We have issued a call for people to stop washing raw chicken to reduce the risk of contracting campylobacter, a potentially dangerous form of food poisoning. The call comes as new figures show that 44% of people always wash chicken before cooking it – a practice that can spread campylobacter bacteria onto hands, work surfaces, clothing and cooking equipment through the splashing of water droplets.
Raw, whole chickens purchased from farmers markets throughout Pennsylvania contained significantly higher levels of bacteria that can cause foodborne illness compared to those purchased from grocery stores in the region, according to a small-scale study by researchers in Penn State’s College of Agricultural Sciences
By comparison, during the same period, 20 percent of raw, whole, organic chickens purchased from grocery stores were found to contain Campylobacter bacteria, and 28 percent tested positive for Salmonella. Just 8 percent of raw, whole, nonorganic, conventionally processed chickens from the grocery stores tested positive for Campylobacter and 52 percent of those contained Salmonella.
A report from the National Institute for Public Health and the Environment in the Netherlands states that the Dutch government “intends to limit the level of Campylobacter bacteria on chicken meat, a so-called process hygiene criterion.” That means that if higher levels of the bacteria are found repeatedly in a particular slaughterhouse, that facility will need to evaluate their processing hygiene. The government has been focusing on “farm to fork” hygiene, looking at everything from slaughterhouse conditions to consumer food preparation standards.
Posted in Bacteria, Campylobacter, Eurofins Laboratories, Food Hygiene, Food Illness, Food Inspections, Food Micro Blog, Food Microbiology, Food Poisoning, Food Safety, Food Technology, Food Testing, Laboratory, Microbiology, Pathogen, Research, Uncategorized
Tagged campylobacter bacteria, chicken meat, consumer food, dutch government, food poisoning, slaughterhouse conditions
Substantiation of the standards for Campylobacter on chicken meat
Campylobacter bacteria are among the most important causes of foodborne disease in the Netherlands. Approximately 30 per cent of all cases of illness are attributed to the consumption and preparation of broiler chicken meat.
This mainly concerns cross-contamination in the kitchen from chicken meat to product that are consumed raw, like salads, and to a lesser extent under cooked meat. Research by RIVM has shown that a large point of these illnesses can be prevented if the number of bacteria on chicken meat after industrial production is reduced.
Recently there is increased attention for hygiene in the farm to fork production check including slaughterhouses. In this context, the Dutch government intends to limit the level of Campylobacter bacteria on chicken meat, a so-called process hygiene criterion. If higher levels are repeatedly found, the slaughterhouse needs to improved processing hygiene RIVM has evaluated the impact of different (more or less stringent) criteria, both on public health and on the costs for the poultry industry.
A critical limit of 1000 Campylobacter bacteria per gram would reduce the number of human disease cases by two-thirds. The costs to the poultry industry to meet this criterion (estimated at 2 million euro per year) are considerably lower than the averted costs of illness (approximately 9 million euro per year).
The Pennsylvania Departments of Agriculture and Health today advised consumers to discard raw milk produced by The Family Cow in Chambersburg, Franklin County, because of potential bacterial contamination.
Agriculture and Health Department laboratory tests and several recent illnesses indicate the raw milk may contain Campylobacter bacteria.
The Department of Health has confirmed five cases of confirmed Campylobacter infection in people who consumed milk from the farm at 3854 Olde Scotland Road.
Based on the reported illnesses, the Department of Agriculture collected samples of raw milk during an investigation of The Family Cow, on May 17. Positive tests for Campylobacter were confirmed Tuesday.
The packaged raw milk is sold under The Family Cow label in plastic gallon, half-gallon, quart and pint containers. It is labeled as “raw milk.” Raw milk is milk that has not been pasteurized
FOOD safety experts plan to “superfreeze” chickens to halt the rise of campylobacter food poisoning. The Food Standards Agency is currently looking into a procedure which involves exposing the surface of slaughtered chickens to extreme cold, known as rapid surface chilling.
The radical process is currently being considered to help curb the rampant levels of the food poisoning bacteria commonly found in uncooked poultry products.
Around two-thirds of fresh, raw chicken sold by retailers is believed to be contaminated with campylobacter, which can cause sever stomach upsets.
The FSA aims to reduce the proportion of birds in the highest category of contamination at UK poultry houses from 27 per cent to 10 per cent by 2015.
Dr Jacqui McElhiney, policy adviser on food-borne disease at the FSA in Scotland, said: “This process acts to temporarily cool only the very outer surface of the chicken carcass without freezing the meat itself. It involves exposing the surface of poultry carcasses to very low temperatures for a very short time, which reduces the numbers of campylobacter bacteria on the surface, as they are sensitive to an extreme cold shock treatment of this type.”
PIERRE – The South Dakota Department of Agriculture (SDDA) is reporting campylobacter bacteria was found in a sampling of raw (unpasteurized) milk from Black Hills Milk in Belle Fourche.
SDDA advises consumers that raw milk recently purchased from this business may contain harmful bacteria that can lead to campylobacter infection. Symptoms of this infection include diarrhea, nausea and vomiting, and can sometimes progress to more serious illness, such as kidney failure and other complications.
The implicated milk is sold at a retail outlet in Spearfish, Black Hills Farmers Market at Founder’s Park in Rapid City and other locations in the Black Hills. If you have purchased this raw milk, SDDA advises the product be discarded or returned.
According to the Center for Disease Control (CDC), pasteurized milk that is correctly handled in the dairy, bottled, sealed and refrigerated after pasteurization, and that is properly handled by the consumer, is very unlikely to contain illness-causing bacteria.
The SDDA requires producers selling raw milk to be permitted through the state, inspected once or twice a year depending on grade of milk and provide a monthly quality analysis.
Japan has announced that it will ban the sale of raw beef liver in restaurants, following a spate of food poisoning cases last year.
The health ministry has decided to ban restaurants from serving raw beef liver from July 1 due to food poisoning concerns, and violators of the new rule could be fined or even imprisoned.
The ministry made the decision after its food sanitation council approved the policy at a meeting Tuesday.
Enterohemorrhagic E. coli O-157 and Campylobacter bacteria, both of which can cause severe stomachache, have been detected in raw beef liver. A research report said it is difficult to remove or kill the bacteria through screening tests or disinfection, and that liver can only be guaranteed safe to consume if it has been cooked.
Operators of barbecue restaurants and other establishments that ignore the ban on raw beef liver could be sentenced to up to two years in prison or fined up to 2 million yen.
At Tuesday’s meeting, the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry presented comments submitted by the public over the month through May 18. Although most of the 1,532 opinions were against outlawing raw liver, ministry officials insisted a ban–backed up by penalties–was necessary because there is no 100 percent safe way of eating raw beef liver.
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