A couple of my friends are departing for Edinburgh, Scotland later this month to teach and travel. Aside from the usual packing advice – my luggage was 17 pounds overweight when I departed for New Zealand – I’ve forwarded along this story to the Canadian travelers.

Deadline Scotland Online is reporting that an Edinburgh restaurant, The Star Sea (see right) was issued an Hygiene Emergency Prohibition Notice for posing an imminent risk to public health, but re-opened 13 days later.

Inspectors visiting the Star Sea Restaurant in Edinburgh’s busy Lady Lawson Street described the infestation of rodents as “completely out of control”. City of Edinburgh Council was so concerned about the potential threat to public health that they issued an Emergency Prohibition Notice to stop it trading.

A council statement issued yesterday said:

“This inspection uncovered evidence of a mouse infestation which was completely out of control and food being used to prepare meals which had been clearly gnawed by the rodents…The hand washing facilities were inadequate, sinks were leaking and backing up with foul smelling water and several areas of wall were coated in mould.”

“A Hygiene Emergency Prohibition Notice has the effect of immediately closing a food business and is only served when there is an imminent risk to the health of people consuming food which has handled, prepared, processed or stored on the premises…The premises were subsequently allowed to reopen on 19 June, when it was determined that the risk to health no longer existed as conditions had improved, [and] the premises continue to be subject to regular visits to ensure continued improvement to full compliance with food safety regulations.”

Tony Dong, owner of The Sea Star, said he accepted why the council had to act with a closure, and then proceeded to blame a lack of fans for the mould, and poor staff cleaning for the build up of mice dropping on the floor.

“Things are much better now. We spoke to all the staff about cleaning and it is done every day now, which also makes it much easier. It wasn’t done properly before, but we spoke to all the staff and it’s so much better now.”

“We had a mice problem too, but the man from the pest control came and that has been sorted, and we are speaking to the council.

Councillor Robert Aldridge, Environment Leader, said it was important that restaurant bosses knew the council would act when necessary,

“Thanks to the hard work shown by our Community Safety staff in bringing about this emergency notice, we can send out a clear message to all food business operators that they must adhere to food hygiene requirements or face the consequences.”

It all sounds like a slap on the wrist for an establishment knowingly producing food under unsanitary conditions. Where’s the public shaming of this restaurant? Slap a big “Fail” The Star Sea’s door, and hit Mr. Dong with a nasty fine.

Organic food is not safer than conventional food. Organic food is not more sustainable than regular food. Organic food is not more nutritious than other food.

Organic is more expensive than other food, and verification of organic production practices is specious at best.

Russ Parsons of the Los Angeles Times figured this out a few weeks ago and wrote a column that began,

"I don't believe in organics."

This morning he revisited the topic, noted that organics is an article of faith for a lot of people, highlighted some hate mail, and most surprising, revealed that mail supporting Parsons’ column was overwhelmingly positive by a ratio of 5 or 6 to 1.

This afternoon, the U.K. Food Standards Authority released results of a review it commissioned which found,

no important differences in the nutrition content, or any additional health benefits, of organic food when compared with conventionally produced food.

The focus of the review was the nutritional content of foodstuffs.

Gill Fine, FSA Director of Consumer Choice and Dietary Health, said,

“Ensuring people have accurate information is absolutely essential in allowing us all to make informed choices about the food we eat. This study does not mean that people should not eat organic food. What it shows is that there is little, if any, nutritional difference between organic and conventionally produced food and that there is no evidence of additional health benefits from eating organic food.”

The FSA commissioned this research as part of its commitment to giving consumers accurate information about their food, based on the most up-to-date science.

A paper reporting the results of the review of nutritional differences has been peer-reviewed and published today by the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.

Dr Dangour, of the LSHTM’s Nutrition and Public Health Intervention Research Unit, and the principal author of the paper, said:

“A small number of differences in nutrient content were found to exist between organically and conventionally produced crops and livestock, but these are unlikely to be of any public health relevance. Our review indicates that there is currently no evidence to support the selection of organically over conventionally produced foods on the basis of nutritional superiority.”

The Times’ Parsons got it right in his original column when he said,

farming is a complicated enterprise and there is a huge gray area between certified organic and the stereotypical heavy-duty use of chemical pesticides, herbicides and fertilizers.

