Fw: [BITES-L] bites Oct. 10/10

Sent via BlackBerry from T-Mobile

---

From: Doug Powell <dpowell@KSU.EDU>

Sender: Bites <BITES-L@LISTSERV.KSU.EDU>

Date: Sun, 10 Oct 2010 10:01:41 -0500

To: BITES-L@LISTSERV.KSU.EDU<BITES-L@LISTSERV.KSU.EDU>

ReplyTo: Doug Powell <dpowell@KSU.EDU>

Subject: [BITES-L] bites Oct. 10/10

bites Oct. 10/10

You can't overcook turkey that's what the gravy is for: failures in food safety policy

Dirty Dining and Blue Ribbon Dining Vegas-style

OHIO: Three cases of salmonella confirmed by health official

The role of pallets in microbial food safety

Dry heat thermal inactivation of Listeria innocua on deli slicer components

US: Under Obama, a reinvigorated FDA

NORTH CAROLINA: Area restaurant ratings

UK: Horse bite leads to meningitis

how to subscribe

You can't overcook turkey that's what the gravy is for: failures in food safety policy
10.oct.10
barfblog
Doug Powell
http://www.barfblog.com/blog/144490/10/10/10/you-can%E2%80%99t-overcook-turkey-that%E2%80%99s-what-gravy-failures-food-safety-policy
Is today Thanksgiving in Canada, or is it tomorrow? Either way, Monday's a holiday up there, bring on the turkey and side dishes.
But questions remain: what is the safest way to cook a turkey or chicken?
Thawing and preparing the bird to minimize cross-contamination present their own microbiological issues. Today, however, the big, really big news is that the Canadian government has spoken: poultry should be cooked to an end-temperature of 82C of 180F, not the 85C or 185F previously recommended (maybe they'll change the advice). The U.S. says 165F or 74C.
I'm not so concerned about the specifics – there are lots of microbiologists who can make those arguments. I am concerned about taxpayer-funded public health organizations and rather spectacular failings in accountability.
For those who want to follow the British advice and cook their birds until they are piping hot, I refer you to Martin Mull's History of White People, where it was concluded, "You can't overcook turkey. That's what the gravy is for."
Color is also a lousy indicator. The only way to tell a bird has reached a microbiologically temperature is using a tip-sensitive digital thermometer. But at what temperature is poultry microbiologically safe? Should I make extra gravy?
Health Canada and government agencies in many countries issue all kinds of consumer advice: don't smoke; wear condoms (but don't flush them down the toilet); floss.
There are reams of consumer food safety advice, but sometimes, the PhDs from different countries disagree on the recommendation. That's normal, scientists disagree all the time. But to ensure confidence in those consumer recommendations, it's best to have a process that says, "Look, you may not agree with what we decided, but here's how we came to that conclusion, and here are the assumptions we made, so you take a shot at it and see if you can do better." That's the fancy way to describe the role of value assumptions in risk assessments and overall risk analysis.
For over a decade I have been politely asking Health Canada how they determine consumer recommendations for preparing poultry. What is the best way to thaw poultry? How do they determine the safe end-point internal temperature? What references do they use? (This discussion is specific to consumer practices in the home, not in food service).
I've never received an answer.
At one point I was less polite, and wrote a piece entitled, Health Canada pulls holiday recommendations from its ass. One of my favorites.
Either Health Canada media and science types I talked to didn't know, or weren't telling.
The process inspired no confidence.
In the U.S. in 2006, the recommended end-point cooking temperature for all poultry was lowered to 165F from the previous 180F. This was based on recommendations by the National Advisory Committee on Microbiological Criteria for Foods. Where the 180F recommendation came from , no one really knows. Diane Van, manager of the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture Meat and Poultry Hotline, was quoted as saying in a Nov. 2006 L.A. Times story about the old 180F advice, "I've looked all over and I really have no idea. I think it happened sometime back in the 1980s, but I don't know what it was based on."
At least that's honest.
In Canada, the Health Canada recommendation for whole poultry is 185F. How was that temperature decided? Are there peer-reviewed journal articles that were used to develop that recommendation? Do bacteria behave differently north of the 49th parallel?
Given such inconsistencies, and the utter lack of accountability, why would consumers be expected to blindly follow what some governmental agency proclaims?
On Thursday, Oct. 7, 2010, seven Health Canada types had a paper published in the journal, Food Protection Trends, outlining Health Canada's recommendation for the safe endpoint temperature when cooking whole raw poultry. The abstract is at the end of this post.
The curtain has been pulled back. Being in Kansas, I could use some Wizard of Oz metaphors, but won't. And I wouldn't say the three studies were "recently performed" as they were conducted in 2003-2007, 2000, and 1994.
Now, what is the process within Health Canada to translate scientific evidence into public policy recommendations? I expect that answer in another 10 years.
Safe endpoint temperature for cooking whole raw poultry: Health Canada recommendation
01.oct.10
Food ProtectionTrends,Vol.30, No.9, Pages 580–587
Gosia K. Kozak, Helene Couture, Thomas Gleeson, Kim Hopkins, Pauiett Maikie, Thuy Phan and Jeffrey M. Farber
ABSTRACT
Poultry is a known carrier of Salmonella. however, it can be safely consumed when cooked to an appropriate internal temperature. The United States Department of agriculture and some Canadian provinces recommend 74°C, whereas health Canada currently recommends 85°C, as a safe internal temperature for cooking raw whole poultry, a difference that can potentially create consumer confusion. To address this, health Canada evaluated three studies recently performed in Canada to examine the survival of Salmonella in raw inoculated whole poultry (stuffed and unstuffed whole chicken and turkey), at six different endpoint temperatures. It was found that 82°C was a safe endpoint cooking temperature for whole unstuffed and stuffed poultry. The studies found that variability exists between and within ovens, and that shorter cooking times typically resulted in positive Salmonella tests in poultry. The thickest part of the breast was determined to be the optimum location for temperature measurement, as it was the last to reach the desired endpoint temperature. Thigh readings were often inaccurate and difficult to perform. As a result of the evaluation of these studies, Health Canada will likely be recommending changing its endpoint temperature recommendation for raw whole poultry to 82C, as measured in the thickest part of the breast.
http://barfblog.foodsafety.ksu.edu/blog/139385/07/10/06/thawing-and-cooking-turkey
http://barfblog.foodsafety.ksu.edu/blog/138983/09/11/15/whole-foods-still-sucks-food-safety-advice-hosea-top-chef-edition
http://barfblog.foodsafety.ksu.edu/blog/139473/07/12/14/health-canada-pulls-holiday-recommendations-its-ass

