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BARFBLOG WEEKLY - JULY 1, 2017 (CANADA-HEAVY EDITION)
PM Trudeau manscaping? A poutine donut? Yes and happy Canada Day
Posted by Doug Powell on 06/28/2017 from Barfblog
Saturday, July 1, 2017, is the 150th anniversary of Canada’s founding as a nation.
The N.Y. Times says in a series of vignettes, it is a day celebrated by newcomers seeking economic opportunity or refuge from war, immigrants of several generations and descendants of arrivals from more than a hundred years ago. For aboriginal peoples, who remain subjected to discriminatory policies, the anniversary is not one to celebrate.
USA Today reports that Tim Hortons will celebrate Canada’s 150th birthday by offering poutine doughnut at five of its restaurants. A poutine doughnut is one the chain's Honey Dip Donuts topped with potato wedges, gravy and cheese curds.
And TMZ reports Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau posed for the cover of Delta Airlines Sky Mag ... the July issue. The shot is perfectly framed ... making his crotch the centerpiece.
This is the tragedy that Canada has become: A hot leader with the media sense and policy sense of a moose, by posing for Delta.
No one flies Delta, unless they have to.
At least 20 sick with Cyclospora in Canada
Posted by Doug Powell on 06/30/2017 from Barfblog
Health-types in Canada are investigating locally acquired Cyclospora infections in two provinces. The source of the outbreak has not been identified. Previous outbreaks in Canada and the United States (US) have been linked to imported fresh produce. The investigation is ongoing.
In Canada, a total of 20 cases have been reported in two provinces: British Columbia (5) and Ontario (15). Individuals became sick between May and early June of this year. The majority of cases (60%) are male, with an average age of 53 years. The investigation into the source of the outbreak is ongoing. To date, no multi-jurisdictional outbreaks of Cyclospora have been linked to produce grown in Canada.
The outbreak investigation is active and the public health notice will be updated on a regular basis as the investigation evolves.
People living or travelling in tropical or subtropical regions of the world who eat fresh produce or drink untreated water may be at increased risk for infection because the parasite is found in some of these regions.
7 sick: Outbreak of Salmonella infections linked to raw frozen breaded chicken thingies in Canada, again
Posted by Doug Powell on 06/27/2017 from Barfblog
The Public Health Agency of Canada is collaborating with lotsa other bureau-types to investigate an outbreak of Salmonella Enteritidis infections in four provinces with cases of human illness linked to frozen raw breaded chicken products.
PHAC feels compelled to tell Canadians the risk is low and illnesses can be avoided if safe food handling, preparation and cooking practices are followed when preparing these types of food products. This outbreak is a reminder that frozen raw breaded chicken products contain raw poultry and should be handled and prepared no differently from other raw poultry products.
It’s the just-cook-it stance, which doesn’t account for cross-contamination, and utterly fails to account for the BS marketing that companies use to market this shit (see video below, when we had no idea how to shoot video).
Currently, there are seven cases of Salmonella illness in four provinces: British Columbia (1), Alberta (4), Ontario (1) and New Brunswick (1). Two people have been hospitalized. No deaths have been reported. Individuals became sick between April and May of this year. The majority of cases (71%) are male. The average age of cases is 26 years.
It’s the end of June. How much time is needed to go public with an identifiable foodborne risk? And no company identified? A public health disgrace.
Direct video observation of adults and tweens cooking raw frozen chicken thingies (not the real title)
01.nov.09
British Food Journal, Vol 111, Issue 9, p 915-929
Sarah DeDonder, Casey J. Jacob, Brae V. Surgeoner, Benjamin Chapman, Randall Phebus, Douglas A. Powell
http://www.emeraldinsight.com/Insight/viewContentItem.do;jsessionid=6146E6AFABCC349C376B7E55A3866D4A?contentType=Article&contentId=1811820
Abstract:
Purpose – The purpose of the present study was to observe the preparation practices of both adult and young consumers using frozen, uncooked, breaded chicken products, which were previously involved in outbreaks linked to consumer mishandling. The study also sought to observe behaviors of adolescents as home food preparers. Finally, the study aimed to compare food handler behaviors with those prescribed on product labels.
