Category Archives: Uncategorized

MDPI

Abstract

GovIL

You are invited to participate in an online seminar (webinar) on the topic: What will be the source of the next epidemic? Zoonoses and the factors driving their decline organized by the Council for Research in Biological Pathogens and the Office of the Chief Scientist, Ministry of Health.

FDA

Product

Oysters from Groton Approved area in Connecticut harvested from 8/28/2023 through 8/30/2023 from dealers CT-393-SS, AQ, CT-004-SS, AQ, and CT-020-SS, AQ with lots, L-30 and L-26B1.

Purpose

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is advising consumers not to eat, and restaurants and food retailers not to sell, and to dispose of oysters harvested from Groton Approved area in Connecticut from 8/28/2023 through 8/30/2023 from dealers CT-393-SS, AQ, CT-004-SS, AQ, and CT-020-SS, AQ with lots, L-30 and L-26B1 due to sample results showing potential contamination. Oysters were directly distributed to retailers and distributors in CT, MA, NY, PA, and VA. Oysters may have been distributed further from these states.

Contaminated oysters can cause illness, especially if eaten raw, particularly in people with compromised immune systems. Food contaminated with pathogens may look, smell, and taste normal. Consumers of these products who are experiencing food poisoning symptoms such as diarrhea, stomach pain or cramps, nausea, vomiting, or fever should contact their healthcare provider, who should report their symptoms to their local Health Department.

Symptoms of Food Poisoning

People can get sick with food poisoning after ingesting certain pathogens, like Salmonella or E. coli. Symptoms may vary, depending on the pathogen and can range from mild to serious. The most common symptoms of food poisoning are diarrhea, stomach pain or cramps, nausea, vomiting, and fever. Symptoms may start within a few hours or may take a few days and can last for a few hours or several days.

FDA

Constituent Update

August 25, 2023

Yesterday, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) signed a Regulatory Partnership Arrangement (RPA) with Ecuador’s seafood regulatory authority to strengthen food safety in shrimp intended for the U.S. market. Shrimp is the most consumed seafood in the United States, the vast majority of which is imported. Ecuador is one of the leading exporters of aquacultured shrimp to the United States.

The first of its kind, this regulatory partnership serves as an arrangement between the FDA and the Vice Ministry of Aquaculture and Fisheries (VMAF) to work more closely to reinforce food safety practices along the entire supply chain. Such arrangements aim to leverage commodity-specific oversight systems — in this case, involving imported aquacultured shrimp — along with data and information, to strengthen food safety before and at the port of entry.

In preparing for the RPA with Ecuador, in August 2022, the FDA and VMAF signed a confidentiality commitment (CC) that allows for the exchange of confidential information, including inspection records, sample findings, and other non-public documents.

In addition, the FDA did a rigorous assessment of the strength of Ecuador’s aquacultured seafood safety system and examined important parts of VMAF’s programs and capabilities.

Science Alert

Despite their salubrious sounding name, fruit flies (Drosophila species),
eat food that is decaying. They inhabit rubbish bins, compost heaps or any place where food is present, including drains. Rotting food is rich in germs, any of which a fly can pick up on their body and transfer to where it next lands.

These bacteria include E coli, Listeria, Shigella, and Salmonella, any of which can cause a potentially serious infection in even healthy people. The fruit fly, you realise, may have just deposited potentially lethal microbes in your wine, so you toss it in the sink and pour a fresh glass.

Alcohol is well known to be inhibitory to germs and is one reason wine can be stored for so long. Several laboratory studies have also shown that the combined effects of wine alcohol and organic acids, such as malic acid, can prevent the growth of E coli and Salmonella.

My Pune Pulse

Around 170 students at an orphanage school in Sangli, Maharashtra, were hospitalised on Monday following a suspected case of food poisoning.

They were admitted to the hospital, and their conditions are stable, an official said.

According to the information received, the affected children were students at Samata Ashram School in Umdi.

In Sangli, students in the age group of 5 to 15 complained of nausea, vomiting, and diarrhoea shortly after consuming dinner served by the school staff.

FDA

Here are some food-related tips to remember:

• Do not eat any food that is not in a waterproof container if there is any chance it came in contact with flood water.
• Inspect canned foods and discard any food in damaged cans. Damaged cans may have swelling, leakage, punctures, holes, or rusting.
• Do not eat food packed in plastic, paper, cardboard, cloth and similar containers that have been water-damaged.
• Discard food and beverage containers with screw-caps, snap lids, crimped caps (soda bottles), twist caps, flip tops and home canned foods, if they have come in contact with flood water. These containers cannot be disinfected.
• Follow tips on how to keep food safe at proper temperatures.
• Discard any perishable food (such as meat, poultry, fish, milk, eggs or leftovers) that has been held at room temperature for 2 hours or more (or 1 hour if outdoor temperatures are above 90º F).

