The Toronto Sun reports that a KFC in Maple, Ontario, is being probed by health officials after a Richmond Hill man said he found a roach embedded in the bottom of a sandwich he ordered Friday night.

Appropriately enough the sandwich was the Big Crunch.

Michael McNamara, 28, its unlucky recipient, was big-time bugged by the nasty find.

“I didn’t see on the underside that there’s a cockroach mashed into the bun. Basically I ordered the food and once I saw it I immediately yelled at my buddy, ‘don’t eat here, stop what you’re doing!’”

York Region Community and Health Services spokesman Monica Bryce confirmed a health inspector had paid a visit to the KFC restaurant Saturday after McNamara’s complaint.

“We didn’t find any evidence that warranted closing the restaurant, but we did find one infraction,” Bryce said, adding inspectors found one pest-control trap with a dead roach in it.

A couple of ag journalism types from Nebraska and Ohio State have the right idea -- although I’m not sure it’s completely executed -- in a new paper examining the role of YouTube videos in food safety.

Emily Rhoades and Jason D. Ellis write in the Journal of Food Safety that food safety in restaurants is an increasing concern among consumers. A primary population segment working in foodservice is receiving food safety information through new media channels such as video social network websites. This research used content analysis to examine the purpose and messages of food safety-related videos posted to YouTube. A usable sample of 76 videos was identified using “food safety” in the YouTube search function. Results indicate that videos must be artfully developed to attract YouTube users while conveying a credible and educational message. Communicators must also monitor new media for competing messages being viewed by target audiences and devise strategies to counter such messages. This one-time snapshot of how food safety was portrayed on YouTube suggests that the intended purpose of videos, whether educational or entertainment, is not as relevant as the perceived purpose and the message being received by viewers.

I have no idea what this means. There’s a lot of BS in the paper about where foodborne illness happens and how consumers are motivated and the authors seem hopelessly stuck in the educational framework. But at least they are looking at different media. Too bad the message sucks.

Marshall McLuhan had it right when he said that those who try to distinguish between entertainment and education don’t know the first thing about either.

Food fraud has been around a long time.

A new paper in the current issue of the British Food Journal by Peter Shears (abstract below) reinforces the notion that with all the scientific developments and analytical techniques that seem so mind-bendingly sophisticated, there remains the basic problem of a lack of resources and that without a considerable increase in the resources made available for the appliance of the science currently available and that being developed, the battle against food fraud will never be fully engaged, yet alone won.

As today's society grapples with how best to validate that food is indeed what it says it is -- and safe -- and as the huskers and buskers emerge with cure-alls, I turn to the words of Madeleine Ferrières a professor of social history at the University of Avignon, France, in Sacred Cow, Mad Cow: A History of Food Fears, first published in French in 2002, but translated into English in 2006:

"All human beings before us questioned the contents of their plates. … And we are often too blinded by this amnesia to view our present food situation clearly. This amnesia is very convenient. It allows us to reinvent the past and construct a complaisant, retrospective mythology."

Ferrières provides extensive documentation of the rules, regulations and penalties that emerged in the Mediterranean between the 12th and 16th centuries. Shears reviews current efforts in his new paper. But rules are only as good as the enforcement that backs them up.

Food fraud – a current issue but an old problem

30.jan.10

British Food Journal, Year 2010, Volume 112, Issue 2, Page 198 - 213

Peter Shears

http://www.emeraldinsight.com/Insight/viewContentItem.do;jsessionid=9912FEB61D0FDD96E3A0E8D64EA89F2A?contentType=Article&contentId=1838362

Abstract:

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to address the topic of food fraud which has been so widely and variously reported over recent months and years. Its purposes are to set current experience into an historical context and to illustrate the tension between the science of deception and the science of detection.

Design/methodology/approach – This is a desk study of published literature and historical documentation, together with interviews with those professionally concerned with detection and enforcement.

Findings – The piece concludes that with all the scientific developments and analytical techniques that seem so mind-bendingly sophisticated, there remains the basic problem of a lack of resources.

Practical implications – It is asserted that more is owed to the memories and the reputations of those who pioneered the effort to combat food fraud. Without a considerable increase in the resources made available for the appliance of the science currently available and that being developed, the battle will never be fully engaged, yet alone won.

Originality/value – This review is unique in that it seeks to take a long view of current concern, and even scandal, showing that the situation is not new and lessons should have been learned from past experience.

Four years ago, Brae Surgeoner and Ben Chapman wrote in the Wisconsin State Journal that health inspectors should oversee any commercial potluck or community function to make sure that everyone follows the rules.

Umpires and inspectors alike are not there to control the game, just to ensure it is being played right.

The Patriot-News in Pennsylvania reports that even though the state capital cafeteria was closed because it was such a dump, legislators, led by Sen. Elder Vogel, R-Beaver, got around to introducing legislation to bring what he calls common sense into the state's food safety laws.

His bill, Senate Bill 828, would allow nonprofit groups, including church groups, Boy Scouts and youth sports teams, to sell homemade baked goods provided they put the consumer on notice that the food was made in an unlicensed, uninspected kitchen.

The Rev. Michael Greb, the pastor at St. Cecilia's in Rochester, said he was pleased that something was being done "to take out the controversy over eating dessert" at future Friday fish fries, a fundraising tradition that the 3,000-member parish has held for decades to help keep its doors open.

Greb said he understands the food safety inspectors' concern, but "these are our own people making these desserts out of their love for community. They weren't out to hurt anybody. ... The [desserts] people bring in notoriously are clean and good, and to imply anything other than that is just ridiculous."

I’ll be ridiculous. Faith aside – and the vast majority of food transactions are based on faith – as a parishoner I would have no idea of the sanitation, handwashing or food safety of the good folks preparing the food. I would want someone – or the threat of someone – to oversee food prep for commercial sale.

