Leading lights of Britain’s food safety junta have issued a call for research into norovirus, specifically how the virus continues to survive when it comes into contact with the surfaces that food is prepared upon or with food itself.

They should have just given the money to LeeAnn.

As in LeeAnn Jaykus of North Carolina State University, who was one of the authors of a paper in this month’s issue of my favorite bath time reading, Journal of Food Protection. The authors write:

“Foods become contaminated with HuNoV by direct contact with fecal matter on the hands of food workers who have not practiced adequate personal hygiene and by transfer of virus via contact with contaminated surfaces. Intuitively, this makes sense, as HuNoV are shed in high numbers in the feces and vomitus of infected individuals, and shedding can precede illness, occur in asymptomatic individuals, and/or be prolonged for days to weeks after symptom resolution.

Our results confirm that HuNoV can persist on commonly used food contact surfaces and on a model food for long periods, as evaluated by the only reliable method to detect these viruses, RT-qPCR. This our work confirms that moisture, pressure, and recipient surface were key factors influencing transferability (reviewed in (24) ). For example, transfer of HuNoV and MNV-1 from stainless steel surfaces to lettuce was more efficient when the virus inoculum was still wet (time 0), an observation consistent with previous studies using FCV (8) and rotavirus.

Persistence and transferability of Noroviruses on and between common surfaces and foods
02.may.12
Journal of Food Protection®, Volume 75, Number 5, May 2012 , pp. 927-935(9)
Escudero, B.I.; Rawsthorne, H.; Gensel, C.; Jaykus, L.A.
http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/iafp/jfp/2012/00000075/00000005/art00016
Abstract:
Human noroviruses (HuNoV) are the leading cause of foodborne disease, and poor personal hygiene practices of infected workers are the most common mode of contamination. The purpose of this study was to characterize the persistence and transferability of representative noroviruses Norwalk virus (NV), Snow Mountain virus (SMV), and murine norovirus 1 (MNV-1) on and between solid surfaces and foods. Changes in virus concentration on artificially inoculated solid surfaces (stainless steel, ceramic, and Formica) or lettuce were monitored over a period of 14 to 42 days. Virus transfer was evaluated from donor (solid surface) to recipient (food, e.g., lettuce and sliced turkey deli meat) for up to 2 h postinoculation. Viruses were recovered by elution and titered with reverse transcription quantitative PCR (RT-qPCR) and/or infectivity assay, as appropriate. Based on RTqPCR, the concentration of NV and SMV on surfaces dropped gradually over time, with an average reduction of 1.5 to 2.0 and 1.8 to 2.3 log, respectively, after 42 days, with no statistically significant differences by surface. When inoculated onto lettuce stored for 2 weeks at 4°C and room temperature, the titers of NV and SMV dropped by approximately 1.0 and 1.2 to 1.8 log, respectively. Comparatively, the RT-qPCR signal associated with purified HuNoV RNA placed on the same surfaces was more rapidly lost to degradation. Transfer efficiency ranged from 0 to 26 % for lettuce and from 55 to 95 % for sliced turkey deli meat, with statistically significant differences (P ≤ 0.05) in transferability as a function of contact pressure (100 and 1,000 g/9 cm2) and inoculum drying time. When similar experiments were done with MNV-1, infectious virus failed to be detected on solid surfaces after storage day 21, although the virus did persist on lettuce. This study provides much needed quantitative data for use in risk assessment efforts intended to characterize the transmission of HuNoV during food preparation and handling.

They will stay for years, number up to 2500, possibly have their own aircraft and artillery, train with the Aboriginal-dominated Norforce unit and drop in to help in Asia-Pacific disaster zones alongside Australia's Diggers.

But whatever you do, don't call the Marine Rotational Force in Darwin, Australia, part of a U.S. base.

''No, no again,'' said Lieutenant-Colonel AnDroy Senegar when pressed on how much his operation looked like the forerunner of an official base.

''We will build no infrastructure. We will subsist on Australian food. We will be part of the community. It will be a partnership. We will not be intrusive.''

No worries, here’s our dinner from a couple of days ago: Moreton Bay sand crabs with stuffed shells. Whatever the Marines eat, there will be choices aplenty.

When the Marines arrived in early April for the first of their six-month rotations, then federal Defence Minister, Stephen Smith, justified their presence by saying: ''The world is moving in our direction. It is moving to the Asia-Pacific.

