One of 107 confirmed victims of the recent salmonella outbreak in Australia, 71-year-old Norma Kent, swears she will never eat a Berliner bun again.

Having previously survived a heart attack, she says the food poisoning - which included a week in Wakefield Hospital on an intravenous drip - was "far worse" than her heart scare.

"This is the worst illness I have ever experienced," she said.

"I didn't know what was wrong with me, it was like my insides were falling out ... my body felt like it was exploding."

Mrs Kent said she ate the Berliner bun on January 19 and became ill the next morning while at Glenelg beach with her husband and two grandchildren.

She was violently ill for the next four days suffering severe diarrhoea, nausea and severe headaches. When she went to her doctor on the fifth day, she was immediately admitted to Wakefield Hospital and treated for dehydration.

A South Australia Health spokeswoman yesterday said another 10 cases of salmonella poisoning were reported over the past week, bringing the total in the past five weeks to 107. Investigations were continuing to determine if all victims had consumed custard-filled products from either bakery.

The food poisoning outbreak, the largest since the Nippy's outbreak in 1999 which hit more than 400 people, will soon enter the legal arena with around 30 of the victims engaging lawyers to launch a class action against the two companies.

Tindal Gask Bentley partner Tim White said only the more serious cases were involved in the proposed class action.
 

Food porn is everywhere – and can be bad for public health.

ABC2 in Baltimore, Maryland ran a piece yesterday about a “quick, easy and healthy meal that won’t break the bank” and quoted certified nutritionist and personal trainer, Christi Christiaens, as saying “grass fed beef strongly reduces and sometimes eliminates the growth of harmful bacteria, like E-coli.”

No it doesn’t.
 

Carrefour, the France-based retailer, is recalling frozen hamburger patties sold under the Carrefour Discount brand in its stores.

Albert Amgar sent along the notice and Amy translated, but I’m still struck with the unique way France has of blaming the consumer; maybe something is lost in translation.

“As a precautionary measure and with no consumer complaints to date, Carrefour has begun a recall of a batch of ground hamburger patties sold in the frozen food section under the Carrefour Discount brand in Carrefour, Carrefour Market, Carrefour City, Carrefour Contact and Carrefour Montagne stores.

“During regular testing undertaken by the supplier, Escherichia Coli O26 H11 bacteria were discovered. Carrefour immediately began to remove these products.

“Carrefour recommends that clients who might still have these products in their possession do not eat them and return them to their store where they will be refunded.

“In general, it is important to remember that thoroughly cooking hamburger patties may prevent the consequences of such a contamination, with the bacteria being killed by a temperature of 65C.”

Good for the supplier for testing for non-O157 shiga-toxin producing E. coli. But it isn’t so easy as cooking; cross-contamination is a huge issue in the food service or home kitchen, especially with frozen patties that people may handle like Frisbees.

Community gatherings around food awaken nostalgic feelings of the rural past -- times when an entire town would get together monthly, eat, enjoy company and work together. And also, as CDC's Rob Tauxe said in an article about new trends in foodborne pathogens, have created some of the easily traced foodborne illness outbreaks:

The traditional foodborne outbreak scenario often follows a church supper, family picnic, wedding reception, or other social event. This scenario involves an acute and highly local outbreak, with a high inoculum dose and a high attack rate. The outbreak is typically immediately apparent to those in the local group, who promptly involve medical and public health authorities. The investigation identifies a food-handling error in a small kitchen that occurs shortly before consumption. The solution is also local.

In September 2004, near Buffalo, N.Y., 28 confirmed cases of salmonella infection were reported following an annual community roast-beef dinner. Volunteers were not trained in food service and "didn't quite understand the importance of maintaining a hot or cold temperature," investigators said.

According to the Hudson Valley Times Herald-Record (which must be some sort of a record for merged paper names), up to 30 people who attended a fire department event in Wawayanda N.Y. have been linked to an apparent foodborne illness outbreak.

[Cases are linked to] a Silver Lake Fire Department event Saturday night in the Town of Wawayanda showed up in doctors’ offices the next day with symptoms that were likely caused by food poisoning, say Orange County Health Department officials.
The county, the New York State Department of Health, and the Silver Lake Fire Department are conducting a joint investigation to discover the cause of the ailments, according to Deputy Health Commissioner Chris Dunleavy.
About 120 people attended the event.

The nasty bugs that cause foodborne illness don't distinguish between commercial and charitable food operations.

In May, 2010, at least 43 people were lab-confirmed to be sickened with cyclospora and over 200 displayed symptoms of illness after attending the Chef’s Challenge, a fundraiser for the Big Sisters of Sarnia-Lambton in Ontario, Canada.

"It wasn't something we were able to go ahead with this year given the incident that took place," said executive director Kathy Alexander.

Local health types figured the source of the cyclospora was a cool pesto crunch but couldn’t identify the ingredient.
 

Thanks to the barfblog reader for providing this:

The Ontario Farm Products Marketing Commission is pondering a request from Svente Lind of Sweda Farms Ltd. for a full-scale inquiry into the Egg Farmers of Ontario marketing board and province’s dominant egg-grading companies.

