Canada has the best healthcare system in the world.

At least that’s what Canadians are taught to believe. Never underestimate the persuasive power of wanting to believe.

The family of a seven-year-old boy who suffered complications from the North Bay, Ontario, E. coli outbreak which has sickened 249, needs help as they remain with their young son in a Toronto hospital.

Sylvie MacDonald, Carter’s mother, said,

“This is a nightmare. And asking for help is definitely one of the hardest things I’ve had to do. We don’t like to do this, but I don’t know how long this could last. It could last forever.”

The child from Mattawa was airlifted to Toronto after he was brought into the North Bay and District Hospital Oct. 24.

Huh huh huhhuh. He said wieners.

Contaminated wieners.

Commissioner of Agriculture Tommy Irvin announced today that Georgia Department of Agriculture food scientists have found Listeria monocytogenes in a sample of Zeigler Wieners.

Which is why you shouldn’t let little kids or pregnant women eat raw wieners.
 

“If you think the 10 commandments being posted in a school is going to change behavior of children, then you think ‘Employees Must Wash Hands’ is keeping the piss out of your happy meals. It's not.”

So said Jon Stewart in 2002.

A barfblog reader at North Carolina State sends along this url, a site devoted to the must wash hands concept.

Enjoy.

Kansas State University president Jon Wefald likes my dogs.

Four times a week, I walk Amy to her office, and we pass by the admin types in Anderson Hall, which is next door to Amy’s building.

Yesterday was typical. President Wefald was standing in his corner office and gave a big wave to Amy and me and the dogs as we walked by.

President Wefald is great. Despite insisting the K-State will never have a hockey arena, he is always interested in the latest food safety news. He even subscribes to our food safety infosheets.

A few weeks ago as I was walking the dogs, Pres and I got to talking about human cases of Salmonella linked to dry dog food. The Pres kept asking how humans got the Salmonella and I sensed my explanation wasn’t sufficient.

Maybe this will help.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control yesterday said that Salmonella-contaminated dry pet food sickened at least 79 people, including many young children, and could still be dangerous.

Dry pet food has a 1-year shelf life. Contaminated products identified in recalls might still be in the homes of purchasers and could cause illness. Persons who have these products should not use them to feed their pets but should discard them or return them to the store," the CDC said in its weekly report on death and disease.

The brands, made by Mars Petcare U.S., include Special Kitty, Pedigree and Member's Mark, among others. The full list of brands affected was available on www.petcare.mars.com.

The CDC report says,

"Consumers and health departments should be aware that all dry pet food, pet treats, and pet supplements might be contaminated with pathogens such as Salmonella, and consumers should use precautions with all brands of dry pet food, treats, and supplements.”

The CDC recommends that anyone handling dry pet food wash the hands and keep infants away from it.
 

I blogged earlier today that any food company doing over $5 billion a year in sales should already have a food safety dude and, after at least 20 deaths, really shouldn’t be bragging.

It gets worse.

Maple Leaf Foods president and CEO Michael McCain said yesterday that by appointing a chief food safety officer,

"I think we're the first in Canada and ... possibly in North America to have that role inside a major food company.”

Wow.

Jack-in-the-Box appointed a food safety officer after the 1993 E. coli O157:H7 outbreak. Odwalla acted like it invented flash pasteurization after the E. coli O157:H7 outbreak in cider in 1996. I could go on. Michael McCain, your knowledge of food safety sucks.

And rather than pontificating, at some point Mr. McCain will provide a full accounting of:

• who knew what when;??????

• warn pregnant women and others at risk from listeria in deli meats; and,??????

• make your listeria data public.

There’s an old saying about reformed smokers or drinkers or whatever … they’re the worst critics.

And they want everyone to share their religion.

Natural Selection Foods got food safety religion after the 2006 E. coli O157:H7 in spinach outbreak. Bill Marler recently said upon settling some lawsuits, “Special mention to Natural Selection Foods for its leadership role in preventing leafy green bacterial outbreaks.  All companies should strive for its standards.”

I disagree. There were 29 outbreaks on leafy greens before the 2006 spinach outbreak. Why didn’t Natural Selection pay attention before they got caught?

It’s an old tale. Now, after 20 confirmed deaths, and probably dozens more, Maple Leaf Foods is proclaiming they’ve hired a food safety dude.