Design/methodology/approach – The study sought, through video observation and self-report surveys, to determine if differences exist between consumers’ intent and actual behavior.
Findings – A survey study of consumer reactions to safe food-handling labels on raw meat and poultry products suggested that instructions for safe handling found on labels had only limited influence on consumer practices. The labels studied by these researchers were found on the packaging of chicken products examined in the current study alongside step-by-step cooking instructions. Observational techniques, as mentioned above, provide a different perception of consumer behaviors.
Originality/value – This paper finds areas that have not been studied in previous observational research and is an excellent addition to existing literature.
British Columbia oysters and norovirus: Another fairytale, as hundreds of cases in months with an “r”
Posted by Doug Powell on 06/30/2017 from Barfblog
Researchers at the BC Centre for Disease Control report in the British Medical Journal that between November 2016 and March 2017 more than 400 individuals across Canada developed norovirus gastroenteritis associated with the consumption of BC oysters. Over 100 cases occurred mid-November in participants at a Tofino oyster festival. Six cases occurred in persons attending a December oyster barbecue in Victoria. By March over 300 additional cases of norovirus linked to cultivated BC oysters harvested from multiple sites on both the east and west coasts of Vancouver Island were identified in BC, Alberta, and Ontario consumers.
Norovirus is a highly infectious cause of gastroenteritis typically spread from person to person and is associated with regular community outbreaks in schools, hospitals, day cares, and care facilities. Foodborne outbreaks of norovirus are often linked to ill food handlers. In this recent outbreak, oysters were contaminated in the marine environment where they were farmed. The trace-back of oysters consumed by infected individuals led to the closure of 13 geographically dispersed marine farms in BC and to extensive public outreach.
Genotypic analysis of norovirus isolated from the cases included several variants of genogroup I (GI) early in the outbreak and both genogroups GI and GII later in the outbreak.
Both GI and GII norovirus were detected in oysters from shellfish farms. This suggests that oysters bind and act as a reservoir for community outbreak strains and disseminate those strains to consumers.[1]
Although sewage is often the cause of oyster contamination it remains unclear whether one or many sewage sources contributed to the contamination of shellfish farms. The 2016–17 outbreak was preceded by a wet fall and accompanied an unseasonably cold winter. Wet, cold, and dark winters enhance norovirus survival, allowing for longer retention in ocean sediments and in oysters.[2,3] The infective dose of norovirus is estimated as few as 18 particles.[2] Given the low infective dose and the viability of norovirus in cold water, we postulate that sewage spread by ocean currents may have contaminated geographically dispersed farms. Among potential sources under investigation are sewer overflows, metropolitan and local wastewater treatment plants, municipal raw sewage discharge, and commercial fishing vessels. The BCCDC is leading a collaborative group reviewing pollution sources discharging to BC marine environments that may have contaminated BC oysters.
In this outbreak, both raw and cooked oysters led to illness; oysters were likely insufficiently cooked to inactivate norovirus. In addition to norovirus, pathogens like Vibrio sp., Salmonella sp., and hepatitis A can be transmitted to oyster consumers; cooking oysters to an internal temperature of 90 °C for at least 90 seconds will reduce this risk. The “rule” that shellfish is safe to eat in months with an “r” (September to April) is false. First, bacteria and viruses persist in cold seawater. Second, marine biotoxins (saxitoxin and domoic acid that cause paralytic and amnesic shellfish poisoning) occur year round.
