Your Family Cow Campylobacter Outbreak the number ill in the campylobacter outbreak has now reportedly risen to 77.
The state of California is investigating Claravale Farm for the possibility that its raw milk was contaminated with Campylobacter. Last week, the dairy stopped distributing its products to the stores that sell it. Raw milk and raw milk products are legally available in California
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Posted in E.coli O157, Food Testing, Listeria, Listeria monocytogenes, Microbiology, Pathogen, Rapid Micro Methods, Salmonella
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Posted in Eurofins Laboratories, Food Testing, Microbiology, Pathogen
Tagged surface protection
George Washington University officials alerted the campus Wednesday that about 85 students were infected by norovirus this week.
After testing by the university’s Student Health Service and D.C. Department of Health, officials confirmed that norovirus was the cause of dozens of cases of gastrointestinal illness since Monday, university officials said in a prepared release. They said they could find no common link for the infections, as students were affected who live at the Foggy Bottom campus, the Mount Vernon campus and off campus.
An additional five confirmed infections have brought the total number of Campylobacter illnesses to 76 in an outbreak linked to raw milk from Your Family Cow dairy in Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, the Pennsylvania Department of Health said Wednesday. At least 9 people have been hospitalized.
The order of a federal judge has finally shut down Rainbow Acres Farm, the raw milk dairy located near Washington D.C. in Pennsylvania’s Amish County.
The Center for Disease Control (CDC) has reported a multi-state outbreak of shiga-toxin producing E. coli 026 (STEC) infections linked to raw clover sprouts at Jimmy John’s restaurants.
So far, 12 people have been infected with the outbreak strain of STEC 026. The case distribution is:
Two people have been hospitalized, but no deaths have occurred as of February 15, 2012.
Posted in Clostridium botulinum, E.coli, E.coli O157, Eurofins Laboratories, FDA, Food Illness, Food Poisoning, Food Safety, Food Testing, Listeria monocytogenes, Microbiology, outbreak, Pathogen, Salmonella
Tagged fda, food and drug, food and drug administration, food and drug administration fda, food safety news
UV and hydrogen peroxide combo most effective listeria reducing treatment, claims study. A combination of ultraviolet-light (UV) and hydrogen peroxide (HP) is the best treatment to reduce listeria during brining, according to a study.
Postprocessing contamination of the products in a processing plant has been identified as one of the major reasons for food contamination with Listeria; brining is one such postprocessing area. Our previous study has shown that the combinations of UV and antimicrobials reduces the number of this organism significantly in fresh brine, but brine is usually recycled from days to weeks depending on its use. Therefore, this study is focused on the reduction of L. monocytogenes in recycled chill brine (obtained from a frankfurter processor) using the combinations of UV and antimicrobial agents, such as citric acid (CA), hydrogen peroxide (HP) and dimethyl dicarbonate (DMDC). Results show that the combinations of UV and 2000 ppm and 4000 ppm HP were the most effective treatments in reducing the Listeria population with the total processing time of 120 min. Both of these treatments were found to be more effective than UV or HP alone. Additionally, all other treatments, such as the combinations of UV and CA (0.2 and 0.5%) and UV and DMDC (250 and 500 ppm) were comparatively less effective. This may be due to the presence of organic matter in spent brine, which may have reduced the penetration of UV and availability of antimicrobials for microbial interaction.
Posted in Food Technology, Listeria, Listeria monocytogenes, Microbiology, Pathogen
Tagged antimicrobial agents
Some bacteria can form spores (survival capsules) that are particularly resistant to heat. Since sporogenous bacteria can also cause food poisoning and a reduction in food quality, they constitute a significant threat to the food industry.
If spores are to pose a risk, they have to “wake up” from a state of hibernation and return to their normal growth cycle through a process called germination.
Refrigerated foods with a shelf-life of several weeks are often heat-processed at temperatures between 65 – 95 C. This kills the majority of bacteria, but Bacillus spores can survive, germinate and develop into growing bacteria. Thermal treatment of this kind will in fact improve the growth potential of sporogenous bacteria because the heat kills competing bacteria flora and stimulates the surviving spores so that germination can commence more rapidly. The thermal treatment can increase the risk of spore germination in food and result in subsequent bacterial growth and a risk of quality deterioration and food poisoning.
Løvdal has investigated how the germination characteristics of the spores of four different Bacillus species are affected by heat treatment. She has used knowledge about the spores’ response to temperature to experiment with a method which can reduce the spore level without increasing the overall thermal treatment of the food product.
Posted in Bacillus, Bacillus cereus, Food Technology, Food Testing, Pathogen
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