One of the individuals hospitalized following an E. coli outbreak at Folklorama two years ago is suing the organization and the Russian Pavilion.

Trudy Andrew, 52, of Oakbank, is seeking damages for lost wages and pain and suffering she endured after eating contaminated food at the Russian Pavilion.

"If I hadn't gone to the hospital when I did, I wouldn't have made it," Andrew told the Winnipeg Free Press. "I ended up seriously ill and in hospital."

Andrew is suing Folklorama Inc., the Folk Arts Council of Winnipeg Inc., the umbrella organization that oversees the popular two-week Folklorama festival and the Russian Pavilion, which health authorities identified as the source of the outbreak.

There were 40 reported cases of E. coli between Aug. 9 and Aug. 30, 2010; 34 of those cases were individuals who ate at the pavilion, and three others were children at a daycare who were infected by a person who visited the pavilion and spread the germ.

Seventeen people went to emergency and five individuals were hospitalized, including a two-year-old boy who suffered acute renal failure and was put on dialysis in pediatric intensive care.

The Winnipeg Regional Health Authority concluded a locally made juice, known as kompot, was the source of the outbreak, speculating the juice had somehow come into contact with contaminated ground beef.

Health inspectors had found deficiencies in the pavilion's kitchen on Aug. 1, the first day the venue opened, including improperly stored raw hamburger meat and a fridge with an operating temperature that was deemed too high.

Sofia Barklon, co-ordinator of the Russian Pavilion, maintains the pavilion was not the source of the outbreak -- the position it took two years ago, despite the findings of the WRHA.

Debra Zoerb, executive director of Folklorama, said she would not comment on the legal action but said it was the only one stemming from the E. Coli outbreak two years ago.

South Heartland District Health Department along with the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services is investigating an outbreak of salmonellosis associated with the Blue Hill Care Center in Webster County. To date there have been 17 confirmed cases and 2 probable or suspected cases reported in residents, staff or visitors. Four residents were temporarily hospitalized after showing symptoms. A visitor is still hospitalized. Blue Hill Care Center is cooperating fully with the investigation to help identify the source and eradicate the issue.

Anyone experiencing symptoms consistent with Salmonella should contact their doctor for recommendations on testing and treatment. For further information or to report suspected cases, contact South Heartland District Health Department toll free at 1-877-238-7595.

That’s my pie.

The Southland Times reports a drunk Australian man was arrested for disorderly behavior after he went into a Queenstown bakery and ate another customer's pie.

The man, 33, who refused to give police his details, was taken to the police station, where he vomited on arrival.

Sergeant Mark Gill said considering the amount of tourists that came through Queenstown at this time of the year, the number of drunk-related incidents sounded a bit worse than it was.

Gill said there was always going to be these sorts of problems, but Australians "as a rule" were generally no worse than New Zealanders or anyone else.

The Bella Bottega Sushi Land in Washington State, part of a chain of restaurants that serve sushi on conveyor belts in Oregon and Washington, was closed Thursday and it was apparently worse than the malfunctioning refrigerator, as originally reported.

Katie Ross, a spokesperson from the King County Department of Health told the Redmond Patch the investigation into the conveyor-belt style sushi restaurant was prompted by complaints of foodborne illness that were reported by parties not affiliated with Sushi Land.

“As a result our environmental health divison did an investigation...and the refrigerator was not the only issue,” Ross said. For example, she said, an employee was observed not washing his hands properly.

In the long-running series of fresh herbs as vectors for dangerous microorganisms, Fresco Green Farms Inc. of Winchester, Calif. is recalling 1,643 cases of cilantro harvested from July 18th 2012 to July 27th 2012, because it has the potential to be contaminated with Salmonella.

The cilantro was on store shelves in California and Minnesota beginning July 19, 2012 and likely sold or removed from sale before August 6, 2012. There have been no illnesses reported. The cilantro is bunched and tied together with a brown rubber band. Each bunch has the following dimensions; 10 inches of length and 1 ¼ width. The individual bunches have no identifying labels or lot numbers. They were distributed in shipping cases labeled “Fresco Green Farms Inc., Hemet, CA. Produce of USA cilantro 2.5dz “ Consumers who may have purchased the cilantro should contact the store where hey purchased it to determine whether the cilantro was included in the recall.

The recall was as the result of a routine sampling program by the USDA, which revealed that the cilantro harvested from July 18th to July 27th has the potential to be contaminated with Salmonella.

Gonzalo Erdozain writes:

Yes, dogs can get salmonellosis, but I won’t go there because Dr. Weese in Guelph already did. But on Thurs., the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) passed a proposed policy to recommend pet owners avoiding feeding their pets raw or undercooked diets.

There will be hate mail.

“The AVMA discourages the feeding to cats and dogs of any animal-source protein that has not first been subjected to a process to eliminate pathogens because of the risk of illness to cats and dogs as well as humans. Cooking or pasteurization through the application of heat until the protein reaches an internal temperature adequate to destroy pathogenic organisms has been the traditional method used to eliminate pathogens in animal-source protein, although the AVMA recognizes that newer technologies and other methods such as irradiation are constantly being developed and implemented.”