top

Dirty Dining and Blue Ribbon Dining Vegas-style
09.0ct.10
barfblog
Doug Powell
http://www.barfblog.com/blog/144477/10/10/09/dirty-dining-and-blue-ribbon-dining-vegas-style
KTNV reports that Las Vegas' Yun Nan Garden on Schiff Drive off of Valley View regularly serves Chinese Szechuan cuisine to patrons. But a total of 46 demerits caused the Southern Nevada Health District to force the restaurant to close its doors.
The restaurant's walk-in cooler registered at 46 degrees, too warm for properly storing food. Beef, chicken, and pork sitting out at an unsafe temperature created what inspectors called a "potentially hazardous" situation.
Then, inspectors found a large cooking pot covered with food debris sitting with clean dishware. A food handler was also observed sticking their finger into a wok to taste the food before they resumed cooking – without washing their hands.
Also, two different employees were found to be working without health cards, which are required paperwork for anyone with a restaurant job.
Now that Yun Nan Garden has re-opened after re-inspection, Channel 13 stopped by to speak with the owner about what changes had been made. He assured us everything was once again up to code.
And, when media outlets do the dirty dining stuff, they usually get business pressure to praise the worthy as well. If I owned a restaurant and was doing everything right, I'd market my excellent food safety any way I could – but only if I was sure I was doing everything right.
KTNV also reported the Florida Cafe Cuban Bar and Grill is on Las Vegas Boulevard just south of Charleston has been open since 1998 and is a restaurant with a good record. The latest visit by the Southern Nevada Health District was to inspect the new buffet now serving up Cuban dishes on the weekends. The results were zero demerits with food at the right temperatures and a clean set up, safe for waiters and customers enjoying the food.
The Florida Cafe Cuban Bar and Grill has consistently earned an A grade with the exception of one C grade in 2001.
The Florida Cafe wasn't the only recent restaurant to receive zero demerits. The Dive Bar on East Tropicana and the Michael Mina Restaurant at the Bellagio did as well.
http://www.ktnv.com/Global/story.asp?S=13281137
http://www.ktnv.com/Global/story.asp?S=13240932

top

OHIO: Three cases of salmonella confirmed by health official
09.oct.10
Morning Journal
http://morningjournal.com/articles/2010/10/09/news/mj3457046.txt
LORAIN -- The Lorain County Health Department said there have been three recent cases of salmonella poisoning, but it hasn't confirmed a link to the illness that struck Clearview High School students this week.
Ken Pearce, health commissioner for the Lorain County General Health District, said the three cases showed up in a database two children — ages 15 and 17 — and one adult, but as of last night, there was no connection to the school.
On Tuesday, more than 100 students were absent at the high school. The health department was called to help determine what made so many students sick, Principal Franko Gallo said Thursday.
Rumors initially circulated that the students got food poisoning from a football team dinner last week, but only approximately 30 members of the football team were sick, Pearce said Thursday.
There were four staff members from the health department at the high school Thursday interviewing students and collecting voluntary stool samples. Students reported having diarrhea.
Students were asked about the types of food they had eaten in the past several days to see if there are any commonalities. Responses have not been put into a report, so common links have not yet been identified, Pearce said.

