Fw: [BITES-L] bites Oct. 21/10

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Date: Thu, 21 Oct 2010 09:39:55 -0500

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Subject: [BITES-L] bites Oct. 21/10

bites Oct. 21/10

Texas fresh-cut plant shut after links to 5 listeria deaths in celery

Wake County (NC) surveys food handling practices; makes me a happy resident

CANADA: Health hazard alert – Certain L. Fortin ready-to-eat sliced meats may contain Listeria monicytogenes

NORTH CAROLINA firm recalls ready-to-eat pork barbeque products due to possible Salmonella contamination

Peru soccer team allegedly poisons foes

CANADA: Disease prevention offers opportunity to create competitive advantage

NEW ZEALAND: Aflatoxins traced back to feed: Fonterra

Resistance to benzalkonium chloride, peracetic acid and nisin during formation of mature biofilms by Listeria monocytogenes

Prevalence, strain identification and antimicrobial resistance of Campylobacter spp. isolated from slaughtered pig carcasses in Brazil

A concurrent diagnosis of microbiological food safety output and food safety management system performance: Cases from meat processing industries

Application of slightly acidic electrolyzed water as a potential non-thermal food sanitizer for decontamination of fresh ready-to-eat vegetables and sprouts

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Texas fresh-cut plant shut after links to 5 listeria deaths in celery
21.oct.10
barfblog
Doug Powell
http://www.barfblog.com/blog/144697/10/10/21/texas-fresh-cut-plant-shut-after-links-5-listeria-deaths-celery
Sometime in Jan. 2010, someone in Texas got really sick with listeria.
By mid-May, 2010, five were sick and two were dead – all from the same strain of listeria. By Oct. 20, 2010, five were sick and five had died from the same strain of listeria. Most of the listeriosis patients were elderly with serious underlying health problems, and many were hospitalized before and during the onset of their infection.
Health types said six of the 10 cases were conclusively linked to chopped celery sold by Sangar Fresh Cut Produce of San Antonio, so yesterday, the Texas Department of State Health Services ordered Sangar to stop processing food and recall all products shipped from the plant since January. The order was issued after laboratory tests of chopped celery from the plant indicated the presence of Listeria monocytogenes.
Sangar President Kenneth Sanquist Jr. took issue with the state, adding in a statement,
"The state's claim that some of our produce now fails to meet health standards directly contradicts independent testing that was conducted on the same products. This independent testing shows our produce to be absolutely safe, and we are aggressively fighting the state's erroneous findings."
DSHS inspectors say that in the Sanger plant, they found a condensation leak above a food product area, soil on a preparation table and hand washing issues.
The recalled products – primarily cut fresh produce in sealed packages – were distributed to restaurants and institutional entities, such as hospitals and schools, and are not believed to be sold in grocery stores.
For a glimpse of the Sanger plant, see the video below from Aug. 13, 2010, when Sanquist told KENS5 TV in San Antonio there should be tougher standards in the fresh-cut industry, adding
"All we're saying is everyone should have that standard. There is an entire process that we have to follow on a daily basis, if you miss a step or two steps or try to take a short cut...children could get very sick."
Sanquist said many businesses only require their produce company have a recall program in place and that's simply not enough prevention.
http://barfblog.foodsafety.ksu.edu/blog/142063/10/05/13/5-sick-2-dead-listeria-texas
http://www.dshs.state.tx.us/news/releases/20101020.shtm
http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/local_news/sa_produce_plant_shut_down_after_5_deaths_linked_to_tainted_celery_105403588.html
http://www.kens5.com/news/Fresh-cut-produce-chop-shops-100655399.html

