Pizzeria Alcamo in Jönköping – which is apparently in southern Sweden – was closed Thursday and by today, 593 people said they were sick after a visit or a slice.

It is not yet known whether patrons fell ill as a result of food poisoning or a fast-spreading outbreak of the winter vomiting virus.

The council's health and safety office has carried out tests on kebab meat, iceberg lettuce and kebab sauce in a bid to isolate the source of the outbreak.
 

Celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay's five star Claridge's Hotel in London allegedly served up a meal containing cling film – which is apparently British for plastic wrap – to Noelie Kline, who apparently is some sort of U.K. reality TV regular.

Ms Klineberg says she believes she had suffered food poisoning and has reported the matter to Westminster Council's environmental health officers.

"It's all very well Gordon Ramsay going off to America to sort out restaurants but he ought to get his own house in order first."
 

I could devote an entire blog to debunking the nonsense that is Whole Foods.

Every day they have a post that contains the most outlandish, fantastical claims about food – and they expect customers to pay twice as much.

Unbeknownst to me, Amy came across part II of the Whole Foods fairy tale about what it means to be natural. And she asked a question:

In light of recent major recalls including natural peanut paste, I’d be more interested in knowing what kind of research you put into the safety behind your ingredients.

That comment has yet to be posted; it never will. The good demagogue that speak for Whole Foods know to never lose control of the microphone. Especially at those prices.
 

An employee at Whole Foods Market in Tulsa, OK, recently caught a spider (below) roaming in the produce section.

The director of animal facilities at the University of Tulsa, Terry Childs, thought it to be a Brazilian wandering spider, or banana spider, which is considered to be the most deadly spider in the world. Childs said the spider likely came to the store in a bunch of bananas from Honduras.

A manager at the store said employees check the produce for spiders and insects, and believes that’s why the spider was discovered before it left the store.

Whole Foods said in a later statement,

"We take every precaution to inspect all of our produce as it arrives in the store and prior to it being merchandised on the sales floor. This incident is an extremely unusual circumstance, and one that we've never encountered before. We are confident that this will remain an isolated incident as we are very cautious when unpacking produce for our sales floor."

I can’t find this statement, so I’m not sure if the entire thing is so defensive and impersonal. I wonder whether the store or chain ever said sorry for the scare, or that they were glad no one got hurt.

Granted, the situation may not have been as dire as was first believed. The curator of aquariums and herpetology at the Tulsa Zoo, Barry Downer, saw video and photos of the spider (who has now been destroyed) and thinks it may have been a Huntsman spider—an arachnid that is harmless to humans.

Regardless of its true identity, the spider was perceived as a threat to shoppers and Whole Foods would do well to recognize that.

If anybody finds their statement, I’d love to check it out: casey.jo.jacob@gmail.com, or comment here for all to enjoy.
 

David Mackay doesn’t look like Kevin McDonald of Kids in the Hall fame.

But Kellogg’s CEO Mackay did an outstanding impersonation of McDonald’s, “How the hell should I know” skit (below) in front of a U.S. Congressional committee today.

“When you look at Kellogg, we have 3,000 ingredients and 1,000 suppliers, I think it’s common industry practice to use a third party.”

Not common enough for Nestle North America, which rejected Peanut Corporation of America’s Blakely plant as a supplier in 2002 after it found the plant had no plans to address hazards like salmonella.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports that in January 2006, Nestle also rejected the company’s Plainview, Texas, plant after finding dozens of dead mice rotting in and around the plant, dead pigeons near a peanut receiving door and live birds roosting inside the plant.

Congressional types also heard today that auditors AIB -- also known as the American Institute of Baking based in Manhattan (sigh, Kansas) -- were hired and paid by Peanut Corp. of America, notified the company in advance when they were coming, how to prepare for inspections and then gave its plants glowing reviews.

An inspector with AIB wrote to the manager of Peanut Corp.’s Blakely, Ga., in a December 2008 e-mail produced today by the committee that,

“You lucky guy. I am your AIB auditor. So we need to get your plant set up for any audit.”

Mackay told the committee a version of, “how the hell could we know?” and that AIB is the most commonly used inspector by food companies in America.

Not for long. And for a company to say it meets industry standards ain’t so great when 700 are sick and nine dead.
 

Five-year-old Mason Jones died a painful and unnecessary death.

