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FSIS – USDA

WASHINGTON, Feb. 22, 2017 – Three Ready Pac Foods Inc. establishments, located in Swedesboro, N.J., in Jackson, Ga., and the headquarters establishment in Irwindale, Calif., are recalling approximately 59,225 pounds of one variety of chicken salad product that may be adulterated withListeria monocytogenes, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) announced today.

The Puro Picante Blazin’ Hot salad items were produced between Jan. 17, 2017 and Feb. 17, 2017. The following products are subject to recall: [View Labels(PDF only)]

• 7.5-oz. single serve salad bowl packages of “Ready Pac Foods Puro Picante Blazin Hot” with Use By Dates of 01/31/17 through 03/04/2017.

The products subject to recall bear establishment number P-27497, P-32081, or P-18502B inside the USDA mark of inspection. These items were shipped to retail locations nationwide.

The problem was discovered on Feb. 21, 2017 when the firm received notification from the cheese supplier that the cheese ingredient utilized in the chicken salad products was included in an expanded cheese recall due to potential contamination with L. monocytogenes. There have been no confirmed reports of adverse reactions due to consumption of these products.

Consumption of food contaminated with L. monocytogenes can cause listeriosis, a serious infection that primarily affects older adults, persons with weakened immune systems, and pregnant women and their newborns. Less commonly, persons outside these risk groups are affected.

Listeriosis can cause fever, muscle aches, headache, stiff neck, confusion, loss of balance and convulsions sometimes preceded by diarrhea or other gastrointestinal symptoms. An invasive infection spreads beyond the gastrointestinal tract. In pregnant women, the infection can cause miscarriages, stillbirths, premature delivery or life-threatening infection of the newborn. In addition, serious and sometimes fatal infections can occur in older adults and persons with weakened immune systems. Listeriosis is treated with antibiotics. Persons in the higher-risk categories who experience flu-like symptoms within two months after eating contaminated food should seek medical care and tell the health care provider about eating the contaminated food.

FSIS and the company are concerned that some of this recalled product may be in consumers’ refrigerators.

Consumers who have purchased these products are urged not to consume them. These products should be thrown away or returned to the place of purchase.

FSIS routinely conducts recall effectiveness checks to verify recalling firms notify their customers of the recall and that steps are taken to make certain that the product is no longer available to consumers. When available, the retail distribution list(s) will be posted on the FSIS website at www.fsis.usda.gov/recalls.

Consumers with questions regarding the recall can contact Mary Toscano, Corporate Affairs Supervisor, at 1-800-800-7822. Media with questions regarding the recall can contact Alan Hilowitz, Director of Corporate Communications, at (626) 678-2180.

Consumers with food safety questions can “Ask Karen,” the FSIS virtual representative available 24 hours a day at AskKaren.gov or via smartphone at m.askkaren.gov. The toll-free USDA Meat and Poultry Hotline 1-888-MPHotline (1-888-674-6854) is available in English and Spanish and can be reached from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. (Eastern Time) Monday through Friday. Recorded food safety messages are available 24 hours a day. The online Electronic Consumer Complaint Monitoring System can be accessed 24 hours a day at: https://www.fsis.usda.gov/reportproblem.

Food Poisoning Bulletin

Research at Cornell University has found that Salmonella food poisoning caused by some serotypes of the pathogenic bacteria could permanently damage your DNA. The study is published in the journal mBio by the American Society for Microbiology as “The Cytolethal Distending Toxin Produced by Nontyphoidal Salmonella Serotypes Javiana, Montevideo, Oranienburg, and Mississippi Induces DNA Damage in a Manner Similar to That of Serotype Typhi.” Dr. Rachel Miller, author of the study, said, “not all Salmonella serotypes are equal.”

Europa

Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) is the ability of microorganisms to resist antimicrobial treatments, especially antibiotics. AMR not only has a direct impact on human and animal health – due to the failure in the treatment of infectious diseases – but also carries a heavy economic cost.

AMR is a natural phenomenon but an accumulation of factors, including excessive and inappropriate use of antimicrobial medicines on humans and animals and poor infection control practices, transformed AMR into a serious threat to public health worldwide.

This leads to:

• increasing healthcare costs
• prolonged hospital stays
• treatment failures
• a significant number of deaths

Global consumption of antibiotics in human medicine rose by nearly 40% between 2000 and 2010 (UK Report).

