When I think of Australia I think of the hilarious TV show Summer Heights High. Although the mockumentary about high school students takes place in Melbourne, I can’t help but picture angry food operators in Adelaide saying “puck you” to unfavorable health inspections.

According to AdelaideNow, food premises in Adelaide that do not adhere to the Food Act will be name-and-shamed publicly. Prior to this decision restaurant inspection results in Adelaide were not available to the public.  

Mr MacPherson, [Acting Ombudsman], quoted the overwhelming public desire for the information to be released…

He continued,

"In reaching this conclusion I consider that there is a public interest in promoting safe and hygienic practices within restaurants and in diners being able to make informed choices about where they eat.”

"Eighty-six per cent of 1268 participants in a survey linked to an online version (AdelaideNow) of an article that appeared in The Advertiser on 11 May, 2009, agree that information identifying infringing restaurants should be disclosed publicly."

Tuesday’s Oprah had Dr. Oz talking to viewers about the smart patient checklist. Dr. Oz believes there are eight ways to avoid medical mistakes: preventing infection, avoiding wrong-site surgery, not commencing in chitchat, using a high-tech hospital, using a hospital that uses a patient care checklist, using a nationally accredited hospital, knowing the hospital you are using, and being a smart patient.

Preventing infections is straightforward. “You’re in an environment that has sick people in it who have infections themselves,” says Dr. Oz. Also, “It’s so easy to spread to you.”

Asking people to wash their hands before touching you, keeping hand sanitizer near your bedside, and avoiding bacteria-promoting items (flowers and jewelry) will help reduce your chance of getting a hospital-acquired infection. Other helpful tips include asking the doctor or nurse to wash their hands, sanitize their medical equipment (stethescope, sphygmomonometer, etc.), and to clean general patient room equipment (phone, television remote, etc.).

More details about Dr. Oz’s smart patient checklist can be found on Oprah’s website.
 

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control reports in tomorrow’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report that foodborne illnesses are a major health burden in the United States . Most of these illnesses are preventable, and analysis of outbreaks helps identify control measures. Although most cases are sporadic, investigation of the portion that occur as part of recognized outbreaks can provide insights into the pathogens, food vehicles, and food-handling practices associated with foodborne infections.

In 2006, CDC reported 1,270 foodborne disease outbreaks (FBDOs) from all states and territories through the Foodborne Disease Outbreak Surveillance System (FBDSS), resulting in 27,634 cases of foodborne illness and 11 deaths. Among the 624 FBDOs with a confirmed etiology, norovirus was the most common cause, accounting for 54% of outbreaks and 11,879 cases, followed by Salmonella (18% of outbreaks and 3,252 cases). Among the 11 reported deaths, 10 were attributed to bacterial etiologies (six Escherichia coli O157:H7, two Listeria monocytogenes, one Salmonella serotype Enteritidis, and one Clostridium botulinum), and one was attributed to a chemical (mushroom toxin).

Among outbreaks caused by a single food vehicle, the most common food commodities to which outbreak-related cases were attributed were poultry (21%), leafy vegetables (17%), and fruits/nuts (16%). Public health professionals can use this information to 1) target control strategies for specific pathogens in particular foods along the farm-to-table continuum and 2) support good food-handling practices among restaurant workers and the public.

The Belfast Telegraph reports that,

“Four out of ten older people are putting their health at risk by not checking the use by date on food.”

This was determined by a survey of 780 people across Northern Ireland in April. At least the numbers were. I’m not sure why eating food past its use by date is considered risky?

Kathryn Baker from the Food Standards Agency says in the article that cases of listeriosis in the over-60 crowd have doubled in the UK since 2000. Is eating foods after their use by dates a contributing factor? The article doesn’t say.

Granted, use by dates in Northern Ireland mean something different than use by dates in the US.

I found that the Northern Ireland Food Labeling Regulations from 1996 require use by dates (as opposed to best before dates) on foods that are “microbiologically highly perishable and in consequence likely, after a short period of time, to pose an immediate danger to human health.”

As I scanned the list of foods included with that description, I noticed that several—soft cheeses, smoked fish, cured meats and prepared vegetable salads (such as coleslaw)—are products that Lianou and Sofos (2007) noted have been linked to outbreaks of listeriosis.

Has the FSA found it more likely that food contaminated with pathogenic Listeria will sicken someone after its use by date than before? It doesn’t take many Listeria bacteria to make an elderly person sick (less than 1,000 according to the FDA). Where is the data to support this stuff?

Baker told the Belfast Telegraph that the FSA was focusing an information campaign on food hygiene advice for this particular group of people. That campaign evidently includes telling everyone over 60 to follow food use by dates. Will they also be told why?

I’m certainly curious.

North Antrim Magistrates Court heard how a man purchased a Hyndman's malt loaf from a supermarket in the Ballymoney area before Christmas 2007.

When he unwrapped the loaf he discovered the small lifeless mammal embedded in the base of the bread (right, photo from BBC).

The judge fined the company, D Hyndman and Son Ltd, Maghera, £1,000 plus costs for placing unsafe food on the market. …

The defence lawyer said an "onerous inspection" is held at the bakery every six weeks and that two field biologists attend each year. There are 131 bait stations in the premises at present, he said.
 

