Category Archives: Foodborne Illness

USA – Norovirus Outbreak Deli

Concord PatchNorwalk_Caspid

A Concord deli has been closed by Contra Costa County environmental health officials due to norovirus contamination.

Marilyn Underwood, environmental health department director, said the North Park Deli on Nelson Avenue was shut down late Tuesday afternoon. It’s uncertain when the eatery will re-open.

Underwood said two employees at the deli have tested positive for the virus.

She said her department was first notified of the illness when 15 people who were at an event catered by North Park Deli on Friday evening became sick over the weekend.

It usually takes 36 to 48 hours after exposure for norovirus symptoms to appear.

Underwood said anyone who visited the deli late last week or early this week and becomes sick should avoid contact with other people. In addition, surfaces and other contaminated items should be cleaned with bleach.

USA – “No Illness” Declaration Viewpoint

Food Safety News

Food companies that are voluntarily recalling a product usually use the language suggested by regulatory agencies that is then distributed electronically via the federal government websites. Recalls not connected to outbreaks almost always contain a line saying there are no reported illnesses associated with the recalled product.

William E. Keene, Oregon’s senior state epidemiologist, thinks it’s time for reporters and editors to “not let themselves be duped into amplifying press release boilerplate.”

Both the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) have templates for companies to use when writing a recall announcement. They are:

FDA: ”No illnesses have been reported to date.”

FSIS: “There have been no reports of illnesses associated with consumption of these products.”

“Until they have the isolate(s) serotyped, have PFGE’d (conducted a pulsed-field gel electrophoresis analysis), and compared to PulseNet or analogous data,” says Keene, “they are just blowing smoke.” He says that without subtyping data, the media should not fall for it. The only accurate report is that there is no way of knowing (at this time) if there are any associated illnesses.

Research – Raw Flour can cause Foodborne Illness

Food Safety News

Most savvy cooks know that raw eggs, meat, poultry, and shellfish should be handled with care because they most likely contain pathogenic bacteria. So they wash their hands after handling these products, take care to avoid cross-contamination, and sanitize surfaces after cooking. Cooking those foods will kill the pathogenic bacteria.

But did you know that uncooked flour can also be contaminated with pathogens? A study published in Foodborne Pathogens and Disease found that a cluster of Salmonella cases occurred in New Zealand in October 2008 linked to wheat-based poultry feed raw material. And raw flour caused an E. coli outbreak in the U.S. in 2009 that sickened 77 people in 30 states. In that case, the flour was in raw refrigerated,prepackaged cookie dough.

USA – Ground Beef – Salmonella Typhimurium – Outbreaks

Food Safety News – First Outbreak Update

An emerging outbreak of Salmonella Typhimurium has expanded to five states with 16 people infected with the outbreak strain, the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta said Friday.

USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS)– just 24 hours earlier– announced the existence of the outbreak with seven illnesses in two states, Michigan and Arizona.

CDC said the states and the number of persons infected in the outbreak now includes: Arizona (!), Illinois (2), Iowa (1), Michigan (9), and Wisconsin (3). No deaths have been reported, but 53 percent of the ill persons have required hospitalization.

Food Safety News – Second Outbreak

A second Michigan retail store has recalled about 550 pounds of ground beef products that may be associated with a Salmonella Typhimurium outbreak linked to a Macomb County restaurant.

Troy-based Gab Halal Foods recalled various size bags of ground beef, wrapped in clear plastic. The recalled product was produced between Dec. 4, and Dec. 10, 2012 and distributed to the Macomb County restaurant and directly to consumers.

The beef products were sold without labels.

According to USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS), the second recall was initiated out of concern for a cluster of Salmonella Typhimurium illnesses that may be caused by eating a raw ground beef product at a restaurant in Michigan’s Macomb County.

UK – FSA Warning About Campylobacter in Chicken

Daily Telegraph imagesCAYZ5I84

The Food Standards Agency warned that around two thirds of all raw, shop-bought chicken in the UK is contaminated by campylobacter, which affects an estimated 500,000 people a year and kills around 100.

It said not enough was being done by manufacturers to prevent the spread of the bacteria and has called a “summit” meeting of food retail leaders at which it will ask them to plough more money into fighting the problem, rather than treating the current contamination levels as acceptable.

