July 2007

  • "The Lord takes care of us"

    Posted: July 23rd, 2007 - 8:56am by Brae Surgeoner

    The York Daily Record in Pennsylvania reported Sunday that Stump Acres Dairy has stopped giving away raw milk after some customers became sick and were diagnosed with salmonella this month, marking the third time this year that the North Codorus Township dairy has stopped selling or giving away raw milk because of customers becoming ill.

    In April when the dairy suspended raw milk sales for the second time in a month under the advice of the Pennsylvania Department of Health, which warned that the milk might be associated with a case of gastrointestinal illness, co-owner Glendora Stump was quoted as telling the York Dispatch, "The Lord takes care of us. I'm not afraid to sell my milk. I know it's not what they think it is."

    Yesterday however, Terry Stump, the son of the dairy owner, was cited as saying Stump Acres hasn't sold raw milk for about two months, but the dairy has given it away to people who ask for it, adding, "We will not be giving it away. Nobody wants to see anybody getting sick."
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  • Georgia firm expands recall of canned meat products that may contain Clostridium botulinum

    Posted: July 21st, 2007 - 9:02pm by Doug Powell

    Castleberry's Food Company, an Augusta, Ga., establishment owned by Bumble Bee Foods, LLC, is voluntarily expanding its July 19 recall  of canned meat products that may contain Clostridium botulinum, the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Food Safety and Inspection Service announced today.

    The recall is being expanded after information gathered by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and FSIS indicated that processing malfunctions at the establishment have existed longer than initially estimated.

    The U.S. Food and Drug Administration, along with reps from FSIS, held a conference call for reporters at 6:30 Eastern, p.m. FDA reps said they wanted to get this information out to consumers because of the serious risk of botulism from these products, based on inspections run by USDA and FDA on Saturday.

    FDA recommended that anyone with these products double-bag them and dispose of them -- do not recycle. The canning line also produced dog food, which is why the recall was expanded to dog food products.
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  • E. coli outbreak butcher pleads guilty

    Posted: July 21st, 2007 - 2:07pm by Doug Powell

    Five-year-old Mason Jones died a painful and unnecessary death. On Oct. 30, 2005, Sharon Mills, Mason's grief-stricken mother, recounted the events leading to her son's death on BBC Radio Wales:

    "His head was soaking wet and he was drifting in and out of consciousness. He was saying silly things, like he could see slugs, and [he was] looking for a fork which he had never had - because he hadn't eaten anything."

    Mason died Oct. 4 from E. coli O157 as part of an outbreak which sickened 161 -- primarily schoolchildren -- in south Wales.

    Yesterday, butcher William John Tudor, entered guilty pleas to six charges of supplying South Wales schools with meat which was contaminated with E.coli O157 and was a health risk, when his case was listed for a mention at Cardiff Crown Court.

    Tudor entered guilty pleas to charges under the General Food Regulations 2004 of "placing unsafe food on the market".

    Sharon said that her son's death was "avoidable" and that lessons "have to be learnt."

    "There was nothing wrong with him, only that he ate a dinner - an innocent child eating a dinner. I never thought you could die from E. coli. Never. I had heard of E.coli and I just thought it was food poisoning. I never ever thought Mason would die from it."
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  • Chinese don't believe cardboard buns scare a hoax

    Posted: July 21st, 2007 - 1:12pm by Doug Powell

    The official Xinhua news agency was cited as saying Saturday that ordinary Chinese are refusing to believe government claims that a recent media report on cardboard-filled buns was a hoax aimed at hyping the nation's food safety woes, and that the government's assertion that the televised report was bogus is being viewed as an attempt by authorities to stem the bad publicity over a series of recent food safety scandals that have caused anger in China and abroad.

    Xinhua quoted Chen Huiqin, a retired Shanghai middle school teacher, as saying, "I guess government departments must be hoping to reduce the negative impact on the public by declaring the TV news report a hoax."

