A hepatitis A outbreak has sickened 23 people after they visited the Mendham Golf and Tennis Club in Mendham Township, New Jersey. This is a members only club. A food handler was diagnosed with hepatitis A and worked at the club while infectious. One person is “seriously ill,” according to the press release by the New Jersey Department of Health.
AWERS Inc. of Bellevue, Washington is recalling Grained Salmon Caviar in 95 gram tins because it may be contaminated with botulinum toxin, which can cause life-threatening illness or death. Do not eat this product even if it does not look or smell spoiled. Botulinum toxin does not change the appearance, taste, or texture of food. No illnesses have been reported to date in connection with this issue.
Apologies for this being late but i have been on holiday 🙂
The Public Health England (PHE) team investigating cases of listeriosis linked to sandwiches and salads in NHS hospitals in England has confirmed that, since the last update on 26 June 2019, there has been another death, bringing to six the total number of deaths linked to this outbreak.
The individual who died was one of the nine previously confirmed cases. The individual is considered to have acquired listeriosis from Good Food Chain products while at Western Sussex Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.
PHE continues to test all samples of listeria on an ongoing basis to check if they are linked to this outbreak. To date, thirty-four samples have been tested, with none linked to the outbreak.
There have been no new cases of listeriosis linked to this outbreak. Investigations are continuing and the public should be reassured that the risk continues to be low.
No cases have been reported in Scotland so far.
The FDA has updated the basil cyclospora outbreak that has now sickened at least 205 people in 11 states. That’s an increase of 73 patients since the last update which was posted on July 25, 2019. Five people have been hospitalized because they are so sick. The basil in question is imported from Mexico by Siga Logistics de RL de CV from Morelos. That facility recalled basil on July 24, 2019.
Posted in Cyclospora, food bourne outbreak, food contamination, food handler, Food Hygiene, Food Illness, Food Inspections, Food Micro Blog, Food Microbiology, Food Microbiology Blog, Food Pathogen, food recall, Food Safety, Food Safety Alert, Food Testing, foodborne disease, Foodborne Illness, foodborne outbreak, foodbourne outbreak, Parasite, Protozoan, Uncategorized
Ottawa, August 18, 2019 – Rosemount Sales and Marketing is recalling Rosemount brand cooked diced chicken meat from the marketplace due to possible Listeria monocytogenes contamination. Consumers should not consume and distributors, retailers and food service establishments such as hotels, restaurants, cafeterias, hospitals and nursing homes should not sell or use the recalled products described below.
| Common Name | Size | UPC | Code(s) on Product |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cooked diced chicken meat 13 mm – ½” (#16305) | 4.54 kg | 2 06 20263 12454 7 | PACKDATE: 01/21/19 |
Posted April 17, 2019 at 4:30 PM ET
CDC and several states are investigating a multistate outbreak of Listeria infections linked to deli-sliced meats and cheeses. The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration are monitoring the outbreak.
| ABSTRACT |
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Shiga toxin–producing Escherichia coli (STEC) strains are often found in food and cause human infections. Although STEC O157:H7 is most often responsible for human disease, various non-O157 subtypes have caused individual human infections or outbreaks. The importance of STEC serogroup typing is decreasing while detection of virulence gene patterns has become more relevant. Whole genome sequencing (WGS) reveals the entire spectrum of pathogen information, such as toxin variant, serotype, sequence type, and virulence factors. Flour has not been considered as a vector for STEC; however, this product has been associated with several STEC outbreaks in the last decade. Flour is a natural product, and milling does not include a germ-reducing step. Flour is rarely eaten raw, but the risks associated with the consumption of unbaked dough are probably underestimated. The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence of STEC in flour samples (n = 93) collected from Swiss markets and to fully characterize the isolates by PCR assay and WGS. The prevalence of STEC in these flour samples was 10.8% as indicated by PCR, and a total of 10 STEC strains were isolated (two flour samples were positive for two STEC subtypes). We found one stx2-positve STEC isolate belonging to the classic serogroups frequently associated with outbreaks that could potentially cause severe disease. However, we also found several other common or less common STEC subtypes with diverse virulence patterns. Our results reveal the benefits of WGS as a characterization tool and that flour is a potentially and probably underestimated source for STEC infections in humans.
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Several STEC serotypes, including O26, were isolated from 8 (8.6%) of 93 flour samples.
STEC isolates from flour had a variety of virulence patterns.
Flour is a probably underestimated source of STEC infections in humans.
