An article in Bakery and Snacks has reported on pressure being put onto manufacturers to make raw cookie dough into a ready to eat (RTE) product. This is in response to a study that an E.coli O157 outbreak in 2009 was linked to raw cookie dough. There were over 70 cases and 11 developed Haemolytic Uremic Syndrome fortunately nobody died.
Posted in E.coli, Food Hygiene, Food Illness, Food Safety Alert, Food Testing, Microbiology, Recall
The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) and Bos Smoked Fish Inc. are warning the public not to consume certain Bos brand refrigerated vacuum packed smoked fish products without Best Before dates, described below, because the products may be contaminated with Clostridium botulinum.
All Bos brand smoked vacuum packed fish products, sold refrigerated in various weight packages without a Best Before Date, are affected by the alert. This includes all species and flavours of the Bos brand smoked vacuum packed fish products with “Keep Refrigerated” on the package.
These products have been distributed in Ontario.
There have been no reported illnesses associated with the consumption of these products
The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) and Bos Fish are warning the public not to consume certain Bos brand Herring Fillets described below because the product may be contaminated with Clostridium botulinum. Toxins produced by this bacteria may cause botulism, a life-threatening illness.
The affected product, Bos brand “Naturally Smoked Herring Fillets – Natural”, was sold refrigerated in various weight packages from Ramaker’s Imports, St. Catharines, ON without a Best Before Date applied to the package. The affected product was sold by Ramaker’s Imports from September 2011 to December 7, 2011.
Consumers who have purchased refrigerated Bos brand “Naturally Smoked Herring Fillets – Natural” from any other retailer without a Best Before Date on the package are also advised not to consume the product.
There have been no reported illnesses associated with the consumption of this product.
I am not sure if Canada has got the same zero tolerance to Listeria monocytogenes that the US has, but there seems to have been a lot of product recalls based on Listeria monocytogenes where there has been no illness from the organism. This may be the future if Europe ever go the way of zero tolerance.
The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) and Greenwood Mushroom Farm are warning the public not to consume the sliced mushrooms described below because the product may be contaminated with Listeria monocytogenes.These products have been distributed in Ontario.There have been no reported illnesses associated with the consumption of these products
The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) and Aliments Fontaine Santé Inc. are warning the public and retailers not to sell, use or consume the Fontaine Santé brand salads described below because the products may be contaminated with Listeria monocytogenes.These products have been distributed in Quebec and Ontario and may also have been distributed nationally.There have been no reported illnesses associated with the consumption of these products.
In research on the never-ending war between pathogen and host, scientists at the Pasteur Institute in Paris have discovered a novel defensive weapon, a cytoskeletal protein called septin, that humans cells deploy to cage the invading Shigella bacteria that cause potentially fatal human diarrhea, according to a presentation on Dec. 5, at the American Society for Cell Biology Annual Meeting in Denver.
Pascale Cossart, Ph.D., and Serge Mostowy, Ph.D., reported that the septin cages not only targeted the pathogens for degradation by autophagy, the cell’s internal garbage disposal system, but also prevented the Shigella bacteria from spreading to other cells by impeding the pathogens’ access to actin, a different component of the cell skeleton.
Posted in Food Illness, Food Poisoning, Food Testing, Microbiology, Shigella
House of Raeford Farms, a Raeford, N.C. establishment, is recalling approximately 4,140 pounds of cooked chicken breasts that may be contaminated with Listeria monocytogenes, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) announced today.
The problem was discovered after a customer’s laboratory sample tested positive for Listeria monocytogenes. FSIS has received no reports of illness due to consumption of these products. Anyone concerned about an illness should contact a health care provider.
An unusual regulatory mechanism that controls the motile/non-motile option in genetically identical Salmonella also impacts the bacteria’s ability to cause infection.
As Salmonella divides into genetically identical clones, either of the two forms of the bacteria can emerge. Some individuals sport flagella — thin, whip-like projections that propel the bacterium. Others do not. When grown in a petri dish, both types appear.
Scientists at the University of Washington discovered that a protein that is almost in a class by itself –YdiV — determines whether a Salmonella cell will produce or not produce flagellin. This protein needed to make flagella, called flagellin, provokes the body’s defenses.
Not producing the flagellin means that the Salmonella does not provoke the hosts immune system. In an animal or human, anatomical location determines which type will fare better during each stage of the infection.
This gives the sub-populations an overall better chance of survival in the host.
Posted in Food Illness, Food Poisoning, Food Testing, Microbiology, Salmonella
Researchers think they now know why a particularly virulent form of E. coli that swept through northern Germany last May was so hard to trace: The germs responsible eluded detection by going into a self-induced deep sleep.
Two new studies show that when stressed, E. coli can turn off most signs of life. That’s a problem for food-safety officials because their germ-screening techniques rely on germs reproducing to establish the presence of live bacteria.
In the lab, the scientists stressed the germs by exposing them to copper. Within a few days, many of the bacteria entered the dormant state and remained that way unless the researchers removed copper from the germs’ growth medium. Antje Flieger and her colleagues describe their findings in the December Environmental Microbiology.
Once resuscitated, the germs still had all of the features needed to be infective. For example, they had retained the genes to produce their lethal toxin and to make the sticky hairlike features that foster gut attachment. “That’s why we speculate they should be active and allow infection,” Flieger says.
Posted in E.coli, Food Illness, Food Poisoning, Food Testing, Microbiology
FoodWorld 