Category Archives: Uncategorized

Journal of Food Protection 

Bacillus cereus is a pathogenic adulterant of raw milk and can persist as spores and grow in pasteurized milk. The objective of this study was to determine the prevalence of B. cereus and its enterotoxins in pasteurized milk at its best-before date when stored at 4, 7, and 10°C. More than 5.5% of moderately temperature-abused products (stored at 7°C) were found to contain >10⁵ CFU/mL B. cereus, and about 4% of them contained enterotoxins at a level that may result in foodborne illness; in addition, more than 31% of the products contained >10⁵ CFU/mL B. cereus and associated enterotoxins when stored at 10°C. Results from a growth kinetic study demonstrated that enterotoxin production by B. cereus in pasteurized milk can occur in as short as 7 to 8 days of storage at 7°C. The higher B. cereus counts were associated with products containing higher butterfat content or with those produced using the conventional high-temperature, short-time pasteurization process. Traditional indicators, aerobic colony counts and psychrotrophic counts, were found to have no correlation with level of B. cereus in milk. The characterization of 17 representative B. cereus isolates from pasteurized milk revealed five toxigenic gene patterns, with all the strains carrying genes encoding for diarrheal toxins but not for an emetic toxin, and with one strain containing all four diarrheal enterotoxin genes (nheA, entFM, hblC, and cytK). The results of this study demonstrate the risks associated even with moderately temperature-abused pasteurized milk and the necessity of a controlled cold chain throughout the shelf life of fluid milk to enhance product safety and minimize foodborne illness.

Journal of Food Protection 

Poultry contaminated with Salmonella enterica subsp. enterica are a major cause of zoonotic foodborne gastroenteritis. Salmonella Heidelberg is a common serotype of Salmonella that has been implicated as a foodborne pathogen associated with the consumption of improperly prepared chicken. To better understand the effectiveness of common antimicrobial disinfectants (i.e., peroxyacetic acid [PAA], acidified hypochlorite [aCH], and cetylpyridinium chloride [CPC]), environmental isolates of nontyphoidal Salmonella were exposed to these agents under temperature, concentration, and contact time conditions consistent with poultry processing. Under simulated processing conditions (i.e., chiller tank and dipping stations), the bacteriostatic and bactericidal effects of each disinfectant were assessed against biofilm and planktonic cultures of each organism in a disinfectant challenge. Log reductions, planktonic MICs, and mean biofilm eradication concentrations were computed. The biofilms of each Salmonella isolate were more resistant to the disinfectants than were their planktonic counterparts. Although PAA was bacteriostatic and bactericidal against the biofilm and planktonic Salmonella isolates tested at concentrations up to 64 times the concentrations commonly used in a chiller tank during poultry processing, aCH was ineffective against the same isolates under identical conditions. At the simulated 8-s dipping station, CPC was bacteriostatic against all seven and bactericidal against six of the seven Salmonella isolates in their biofilm forms at concentrations within the regulatory range. These results indicate that at the current contact times and concentrations, aCH and PAA are not effective against these Salmonella isolates in their biofilm state. The use of CPC should be considered as a tool for controlling Salmonella biofilms in poultry processing environments.

Outbreak News Today

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The Yolo County Health & Human Services Agency puts the case count at 4,001. The outbreak prompted the closure of several county schools just prior to the Memorial Day weekend.

Suspect norovirus cases have been reported in Santa Barbara, Santa Clara and Sacramento Counties.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that there are between 19-21 million cases of norovirus illness each year in the U.S. Additionally, CDC estimates that norovirus contributes to 56,000-71,000 hospitalizations and 570-800 deaths each year in the U.S.

Eurosurveillance

A food-borne outbreak of gastroenteritis with more than 650 suspected cases occurred in April 2016 in Sollentuna, Sweden. It originated in a school kitchen serving a total of 2,700 meals daily. Initial microbiological testing (for Campylobacter, Salmonella, Shigella, Yersinia, Giardia, Cryptosporidium, Entamoeba histolytica, adeno-, astro-, noro-, rota- and sapovirus) of stool samples from 15 symptomatic cases was negative, despite a clinical presentation suggestive of calicivirus. Analyses of the findings from both the Sollentuna municipality environmental team and a web-based questionnaire suggested that the source of the outbreak was the salad buffet served on 20 April, although no specific food item could be identified. Subsequent electron microscopic examination of stool samples followed by whole genome sequencing revealed a variant of sapovirus genogroup V. The virus was not detected using standard PCR screening. This paper describes the epidemiological outbreak investigation and findings leading to the discovery.