Food safety doesn’t stop with inspecting the packaging. It also involves what comes in contact with the food after you open it:

• Thoroughly wash pots, pans, ceramic dishes, and utensils (including can openers) with soap and water, using hot water if available. Rinse and then sanitize them by boiling in clean water or immersing them for 15 minutes in a solution of 1 tablespoon of unscented household (5.25% concentration) liquid bleach per gallon of water.
• Thoroughly wash countertops with soap and water, using hot water if available. Rinse and then sanitize by applying a solution of 1 tablespoon of unscented household (5.25% concentration) liquid bleach per gallon of water. Allow to air dry.

Power loss is common in severe storms, but there are ways to increase the time the food in your fridge will remain safe to eat. It’s important to keep the refrigerator and freezer doors closed. Food in an unopened refrigerator and freezer is safe to consume if the power outage lasts less than 4 hours. The foods in the freezer are typically safe for 48 hours if it is full or 24 hours if the freezer is half full.

For refrigerated items, after the 4-hour power outage, it is best to pack them into a cooler surrounded by ice or frozen gel packs for storage. Check the food temperature of these items before cooking or eating them and toss them out if the item has been above 40 degrees Fahrenheit for two hours or more.

For infants, ready-to-feed formula should be used. However, if only concentrated or powdered formula is available, prepare the formula with bottled water or water that has been sterilized. Your doctor or public health authorities can advise if water needs to be boiled before use. You should ensure that the bottles and nipples used are also sanitized.

Food Safety News

According to recently released data, Salmonella remained the top cause of food poisoning in Poland in 2022 despite the number of infections declining.

Findings come from a report on inspection work in 2022, including controls over the safety of food, published by the Chief Sanitary Inspectorate (GIS).

In 2022, 6,221 Salmonella infections related to food were confirmed. This is down from the previous year when 8,014 cases were recorded.

As part of the multi-country monophasic Salmonella Typhimurium outbreak linked to Ferrero chocolate, intensified supervision was carried out from April to December 2022. A total of 87 suspected cases were reported, and of these, 38 were sequenced, but none belonged to the outbreak.

Poland’s battle to control Salmonella is well-documented. Data from the Rapid Alert System for Food and Feed Network (RASFF) for 2022 shows 190 Salmonella reports concerned poultry meat products from the country, although this is down from 2020 and 2021, and most reports were made by Poland.

The number of establishments operating in the food sector under the supervision of authorities exceeded 560,000, an increase of more than 17,000 compared to 2021.

Academia Edu

The progressive ability of a six-strains L. monocytogenes cocktail to form biofilm on stainless steel (SS), under fish-processing simulated conditions, was investigated, together with the biocide tolerance of the developed sessile communities. To do this, the pathogenic bacteria were left to form biofilms on SS coupons incubated at 15 °C, for up to 240 h, in periodically renewable model fish juice substrate, prepared by aquatic extraction of sea bream flesh, under both mono-species and mixed-culture conditions. In the latter case, L. monocytogenes cells were left to produce biofilms together with either a five-strains cocktail of four Pseudomonas species (fragi, savastanoi, putida and fluorescens), or whole fish indigenous microflora. The biofilm populations of L. monocytogenes, Pseudomonas spp., Enterobacteriaceae, H 2 S producing and aerobic plate count (APC) bacteria, both before and after disinfection, were enumerated by selective agar plating, following their removal from surfaces through bead vortexing. Scanning electron microscopy was also applied to monitor biofilm formation dynamics and anti-biofilm biocidal actions. Results revealed the clear dominance of Pseudomonas spp. bacteria in all the mixed-culture sessile communities throughout the whole incubation period, with the in parallel sole presence of L. monocytogenes cells to further increase (ca. 10-fold) their sessile growth. With respect to L. monocytogenes and under mono-species conditions, its maximum biofilm population (ca. 6 log CFU/cm 2) was reached at 192 h of incubation, whereas when solely Pseudomonas spp. cells were also present, its biofilm formation was either slightly hindered or favored, depending on the incubation day. However, when all the fish indigenous microflora was present, biofilm formation by the pathogen was greatly hampered and never exceeded 3 log CFU/cm 2 , while under the same conditions, APC biofilm counts had already surpassed 7 log CFU/cm 2 by the end of the first 96 h of incubation. All here tested disinfection treatments, composed of two common food industry biocides gradually applied for 15 to 30 min, were insufficient against L. monocytogenes mono-species biofilm communities, with the resistance of the latter to significantly increase from the 3rd to 7th day of incubation.

However, all these treatments resulted in no detectable L. monocytogenes cells upon their application against the mixed-culture sessile communities also containing the fish indigenous microflora, something probably associated with the low attached population level of these pathogenic cells before disinfection (< 10² CFU/cm²) under such mixed-culture conditions. Taken together, all these results expand our knowledge on both the population dynamics and resistance of L. monocytogenes biofilm cells under conditions resembling those encountered within the seafood industry and should be considered upon designing and applying effective anti-biofilm strategies.