    A cab driver, surnamed Liu, was cited as saying he could not believe the investigative news report aired by Beijing TV on July 8 was a fabrication, adding, "It's not just me, most of my customers didn't believe it was a hoax either."
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  • Cat feces in box of chicken bring fine

    Posted: July 20th, 2007 - 7:44pm by Doug Powell

    A Brixton butcher has been fined £5,500 after a customer found cat faeces in a box of chicken he had bought.

    Environmental Health officers discovered a stray cat had been roaming the premises at AM Quality Halal Meat Limited, 32 Atlantic Road after lab tests had confirmed meat had been contaminated with faeces.

    The company was fined £4,000 for selling the contaminated meat, £1,000 for the cat on the premises and £500 for failing to notify Lambeth Council that the business had recently changed ownership. The company was also ordered to pay costs of £300, making a total of £5,800.
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  • What's going to happen when things get a little more complicated?

    Posted: July 20th, 2007 - 2:08pm by Brae Surgeoner

    The National Post reports today that 4 out of 10 "street meat" stands inspected this year failed to meet city health standards.
    Jim Chan, a manager of food safety with Toronto Public Health, told the National Post that out of 68 carts tested this year, only 41 have been given the green pass from the city's Dine-Safe program.
    "Twenty-six of them received a conditional pass [and] one received a red card, which is a closure."
    With Toronto allowing more than just hot dogs and sausages to be sold on the street next year, the story notes that stringent rules will be put in place to make sure Torontonians stay healthy: this includes carts require mechanical cooling, an increase in the number of inspections per year, and requiring not only a separate handwash basin with running hot and cold water, but an additional sink for washing utensils.
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  • Augusta's Castleberry plant

    Posted: July 20th, 2007 - 8:59am by Ben Chapman

    The US FDA issued a warning a couple of days ago, saying that over 700,000 lbs of Castleberry's canned meat products might contain Clostridium botulinum

    According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution this morning, investigators have linked hot dog chili sauce produced in Augusta to the first outbreak of botulism from commercially canned foods in nearly four decades.

    The problem may be linked to a retort machine that wasn't working properly.

    I drove through Augusta last week to snap a picture of the hallowed Augusta National's entrance. Eating food that might contain bot toxin is  probably not  good way to cure the yips.
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  • Mobile cheese-making operations fall through the cracks; 2 dozen people feel it

    Posted: July 20th, 2007 - 8:46am by Brae Surgeoner

    The Ottawa Citizen reports that two dozen people in Eastern Ontario became ill after eating unpasteurized cheese that a farmer was not legally allowed to distribute.
    According to the story, the cheese was made by a "mobile cheese maker," hired by the dairy farmer to visit the farm with his factory on wheels.

    In early June, the farmer, in St. Pascal-Baylon, 30 kilometres east of Ottawa, hired one of five travelling cheese makers who operate in Eastern Ontario. This product was later distributed - and sold - to neighbours, friends, relatives and classmates of a child of the farmer.
    The unpasteurized cheese caused several cases of bacterial infection. Symptoms included diarrhea, stomach cramps, fevers and headaches.

    While the Eastern Ontario Health Unit strongly recommends the consumption of only pasteurized milk products, in Ontario, people who make unpasteurized cheese on their farms can possess and eat what they make. However, selling or distributing such cheese - which includes even giving it away - is illegal under provincial legislation.
    The story notes that unlike raw milk itself, which has been illegal to distribute in Canada since 1991, cheese made from raw milk - as far as Health Canada is concerned - is "allowed for sale and considered safe because the manufacturing process for cheese helps to eliminate many pathogens found in raw milk."
    The tricky part about the case of the St. Pascal-Baylon farmer is that while the farmer himself broke the law, the mobile cheese maker did not.

    While the Eastern Ontario Health Unit has identified five mobile cheese-making operations, it can't do much more than educate them about the risks and their responsibilities. Caroline Kuate, food safety program co-ordinator at the Eastern Ontario Health Unit, was quoted as saying, "These operators are not within our jurisdiction. They are under no one's jurisdiction. This is a case where they fall in the cracks."