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Wake County (NC) surveys food handling practices; makes me a happy resident
21.oct.10
barfblog
Ben Chapman
http://barfblog.foodsafety.ksu.edu/blog/144699/10/10/21/wake-county-nc-surveys-food-handling-practices-makes-me-happy-resident
I'm pretty happy to live in Wake County today. It's not just the sunny and warm weather (supposed to be in the 80s today); great amenities for a family or the relatively low cost of living that have me excited.
It's the food safety nerd stuff.
Wake County Public Health (the same folks who followed-up with me during the Campylobacter 2009 incident) have been proactively evaluating potential legislation changes and released a report on how well the businesses and institutions they inspect are doing when it comes to reducing foodborne illness risk factors.
FDA has conducted similar surveys in the past (2003 and 2008) and now Wake has local data that can be used for lots of different things including evaluating inspection changes, food handler training interventions and system differences.
Using a FDA data collection instrument including observation, health officials evaluated 458 randomly selected food service establishments representing various types of facilities (including schools, hospitals, delis, full service restaurants and fast food).
According to the report,
Wake County staff used a combination of direct observations at each restaurant and responses from restaurant management and food preparation staff. For each of the facility types, the number of items recorded as non‐compliant with the current FDA Food Code was recorded.
Improper holding/time and temperature was the risk factor found to be most often out of compliance. The highest percentage of OUT of compliance values were most commonly associated with:
-Improper cold holding of potentially hazardous food (PHF) and
-Inadequate date marking of refrigerated ready‐to‐eat PHF
Poor personal hygiene was the risk factor with the second highest incidence of OUT of compliance values. The OUT of compliance values were most commonly associatd with:
- Non‐compliant employee health policy and
- Improper handwashing.
A study like this does have limitations (inspectors as observers might influence behaviors of food handlers and managers, more than if it was an outside observer; observers get tired and miss things, have their own biases) but this is a great starting point and more than what many others have. Reports like this might generate some scary headlines but they arm health officials and the industry with a starting point to compare future efforts against.
Accoriding to Andre Pierce, Environmental Health director, "Based on the survey, the County will direct its attention to the risk factors that are most frequently out-of-compliance in food service establishments, and implement programs to reduce or eliminate the frequency of all of the risk factors that contribute to foodborne illness."
Food safety culture issues are featured prominently in the report – addressing things like having ill food handlers step away from the kitchen (and managers supporting them) and monitoring how long open deli meats sit in a fridge are more than just regulatory concerns.
I told Martha Quillin of the News and Observer,
"Legislation can only go so far. What's more important is what happens when the inspector's not there. You have to find a way to engage everyone, from the business owner all the way down to the 15-year-old who works in the kitchen, in the concept that we need to prevent food-borne illness."
Reducing some of these factors have less to do with different inspections and more to do with creating an environment within a business where staff know risks, how to manage them and value not making patrons ill.

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CANADA: Health hazard alert – Certain L. Fortin ready-to-eat sliced meats may contain Listeria monicytogenes
20.oct.10
CFIA
http://www.inspection.gc.ca/english/corpaffr/recarapp/2010/20101020e.shtml
OTTAWA --The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) and Charcuterie L. Fortin Limitée (Establishment # 288) are warning the public not to consume certain ready-to-eat meats described below because the products may be contaminated with Listeria monocytogenes.
The following L. Fortin ready-to-eat sliced meats, bearing Establishment number 288, are affected by this alert:
Brand Product UPC Size Lot Code Best Before Date
L'Ancien LEAN cooked ham old Fashioned variable variable 32811 2010NO12
L'Ancien "Cooked HAM old fashioned with is fat" variable variable 32811 2010NO12
Le Doyen SMOKED ham "OLD FASHION" variable variable 42782 2010NO12
Le Boréal SMOKED ham "BLACK FOREST" variable variable 42851
42782 2010NO12
These products have been distributed in Quebec.
There have been no reported illnesses associated with the consumption of these products.
Food contaminated with Listeria monocytogenes may not look or smell spoiled. Consumption of food contaminated with this bacteria may cause listeriosis, a foodborne illness. Listeriosis can cause high fever, severe headache, neck stiffness and nausea. Pregnant women, the elderly and people with weakened immune systems are particularly at risk. Infected pregnant women may experience only a mild, flu-like illness, however, infections during pregnancy can lead to premature delivery, infection of the newborn, or even stillbirth.
The manufacturer, Charcuterie L. Fortin Limitée, of Alma, Québec, is voluntarily recalling the affected product from the marketplace. The CFIA is monitoring the effectiveness of the recall.
For more information consumers and industry can call the CFIA at 1-800-442-2342 / TTY 1-800-465-7735 (8:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. Eastern time, Monday to Friday).
For information on Listeria monocytogenes, visit the Food Facts web page at: http://www.inspection.gc.ca/english/fssa/concen/cause/listeriae.shtml.
For information on all food recalls, visit the CFIA's Food Recall Report at: http://active.inspection.gc.ca/eng/corp/recarapp_dbe.asp.
To find out more about receiving recalls by e-mail, and other food safety facts, visit: www.foodsafety.gc.ca. Food and consumer product recalls are also available at http://www.healthycanadians.gc.ca.

