Miami, FL -- A limited number of Mega Pops™ brand lollipops may contain traces of foreign particles, and as a precautionary measure, manufacturer Colombina S.A. is asking customers to return these lollipops to their retailer and instructing retailers to recall the product voluntarily. Colombina believes the product presents no health risk.

On Aug. 17, 2008, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) and Maple Leaf Foods, Inc. finally got around to telling Canadians they should avoid serving or consuming certain brands of deli meat as the products could be contaminated with L. monocytogenes. In the end, 23 deaths and 57 cases of listeriosis were linked to contaminated cold-cuts made by Maple Leaf.

While handwashing with soap has been shown to cut down on fatal diarrhoeal diseases, soap and water alone cannot stop the spread of bacteria if hands are not properly dried, according to recent research from the UK. People think that after washing with soap and water, the job is finished. But handwashing does not sterilise, it only sanitises.

To the Editor: Fresh produce increasingly has been implicated in viral disease outbreaks (1). In some instances, lettuce was contaminated before wholesale distribution (1). Enteric viruses can be introduced in the field if produce is exposed to human waste. Processed and packaged produce can be contaminated if equipment or wash water is not effectively sanitized.

WASHINGTON -- Klement Sausage Company, Inc., a Milwaukee, Wisc., establishment, is recalling approximately 2,740 pounds of beef stick products that may contain foreign materials, the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) announced today. The products subject to recall include:

Why are production standards marketed in grocery stores, but microbiological safety isn’t? As reported by William Neuman of the New York Times, “shoppers in the supermarket today can buy chicken free of nearly everything but adjectives. It comes free-range, cage-free, antibiotic-free, raised on vegetarian feed, organic, even air-chilled.

At least seven of the nine cases of salmonella reported at Clearview High School might be part of a larger bacterial outbreak, according to a Lorain County Health Department official. Or maybe not.

Reports presented at the Infectious Diseases Society of America's (IDSA's) annual conference today revealed that contaminated crayfish can cause severe illness and looked at the risk of contracting Salmonella infections from pet frogs, among other findings.

Abstract