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  • It's got a seal; it must be safe

    Posted: July 19th, 2007 - 8:21pm by Doug Powell

    Beginning July 23, members of the California Leafy Greens Handler Marketing Agreement (LGMA) can begin using a newly-released service mark that certifies their membership in the program. The Service Mark, to be used on bills of lading, indicates a handler's commitment to a set of Good Agricultural Practices audited by the LGMA.  The mark is being released to coincide with the beginning
    of certification audits conducted by the California Department of Food and Agriculture's USDA-trained inspectors.

    The website being promoted on the seal, CALeafyGreens.ca.gov is fairly boring, but it's early days, I guess. Would be better if they had testing data on the website for the public to examine. Don't eat poop.
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  • Presidential hopeful sidelined by barf

    Posted: July 19th, 2007 - 1:41pm by Doug Powell

    Perennial presidential candidate, Dennis Kucinich, is being treated for food poisoning at a Cleveland-area hospital after becoming ill Sunday night while flying from Cleveland to a Florida campaign appearance. He was admitted to a local hospital on Monday upon his return from the event.

    The Democratic Congressional Representative from Cleveland, Ohio's 10th District -- the fightin' 10th --  doesn't know how he contracted food poisoning but expects to recover fully and return to work in the next few days.

    According to wiki, Kucinich has the distinction of being the only vegan in Congress. He has maintained a diet for many years that excludes animal products in accordance with his conviction that "all life on our Earth [is] sacred."

    Kucinich also states on his campaign website that he encourages independent, family-owned, and organic farming, which would help lead to "the meat that we consume coming from happy and healthy free-range animals."

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  • CEO apologizes for refusing to let woman use bathroom as diarrhea ran down her pants

    Posted: July 19th, 2007 - 1:35pm by Doug Powell

    It's not food safety, but it is poop -- and the potential for cross-contamination seems enormous.

    The Consumerist is reporting that Jo-Ann Fabrics is sending out apology emails to people who write them in about a customer who was refused access to the bathroom even as she suffered diarrhea right in front of the employees.

    Darrell Webb, Chairman, President, and CEO, writes, 

    "We made a mistake. We re very sorry for any frustration and embarrassment that we caused our customer at the Logansport, Indiana, Jo-Ann Fabric and Craft Store on Friday, June 29.

    "Many of our store restrooms are located in areas that are not readily accessible to customers and therefore our policy limits the access to the restrooms. However, we have immediately changed our policy to allow any customer to use our restrooms upon request.

    "Again, we acknowledge our mistake in handling this matter and sincerely hope that our customers will be pleased by our change in policy."

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  • U.K.: Ex-Mud singer's death after food poisoning

    Posted: July 19th, 2007 - 1:26pm by Doug Powell

    An inquest was told that Martin Wingfield, 58, father of 10 and former front man of 70s glam rock band Mud died after being admitted to hospital suffering from campylobacter food poisoning in November, 2006.

    Mr Wingfield left Mud before they hit the big time in 1974 with Tiger Feet and Lonely This Christmas.

    Consultant colorectal surgeon David Birch said the infection was already so well advanced that going under the knife was the only option.

    "He had a two- to three-month history of alternating constipation and diarrhoea and a history of worsening abdominal distension following a wedding. Blood tests showed that his kidneys weren't working and an x-ray showed a large dilation of his colon. He really wasn't in a very good condition at all."

    Daughter Kelly Ann Wingfield told the court,

    "It seemed unreal that someone could go into hospital for food poisoning and not come out again."
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  • Yawn. White House forms import safety group

    Posted: July 19th, 2007 - 10:46am by Doug Powell

    President Bush met with the import safety working group yesterday and stressed,

    "I've called together key members of my Cabinet to review the procedures in place, the regulations in place, the practices in place to make sure that our food supply remains the safest in the world. The world is changing, and in order to make sure that we can continue to have the confidence of our consumers, that we will continually review practices and procedures to assure the American consumer."