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NORTH CAROLINA firm recalls ready-to-eat pork barbeque products due to possible Salmonella contamination
20.oct.10
FSIS http://www.fsis.usda.gov/News_&_Events/Recall_055_2010_Release/index.asp
Recall Release
FSIS-RC-055-2010
CLASS I RECALL
HEALTH RISK: HIGH
Congressional and Public Affairs
(202) 720-9113
Richard J. McIntire
WASHINGTON -- The Murphy House, a Louisburg, N.C. establishment, is recalling approximately 4,920 pounds of ready-to-eat (RTE) pork barbeque products that may be contaminated with Salmonella, the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) announced today.
The following products are subject to recall: [View Labels]
* 1 lb. and 5 lb. plastic tubs of "MURPHY HOUSE Unskinned Pork with Barbeque Sauce-TEXTURED VEGETABLE PROTEIN ADDED" written in green lettering on the container's top.
* 1 lb. and 5 lb. plastic tubs of "MURPHY HOUSE PREMIUM PORK BARBEQUE-COOKED, UNSKINNED PORK WITH BARBEQUE SAUCE ADDED " written in red lettering on the container's top.
The problem was discovered through FSIS' microbiological sampling program. FSIS has received no reports of adverse reactions due to consumption of these products. Individuals concerned about an illness should contact their health care provider.
Each package bears the establishment number "EST. 2135" inside the USDA mark of inspection. Individual packages bear the sell-by date of 11/21/10.
These products were cooked on Oct. 6 and Oct. 7, 2010, packed between Oct. 6 and Oct. 12, 2010, then distributed to wholesale and retail establishments throughout North Carolina. When available, the retail distribution list(s) will be posted on FSIS' website at: http://www.fsis.usda.gov/
FSIS_Recalls/
Open_Federal_Cases/
index.asp.
These products were not involved in the National School Lunch Program or Department of Defense sales.

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Peru soccer team allegedly poisons foes
20.oct.10
barfblog
Doug Powell
http://www.barfblog.com/blog/144698/10/10/21/peru-soccer-team-allegedly-poisons-foes
I used to work with a guy a long time ago who said, "when I retire, I'm going to take my guitar, a couple of amps, sit on my front porch, and do a lot of hallucinogens."
He had a poster of Jimi Hendrix in his office.
The New York Daily News reports an unidentified staff member of the Peru soccer team, Sport Ancash, has been accused of giving players from opposing team, Hijos de Acosvinchos, drugged water after four of the players passed out in the final moments of their Peruvian second-division game.
Doctors at a nearby hospital found traces of benzodiazepine — a psychoactive drug with sedative properties — in the player's bloodstream.
Using the Contador defense, Sport Ancash President Jose Mallaqui blamed the incident on poultry, adding
"I was able to find out that the players ate rotisserie chicken and had some energy drinks before the game, which ended up hurting them."
Sport Ancash ended up losing the game, 3-0.
http://msn.foxsports.com/foxsoccer/latinamerica/story/Peruvian-soccer-team-allegedly-poisons-opponents-102010
http://barfblog.foodsafety.ksu.edu/blog/144567/10/10/14/doping-body-dismisses-contador's-contaminated-meat-claims

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CANADA: Disease prevention offers opportunity to create competitive advantage
20.oct.10
FarmScape
Florian Possberg
http://www.farmscape.com/f2ShowScript.aspx?i=23514&q=Disease+Prevention+Offers+Opportunity+to+Create+Competitive+Advantage+
The chair of the Canadian Swine Health Board says disease prevention offers the Canadian swine industry an opportunity to create a competitive advantage in the global market.
The Canadian Swine Health Board, formed in spring of 2008 to coordinate biosecurity research and develop long term disease risk management strategies, will host its second annual meeting Monday and Tuesday in Quebec City.
Board chair Florian Possberg says addressing swine health offers swine producers an opportunity to create a competitive advantage.
Clip-Florian Possberg-Canadian Swine Health Board:
We've done some analysis of a disease called circovirus that showed up in our herds 10 years ago and onward and we think that that probably caused about three billion dollars worth of damage to our Canadian industry.
That's very significant but when you look at other disease issues that have faced the livestock industry Canadian wide, whether it's BSE or avian influenza. often these things are hundreds of millions and into the billions of dollars.
If we were to ever experience something like foot and mouth disease in Canada all of the expense we faced with BSE or circo or avian influenza would pale to the amount of dollars that we would be faced with as a livestock industry for dealing with something like foot and mouth disease.
So we're talking about using prevention as a way of being proactive to lessen the chance of some of these real terrible diseases affecting our livestock industry.
Possberg says we're at a point where the industry is profitable again and it's important to make the best of opportunities to ensure the industry is competitive moving forward.
For further information on the Canadian Swine Health Board's annual meeting visit swinehealth.ca.
For Farmscape.Ca, I'm Bruce Cochrane.