The Wyoming Tribune Eagle reports that the Governor's Food Safety Council voted Wednesday to oppose any efforts to loosen regs on local sales.

Rep. Sue Wallis, R-Recluse, said, "The bottom line is I think I should be able to buy good wholesome food from my neighbor without the government interfering."

People know their neighbors and know what they are buying, she said. It also was absurd to regulate non-hazardous breads, jams and pies sold at bake sales and charitable events, she said.

"You're 19 times more likely to get sick from mass-produced-and-processed food," she added. "I think I have a constitutional right to buy what I want and to feed my family fresh, healthy food."

There is no basis for that statement.

And as Chapman and Surgeoner wrote, Food safety isn't a game, but having the health umpires around to make sure things are running smoothly isn't a bad thing.

 

The Irish Times reports that the number of “verotoxigenic” E.coli cases reported in Ireland is more than five times the EU average and has almost doubled in the space of a year, according to the report compiled by the European Food Safety Authority (Efsa).

Verotoxigenic E.coli affects the digestive system. Some 225 cases were reported in 2008, of which 213 were confirmed. Ireland’s average of 4.8 cases per 100,000 inhabitants compared to 3.3 in the next highest country, Sweden, and 1.9 in the UK. Irish cases have increased more than threefold in four years.

The Food Safety Authority of Ireland (FSAI) said the increase may be due to the contamination of private wells by heavy rainfall during the summer of 2008.

Maybe the Irish are paying more attention than the rest of Europe.
 

In a move to apparently counteract the negative associations with swine flu, Argentine President Cristina Kirchner told a gathering of business people at a meeting at the presidential palace that eating pork is at least as effective as popping a Viagra pill to spice up your sex life, stating,

"Pork consumption improves sexual activity. This is not a small detail. Besides, some nicely grilled pork is much more gratifying than taking Viagra."

Kirchner said she ate some roasted pork over the weekend with her husband, former president Nestor Kirchner, at the couple's retreat in Argentina's bucolic southern Patagonia region, with "impressive" results.
"We were in high spirits the whole weekend," she said, smiling.

The head of the association of pork producers, Juan Uccelli, on Thursday said people in Denmark and Japan, where pork consumption is high, "have much more harmonious sexual lives than us Argentines have."
 

The Independent reports that the U.K. Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs says British consumers each year throw out 370,000 tonnes of food that has passed its "best before" date, and a further 220,000 tonnes that is close to, but still within, its "use by" date.

Yet last week, Approved Foods, announced that its sales for the final week of December were up a staggering 500 per cent year on year. At sites such as Approved Foods and Bargainfoods.co.uk, you can pick up four tins of pinto beans for £1, or a can of tuna for 59p. Or how about four Toblerones for 99p? There's nothing wrong with the foods. They're just coming up to their "use-by" dates or have gone beyond their "best before" dates.

Last year, Environment Secretary, Hilary Benn, called on food manufacturers to consign to the dustbin date labels such as "sell by" and "display until", retaining only the crucial "use by" date.

A recent FSA study revealed a rise in the potentially deadly disease listeriosis due to people consuming chilled ready-to-eat foods -- products such as pre-packed sandwiches, salads, cooked sliced meats, smoked salmon, soft cheeses and pates -- that have been in their fridges too long. The findings highlight the potential risks involved in both our ignorance and our habits of going on gut instinct.
 

Reuters reports that Novak Djokovic was lamenting a case of gastroenteritis after he lost his Australian Open quarter-final to France's Jo-Wilfried Tsonga.

The Serb had just won the third set to take a 2-1 lead and Tsonga looked deflated before Djokovic left Rod Laver Arena after he told chair umpire John Blom he needed to vomit.

While he managed to return, his game melted away and Tsonga ran out a 7-6, 6-7, 1-6, 6-3, 6-1 victor to set up a semi-final against Roger Federer, after the Swiss came from a set down to defeat Russian Nikolay Davydenko in four sets.

"I don't want to find excuses for my loss, but, you know, I went to vomit and I had diarrhoea before the match. After two games (of the fourth set) I had to go to the toilet. I couldn't hold on. There was no way, otherwise I would throw up on the court... just a terrible feeling."

Djokovic said he was unsure as to what had caused the sickness, as he had not eaten anything out of the ordinary.

The victorious Tsonga said Djokovic's illness was just part of the game.

"Sometimes it happens. … He had problems with his stomach... bad luck for him and good for luck for me."
 

Running a restaurant is hard enough without dealing with rats and wackos.

The Post-Crescent reports that a woman who attempted to extort money from an upscale restaurant by putting a rat in her lunch entered no-contest pleas Tuesday to two criminal charges.

Judge Dee Dyer found Debbie R. Miller, 43, guilty after she entered the no-contest pleas to a felony extortion charge and a misdemeanor for obstructing police. She will be sentenced March 8 in Outagamie County Court.

Miller planted a rat in her lunch at The Seasons on April 17, 2008, and then demanded $500,000 from the owners. She threatened to alert the media if the money wasn’t paid.

Bob Doller, who owns The Seasons in Grand Chute with his wife, Jessica, said,

“This has been a long, drawn out battle and it has affected my business. We would hope that if anyone had any doubts that it was a true claim, they would know now that it was extortion. In April, it will be two years since this happened. If you compare 2007 to 2008 (the year of the incident), the loss was tens of thousands of dollars.”

The Dollers kept the rat after the extortion attempt. Insurance investigators sent it for testing and determined that it not only wasn’t a wild rat, but rather a domestic, white rat that had been cooked in a microwave. The restaurant doesn’t use microwaves.