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Posted Tue, July 20, 2010
Filed under: FSN - General News
**Please Note: consumers need to be aware and ask if desserts have been prepared with raw eggs, especially for children, the elderly, pregnant women, and those immunocompromised.**
DURHAM -- A Durham County Health Department investigation has traced a salmonella outbreak at Bullock's Bar-B-Que Restaurant to a commercially prepared egg-white food product.
"Analysis of the data supports the assumption that the outbreak was probably not introduced through improper food handling practices by Bullock's staff or through faulty or contaminated equipment," county officials said in a news release Friday.
"The likely source of the bacteria was identified to be from a commercially manufactured egg white food product, used to make meringue, which was delivered to the establishment."
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The investigation focused on foods prepared in Bullock's restaurant between April 20 and April 24. Sixty-five patrons met the case definition of gastrointestinal illness after consuming food prepared there during that time.
This article continues at: http://www.newsobserver.com/2010/07/17/585329/restaurant-not-to-blame-for-illnesses.html?story_link=email_msg
Posted Tue, July 20, 2010
Filed under: FSN - Regulatory News
**Please Note: S.T.O.P. strongly disagrees with the National Chicken Council's opinion below on USDA's new standards for Salmonella and Campylobacter.**
New federal regulations on the presence of naturally occurring salmonella and campylobacter on raw poultry are unsupported by science and contrary to law and should be withdrawn, according to a National Chicken Council (NCC) press release.
“The chicken industry recognizes the importance of preventing foodborne illness and enhancing public health protection,” NCC said in comments filed with the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety & Inspection Service (FSIS). “The industry has made great strides in recent years in reducing the number of broiler carcasses testing positive for salmonella, achieving a two-fold reduction in the prevalence of salmonella on chicken carcasses on a national basis since the industry’s voluntary adoption of the NCC Salmonella Reduction program in 2004.”
According to the NCC, there is no scientific justification for USDA’s claim that changing its “performance standard” for salmonella on raw chickens, and establishing a new one for campylobacter, will reduce foodborne illness in humans. In fact, NCC noted, the burden of salmonellosis in the country has actually increased slightly in recent years even as the chicken industry successfully reduced the prevalence of Salmonella on raw chickens. Salmonella is found in a wide variety of uncooked foods.
Moreover, NCC said the new government standards have been adopted in violation of federal law governing new regulations, and go beyond FSIS's legal authority. NCC explained that the decision of the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals in the case of Supreme Beef Processors vs. USDA made it clear that salmonella, by itself, is not an adulterant in meat and poultry and that USDA therefore lacks legal authority to regulate it. Salmonella and campylobacter on raw products are easily destroyed by the heat of normal cooking, NCC noted.
“These regulations are likely to increase costs significantly for processors and will result in little or no positive impact on human illness and public health. Given that FSIS’ legal standing and approach to promulgating standards is shaky at best, that the Agency clearly violates the requirements of the Administrative Procedure Act (APA), and that the new standards are beyond the Agency’s statutory authority, arbitrary and capricious, and not supported by science, NCC strongly objects to the Agency’s planned implementation of these standards. Accordingly, NCC requests that FSIS withdraw the Notice and reconsider its legal and scientific basis,” the NCC comment said.
This article taken from: http://poultryproductionnews.blogspot.com/2010/07/ncc-urges-usda-to-withdraw-new.html
Posted Mon, July 19, 2010
Filed under: FSN - General News
By Julie Deardorff
The controversial "five-second rule" — the one that allows us to eat dropped food if it's quickly scooped off the floor — is a bunch of baloney, according to Clemson University food scientist Paul Dawson, who stirred up the long-debated issue in this month's National Geographic.
Though previous research has shown we may have up to a minute to rescue certain types of spilled food before it becomes contaminated, Dawson and his students made a strong case for the "zero-second rule." They found that salmonella and other bacteria can live up to four weeks on dry surfaces and be immediately transferred to food...
he zero-tolerance standard, however, conflicts with the findings of two Connecticut College student researchers who sprinkled apple slices and Skittles candies in the college dining hall and snack bar for five, 10, 30 and 60-second intervals. The apple slices picked up bacteria after one minute; nearly five minutes elapsed before the Skittles attracted any.
Still, most researchers agree that the critical thing is not time, but location. It's OK to brush off the bagel that fell from the stroller onto the sidewalk and give it to your screaming child, for example, because the pavement is cleaner than the kitchen floor in terms of the types of germs that cause illnesses, said Dr. Harley Rotbart, a professor of microbiology and pediatric infectious diseases at the University of Colorado School of Medicine.
This article continues at: http://www.chicagotribune.com/health/ct-talk-five-second-rule-20100714,0,1514264.story
Posted Mon, July 19, 2010
Filed under: FSN - Regulatory News
By Sherry Jacobson
Hundreds of businesses across Texas have been manufacturing and selling food without a state license and, in some cases, have escaped health inspections intended to ensure the safety of those products.
The businesses were flushed out in a statewide crackdown on unlicensed food manufacturers, begun last year by the Texas Department of State Health Services.
"Many of the companies we have discovered are small operations that were simply unaware they needed a state license," said Carrie Williams, a spokeswoman for the health department.
"For the most part, they have been more than willing to get into compliance with us."
The state has identified 355 companies that appear to be producing and selling a wide variety of eatable products – from barbecue sauce in Fort Worth to pepper jelly in Dallas to ice cream in Houston – all without obtaining a manufacturing license from the state.
The majority of these newfound food manufacturers have passed their state inspections without serious problems, Williams said. And so far, the state has levied no fines for unsanitary conditions.
"Some of them did have safety issues," she said. "Most were corrected on the spot or we're working with them to get them into compliance."
The state went searching for unlicensed food manufacturers in the embarrassing aftermath of last year's discovery of an unlicensed peanut-processing plant in West Texas.
The Plainview plant, owned by a subsidiary of Peanut Corporation of America, had operated for four years without any state-required safety inspections.
This article continues at: http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/localnews/stories/DN-foodinspect_18met.ART0.State.Edition1.29a61d5.html
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