    Uh oh. The world's safest food supply? Where's the data to back up that claim? Politicians in Canada, U.K., France, Australia and New Zealand have all at some point claimed that theirs is the world's safest food supply.

    Some of them are wrong.

    And while it's important to focus on imports, don't forget to keep the home fires burning. As I said in USA Today this morning,

    While it may be "psychologically comforting to blame others," what the U.S. needs is farm-to-fork food safety, said Douglas Powell, director of the International Food Safety Network at Kansas State University. "Imports are a problem. So is food produced in the U.S. One should not distract from another."
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  • 4 seriously ill: botulism risk from hot dog chili sauce

    Posted: July 18th, 2007 - 8:42pm by Doug Powell

    The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is warning consumers not to eat 10 ounce cans of Castleberry’s Hot Dog Chili Sauce (UPC 3030000101), Austex Hot Dog Chili Sauce (UPC 3030099533), and Kroger Hot Dog Chili Sauce (UPC 1111083942) with “best by” dates from April 30, 2009 through May 22, 2009 due to possible botulism contamination. Botulism can be fatal. The “best by dates” can be found on the can lids.

    Consumers who have any of these products or any foods made with these products should throw them away immediately. If the “best by” date is missing or unreadable consumers should throw the product out.

    Two children in Texas and an Indiana couple who ate these products became seriously ill and have been hospitalized.

    Botulism basics can be found on the international Food Safety Network infosheet produced during the carrot juice-botulism outbreak in October 2006.
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  • 678 sick, but "reports of illness slowing down considerably"

    Posted: July 18th, 2007 - 5:17pm by Doug Powell

    In a breathtaking example of doublespeak, the Chicago Department of Public Health is reporting today that,

    "As anticipated, reports of illnesses related to the Pars Cove Persian Cuisine booth at Taste of Chicago are slowing down considerably. As of noon today, a total of 678 people have reported that they became ill after they ate food purchased from the Pars Cove Persian Cuisine booth—up from the 636 reported Tuesday."

    I'm sure that's a tremendous relief to the 678 people sickened after eating food purchased from the Pars Cove Persian Cuisine booth at the Taste of Chicago extravaganza. Details are available in the latest International Food Safety Network infosheet.

    In what is possibly the biggest piece of PR puffery I've ever seen, the health department continues to stress:

    "The Pars Cove situation represents the first confirmed outbreak of illness associated with the event in at least 20 years. In the larger context of having safely served tens of millions of people in recent years, the Taste remains quite possibly the safest food service operation in the city.

    "Taste of Chicago is by far the most intensively regulated food service operation in the city. The event features a 24-hour-a-day food safety presence – teams of CDPH sanitarians inspect and re-inspect the 70-plus food booths from 8:30 a.m. to midnight each day, and staff hired by the Illinois Restaurant Association monitors and logs the temperatures in the refrigerated storage trucks overnight.

    "All vendors are required to undergo training to prepare, serve and store food safely under outdoor conditions. Scrutiny is intense. A food booth is typically inspected at least four times each day, while a typical city restaurant is inspected twice a year.

    While most vendors do an exceptionally good job of ensuring food safety, the intense scrutiny typically results in CDPH ordering the disposal of food that does not meet its exacting standards. Each year, about 2,000 pounds of food (an average of 200 pounds a day) at the event are disposed of by order of CDPH inspectors."

    Reports are suggesting the hummus, which contains fresh tomatoes, as the source of the illness. Salmonella -- Tomatoes? Maybe. What was the source of the tomatoes and other fresh ingredients served in the hummus? The 678 sick people would probably like to know, rather than be told they are a statistical anomaly .
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  • Doesn't anyone say sorry anymore?