Mason (right) died Oct. 4, 2005, from E. coli O157 as part of an outbreak which sickened 161 -- primarily schoolchildren -- in south Wales.

Mason’s mother, Sharon Mills, said in 2005 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."

Today, Professor Hugh Pennington concluded that serious failings at every step in the food chain allowed rogue butcher William Tudor to start the 2005 E.coli O157 outbreak, and that while the responsibility for the outbreak, “falls squarely on the shoulders of Tudor,” there was no shortage of errors, including:

• local health types did not sufficiently assess or monitor John Tudor & Son’s food safety management or HACCP plan;

• the abattoir was allowed to continue slaughtering despite longstanding and repetitive failures, in breach of legislative requirements and without significant improvements; and,

• the procurement process was “seriously flawed in relation to food safety”

Prof Pennington said he was disappointed that the recommendations he made more than 10 years ago, following the E.coli O157 outbreak in Wishaw, Scotland, which killed 17 people had failed to prevent the South Wales Valleys outbreak.

“I was very disappointed that the more we looked into what happened in South Wales, the greater the number of parallels between Scotland and Wales. That was disappointing for me personally because I had spent a lot of time coming up with the recommendations in 1996 and 1997 – they were implemented but somewhere things fell down in the way they were implemented. I am looking for these recommendations to be implemented as soon as possible because E.coli is as powerful a threat now as it was in 2005.”
 

A Chicago eatery, claiming to serve “Good Wholesome Food for the Mind and Body,” has been shut down after an inspection revealed mouse droppings, food stored at unsafe temperatures, and unclean surfaces potentially causing cross contamination, reports the Chicago Journal. A diner who called 311 on the establishment, leading to the inspection, would likely argue the food was not enjoyable for the body or mind.

 The three violations found during the March 12th inspection were “critical,” warranting immediate shutdown of the restaurant, and a $500 fine each. The next afternoon during a second inspection mouse droppings were found scattered throughout the establishment, indicating a possible rodent infestation, keeping the café closed.

Tim Hadac, spokesman for the Department of Public Health, said,

"The establishment will remain closed until they can pass re-inspection. The burden is entirely up to them to address the violations until they can open again."

But the establishment remains closed, and review of previous inspection reports reveals this wasn’t the first time the Heartland Café operated under unsafe conditions.

Frances Guichard, director of Food Protection Program for the Chicago Department of Health, said,

"[The Heartland] seems to be on a cusp of problems, but not enough to close them down. We do find violations and come back five days later to find that they corrected it."

An August 2002 inspection found large rodent droppings and live moths in the dry storage area, and turkey, lentils and sausage stored at an unsafe temperature; the café passed a re-inspection five days later. In April 2005, more than 50 mouse droppings were found in a storage room. A month later a patron called 311 reporting mouse droppings in the women’s restroom. Inspection found a baited rodent hole, but no droppings.

In Chicago inspection results are available online, indicating a pass or fail. The site doesn’t appear to have been updated however, since it indicates the Heartland Café has “passed” recent inspection (on 10/26/2007). The Heartland Café’s website indicates they will be opening today with a limited menu.
 

In what appears to be an isolated incident, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency and Loblaw Companies Limited are warning the public after 50 mm sewing needles were found in certain luncheon meat kits and wieners at the No Frills Store located on Silvercreek Parkway in Guelph, Ontario. That’s in Canada.

In January, 19 people became ill after eating oysters at The Boathouse Rotisserie and Raw Bar in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Now, the same establishment has been linked to 9 ill persons who ate at the restaurant between March 5th and 8th, reports WTVC-TV.

[The Chattanooga-Hamilton County] Health Department conducted the investigation to determine the cause of the illness… Laboratory testing of ill individuals identified Norovirus as the cause. The establishment fully cooperated with the Health Department's procedures, including halting service of implicated oysters when notified of the illnesses.

Margaret Zylstra, Epidemiology Manager at the Chattanooga-Hamilton County Health Department said,

"Oysters should be cooked thoroughly. Any oyster not thoroughly cooked poses the risk of foodborne illness."

Bacterial and viral pathogens can be carried in oysters, including Vibrio, Hepatitis A and Norovirus. Even in healthy individuals, these pathogens cause illness. These illnesses can be severe, particularly in the elderly or in persons with weakened immune systems. In addition, most of these illnesses can then be spread to other individuals through person to person contact.