top

The role of pallets in microbial food safety
01.oct.10
Food ProtectionTrends, Vol.30, No.10, Pages 576–579
Michael R. Boersig and Dean O. Cliver
ABSTRACT
Pallets play an important role in food transportation but are seldom in direct contact with food and are not intended to be used in contact with food. We have surveyed information relevant to the possible influence of wood versus plastic pallets on food safety. Wood absorbs bacteria, which cannot later be recovered alive at its surface. Bacteria do not penetrate below the surface of new plastic and can be transferred to other surfaces. Scars on used plastic tend to harbor bacteria, which persist in a viable state. The choice of wood versus plastic pallets seems likely to have only a slight effect on food safety, but bacteria appear to be less easily transferred from wood than from plastic.

top

Dry heat thermal inactivation of Listeria innocua on deli slicer components
01.oct.10
Food ProtectionTrends, Vol.30, No.9, Pages 588–592
Philip G. Crandall, Corliss A. O'Bryan, Elizabeth M. Martin, Sean pendieton, Erin Shannon, John Marcy and Steven C. Ricke
ABSTRACT
a thermal kill step was evaluated as a method of obtaining an additional margin of safety for retail deli meat slicers following cleaning and sanitizing. Retail deli slicers were cut into coupons or marked off in grids, cleaned and sanitized. Listeria innocua, an established thermal-resistant Listeria species, was inoculated at 107 CFU/cm2. The inoculated components or stainless steel coupons were placed in a dry heat oven at 66°C or 80°C and sampled at 0.5, 1, 3 and 15 h. There was no statistically significant difference in survival between the stainless steel and the cast aluminum portions of the slicer. at 66oC, there was an initial drop of approximately 1.5 log CFU after 30 min of treatment, but recovery of L. innocua remained at more than 4 log CFU even after 15 h.When temperatures were increased to 80oC, the decrease was over 4 log, but the thermal treatment times (15 h) were longer than an overnight treatment that might be considered practical for a retail deli. From these results, it appears that dry thermal treatments at temperature of 80oC and times up to 15 h are not sufficient to produce a 5-log reduction of residual L. innocua that may have survived improper cleaning and sanitizing of the deli slicer.

top

US: Under Obama, a reinvigorated FDA
09.oct.10
Los Angeles Times
Andrew Zajac
http://www.latimes.com/health/la-na-fda-enforce-20101010,0,6943139.story
Washington -- Within a recent two-week span, the Food and Drug Administration weighed in on the controversial issue of genetically engineered salmon, announced tighter controls on a popular anti- diabetes drug, and rebuked the makers of popular mouthwash products over misleading advertisements.
Simultaneously, it warned consumers that devices supposedly offering protection against sudden infant death syndrome could themselves be lethal, and it pressed ahead with investigations into the biggest recalls in history of contaminated eggs and children's pediatric medicines.
On Friday, the agency announced that the anti- obesity drug Meridia was being pulled from the market.
The flurry of activity reflects a regulatory activism that seems destined to ramp up as the Obama administration seeks to further its agenda through executive orders rather than through an increasingly contentious Congress.
David Acheson, the FDA's top food safety official during the George W. Bush administration, contends that the agency is overzealous in pursuing allegedly bogus health claims made by food producers. But "on balance, it's been mainly science," he said.
The new activism at the agency has put industry on alert. For example, last fall the FDA ordered treatment of Gulf Coast oysters to prevent a form of bacterial contamination. Oystermen descended on Capitol Hill, saying that treating the mollusks would increase their cost and ruin their taste, and that the 15 or so deaths annually attributed to eating untreated raw oysters were not excessive considering the volume consumed. Sympathetic representatives forced the agency to back down.
The agency has also been thwarted in its effort to gain broader authority to regulate and recall food. A food safety bill passed last year in the House has stalled in the Senate over budgetary issues.
FDA Principal Deputy Commissioner Joshua Sharfstein sees a different problem: poor communication. "If FDA doesn't explain itself well, not only will people object, they will misunderstand the decision," he said in an interview.
The agency proposes to do more to increase transparency, including releasing information about unapproved drugs and medical devices and other currently confidential data, which is likely to trigger industry opposition.
It could also pursue reforms on food safety and other issues on its own, using rulemaking instead of new legislation, a tack it took years ago in beefing up oversight of juices and seafood.

