Category Archives: Foodborne Illness

South Africa – One Year Ago – Tiger Brands polony linked to South Africa Listeria outbreak

Food Safety News

Food Safety News Article on the outbreak.

 

Research – Study: Food-borne diseases cost India $15 billion a year

Times of India

NEW DELHI: Unsafe food still costs India as high as $15 billion annually, even though it has almost halved from $28  billion estimated last year, a recent World Bank report says underlining the “unnecessarily high” economic burden caused by food borne diseases.

 

Canada – Breaded Chicken Salmonella Outbreak in Canada Has Sickened 534

Food Poisoning Bulletin

kswfoodworld salmonella

Image CDC

breaded chicken Salmonella outbreak in Canada has sickened at least 534 people in 13 provinces. There are actually 15 national outbreaks linked to raw chicken, including raw breaded chicken products. Food recalls have been issued for twelve products that are linked to some of these outbreak investigations.

Research – Overview of Leafy Greens–Related Food Safety Incidents with a California Link: 1996 to 2016

Journal of Food Protection Eurofins Food Testing UK

An increase in the number of foodborne illness outbreaks associated with produce has been noted in the literature, and leafy greens have been the most common produce category associated with these outbreaks. California is the largest leafy greens producer in the United States, and many related foodborne illness incidents were traced to this state. A systematic overview of leafy greens incidents linked to California was conducted by the California Department of Public Health, Food and Drug Branch through analysis of complaints, routine surveillance sampling, disease outbreaks, and investigations covering 1996 to 2016. The goal was to develop a risk assessment tool to modernize emergency response efforts to foodborne illnesses related to leafy greens. A database including environmental, epidemiologic, and laboratory information for each incident was developed, and descriptive analysis was performed to identify trends. In the 21-year period analyzed, 134 incidents were identified, the majority of which were surveillance related. Approximately 2,240 U.S. cases of confirmed illness were reported (298 California cases resulting in 50 hospitalizations). Romaine lettuce and spinach were the most commonly implicated vehicles. The most prevalent hazard type was microbiological, in particular bacterial, specifically associated with pathogenic strains of Escherichia coli. In California, the overview provided the Food and Drug Branch with a platform to (i) enhance its Food Safety Program, Emergency Response Unit, and California Food Emergency Response Team; (ii) assist in more efficient investigation, response, control, and prevention of California-linked foodborne illness incidents; and (iii) identify knowledge gaps and develop effective definitions, procedures, training, guidelines, and policies that will be used to help prevent future outbreaks. Outcomes provide insight into the situation in the largest leafy greens–producing state and may be used to prioritize limited national food safety resources and aid in future leafy greens–related research and foodborne incident investigations.

USA – Months after Chipotle food-born illnesses, restaurant still has violations

ABC 6

The outbreak of food-born illnesses from a Delaware County restaurant made national headlines and led Chipotle to retrain its entire staff, but still the Powell restaurant had three critical violations on its latest inspection by the Delaware General Health District. Clostridium perfringens

RASFF – UK – Foodborne outbreak

RASFF-Logo

RASFF –  foodborne outbreak suspected to be caused by too low acidity (due to absence of vinegar) of avocado oil mayonnaise from the United Kingdom in the UK

Malaysia – 86 Kuala Kangsar Vocational College students get food poisoning

SG News

IPOH, Feb 19 — Eighty-six trainees from the Kuala Kangsar Vocational College suffered food poisoning, believed to from eating at their hostel’s kitchen.

Perak Health Director Datuk Dr Ding Lay Ming said his department received an incident report on February 17.

“Around 86 trainees out of the total 562 were exposed to the food poisoning. The affected victims are aged between 16 and 19,” she said in a statement.

Dr Ding said that six victims were admitted at the Hospital Kuala Kangsar and their condition is now stable. The rest received outpatient treatment.

Victims suffered symptoms such as stomach pain, vomiting, diarrhoea and fever, she said.

Dr Ding said that the cause of the poisoning is still under investigation and several samples were taken for testing at the Makmal Kesihatan Awam here.

Mongolia – Mongolia to suspend KFC outlets for inquiry after food poisoning reports

Reuters

ULAANBAATAR (Reuters) – A Mongolian regulator said it will suspend operations at KFC restaurants temporarily to conduct inquiries, as 42 people were hospitalized and hundreds showed food poisoning symptoms after eating at one of the outlets of the fast-food chain.

The incident occurred at the Zaisan outlet in Ulaanbaatar last week due to its contaminated water supply, the city’s Metropolitan Professional Inspection Agency said, adding that 247 people had reported symptoms such as diarrhea and vomiting.

France – More babies infected with Salmonella in outbreak linked to rice milk formula

Food Safety News Salmonella kswfoodworld

French authorities are investigating more than a dozen cases of Salmonella infection in babies less than 19 months old. The illnesses are linked to a rice milk formula made in Spain.

Of the 14 babies involved in the investigation, the French National Public Health Agency (Santé publique France) reports five have been confirmed and nine are under investigation. Seven of the babies were hospitalized for salmonellosis but have since recovered.

Luxembourg and Belgium have reported one case each linked to the outbreak.

Research – Zoonotic Source Attribution of Salmonella enterica Serotype Typhimurium Using Genomic Surveillance Data, United States

CDC

Salmonellaa

Image CDC

Increasingly, routine surveillance and monitoring of foodborne pathogens using whole-genome sequencing is creating opportunities to study foodborne illness epidemiology beyond routine outbreak investigations and case–control studies. Using a global phylogeny of Salmonella entericaserotype Typhimurium, we found that major livestock sources of the pathogen in the United States can be predicted through whole-genome sequencing data. Relatively steady rates of sequence divergence in livestock lineages enabled the inference of their recent origins. Elevated accumulation of lineage-specific pseudogenes after divergence from generalist populations and possible metabolic acclimation in a representative swine isolate indicates possible emergence of host adaptation. We developed and retrospectively applied a machine learning Random Forest classifier for genomic source prediction of Salmonella Typhimurium that correctly attributed 7 of 8 major zoonotic outbreaks in the United States during 1998–2013. We further identified 50 key genetic features that were sufficient for robust livestock source prediction.