I hate to armchair quarterback videos especially because it's easy to nitpick them and pretty tough to make them, but a video posted by the Vancouver Sun, below, as part of a new at home food safety campaign (RUHotEnuf?) struck me as a bit ironic (but maybe I'm getting that definition wrong). In the video, David Robertson, chef and owner of the Dirty Apron Kitchen School (ironically) focuses on temperature as risk factors when cooking chicken at home.

Robertson starts off by talking about ensuring a home fridge is at the right temperature (RUCoolEnuf?), but doesn't tell the viewer what that is (4C or 41F) or how to check it.

Chef David talks about the importance of correct packaging to keep chicken juices from directly cross-contaminating foods in the fridge and as he does this he fumbles through unwrapping his shrink-wrapped chicken like my 2-year-old son opens up a present. From 30-33 seconds you get a good look at hand facilitated cross-contamination as his fingers hit the underside of the shrink wrap that was directly touching the chicken and then go straight to the pepper grinder. All while chef David is talking about the importance of not contaminating cutting boards. Awesome.

His tong use is a bit odd as well between 1:07 and 1:19 and then grabbing the same tongs again, hovering them over the chicken breast (he doesn't go directly for the cross-contamination event this time). David misses the opportunity to talk about multiple tools - and using clean tongs for food that has hit the safe temps.

Handwashing at 1:33 is completed by drying on his multi-purpose kitchen towel. Lots of evidence that shows that proper drying is an important step, that the friction results in a 1- to 2-log reduction of the Salmonella or Campylobacter David is trying to remove from his hands -- and all those pathogens are now hidden somewhere in that towel. Which is back on the counter, and then to the cupboard handle.

I'm not sure exactly what he's talking about when it comes to removing the chicken from the heat to measure temps correctly -- if someone has a reference for this please send it on. If the cook (in the commercial kitchen, or in the home) is using a digital, tip sensitive thermometer correctly, they are measuring the temp of the meat, not the pan.I do like the temps he discusses (aiming for 165F - or 74C if you are in Canada, like I believe British Columbia is), but are different from the Health Canada recommendation of 180F.

The steps to safe food aren't all that simple, this video makes a case for risk reduction being complex, even for the home chef. The increased discussion and focus on food safety is great, and the producers are trying, but mistakes happen even when you're attempting to demonstrate how to do it right.

Those hands-free electronic water faucets that seem to be in every public bathroom may not be that great at keeping us germ free after all.

A study of newly installed fixtures at Johns Hopkins Hospital showed the faucets were more likely to be contaminated with a common and hazardous bacteria than the old fashioned faucets with separate handles for hot and cold water.

Dr. Lisa Maragakis, senior study investigator, said in a statement and reported by the Baltimore Sun,

“Newer is not necessarily better when it comes to infection control in hospitals, especially when it comes to warding off potential hazards from water-borne bacteria, such as Legionella species. New devices, even faucets, however well intentioned in their make-up and purpose, have the potential for unintended consequences, which is why constant surveillance is needed.”

The results will be presented April 2 at the Society for Health Care Epidemiology’s annual meeting.

The new faucets did cut daily water use by more than half, said Maragakis, director of hospital epidemiology and infection control at Hopkins Hospital and an assistant professor at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. But, for example, they also had Legionella growing in half of the water samples from 20 faucets near patient rooms. That compares with 15 percent of the cultures from 20 of the old faucets in the same patient care areas.

The Hopkins researchers had aimed to determine how often the new faucets had to be treated to protect vulnerable patients when they discovered the higher rates of bacteria. They’ve notified other hospitals and plan to work with manufacturers to remedy the problem.

The number of suspected cases of salmonella linked to a Rhode Island bakery has increased to 43 people, the Health Department reported Wednesday.

Health officials said 22 of those people have been hospitalized.

Health officials said many of the people that were sickened ate doughnut-like pastries called zeppoles made by DeFusco's Bakery in Johnston. The pastries were sold at other stores around the state and have been recalled.

State Sen. John Tassoni has launched a new push to hire more state food inspectors, adding, “The safety of every person who visits a restaurant or other food establishment in Rhode Island is at stake.”