Poultry Med

Poor meat could be the source of Salmonella infection in a Turkish barracks that killed a soldier (Hüsnü Özel) and infected more than one thousand soldiers. The outbreak was detected on May 23 at the First Infantry Training Brigade in Manisa, western Turkey. It seems that  turkey meat was served undercooked on the barracks menu. The soldiers at the barracks had said they had eaten turkey meat that evening.

Norovirus – Outbreak News Today

Yolo County health officials are now reporting that the outbreak has reached 3,843 cases as of Tuesday, up nearly 500 cases since a week ago.

Despite the numbers, data suggests that the outbreak that has spread across northern California may be diminishing somewhat. (See Daily Democrat report).

Outbreak News Today

Surviving the treacherous journey through the human body from the mouth to the colon takes a special kind of bacterial pathogen. Shigella – a group of bacteria responsible for much of the diarrheal disease affecting children in the developing world – travels unimpeded from the mouth to the colon, where they unleash powerful machinery to trigger debilitating diarrhea. Researchers from Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) have been looking not only at how Shigella survives this journey but also how it takes advantage of substances that would kill many less persistent organisms.

Each year Shigella is responsible for at least 80 million infections and approximately 700,000 deaths worldwide. Long-term effects for Shigella survivors can include impaired physical and cognitive development, poor gastrointestinal health, reactive arthritis or kidney damage depending on the strain causing infection. Although 99 percent of cases occur in developing nations, approximately half a million occur in the U.S. each year.

African Journal of Microbiology

Fermented food and beverage products are made globally by using different practices, fresh materials and microbes. Fermented foods have ample sources of essential vitamins, minerals, enzymes, and antioxidants that are all enhanced through the process of fermentation. The advantageous effects related with fermented products have a special prominence during the production of these products in unindustrialized countries like Ethiopia. Therefore, coming to Ethiopia, fermented food and beverage products have practiced in a long history. During the production of traditional fermented food and beverage products, controlled natural fermentation process with the absence of starter cultures are used to initiate it. In Ethiopia, the local fermented food and beverage products are acid-alcohol type of fermentation. Moreover, the preparation of many traditionally fermented food and beverage products is still practiced in a household art thereby a wide variety of fermented foods and beverages are consumed in Ethiopia. Thus, this paper presents on the technology and microbiology of local fermented food and beverage products of Ethiopia.

Food Poisoning Bulletin

Smucker Foods of Canada is voluntarily recalling some production codes of Golden Temple, Swad, and Maya flour products sold in the U.S. for possible E. coli O121 contamination. These products were made by Ardent Mills in Saskatchewan, Canada.

The products are all packaged in 20 pound paper bags and were distributed nationwide to 19 distributors and two small retailers. There are no reported illnesses associated with the U.S. product recall. There is an E. coli O121 outbreak in Canada that is associated with some flours produced by Ardent Mills.

The recalled products include Maya Durum Wheat Atta Flour with UPC number 0 20843 10001 9 and lot codes 6 286 548 and 6 287 548; Swad Durum Atta Flour Chappati Flour with UPC number 0 51179 16030 9 and lot codes 6 294 548, 6 299 548, 6 300 548, and 6 308 548; and Golden Temple #1 Fine Durum Atta Flour Blend with UPC number 0 59000 40540 7 and lot codes 6 286 548 (best by Jan 2018) and 6 299 54 (best by Jan 2018). Also recalled is Golden Temple Durum Atta Flour Blend with UPC number 0 59000 41556 7 and lot codes 6 287 548 (best by Jan 2018), 6 288 548 (best by Jan 2018), 6 294 548 (best by Jan 2018), 6 295 548 (best by Jan 2018), 6 300 548 (best by Jan 2018), 6 301 548 (best by Jan 2018), 6 306 548 (best by Feb 2018), 6 307 548 (best by Feb 2018), and 6 308 548 (best by Feb 2018). You can see the product photos at the FDA web site.

CDC