The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control said in a risk assessment today that the HUS/STEC E. coli O104 outbreak is the largest in the world of its kind, with 14 dead, 352 with hemolytic uremic syndrome and over 1,200 sick.

German Health Minister Daniel Bahr said Monday that authorities still haven't pinned down definitively the source of the E. coli infection — and "we unfortunately still have to expect a rising number of cases."

An EU official who spoke on condition of anonymity due to standing regulations, said the transport chain was long, and the cucumbers from Spain could have been contaminated at any point along the route.

Spain, meanwhile, went on the defensive, saying there was no proof that the E. coli outbreak has been caused by Spanish vegetables.

"You can't attribute the origin of this sickness to Spain," Spain's Secretary of State for European Affairs, Diego Lopez Garrido told reporters in Brussels. "There is no proof and that's why we are going to demand accountability from those who have blamed Spain for this matter."

EU spokesman Frederic Vincent said Sunday that two greenhouses in Spain that were identified as the source of the contaminated cucumbers had ceased activities. The water and soil there are being analyzed to see whether they were the problem, and the results are expected Tuesday or Wednesday, Vincent said.
 

The former operator of a north Canberra takeaway pizza restaurant has been fined more than $7000 after three customers found cockroaches in their meals.

Whono's Pty Ltd, a company formerly trading as Domino's Pizza in Dickson, was yesterday convicted of four breaches of the territory's food safety laws.

The Canberra Times reports the store was shut down for two days in May last year after health authorities discovered a cockroach infestation and shoddy cleaning practices at the store.

The investigation came after three customers independently complained of finding cockroaches in their food.

Sole director and shareholder Alex Michael Duncan, who appeared in the ACT Magistrates Court yesterday, sold the lease on the business in November last year partly due to the fall-out from the cockroach infestation.

More women have died in Germany from an E. coli O104 outbreak linked to cucumbers grown in Spain, bringing the death toll to seven (or nine, depending on the media source). Of the 800 or so sick, 276 have hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS).

The European Commission says experts are now probing two agricultural sites in southern Spain, in Almeria and Malaga, suspected of exporting products, most likely cucumbers, tainted with E.coli.

Fear of infection has lead many in Germany to change their eating habits. A survey carried out by Emnid for Bild am Sonntag has found that 58 percent of Germans are following the advice of the Robert Koch Institute and not eating raw cucumbers, lettuce or tomatoes.

Farmers are threatening to sue German health authority the Robert Koch Institute and the Federal Consumer Ministry for damages over warnings about eating vegetables over what they say has needlessly damaged their business.
 

In May 2005, hundreds of people in Northern Europe became sick from lettuce grown in Spain that was watered with human sewage.

As reported by Eurosurveillance, the rare multiresistant Salmonella Typhimurium DT 104B caused an outbreak of 60 microbiologically confirmed cases in May 2005, widely distributed across southern and western Finland. The isolates had an identical pulsed field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) and antimicrobial resistance pattern (ACSSuT); also, 80% of the confirmed cases were in females and 45% were in people aged between 15-24 years (range 7 to 53).

Hundreds were also sickened in the U.K. The Daily Mail was direct: “Drought-hit Spanish farmers have been using household sewage to water lettuce.”

Spain's environment minister at the time said, "When they don't get irrigation water they turn to other kinds of water."

Farmers from Beniel, in south-east Spain, told the El Pais newspaper, "The water we receive is not enough, so we are forced to mix it with the sewage from our own homes."

Farmers' leaders in the Murcia region insist it would be wrong to view all Spanish produce as unsafe based on the behavior of a few growers.

Francisco Gil, a local union leader who grows peppers, said at the time, "That is like calling all Englishmen drunks just because one or two of them can't hold their drink.”

So assuming German health types are correct and Spanish cucumbers are to blame for an E. coli O104 outbreak that has killed five and sickened over 600, it reinforces a food safety basic: know thy supplier – and know what they are doing when the auditor or inspector isn’t around, which is 99.99999 per cent of the time.

Night soil? Or ruminant soil.
 

Uncle Sushi and Grill in Cranston has shut down after health inspectors found mouse droppings and evidence that a baby's diapers were being changed in the kitchen, among other violations.

Felice Freyer of Projo reports the inspection took place on Monday when health officials learned that eight people who ate at the restaurant on May 19 became ill with vomiting, diarrhea, nausea and abdominal cramps.

Based on the symptoms, the illnesses were probably caused by norovirus, said Health Department spokeswoman Annemarie Beardsworth. All employees were asked for stool samples, and so far three have tested positive for norovirus, she said.

Although the owner, Thong Den Vongvixay, closed the restaurant voluntarily, the Health Department issued a compliance order to make sure that he does not reopen until all violations are corrected, Beardsworth said.

Among the key violations that inspectors found:


• mouse droppings were found in flour, jimmies and noodles and on the doilies on which sushi is served.;
• vinegar was being stored in container previously used for laundry detergent.;
• rice was kept at room temperature in a turned-off cooker;
• the restaurant does not employ a full-time manager certified in food safety
• scooters, toys, powder and wipes were found in the kitchen area, suggesting that a child was allowed in the kitchen area and diapers were changed there.

