The Oregon Health Authority released a statement today saying that there is an E. coli outbreak linked to Chipotle restaurants in Washington state and Oregon. At least 19 people are sick in Washington and 3 are ill in Oregon.
Eight of those sickened have been hospitalized in this outbreak. No one has died. The patient age range is from 11 to 64 years old. Those sickened live in Clackamas and Washington counties in Oregon, and in Clark, King, Skagit, and Cowlitz counties in Washington. The patients have reported eating at six of the restaurants in those states.
If you or someone you know ate at any Chipotle restaurant in the Northwest between October 14 and 23, 2015 and has been sick with vomiting and bloody diarrhea, see your health care provider. Mention this outbreak.
All Chipotle restaurants in the four county region in Oregon have been voluntarily closed. All of the Chipotle restaurants in Washington state have closed.
Raw clover sprouts on Jimmy John’s and other fast food sandwiches are the likely source of an E. coli outbreak that has sickened 10 people in Washington and Idaho, according to the Washington State Department of Health. Seven people have confirmed cases of E. coli O121 poisoning and three have probable cases. Five people have been hospitalized.
Health officials are warning consumers not to eat raw clover sprouts from Evergreen Fresh Sprouts, LLC of Idaho. They were distributed to restaurants and grocery stores in the northwest. “If you have these products at home, you should throw them out.,” said Washington State Health Officer Dr. Kathy Lofy.
In Washington, the sprouts were served on sandwiches at Jimmy John’s locations in King and Spokane counties and two Pita Pit locations in Spokane County. In Idaho, they were served at a Daanen’s Deli and a Jimmy John’s in Kootenai County. All of the restaurants have voluntarily suspended serving sprouts.
(French version — http://www.greenpeace.org/ogm)
Genetic engineering is a threat to food security, especially in a changing climate. The introduction of genetically manipulated organisms by choice or by accident grossly undermines sustainable agriculture and in so doing, severely limits the choice of food we can eat.
Once GE plants are released into the environment, they are out of control. If anything goes wrong – they are impossible to recall.
GE contamination threatens biodiversity respected as the global heritage of humankind, and one of our world’s fundamental keys to survival.
Health Officials Warn of Vibrio Bacteria in Some Massachusetts Oysters
Massachusetts health officials are warning that oysters harvested from Cape Cod Bay may be contaminated with Vibrio parahaemolyticus, a bacteria that causes about 4,500 cases of foodborne illness every year.
That area has tidal flats with shallow water that can become very warm during the day. In just the right conditions of warm temperatures and the water’s salt content, the bacteria grows very quickly in the shellfish. Then when those oysters are eaten raw or undercooked, the bacteria can make people sick.
The illness is characterized by watery diarrhea, cramping, nausea, fever, chills, and vomiting. Most people recover within a few days, but some people, especially those in high risk groups, can become seriously ill. Last year, five people became very ill with V.parahaemolyticus poisoning.
As the case count continues to rise in the nationwide Salmonella outbreak linked to raw tuna, an inspection by U.S. health officials has revealed unsanitary conditions at the India facility that produced the implicated tuna product.
On April 19, about a week after authorities announced that a ground yellowfin tuna product imported by Moon Marine USA Corporation was the likely source of the Salmonella bacteria that had sickened 116 people, health inspectors began a 6 day review of the plant where the tuna – called Nakaochi Scrape – was processed. The resulting report – issued by FDA’s Department of Health and Human Services – details a series of 10 sanitation slip-ups.
Of the offences, four were violations of Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points (HACCP) guidelines, which all foreign producers must comply with in order to export seafood to the United States. A HACCP plan identifies all points in the processing where contamination could occur and outlines steps to prevent pathogens from entering food.
In this case, inspectors noted that Moon Fishery – from which Moon Marine Co. sources its tuna – was missing the following steps from its plan:
Long in the making, the start-up date for USDA’s new Public Health Information System (PHIS) is now just two weeks away on May 29. It will replace the Performance Based Inspection System at all regulated USDA establishments and for all meat and poultry imports and exports.
Dr. Elisabeth Hagen, USDA under secretary for food safety, has hailed the coming of PHIS as a method of “arming our inspectors with a powerful tool, on the ground, to carry out USDA’s food safety mission more effectively.”
Hagen says the new single database designed to gather, collate and use all data collected by the Food Safety and Inspection Service’s (FSIS’s) entire inspection regime is not just a change out in the IT system, but an entirely new inspection infrastructure.
That new infrastructure includes more discretion for FSIS inspectors as they go about their daily work. The old Performance Based Inspection System apparently spit out a list of “scheduled” tasks for inspectors to accomplish each day.
63 people in North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee and New York have fallen ill from a rare strain of Salmonella linked to spore culture used to make unpasteurized tempeh by North Carolina food producer Smiling Hara.
The outbreak strain, Salmonella Paratyphi B, causes less severe but more contagious infections than common types of Salmonella, and it can lead to Typhoid fever in some of those it infects.