    Posted: July 18th, 2007 - 12:48pm by Doug Powell

    Elex Scheels, the mother of 20-month-old triplets, two of whom were sickened with Salmonella Wandsworth in the Veggie Booty outbreak, was cited as saying she is disappointed with Veggie Booty's owner, Robert Ehrlich, president of Robert's American Gourmet.

    "If this man reached out and said 'Oh, my gosh, this is horrifying, I'm so sorry. I will do everything in my power to make sure this won't happen again,' this lawsuit wouldn't be happening."

    Bill Marler yesterday filed a second lawsuit against Robert’s American Gourmet Food, Inc. in Albany County Supreme Court in New York.

    “Robert’s has indicated that an ingredient from a Chinese supplier was the source of this outbreak. After recent scares involving food products imported from China, one would think that American food manufacturers using imported ingredients would take extra precautions and institute a testing regimen to ensure the safety of their products.”

    Robert’s American Gourmet Foods initiated a recall of its Veggie Booty on June 28, after the company was notified that the product was the source of a Salmonella outbreak.  The company expanded its recall to include Super Veggie Tings Crunchy Corn Sticks on July 2.  On July 11, the CDC announced that 60 persons in 19 states had been confirmed ill with Salmonella Wandsworth infections, with initial illness onset dates between March 4 and June 15.  Ninety percent of cases were children aged 10 months to three years. 

    “This case is very perplexing,” Marler added.  “There are several unanswered questions that beg answers.”  Questions Marler seeks answers to include:

    1. If Robert’s American Gourmet only markets Veggie Booty, etc., and Atlantic Quality Spice & Seasoning provides the spices, who manufacturers the product, and where?

    2. The Minnesota Department of Health isolated Salmonella Typhimurium from unopened bags of Veggie Booty.  Have other strains of Salmonella (in addition to Wandsworth) been found in either human stool or product samples - like Salmonella Typhimurium?

    3. Why has Robert's American Gourmet not offered to help the victims?  Medical bills and wage losses are mounting.
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  • Yeah, I expect to hear about this...

    Posted: July 18th, 2007 - 12:45pm by Brae Surgeoner

    Ah…yes… the hard data on illnesses from raw milk, as posted yesterday on the Complete Patient by blogmaster David E. Gumpert. According to his post, a request filed last year with the CDC under the Freedom of Information Act, for data on illnesses associated with raw milk and pasteurized milk, revealed that approximately 59 people are sickened each and every year, which can be further reduced to 54 if you exclude those who became sick from imported Mexican cheese.
     
    To any health guru, I would think that 54 illnesses are 54 too many. Especially, when I’m guessing that at least 50 per cent of those sickened are children (see the table we manage on suspected and confirmed raw milk-related outbreaks). While David points out that the CDC figures may be inflated because, “Food vehicles identified are not necessarily confirmed with statistical or epidemiological evidence,” the vast majority of foodborne illnesses go unreported to start with. And I can’t help but think that for black-market food items like raw milk, underreporting is even higher than for a staple food item because so few people want to be known as a sellout. For a product with such a long list of supposed healing powers no one should be getting sick -- right?
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  • Pics from the road

    Posted: July 16th, 2007 - 9:47pm by Ben Chapman

    Being a bit of a food safety geek, I'm all about stops/pictures related to famous food safety events. 

    Two from this week:


    Note the ironic driver safety sign "Safety is our #1 concern" on the Odwalla truck. Odwalla was linked to a 1996 E. coli O157 outbreak associated with unpasteurized juice.


    We also filled up at a Sheetz gas station.  In 2004, Sheetz was at the centre of a Salmonella outbreak linked to tomatoes.

    A couple of iFSN commentaries where these outbreaks are discussed can be found here:
    Odwalla

    Sheetz
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  • Dairy Milk diarrhea

    Posted: July 16th, 2007 - 8:34pm by Doug Powell

    My pre-game hockey ritual always included scarfing back a Dairy Milk chocolate bar. The caffeine-chocolate buzz really helped me focus on the hard rubber discs being shot at my head.