In the US alone, “more than two million people are sickened every year with antibiotic-resistant infections, with at least 23.000 dying as a result” (data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2009-2011).

In the EU, 25.000 people die each year from an infection due to antibiotic-resistant bacteria(data from 2007). Infections due to these selected multidrug-resistant bacteria in the EU result in extra healthcare costs and productivity losses of at least €1.5 billion each year. If the current trend is not altered, 300 million people worldwide are expected to die prematurely because of drug resistance over the next 35 years.

AMR spreads through global tourism, transfer of patients between healthcare facilities within and from outside the EU, and through trade in food and animals.

It is an important global economic and a societal challenge that can’t be tackled by countries or public administrations alone. Therefore, the problem needs a comprehensive “One Health” approach to it. That means that a holistic, multi-sectorial approach, involving many different sectors (public health, food safety, bio-safety, environment, research and innovation, international cooperation, animal health and welfare as well as non-therapeutic use of antimicrobial substances) is needed to tackle this complex problem.

In June 2016, the Commission published the Eurobarometer results on Antimicrobial Resistance awareness(3 MB)  . The main conclusion of this Eurobarometer was that knowledge across the EU remains low.

The report, published on 16 June 2016, shows a 6% decrease in consumption in the last years even though some countries are still showing an increase in their consumption.

For more information, please refer to:

• Public Opinion – Antimicrobial Resistance, or to

• Related Information – Eurobarometers

A Flash Eurobarometer in non-EU countries was also published in November 2016.

For more background information regarding AMR, please refer to the following factsheet: AMR: A major European and Global challenge.(358 kB)

Food Safety News

When you put one of the toughest bugs on the planet in a match-up with some of the most delicate fresh foods, it doesn’t take a Vegas mathematician to figure the odds are against the food making it through a sterilization process undamaged.

Among the most delicate and most prone to carry foodborne illnesses are leafy greens. Among the most difficult to kill bugs is norovirus. But a microbiologist at the University of Minnesota-St. Paul is working on a solution.

As it turns out, norovirus, aka the stomach bug or the cruise ship blues, can’t stand up to cold plasma treatment and researcher Hamada Aboubakr has shown that at least one leafy green can survive the sterilization process with no apparent damage.

Outbreak News Today

Listeria, a common food-borne bacterium, may pose a greater risk of miscarriage in the early stages of pregnancy than appreciated, according to researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Veterinary Medicine studying how pathogens affect fetal development and change the outcome of pregnancy.

“For many years, listeria has been associated with adverse outcomes in pregnancy, but particularly at the end of pregnancy,” says Ted Golos, a UW-Madison reproductive physiologist and professor of comparative biosciences and obstetrics and gynecology. “What wasn’t known with much clarity before this study is that it appears it’s a severe risk factor in early pregnancy.”

CFS

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FSAI

Message:

As a precautionary measure, SuperValu is recalling the above batches of Wicklow Blue, due to the possible presence of Listeria monocytogenes. SuperValu is issuing point of sale recall notices requesting customers who have bought the implicated batch not to consume it.

Japan Today

TOKYO —

More than 950 staff members and students at seven elementary schools in Tachikawa, Tokyo, suffered food poisoning on Friday, the Tachikawa Board of Education and local health officials said.

According to the board, 954 students and staff reported symptoms such as vomiting and diarrhea on Friday evening and Saturday afternoon, Fuji TV reported. Five were hospitalized.

Following a meeting on Sunday afternoon, headmasters decided to close four of those elementary schools on Monday.

Health officials said all the students and staff got sick after eating lunches prepared by a supply center of school meals that prepared 3,000 lunches on Thursday.

FSA

Action taken by company

Morrisons is recalling the above product. Point of sale notices will be displayed in all stores that are selling this product. These notices explain to customers why the products are being recalled and tell them what to do if they have bought the product. Please see the attached notice.

Product recall notice: Morrisons Peppered Beef Slices(115.38 KB)

Science Alert 

When Spanish forces arrived in Mexico in 1519, the native population was estimated to be around 25 million. A century later, there were only around 1 million left, following several devastating outbreaks of disease brought in from overseas.

Despite plenty of speculation, the diseases that contributed to the collapse of Aztec society remain unconfirmed. But now scientists have presented the first DNA evidence of a bacterial species from one of the worst epidemics – and it suggests that a deadly outbreak of salmonella might have been involved.