Physicians and laboratories play an important role in controlling foodborne disease. In this outbreak, trace-back of oysters linked to cases was used to close shellfish farms. If you see patients with acute gastroenteritis who recently consumed shellfish, inform your local public health office and submit stool samples for testing.[4]
BC oysters and norovirus: Hundreds of cases in months with an “r”
BCMJ, Vol. 59, No. 6, July, August 2017, page(s) 326,327
BC Centre for Disease Control
Lorraine McIntyre, MSc, Eleni Galanis, MD, MPH, FRCPC, Natalie Prystajecky, PhD, Tom Kosatsky, MD
http://www.bcmj.org/bc-centre-disease-control/bc-oysters-and-norovirus-hundreds-cases-months-%E2%80%9Cr%E2%80%9D
UK woman embraces life after Campylobacter infection forces her to wear two stoma bags
Posted by Doug Powell on 06/30/2017 from Barfblog
Rachel Jury, 30, is determined to show how users can still live life to the full despite the two stoma bags she is forced to wear after food poisoning from cooked chicken nine years ago triggered a long-term health condition.
Tara Russell of the Daily Echo reports Jury’s rare condition, autonomic neuropathy, has left her bowel and bladder both failing and she has endured years of ill health including frequent bouts of sepsis and even cardiac arrest as a result.
However she is grateful to the two bags for saving her life – a urostomy bag for diverting urine from the body and an ileostomy bag for faeces nicknamed Squirt and Bob. Now she has launched a social media campaign calling on others to share pictures proudly flaunting their bags to reduce taboos and stigma.
Rachel, from Boscombe, who has created a poster of the pictures, said: “We have bravely bared all to raise awareness and knowledge of stoma bags but especially urostomies because there is a lack of awareness and knowledge among the general public and medical professions about them. We are often the forgotten group of the stoma family.
“We want to show you can still live a life and love your body. I want to help others celebrate their bodies no matter what they look like.
“We are beautiful, we are brave, we are warriors, we are survivors of our diseases.”
The former radiotherapy student believes a bad case of food poisoning may have triggered her condition nine years ago.
She explained: “I contracted campylobacteriosis from already cooked chicken purchased in a well-known supermarket chain.
“Little did I know then that this moment would be the catalyst that triggered a chain reaction of multiple organ systems failing. From that day onwards my life would never be the same again.
“Having a stoma bag can cause huge struggles with body image and they can be a taboo. I used to hide under dark baggy clothes but I realised they are something to be proud of, not ashamed of. They are part of us though and we wouldn’t be here without our bags.
“I feel like I’ve been through a lot but I feel I want to turn the negative into something positive.
“I am proud of the body that has kept me alive and I want to urge others to not be ashamed.
“I live one day at a time. I don’t know how long I have but I will live each day to the maximum and if I help one person I will have done my job.”
For information go to Rachel's blog rocking2stomas.co.uk
There was a lot of Salmonella in peppers in 2016; some of it led to 36 illnesses
Posted by Ben Chapman on 06/29/2017 from Barfblog
Last year someone I didn't know called me about whether I had heard about people getting Salmonella from peppers. I hadn't. It was around the same time there were a few recalls:
Serrano peppers from Warren Produce in Edinburg, Texas
Habanero peppers from Montero Farms in McAllen, Texas
Chili peppers from Canada Herb
Red Thai peppers from Veg-Pak Produce Ltd.
And that FDA had been sampling peppers for Salmonella.
I didn't think much about it until this afternoon, when CDC published a report in MMWR about a multistate S. Anatum outbreak linked to imported hot peppers.
In June 2016, PulseNet identified a cluster of 16 Salmonella Anatum infections with an indistinguishable pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) pattern from four states.* In April 2016, the same PFGE pattern had been uploaded to PulseNet from an isolate obtained from an Anaheim pepper, a mild to medium hot pepper. Hot peppers include many pepper varieties, such as Anaheim, jalapeño, poblano, and serrano, which can vary in heat level from mild to very hot depending on the variety and preparation. This rare PFGE pattern had been seen only 24 times previously in the PulseNet database, compared with common PFGE patterns for this serotype which have been seen in the database hundreds of times. Local and state health departments, CDC, and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) investigated to determine the cause of the outbreak. Thirty-two patients in nine states were identified with illness onsets from May 6–July 9, 2016.
