Traducido por Gonzalo Erdozain

Resumen del folleto informativo mas reciente:

- Un empleado estuvo en contacto directo con pollitos infectados.

- Preparadores de alimentos pueden transmitir Salmonela de su materia fecal sin saberlo y sin tener síntoma alguno.

- Lavarse las manos después de haber tocado aves, pollitos o reptiles, y luego de haber estado en contacto con materia fecal animal.

Los folletos informativos son creados semanalmente y puestos en restaurantes, tiendas y granjas, y son usados para entrenar y educar a través del mundo. Si usted quiere proponer un tema o mandar fotos para los folletos, contacte a Ben Chapman a benjamin_chapman@ncsu.edu.
Puede seguir las historias de los folletos informativos y barfblog en twitter
@benjaminchapman y @barfblog.

Kellogg's has recalled four cereal products due to an off odor and flavor linked to white foil packaging. Twenty customers have reported a waxy smell associated with the cereal; five of those individuals had nausea and diarhea. 

According to Kellogg's:

Consumers should not eat the recalled products because they do not meet our quality standards.  A few consumers have experienced temporary symptoms, including nausea and diarrhea.  Consumers with concerns should consult their health care provider.

Recalled products include:

Kellogg's® Apple Jacks®
UPC 3800039136
17 ounce package with Better if Used Before Dates between APR 10 2011 and JUN 22 2011

UPC 3800039132 3
8.7 ounce packages with Better if Used Before Dates between JUN 03 2011 and JUN 22 2011

Kellogg's® Corn Pops®
UPC 3800039109
12.5 ounce packages with Better if Used Before Dates between MAR 26 2011 and JUN 22 2011

UPC 3800039111
17.2 ounce packages with Better if Used Before Dates between MAR 26 2011 and JUN 22 2011

UPC 3800039116
9.2 ounce packages with Better if Used Before Dates between APR 05 2011 and JUN 22 2011

Kellogg's® Froot Loops®
UPC 3800039118
12.2 ounce packages with Better if Used Before Dates between MAR 26 2011 and JUN 22 2011

UPC 3800039120
17 ounce packages with Better if Used Before Dates between MAR 26 2011 and JUN 22 2011

UPC 3800039125
8.7 ounce packages with Better if Used Before Dates between MAR 26 2011 and JUN 22 2011

Kellogg's®Honey Smacks®
UPC 3800039103
15.3 ounce packages with Better if Used Before Dates between MAR 26 2011 and JUN 22 2011

Only products with the letters "KN" following the Better If Used Before Date are included in the recall.

Wales has some money issues.

But bacteriologist Professor Hugh Pennington, who chaired a public inquiry into the South Wales Valleys E. coli O157 outbreak in 2005, which claimed the life of five-year-old Mason Jones, will tell the National Assembly’s health committee this week that public health needs to be spared from expected budget cuts.

He is asking for councils to be given enough money to spare experienced environmental health officers.

Pennington said earlier in the week,

“My immediate concern is that in the implementation of financial reductions by the shedding of staff, policy will be driven by human resource departments rather than the need to retain experience and institutional memory.”

That’s a common theme I’ve heard over the years in trying to figure out why all these foodborne illness outbreaks keep happening, especially in processed foods which should have the poop processed out of them: companies just lack people who know what they’re doing when it comes to food safety.

But I have to take issue with the good professor when he says the 2000 E. coli O157:H7 outbreak in the water supply of Walkerton, Ontario (that’s in Canada) which sickened 2,300 and killed seven was caused because of lax water supply safety checks due to budget cuts.

In his health committee paper Prof Pennington said the event in Canada “provides evidence that rather than maintaining the systems that protected the population from E. coli O157, the Canadian approach to managing budget cuts contributed to the regulatory failures that led to this massive outbreak.”

Budgetary issues may have been a contributing factor, but more money doesn’t mean people will do what they’re supposed to do

The Walkerton Commission of Inquiry, led by Mr. Justice Dennis O’Connor, concluded:

• Seven people died, and more than 2,300 became ill. Some people, particularly children, may endure lasting effects.

• The contaminants, largely E. coli O157:H7 and Campylobacter jejuni, entered the Walkerton system through Well 5 on or shortly after May 12, 2000.

• The primary, if not the only, source of the contamination was manure that had been spread on a farm near Well 5. The owner of this farm followed proper practices and should not be faulted.

• The outbreak would have been prevented by the use of continuous chlorine residual and turbidity monitors at Well 5.