I like this statement for many reasons. It is not forcing anybody to stop feeding raw diets, it discourages people from doing so. The reason? It’s a “risk for pets and humans.” As a veterinarian-to-be, I’m well aware that we are the first line of defense when it comes to zoonotic disease transmission. Forget all the stories about how your dog does much better on raw than dry, or how fido went from being blind and bald to seeing and hairy when you switched to raw (ok, made that one up, but just go to the AVMA’s web site and you’ll see the types of responses we’ll have to deal with.

My major concern is to keep my family, dog, patients and patients’ owners healthy.

Just as with human food, raw is rarely a good idea. You can get your pets yourself, and your family sick (via direct feeding or cross-contamination). So, even if you are totally against the evil man, and don’t want to feed your dog specially formulated dry food, you may want to cook it. The same food safety guidelines apply for humans and pets.

Eight months after rotting bear meat was discovered in a freezer at the Mandarin Palace Restaurant in Fredericton, New Brunswick (that’s in Canada), the owner has been fined $400 in court.

CBC News reports that Le Binh Tina Tu, 61, who owns the Mandarin Palace, pleaded guilty to charges after the bear meat was discovered in a cooler at the Chinese restaurant during a routine inspection by the Department of Health on Dec. 20, 2011.

An inspection record posted on the government's website on Dec. 21 said, "Food must be purchased from an approved source. Wild animals are not approved."

In the world of food safety risks botulism ranks high - while the probability of illness is low, the consequences are pretty dire. Paralysis (often leading to a ventilator) and potentially months of recovery.

Or death.

In November 2011, three kids from the same Scottish family became ill with botulism after eating from a jar of commercially-produced korma sauce. Health Protection Scotland released their report on the outbreak with no concrete answers as to what led to the illnesses: in-home contamination was unlikely, no other illnesses were linked to the product and the processing facility/supply chain controls checked out.

Executive summary of the report is below:

An outbreak of food-borne botulism in Scotland, November 2011

Health Protection Scotland

On Tuesday 8 November 2011, a 5 year old boy was admitted to Forth Valley Royal Hospital (FVRH), NHS Forth Valley (FV) with a history of transient double vision commencing on Monday 7 November, followed by a sore mouth and lower limb weakness. 

On Wednesday 9 November, after a deterioration in his condition he was ventilated and transferred to the Royal  Hospital for Sick Children (RHSC) Yorkhill.  At the time of his transfer the most likely diagnosis was thought to be Guillain-Barré syndrome.

Also on Wednesday 9 November, the boy’s 7 year old sister was admitted to FVRH with similar symptoms and the same date of onset.  Botulism was now considered a possible though unlikely diagnosis.  Later that evening the 7 year old sister was also transferred to RHSC, and ventilated.  By late evening the suspicion of the diagnosis of botulism was sufficiently strong to warrant the obtaining of trivalent botulinum antitoxin which was administered to both children, after which their condition stabilized.

At around 11pm, RHSC informed the Health Protection Agency (HPA) as well as NHS Greater Glasgow  and Clyde (GG&C) Consultant in Public Health Medicine (CPHM) who undertook an interview with the parents of the affected children.  HPA informed Health  Protection Scotland (HPS) who again informed NHS GG&C and NHS FV HPTs.

On the morning of Thursday 10  November, NHS FV HPT convened a Problem Assessment Group (PAG).   On the afternoon of Thursday 10 November, NHS FV HPT and Stirling Council (SC) Environmental Health Officers (EHOs) undertook an in-depth interview with the father of the children and collected food related specimens.

On Friday 11 November the HPA alerted the competent public health authorities throughout the European Union (EU) via the Early Warning and Response System (EWRS).

On Sunday 13 November, following  epidemiological,  environmental, microbiological and toxicological investigations, a jar of commercially produced korma sauce was identified as the vehicle of intoxication and the UK Food Standards Agency (FSA) took immediate action to withdraw the potentially affected batch from the  supply chain and retail market and informed the European Commission (EC) via the Rapid Alert System for Food and Feed (RASFF).  The FSA also alerted  the public to the potential risks from consumption of sauce from jars of korma sauce from the same batch.

HPS alerted clinicians in Scotland to the incident, reminding them of the early signs and symptoms of botulism.

Five days later, on Monday 14 November 2011, a third (female) sibling aged 3.5 years became unwell and  deteriorated over the course of the following day, choking whilst trying to swallow liquids.  This child was admitted to RHSC on Wednesday 16 November with a diagnosis of suspected botulism. 

SC EHOs’ detailed inspection and history-taking identified no evidence that the jar of korma sauce had been contaminated in the family’s home.  Despite the FSA’s intensive investigations at the production facility and the product’s supply chain, no faults were identified  to explain the contamination.  No evidence suggested that any jar, other than the one purchased by the affected family, had been contaminated.

The incident was closed at an Incident Management Team (IMT) meeting on Tuesday 6 December 2011.  All three children have recovered.

Click here for the report.

Mint was becoming my new favorite herb. Got a plant growing out back and, even though bartenders complain, I’ve been making the occasional mojito.

But birds, animals and skinks all have to crap somewhere – and herbs are quite vulnerable to microbial contamination.

Grand Foods has recalled Mint Tr Kuru Nane (Tr) – dried mint from Grand Foods retail outlet in Campbellfield, Victoria due to Salmonella contamination. Food products contaminated with Salmonella may cause illness if consumed.

Yes, Amy's drinking some rum drink out of a coconut, with mint. Sorenne is drinking juice.