Proper handwashing requires access to the proper tools -- soap, water and paper towel.

But what soap is best?

Allison Aiello, an assistant professor of epidemiology at the University of Michigan School of Public Health, was cited as telling the Los Angeles Times that antibacterial soaps may give consumers an added sense of security, but "they don't seem to provide a benefit above and beyond ordinary soap."

Aiello and colleagues recently surveyed 27 separate studies that investigated the effectiveness of soaps containing triclosan. Some studies looked at rates of infectious diseases; others measured levels of bacteria that lingered on hands after washing. As the researchers will report in an upcoming issue of the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases, they found no evidence that antibacterial soaps prevent more illnesses or remove more germs than regular soap.

Aiello also points to several laboratory studies suggesting that triclosan can help bacteria build up resistance to commonly used antibiotics such as methicillin and erythromycin. Because of these potential risks, Aiello says, regular soap would be a better choice.

But Emily Sickbert-Bennett, a public health epidemiologist at the University of North Carolina School of Public Health who has studied antibacterial soaps, was quoted as telling The Times there's "no good evidence" that triclosan has encouraged antibiotic resistance in the real world. She says consumers can safely use antibacterial soaps without worrying about creating super-bugs.

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Martin Fenstersheib, the chief medical officer for Santa Clara County, was cited as saying on Thursday that about 4,000 customers could be at risk after a worker at a Jamba Juice store in San Jose, California, developed hepatitis A, adding,

"During the time she was infectious, she was also working at Jamba Juice, so we were concerned that even though there is a corporate policy of good hand washing, you can't be 100 percent sure."

Paul Clayton, Jamba Juice's chief executive, was quoted as saying in a statement,

"Jamba Juice will pay eligible individuals, who satisfy the reimbursement requirements, their reasonable, out-of-pocket medical expenses related to the diagnosis and treatment of hepatitis A."

Wash your hands. And don't serve poop.

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Doug has already posted a couple of comments on this article by Dan Dempster of the Canadian Produce Marketing Association, in which Dempster discusses how produce is the safest fresh food group in Canada. What constitutes a fresh food? Are sprouts a fresh food? The U.S. FDA doesn't really think they are that safe with their standing warning that those who seek to reduce the risk of foodborne illness should not eat raw sprouts. 

Dempster implies that he doesn't believe the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC)'s estimation that 11-13 million Canadians get sick from foodborne illness each year. Nelson Fok wrote a great article discussing the estimation, which Mr. Dempster over-simplified with his comments.  But PHAC isn't the only authority who has come up with that estimate. CDC, WHO and the Australian government also support the estimates that close to a third of developed countries' citizens get the runs and puke from food each year.

While Dempster plays down the FBI statistics, he forgets to mention one that I like to use -- the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture Food and Rural Affair (OMAFRA) Food Safety Science Unit (FSSU) estimates that 41 per cent of foodborne illness in Ontario can be attributed to produce.  This exceeds every other food group including meat, fish, dairy and eggs. So is produce the safest thing you can eat in other parts of Canada, just not Ontario?

A 2004 baseline study conducted also by OMAFRA suggested that the ministry found fairly high levels of E. coli at a fairly high prevalence on domestically grown leafy commodities, which as they put it "is a concern".  E.coli may not be the greatest indicator of the presence of pathogens, but it's data.

It's easy to pick apart Dempster's article as a marketing puff piece and it's a shame that was the direction he took. Mr. Dempster had a real opportunity to acknowledge the risks associated with fresh fruits and vegetables and focus on what the produce industry is trying to implement to address them -- because they are doing good things. The Canadian Hort Council has been working on guidelines and developing audit schemes, and pushing for changing practices and verifying them.  We've worked with producers in Ontario for the past decade on doing just this. If data exists on how producers are doing, and why food safety is so important to them, make it public.

Industry typically shies away from talking about risks with their consumers -- feeling, I think, that if they discuss how they are managing risks they are highlighting potential negatives of their products.  This goes against everything in risk communication research - the important part is proactively talking about what you are doing before you end up in crisis.  When the next produce outbreak hits,  it's too late. Dan, the headline of your article appearing in the Calgary Herald says that "Fruits, veggies don't deserve a bad rap" and you never addressed the most important part --  why.

--
for more info check out these links:

Foodborne illness estimates:
WHO: http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs237/en/print.html
CDC: http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/eid/vol5no5/mead.htm
Australia: http://www.ozfoodnet.org.au/internet/ozfoodnet/publishing.nsf/Content/7F6D9DE21AB6F102CA2571650027861F/$File/cost-foodborne.pdf
Canada: www.hc-sc.gc.ca/fn-an/consultation/blueprint_food-plan_aliments/rmsfn-smran_e.html#12

OMAFRA illness estimates:
http://www.omafra.gov.on.ca/english/food/inspection/fruitveg/min_process/mp02_background.pdf

OMAFRA microbiological baseline video:
http://www.uoguelph.ca/crifs/GFSS05/L.A.feb9.mov

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Newport News, Virginia, host of the annual Jeff Schieck invitational golf and gabfest, is getting into restaurant inspection disclosure, big time.

It's the latest attempt by cities and states to provide meaningful information about dining establishments, and even more notable, newspapers themselves are hiring folks to present the information in a user-friendly manner.

Those of us who gather in Newport News every spring appreciate the additional information, and look forward to the rankings at Schieck's favorite dining spot, Golden Corral.

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Swansea Council in Wales has bought 600,000 specially designed poop scoop bags which pet owners can use to dispose of their pet's waste when out walking.