Furthermore, a lot of the best farming practices of the original organic philosophy -- composting, fallowing, crop rotation, the use of nonchemical techniques for controlling most pests -- have been adopted by many nonorganic growers, even though they still reserve the right to use chemicals when they think it's best.

The complete U.K. report is available at http://www.food.gov.uk/multimedia/pdfs/organicreviewreport.pdf

When her husband dumped out a can of Diet Pepsi that "tasted awful," Amy Denegri saw what looked like pink spaghetti spill out.

"We're not sure what it is...It's really sick," Amy said, though she suspects it may be a mouse.

According to WFTV Orlando, lab results from an FDA investigation of the incident will be available in one to two weeks.

When Pepsi learned of the incident, a spokesperson contacted the Denegri's. The can was traced to an Orlando bottling facility and a review of production logs showed "absolutely no evidence to suggest that any foreign object or substance entered the package at the time of production."

In addition, a statement was sent to WFTV Orlando, which reads in part:

"This is not the first time we have dealt with this type of claim. In every previous incident where lab testing has been conducted, the results have concluded that the specimen did not enter the package during production.

"That said, we treat all consumer claims very seriously and investigate them thoroughly. We have been in touch with the investigating authorities in this case. They are conducting laboratory tests to learn what may have happened here. We'll assist them however we can."

The Denegri's aren't planning a lawsuit. In fact, Amy's husband, Fred, is still drinking Pepsi. But he pours it into a cup first.

AP is reporting the second Texas based Salmonella-linked cilantro recall in a week. Fresh herbs are on the FDA produce hit list along with tomatoes, leafy greens, cantaloupe and sprouts. FDA provides technical assistance to these industries to complete commodity-specific guidance documents. David Acheson, ex-food safety Czar said in May that fresh herbs were next on the list.

Frontera Produce of Edinburg, Texas, is recalling one lot of cilantro. No illness has been reported. The recalled cilantro was available at select store chains in Texas, Oklahoma, Colorado, Louisiana and New Mexico between July 20 and July 27. Details: by phone at 877-381-5701.

Half-price cream cheese? And the brand name, no less! I saw they were getting close to their expiration dates, but I bought three, anyway. They'll keep just fine in the freezer until I'm ready to bake another pumpkin cheesecake.

Lots of shoppers buy groceries with this money-saving mentality, which has opened the market for expired food sold at discounts. It has also sparked an increase in grocery auctions for the sale of damaged, dented or surplus foodstuffs that are often close to passing their expiration dates.

At Big Harry's Auction in New Jersey, regular runs to regional food distribution centers and a wholesale food auction provide an ever-changing variety of food items for the public to bid on.

"And while Big Harry's is subject to health department inspections and offers a money-back guarantee on food purchases," writes an Asbury Park Press staff writer, "buying frozen food at auction requires something of a leap of faith. [Auction operator Vince] Iacono says he'd never sell perishable frozen food that was thawed and then refrozen, which can cause spoilage, but all he can do is trust that his haulers will abide by the same policy."

That's true for all food businesses: they have to rely on everyone before them in the farm-to-fork food chain to handle products as safely as they do. It's always important to know your suppliers.

Years ago - before we moved here and put a dog inside - the shed out back was a chicken coop. These were the original backyard chickens. A resurgence of small-flock rearing has led many to wonder (and make assumptions) about the safety of free-range eggs.

Joel Keehn wrote on Consumer Reports' Health blog this weekend that,

"About a year ago I took my 11-year-old daughter to the emergency room with what turned out to be salmonella poisoning. My first thought when I heard the diagnosis: Did she pick up the infection from our flock of chickens? But the public-health outreach worker at the local department of health said that was unlikely.

"While eggs are indeed a leading cause of salmonella poisoning, the bacteria that causes the infection may be more likely to breed in the cramped confines of factory farms than in free-range, backyard chicken runs like ours."

Oh? That's an interesting assumption. And Keehn doesn't provide anything to support it.

As far as I can tell, salmonella contamination of eggs from various farming methods has not been well-researched...save for one study rumored in January 2008 to have been conducted by the UK government that "showed that 23.4 per cent of farms with caged [egg-laying] hens tested positive for salmonella compared to 4.4 per cent in organic flocks and 6.5 per cent in free-range flocks."

