Tag Archives: food and drug administration

USA – Cheese – Listeria monocytogenes – Death and Miscarriage

Posted on July 4, 2013 by | Leave a comment

Listeria BlogEurofins Food Testing UK

Les Freres cheese is distributed by Crave Brothers Farmstead Classics, a Wisconsin producer.  Crave Brothers cheese is sold at some of the Midwest restaurants, including Girl and the Goat in Chicago, Wild Rice in Bayfield, Wisconsin, and Butcher and the Boar in Minneapolis. In the Twin Cities, it is also sold at grocery stores such as Lunds, Byerly’s and Kowalski’s.  The products were distributed nationwide through retail and foodservice outlets as well as by mail orders.

According to the Minnesota Department of Health (MDH), two older adults in Minnesota got sick in early June after eating the cheese, and one later died.

The outbreak has sickened at least four others in three states, according to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).  In addition to Minnesota, the other states involved are Illinois, Indiana and Ohio.  One of the cases was a pregnant woman who suffered a miscarriage.

All of those sickened were infected with the same strain of listeriosis, the FDA said.

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Posted in Bacteria, FDA, Food Hygiene, Food Illness, Food Inspections, Food Micro Blog, Food Microbiology, Food Poisoning, Food Safety, Food Testing, Foodborne Illness, Hygiene, Illness, Listeria, Listeria monocytogenes, Microbiology, Miscarriage, outbreak, Pathogen

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USA – Fish Food Recall – Salmonella

Posted on June 14, 2013 by | Leave a comment

genom.es

SECAUCUS, N.J., June 12, 2013 /NEWS.GNOM.ES/ – The Hartz Mountain Corporation, located in Secaucus, N.J. is voluntarily recalling one specific lot of Wardley Betta Fish Food 1.2 oz. size due to concerns that one or more containers within the lot may have been potentially contaminated with Salmonella. Hartz is fully cooperating with the US Food and Drug Administration in this voluntary recall.

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Posted in Bacteria, Food Micro Blog, Food Microbiology, Food Poisoning, Food Safety, Food Testing, Laboratory, Pathogen, Recall, Salmonella

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USA – Fruit Juice – Clostridium botulinum

Posted on May 11, 2013 by | Leave a comment

Botulism BlogClost

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is warning consumers not to consume any juice products or other beverages from Juices Incorporated (aka Juices International and Juices Enterprises) of Brooklyn, N.Y. The company’s carrot and beet juice products have the potential to be contaminated with Clostridium botulinum, a bacterium which can cause botulism, a serious and potentially fatal foodborne illness. Consumers are warned not to consume these products even if they do not look or smell spoiled.

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Posted in Bacteria, Clostridium botulinum, FDA, Food Hygiene, Food Illness, Food Inspections, Food Micro Blog, Food Poisoning, Food Safety, Food Safety Alert, Food Testing, Microbiology, Pathogen, Recall, USDA

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Culture Better Than Rapid?

Posted on December 28, 2012 by | Leave a comment

The Packer

Tests for foodborne pathogens in which a culture is not grown in a lab may be necessary for produce companies, but they can’t replace traditional culture tests, industry leaders and government officials say.

Nonculture diagnostic tests have been around since the early 1980s, said David Gombas, senior vice president of food safety and technology for the Washington D.C.-based United Fresh Produce Association.

But there has been a recent push, Gombas said, to use them to replace culture tests that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Food and Drug Administration and other agencies and organizations rely on to accurately diagnose cases of salmonella, E. coli and other foodborne illnesses.

That trend was highlighted in a recent article in Scientific America magazine, which found that many clinics and state-run labs are turning to nonculture tests, which are faster than culture tests.

They’re faster, but are they better?

“Right now, the answer is no,” Gombas said. “CDC, FDA, and those in the produce industry I talk to — they want a live bug.”

