has awarded a $25m research grant to the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL) to tackle Shiga toxin-producing E. coli (STEC) in the beef supply chain.
As reported on this blog last year the US have decided to ban six E.coli serotypes from the food chain and if the proposal goes through testing will need to begin in March 2012, this is still a very controversial proposal in the US. (link)
Sprouting Seeds – IIlness Outbreak Summary 1998-2011
This link was supplied to me by Mike Scott at Matrix, it is a list of the outbreaks associated with sprouting seeds and is of interest after the recent release for the EFSA on controlling sprouting seeds and food borne illness.
Are Sprouted Seeds Ever Going to be Safe?
Evidence is emerging that sprouted seeds could present an unacceptable risk to human health unless effective control measures such as irradiation can be used to make them safer.
Would the European market really want irradiated products?
MRSA Levels in Pork 7% – US Study
Retail pork products in the U.S. have a higher prevalence of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus bacteria (MRSA) than previously identified. This in theory may well apply to retail pork products in the UK and Europe although there is not data to confirm this. The report also states ” the this organism is estimated to cause around 185,000 cases of food poisoning each year. ” I am not aware of figures for the UK and Europe on MRSA causing foodborne illness.
FDA – Cheese Recall – Listeria monocytogenes
Kradjian Imp Co, Glendale, CA is recalling 231 Cases, 22Lb / Cs of Cedar Tree brand Tresse Cheese, 16 oz and Cedar Tree brand Shinglish cheese, 16 oz because they have the potential to be contaminated with Listeria monocytogenes.
Tresse Cheese and Shinglish cheese were distributed in Southern California, Northern California, Washington State, Minnesota, Nevada, Oklahoma, Texas, Tennessee,Arizona and Michigan to Mediterranean specialty markets.
Raw Milk E.coli 0157 Again – US
Organic Pastures Dairy in Fresno, California.
The investigation was initiated because of a cluster of illnesses in five children from four counties throughout California infected with E. coli O157:H7 having an identical, uncommon PFGE pattern. Illness dates for these cases extends from August 25 through October 25, 2011….
The sickened children ranged in age from one to five years. Three of the children developed the potentially fatal complication of hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS).
Mass Spectrometry – Rapid Staph Indentifications!
This report could send a chill into any microbiologists heart………….chemists getting involved with microbiology!
Researchers from the Georgia Institute of Technology and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have developed a new laboratory test that can rapidly identify the bacterium responsible for staph infections. This new test takes advantage of unique isotopic labeling combined with specific bacteriophage amplification to rapidly identify Staphylococcus aureus.
The test uses mass spectrometry to quantify the number of S. aureus organisms in a large number of samples in just a few hours, compared to a day or two for culturing techniques typically used to detect this bacterium.
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