Audrey Kreske, an N.C. State post-doc writes of a food safety blunder on morning television:

Today's Today Show featured a segment with Martha Stewart discussing her top 50 tips for creating a kitchen that's “not only beautiful but functional as well”.  Viewers were definitely waiting with pens in their hands to discover the Domestic Diva’s secrets.

Some of the household tips included: how to avoid breaking dishes while washing them; putting liquid soap in easy-to-use decanters; and the essential nature of multiple little dishtowels.

Fascinating.

Then things got weird (see the video below, beginning at 3:55). Martha got a bit wacky with the eggs.

In attempt to show how nice eggs look on the counter as a decoration accessory, the Diva points to eggs in a basket and says, “We're having a big problem with eggs so everybody better be very careful where their eggs come from. But organically grown eggs from the farm, you can keep out for a few days on the counter”

Matt Lauer, somewhat taken aback by the statement chimed in and asked “Oh really, that's not a problem?”

Martha said, “Oh, no, no; not if they're fresh”

The big problem Martha refers to is the over 1300 Salmonella Enteriditis illnesses linked to egg and egg products that have led to a recall of almost half a billion eggs.

The problem that Martha misses is that it doesn’t matter where eggs come from or the production practice, there is still a risk of Salmonella Enteriditis being present. Contamination comes from the environment, humans or rodents; multiplies within the flock; and, an infected hen can result in the pathogen inside the egg (infection occurs in the ovary).What is problematic about the pathogen is that while it may infect a hen or group of hens, it typically does not create any clinical signs.  If Salmonella is in an egg sitting on the counter, even if Martha says it's okay, the bacterium can grow and create a larger issue.

According to a 2005 USDA risk assessment, approximately 1 in 20,000 contains Salmonella;  even if they appear to be clean and uncracked.

The best available evidence suggests that eggs should be stored in the refrigerator/cooler and held below 45°F. The U.S FDA recommends buying eggs only if sold from a refrigerator or refrigerated case, checking that the eggs are clean and the shells are not cracked, and, refrigerating promptly to prevent egg-related illness.

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The companies that have recalled more than half a billion eggs following a salmonella outbreak fell short of safety standards at their farms, U.S. Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Margaret Hamburg told CNN Sunday, adding

"There's no question these farms involved in the recall were not operating with the standards of practice we consider responsible.”

She said "about 1,000" people have been sickened by a salmonella outbreak that federal regulators have traced back to two Iowa egg producers. One of those companies said Sunday it is "devastated" by the possible connection between its product and salmonella.

Hillandale Farms said it shared "a number of common suppliers" with Wright County Egg, including a company called Quality Egg, which provided feed and young birds.

Both Wright County and Quality Egg are owned by the DeCoster family, which has a string of agribusiness interests in the Midwest and Northeast. Those companies' records have come under new scrutiny since the recalls were announced earlier this month.

The Washington Post reports that in the past 20 years, according to the public record, the DeCoster family operation, one of the 10 largest egg producers in the country, has withstood a string of reprimands, penalties and complaints about its performance in several states.

In June, for instance, the family agreed to pay a $34,675 fine stemming from allegations of animal cruelty against hens in its 5 million-bird Maine facility. An animal rights group used a hidden camera to document hens suffocating in garbage cans, twirled by their necks , kicked into manure pits to drown and hanging by their feet over conveyer belts.

And today’s USA Today reports that to some experts, the huge recall of potentially contaminated eggs is a testament to how the industry has grown from many small producers to large industrial farms.

The problem, many food safety experts say, is that even as eggs moved to a very intense production method with enormous companies and huge flocks, regulation was almost entirely lacking.

In 1999, President Clinton vowed to increase regulation and wipe out the disease in eggs by 2010. Instead, the industry and FDA delayed the creation of the rules, finally written in 2004.
 

New Zealand chef Peta Mathias has been criticized for the flashy jewelry she wears during her TV show, with critics saying the rings and other jewellery would never be tolerated in a commercial kitchen because of the bacteria that gathers underneath.

Mathias agrees but says: "Hey, it's for TV."

Food writer and columnist Julie Biuso said people had been talking about Mathias' rings for years, adding,

"There's a grubby look about it. It's an act. She dresses up with all the jewellery ... possibly she cooks like that at home. Of course, she's over the top, she's way over the top. But people love to criticise. She's doing it her own way. If you don't like it, switch off."

Biuso said Mathias would never be allowed to wear her rings while cooking in a commercial kitchen.

AUT senior lecturer in food safety Suzanne Bliss said Mathias' rings were possibly sending the wrong message to the public and young people in the food industry.

But it was a TV show and, for that reason, hosts had licence to go outside the normal boundaries of food hygiene.

Mathiasen, L.A., Chapman, B.J., Lacroix, B.J. and Powell, D.A. 2004. Spot the mistake: Television cooking shows as a source of food safety information, Food Protection Trends 24(5): 328-334.

Consumers receive information on food preparation from a variety of sources. Numerous studies conducted over the past six years demonstrate that television is one of the primary sources for North Americans. This research reports on an examination and categorization of messages that television food and cooking programs provide to viewers about preparing food safely. During June 2002 and 2003, television food and cooking programs were recorded and reviewed, using a defined list of food safety practices based on criteria established by Food Safety Network researchers. Most surveyed programs were shown on Food Network Canada, a specialty cable channel. On average, 30 percent of the programs viewed were produced in Canada, with the remainder produced in the United States or United Kingdom. Sixty hours of content analysis revealed that the programs contained a total of 916 poor food-handling incidents. When negative food handling behaviors were compared to positive food handling behaviors, it was found that for each positive food handling behavior observed, 13 negative behaviors were observed. Common food safety errors included a lack of hand washing, cross-contamination and time-temperature violations. While television food and cooking programs are an entertainment source, there is an opportunity to improve their content so as to promote safe food handling.