Local and state investigators visited restaurants where patients reported consuming peppers. They collected recipes for reported menu items, including salsa, and reviewed invoices to identify common ingredients. To identify the source of hot peppers, FDA conducted traceback (the process of tracing a food from point-of-service to its origin or manufacturer source) from three restaurants in Minnesota and Texas where patients reported eating. Two of the three restaurants received peppers from a consolidator/grower in Mexico (consolidator/grower B) (Figure 3), which exported Anaheim peppers to the United States in April 2016. Consolidators pool foods from different growers or growing locations; this designation is also used if some growers/growing locations are unknown.** The third restaurant received peppers from various firms in Mexico; however, this restaurant had received peppers from consolidator/grower B before this outbreak. Because of the complicated supply chain for peppers and the extensive mixing of peppers from different suppliers, repacking, and reselling of product, FDA was unable to identify a single source farm or point of contamination for peppers.
Too bad. Maybe this is what the call was about.
Where’s the fun in that? BPI settles with ABC in pink slime defamation case
Posted by Doug Powell on 06/28/2017 from Barfblog
There’s no settlement details; both sides claim victory; lawyers get rich – pink slime and media are both disappointing.
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BPI said: "We are extraordinarily pleased to have reached a settlement of our lawsuit against ABC and Jim Avila. While this has not been an easy road to travel, it was necessary to begin rectifying the harm we suffered as a result of what we believed to be biased and baseless reporting in 2012. Through this process, we have again established what we all know to be true about Lean Finely Textured Beef: it is beef, and is safe, wholesome, and nutritious. This agreement provides us with a strong foundation on which to grow the business, while allowing us to remain focused on achieving the vision of the Roth and BPI family."
ABC said, “ABC has reached an amicable resolution of its dispute with the makers of 'lean finely textured beef.' Throughout this case, we have maintained that our reports accurately presented the facts and views of knowledgeable people about this product. Although we have concluded that continued litigation of this case is not in the Company’s interests, we remain committed to the vigorous pursuit of truth and the consumer’s right to know about the products they purchase.”
This after three weeks of jury trial and testimony in a courtroom in South Dakota.
What can be learned?
Not much that isn’t already known.
People want to know about their food. Where it was grown, how, what’s been added and if it’s safe.
The N.Y. Times, as usual, gets that little bit right in a commentary in 2012, but wrongly thinks right-to-know is something new, that media amplification is something new because of shiny new toys, and offers no practical suggestions on what to do.
The term pink slime was coined in 2002 in an internal e-mail by a scientist at the Agriculture Department who felt it was not really ground beef. The term was first publicly reported in The Times in late 2009.
In April 2011, celebtard chef Jamie Oliver helped create a more publicly available pink slime yuck factor and by the end of 2011, McDonald’s and others had stopped using pink slime.
On March 7, 2012, ABC News recycled these bits, along with some interviews with two of the original USDA opponents of the process (primarily because it was a form of fraud, and not really just beef).
Industry and others responded the next day, and although the story had been around for several years, the response drove the pink slime story to gather media momentum – a story with legs.
BPI said pink slime was meat so consumers didn’t need to be informed, and everything was a gross misunderstanding. BPI blamed media and vowed to educate public. Others said “it’s pink so it’s meat” and that the language of pink slime was derogatory and needed to be changed. USDA said it was safe for schools but quickly decided that schools would be able to choose whatever beef they wanted, pushing decision-making in the absence of data or labels to the local PTA. An on-line petition was launched.
Sensing the media taint, additional retailers rushed to proclaim themselves free of the pink stuff.
BPI took out a full-page ad in the Wall Street Journal, the favored reading choice for pink slime aficionados, and four mid-west governors banded together to repeat the same erroneous messages during a media-show-and-tell at a BPI plant. Because political endorsements rarely work, and the story had spread to the key demographic of burger eaters, others sensed opportunity in the trashing of BPI. Wendy’s, Whole Foods, Costco, A&P, Publix and others launched their own media campaigns proclaiming they’ve never used the stuff and never would.