There are seven food inspectors responsible for inspecting 8,000 food establishment across the Ocean State - yet being short staffed only allows them to inspect half that number.

The most recent salmonella-in-pastry outbreak happened in Adelaide, South Australia earlier this year, when at least 107 people were sickened with Salmonella Typhimurium phage type 9 after eating custard eclairs and cannolis from two bakeries.
 

CBC News asked hockey goon and University of British Columbia microbiology type Kevin Allen to test 44 packages of sprouts for bacteria from across the country and he found lots.

There was no salmonella but Allen found 93 per cent tested positive for bacteria, and in some cases, high levels of enterococci bacteria, which is an indicator of fecal contamination.

"They [bacteria found] come from our intestinal tract and we don't want the contents of our intestinal tract on our food," he said.

Sprouts are particularly susceptible to contaminants because they are grown in moist, warm environments, which are ideal for the rapid growth of bacteria, Allen said, adding that washing them before consuming them likely wouldn't help.

"Personally, I don't consume sprouts and I would not feed them to my children, either," Allen said.

Allen also tested 106 samples of bagged veggies and found 79 per cent of the herbs and 50 per cent of the spinach had similar bacterial contamination.

Allens report can be found at http://www.cbc.ca/manitoba/includes/pdfs/produce_survey.pdf. We all look forward to the results being published in a peer-reviewed journal before being further bandied about.

A table of North American raw sprout-related outbreaks is available at http://bites.ksu.edu/sprout-associated-outbreaks-north-america
 

A 1993 episode of the television show, Seinfeld, landed the term double-dipping into popular culture when George Costanza is confronted at a funeral reception by Timmy, his girlfriend’s brother, after dipping the same chip twice.

“Did, did you just double dip that chip?” Timmy asks incredulously, later objecting, “That’s like putting your whole mouth right in the dip!” Finally George retorts, “You dip the way you want to dip, I’ll dip the way I want to dip,” and aims another used chip at the bowl. Timmy tries to take it away, and the scene ends as they wrestle for it.

Peter Mehlman, a veteran “Seinfeld” writer, wrote the episode, and said,

"At the time I was living in Los Angeles, in Venice. There was a party on one of the canals, and apparently someone dipped twice with the same chip. And a woman flipped out. ‘You just dipped twice! How could you do that? Now all your germs are in there!’ I thought, this is just too good not to use on the show.”

CNNGo.com asks this morning, “would you think twice about diving -- chopsticks first -- twice back into the communal service dishes on just about every table in Shanghai?

“… in China we all ‘double dip.’ If you say you don’t, you’ve never been to a good Chinese meal in Shanghai.

“In restaurants when we share plates of food, almost everyone takes more than a bite with their own personal chopsticks from the shared plates. That means our saliva-covered chopsticks are carrying germs back and forth all meal-long, making for one big shared germ fest on all the plates.

“However, few people, Chinese or Western, seem to view double dipped chopsticks in the same dubious light as a double-dipped chip.”

Lisa Wu, a student at Shanghai International Studies University, said,

“When I was young, my parents would only mention this issue when they caught a cold. They'd keep a separate bowl and use a pair of new chopsticks to pick out some food for themselves. But the rest of the time, we never really thought twice about sharing.”

Wu says that right after the SARS epidemic, there was a public debate on whether people should adapt Western ways of eating, with separate individual servings or at least the use of “public chopsticks” or gongkuai.

Public chopsticks are chopsticks provided for general serving, like a serving spoon, and not used for eating. However, Wu says when the SARS crisis petered out, so did the chopstick discussion.

Huang Juemin, a pediatrician at Shanghai United Family Hospital, said,

“As a teenager growing up in Shanghai in late 1980s I remember vividly the Hepatitis A outbreak. For a while, people challenged the custom of 'double dipping' and started using gongkuai -- public chopsticks.”

After discussing the double dipping issue with her internal medicine colleagues, Dr. Huang says they all believed that “definitely there is an increased risk for H. Pylori and Hepatitis A, if not Hepatitis B infections. … I think we should make an effort to use public chopsticks from the public health standpoint.”

