Two young men out of more than 100 youths being treated for drug addiction at a detox centre in Banteay Meanchey province’s Serei Sorphoan city died today from food poisoning, a health official said.
Keo Sopheatra, director of Banteay Meanchey provincial Health Department, today said that more than 100 youths at Phnom Bak New Life Center had food poisoning on Sunday, but two of them died.
Fuji Food Products is recalling ready to eat sushi, salads, and spring rolls thawed were sold to retailers and distributors in the Upper Midwest and East Coast for possible Listeria monocytogenes contamination. The FDA notified the company that there is potential for contamination of their products. There have been no illnesses reported to date in connection with the consumption of these Trader Joes Okami sushi products.
The problem was discovered during a routine FDA inspection in the company’s Brockton, Massachusetts facility. The company has ceased production and distribution of their products as an investigation is launched.
A new rapid risk assessment from the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) shows that twenty-one cases of Listeria monocytogenes IVb sequence type ST 6 infections have been reported in the Netherlands (19 cases) and Belgium (two cases). This outbreak was identified using whole genome sequencing (WGS) analysis.
The patients involved had onset of illness between 2017 and August 2019. Three patients died and one suffered a miscarriage due to the infection. The close genetic relatedness of the strains, and the temporal distribution of the cases suggests a prolonged, intermittent, common source food-borne outbreak which occurred in at least two EU member states.
Nine isolates from six sliced ready-to-eat (RTE) meat products, produced between 2017 and 2019 by the Dutch manufacturing company A, were found to be contaminated with L. monocytogenes strains matching the outbreak strain.
Although the exact points of contamination have not yet been identified, the results of the investigation suggest that the contamination may have happened at the Dutch company, which was the only common manufacturing point of the contaminated products. The company distributed products to several EU countries as well as to countries outside the EU.
Company A stopped production in October 2019, and finalised the withdrawals and recalls of all RTE meat products. This measure lowered the risk of new cases occurring, which may be associated with this company’s products.
Pregnant women, the elderly and immunocompromised people are at higher risk of invasive listeriosis, which is associated with severe clinical course and potential death.
Specific attention should be paid to the administration of RTE meat products to people in hospitals, nursing homes and those belonging to vulnerable population groups.
Source: ECDC, 26 November 2019
Posted in food contamination, Food Hygiene, Food Illness, Food Inspections, Food Micro Blog, Food Microbiology, Food Microbiology Blog, Food Pathogen, food recall, Food Safety, Food Safety Alert, Food Testing, foodborne disease, Foodborne Illness, foodborne outbreak, foodbourne outbreak, Listeria, Listeria monocytogenes, Uncategorized
Darwin’s Dairy, located in Barnsley, South Yorkshire, has recalled all of its milk and cream products, as they may not have been effectively pasteurised. This means that these products may contain harmful bacteria such as E. coli.
Details of the products affected can be found on the Food Standards Agency (FSA) website. Point-of-sale notices will be displayed in all retail stores selling the products. The notices explain to customers why the products are being recalled and what to do if they have bought the products.
The dairy has also contacted delivery customers to advise them of the product recall.
Source: FSA, 27 November 2019
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Bactericidal effects of various concentrations of phenyllactic acid on Shiga toxin–producing Escherichia coli (STEC), including E. coli O157:H7, O26:H11, O103:H2, and O121:H19, and on Salmonella Typhimurium DT104 in pure culture and microplates assays were studied. Beef cuts were surface sprayed with phenyllactic acid or lactic acid for inactivation of E. coli O157:H7 and Salmonella Typhimurium. The 1.5% phenyllactic acid inactivated all inoculated E. coli O157:H7, O26:H11, O103:H2, and O121:H19 and Salmonella Typhimurium DT104 (>6-log reduction) within 1 min of contact at 21°C, whereas 1.5% lactic acid did not result in microbial reduction. Microplate assays (for STEC and Salmonella Typhimurium DT104 at 10 to 100 CFU per well) indicated that concentrations of 0.25% phenyllactic acid or 0.25% lactic acid inhibited the growth of STEC and Salmonella Typhimurium DT104 incubated at 37°C for 24 h. Treatment of beef with 1.5% lactic acid or 1.5% phenyllactic acid reduced E. coli O157:H7 by 0.22 and 0.38 log CFU/cm2, respectively, within 5 min and reduced Salmonella Typhimurium DT104 by 0.12 and 0.86 log CFU/cm2, respectively. When meat treated with 1.5% phenyllactic acid was frozen at −20°C, inactivation of E. coli O157 and Salmonella Typhimurium DT104 was enhanced by 1.06 and 1.46 log CFU/cm2, respectively. Thus, treatment of beef with 1.5% phenyllactic acid significantly reduced the population of E. coli O157:H7 and Salmonella.