New Zealand Recall – Cheese Products Implicated in the Australian Listeria Outbreak

Ministry for Primary Industries

Jindi’ Brand Cheese  imported from Australia – includes brand names ‘Old Telegraph Road’ and ‘Top  Paddock’.

This is a precautionary recall due to an  outbreak of Listeriosis illness in Australia linked to other Jindi brand  products.

USA – Article – How do Pathogens get into Produce

This is a very interesting article in Food Safety News which I think would be of interest to Food Microbiologists and the Produce industry alike. the link will take you to the full article

Food Safety News

Leafy greens, lettuce, cantaloupes, mangoes and strawberries. These are just some of the foods that have sickened or even killed people when they were contaminated with foodborne pathogens such as E. coli, Listeria and Salmonella.

Amidst the confusing swirl of information about these and other produce outbreaks, the question arises: Were some of these pathogens inside the produce? Could it be — in some cases, anyway — that the plant’s roots sucked the pathogens up out of the soil and transferred them through the plant into its edible parts?

USA – Norovirus Outbreak Shuts School

Food Safety NewsNorovirus

Norovirus sickened more than 300 students at an Arkansas middle school last week, causing the school to shut its doors Friday.

At least a third of the 900 children who attend Hellstern Middle School in Springfield and several staff either stayed home or fell ill at school Thursday, complaining of gastrointestinal symptoms, reported NWA. At the time, the cause of their illnesses remained unknown.

Then on Monday, health officials announced that Norovirus was likely the responsible pathogen.

All stool samples taken from sick children tested positive for the virus, said Springfield district spokesperson Rick Schaeffer, according to NWA.

Hong Kong – Recall Australian Cheese Implicated in the Listeria Outbreak

Center for Food SafetyFood Testing

The Centre for Food Safety (CFS) of the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department today (January 21) urged the public not to consume certain soft cheese products, manufactured in Australia, which might have been contaminated with Listeria monocytogenes. The trade should stop selling the concerned products.

“The CFS noticed through its routine Food Incident Surveillance System that some cheese products produced by an Australian manufacturer, Jindi Cheese Pty Ltd, were suspected to be contaminated with Listeria monocytogenes.  The concerned company is now voluntarily recalling all soft and semi-soft cheese products it manufactured on or before January 6 this year,” a spokesman for the CFS said.

“The CFS subsequently received notification from the International Food Safety Authorities Network of the World Health Organisation / the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations that some of the affected products have been imported to Hong Kong,” he added.

According to the information provided by the Australian authorities, the CFS has contacted two chain stores which had imported the affected products, namely PARKnSHOP and Pacific Gourmet. The shops were instructed to stop selling the products concerned (see attached table). The CFS was also informed that the companies had set up hotlines to answer consumers’ enquiries about the product recall, PARKnSHOP at 2606 8658 and Pacific Gourmet at 3184 0805.

“In case any consumers have bought the affected soft cheese products, they should stop eating them, regardless of batches. To be prudent, consumers who recently bought any cut portion of gourmet soft cheese and are unsure of the product details should also stop eating it. People are advised to seek medical advice if they feel sick after consuming the products concerned. So far the CFS has not received any reports of persons feeling unwell after consumption of the affected products,” the spokesman said.

Australia – Two Dead and a Miscarriage Listeria Cheese Outbreak

Food Safety News

A Listeria monocytogenes outbreak linked to soft cheeses has sickened 18 people in Australia; two victims have died and one woman miscarried as a result of infection with the bacteria.

The outbreak began in November of 2012, at which time an 84-year-old man from Victoria and a 44-year-old Tasmanian man died as a result of their illnesses, and a New South Wales woman suffered a miscarriage.  By mid-December, 11 cases of listeriosis (Listeria infection) had been identified as part of the outbreak, and brie and camembert cheese sold under the brand names of Jindi and Wattle Valley were implicated as the source of the bacteria.

As a result, health authorities announced a recall of four types of cheeses – 1kg packages of Jindi brie, 1kg packages of Jindi camembert, 1kg  packages of Wattle Valley double brie and 1kg packages of Wattle Valley camembert – all with a best before date of December 21.

Now a further seven cases have been connected to the outbreak, health authorities announced Friday. Officials also expanded the recall to include all cheeses manufactured by the Jindi company up to and including January 6.