As of March 29, 2011, 13 persons infected with the outbreak strain of Salmonella Panama have been reported from Oregon (5 cases), Washington (4 cases), California (2 cases), Colorado (1 case) and Maryland (1 case). Reported dates of illness onset range from February 5, 2011 to March 4, 2011. Ill persons range in age from less than 1 year old to 68 years old, with a median age of 12 years old. Sixty-two percent are male. Among ill persons, three have been hospitalized and no deaths have been reported.

Collaborative investigative efforts of state, local, and federal public health and regulatory agencies have linked this outbreak to eating cantaloupe. On March 22, 2011, Del Monte Fresh Produce N.A., Inc. voluntarily recalled cantaloupes. Consumer should not eat recalled cantaloupes and restaurant and food service operators should not serve them. The cantaloupes, grown in and shipped from Del Monte Fresh’s farm Asuncion Mita in Guatemala, have a light brown color skin on the exterior with orange flesh. The recalled cartons of cantaloupes are dark brown cardboard with the “Del Monte” logo in red lettering and “cantaloupes” in yellow lettering on a green background. The cantaloupes have the lot codes: 02-15-24-10, 02-15-25-10, 02-15-26-10 and 02-15-28-10. No illness has been linked to cantaloupes from other sources.

An updated table of salmonella-in-cantaloupe outbreaks and recalls is available at:
http://bites.ksu.edu/cantaloupe-related-outbreaks.

Big tip of the hat to the students at New York’s Pace University and a Colbert wag of the finger to Lackmann Culinary Services, which runs the school cafeteria, and was closed after health inspectors discovered it was a dump.

DNAinfo.com reports the city shut down Pace's main dining hall, along with the school's coffee kiosk and late-night eatery, last Thursday after observing workers touching food with their bare hands and storing perishable items at unsafe temperatures.

The 79 violation points also included citations for dirty clothing, no soap in the bathroom and un-sanitized cloths.

And just like in the UAE, a company spokesthingy had to say, health and safety are the company's top priorities.

Which is why Lackmann only now plans to hire a full-time sanitarian and has already made changes to better monitor food temperatures. Students said they noticed the staff wearing gloves for the first time.

They got caught.

The students are having none of it and have Facebook-planned a boycott of the cafeteria.

Orlando Olave, 22, a Pace senior who said he knew several people who believe they have gotten food poisoning from the cafeteria, adding,

"I felt like it was going to happen eventually. [The workers'] aprons are usually dirty, and they wipe their hands on them."

Ashley Cetinkaya, 19, a Pace freshman who plans to buy her lunch elsewhere from now on, said,

"It's unacceptable considering the prices they charge us. I'm not going to be eating there again."

A Pace spokesthingy said the university is meeting with students this week "to discuss their grievances and the university’s plans for addressing them."

Pace students, take some food safety knowledge with you to the meeting and you’ll know far more than the bureaucrats or the catering firm.
 

Two-year-old Sorenne likes her SpongeBob SquarePants on the Nickelodeon Network when waking up, or some veg-out time.

Later in the programming day, Nick switches to teenage-oriented programming that involves a lot of singing and dancing and bad writing (it’s part of multimedia synergy).

I turned on the TV while prepping dinner yesterday and a show called iCarly appeared on Nick, with someone spreading salmonella and campylobacter throughout their kitchen. I recorded the show and changed the channel (the best thing about Central time is hockey games start at 6 p.m.).

The beginning of the iCarly episode, iWon’t Cancel the Show, shows Carly’s 26-year-old brother/guardian stuffing chicken for his hot date that evening.

In the photomontage attempted here, Spencer stuffs the chicken, answers his cell phone, hands it to sister Carly, who then grabs a water bottle and both proceed to touch everything else in the kitchen. Scene ends with cell phone ringing, stuffed in chicken (cue laughter).

Traducido por Gonzalo Erdozain

Resumen del folleto informativo mas reciente:

- El brote de Salmonella que enfermó a 1,500 personas en el 2008 fue causado por pimientos
- Platos con tomates y pimientos dejados a temperatura ambiente pueden haber empeorado el brote
- Refrigere platos con tomates a temperaturas iguales o menores a 41°F

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.
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