And in the Superior Court, L.H. Gray and Son Ltd. has filed more than 200 pages of documents as it seeks to squelch whistle-blower Norman Bourdeau who has a treasure trove of electronic documents detailing the company’s activities.

Included are thousands of e-mails among senior staff, some of them revealing that company owner William Gray instructed employees to falsify grading and to hide damning evidence.

The information indicates that L.H. Gray Ltd. systematically altered automatic grading equipment with the result that cracks and dirty eggs were marketed as Grade A.

The court documents indicate that Bourdeau warned that this:
- Cheated consumers who paid Grade A prices for inferior-quality eggs. Bourdreau estimates consumers were over-charged $25 to $30 million per year for a number of years.
- Violated food safety standards through the marketing of cracks and dirty eggs instead of diverting them to processors.

The court documents also indicate that L.H. Gray Ltd. denies all of the allegations of wrong-doing and is suing Bourdeau for damaging the company’s reputation. Bourdeau is countersuing.

Gray’s application for an injunction to muzzle Bourdeau is to be heard in Superior Court here Feb. 22. Until then, the documents filed by the company are open to the public.

Sweda Farms has filed an application in Superior Court in Whitby to have the electronic files Bourdeau copied from L.H. Gray Ltd., and stashed in a safety deposit box, turned over to help it pursue lawsuits against Egg Farmers of Ontario, L.H. Gray and Son Ltd. and Burnbrae Farms Ltd. There’s an estimate that the electronic files contain more than one million documents.

Gray has 40 to 42 per cent of the Ontario market and Burnbrae, controlled by Joe Hudson and his family, has even more. Gray has 30 to 35 per cent of the Canada-wide egg market, some of it through outright and partial ownership of egg-processing plants.

The Egg Farmers of Ontario marketing board examined Svente Lind’s egg-grading operations and calculated that he had a higher percentage of cracks and dirty eggs than the provincial average. On that basis, the board claimed it was owed almost $45,000 in levies and that producers were shorted.

Sweda will now argue that the provincial averages are wrong because L.H. Gray Ltd. failed to properly report the grade of its eggs. The inference is that something similar happened at Burnbrae.

Bourdeau also alleges that Harry Pelissero, general manager of the Ontario egg board, colluded with Gray and Burnbrae to the detriment of competitors, such as Sweda, and the marketplace.

Egg board directors are also involved. The documents indicate that board chair Carolynn Griffith was paid for 8.8 per cent more Grade A eggs than her farm actually shipped to L.H. Gray and Son Ltd. Similar gaps “between actual and reported grade” were 6.8 per cent for Roger Pelissero, Harry’s brother who was recently elected a board director, Victor Slobodian, 5.88 per cent, and Murray Delouw, 4.18 per cent.

As examples, the court documents list the discrepancies for 19 producers. It’s not clear whether the producers were aware that they were being paid for more Grade A eggs than qualified.

The documents include e-mails from William Gray indicating that he kept a close watch on grading percentages, instructed staff to achieve certain percentages for Grade As and to hide evidence of the deceit involved.

One exchange between Gray and Scott Brookshaw says “I didn’t want anything in regards to the crack detector documented.”

There is an exchange of e-mails between Gray and Pelissero outlining their intentions to thwart an application for a supplementary import permit for organic eggs. Gray expresses concern that if this permit is granted, it may develop into larger-scale imports.

Pelissero’s role is to find Ontario-produced eggs to fill the permit-applicants’ needs.

This appears to be part of a pattern of collusion to thwart applications for supplementary import permits other than those sought by Gray and Burnbrae. In one case, a request for small eggs is filled with Ontario-produced medium-grade eggs falsely graded as smalls.

Sweda complained that many of the eggs from Burnbrae and Gray, supplied to thwart applications for supplementary import permits, were inferior quality. In response, Pellisero arranged to provide clean plywood to line one of Gray’s trucks and to have Gray take special care to deliver top-quality eggs to Sweda.

The documents indicate that Bourdeau alleged a conflict of interest by Mary Jean McFaul, daughter of Joe Hudson, a senior officer of Burnbrae and simultaneously a director of Egg Farmers of Ontario.

The documents include a resignation letter from board director Bryan Durst on Nov. 8, 2009, saying Pelissero has an “impulsive nature” that “makes it necessary that he be kept on a tight reign” and that board chair Griffith was quick to defend producers and supply management, but not to keep tabs on board operations.

Bourdeau has gone to the Strathroy Police, to the Ontario Farm Products Marketing Commission, to Egg Farmers of Canada and to the Canadian Egg and Poultry Processors Council in his attempts to end what he deems to be huge scandals that undermine the supply management system.

He declined to comment to a reporter.

Everything I knew about the UK I learned after being subjected to Coronation St., Are You Being Served and Austin Powers. The first two I was subjected to on a weekly basis during my formative years; the third one was funny back when Mike Myers was still cool. Through the Brit coms and Corry St. characters (whom mostly I couldn't understand) I learned about pub fare including savoury pies, bangers and mash and mushy peas. This week, I got to live it.