''It is not just the rise of China, it is the rise of China, the rise of India, the rise of the ASEAN economies combined, the emergence of Indonesia, not just as a regional influence but as a global influence,'' he said at a welcoming ceremony in Darwin.

An Oregon City man who told a government hotline last summer his mother had been harmed by bottled water has pleaded guilty to making a false report of consumer product tampering, a federal crime that carries a potential five-year prison term.

He may have been stoned.

The Oregonian reports Curtis A. Purdy, 34 (right, exactly as shown), acknowledged in court papers that he lied last summer to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's Consumer Complaint Line about how his mother came to be injured after drinking a bottle of Crystal Geyser water.

Purdy reported to the FDA hotline on Sept. 1 that the water, purchased from an Albertson's grocery, had caused burns to his mom's mouth, throat and stomach and that she had vomited and suffered diarrhea, according to a criminal complaint affidavit.

He later told investigators that he had put in the bottle some rubbing alcohol, which he kept around to clean his marijuana pipes. His memory of the incident was hazy, according to the complaint, because he was undergoing opiate withdrawal.

“There's an ick factor to almost all food."

That was my short-take on the pink slime smearfest, which has now dragged retailers, along with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, into the murky morass where public opinion intersects with scientific evidence.

This is nothing new.

Me, I find E. coli and salmonella in raw sprouts icky.

Other people find ammonium hydroxide, or pink slime, icky. People may soon discover they find citric acid icky because that’s what Cargill uses to yield finely textured beef and reduce the pathogen load.

It’s pink, it’s meat, it’s lean finely textured beef – LFTB yo – versus pink slime in public opinion, and processors, retailers and government spokesthingies are acting like they’ve never encountered a food-related, or any risk-related issue where public opinion is different from scientific advice.

It’s theatre, like a Mike Daisey production.

Mike Hughlett of the Minneapolis Star Tribune writes today that Supervalu Inc., one of the nation's largest grocery chains, will no longer sell hamburger containing an ammonia-treated beef filler dubbed "pink slime" by some food critics and a growing chorus of consumers.

The Eden Prairie-based company, which owns local supermarket leader Cub Foods, on Wednesday joined several fast-food chains and other major grocery operators in removing the controversial beef filler from hamburger sold in its outlets.

"This decision was due to ongoing customer concerns about these products," said Mike Siemienas, a Supervalu spokesman.

While ammonia-treated hamburger filler has gotten most of the popular attention, Supervalu also said its ban on so-called "finely textured beef" includes meat treated with citric acid, which is made by Minnetonka-based Cargill Inc.

California-based Safeway Inc., another national grocery chain, also Wednesday said it nixed sales of both ammonia-treated and citric acid-treated ground beef fillers. Cargill spokesman Mike Martin acknowledged that some of its grocery industry customers have eliminated finely textured beef.

"There have been customers who have contacted us because they have been contacted by consumers who are interested and concerned," Martin said.

Did Safeway and Supervalu stores get eggs from those nasty DeCoster farms in Iowa that sickened some 2,000 people with salmonella in 2010. Did they rely on crappy food safety audits to make their decision. If they are so concerned about consumer concerns, why won’t they provide information on egg suppliers? Or any other food?

Choice is a good thing. I’m all for restaurant inspection disclosure, providing information on genetically-engineered foods (we did it 12 years ago), knowing where food comes from and how it’s produced.

But I want to choose safe food. Who defines safety or GE or any other snappy dinner-table slogan drop? Removing pink slime hamburgers reduces my choice to buy microbiologically safe food.

USDA and the companies that previously outlawed pink slime acted expediently to manage a public-relations event. But they unwillingly undercut other efforts to provide safe, sustainable food.

What is USDA going to do about school lunch purchases containing genetically-engineered ingredients, hormones, antibiotics, and a whole slew of politically-loaded ingredients or production practices?

If consumers want to become food connoisseurs and safety experts, more power to them. I view my job, and the job of farmers, processors, distributors and retailers, regardless of political leanings, to make evidence-based information available and let people decide.

Market microbial food safety and hold producers and processors – conventional, organic or otherwise – to a standard of honesty. Be honest with consumers and disclose what’s in any food; if restaurant inspection results can be displayed on a placard via a QR code read by smartphones when someone goes out for a meal, why not at the grocery store? Or the school lunch? For any food, link to websites detailing how the food was produced, processed and safely handled, or whatever becomes the next theatrical production – or be held hostage.