Toronto Public Health has identified a case of Hepatitis A in an employee at a Wendy's restaurant located at 438 Nugget Avenue in Scarborough. Anyone who consumed food purchased at this restaurant between July 26 and August 6 may have been exposed to the hepatitis A virus. The risk of getting the infection is very low.

Depends on how well the employee washed his or her hands and whether they were prepping salads or other fresh product. Don’t eat poop.
 

Depends on the state, according to Brian Palmer of Slate Magazine.

When police in Western New York pulled over Gary Korkuc for blowing off a stop sign on Sunday, they found a live cat in his trunk, covered in cooking oil, peppers, and salt. Korkuc told authorities that his pet feline was "possessive, greedy, and wasteful" and that he intended to cook and eat it. Korkuc has been charged with animal cruelty. …

Few states have specific laws barring the use of pets for food. The ones that do typically ban the slaughter or sale of dog and cat meat. The state of New York expressly prohibits "any person to slaughter or butcher domesticated dog (canis familiaris) or domesticated cat (felis catus or domesticus) to create food, meat or meat products for human or animal consumption." It's not clear whether the eating itself is outlawed or only the butchery. If you managed to buy dog or cat flesh from someone else who broke the anti-slaughter law, you might be OK. The law also doesn't cover ferrets, gerbils, parakeets, or other less familiar pet species. (Although the general anti-cruelty law might protect exotics.)

California's anti-pet-eating law has a broader reach. It bars possession of the carcass, so having bought your cat steaks from someone else wouldn't be a useful alibi. The California law also protects "any animal traditionally or commonly kept as a pet or companion," rather than just Fido and Fluffy. The statute is somewhat untested, though, so no one really knows which animals are included.

Pigs are not, even though they are commonly kept as pets, because they are farm animals. Horses are specifically covered by a different section of the code. There's no precedent on iguanas, goldfish, or boa constrictors. …

Authorities won't have any trouble prosecuting Korkuc, the Western New Yorker who was marinating his cat in the trunk. Whether or not he really intended to eat his feline, keeping a companion animal in a motor vehicle without proper ventilation is illegal. Rubbing the cat with chili-infused oil, while not specifically addressed, is also a violation of the state's general cruelty law, which prohibits torture.
 

I don’t know what Folklorama is in Winnipeg (that’s in Canada) but food served at the Russian pavilion is the suspected source of an E. coli outbreak that has sickened 16 including one confirmed case at emergency rooms between Aug. 1 and Aug. 16.

The Winnipeg Free Press reports the parents of a two-year-old boy who suffered kidney failure want tougher food-handling rules imposed on the fair.

The boy’s mother said tests confirmed the boy had verotoxigenic E. coli and was in acute renal failure. The tot spent two nights in the pediatric intensive care unit and now has a central dialysis line in his neck and hip.

Executive director Ron Gauthier said nothing like this has ever happened before in Folklorama's 41 years and he doesn't know what potential changes the festival could make until the review is complete.
 

We’ve seen a lot of toilets along the highways and byways while making the 19-hour drive from Arkansas to Anna Maria Island, Florida, including a couple of special ones in the middle of the night on Alabama back roads (it was a shortcut).

I told the woman encased in her plastic booth at a Shell station off I-75 in northern Florida that the men’s room was out of paper towel: she sneered.

But the best sign came from the toilets at the Southbank splash park and playground in Brisbane, Australia, where people apparently have a unique approach to using the facilities.
 

The CFIA announced yesterday that Le Belle de Jersey cheese may be contaminated with Listeria monocytogenes. They claim that no illnesses have been reported, but we’ve all heard that one before.

The news release doesn’t include specific information regarding the affected product, like weight, lot number or locations where it was sold; information needed to avoid the tainted product.

Another product, also recalled yesterday, President’s Choice®Decadent Chocolate Chunk Cookies had a very different news release. The company responsible included all the necessary information to identify and avoid the product, which is not tainted with Listeria but contains metal pieces.

The reasons for recalling the products might be different but they both pose a threat to consumer’s health. So why the difference in disclosure of information between these recalls?

The CFIA should require specific information regarding recalled products so that there is no expanded health hazard alert informing how many people have gotten sick since the last health hazard alert release.

Before I moved to North Carolina I didn’t know a whole lot of the specifics around home food preservation. I had never pickled, canned, or done anything preserve-y. My parents use to have a pickling party around Labour Day every year (the ‘u’ is in there because I lived in Canada then) but I never really got into it. In the past two years I’ve become a lot more involved with preservation stuff as the close to 100 extension agents across the state to whom I provide technical food safety support spend a pretty good chunk of their time teaching and answering questions about pickling, pressure canning and the likes.

I jumped into pickling last year and pressure canning this year so beyond the science aspect I have an idea of the practices – what’s tough and what might go wrong. Preservation is a bit like baking where recipes, ratios and processing times are important to create a final product that’s not going to paralyze or kill someone. Follow the rules and everything should be okay.

AP reports that something went wrong in the Chicago area and now a few folks are suffering from salmonellosis:

Salmonella isn’t typically associated with fermented or acidified cucumbers (the heat processing of the product should kill it and the  pH is too low for growth of other pathogens). AP reports that the illnesses have been linked to pickles that were sold to customers in plastic bags. This outbreak looks like the result of a post-pickling issue; possibly dirty hands or equipment used to transfer the pickles to bags.