“If you have untrained vendors selling food to 1,200 people, you have a high-risk situation.”

So says Dr. Rajiv Bhatia, the director of environmental health for the San Francisco Department of Public Health.

The New York Times reports for the past two years, the San Francisco Underground Market has served up haute fringe food, but on June 11, the monthly market, which now draws more than a thousand visitors, received an unwelcome serving of its own: a cease and desist order from the San Francisco Department of Public Health.

The market had positioned itself as a members-only club to circumvent the department’s retail food-safety permitting process.

The market started small but has become a kind of foodie phenomenon. The idea has been to provide an incubator for the Bay Area’s fledgling food entrepreneurs, many of them young people who said they could not afford the steep fees of a conventional farmers’ market.

The department has not received complaints of illness, Dr. Bhatia said, but given the popularity of the market — arguably no longer “underground” — it now does not qualify as a club but is a retail food establishment under state law and subject to the standard permit process.

Iso Rabins, 30, the market’s founder, said Friday that he planned to meet with the city attorney to discuss how the market might be “legitimized,” possibly by establishing a communal commercial kitchen.

Ahram Kim, 35, whose culinary pièce de résistance is pork sausage topped with kimchi, has his own theory about the crackdown. “I immediately thought: ‘Of course. The state is broke,’ ” he said.

Most sprouts are grown in a controlled, indoor environment and, when handled properly, “are the safest produce on the grocery shelf.”

So says Bob Rust, who runs International Specialty Supply, a Cookeville, Tenn.-based supplier of sprout seeds and growing equipment.

Rust told The Packer his company tests every bag of seed before selling it to commercial growers and that most U.S. growers “are well-trained in the production of safe sprouts, utilize some of the most stringent safety procedures in the food industry, and have sophisticated systems in place to minimize the likelihood of contamination.”

Except for those two outbreaks in the U.S. earlier this year; or Canada in 2005; or Germany right now. A complete table of international sprout outbreaks is available at http://bites.ksu.edu/sprouts-associated-outbreaks.

The Packer responded in an editorial that U.S. sprout growers can do much more than they’re doing to avoid a situation like in Germany, where E. coli-contaminated organic sprouts killed nearly 40 and caused more than 3,000 illnesses.

U.S. sprout grower-shippers contacted in mid-June told us they’re confident their food safety practices have improved significantly in recent years and that thorough testing reduces the chances of contaminated product reaching the food supply.

However, many critics have pointed out dangerous pathogens are more difficult to eliminate in sprouts through current cleaning processes.

The industry has made no clear move to embrace cleaning alternatives, such as irradiation, or form a group similar to the California Leafy Greens Marketing Agreement, which began in the aftermath of the 2006 spinach E. coli outbreak. It is up to each sprout grower to follow food safety guidelines. That’s risky.

The sprout industry needs to do everything it can to ship safe product and prove it to consumers and fellow produce companies.

At this point, they’re not doing that.
 

I would be a pissed off parent.

I’ve seen a lot of dumbass things involving food and my kids over the years, especially through schools, and I’ve always spoken up, but this is beyond stupid.

Who serves raw milk to kids in grade 4?

Laboratory test results show that the Campylobactor jejuni bacteria that caused diarrheal illness among 16 individuals who drank unpasteurized (raw) milk at a school event early this month in Raymond was the same bacteria strain found in unpasteurized milk produced at a local farm, according to officials from the Department of Health Services (DHS) and Western Racine County Health Department (WRCHD). A parent had supplied unpasteurized milk from the farm for the school event.

The farm did not sell the unpasteurized milk and there was no legal violation associated with the milk being brought to the school event. The farm is licensed and in good standing with the Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection.

And in an additional dumbass statement, Cheryl Mazmanian, director and health officer for the Western Racine County Health Department actually said, ‘As in similar cases, prevention comes down to washing hands and practicing good hygiene.’

How about don’t serve raw milk to little kids?

