Category Archives: Uncategorized

Science Daily

The pathogenic bacterium Bacillus cereus causes vomiting and diarrhea as well as systemic and local infections. A team of researchers has reported for the first time that B. cereus, following contact with certain antibiotics, can switch into a special slowed-down mode. The bacteria then form small colony variants (SVCs) that are difficult to diagnose and almost impossible to treat with certain antibiotics. This discovered mechanism may provide an alternative explanation for antibiotic resistance.

Science Daily

McArthur, a senior research ecologist with the Savannah River Ecology Laboratory and Odum School of Ecology, believes environmental contaminants may be partly to blame for the rise in bacterial resistance, and he tested this hypothesis in streams on the U.S. Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site.

Food Safety News 

Park City, UT-based Du Monde Gourmet  on Dec. 31 recalled approximately 235 pounds of ready-to-eat pocket sandwich products, which may have experienced temperature deviation and may contain Clostridium perfringens, Bacillus cereus, and/or Clostridium botulinum, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS).

GhanaWeb

A middle aged man died and four of his friends were critically ill after eating poisoned food on Christmas day at Assin Breku in the Central region.

According to reports, the deceased who was rushed to the St. Francis Hospital in Assin Fosu while vomiting, died shortly before he was attended to.

Splash FM’s Alfred Amo, the four others also started vomiting immediately after the death of their brother.

He indicated that the family who hail from Burkina Fosa took a meal of rice the previous night which is suspected to have been poisoned.

Shanghai Daily.com

This summer, a simple meal of rice topped with shelled crawfish was all the rage. It originated in Nanjing but was quickly picked up in Shanghai, where some restaurants started to offer the dish at prices as low as 36 yuan (US$5.7).

The cheap price should have been a warning signal about the quality of the food.

On August 16, the Zheng Wenqi Crawfish Rice Restaurant in Yangpu District was closed four days after it opened and seven customers came down with food poisoning. It turned out the restaurant was selling the crawfish meals at a price below the labor cost of shelling the crustaceans. Zheng Wenqi’s other chain outlets suffered a dramatic drop in business.

Michigan State University

Many people are working on a healthier life style. Their diets include fresh fruit and vegetables and fresh juices. Some people are going out of their way to promote the juicing of fresh fruits and vegetables. But what is the risk for food borne illness when it comes these juice products?

In the United States most of the juices sold commercially are processed or pasteurized to kill harmful food borne illness bacteria. But if the fruits and vegetables are “fresh-squeezed” into juice there is the risk of harmful food borne illness bacteria being in the finished product.

There are some grocery stores, health food stores, cider mills, and farm markets that sell packages and containers of juice that was made on site. These juices were not pasteurized or treated to kill harmful food borne illness bacteria. This could be a food borne illness waiting to happen.

FDA

Thomas Produce Company of Boca Raton, FL is recalling 174 bulk-packed containers of Cucumbers. This product has the potential to be contaminated with Salmonella, an organism which can cause serious and sometimes fatal infections in young children, frail or elderly people, and others with weakened immune systems. Healthy persons infected with Salmonella may experience fever, diarrhea (which may be bloody), nausea, vomiting, and abdominal pain.

This product was sold to distributors in Florida and Georgia between 12/15/2015 and 12/16/2015. All distributors that received this product have been notified as of the time of this press release.

The fresh, whole, green Cucumbers were sold in 166 cardboard bushel boxes (1 1/9 bushel size) with one of the following lot numbers ink-jet printed on the side: 1554311JDNK, 1554311HDNK, and 15143115DNK. These cucumbers were also distributed in 8 bulk cardboard bins(4’x4′ size) tagged with codes 15NKJD-1554311-D, 15NKHD-1554311-D, and 15NK5D-1514311-D.

No illnesses have been reported to date in connection with this recall.

The Nation

A man, identified as Onana Osua, has been shot dead by a police patrol team after killing six persons for alleged food poisoning.

The late Osua was said to have left the hospital, where he was receiving treatment, after he was reportedly poisoned.

He was reportedly told that he had five days to live.

Eyewitnesses said Osua went home, took his gun and went to the homes of those suspected to have poisoned him and shot them dead.

The incident occurred at Uromi, Esan Northeast Local Government Area.

New Business News

The third stage of World Cup in the Slovenian Pokljuka just three teams amazed virus epidemic.  Athletes team of Belarus, Austria and Canada, who live in the same hotel, have serious health problems and do not take part in the competition.

Travel Agent Central 

Holland America Line’s Veendam was hit with a possible norovirus outbreak on its December 20-27 cruise, ending in San Diego on Sunday. Fifty-seven of 1,429 passengers or almost 4 percent of passengers were reported ill with vomiting and diarrhea as the primary symptoms, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, which investigates illnesses on cruise ships.

Ten of 588 crew members, or 1.7 percent of the crew, also were ill during the cruise. While the CDC lists the causative agent as “unknown,” the reported symptoms mimic that of norovirus, which occurs on both land and sea in places where large numbers of people gather.