WGS for STEC characterization is more comprehensive than common serotyping.
| ABSTRACT |
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Nontyphoidal Salmonella strains continue to be a major cause of foodborne illness globally. One intriguing approach to reducing the risk of salmonellosis is the direct ingestion of phages targeting Salmonella to enhance natural gut resilience and provide protection during foodborne disease outbreaks. We evaluated the ability of a prophylactically administered bacteriophage cocktail, the foodborne outbreak pill (FOP) targeting Escherichia coli O157:H7, Listeria monocytogenes, and Salmonella, to resolve a Salmonella infection in the Simulator of the Human Intestinal Microbial Ecosystem (SHIME), a simulated gut platform populated by the human intestinal microbiome of healthy donors. The FOP preparation eliminated Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium from the colon compartment of the SHIME platform but health-associated metabolites, such as short-chain fatty acids and lactate, remained stable or increased in a donor-dependent manner. In studies of human intestinal cells, pretreatment of Salmonella Typhimurium with the FOP cocktail preserved lipopolysaccharide-stimulated signaling in a Caco-2–THP-1 Transwell system and prevented destruction of the Caco-2 monolayer by Salmonella. Adhesion and invasion of intestinal epithelial cells by Salmonella—a critical factor in Salmonella pathogenesis—was blunted when the bacteria were incubated with the FOP preparation before addition to the monolayer. The FOP phage cocktail was effective for (i) eliminating Salmonella from a simulated human gut without disturbing the indigenous microbiota and (ii) reducing the risk of invasion by Salmonella into the intestinal epithelia. These results suggest that the FOP preparation may be of value for reducing the risk of salmonellosis in humans, e.g., during foodborne disease outbreaks.
Higher percentages of E. coli–positive plants recovered when inoculation was closer to harvest.
Higher relative humidity and leaf surface wetness were measured during night inoculation.
Short-term smaller initial population declines were observed after night inoculation.
E. coli population sizes were similar 2 or more days after night or day inoculation.
Probability of detecting E. coli was higher for longer times when inoculated at higher levels.
The impact of plant development, environmental conditions at the time of inoculation, and inoculum concentration on survival of attenuated BSL1 Escherichia coli O157:H7 strain ATCC 700728 on field-grown romaine lettuce was evaluated over 3 years. E. coli 700728 was inoculated onto 4- and 6-week-old romaine lettuce plants in the Salinas Valley, CA, at night or the next morning with either low (5 log) or high (7 log) cell numbers per plant to simulate a single aqueous contamination event. At night, when leaf wetness and humidity levels were high, E. coli cell numbers declined by 0.5 log CFU/plant over the first 8–10 h. When applied in the morning, E. coli populations declined up to 2 log CFU/plant within 2 h. However, similar numbers of E. coli were retrieved from lettuce plants at 2 and 7 days. E. coli cell numbers per plant were significantly lower (P < 0.05) 7 days after application onto 4-week-old compared to 6-week-old plants. E. coli 700728 could be recovered by plating or enrichment from a greater proportion of plants for longer times when inoculated at high compared with low initial concentrations and after inoculation of 6-week-old plants compared with 4-week-old plants, even at the low initial inoculum. A contamination event near harvest or when leaf wetness and humidity levels are high may enhance survivability, even when low numbers of E. coli are introduced.
Peracetic acid is a good alternative to chlorine for fresh produce sanitization.
Ultrasound enhanced peracetic acid efficiency.
Sachet with essential oil did not contribute to salad preservation.
Complexation with β-CD did not attenuate EO odor.
EO in vitro antimicrobial activity does not imply preservative property in food.
The microbiological quality of a ready-to-eat salad treated with different sanitizers (sodium dichloroisocyanurate (SD), peracetic acid (PA) or isolated or combined with ultrasound (US)), and packaged alongside sachets containing β-cyclodextrin/Pimenta dioica essential oil inclusion complex was evaluated. Consumer acceptability was also assessed. Furthermore, treatments were investigated against Listeria monocytogenes intentionally inoculated. SD, SD + US, and PA treatments showed similar efficiency against psychrotrophic (log reduction < 1) and lactic acid bacteria (log reductions of 1.18 ± 0.25, 1.28 ± 0.19 and 1.03 ± 0.22 for SD, SD + US, and PA, respectively). Concerning yeasts and molds, SD and SD + US reached the greatest log reduction (counts < 4 log CFU g−1), whereas PA + US was more efficient than PA. Against L. monocytogenes, SD, SD + US and PA + US led to the best results. The presence of sachet, however, did not contribute to salad preservation. Sensory evaluation showed that salads stored alongside sachets were the least accepted by consumers with scores between 5 and 6 for overall impression attribute, while samples without sachets received average scores >7. These findings are of great importance since they demonstrate the need for studies that evaluate the properties of EO when applied in a food system.