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Posted in Bacteria, Food Hygiene, Food Safety, Food Testing, Methods, Microbiology, Research

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Taipai Costco Recall (Foppen) Salmon – Salmonella

Posted on October 4, 2012 by | 2 comments

The China Post

TAIPEI–Costco Wholesale Corp. has pulled all smoked salmon processed by Dutch company Foppen from its chain stores in Taiwan, following foreign news reports stating salmonella-tainted smoked salmon supplied by Foppen has sickened hundreds of people in the United States and Holland, a health official said yesterday.

The smoked salmon in question is imported under the name of Costco’s store brand Kirkland, but has been processed by Foppen, said Tsai Shu-chen, division head of the Food and Drug Administration under the Cabinet-level Department of Health.

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Posted in Bacteria, Eurofins Laboratories, Food Hygiene, Food Illness, Food Inspections, Food Poisoning, Food Safety, Food Safety Alert, Food Testing, Foodborne Illness, Microbiology, outbreak, Pathogen, Recall, Salmonella

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US Bans Korean Shellfish – Faecal Matter – Norovirus

Posted on June 16, 2012 by | Leave a comment

Food Poisoning Bulletin

Korean shellfish is not safe to eat and Korea has been removed from the U.S. list of approved  shellfish shippers after officials from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) discovered unsanitary conditions  that exposed molluscan growing areas to human fecal matter, norovirus and pollution, the agency announced yesterday.

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Posted in Eurofins Laboratories, FDA, Food Hygiene, Food Illness, Food Inspections, Food Poisoning, Food Safety, Food Safety Alert, Food Testing, Food Virus, Foodborne Illness, Hygiene, Microbiology, Norovirus, outbreak, Pathogen, Recall

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US – Imported Fish Recall – Clostridium botulinum Spores

Posted on April 15, 2012 by | Leave a comment

Food Safety 

H.C. Foods Co. of Commerce, CA is recalling frozen dried mackerel and dried round scad after U.S. Food and Drug Administration personnel found that the fish imported from the Philippines was not properly eviscerated prior to processing.
 
The dried fish may be contaminated with Clostridium botulinum spores, which can cause botulism, a serious and potentially fatal foodborne illness.
 
No illnesses have been reported. 
 
The sale of improperly eviscerated fish, 5 inches in length or greater, is prohibited because Clostridium botulinum spores are more likely to be concentrated in the viscera than any other portion of the fish. Uneviscerated fish has been linked to outbreaks of botulism poisoning which may pose a potentially life-threatening health hazard. 

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Posted in Bacteria, Clostridium botulinum, Food Illness, Food Inspections, Food Poisoning, Food Safety, Food Safety Alert, Food Testing, Microbiology, Pathogen, Recall, Spores

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FDA – Blue Ocean Smokehouse – Botulinum

Posted on March 30, 2012 by | Leave a comment

Botulism Blog 

Fish may put consumers at risk of botulism and other food hazards

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration, in a complaint filed by the Department of Justice, is seeking to stop the processing and distribution of fish products at a California company because of a risk of botulism and other food hazards.

If granted, the permanent injunction against Fujino Enterprises Inc., doing business as Blue Ocean Smokehouse, of Half Moon Bay, Calif., would stop the company from processing and distributing fish and fish products. Blue Ocean’s president Erika Fujino also is named in the government’s complaint.

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Posted in Bacteria, Clostridium botulinum, Eurofins Laboratories, FDA, Food Hygiene, Food Safety, Food Technology, Foodborne Illness, Microbiology, Pathogen

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FDA-Regulated Food Recalls Surged in Last Quarter 2011

Posted on February 15, 2012 by | Leave a comment

Food Safety News

Foods regulated by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) were recalled 50 percent more in the fourth quarter last year and affected over 80 percent more units when compared with the previous period, according to the ExpertRECALL ™ Index.
 

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Posted in Clostridium botulinum, E.coli, E.coli O157, Eurofins Laboratories, FDA, Food Illness, Food Poisoning, Food Safety, Food Testing, Listeria monocytogenes, Microbiology, outbreak, Pathogen, Salmonella

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