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NEW ZEALAND: Aflatoxins traced back to feed: Fonterra
21.oct.10
BusinessDay.co.nz
Andrea Fox
http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/farming/4259464/Aflatoxins-traced-back-to-feed-Fonterra
A small spike in the levels of cancer-causing aflatoxins in farm milk recently supplied to Fonterra has been traced back to a single import shipment of copra cattle feed but is not high enough to warrant alerting the New Zealand Food Safety Authority, the dairy giant says.
The last copra toxin scare was in 2007 when Fonterra ordered its farmers to stop feeding out the coconut husk derivative after finding elevated levels of toxins in milk.
After the 2007 scare, the dairy industry and feed manufacturing industry developed a best practice guideline to manage the use of copra cake by dairy farmers.
Fonterra says the latest incident is tiny by comparison to the 2007 one.

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Resistance to benzalkonium chloride, peracetic acid and nisin during formation of mature biofilms by Listeria monocytogenes
20.oct.10
Food Microbiology
P. Saá Ibusquiza, J.J.R. Herrera and M.L. Cabo
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B6WFP-518TDR4-1&_user=10&_coverDate=10%2F20%2F2010&_rdoc=1&_fmt=high&_orig=search&_origin=search&_sort=d&_docanchor=&view=c&_acct=C000050221&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=10&md5=785d85bb0be0782f5abe08f352650c86&searchtype=a
Increase of resistance to the application of benzalkonium chloride (BAC), peracetic acid (PA) and nisin during biofilm formation at 25 °C by three strains of L. monocytogenes (CECT 911, CECT 4032, CECT 5873 and BAC-adapted CECT 5873) in different scenarios was compared. For this purpose, resistance after 4 and 11 days of biofilm formation was quantified in terms of lethal dose 90% values (LD90), determined according with a dose-response logistic mathematical model. Microscopic analyses after 4 and 11 days of L. monocytogenes biofilm formation were also carried out. Results demonstrated a relation between the microscopic structure and the resistance to the assayed biocides in matured biofilms. The worst cases being biofilms formed by the strain 4032 (in both stainless steel and polypropylene), which showed a complex "cloud type" structure that correlates with the highest resistance of this strain against the three biocides during biofilm maturation. However, that increase in resistance and complexity appeared not to be dependent on initial bacterial adherence, thus indicating mature biofilms rather than planctonic cells or early-stage biofilms must be considered when disinfection protocols have to be optimized. PA seemed to be the most effective of the three disinfectants used for biofilms. We hypothesized both its high oxidising capacity and low molecular size could suppose an advantage for its penetration inside the biofilm. We also demonstrated that organic material counteract with the biocides, thus indicating the importance of improving cleaning protocols. Finally, by comparing strains 5873 and 5873 adapted to BAC, several adaptative cross-responses between BAC and nisin or peracetic acid were identified.

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Prevalence, strain identification and antimicrobial resistance of Campylobacter spp. isolated from slaughtered pig carcasses in Brazil
20.oct.10
Food Control
Raquel Szygalski Biasi, Renata Ernlund Freitas de Macedo, Minéia Alessandra S.M. Marini, Paulo Rogério Franchin
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B6T6S-518TY6P-2&_user=10&_coverDate=10%2F20%2F2010&_rdoc=1&_fmt=high&_orig=search&_origin=search&_sort=d&_docanchor=&view=c&_acct=C000050221&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=10&md5=7cae552d4a02e5898699307ac91e9127&searchtype=a
Abstract
The aim of this study was to investigate the rate of contamination, species identification and antimicrobial resistance of thermophilic Campylobacter spp. in pig carcasses during the slaughter process in a slaughterhouse in Brazil. Two hundred and fifty-nine samples were collected at 7 different stages of the slaughter process for Campylobacter determination by both qualitative and quantitative methods. Typical colonies were subjected to API Campy, real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and antimicrobial resistance testing. Campylobacter was found in 18.9% of the carcasses and 3.5% of the samples. Dehairing was the slaughter stage with the highest Campylobacter contamination (55.6%). All Campylobacter strains were confirmed by real-time PCR and showed multi-drug resistance to cephalothin, nalidixic acid, norfloxacin, tetracycline and trimethoprim. None of the strains were resistant to amoxicillin/clavulanic acid, ampicillin and chloramphenicol. Despite the low occurrence of Campylobacter spp. in pig samples, the antimicrobial resistance of Campylobacter strains represents a considerable risk for the consumption of pork meat and confirms the need for continuous monitoring of Campylobacter in the pig production chain.