top

NORTH CAROLINA: Area restaurant ratings
10.oct.10
ENCToday
http://www.enctoday.com/news/county-68760-kfpress-lenoir-health.html
The following inspections were conducted by the Lenoir County Health Department over the past week. The "2 PT Credit" is automatically added to an establishment's overall score if a manager or employee attends a food safety course approved by the Lenoir County Health Department:
Scores:
90+ A
80-89.5 B
70-79.5 C
70 and below shut down
CDI = corrected during inspection
El Norteno
1701 W. Vernon Ave., Kinston
Score: 92.5
2 Pt. Credit: No
Inspection date: 8/31
Points deducted: 2
I have not seen an employee wash their hands today. There were many opportunities like after handling food to throw away, opening the back door for me, drinking personal beverage/eating...also there were a couple of hand-sinks not properly supplied w/paper towels which prevents proper handwashing.
Points deducted: 1.5
Food in walk-in cooler...all items checked were holding at 50-53F. Air temp is 50-51F. Raw meats have been iced to cool them quickly because staff could not say how long cooler has been too warm. Items in this unit may not be safe due to hours spent above 45F.
Points deducted: 2
Walk-in cooler and small prep cooler on serving line are above 45F. Repair person on the way. For now - cooked items that were cooling overnight have been thrown away (four pans of refried beans and one partial pan of chicken/pepper mixture). Raw meats have been iced. Guac and pico were just made this a.m. and can be placed on ice or in another refrigerator. Repairs must be made for you to remain open.
Points deducted: 0.5
Food thermometer is broken. Replace ASAP.
Points deducted: 1
Paper towels must be provided at every hand-sink. A couple of sinks were missing these. Hand-sink at far end of cook/server line needs soap. And in ladies room - diaper deck needs cleaning around the hinge.
Points deducted: 0.5
Some floor tile damage in front of small prep fridge inside.
Andy's
300 W. Vernon Ave., Kinston
Score: 98.5
2 Pt. Credit: No
Inspection date: 8/31
Points deducted: 0.5
Great improvements. Work on cleaning of sink corners and inside of compartments (one-compartment sink especially).
Points deducted: 1
Floors, walls, ceiling - cleaning/maintenance needed. Do not use carpet type rugs in kitchen. You may use a rubber or vinyl mat...must be non-absorbant, easily cleanable.

top

UK: Horse bite leads to meningitis
10.oct.10
Worms And Germs Blog
Scott Weese
http://www.wormsandgermsblog.com/2010/10/articles/animals/horses-1/horse-bite-leads-to-meningitis/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+WormsAndGermsBlog+%28Worms+and+Germs+Blog%29&utm_content=Google+Reader
You never want to be the subject of a medical case report. A 37-yr-old British woman was featured in a recent edition of Lancet (Brouwer et al 2010), in a paper entitled A horse bite to remember.
The woman was admitted to hospital with a fever, headache, neck stiffness, confusion, difficulty speaking and nausea. These signs were suggestive of meningitis and a spinal tap was supportive of that presumptive diagnosis. Blood samples were also taken, and the same bacterium, Streptococcus zooepidemicus was isolated from both blood and spinal fluid, confirming a diagnostic of S. zooepidemicus meningitis. She was treated and improved, but did not fully recover.
Streptococcus zooepidemicus is primarily associated with horses, although it can occasionally be found in other species such as dogs. After the diagnosis, the woman's family was questioned about her hobbies and it was revealed that she was an avid horsewoman. Further, she had been bitten by her horse the previous week. That was the presumed source of infection, but it doesn't appear that any further investigation was taken.
Association of meningitis with the bite is reasonable, but it's not defintive. S. zooepidemicus infections in people have occurred in the absence of bites or other clear sources of exposure, so the bite wasn't necessarily the problem. Regardless, it indicates the need to be proactive and properly treat wounds that occur associated with horses, be they a bite from a horse or another wound that gets contamination with bacteria from the horse or its environment.
This is a very unusual situation and people shouldn't be overly concerned about getting S. zooepidemicus meningitis from their horse. It should just be taken as a reminder that bad things can happen periodically and that good attention to general hygiene practices and bite wound care is always a good idea.
On a side-note, I thought the title A horse bite to remember was a bit crass since the woman is unable live independently because of severe amnesia (memory problems). Maybe they were trying to be ironic but it seems below a journal such as Lancet.
This was originally posted on our equine infectious diseases site, EquIDblog.

top

bites is produced by Dr. Douglas Powell and food safety friends at Kansas State University. For further information, please contact dpowell@ksu.edu or check out bites.ksu.edu.

TO SUBSCRIBE to the listserv version of bites, send mail to:
(subscription is free)
listserv@listserv.ksu.edu
leave subject line blank
in the body of the message type:
subscribe bites-L firstname lastname
i.e. subscribe bites-L Doug Powell

TO UNSUBSCRIBE from the listserv version of bites, send mail to:
listserv@listserv.ksu.edu
leave subject line blank
in the body of the message type: signoff bites-L

archived at http://archives.foodsafety.ksu.edu/fsnet-archives.htm and bites.ksu.edu