Tag Archives: food product

Hong Kong – French raw cow’s milk cheese suspected to be contaminated with Listeria monocytogenes

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Issue Date 2015-04-16
Source of Information Rapid Alert System for Food and Feed (RASFF)
Food Product A batch of raw cow’s milk cheese
Name of Importer
Product name and Description Product name: Saint Nectaire Fermier
Brand: Morin
Place of origin: France
Lot No.: 61C23NW01
Best before date: May 7, 2015
Reason For Issuing Alert

The Centre received a notification from the Rapid Alert System for Food and Feed (RASFF) of the European Commission that a sample of a batch of cheese was found to have been contaminated with Listeria monocytogenes. According to the information provided by the RASFF, the French producer concerned has initiated a recall and a small volume of the affected product has been imported into Hong Kong.

–Listeria monocytogenes can be easily destroyed by cooking but can survive and multiply at refrigerator temperature. Most healthy individuals do not develop symptoms or only have mild symptoms like fever, muscle pain, headache, nausea, vomiting or diarrhoea when infected. However, severe complications such as septicemia, meningitis or even death may occur in newborns, elderly and those with a weaker immune system. Although infected pregnant women may just experience mild symptoms generally, the infection of Listeria monocytogenes may cause miscarriage, infant death, preterm birth, or severe infection in the newborns.

Hong Kong – Food Alert – A kind of bottled preserved bean curd contaminated with Bacillus cereus

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2015-01-22
Source of Information Centre for Food Safety (CFS)
Food Product Fermented bean curd
Name of Importer
Product name and Description Details of the products are as follows:

Product name: Yummy House Wet Bean Curd
Place of origin: China
Best before date: August 29, 2016
Total net weight: 280 grams per bottle

Reason For Issuing Alert

– The preserved bean curd sample was collected at a shop in Sha Tin for testing under the CFS’ regular Food Surveillance Programme. Test result showed that the sample contained Bacillus cereus at a level of 260 000 per gram.
-According to the “Microbiological Guidelines for Food”, it is potentially injurious to health or unfit for human consumption if a gram of ready-to-eat food contains more than 100 000 of Bacillus cereus.
-Consuming food contaminated with excessive Bacillus cereus may cause gastrointestinal upset such as vomiting and diarrhoea.

Research – Revolutionary Compressed Air Microbial Test Unit

I have not used this item but it may interest some of you

Parker Balston

How to Reduce the Risks of Microbial Contamination in Compressed Air
Compressed air is often in direct contact or indirect contact with food product. The impurities in the compressed air may contaminate the food product which can result in:
  • change of color and taste
  • reduced shelf life
  • product recalls
Compressed air is warm, dark, and contains moisture which makes it the ideal environment to promote the production of microbes. These microbes migrate through the entire compressed air system and are released at exit points – critical places where the air contacts food, packaging, or surface areas.

Research – First Carbapenemase-Producing Organism Found in Food

Food Poisoning Bulletin

Researchers in Canada have found a certain antibiotic-resistant bacteria for the first time in a food product, which means the risk of exposure is now beyond people who travel to certain countries and people who have been hospitalized. The bacteria is resistant to carbapenems, one of the last resort antibiotics in medicine’s arsenal. The research has been published in the Center for Disease Control’s journal Emerging Infectious Diseases.

In January 2014, routine testing found a carbapenemase-producing organism in squid that was for sale in a Chinese grocery store in Saskatoon, Canada. Carbapenemases are enzymes that organisms produce that destroy the carbapenem antibiotic. Scientists have found these organisms in the environment and in animals used for food, but not in food itself until now

Research – Reducing the Risks of Microbes in Compressed Air

Parker Balston

Compressed air is often in direct contact or indirect contact with food product. The impurities in the compressed air may contaminate the food product which can result in:
  • change of color and taste
  • reduced shelf life
  • product recalls
Compressed air is warm, dark, and contains moisture which makes it the ideal environment to promote the production of microbes.  These microbes migrate through the entire compressed air system and are released at exit points – critical places where the air contacts food, packaging, or surface areas.
Revolutionary Compressed Air Microbial Test Unit is an easy to use device for sampling compressed air systems for microbes.