The Council says dog owners are more than welcome to use designated beaches all along the peninsula but they want them to use the scoops and help keep beaches clean for everyone.


Dog owners risk fines of up to a thousand pounds if they fail to clear up after their pet.

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The Washington Post reported today that teams involved with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's Tomato Safety Initiative have completed their Virginia visits and went to more than 50 growing fields and three packing facilities.

Jack Guzewich, a specialist in foodborne diseases at the FDA Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition, was cited as saying that because water can carry bacteria, investigators look at irrigation water, wells, chemical mixing procedures and the results of drought and flooding, adding,

"Animals can be anything from reptiles to birds and mammals -- the whole zoological garden. Feces get into land and water, and, in some cases, an animal comes in contact with the plant."

FDA documents 12 outbreaks with a total of 1,840 cases of food-borne illnesses linked to fresh and fresh-cut tomatoes have occurred since 1998, and most were traced to Virginia's Eastern Shore and Florida, two major growing areas, and a few to Georgia, South Carolina, Ohio and California. Salmonella was the main culprit.

The program will move to Florida during the fall growing season, with plans to reach other locales.

My team and I have spent a lot of time with greenhouse tomato growers in Ontario. There are numerous on-farm barriers to actually implementing good agricultural practices.

Check out our papers below:

Luedtke, A., Chapman, B. and Powell, D.A. 2003. Implementation and analysis of an on-farm food safety program for the production of greenhouse vegetables. Journal of Food Protection. 66:485-489.

Powell, D.A., Bobadilla-Ruiz, M., Whitfield, A. Griffiths, M.G.. and Luedtke, A. 2002. Development, implementation and analysis of an on-farm food safety program for the production of greenhouse vegetables in Ontario, Canada. Journal of Food Protection. 65: 918- 923.

We also published a book chapter entitled Implementing On-Farm Food Safety Programs in Fruit and Vegetable Cultivation, in the recently published, Improving the Safety of Fresh Fruit and Vegetables.

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It only took some bright journalist three days from the initial announcement to figure out that the four sick people with Shigella from baby carrots were in Calgary.

Hypothetical risks are a big story in Canada. People actually barfing isn't.

The Calgary Health Region, continuing its Paleolithic-era communications style of blaming consumers, was cited by CBC News as "warning people to wash their hands thoroughly to prevent spread of the bacteria."

So, these four sick people all opened bags of baby carrots from Costco and managed to sicken themselves with the same bacterium cause they didn't wash their hands? It's a ready-to-eat-food. Who comes up with this stuff?

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Food safety is not simple.

Yet the food safety folks in Calgary, Alberta, continue to insist that there are generally more E. coli cases in the summer because more people barbeque hamburger. That's blaming consumers, a standard tactic, especially in Canada.

Since the beginning of June, 58 people have become sick with E. coli O157:H7 in the Calgary area. Now they've apparently decided to call in the feds for help.

Tanya Maksymic, whose two children were sickened, including the hospitalization of her 17-month-old, said the health region's decision to get help from the federal government about the unusually high number of cases this summer is too little too late.

I chimed in on Aug. 2/07, with the following letter in the Calgary Herald:

Re: "E. coli infections stymie officials," July 28.

Dr. Judy MacDonald said 28 people have tested positive for E. coli in Calgary, more than five times the number the city usually sees in a typical month.

Despite not knowing the food source, MacDonald stated, "There are simple ways to prevent this -- wash your hands before you prepare food or eat food, after you change a child's diaper, or after you've been to the bathroom."

What's so simple about the recent outbreaks in produce, pet food and peanut butter? Once the products were home, there was nothing individuals could have done to prevent the illnesses and deaths.

Are consumers really expected to cook all their fresh tomatoes and leafy greens to 165F to kill salmonella? Fry up peanut butter? Bake the cat food?

Food safety is complex, constant and requires commitment. Consumers have a role to play, but not if the E. coli is linked to produce like lettuce or spinach.

Everyone in the farm-to-fork food safety system has a responsibility to reduce risk. The opportunities for cross-contamination are numerous, and it's not that easy to cook a safe burger.

Every grower, packer, distributor, retailer and restaurant must work on developing their own culture that values and promotes microbiologically safe food.

Douglas Powell,
Manhattan, Kan.
Douglas Powell is scientific director of the International Food Safety Network at Kansas State University.

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Dr. Suzanne Gibbons-Burgener, from the University of Wisconsin in Madison, was cited as telling the annual International Conference on Diseases in Nature Communicable to Man held last week in Madison, Wisconsin that a random sampling of milk from 901 Wisconsin dairy farms, chosen to encompass small and large herds, producers of Grade A and B milk, and all five of the state's geographic regions, found that 76 per cent of the samples had detectable Coxiella burnetii DNA, and 5 per cent of the samples harbored Listeria monocytogenes.

Milk from larger herds and farms producing Grade A milk appeared to have a larger risk of having detectable C. burnetii, but no clear risk factors emerged to predict which farms were more likely to have L. monocytogenes in their milk. Both bacteria were broadly distributed geographically.

Kim White writes in a letter to the Owen Sound Sun Times in Ontario, Canada, that the real issue with raw milk is about the prevention of illness and not about freedom of choice, stating,

"Do not talk to me about what is or is not an issue of freedom to choose when 75 per cent of what is in the grocery store now contains genetically modified ingredients - without labelling, without warning. … Health Canada and the FDA, I'm afraid, exist to protect the industry they serve."

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