Don’t eat poop. And if you do, cook the poop. Thoroughly.

Which is why I don’t eat raw oysters. Who knows what poop they’ve filtered through their bivalves.

In 2009 public health authorities traced the source of two outbreaks, in Auckland and Waikato, back to the Coromandel, according to today's New Zealand Medical Journal.

Ten people were infected at a catered event in Auckland and three at a Cambridge restaurant. Four more at the Auckland event ate oysters but did not fall ill. Neither venue nor the oyster farm is named in the journal report.

In Cambridge, two of the unlucky diners ate their oysters raw while the third consumed cooked oyster Kilpatrick but complained the shellfish was undercooked and sent it back for re-cooking.

The Food Safety Authority closed the growing area where the oysters came from in late July 2009 following the Auckland outbreak but eight days before the Cambridge diners had their contaminated meal.

The journal report says the leaking sewer was found only by chance. In early August 2009 the Thames Coromandel District Council reported the sewer had been disturbed during maintenance of the wastewater treatment plant near the oyster growing area.

"The pipe had been leaking partially treated effluent into the stream that flowed into the affected growing area," says the report by public health doctor Richard Wall and colleagues.

Dr Wall and colleagues say temperatures above 60C deactivate norovirus, although cooking oysters has not been shown to reliably inactivate viruses.

In 2006 imported Korean oysters were blamed for five outbreaks of the disease. One of these was at Eden Park in which it was estimated more than 300 corporate guests at an All Blacks-Ireland test were poisoned after eating the raw oysters.

With two boys under four, I get pretty emotional when I read a story about a child getting sick from foodborne illness. This week Jack had a cold, and I felt helpless when he said "make me feel better." I can't imagine what Thomas Miller's parents felt like over the past two years as they saw him battling the effects of E. coli infection complications which included a septicemia and rare brain impacts. Thomas'  illness was linked to eating contaminated burgers and is being reported as the first time an individual in the UK has recovered from these complications.

The youngster, who was two-years-old at the time, fell ill just 24 hours after eating a beef burger on a family day out in Scotland in 2009.

His older brother James, then seven, suffered diarrhoeaand a day later Thomas started to pass blood.
‘We just didn’t know what was happening. It was frightening,’ said 37-year-old Mrs Miller, from Aspatria,Cumbria. ‘He went for an operation that day and had to have dialysis.
‘He was holding his head and screaming, he couldn’t move and was as stiff as a board.’

The E.coli had entered Thomas’ bloodstream but further scans revealed it was also attacking his brain.
Two golf ball-sized abscesses on his brain, which had caused him to go blind, were drained in August 2009 – allowing him to see again.

But his ordeal wasn’t over as he developed more abscesses on the brain and even suffered an allergic reaction to the medication, which ‘burned’ his skin. Finally last year, after having all the abscesses removed, he was given the all clear. ‘I’ll never forget the day he came out of intensive care,’ said Mrs Miller. ‘It’s only really this year that I’ve been able to relax.’

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is relying more often on states to inspect food plants but is failing to properly monitor those state inspections or follow through on their findings, the Department of Health and Human Services watchdog has concluded.

In a report released Wednesday, the department’s inspector general found that a lack of resources is forcing the FDA to lean more heavily on its counterparts at the state level to inspect plants responsible for everything from packing to processing foods.

More than half the agency’s inspections were done by state officials in fiscal 2009, up from 42 percent four years earlier, according to the report. If these inspections are not done properly, they can expose consumers to sometimes life-threatening illnesses.

A deadly salmonella outbreak linked to a Georgia peanut processing plant in 2009 occurred after the plant had been inspected several times by state officials working on the FDA’s behalf.

Wednesday’s report confirms several weaknesses in that relationship, almost all of which the FDA acknowledged were indeed problems. “The report documents glitches we’re aware of. . . . These are things we are working on,” said Mike Taylor, the FDA’s deputy commissioner for foods.

The report found that the FDA has failed to ensure that the states have completed the number of inspections assigned to them. Of the 41 states the FDA was working with in 2009, eight did not complete 10 percent of the 2,170 inspections they were responsible for that year. The agency paid for 130 of the inspections that were not done.