    But, if I ever find ice again, and can fit into my goalie equipment currently being soiled by pigeon's in Naylor's barn back in Guelph, Ontario, I'll think twice about the Dairy Milk ritual.

    That's because a U.K. court fined Cadbury Schweppes PLC 1 million pounds (euro1.48 million US$2 million) on Monday for salmonella contamination of its chocolate products.

    Cadbury, which had pleaded guilty to violating food and hygiene regulations at earlier hearings, was also ordered to pay 152,000 pounds (euro225,000 US$309,000) in legal costs.

    The judge was quoted as saying, "I regard this as a serious case of negligence. It therefore needs to be marked as such to emphasize the responsibility and care which the law requires of a company in Cadbury's position."

    Sallie Booth, a lawyer representing 12 people affected by the contamination, said, "The 1 million pound fine sends a clear message that companies who have a great deal of responsibility for protecting public health cannot afford to ignore a potentially dangerous situation and cannot take a risk with the public's health."

    Earlier, the court heard     that Cadbury sought to save money and reduce wastage by introducing an "allowable tolerance level" for salmonella in its products. Barry Berlin, prosecuting Cadbury on behalf of Birmingham City Council, told the court that until 2003 Cadbury had destroyed any chocolate which tested positive for salmonella, adopting an approach that,

    "no amount of testing will make a positive result go away. … They then changed it to what they believed to be an allowable tolerance level. They [Cadbury] sought to save money from wastage by allowing a tolerance for salmonella in their food. Large quantities of product were being destroyed and Cadbury's were looking for ways of avoiding that and that's what they did. There is no dispute that there is a linkage between the chocolate that was distributed by Cadbury and the poisoning that took place later on."

    Mr Berlin added that there was no safe level for salmonella cells in ready-to-eat products and that the organism could survive in chocolate for years. The court also heard that chocolate acted as a protective layer for salmonella organisms, shielding them from acid in the stomach.

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  • Killing the regulator

    Posted: July 16th, 2007 - 6:54pm by Doug Powell

    A N.Y. Times editorial today said that "the Chinese government’s extraordinary decision to execute its chief food and drug regulator for taking bribes and allowing the sale of tainted drugs is a perfect example of all that is wrong with China’s approach to regulation."

    The editorial also says that "the scope of the problem is too big, too complex and too urgent for the United States — with $300 billion worth of Chinese imports a year — to wait for Beijing to act. American importers need to provide the first line of defense. Companies like Wal-Mart should send inspectors regularly to visit the factories of Chinese suppliers, to ensure that products are up to acceptable standards. Ultimately the American government will have to enforce these norms."

    That echoes what I told Elizabeth Weise in USA Today last Wednesday:

    "Whether your food comes from down the street or around the globe, you want to verify that producers and processors are actually doing what they are supposed to be doing."

    The Wall Street Journal also ran a great piece today on food safety being used as a protectionist trade barrier.

    Safety standards have a history of being used as trade barriers, and observers in China and the U.S. worry that a pattern may be reappearing. The back and forth of blocked imports looks increasingly like a trade battle, one in which accusations of endangering consumers have taken the place of charges of unfair competition and dumping.

    "We are likely to see these requirements increasingly being used, and abused, as a trade barrier," says Leora Blumberg, an international-trade adviser based in Hong Kong for the law firm Heller Ehrman LLP. Ms. Blumberg says that a series of global trade pacts has reduced import duties across the board and restrained the ability of nations to block trade through other means.

    I adopted a similar line in the Washington Post yesterday:

    "(I've) watched food safety long enough -- 15 years -- to know that one country's scientific standard is another's non-tariff trade barrier. Science gets used and abused all the time."

    And the L.A. Times this morning:

    "Food safety issues are often used for political means in times of strained trade relations. … Politically, it's a standard tactic. They'll say it is a food safety issue, but really it's a political issue."


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