I was in London to speak at the Global Food Safety Conference, which had a food safety culture theme. Friend of barfblog and food safety culture guru Frank Yiannas (right exactly as shown) kicked off the conference. During his talk he said that creating a culture of food safety is really about shared core values and food safety shouldn't be described just as a priority (because these change). Frank also talked about traceability and stressed transparency of measures and practices -- that they need to be shared with suppliers, buyers and ultimately the folks who buy and eat the products. So, like, pull back the Wizard of Oz curtain, market what you do, and proactively engage society in discussions around risks.

Through conversations I had and sessions I attended I've gleaned this from the conference:

- Food safety culture is now a buzz term, and while definitions are still taking shape I'm not sure how many folks have figured out how to create and foster it within their businesses. To me it's all about folks from the front lines and middle managers to executives knowing about risks, what to do about them and being able to demonstrate that they are addressing them.
- A bad food safety culture is easier to define than a good one. Lots of elements of a good food safety culture were presented (internal programs, supplier verification stuff, targeted training) but no one I saw really pulled it all together.
- According to consumer surveys, that have their limitations, trust in the industry and government's ability to manage food safety is fairly low; my guess is that some of this can be linked the lack of transparency around food safety, getting back to the market/engage consumers about risk stuff.

I spoke on development and evaluation of food safety infosheets, you can find my slides here. Best question I received was based on our work, did I think a company should remove their "employees must wash hands" signs. My reply was it would be nice to evaluate whether they worked or not to achieve better handwashing first. But maybe, yeah. I should probably added putting up our infosheets in place might be a good strategy. But like in Seinfeld, I often think of better responses after the event.

I had a chance to visit a couple of pubs, ate fish, chips, mushy peas and a pie; got some local draft beer; and, witnessed a barkeep attempt to sneak up and shave one of his customer's heads. So my out-of-conference London experience was pretty much exactly like Austin Powers.
 

That’s what veterinarian, blogger and OK hockey player Scott Weese explored in his latest Worms and Germs entry, reprinted below.

A recent press release from The Pet Care Trust reported on the status of its Classroom Program, which provides support to teachers to have pets in school classrooms. On the surface, it seems like a good idea, helping to enrich school activities. However, it's one of those areas that can be good, but can also be very bad, depending how it's applied.

The Pet Care Trust has some useful information about pets in classrooms, and anyone considering a pet in a classroom needs to be aware of a variety of concerns, including:

* Welfare of the pets (stress, adequate care, abuse...)
* Adequacy of pet care, particularly during weekends and holidays
* Problems with access to veterinary care
* Distraction of students
* Allergies
* Fear
* Infectious disease transmission

Infectious disease transmission from pets in classrooms is a real problem. Infections can and do occur. The risks are quite variable, and depending on the animal, children, classroom and pet care, can range from inconsequential to quite serious.

The type of animal is very important. Certain species are very high risk for carrying certain infectious diseases and for transmitting them to people. Reptiles are notorious for Salmonella and it is recommended that children under 5 years of age and immunocompromised individuals, among others, not have contact with reptiles. Even with older kids, there's a risk and older kids have picked up Salmonella in classrooms from reptiles or their food (e.g. frozen rodents).

So, it's concerning that 435 of the 2066 grants handed out by this program were for reptiles, and the program involved kindergarten to Grade 6 classrooms. A lot of reptiles went into classrooms with a lot of young kids. Typically, elementary school children (at least around here) eat in their classrooms, which raises the concern. While the majority of students would be 5 years of age or older, immunocompromised kids are not exactly uncommon, and it's unclear whether teachers have adequate understanding about whether kids in their classes are immunocompromised and that this poses an increased risk.
I'm not saying pets in classrooms are a bad idea. However, it's often done poorly and with little forethought. To be effective and safe, you need to consider many things, such as:

* What species should it be? From my standpoint, no reptiles or other high risk species should be in any classrooms because you can't guarantee a high-risk person won't be around. The animal needs to be small enough to be properly housed in a classroom. It's care requirements need to be basic and readily met. It shouldn't be a species that gets stressed easily and one that can tolerate all the activities that go on around it. A nocturnal species is probably not a good idea.
* What types of hygiene/infection control practices need to be used and how will they be enforced?
* What disease or injury (e.g. bite) risks are present and how will they be managed.
* Who will take care of it? This means who will take care of it for its lifespan, not just the upcoming school year.
* Who will arrange and pay for any medical expenses that arise, either for preventive medicine or treatment of disease?
* Will parents be notified?
* What happens if a kid in the class is allergy or afraid of the animal?
* Will proper supervision be available at all times?
* Who from the school or school board must give permission, and is there a standard approval process? (There should be, but there rarely is).
* Why is the animal going to be there? Will there be any educational use or it is just there for fun/decoration?

If you can answer all those questions adequately, then a pet might be a good fit in a classroom. If you can't answer them, or can't be bothered to try to answer them, then there's no reason for a pet to be in a classroom.