Harrods Ltd recalls specific codes of its own-brand Date and Tea Fruit Cake due to mould spoilage.
Harrods has recalled some packs of its own-brand Date and Tea Fruit Cake as some products have developed signs of mould spoilage. The Agency has issued a Product Recall Information Notice.
Sainsbury’s has recalled all packs of its own-brand Red Tree Iced Rich Fruit Cake because some products have developed signs of mould spoilage. The Agency has issued a Product Recall Information Notice
Posted in Food Safety, Food Spoilage, Food Standards Agency, Moulds, Recall
Tagged food, transportation
Hurricane Sandy has prompted the USDA to issue a Food Safety PDF which can be found at the link above.
Posted in Bacteria, Food Safety, Food Safety Alert, Food Spoilage, Research, Uncategorized, USDA
Tagged climate, environment, Food Safety, nature, pdf guide, science
RASFF – Salmonella in Frozen Beef Fat in Italy sourced in Lithuania
RASFF – Aflatoxin in Ogi in the UK sourced in Nigeria.
RASFF – Salmonella in Turkey Breast Fillets in Denmark sourced in Poland
Denmark– Yeast Growth in Lactose Free Youghurts causing blowing
Denmark – Campylobacter in Frisee Salad
France – Salmonella in Ham Burgers in France
Posted in Aflatoxin, Bacteria, Campylobacter, Eurofins Laboratories, Food Hygiene, Food Inspections, Food Safety, Food Safety Alert, Food Spoilage, Food Testing, Microbiology, Mycotoxin, Pathogen, RASFF, Recall, Salmonella
Tagged aflatoxin, campylobacter, food, frozen beef, restaurants, turkey breast
The deadly E. coli outbreak linked to the Cleveland County Fair in North Carolina grew to 61 cases by Wednesday. At least 10 people have been hospitalized.
This latest figures comes less than a week after 2-year-old Gage Lefever died from his infection last Friday. His funeral services were held on Wednesday afternoon.
The results from the analysis of food samples collected from Scottish businesses in 2011 have shown a slight increase in the levels of satisfactory samples in comparison with the previous year.
The report has shown that 80% of samples collected in 2011 by local authorities in Scotland and submitted to the UK Food Surveillance System (UKFSS) were satisfactory, a rise of 3% on 2010. Areas where improvements could be made in relation to food handling practices in retail and catering businesses were also identified in the report (see attached).
During 2011, almost 9,200 food samples were collected from Scottish businesses and analysed by the Public Analyst Laboratories in Scotland. More than 5,000 samples were examined microbiologically and a further 4,188 underwent chemical analysis, including tests for contaminants, additives and labelling inaccuracies.
As in previous years, the results of sampling in 2011 show that there were very few issues relating to foodborne pathogens (illness causing organisms). The majority of failures in microbiological testing (83%) were due to the elevated levels of hygiene indicators (bacteria that can be used as indicators of general hygiene practices in food premises) and total bacterial counts (total number of bacteria on a food sample). These are not inherently a hazard but can indicate poor hygiene practices during food preparation and handling.
Posted in Bacteria, Eurofins Laboratories, Food Hygiene, Food Illness, Food Inspections, Food Safety, Food Safety Alert, Food Spoilage, Food Standards Agency, Food Testing, Foodborne Illness, Hygiene, Illness, Microbiology, Research
Tagged environment, food premises, food surveillance, hygiene practices, science
The Food Standards Agency has published 10 short videos to help caterers produce food safely. Each video is about a minute long and covers specific food hygiene practices.
These training resources are designed to illustrate messages within the ‘Safer food, better business’ packs and they follow the same innovative and practical approach to food safety management as the packs.
The videos provide best practice guidance on a number of potential food safety issues, such as:
The films are being used as part of a training programme, funded by the Agency, to coach catering businesses in Olympic host boroughs in order to help raise standards and compliance levels.
The videos are available via the Agency’s YouTube channel.
The Food Standards Agency has launched the Play it Safe campaign, to raise awareness of food safety during the London 2012 Games. The Agency is working with food businesses and food safety enforcement officers to ensure all food sold, cooked and eaten during the Games is safe.
The first strand of the campaign focuses on the Food Safety Squad, the 10 environmental health officers acting as ambassadors for food safety. They represent the hundreds of environmental health officers around the country who are carrying out vital work to keep visitors to the Games safe and healthy.
The campaign highlights the Agency measures being undertaken to minimise the risk of food safety incidents occurring during London 2012. These include a food safety coaching programme for small businesses in Olympic areas that are in need of improvement; funding and training initiatives for local authorities in Olympic areas; and providing extra equipment for sampling and checks on cleaning.
University of Alberta researcher Christina Engels has discovered how to extract a compound from mustard seeds that can protect against food spoilage.
Engels recovered a particular compound—sinapic acid—from mustard seed meal, which shows antibacterial effects against such strains as Staphylococcus aureus, E. coli and Listeria monocytogenes, all of which can cause grave illness and death in humans. Canada is the world’s largest exporter of mustard seed.
FoodWorld 