Abstract

Two months after a senior health official told the Canberra Times that Canberrans must not be told which of the city's restaurants were deemed too unhygienic to serve food, because naming them would undermine the rule of law, Canberra wants to introduce a name-and-shame program for restaurant inspection disclosure.

I listened to a lot of Howard Stern when I was a grad student. For a couple of years, I drove all around southern Ontario visiting vegetable greenhouses, talking to farmers about food safety practices and taking samples for microbiological testing. The early mornings and distance between farms was made easier by listening to the King of All Media.

A look back at the tainted-peanut butter salmonella outbreak of 2008-2009 is giving scientists valuable lessons on how to minimize deadly onslaughts of foodborne illness in the future. That outbreak, which caused 714 illnesses and nine deaths across 46 states, was linked to infection with Salmonella Typhimurium from tainted peanut butter and peanut butter paste products.

Obstetrician and gynaecologist Dr Sherene Kalloo is hoping that the new chairman of the Environmental Management Authority (EMA) Kelvin Ramnath could implement measures to regulate the levels of chemicals and toxins in food to protect the health of pregnant women.

Like a bad 90s sitcom, “Milwaukee or bust” should have been emblazoned on matching shirts as fellow grad student, Allison, and I attempted to get to the state where 2.6 billion pounds of cheese are produced each year. It also happened to be the location of our first International Association of Food Protection meeting.

I am a conversation enthusiast. I often search for opportunities to meet new people and hear their stories. The two people I sat next to on the plane home from the International Association of Food Protection annual meeting were no exception. Dr. Bernadette Franco of University of Sao Paulo and Dr.

The International Association for Food Protection, an organization of over 3000 food safety professionals, celebrated its hundredth birthday in Milwaukee, WI a couple of weeks ago and I was there to partake in the festivities. Having pretty well everyone in the food safety world together in one spot is a great way to catch up on all things food safety and reconnect with old friends.

More than three months after a higher-than-usual occurrence of hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS) in Germany provided the first clues, the details of the deadliest Escherichia coli outbreak in modern history are well known.