Guess they didn’t get their dude-it’s-beef T-shirts.
These well-intentioned messages only made things worse for the beef producers and processors they were intended to protect.
Here’s what can be learned for the next pink slime. And there will be lots more.
Lessons of pink slime
don’t fudge facts (not really 100% beef?)
facts are never enough, although facts are the underpinnings of journalism, ABC
changing the language is bad strategy (been tried with rBST, genetically engineered foods, doesn’t work)
telling people they need to be educated is arrogant, invalidates and trivializes people’s thoughts
don’t blame media for lousy communications
any farm, processor, retailer or restaurant can be held accountable for food production – and increasingly so with smartphones, facebook and new toys
real or just an accusation, consumers will rightly react based on the information available
amplification of messages through media is nothing new, especially if those messages support a pre-existing world-view
food is political but should be informed by data
data should be public
paucity of data about pink slime that is publicly available make statements like it’s safe, or it’s gross, difficult to quantify
relying on government validation builds suspicion rather than trust; if BPI has the safety data, make it public
what does right-to-know really mean? Do you want to say no?
if so, have public policy on how information is made public and why
choice is a fundamental value
what’s the best way to enable choice, for those who don’t want to eat pink slime or for those who care more about whether a food will make their kids barf?
proactive more than reactive; both are required, but any food provider should proudly proclaim – brag – about everything they do to enhance food safety.
perceived food safety is routinely marketed at retail; instead market real food safety so consumers actually have a choice and hold producers and processors – conventional, organic or otherwise – to a standard of honesty.
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 school lunch?
link to web sites detailing how the food was produced, processed and safely handled, or whatever becomes the next theatrical production – or be held hostage
The data reported doesn’t point to human poop in iced coffee
Posted by Ben Chapman on 06/29/2017 from Barfblog
That’s what I told Sara Miller of Live Science in reference to a BBC story on the safety of popular cafe drinks.
The original story Sara was asking about is from a BBC investigation into the safety of ice, iced drinks and coffee shop environments.
Samples of iced drinks from Costa Coffee, Starbucks and Caffe Nero contained varying levels of the bacteria, the BBC's Watchdog found.
Expert Tony Lewis said the levels found were "concerning”. "These should not be present at any level - never mind the significant numbers found," he added.
Cleanliness of tables, trays and high chairs at the chains was also tested at 30 branches. Seven out of 10 samples of Costa ice were found to be contaminated with bacteria found in faeces.
What is concerning to the expert? Fecal coliform.
I was introduced to fecal coliform when investigating wash water and vegetables at Ontario (that’s in Canada) greenhouses 15 years ago. We were looking for analytical methods to provide some feedback to producers. We sampled the water for coliform and generic E. coli - and the veggies for generic E. coli and Salmonella. We had initially started looking for coliform and fecal coliform but some smart produce microbiologists suggested the indicator group wasn’t telling folks much.
Or as Mike Doyle and Marilyn Erickson wrote in Microbe in 2006, 'the fecal coliform assay should at a minimum be redefined to specifically qualify that it is not a reliable indicator of either E. coli or the presence of fecal contamination.'
Makes for good headlines. Doesn’t tell folks anything about risk. Or feces. Might as well sample for covfefe.
Chapman also noted that he'd be more focused on what's going on in the coffee shops. For example, do employees wash their hands regularly and after handling potentially contaminated foods and products? Do they sanitize the equipment properly? These behaviors could be more indicative of the overall health risks the beverages and foods pose to consumers, he said.
In addition, it's unclear what type of testing the investigators used for the BBC report. Knowing these methods would provide more useful information, Chapman said. If investigators looked only for bacterial DNA, for example, you wouldn't know if the bacteria were alive or dead.
"We eat dead bacteria all the time," he added, referring to the fact that dead bacteria aren't going to make you sick.