• The failure to use continuous monitors at Well 5 resulted from short-comings in the approvals and inspections programs of the Ministry of the Environment (MOE). The Walkerton Public Utilities Commission (PUC) operators lacked the training and expertise necessary to identify either the vulnerability of Well 5 to surface contamination or the resulting need for continuous chlorine residual and turbidity monitors.

• The scope of the outbreak would very likely have been substantially reduced if the Walkerton PUC operators had measured chlorine residuals at Well 5 daily, as they should have, during the critical period when contamination was entering the system.

• For years, the PUC operators engaged in a host of improper operating practices, including failing to use adequate doses of chlorine, failing to monitor chlorine residuals daily, making false entries about residuals in daily operating records, and misstating the locations at which microbiological samples were taken. The operators knew that these practices were unacceptable and contrary to MOE guidelines and directives.

• The MOE’s inspections program should have detected the Walkerton PUC’s improper treatment and monitoring practices and ensured that those practices were corrected.

• On Friday, May 19, 2000, and on the days following, the PUC’s general manager concealed from the Bruce-Grey-Owen Sound Health Unit and others the adverse test results from water samples taken on May 15 and the fact that Well 7 had operated without a chlorinator during that week and earlier that month. Had he disclosed either of these facts, the health unit would have issued a boil water advisory on May 19, and 300 to 400 illnesses would have been avoided.

• In responding to the outbreak, the health unit acted diligently and should not be faulted for failing to issue the boil water advisory before Sunday, May 21. However, some residents of Walkerton did not become aware of the boil water advisory on May 21. The advisory should have been more broadly disseminated.

• The provincial government’s budget reductions led to the discontinuation of government laboratory testing services for municipalities in 1996. In implementing this decision, the government should have enacted a regulation mandating that testing laboratories immediately and directly notify both the MOE and the Medical Officer of Health of adverse results. Had the government done this, the boil water advisory would have been issued by May 19 at the latest, thereby preventing hundreds of illnesses.

Yesterday, Pennington told the Assembly’s health committee the failure of some firms to comply with basic hygiene legislation is “essentially a disgrace.”

“For any business not to be doing what they are legally obliged to, which is having a HACCP plan or something like it, I think it’s essentially a disgrace. I am not yet convinced that we have got to the point where we can say that all small businesses have got a HACCP running which an environmental health officer should be satisfied with.”

Consumer Focus Wales’ Senior Director Maria Battle took a different approach, telling the committee food businesses should be legally required to display their hygiene rating on the premises.

The Food Standards Agency is currently developing the Food Hygiene Ratings Scheme, also known as ‘Scores on the Doors,’ but the scheme only allows for voluntary display. Consumers will have to visit a website to find out about poorly performing businesses.

It’s not Scores on Doors if the results are not publicly displayed. Regulatory, financial, shock and shame, all of these approaches should be explored to enhance the food safety culture of any food business.
 

The Columbian reported today that the aunt of 4-year-old Ronan Wilson (right), who died April 8 after contracting E. coli at his Hazel Dell in-home day care in Washington state, wants to know why the Clark County Department of Health did not let the public know about the outbreak until the day after Ronan died.

Savenia Falquist also questions why the day care children and their siblings continued attending school, possibly putting other children at risk, and why the health department did not at least alert health care providers about the outbreak.

When Ronan’s mother first took him to a doctor on March 29, the doctor did not think it was necessary to test for E. coli and diagnosed Ronan with the flu. Other parents of children at the day care have said they initially had difficulty getting doctors to approve a stool test, the only way to test for E. coli.

Falquist told Clark County commissioners at their monthly Board of Health meeting Wednesday that she’s trying to educate herself on the county’s policies for informing the public about communicable diseases, adding after the meeting,

“The intention is not to go after a county department that’s funded by the public. What I really want to do is rule out complacency.”

John Wiesman, the director of the health department, said the county typically only issues public health warnings when health officials can’t personally contact those potentially affected by a health threat. For example, a news release would be issued if a food services worker tested positive for hepatitis A and the county would have to warn people who ate at the worker’s restaurant.

A provider alert was not sent out about the E. coli outbreak at the day care because owners Larry and Dianne Fletch had contact information for all of the parents whose children attended the center, Wiesman said.

Wow. That’s terrible accountability. Alerts also raise awareness and provide lessons for others – oh, and may prevent people from getting sick. Maybe not directly, but it could enhance the conversations and culture surrounding food safety if others knew, oh, kids can get E. coli O157:H7 at day care.

