Category Archives: Laboratory

USA -CDC Update Foster Farms Salmonella Outbreak

CDCE.coli O157

As of November 15, 2013, a total of 389 persons infected with seven outbreak strains of Salmonella Heidelberg have been reported from 23 states and Puerto Rico.

40% of ill persons have been hospitalized, and no deaths have been reported.

Most ill persons (74%) have been reported from California.

Epidemiologic, laboratory, and traceback investigations conducted  by local, state, and federal officials indicate that consumption of Foster  Farms brand chicken is the likely source of this outbreak of Salmonella Heidelberg infections.

Canada – Recall – Garlic Powder – Salmonella

CFIAEurofins Food Testing UK

Loblaw Companies Limited is recalling Suraj brand Garlic Powder from the marketplace due to possible Salmonella contamination. Consumers should not consume the recalled product described below.

The following product has been sold nationally.

 Recalled products

Brand Name Common Name Size UPC Additional Info
Suraj Garlic Powder 400 g 0 57197 37238 0 Best Before 2015 AL 22

Canada – Ground Beef Recall – E.coli O157:H7

CFIAE.coli O157:H7

Groupe Colabor Inc. is recalling ground beef from the marketplace due to possible E. coli O157:H7 contamination. Hotels, restaurants, institutions and daycare facilities should not use, serve or distribute the recalled products described in the link above.

USA – Salmonella Outbreak Sickens 18

Food Poisoning BulletinSalmonella

The Salmonella outbreak we reported on last week has been confirmed as Salmonella enteritidis, according to MLive. Eighteen cases have been confirmed in Muskegon County. The Muskegon County web site was down at the time of this report.

Officials believe that a single source caused the outbreak, and that people were exposed to the bacteria from October 30 to November 2, 2013. Seventeen of the eighteen cases are related. There is no information about  the source of the bacteria, where the patients ate, or what they ate. Officials are going to start studying epidemiological evidence and will conduct statistical analysis this week.

RASFF Alerts – Salmonella – Meat Ball – Turkey Meat – Paan Leaves – Chicken Kebab – Clams

RASFF -Salmonella typhimurium (presence /25g) in frozen meat ball mass from Lithuania in Latvia

RASFF -Salmonella Hadar (presence /25g) in frozen turkey meat preparations from Brazil in the Netherlands

RASFF -Salmonella spp. in paan leaves from Bangladesh in the UK

RASFF -Salmonella group C1 (present /25g) in fresh chicken fillets from the Czech Republic

RASFF -Salmonella infantis (presence /25g) in frozen chicken kebab from the Czech Republic, with raw material from Poland

RASFF -Salmonella Javiana (present /25g) in rice paddy herb from Vietnam in Norway

RASFF -Salmonella in frozen ark clams from Vietnam

 

RASFF Alerts – Aflatoxin – Ground Nutmeg – Groundnuts -Ochratoxin – Dried Figs

RASFF -aflatoxins (B1 = 57; Tot. = 60 µg/kg – ppb) in ground nutmeg from Poland in the UK

RASFF – ochratoxin A (18.5 µg/kg – ppb) in dried figs from Turkey in Germany

RASFF -ochratoxin A (11.7 µg/kg – ppb) in dried organic figs from Turkey in Germany

RASFF -aflatoxins (B1 = 72.6 / B1 = 105 µg/kg – ppb) in whole groundnuts from Nicaragua in the UK

USA – Shigella Outbreak –

Shigella BlogShigella_stool

There is a regional outbreak of shigella related illnesses throughout Stanly, Cabarrus, Rowan, Union, and Mecklenburg counties.  Cabarrus County has over 40 lab confirmed cases reported which is the highest number of reported cases in all these counties,” said Cindy Russell, Stanly County Health Department communicable disease nurse.

“We want to call your attention to this outbreak as many Stanly County residents participate in activities that cross county lines. As of this week, Stanly County has had two reported cases of shigella and one probable case.”

Shigella is a highly infectious disease. Most of those that are infected with shigella develop watery stools, fever and stomach cramps starting a day or two after they are exposed to the bacteria, according to the health department. The watery stools are often bloody. Shigellosis usually resolves in five to seven days.

Research – MRSA Treatment

News NortheasternStaphylococcus

Recent work from Uni­ver­sity Dis­tin­guished Pro­fessor of Biology Kim Lewis promises to over­come one of the leading public health threats of our time. In a ground­breaking study pub­lished Wednesday in the journal Nature, Lewis’ team presents a novel approach to treat and elim­i­nate methi­cillin resis­tant staphy­lo­coccus aureus, or MRSA, a potent bac­terium whose resis­tance to antibi­otics has kept it one step ahead of researchers. That is, until now.

Bac­teria such as MRSA have evolved to actively resist cer­tain antibi­otics, a fact that has gen­er­ated sig­nif­i­cant interest among the sci­en­tific and med­ical com­mu­ni­ties. But Lewis, Director of Northeastern’s Antimi­cro­bial Dis­covery Center, sus­pected that a dif­ferent adap­tive func­tion of bac­teria might be the true cul­prit in making these infec­tions so devastating. –

USA – FDA Food Code 2013

FDAFDA

Food Code 2013

The Food Code is a model for safeguarding public health and ensuring food is unadulterated and honestly presented when offered to the consumer. It represents FDA’s best advice for a uniform system of provisions that address the safety and protection of food offered at retail and in food service.

This model is offered for adoption by local, state, and federal governmental jurisdictions for administration by the various departments, agencies, bureaus, divisions, and other units within each jurisdiction that have been delegated compliance responsibilities for food service, retail food stores, or food vending operations. Alternatives that offer an equivalent level of public health protection to ensure that food at retail and foodservice is safe are recognized in this model.

The FDA Food Code marks it’s 20th anniversary with the release of the 2013 edition. The 2013 Food Code (8th edition) reflects the agency’s continued commitment to maintaining cooperative programs with state, local, tribal, and territorial governments. Enhancements in this edition reflect the input of regulatory officials, industry, academia, and consumers that participated in the 2012 biennial meeting of the Conference for Food Protection (CFP).

 

USA – E.coli Outbreaks Updates

Food Poisoning BulletinEcoli Istock

Salads and sandwich wraps linked to a multistate E. coli outbreak were sold at Walgreens stores in Northern California and Trader Joe’s stores in California, Washington, Oregon and Arizona, according to a retail distribution list compiled by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (USDA FSIS).  At least 26 people who ate the salads or sandwich wraps containing the salads, have become ill. Six of them have been hospitalized

Food Poisoning Bulletin

More salads have been recalled in the wake of an E. coli O157:H7 outbreak in western states. The FDA and Whole Foods Market are recalling ready-to-eat Artichoke Wheatberry Salad and Southwest SooFoo Salads as a preventive measure after the large Glass Onion Catering recall because they may be contaminated with the pathogenic bacteria.

The salads have expiration dates between November 9 and November 13, 2013. They were sold in California Whole Foods Stores. The PLU numbers for the Artichoke Wheatberry Salad are 28563300000 and 28563400000. The PLU numbers for the Southwest SooFoo Salad are 28563700000 and 28563800000. The salads were sold during an unspecified time period.

Food Poisoning Bulletin

Two strains of E. coli that have never been seen before are the source of two separate, ongoing  food poisoning outbreaks in California, health officials told Food Poisoning Bulletin today. One of these new strains is the source of the multistate outbreak linked to ready-to-eat salads produced by Glass Onion Catering of Richmond, CA and sold at Trader Joe’s and other grocery stores in several states. The other new strain has sickened four people in Humboldt County, in Northern California