We eat live bacteria all the time - and it doesn’t cause illness. I meant to say we eat dead pathogens all the time.
And if you want poop in your iced coffee, make it from kopi luwak.
Corned beef and pastrami with poop: New York deli flooded with 'fecal matter' due to bad pipes, suit says
Posted by Doug Powell on 06/28/2017 from Barfblog
Maya Rajamani of DNA Info reports the basement of the Stage Door Deli & Restaurant was deluged with “sewage and fecal matter” after the building’s owner failed to inspect and maintain the eatery’s pipes, a new lawsuit charges.
The restaurant at 360 Ninth Ave., between West 30th and 31st streets, was no longer able to use its basement after the pipes connecting to the city’s main utility lines broke on July 30, 2016, the suit filed against the landlord Thursday in Manhattan Supreme Court claims.
Building owner 30th Street and 9th Avenue Enterprises LLC was supposed to inspect and maintain the pipes but failed to do so, the suit notes.
The diner, known for the corned beef and pastrami sandwiches it has served for the past 17 years, moved into the Ninth Avenue space after a rent hike forced it out of its longtime home across from Penn Station in 2015.
When the pipes broke last year, “sewage and fecal matter” seeped into the basement, “causing both substantial health concerns and damage to food products, food supplies and food preparation areas,” the complaint says.
AI and dairy
Posted by Doug Powell on 06/28/2017 from Barfblog
Why did I write the other day about an artificial intelligence dude who I knew 25 years ago, and whose primary application at the time was ensuring elevators in skyscrapers were efficiently dispersed to floors that needed them – oh, and vision?
Because he made the N.Y Times with an hyperbaric headline about making Toronto a high-tech hotbed (he didn’t write the headline) and because his AI basics are making their way into food safety.
Caroline Diana of Inquisitr writes IBM and Cornell University, which primarily focuses on dairy research, will make use of artificial intelligence (AI) to make dairy safe(r) for consumption.
By sequencing and analyzing the DNA and RNA of food microbiomes, researchers plan to create new tools that can help monitor raw milk to detect anomalies that represent food safety hazards and possible fraud.
While many food producers already have rigorous processes in place to ensure food safety hazards are managed appropriately, this pioneering application of genomics will be designed to enable a deeper understanding and characterization of microorganisms on a much larger scale than has previously been possible.
Only a PR thingy could have written this paragraph: “This work could eventually be extended to the larger context of the food supply chain — from farm to fork — and, using artificial intelligence and machine learning, may lead to new insights into how microorganisms interact within a particular environment. A carefully designed informatics infrastructure developed in the IBM Accelerated Discovery Lab, a data and analytics hub for IBM researchers and their clients and partners, will help the team parse and aggregate terabytes of genomic data.”
Better than a poorly designed informatics infrastructure.
Body to be exhumed for paternity test: Elementary Drawing with Salvador Dali
Posted by Doug Powell on 06/28/2017 from Barfblog
I tried not to post this, but it brought back so many happy memories of watching SCTV in Canada as a teenager, and the awesome manscaping of Salvador Dali.
The food safety hook would be the Salmonella cross-contamination with the eggs.
AP reports a Spanish judge has ordered the remains of artist Salvador Dali be exhumed to settle a paternity suit, despite opposition from the state-run foundation that manages the artist’s estate.
Dali, considered one of the fathers of surrealist art, died in 1989 and is buried in his museum in the northeast town of Figueres.
Pilar Abel, a tarot-card reader from the nearby city of Girona who was born in 1956, says she is the offspring of an affair between Dali and her mother, Antonia.
At the time of the alleged affair, Dali was married to his muse, Gala, who died seven years before the painter. Gala had a daughter from an earlier marriage but the couple had no children of their own. Upon his death, at age 84, Dali bestowed his estate to the Spanish state.
On Monday, a Madrid court statement said that tests with DNA from Dali’s embalmed body were necessary because there were no other existing biological remains with which to make a genetic comparison.
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