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Phenyllactic acid at 1.5% killed STEC and Salmonella (>6-log reduction) within 1 min.
The MIC of lactic and phenyllactic acids was 0.25%.
The bactericidal effect of phenyllactic acid on beef was enhanced by freezing.
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Nearly one-half of foodborne illnesses in the United States can be attributed to fresh produce consumption. The preharvest stage of production presents a critical opportunity to prevent produce contamination in the field from contaminating postharvest operations and exposing consumers to foodborne pathogens. One produce-contamination route that is not often explored is the transfer of pathogens in the soil to edible portions of crops via splash water. We report here on the results from multiple field and microcosm experiments examining the potential for Salmonella contamination of produce crops via splash water, and the effect of soil moisture content on Salmonella survival in soil and concentration in splash water. In field and microcosm experiments, we detected Salmonella for up to 8 to 10 days after inoculation in soil and on produce. Salmonella and suspended solids were detected in splash water at heights of up to 80 cm from the soil surface. Soil-moisture conditions before the splash event influenced the detection of Salmonella on crops after the splash events—Salmonella concentrations on produce after rainfall were significantly higher in wet plots than in dry plots (geometric mean difference = 0.43 CFU/g; P = 0.03). Similarly, concentrations of Salmonella in splash water in wet plots trended higher than concentrations from dry plots (geometric mean difference = 0.67 CFU/100 mL; P = 0.04). These results indicate that splash transfer of Salmonella from soil onto crops can occur and that antecedent soil-moisture content may mediate the efficiency of microbial transfer. Splash transfer of Salmonella may, therefore, pose a hazard to produce safety. The potential for the risk of splash should be further explored in agricultural regions in which Salmonella and other pathogens are present in soil. These results will help inform the assessment of produce safety risk and the development of management practices for the mitigation of produce contamination.
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Salmonella was detected for 8 to 10 days after inoculation in soil and on produce.
Salmonella in soil can be detected in splash water from rainfall/irrigation events.
Salmonella was detected in splash water at heights of up to 80 cm.
Soil moisture conditions may affect the transfer potential of Salmonella.
In a follow-up on a previous report on the Cryptosporidium outbreak in Sweden, the Public Health Authority, or Folkhalsomyndigheten, report more than 300 cases of cryptosporidiosis in October and November.
The good news is while the number of cases are still unusually high, the number of reported cases has decreased.
Olymel S.E.C/LP is recalling Lafleur Original Wieners from the marketplace in Canada for possible Listeria monocytogenes contamination. There have been no reported illnesses associated with the consumption of this product. the product was solid Quebec, Ontario, and the Northwest Territories in Canada.
The recalled product is Lafleur Original Wieners, sold in 450 gram packages. The UPC number is 0 65305 02201 0, and the best before date is 2020 JA 15.
The recall was triggered by the company. The Canadian Food Inspection Agency is conducting a food safety investigation, and more products may be recalled. The CFIA is also making sure that industry is removing this product from the marketplace.
The latest data from a national surveillance system that monitors foodborne bacteria for antibiotic resistance shows rising resistance to the drugs commonly used to treat Salmonella infections.
The findings come from the 2016-2017 National Antimicrobial Resistance Monitoring Systems (NARMS) Integrated Summary, which combines data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and the US Department of Agriculture (USDA). The report provides a snapshot of antibiotic resistance patterns found in bacteria isolated from humans, raw retail meats (chicken, ground turkey, ground beef, and pork chops), and healthy animals at slaughter.
In addition to finding rising resistance to first-line antibiotics in human isolates of Salmonella, the NARMS data also show an increase in multidrug-resistant (MDR) Salmonella recovered from chickens and multidrug-resistant Campylobacter coli isolated from beef and dairy cattle.
Listeriosis is rarely reported in the Southern African Hemispheres in spite of the increasing rate of Listeria in several foodborne outbreaks reported in advanced countries. This paper reviews the emerging trends in the spread, distribution, and epidemiology of Listeria species in foods, water, human, animals, and different environments in Southern Africa based on the appraisal of scholarly articles. In this regard, information obtained from literatures from various online databases revealed that Listeria species are commonly recovered from food, water, and human samples. Fewer articles provided information on Listeria recovered from animals (ruminants) and soil samples. Generally, reports of studies were more focused on Listeria monocytogenes among other Listeria species. To this end, reports obtained from literature on the method of identification of Listeria were mostly based on serological, classical biochemical methods and the principle of aesculin hydrolysis, usually characterized by black coloration on selective media for Listeria. These methods may not be reliable, as they could sometimes give a false positive report. Therefore, molecular methods are more reliable, accurate, could show the genetic relationship between isolates, and at the same time capable of enabling tracking the source of this pathogen should be embraced as a better substitute for the identification of Listeria in Southern African sub‐region.
FoodWorld 