An updated table of raw-milk related outbreaks is available at http://bites.ksu.edu/rawmilk
 

In the category of useless press releases comes a new entry from the U.K. Food Standards Agency, which announced The Co-operative is recalling three types of salad dressing and “notices in its stores will explain the reason for recall.”

The Co-operative is recalling all batches of three types of salad dressing because there may be salmonella in one of the ingredients.

The Co-operative Healthier Choice French Dressing, 250ml
The Co-operative Thousand Island Dressing, 250ml
The Co-operative Fresh Caesar Dressing, 150ml
 

An Australian woman got a nasty surprise when she cracked open a can of rum and cola to honor her grandfather - a dead mouse.

The Northern Star newspaper has reported that Casino mother-of-four Linda Foster drank the can of Bundaberg rum only to find a mouse in the bottom of the can.

Miss Foster, 26, bought a six-pack of the drop, which she intended to drink with her family following the funeral of her grandfather, who was a life-long drinker of the product in question.

"I hardly ever drink," Miss Foster said.

"Straight away I vomited - it was disgusting, absolutely revolting."

Miss Foster said she tried repeatedly to contact the company that produced the beverage on its consumer feedback phone number, which is printed on the can, but despite leaving messages received no response.

A spokesperson for the company which produced the drink said it was "committed to the highest standards of product quality and all our products undergo rigorous quality assurance testing at every stage of the production process."

Researchers say a strain of E. coli found last week on Dutch beet sprouts has not been seen before in the country and they have sent samples for further analysis at labs in Italy and Denmark.

The Dutch Food Safety Authority says nobody appears to have been sickened by the strain.

Friday's announcement came a day after Germany's disease control center said the death toll in Europe's outbreak of a separate strain of E. coli had risen to 39 after one more patient died.

The killer strain has been traced to sprouts from an organic farm in a northern German village.

Pop star Selena Gomez says she’s all better after being treated for food poisoning and exhaustion after becoming ill following her appearance on The Tonight Show With Jay Leno on June 9.

"I'm good now, thank you. I'm so much better. I do eat. The problem is I don't eat right. I love everything that's possibly not good for me."

Junk food is not synonymous with food poisoning.

The Snohomish Health District confirms four suspected cases of E. coli found in people who visited the Animal Petting Farm at Forest Park in Everett, Wash.

Two adults and two children reported symptoms after visiting the farm on opening day June 4th. One of the children was hospitalized for three days but is now recovering.

It is believed that the suspected E. coli poisoning originated with the animals who naturally carry bacteria. The Health district believes the infected people did not properly wash their hands.

The city bleached the entire farm and enhanced fences around the animal cages to further limit contact between children and animals. No animals are in quarantine.

Proper handwashing requires access to proper tools. Were sinks with running water, soap and paper towels available near the animals, as is now being recommended, or was it just some sort of wipe that was available.

An updated table of international petting zoo outbreaks is available at http://bites.ksu.edu/petting-zoos-outbreaks
 

This isn’t about food safety, although it has a pic of Sorenne and me cooking, when I constantly tell her about food safety.

In a father’s day homage, Sharon Jayson writes in today’s USA Today about a bunch of dads who married young by today's standards, worked hard and built careers. Divorce may have followed, then remarriage to a younger partner who wanted kids (but did not violate the half-your-age-plus-7 rule).

Doug Powell, a professor of food safety at Kansas State University-Manhattan, spends much of his day with his daughter Sorenne, 2.

Because he teaches from home for his distance-learning courses, Powell, 48, has created a routine.

"When she sleeps, I go record lectures on my computer and put on a clean shirt."

Powell also says he's a more relaxed parent with his young daughter than he was when his four older daughters were growing up. They range in age from 16 to 24.

"I do enjoy having a 2-year-old to take care of. I just like hanging out with her.”

Powell says he had a vasectomy in 1996, so he and his wife, Amy Hubbell, an associate professor of French at Kansas State, used a sperm donor for Sorenne.

Probably more information than you wanted to know.

Nice safefood Queensland apron I got in 2004.