Campbell Soup boss Doug Conant told the Canadian Embassy in Washington last night that the U.S. should abandon its two-regulator format for food and adopt a one-agency model like Canada’s, which would be more effective than product-label laws, adding,

“If the government of Canada can monitor the safety of its food products with one single food-inspection agency, why can’t the United States?”

There are probably other reasons Conant would like to clone the Canadians. If there’s ever an outbreak of foodborne disease, the public will hear about it last from the Canadian Food Inspection Agency. In last year’s listeria shitfest in which 22 died, the Chief Medical Officer of Health for the province of Ontario, Dr. David Williams, complained that CFIA waited nearly a month to inform health officials that contaminated ready-to-eat meats were being distributed to grocery stories -- a dangerous delay in issuing a product recall.

But Dr. Brian Evans, executive vice president and Chief Veterinary Officer of Canada, Canadian Food Inspection Agency, wrote in the Ottawa Citizen that CFIA acted promptly once they were informed of a food source associated with two illnesses in a nursing home. Scientific evidence of contaminated meat products was confirmed on the evening of Aug. 16, 2008 and the CFIA issued a public advisory and recall eight hours later in the early morning hours of Aug. 17, 2008.

Apparently, only positive product tests count as real science at CFIA. Epidemiology, dead bodies, these are mere distractions. Is that really what the Campbell’s dude is endorsing?
 

I’ve been working my way through Peter Elbling’s 2003 novel The Food Taster, for about a year. It’s sorta always there but I just can’t get that excited about the main character, Ugo, and his struggle to survive as he tastes countless dishes to protect a much loathed but important 16th Century Italian Duke (Federico). 

Amy has written while at this point in history simply having food was a luxury, the formerly starving peasant, Ugo, learns that he can no longer enjoy his food. Although now an expert at identifying ingredients and seasonings (right up there with today’s top food pornographers) he is constantly afraid of being struck by a mystical potion.  His backwards, yet perhaps scientifically accurate, strategy is to slowly expose himself to all sorts of potions and poisons to build up (immuno) resistance should he actually be struck.

The N.Y. Times reported in 2006 that Saddam Hussein once sentenced his elder son, Uday, to be executed after he beat Mr. Hussein’s food taster to death in front of scores of horrified party guests, but later rescinded the order.

In Medieval times men of power had tasters who valiantly sampled their food in case an enemy tried to poison them.  This practice was built on a myth that survives today – if you get food poisoning, it’s from the last thing you ate, and the symptoms will commence rather immediately. 

Last week, reports surfaced that U.S. President Obama had his own food taster present to sample dinner in a French restaurant. Not so, said Presidential spokesthingy Robert Gibbs, but a Secret Service dude may have been watching things.

I hope so. Most people, including chefs, know nothing about food safety. A couple of years ago, Amy and I had the privilege of an after-hours chat with some FDA-types who spoke of the precautions they would take when preparing safe salmon for Laura Bush and any other meal fit for a President. They had thermometers. And knew how to use them.

Consumers in Litchfield, England will soon be able to access restaurant hygiene scores (and much more) online, reports The Lichfield Blog.

In Lichfield restaurant hygiene scores are displayed at the premise, in the form of a card (with a maximum of 5 stars, similar to Scores on Doors, pictured right). The updated website offers an alternate or additional tool for consumers to access restaurant hygiene information.

Councillor Ben Adams, Cabinet Member for Community Housing and Health, said of the new site,

“Through the website and certificates, displayed on the doors of food premises, it allows customers to have peace of mind that the establishment they are planning visit has good hygiene procedures. It also acts as an incentive to premises managers, who try to improve their standards to get the best possible star rating the next time they are inspected.”

[Lichfield District Council] is confident visitors to the updated website will find it even easier to discover how many gold stars food premises have been awarded for their food hygiene practices following an inspection…[The site], www.ratemyplace.org.uk, has a host of new features, including the ability to search an area’s ‘Top Spots’ to see which premises have been awarded the maximum five gold stars… and information about where the premises is, what type of food it serves, as well as a map and directions straight to the door.

The website, which will be launched later this week, sounds handy, and hopefully disclosure at the premise in the form of grade-cards will keep consumer interest in the website.

Albert Amgar, a food safety consultant in Laval, France for the past 21 years and the provider of all things French and food safety for bites.ksu.edu, steps out in his first barfblog post.

National Food Safety Authority Evira recommends that foreign frozen raspberries always be properly heated before use. Norovirus epidemics have occurred in different parts of Finland over the spring and the cause is suspected to be foreign frozen raspberries used in cakes without heating.

Evira urges consumers and mass caterers to check the origin of frozen raspberries and to only use foreign raspberries after adequate heating in order to avoid food poisoning. Frozen raspberries of foreign origin should be heated for at least two minutes at 90 degrees Celcius.

The problem is well known. In 1995, scientists from Denmark reported that "imported frozen raspberries caused a series of norovirus outbreaks". But in the conclusions the authors noted, very friendly to their other European colleagues, "As Polish frozen raspberries are known to be exported to several European countries, it would be extremely surprising, if Denmark were the only country where there were recent outbreaks due to frozen raspberries.”