The Scotsman is reporting that trials in a Scottish hospital have shown patients suffering from Clostridium difficile infections can be cured using human faeces -- a 'donor stool' administered via a tube through the nose into their stomach.

Clostridium difficile is a particular problem among patients who have been prescribed strong antibiotics as they also wipe out the so-called 'friendly' disease-fighting bacteria in the intestine. Faecal 'transplants', as they are known, are believed to restore the bacteria to levels at which they help the recovery process.

Doctors involved in the trials admit there are "obvious aesthetic problems" in the treatment, which involves patients ingesting a liquidised sample of faeces from a partner or close relative.

Despite the positive results, doctors stress that they still regard the faecal transplant as a "last resort" because it is cumbersome and the idea of is unpleasant.

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This week in the podcast we highlight:

• Pot pie - Salmonella recall
• Listeria - Chicken recall
• Fighting food borne illness
• Salmonella and lettuce

iFSN podcast 10.12.07

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There are hundreds of frozen products available at retail containing potentially hazardous food; some are fully cooked; some aren't.

This is one example. The Kroger Chicken Kiev label states it's "Microwavable," but also says, UNCOOKED; Keep Frozen; Cook to an Internal Temperature of 165F as measured by a thermometer."

On the back, the microwave instructions say the time estimates are for a 1,000 W microwave, which is more specific than the high, medium or low on the ConAgra Banquet pot pies. I found out our microwave is 1150 W, but don't know if that is high, medium or low.

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My wife Amy says she ate a lot of pot pies growing up in Montana and "they were always frozen in the middle."

Kids come home from school, are told to fend for themselves, grab something from the freezer, pop it into the microwave, and sometimes, instant gratification.

People have been eating frozen pot pies for a long time and haven't gotten sick.

But somehow, a whole pile of poop  -- that's where salmonella comes from -- got into the batch of ConAgra Banquet turkey and chicken pot pies with the code P9 on the side panel.

It was either a failure to cook the meat, or it was in the potatoes or carrots or flour. Poop is everywhere. It should not be eaten; unless it's cooked.

Until last night, when ConAgra finally recalled all pot pies produced at its Missouri plant, the company insisted it was up to consumers to cook that poop.

But are consumers really the ones who are supposed to be responsible here?

Stephanie Childs, a spokesperson for ConAgra, says that as long as consumers follow the instructions on the package, Banquet brand frozen pot pies are safe to eat.

Amy questions that. So do the 152 people across the U.S. confirmed with Salmonella linked to the ConAgra pot pies. With that many sick people, of which 20 required hospitalization, there were probably thousands of people barfing or planted on the porcelain throne because they could not figure out how to follow the simple instructions to make the poop safe.

So I gave it a try.

The details are available at:
http://barfblog.foodsafety.ksu.edu/2007/10/articles/food-safety-communication/cooking-a-frozen-pot-pie-in-a-microwave/

The short version is, the cooking instructions, for me, in one trial, failed to yield a safe internal temperature of 165F; the pie only got to 148F. That's not safe. If salmonella was there, it would make me poop.

ConAgra was somehow allowed to blame consumers for several days -- if not months -- for the poop in their pot pies.

Now ConAgra says it is going to rewrite its cooking instructions on its pot pie packaging -- something that should have done before 152 people started barfing.

But why just pot pies? There is a cacophony of frozen, raw or cooked products available in the supermarket freezer section, and there have been several outbreaks of foodborne illness related to those products containing raw ingredients.

In 2006 the U.S. Department of Agriculture issued guidelines requiring companies to clearly label uncooked products and include a statement such as "must be cooked to an internal temperature of 165 degrees F as measured by use of a thermometer" in a prominent spot on the package.

But it's still confusing. Raw, frozen, chicken strips, for instance, are sold side-by-side with fully cooked, frozen chicken strips. Kids looking for an after-school snack may not read the label instructions before popping something in the microwave. And telling consumers to cook out the poop may not be the best marketing strategy.

Frozen products like nuggets, strips and pot pies should only contain fully cooked ingredients.

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

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Kent Sepkowitz, a physician in New York City who writes about medicine, writes in Slate.com that,

"… one year ago, the now-famous E. coli outbreak arising from contaminated spinach rattled the natural-food industry and gave carnivores a moment of schadenfreude. The story had the heartbreaking elements we have come to dread: A young child eats something mundane and dies a horrid death. Boom, gone. I have (unsuccessfully) treated one such case and rate it as perhaps the most chilling moment of my career.

"With every outbreak, the same question sounds: Why can't we keep the food chain clean? … The best response to E. coli and the other pathogens that cause food poisoning is to recognize, humbly, that we can get the food supply almost perfectly clean, but never completely. There's just too much crap out there: human crap, horse crap, cow crap, pig crap. In the feces of these and other animals are trillions of infectious agents (bacteria, viruses, fungi, worms, and everything else that upsets the stomach). Try as we may to contain the mess, we can never win. Pig dung fouls rivers; cow crap seeps into water tables; human shit kicks back every time heavy rains overwhelm a sewage system's filtration capacity. …

"Rather than frantically throwing money at new ways to eradicate the pathogens that reside in shit, we should fund the boring scientists who focus on untangling the intricacies of the gut's immune system. Labs, answer this: How much shit can we safely eat and, as importantly, how much must we eat to remain healthy?"