A total of 14 people at the day care tested positive for E. coli O157:H7 bacteria. Three were hospitalized and 10 people had mild symptoms.

Children who tested positive were not allowed to go to a day care until they had two negative stool samples, 24 hours apart, Melnick said Wednesday. He said older children at the center or older siblings of children at the day care were still allowed to go to school because there aren’t the same concerns about transmitting the bacteria with older children. There aren’t diapers being changed, for example.

“The kids are older, and their hygiene is better,” Melnick said.

Any evidence to back up that statement?

I prefer peer-review before press releases.

I prefer to bike to the grocery store with my kid in the trailer and dog on the leash – and put the groceries in my knapsack. With daytime highs of 100F, that ain’t happening so much at the moment.

A new report issued today by the University of Arizona and Loma Linda University in California says those reusable grocery bags can be a breeding ground for dangerous foodborne bacteria and pose a serious risk to public health.

Maybe.

Maybe it’s Gotcha microbiology where a bug is found, but the public health significance isn’t matched up with epidemiology (where are the sick people).

Chapman has highlighted the flaws in the paucity of data that is out there, and will be going through this later tonight.

The American Chemistry Council, which underwrote the research project, may be a fine organization – and I’m all for industry sponsoring research – but why not release the results in a peer-reviewed journal?
 

Three patients died, 42 other patients and 12 staff members got sick from Clostridium perfringens in improperly stored chicken salad, so the administrator and associate administrator at Central Louisiana State Hospital have, as they politely say in the South (and smile while the knife goes in), left the facility.

The appropriately named Town Talk reports today the investigations also revealed what the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals termed unacceptable process and management issues.

The investigations, ordered by DHH Secretary Alan Levine, found serious deficiencies in dietary services and concerns with the overall operation of the hospital.

Levine said,

“The day of these tragic deaths, I went to Pineville with Deputy Secretary Tony Keck to personally assess what had happened. We ordered a comprehensive investigation into the patient deaths, and asked other agencies to conduct expert reviews into various issues.

“The staff at CLSH was cooperative, and I’m grateful for that. But I have seen enough evidence of unacceptable performance that I am convinced major changes are necessary. Basic policies were not followed. Staff was not properly educated. The findings across the board raise real concerns related to overall management that go beyond the food service area.”

There are now 97 people sick with salmonella in 28 Illinois counties, all related to eating at a bunch of different Subway restaurants.

A bunch of the food handlers at different Subway outlets have tested positive for salmonella, but that’s probably because they’re snacking on the same ingredients the customers get in their sandwiches.

When the outbreak was first identified, Subway pulled its lettuce, green peppers, red onions and tomatoes from restaurants and brought in new supplies. A prudent produce move.

But now the Packer reports that investigators are saying fresh produce is just a “possible” source of the salmonella outbreak.

Although federal, state and local health agencies have not named fresh vegetables as the definitive source, Melaney Arnold, an Illinois Department of Public Health spokeswoman, has said the investigation was leaning toward produce as the culprit. On June 23, Arnold characterized produce only as a possible source.
 

In 2009 the Fat Duck, Heston Blumenthal’s chic-chic restaurant in Bray, UK, was the source of a norovirus outbreak that led to over 500 illnesses. According to health official investigators, the initial source of contamination was raw oysters from a less-than-reputable harvest bed.

Investigators found that things got worse and the outbreak continued for at least six weeks (between January 6 and February 22) because of ongoing transmission at the restaurant- through continuous contamination of foods prepared by ill food workers.

In 2006, a Carrabba’s restaurant in Michigan had its own you-should-have-stayed-home-because-you-are-sick moment.  At least 364 restaurant patrons became ill with norovirus after eating meals prepared by employees who had reported to work while ill. According to the CDC’s report on this outbreak:

"Vomiting by a line cook at the work station might have contributed to transmission … Because of the open physical layout of the restaurant, no barrier impeded airborne spread of the virus from the kitchen to the main dining area."

Yummy.

According to a New York Times blog post, there’s a recent poll on that demonstrates what happens (at least self-reported) in the absence of paid sick days.

The survey found that 55 percent of respondents who said they were not eligible for paid sick days said they had at some point gone to work with a contagious illness like the flu or a viral infection, compared with 37 percent who said they received paid sick days.

Paid sick days are a touchy issue in the foodservice industry because the threat of abuse of the benefit. If I ran a restaurant I’d want to have some mechanism in place to encourage self-reporting of illness so I could get the individual away from the meals I’m trying to sell.