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A concurrent diagnosis of microbiological food safety output and food safety management system performance: Cases from meat processing industries
20.oct.10
Food Control
P.A. Luning, L. Jacxsens, J. Rovira, S.M. Osés, M. Uyttendaele and W.J. Marcelis
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B6T6S-518TDNX-2&_user=10&_coverDate=10%2F20%2F2010&_rdoc=1&_fmt=high&_orig=search&_origin=search&_sort=d&_docanchor=&view=c&_acct=C000050221&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=10&md5=f0ae5005fc0e65e070c512cdbcf511d9&searchtype=a
Abstract
Stakeholder requirements force companies to analyse their food safety management system (FSMS) performance to improve food safety. Performance is commonly analysed by checking compliance against preset requirements via audits/inspections, or actual food safety (FS) output is analysed by microbiological testing. This paper discusses the usefulness of a concurrent diagnosis of FSMS performance and FS output using new tools; illustrated for three meat-processing companies. Listeria monocytogenes, Salmonella spp., Campylobacter spp. (food safety indicators), Escherichia coli, Enterobacteriaceae (hygiene indicators), and total viable counts TVC (overall performance) were analysed at ten critical sampling locations covering both product and environmental samples, using the Microbial Assessment Scheme diagnosis. Riskiness of FSMS context and performance of core FSMS activities were assessed using a diagnostic tool (including 51 indicators and corresponding grids with level descriptions). For the (large) beef meat processor, the FS output diagnosis showed too high TVC but the high activity scores of their FSMS indicated that this problem could be only solved by supplier measures. Likewise, for the (medium-size) poultry meat processor, the activity/context diagnosis showed a clear dependency on suppliers. However, the FS output diagnosis revealed a broader contamination problem, and additional measures to improve, amongst others, sanitation program, compliance to procedures, personal hygienic requirements seem necessary. The FS output diagnosis of the (small) lamb meat processor showed various contamination problems (but no pathogens) corresponding with various low activity levels in combination with he high-risk context. The combined diagnosis provided clear directions for improvement to move towards more advanced FSMS activity levels or to reduce riskiness in context.

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Application of slightly acidic electrolyzed water as a potential non-thermal food sanitizer for decontamination of fresh ready-to-eat vegetables and sprouts
20.oct.10
Food Control
Abdulsudi Issa-Zacharia, Yoshinori Kamitani, Nami Miwa, Happiness Muhimbula and Koichi Iwasaki
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B6T6S-518TY6P-6&_user=10&_coverDate=10%2F20%2F2010&_rdoc=1&_fmt=high&_orig=search&_origin=search&_sort=d&_docanchor=&view=c&_acct=C000050221&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=10&md5=d497fc8339ca18dbb63c93f81f66cf09&searchtype=a
Abstract
The sanitization efficacy of slightly acidic electrolyzed water (SAEW) against food pathogens on selected fresh ready-to-eat (RTE) vegetables and sprouts was evaluated and compared to sodium hypochlorite (NaOCl) solution. RTE vegetables and sprouts were dip-inoculated with Escherichia coli (E. coli) and Salmonella spp. and dip-treated with SAEW, NaOCl solution for 5 min. SAEW treatment significantly (p < 0.05) reduced the total aerobic mesophilic bacteria from Chinese celery, lettuce and daikon sprouts by 2.7, 2.5 and 2.45 log10CFU/g, respectively relative to un-treated. Pathogens were significantly (p < 0.05) reduced from Chinese celery, lettuce and daikon sprouts by 2.7, 2.8 and 2.8 log10CFU/g (E. coli) and 2.87, 2.91 and 2.91 log 10CFU/g (Salmonella spp.), respectively following a SAEW treatment. SAEW and NaOCl solution showed no significant sanitization difference (p > 0.05). Results demonstrate that SAEW at low chlorine concentration and a near neutral pH is a potential non-thermal food sanitizer that could represent an alternative to NaOCl solution and would reduce the amount of free chlorine used in fresh-cut vegetables industry, since the same microbial reduction as s NaOCl solution is obtained.

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