The report did not specify how much was paid in those instances. But it did state that the FDA spent more than $8 million for state contract inspections in fiscal 2009.

The FDA also did not do its part in monitoring the inspections as required by law, according to the report.

When audits were conducted, the most common problem cited had to do with the state inspectors’ inability to identify violations. At least 32 percent of the 419 inspectors audited had at least one deficiency. The report cited instances in which inspectors failed to note evidence of rodents or a leaky roof above exposed food.

Even when inspectors noted food safety violations, FDA officials who reviewed the inspectors’ reports did not properly classify all of them, the report said.

Officials responsible for 11 states said they did not classify some incidents as serious and in need of official action because they thought they were not allowed to, the report said.

Officials in another 11 states said that FDA was not always notified when actions were taken and therefore could not determine if the violations were properly addressed.

We’ve all heard tales and allegations of food safety graft, but public charges and convictions remain rare -- a testament to the commitment and integrity of the vast majority of public health types, who often are called upon to enforce Byzantine political edicts.

Officials said Wednesday two former health inspectors have been accused of accepting bribes in exchange for passing hundreds of restaurants on food safety exams.

In addition to bribery charges, Ajamu Stewart and Clifton Sanders face felony counts for falsifying public records, said District Attorney George Gascon and City Attorney Dennis Herrera. Stewart pleaded not guilty to the charges last week, and Sanders was scheduled to be arraigned later Wednesday.

City officials said Stewart, 54, and Sanders, 41, allegedly pocketed thousands of dollars by selling safety certifications to nearly 350 restaurants in San Francisco dating as far back as 2007.

Gascon said the former inspectors’ scheme showed total disregard for state laws and violated the public’s trust.

“We take public corruption very seriously,” Gascon said. “We want to send a very clear message to people who work for our government that they are held to a very high standard and if they violate that standard and trust, there will be consequences.”

Officials say the former inspectors for the health department’s Food Safety Program worked in tandem over an 18-month period and accepted bribes of between $100 and $200 from several hundred restaurant owners and employees to give passing grades on written food safety exams. The restaurants range from well-known chains to popular eateries offering ethnic fare.

Sometimes, the inspectors would administer the tests verbally and fill in the answers themselves. The exam included questions on the temperatures of hot or cold foods and the sanitization of food preparation areas, said Richard Lee, the department’s director of environmental health regulatory programs.

About 80 percent pass the test, Lee said.

The scheme surfaced after a restaurant employee told the city’s public health department in late 2008, officials said, leading to a probe by the city attorney’s office.

Both Stewart and Sanders face at least up to eight years in prison and fines up to $10,000 if convicted.

Restaurants and takeaways in Wales could be required by law to publicly display food hygiene ratings on their premises.

It would be the first compulsory "scores-on-the-doors" scheme in the UK, the Welsh government says.

Ministers want customers to get more details about where they eat or buy food and say this will raise standards.

The proposals follow E. coli outbreaks in Wales which led to calls for a tougher stance.

Karen Morrisroe (right), who became seriously ill after an E. coli outbreak linked to a fish and chip shop at Llay, Wrexham two years ago, told BBC Wales, "I'm all in favour of a mandatory system. I know it could put some people out of business but if this is done properly it will provide customers with better protection."

During the outbreak it emerged that the fish bar had been given a 0 out of 5 rating by council officials after an earlier food hygiene inspection.

Under the scheme, businesses will be rated with a score of between zero to five based on standards on how the food is prepared, cooked, cooled and stored, as well as the condition of the premises.

All food businesses, including supermarkets, will be required to display their score in a prominent position or face fines of up to £1,000. Ratings will also be available online.

A statement from the Welsh government said a mandatory scheme has been backed by Prof Hugh Pennington who chaired a public inquiry into the 2005 E.coli outbreak in south Wales.

About 30,000 businesses in Wales would be covered by the scheme which could be in operation by 2014.

Currently, more than 13,500 have been rated under a voluntary scheme operated by the Food Standards Agency (FSA), although it is estimated that only one in three display their rating.

The Regency Hotel in Dublin has had to cancel a number of Christmas events and suspend its food and beverage service after a suspected outbreak of norovirus linked to its catering services.