While there is some truth in the doctor's comments, humans just aren't smart enough to figure out who is genetically susceptible to the various nasties out there. Maybe the population's immunity can be increased by exposure to some cryptosporidium or salmonella or whatever, but individuals are gonna die. We're gonna lose a few. And we don't know who those few are.

So while we're figuring that out, we have a responsibility to use the science we know to reduce the number of people who get sick from the food and water they consume. And don't eat poop.

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While introducing a Senate motion to block the movement of older Canadian cattle into the U.S., U.S. Senator Byron Dorgan (D-ND) couldn't help himself and played the "safest meat in the world" card.

"American beef is the safest in the world, but increased importation of higher risk Canadian beef and cattle would undermine the confidence of our trading partners and cause further damage to our domestic beef industry."

Observers said it was doubtful the motion would pass.

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The Toronto Star reports that Alex James, 39, bassist with British supergroup Blur and who once billed himself as "the second drunkest member of the drunkest band in Britain," is talking British cheese.

James was quoted as telling The Independent last week that cheese is the new cool, adding,

"The music business is a sinking battleship. It is a complete contrast to the food industry, which is just so buoyant. You simply cannot make a food that is too posh or too expensive."

James' journey through the careful art of curdling milk is the subject of The Cheese Diaries, a series of videos undertaken for The Guardian (and viewable online at YouTube) in tandem with connoisseur Juliet Harbutt, one of Britain's foremost cheese experts.

Harbutt, who occasionally gives lectures on cheese in France, was further quoted as saying the British revival is sometimes galling to Gallic sensibilities "because the French are still totally confident that they invented cheese and are the only ones who make it properly. I enjoy reminding them that they learned it from the Romans, just as England did."

WoooooooooHoooooooooo

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Researchers report in the latest Australian and New Zealand Journal of Health that in a survey of 586 women attending antenatal clinics in one private and two major public hospitals in New South Wales between April and November 2006, more than half received no information on preventing Listeria.

It's long been government advice that pregnant women should avoid soft cheeses, smallgoods, raw seafood and pre-prepared vegetable salads such as coleslaw because of their potential to contain the bacteria Listeria monocytogenes.

Listeria can produce a toxin that crosses the placenta and can cause miscarriages.

Lead researcher Dolly Bondarianzadeh, from the University of Wollongong's School of Health Sciences, said,

"In my experience, food was not high on the list of health risk topics for doctors, nurses and midwives to discuss with clients. Our results show that when it comes to food, women who have enough information and knowledge from a trusted source change their eating behaviour."

"Health professionals who deal with pregnant women should all be raising the importance of educating women about food safety in pregnancy."

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control recommendations for persons at high risk, such as pregnant women and persons with weakened immune systems, includes:

-Do not eat hot dogs, luncheon meats, or deli meats, unless they are reheated until steaming hot.
-Avoid getting fluid from hot dog packages on other foods, utensils, and food preparation surfaces, and wash hands after handling hot dogs, luncheon meats, and deli meats.
-Do not eat soft cheeses such as feta, Brie, and Camembert, blue-veined cheeses, or Mexican-style cheeses such as queso blanco, queso fresco, and Panela, unless they have labels that clearly state they are made from pastuerized milk.
-Do not eat refrigerated pâtés or meat spreads. Canned or shelf-stable pâtés and meat spreads may be eaten.
-Do not eat refrigerated smoked seafood, unless it is contained in a cooked dish, such as a casserole. Refrigerated smoked seafood, such as salmon, trout, whitefish, cod, tuna or mackerel, is most often labeled as "nova-style," "lox," "kippered," "smoked," or "jerky." The fish is found in the refrigerator section or sold at deli counters of grocery stores and delicatessens. Canned or shelf-stable smoked seafood may be eaten.

The USDA risk assessment for listeria is ready-to-eat foods is available here

http://www.fsis.usda.gov/OPPDE/rdad/FRPubs/97-013F/ListeriaReport.pdf

and one from the World Health Organization is here.

http://www.who.int/foodsafety/publications/micro/mra_listeria/en/index.html

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Some students groups are upset after the University of Nebraska at Omaha banned the sale of homemade baked goods on campus.

UNO officials said the ban was put in place due to concerns about food allergies and contaminated food, although there had been no reports of contamination.

While such bans, along with similar attempts to inspect church pot-lucks and other community-based initiatives may seem heavy-handed, the potential for sick people and subsequent liability cannot be ignored.

Anyone who serves, prepares or handles food, in a restaurant, nursing home, day care center, supermarket, local market or yes, even  for a bake sale, needs some basic food safety training. And health inspectors are there to provide some minimal oversight.

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