Two more cases of E. coli O157:H7 have been confirmed in students at Redfield Edge Primary School in Bristol, U.K., bringing the total of confirmed cases to seven.

Of the three children admitted to hospital for treatment, one remains there.

At least 40 other children reportedly had symptoms.

The school was closed May 20.
 

There have been 55 cases of E.coli O157 in Scotland in the first three months of 2011, compared to 14 last year and double the decade average of 25.

Health Protection Scotland (HPS) said more than half of the cases reported at the start of 2011 were found to be a new strain of the infection, phage type 8 (PT8), which has previously been reported in other parts of the U.K.
 

Kai Kupferschmidt, who initially reported it was E. coli O104 that has killed three and sickened over 400 in Germany, writes for Science Insider today that an initial sorta-case control study hasn’t provided any clues as to the source of the outbreak.

But Kupferschmidt does provide excellent background on E. coli O104, and notes that German authorities reported earlier today that the number of hemolytic-uremic syndrome (HUS) cases had reached 140; there are normally 60 HUS cases in Germany in a year.

Most EHEC infections are caused by a notorious serotype called O157:H7; researchers refer to that serotype and four others frequently found in Europe as the "gang of five." But the German reference laboratory for EHEC in Wernigerode has so far identified the serotype of EHEC in stool samples from five patients as O104.

Scientists have been baffled not only by the outbreak's size and rapid spread in northern Germany but also by the fact that it affects mostly adults and females, an odd pattern because EHEC usually sickens children.

That makes the outbreak highly unusual, says Helge Karch, head of the National Consulting Laboratory on Hemolytic Uremic Syndrome in Münster. Among Karch's E. coli isolates from 588 HUS patients collected over the past 20 years, only two are O104. In another unusual twist, Karch has found the strain to be eae-negative. The gene eae codes for the protein intimin, which the bacteria uses to attach to the intestinal wall. Most pathogenic EHEC serogroups are eae-positive.

It is still unclear whether the serotype might explain the strange pattern of infections. E. coli O104 first emerged as a pathogen in a small outbreak in Helena, Montana, in early 1994. Four people developed abdominal cramps and bloody diarrhea. Experts at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta identified a serotype called O104:H21 as the culprit. A CDC investigation later found up to 18 patients; most of them were women and the median age was 36 years.
 

Issuing a press release before publishing food safety data is a bad idea; launching an entire advertising campaign before publishing is worse.

But that’s exactly what Fresh Express is doing.

I’m all for marketing food safety directly to consumers and at retail – but only if such claims can be verified, and the most credible way to do that is publish in a peer-reviewed journal. Supermarkets are already overflowing with hucksterism.

In Sept. 2000, I called Procter & Gamble to substantiate claims their consumer-oriented FIT Fruit and Vegetable Wash removed 99.9 per cent more residue and dirt than water alone.

The PR-thingies hooked me up with some scientists at P&G in Cincinnati, who verbally told me that sample cucumbers, tomatoes and the like were grown on the same farm in California, sprayed with chemicals that would be used in conventional production, and then harvested immediately and washed with FIT or water. The FIT removed 99.9 per cent more, or so the company claimed.

One problem. Many of the chemicals used had harvest‑after dates, such as the one tomato chemical that must be applied at least 20 days before harvest.

Residue data on produce in North American stores reveals extremely low levels, in the parts per million or billion. So that 99.9 per cent reduction was buying consumers an extra couple of zeros in the residue quantity, all well below health limits.

I also asked why the results hadn’t been published in a peer-reviewed journal, and the P&G types said it was an important advance that had to be made available to consumers as soon as possible, without the delays and messiness of peer-review.

In Oct. 2010, Chiquita Brands, the owners of Fresh Express and also based in Cincinnati, followed the same PR playbook for its new produce rinse, Fresh Rinse.

The new rinse, for use in the packing shed and which the company says removes microorganisms from leafy greens more effectively than conventional chlorine sanitizers, was unveiled yesterday at a news conference at the Produce Marketing Association Fresh Summit to gushing reviews.

Today, Fresh Express gushed again that its salads sold nationwide are now manufactured using its new breakthrough produce wash, Fresh Rinse. The company claims that Fresh Rinse has been scientifically validated to dramatically reduce certain bacteria while at the same time continuing to provide high levels of freshness, taste and quality consumers expect from Fresh Express salads.

The effectiveness of this new patent-pending technology has been validated by studies performed at the National Center for Food Safety and Technology – a recognized third-party research and testing facility. These independent studies confirmed that Fresh Rinse demonstrated superior effectiveness in removing pathogens from wash water and from certain leafy greens compared to traditional chlorine washes. An article detailing the Fresh Rinse technology has been peer reviewed and accepted for publication by the Journal of Food Protection.

I have an article in press by JFP right now but I don’t blabber about it until it’s published. Because until then, other mortals or food safety nerds can’t see what anyone is bragging about. Why is Fresh Express above the process?

Sometimes the faster it gets

The less you need to know

But you gotta remember

The smarter it gets the further it's going to go

When you blow at high dough

Tragically Hip, Canadian national anthem, 1989.

A table of leafy green foodborne illness outbreaks is available at:
http://bites.ksu.edu/Outbreaks%20related%20to%20leafy%20greens%201993-2010