Manager John Glynn told the Irish Times he had received “between 50 and 100” calls from people who had dined there last week complaining of being ill afterwards.

“Last Thursday a number of people were in touch saying they had been at a function on the Wednesday night and were not well.

“On the Friday evening the HSE was in touch saying they had had calls, and they visited the hotel and took samples from all the menus, including ice and water, which was stored in fridges over the weekend, to be examined in their labs.”

He said all food and beverage operations in the hotel had been suspended since yesterday morning while all food and drink service areas were decontaminated, a process he said would take 48 hours.

“We have had to cancel two events, affecting about 500 people, which is a pity but the people are very grateful and understanding of the stance I have taken.”

After finding more than 30 live roaches in a beverage machine, a state inspector issued a temporary emergency closure order for a Jacksonville Burger King last week.

Gary Mills of the Florida Times quotes from the inspector’s report:

• 52 live roaches found at “several areas throughout establishment,” including 8 on a glue trap in a storage area, 2 underneath the hot bun holding unit at the sandwich make station, 9 behind the ice cream machine and 33 inside the ICEE beverage machine.

During the Friday, Dec. 9 re-inspection before the restaurant's re-opening, no violations were noted in the inspector's report.

With no further news on the raw-egg-in-mayonnaise salmonella outbreak at a Canberra cafe and bakery that has sickened 13, attention in the capital today turned to the owner of a Chinese restaurant who was convicted and fined $8000 after breaching the territory's food safety laws.

Health authorities shut down the Grand Court restaurant in October, 2010 for 11 days after finding grimy work surfaces and ''biological matter'' all over the cool-room floor.

But the ACT Magistrates Court heard owner Michelle Foo, 28, had worked hard to clean up the restaurant and had been allowed to reopen after it passed a health inspection.

Foo had pleaded guilty to four charges of failing to comply with food hygiene requirements and unsafe food handling.

Her defence lawyer told the court that the evidence against his client was indisputable but said Foo was very remorseful for the offences and had since turned things around at the eatery.

The court heard Foo had previously worked for Woolworths and had no experience of running a restaurant when she bought the Grand Court in August 2010.

The restaurant was old and inadequate and staff did not follow appropriate hygiene practices.

A health officer inspected the premises after a customer complained about a cockroach in a takeaway bag.

According to documents tendered in court, the inspection uncovered dirty work surfaces, greasy walls, dirty equipment and a lack of proper food-storage containers.

Authorities shut the restaurant down amid fears it was ''critically unhygienic''.

The Grand Court had since been cleaned up and had passed every health inspection for the past year.

Magistrate Maria Doogan said it was difficult to accept Foo's excuse that she was an inexperienced restaurateur, saying anyone who went into the restaurant business should know about hygiene standards.

In yet another example of prompt public alerts by UK health types, nine people were sickened with E. coli O157 in Plymouth in August and it’s now being made public (see E. coli O157 linked to leeks sickens 250 and kills 1 in UK; 8-month outbreak only now being made public).

A 3-month delay is, sortof, an improvement on an 8-month delay in public notification.

The Plymouth Herald reports this morning that environmental health officers and the Health Protection Agency (HPA) launched an inquiry after nine cases were confirmed in the city – in August.

It is believed to be the first reported outbreak of the E.coli O157 strain associated with the consumption of crab meat.

The investigation is continuing but there is a suspected link with an unapproved crab supplier.

Investigators revealed they took action after nine cases emerged in August. There have been no further reports of illness linked to crab since.

The South West HPA and Plymouth City Council said in a joint statement: "A wider investigation is still ongoing following on from the outbreak, so we are not in a position to give full details but we suspect a link to an unapproved crab supplier.

"Environmental health officers from the council acted swiftly to identify crab meat as a possible source and removed all potentially affected crab meat from food establishments as a precautionary measure.

"The team worked closely with the SW (North) Health Protection Unit to investigate the cases and ensure that GPs in Plymouth and beyond were aware of the issue, if anyone presented with symptoms."

The team also alerted food outlets in the city about the importance of only buying food or ingredients from approved or registered suppliers.

A study into the outbreak showed a 'statistically significant' association between cases and the consumption of crab meat away from home.