Category Archives: Uncategorized

CDC – Outbreaks Associated With Environmental and Undetermined Water Exposures — United States, 2011–2012

Food Poisoning Bulletin

The New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene has updated the Legionnaires’ Disease outbreak in the South Bronx. As of August 15, 2015, 124 people are sick, and 12 people have died. Ninety-four people have been hospitalized, treated, and released.

No new cases have been reported with symptoms onset date after August 3, 2015. Officials believe that one or more of the five locations that tested positive was the source of the outbreak. All of those locations have been disinfected, and they believe the outbreak has been contained because of those actions.

ABC

Despite more than four million Australians getting sick from contaminated food each year, the overall national rate of food poisoning is falling.

Except, that is, when it comes to salmonella.

Science Direct

Management of microbiological food safety is largely based on good design of processes, products and procedures. Finished product testing may be considered as a control measure at the end of the production process. However, testing gives only very limited information on the safety status of a food. If a hazardous organism is found it means something, but absence in a limited number of samples is no guarantee of safety of a whole production batch. Finished product testing is often too little and too late. Therefore most attention should be focussed on management and control of the hazards in a more pro-active way by implementing an effective food safety management system. For verification activities in a food safety management system, finished product testing may however be useful. For three cases studies; canned food, chocolate and cooked ham, the relevance of testing both of finished products and the production environment is discussed. Since the level of control of different processes can be largely different it is beneficial if the frequency of sampling of finished products and production environments would be related to the associated human health risk, which can be assessed on the basis of risk assessment and epidemiological data.

CFIA 

Safeway is recalling various store-packaged, cooked Chicken Wings from the marketplace because they may contain the toxin produced by Staphylococcus bacteria. Consumers should not consume the recalled products described below.

The following cooked products have been sold in Safeway locations in British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Ontario.

Food Safety News 

Health officials in Vancouver, British Columbia, are requiring area restaurants to cook oysters harvested in that province before serving them. Only oysters harvested outside of British Columbia may be served raw at this time, according to a statement issued Aug. 12 by Vancouver Coastal Health (VCH).

Public health ordered this step in response to an ongoing outbreak of Vibrio parahaemolyticus infection related to consumption of raw oysters harvested in BC.

Barf Blog

Laboratory results released by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Central Office revealed that various samples taken from two durian manufacturers Wendy’s and Blesse’s, linked as source of durian candies that poisoned hundreds of school children in Caraga Region last month, were tested positive of several bacterial contaminations.

PhilStar Nation

TANDAG CITY, Philippines – Some 1,081 high school and elementary students in Surigao del Sur were rushed to hospitals yesterday in an apparent poisoning after eating durian candies labeled “Wendy’s.”

The same candy also downed 44 students in Kidapawan City, North Cotabato.

In nearby Maguindanao province, 16 students were also treated for food poisoning after eating spoiled siopao sold inside the campus.

Surigao del Sur Gov. Johnny Pimentel told The STAR that 438 victims of food poisoning were confined at the Adela Serra Ty Medical Center in Tandag while 139 were treated at the District Hospital in Marihatag, Surigao del Sur

USDA

Kapowsin Meats, a Graham, Wash. establishment, is recalling approximately 116,262 pounds of whole hogs that may be contaminated with Salmonella I 4, [5],12:i:-, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) announced today.

The whole hogs for barbeque item were produced on various dates between April 18, 2015 and July 27, 2015. The following products are subject to recall:

• Varying weights of Whole Hogs for Barbeque

The product subject to recall bears the establishment number “Est. 1628” inside the USDA mark of inspection. The product was shipped to various individuals, retail locations, institutions, and distributors in Alaska and Washington.

On July 15, 2015, the Washington State Department of Health notified FSIS of an investigation of Salmonella I 4,[5],12:i:- illnesses. Working in conjunction with the Washington State Department of Health and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), FSIS determined that there is a link between whole hogs for barbeque from Kapowsin Meats and these illnesses. Traceback investigation has identified 32 case-patients who consumed whole hogs for barbeque from this establishment prior to illness onset. These illnesses are part of a larger illness investigation. Based on epidemiological evidence, 134 case-patients have been identified in Washington with illness onset dates ranging from April 25, 2015 to July 29, 2015. FSIS continues to work with our public health partners on this ongoing investigation.

CDC 

The Waterborne Disease and Outbreak Surveillance System (WBDOSS) collects data on waterborne disease and outbreaks associated with recreational water, drinking water, environmental, and undetermined water exposures.

WBDOSS is a national surveillance system that was initiated in 1971 as a partnership between the CDC, the Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists (CSTE), and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). This system is dependent on public health departments in individual states, territories, and the Freely Associated States (composed of the Republic of the Marshall Islands, the Federated States of Micronesia and the Republic of Palau; formerly parts of the U.S.-administered Trust Territories of the Pacific Islands) to provide complete and accurate data for waterborne disease and outbreaks.

RASFF – fresh quark from France infested with moulds (Geotrichum candidum in the Netherlands

RASFF-aflatoxins (B1 = 66.7; Tot. = 69.3) in crushed chili from Sri Lanka in Italy

RASFF-aflatoxins (B1 = 6; Tot. = 7.4 µg/kg – ppb) in shelled peanuts from China in Spain

RASFF-aflatoxins (B1 = 6.9; Tot. = 14.9 µg/kg – ppb) in groundnut kernels from China in Spain

RASFF-aflatoxins (B1 = 20 µg/kg – ppb) and suspicion of Salmonella (detectable /25g) in pistachios from the United States, via the Netherlands