The most astute point comes at the end of an AP wire story this morning about how various states are letting anyone sell anything food-wise.

Ken Ruegsegger of New Glarus, Wis., bottles about 20 kinds of pickled fruits and vegetables such as peppers and carrots. He already invested in a commercial kitchen that meets licensing requirements and is charging $4 to $7 for his products to try to make back the money.

Unlicensed competitors can now make the same product in uninspected kitchens and sell it for half the price, he said.

"That could cost me thousands of dollars per year," he said. "And I'm inspected four times a year. These people could be making it in their kitchens with cats walking around. It's not fair."

Why should people who play by the rules suddenly be penalized by letting anyone who makes some claim to local, natural or organic sell whatever they want for political expediency.

The story says that at Wisconsin farmers markets, vendors no longer need licenses to sell pickles, jams and other canned foods, while small farmers in Maine can sell slaughtered chickens without worrying about inspections.

Federal and state laws require that most food sold to the public be made in licensed facilities open to government inspectors. But as more people become interested in buying local food, a few states have created exemptions for amateur chefs who sell homemade goods at farmers markets and on small farms.

Robert Harrington, director of the Casper-Natrona County Health Department in Casper, Wyo., said,

"The two major failures in food production are temperature control and personal hygiene. If someone says they shouldn't have to follow regulations because they're making food in their home, I'd say, 'Why is your home so safe that it doesn't need that level of oversight and control?"

I’ll still go to the biggest supermarket I can find. And when I do shop at the market, vendors can expect a lot of microbiologically-based questions.
 

I didn’t even come up with that headline. Those science journal writers are developing a sense of humor.

Eriksen et al. write in Eurosurveillance today:

Food poisoning outbreaks caused by Clostridium perfringens enterotoxin occur occasionally in Europe but have become less common in recent years. This paper presents the microbiological and epidemiological results of a large C. perfringens outbreak occurring simultaneously at two weddings that used the same caterer.

The outbreak involved several London locations and required coordination across multiple agencies. A case-control study (n=134) was carried out to analyze possible associations between the food consumed and becoming ill. Food, environmental and stool samples were tested for common causative agents, including enterotoxigenic C. perfringens. The clinical presentation and the epidemiological findings were compatible with C. perfringens food poisoning and C. perfringens enterotoxin was detected in stool samples from two cases.

The case-control study found statistically significant associations between becoming ill and eating either a specific chicken or lamb dish prepared by the same food handler of the implicated catering company. A rapid outbreak investigation with preliminary real-time results and the successful collaboration between the agencies and the caterer led to timely identification and rectification of the failures in the food handling practices.

In the discussion, the authors write,

A blast chiller is normally used for cooling large quantities of food quickly by this particular caterer; however it was not being used appropriately at the time of the incident. Temperature control of foods during preparation, cooling, transportation and reheating was poor. Furthermore, the vans used for food transport had no refrigeration and these events took place in July. The evidence of insufficient hygiene, cooling and reheating at the catering company during transport and at both venues (according to environmental health department inspections) are in keeping with a toxin-related gastroenteritis outbreak, including C. perfringens.
 

Part of the premise in the movie, Wedding Crashers, besides the potential for a partner, was the great food. How much could Vince Vaughan eat? Did anyone want to find out? Then, the Owen Wilson character hits bottom and starts crashing funerals to hit on women in emotional distress, or something like that.

Now news from Wellington, New Zealand, where a man dubbed the ‘grim eater’ has been banned from funerals after attending up to four ceremonies a week and even taking home leftovers in a doggy bag.

Danny Langstraat, a director of Harbour City Funeral Home in Wellington, said,

"He was showing up to funeral after funeral and, without a doubt, he didn't know the deceased. We saw him three or four times a week. Certainly, he had a backpack with some Tupperware containers so, when people weren't looking, he was stocking up.”
 

Getting sick and dying while eating food in a hospital sorta sucks. So does going to a funeral and picking up norovirus.

New Zealand health authorities are investigating an outbreak of suspected norovirus linked to food after more than 40 people fell ill following an April 28 funeral and reception for a leading Auckland musician.

A spokeswoman for the Auckland Regional Public Health Service said yesterday that it was notified on May 3 that some people who had attended the function had become sick with gastro-intestinal symptoms such as vomiting and diarrhea.

The public health service spokeswoman said the food supplied at the post-funeral function, which included sandwiches and deli items, was suspected to be the source of the infection.

The caterer, who did not wish to be named, said she supplied around three funerals a week.

She said food poisoning had not been established yet in the case of the funeral, and the woman who made the sandwiches that day has a certificate in food handling.

"Everything was bought fresh on the day."

Fresh does not mean safe.