Category Archives: Uncategorized

FDA

Royal Seafood Baza, Inc. of Staten, Island, New York is recalling various refrigerated ready to eat herring products because they have the potential to be contaminated with Listeria monocytogenes, an organism which can cause serious and sometimes fatal infections in young children, frail or elderly people, and others with weakened immune systems. Although healthy individuals may suffer only short-term symptoms such as high fever, severe headache, stiffness, nausea, abdominal pain and diarrhea, Listeria infection can cause miscarriages and stillbirths among pregnant women.

The affected ready to eat herring products were distributed to customers located New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Oregon, Texas, and North Carolina. Wholesale customers of bulk containers must discontinue sales of existing stock of these items immediately and destroy any returned product as soon as possible.

Science Daily 

Front-line staff, such as servers in restaurants, are often trusted with providing customers with food safety information regarding their meals. A challenge to the food-service industry is that these positions have high turnover, relatively low wages and servers are focused primarily on providing patrons with a positive experience. And new research shows that this poses a problem.

Poultrymed

A record low number of foodborne salmonella cases were registered in Denmark in 2015. While travel remains the leading cause of salmonella infections, no cases have been attributed to Danish eggs for the first time in the almost 30-year history of the salmonella source account. These are some of the findings of the annual report on the occurrence of diseases that can be transmitted from animals and food to humans.
In 2015 a total of 925 salmonella infections were reported among Danes, which is equivalent to 16.2 infected cases per 100,000 inhabitants. This is the lowest number of salmonella infections since 1988.
2015 is also the first year since the introduction of the salmonella source account that Danish eggs have not caused illness. There have also been no registered cases of infection due to Danish chicken meat, which has been the case in four of the previous five years.

Eurosurveillance

The aim of this study was to identify and characterise Bacillus cereus from a unique national collection of 564 strains associated with 140 strong-evidence food-borne outbreaks (FBOs) occurring in France during 2007 to 2014. Starchy food and vegetables were the most frequent food vehicles identified; 747 of 911 human cases occurred in institutional catering contexts. Incubation period was significantly shorter for emetic strains compared with diarrhoeal strains A sub-panel of 149 strains strictly associated to 74 FBOs and selected on Coliphage M13-PCR pattern, was studied for detection of the genes encoding cereulide, diarrhoeic toxins (Nhe, Hbl, CytK1 and CytK2) and haemolysin (HlyII), as well as panC phylogenetic classification. This clustered the strains into 12 genetic signatures (GSs) highlighting the virulence potential of each strain. GS1 (nhe genes only) and GS2 (nhe, hbl and cytK2), were the most prevalent GS and may have a large impact on human health as they were present in 28% and 31% of FBOs, respectively. Our study provides a convenient molecular scheme for characterisation of B. cereus strains responsible for FBOs in order to improve the monitoring and investigation of B. cereus-induced FBOs, assess emerging clusters and diversity of strains.

FDA

Charlotte, NC — Bakkavor Foods USA, Inc. is voluntarily recalling Trader Joe’s Mediterranean Hummus (SKU #90642) and Trader Joe’s White Bean & Basil Hummus (SKU #91107) with “USE BY” date codes up through and including 12/15/2016, because these products have the potential to be contaminated with Listeria monocytogenes.

Listeria monocytogenes is an organism, which can cause serious and sometimes fatal infections in young children, frail or elderly people, and others with weakened immune systems. Healthy individuals may suffer only short-term symptoms such as high fever, severe headaches, stiffness, nausea, abdominal pain and diarrhea. Listeria infection can cause miscarriages and stillbirths among pregnant women.

The products come in 16 ounce plastic tubs with SKU numbers printed on the top labels and “USE BY” date codes stamped on the bottom of the tubs, along with the plant identification code “C”. To clarify, products with plant identification code “J” were produced in a different facility and are NOT affected by this recall. In addition, Trader Joe’s Mediterranean Hummus Snack Pack with Pita Chips (SKU #97136) is NOT part of this recall.

To date there have been no confirmed illnesses.

The potential for contamination was noted after testing by the company revealed the presence of Listeria monocytogenes in product manufactured on the same equipment. The company subsequently identified the source of the issue and has corrected the matter. All potentially affected products have been removed from store shelves and destroyed.

Consumers should discard the product immediately or return it to their point of purchase for a full refund. Customers with questions may contact Bakkavor Foods at (855) 312-7504, Monday through Friday 8:00P.M. – 5:00P.M. PST.

The voluntary recall is being conducted with the knowledge of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

RASFF – high count of Escherichia coli (1.9x10E4 CFU/g) in frozen MSM chicken minced meat from Poland in Croatia

RASFF – ochratoxin A (26.8 µg/kg – ppb) in figs from Turkey in Germany

RASFF – Clostridium botulinum type E in chilled dried salted common roach (Rutilus rutilus), giblets removed from the Netherlands in Germany

RASFF – baguettes from France infested with moulds in Denmark

RASFF – Salmonella typhimurium (presence /25g) in quail eggs from Croatia in Croatia

RASFF – Salmonella (presence /25g) in frozen chicken from Thailand in the Netherlands

RASFF – Salmonella Kentucky (presence /25g) in frozen salted chicken fillet from Thailand, via Hungary in Croatia

RASFF – Salmonella typhimurium (presence /25g) in frozen chicken fillets with raw material from Italy in France

RASFF – Salmonella (presence /25g) in frozen MSM chicken and pork minced meat from Poland in Croatia

RASFF – Salmonella group D (presence /25g) in betel leaves from Malaysia in the UK

RASFF – Salmonella (presence /25g) in betel leaves from India in the UK

RASFF – Salmonella enteritidis in chicken eggs from Poland in Hungary