The closest thing I could find was a report by the UK Food Standards Agency in March 2004 of testing results of 4,753 containers of six eggs each (with 16.9% from free-range production systems) that found "no statistically significant difference...between the prevalence of salmonella contamination in samples from different egg production types."

Keehn's blog post concluded by saying,

"By the way, the health department official who called me up said the most likely source of my daughter’s salmonella poisoning was our pet turtle. That critter is now gone. But I’m picking up four new hens from my neighbor down the road later this week."

I have no reason to believe their eggs will be any safer than those of caged hens. Keehn's reason is not good enough.

I’ve been hanging out with the visiting Egyptians since Thurs.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture has this Cochran Fellows program that provides U.S.-based agricultural training opportunities for senior and mid-level specialists and administrators from public and private sectors who are concerned with agricultural trade, agribusiness development, management, policy, and marketing.

After spending over 30 hours to reach Kansas from Egypt, with a variety of travel headaches, the three food scientists and one professor have been taking in the best Manhattan has to offer: dinner at the Little Apple Brewing Company, viewing the animals at the Riley County Fair, shopping, taking in the Kaw Valley Rodeo Saturday night, and my lectures.

Sunday, the Fellows came to our house for some American-style BBQ and hospitality. I showed them how to cook a hamburger with a tip-sensitive digital thermometer, they told me about cooking and hospitality in Egypt.

Baby Sorenne was the star attraction.

And it's been a huge honor hanging out with the accomplished gentlemen and learning.

 

At some point a few years ago video games were replaced by fantasy sports as my free time diversion of choice. I'm not really into cycling, but I love fantasy baseball and fantasy football (referred to by Dani as fake baseball and football).

This is a bit of a hectic time of year, the fantasy baseball trade deadline is looming in both of my leagues and football research is gearing up. Some infectious disease news is impacting my trade plans as the Texas Rangers (one of the American League's surprising teams) have one confirmed case of H1N1/swine flu in the clubhouse (Vicente Padilla) and potentially 3 more including one of my catchers, Jarrod Saltalamacchia.

Infectious diseases like influenza and norovirus are often transferred between teammates on major sports teams.

Not good news. I was hoping to make a run for the final playoff spot in one of my leagues and not having Salty for a week or so might eliminate all hope for me.

From CBS sportsline:

It seems everyone in the media is bent on cross-contaminating and undercooking their food this summer. On Monday night’s “Great American Road Trip” (a poor replacement for the Amazing Race), the first challenge was for the men to cook hamburgers on a charcoal grill in 30 minutes for all the families to judge. The challenge took place in Sedan, Kansas at the Red Buffalo Ranch.

First, host Reno Collier made a cooking demonstration. No handwashing stations are present anywhere in sight (see right). After Collier explained how he likes to talk to his meat as he formed a raw patty, he threw it on the grill and wiped his hands on a towel. The condiment station was well stocked, but there were no meat thermometers and no safety instructions. The DiSalvatore dad said he’d never cooked anything in his life. Silvio quickly asked for tips from his wife Amy who said, “Just don’t overcook it.”

Silvio: “How do I know when it’s cooked?”

Amy: “A little bit of pink inside. Good luck.”

The father of the Rico family made the decision to cook his entire 5 lbs of meat and he commented, “I really misjudged how long it would take to cook those things.” Ricardo’s giant burgers were far from being done when it was time to serve. Host Collier yelled out, “Feel free to check these things out before you go sticking them in your mouth.” [Katie, that was for you.] One of the kids commented, “I was more nervous about barfing than about winning the challenge.”

It’s mindboggling how much cross-contamination took place in this highly edited clip (see approximately minutes 11 to 20). I think I threw up a little bit in my mouth while watching. In the end, the Ricos went home, but surprisingly they did not receive the lowest score for their burger.

Raw burger is not safe to eat. Hamburger is done when it reaches an internal temperature of 160F as measured by a tip sensitive meat thermometer. (See Doug’s videos on youtube.) Color is an unsafe indicator of doneness. Wash your hands after touching raw meat and before touching ready to eat products like buns. I personally find it challenging to grill and avoid cross-contamination … so why does everyone keep saying how simple it is to make a burger?

If you want to risk your own stomach or life, that’s your business; but please do not try to kill your neighbors or your children with undercooked meat or cross-contaminated condiments.