Schreiber Processing Corporation have recalled some broiled chicken liver products linked to a cluster of Salmonellosis illness around New Jersey and New York, the products appear to be cooked but do in fact require further cooking before consumption. The serotype implicated is Salmonella Heidelberg, the full article can be found at the link above.
Posted in Food Illness, Food Poisoning, Food Testing, Microbiology, outbreak, Salmonella
Food Production Daily has reported that food recalls in the US were up by six fold between July and September with Listeria accounting for 25% of the recalls. Although recalls due to Salmonella had reduced. The report also goes into further detail of other reasons for product recall.
One of the thoughts that I had on this was that perhaps the switch to ‘zero’ tolerance for Listeria monocytogenes, much talked about in the UK and Europe had been introduced in the US. Therefore it is probably not surprising that recalls based on possible Listeria contamination had gone up. This along with the recent cantaloupe outbreak which has left 29 dead.
RTT News has reported that Texas food company Whittington’s has recalled some beef jerky products in Texas after possible Salmonella contamination was discovered during a routine inspection by an official body.
The CDC has published some information about estimated food illness in the USA for 2011, it concludes that 48 million people in the USA will get ill, 128,000 will be hospitalised and 3,000 will die.
Posted in Food Illness, Food Poisoning, Microbiology, outbreak
The FDA published this leaflet a couple of months ago to try to help combat the rise in Listeriosis in the USA. If may be of use to small manufactures and home based production units. There are lots of ‘Z’s’ in the text but that’s the American way!
Posted in Food Illness, Food Poisoning, Listeria, Microbiology
This food safety management pack has been developed by the FSA to help retail businesses across the UK comply with food hygiene regulations. It can be downloaded from the link to the FSA web site and you can also order packs from that page as well.
Posted in Food Illness, Food Poisoning, Microbiology, outbreak
An article in Food Production Daily last week reported that the FSA had withdrawn a batch of olives that were contaminated with botulinum toxin after they were implicated in cases in Finland. One person has now dies in Finland after consuming the olives. More details can be found at the link above and include the Food Safety Authority of Ireland (FSAI) comments.
A new food safety testing method using liquid crystals – a technology traditionally used in smart phones and televisions – is being developed with the aim of detecting multiple harmful foodborne pathogens in a single test. The company’s website states that the product is due for trials later this year and they are confident that it will have a ‘profound effect’ on testing for bacterial pathogens and thus public health.
Posted in Food Illness, Food Poisoning, Food Testing, Microbiology
An article in Food Production Daily has reported that Pulsed Electric Field (PEF) may not be suitable for controlling Campylobacter as first indicated by other studies. It would appear that the PEF is more suitable for use on liquids which could be applied to poultry processing such as scald water or chilled processing water. The full report is at the link above.
The number of deaths from the Listeria outbreaks in cantaloupes has risen to 28 according to the CDC. In addition to this the CDC has reported that one pregnant women has miscarried as a direct effect of the infection.
Posted in Food Illness, Food Poisoning, Listeria, Microbiology, outbreak
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