I thought food safety would be a priority if a $5 billion company was selling food.

But I’m hopelessly naïve. Ask old girlfriends -- or my wife.

Randy Huffman, formerly of the American Meat Institute, is going to be chief food safety dude for Maple Leaf Foods. Once he settles into his new post in Jan., maybe he can foster the food safety culture his boss, Michael McCain, claims to already have. And maybe he can address some outstanding issues, ones I wrote about back in Aug. 2008 when the enormity of the listeria outbreak in Canada was just emerging:

• who knew what when;

• warn pregnant women and others at risk from listeria in deli meats; and,

• make your listeria data public.

Here's Randy, the meat science guy, on video.

Every week or thereabouts, Ben Chapman and a few of us electronically chat and come up with a food safety infosheet, a graphical one-page food safety-related story directed at food handlers, and available at foodsafetyinfosheets.ksu.edu or http://fsninfosheets.blogspot.com/.

Thanks to Mayra Rivarola, food safety infosheets will now be translated into Spanish as they appear, and are available at http://fsninfosheetsesp.blogspot.com/.

Here is the most recent food safety infosheet in Spanish.

Nueva Infosheet de Food Safety Network – Si estás enfermo, quedate en casa

El más reciente folleto sobre seguridad alimenticia, un relato gráfico de una página dirigido a productores de alimentos, está ahora disponible en http://fsninfosheetsesp.blogspot.com/

Puntos importantes:???Si estás enfermo con diarrea o vomito, habla con tu gerente. Es mejor que te quedes en casa para evitar la transmissión de enfermedades.
Una ley en Indiana requiere que los trabajadores se queden en casa si son diagnosticados con una de las siguientes 5 enfermedades: salmonella, shiga toxin-producing E. coli, shigella, hepatitis A o norovirus.

Un cocinero en Michigan se presentó enfermo al trabajo en el 2006 y fue asociado a un brote de norovirus que enfermó a 364 clientes después de vomitar en los basureros de la cocina.

Que puedes hacer: Llama al trabajo para avisar que estás enfermo. Siempre lávate las manos

Estos folletos son creados semanalmente y repartidos a restaurantes, supermercados, granjas, y son usados en entrenamientos alrededor del mundo. Si tienes alguna solicitud de otro tema, fotos que te gustaría compartir, contacta con Ben Chapman en bchapman@uoguelph.ca

Dr. Doug Sider, Niagara Region’s associate medical officer of health said a food supply problem likely led to the spread of E. coli O157:H7 that has made 46 people sick and caused Niagara-on-the-Lake’s Little Red Rooster to voluntarily close its doors Oct. 24, and Welland’s M. T. Bellies Tap & Grillhouse to close its kitchen on Oct. 29.

Sider said that extensive interviews with dozens of people who ate at Little Red Rooster, including 80 people who did not become sick, suggest some type of contaminated lettuce or salad component is to blame, adding,

“All of the evidence is pointing to the fact that the restaurants were, in a way, innocent bystanders of probably some contaminated produce that was distributed.”

Another 28 people in Burlington have fallen ill in an E. coli outbreak primarily linked to Johnathan’s Family Restaurant on Fairview Street. Three cases are confirmed E. coli O157:H7, and one has a similar “fingerprint” or molecular makeup to several cases in Niagara.

Sider was further cited as saying the three affected restaurants do not share a common food supplier, which is puzzling to investigators, adding,

“That’s why we’re scratching our heads and looking farther upstream. You know, could it be a more central distributor? Places like the Ontario Food Terminal (in Toronto), where a lot of regional or local suppliers buy their produce. … The fact that we’ve got these sort of localized areas with a number of people who became ill, frankly, it’s perplexing. I can’t explain it at this point in time.”

As I’ve said before, there are no guidelines – at least not publicly available guidelines -- on when to go public. Federal agencies like the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency must come clean with the public and industry and articulate the basis for public notification, or even restaurant closures, during outbreaks of foodborne illness. Until then local health units are left cleaning up the mess. Good for Dr. Sider for clearly articulating the process.
 

While awaiting DNA test results on the poop in the Australian ice cream, Sydney’s Coogee Bay Hotel has announced it will install six new security cameras, with the food preparation area to be under constant surveillance.

It has also invited NSW health authorities to do monthly inspections of the kitchen, and customers will be able to have their say about the hotel via its website, to be launched soon.