According to the Asheville Citizen-Times, Smiling Hara purchased the contaminated spore culture from Tempeh Online, a Maryland-based Company that has since taken down its web page and deleted all but one of its Twitter posts.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is working with state health officials to determine whether or not Tempeh Online’s contaminated culture might have been used by any other producers.
Smiling Hara has recalled all of its tempeh made between January 11 and April 11 with best-by dates of July 11 through October 25. The company promotes the probiotic traits of unpasteurized tempeh but says it has considered pasteurizing its product to avoid future outbreaks.
Always cook unpasteurized tempeh before eating it. If you have recently eaten tempeh and experienced fever, nausea, vomiting or abdominal cramps, please contact your health care provider.
The Right-to-Know campaign has obtained more than enough signatures on its GMO labeling petition to appear on the California ballot this fall. The petition will require GMO labeling on foods in California.
The measure would require food manufacturers to identify genetically modified organisms (GMOs) that are in any food sold in California. This may lead to nation-wide labeling so manufacturers don’t have to print two labels on the same product.
Food Poisoning Bulletin asked Stacy Malkan, Media Director for the California Right-to-Know 2012 ballot initiative, about this issue. She said, “consumers have a right to know what’s in the food we buy and eat and feed our children, just as we have the right to know how many calories are in our food, or whether food comes from other countries like Mexico or China.
The E. coli 0157:H7 outbreak linked to raw milk produced by Foundation Farm in Oregon has sickened at least 19 people. Fifteen of those victims are children; four of those children have developed hemolytic uremic syndrome.
According to the FDA’s Bad Bug Book, it can take just 10 cells of E. coli bacteria to make someone sick. Dr. Heidi Kassenborg of the Minnesota Department of Health told us that bacteria aren’t evenly distributed in milk fluids, so milk samples withdrawn for testing may not contain any bacteria, when there actually is bacteria in the product.
Hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS) is a severe complication of an infection of Shiga-toxin producing E. coli, usually E. coli O157. The toxins damage red blood cells, which creates small clots that clog the filtering system in the kidneys, causing HUS. The kidneys always suffer some injury in this condition.
HUS is characterized by hemolytic anemia (too few red blood cells), thrombocytopenia (too few blood platelets), and kidney failure. Complications of HUS include the following:
An unnamed restaurant in Spartanburg, South Carolina is the suspected source of an outbreak of shiga toxin-producing E. coli. At least eleven people are ill. Of that group, two people have developed hemolytic uremic syndrome.
Adam Myrick, Public Information Officer of the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control, told Food Poisoning Bulletin that he was not aware of any hospitalizations in the outbreak. He also said that the department does not discuss individual cases. All he would say about the restaurant is that it is a Mexican restaurant in the Spartanburg area, although there have been calls for the restaurant to be identified.
Hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS) is a severe complication of a Shiga toxin–producing Escherichia coli (generally E. coli O157) infection. It is characterized by hemolytic anemia, thrombocytopenia, and kidney failure, and most HUS victims suffer a host of other medical problems. E. coli-HUS is the most common cause of acute renal failure among young children (5 years and less) in the United States.
These are 10 things you should know if your child has an E. coli infection or has been diagnosed with HUS:
Thirty enthusiastic moms from across the United States gathered in Washington Tuesday to lobby for greater limits on antibiotics used in food animal production.
Organized by the Pew Campaign on Human Health and Industrial Farming and the American Academy of Pediatrics, the “Supermoms against Superbugs” event included more than 50 meetings with House and Senate staff, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, and the White House Domestic Policy Council.
Each mother had a different story, a different reason for becoming an advocate. Some were chefs worried about quality and health, others pediatricians concerned about untreatable infections, but for many of the moms their activism began when a child or family member was sickened or killed by antibiotic-resistant pathogens.
For Melissa Lee, it began when her nine-month-old baby Ruby contracted antibiotic-resistant Salmonella Heidelberg from meatballs made with ground turkey. It was the first time Ruby had tried turkey. “The first and the last,” said Lee.
Ruby was hospitalized for a week and then required an IV of antibiotics for another week at home. She was part of a nationwide outbreak that sparked the largest Class I meat recall in history. Contaminated ground turkey from a single Cargill plant in Arkansas was linked to the illnesses.
Multiple tools to find and track Listeria are proving successful, even though the rare pathogen was responsible last year for the most deadly outbreak of foodborne illness in decades.
Dr. Barbara Mahon from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Tuesday opened the 40th Annual Rocky Mountain Food Safety Conference in Golden, CO by putting last year’s deadly Listeria outbreak into some context, describing new efforts to control the strange bacteria.
Mahon said Listeria is a highly virulent pathogen that annually causes 1,600 illnesses and 260 deaths. Last year’s Listeria outbreak traced back to Colorado-grown cantaloupe caused 146 illnesses and at least 32 deaths.
Listeria’s threat is best illustrated by the fact that it accounts for less than one percent of all foodborne illnesses, but causes almost 20 percent of all food illness deaths. Killing Listeria, however, is not easy. The bacteria continue to thrive when refrigerated.
Finding Listeria on whole cantaloupes was new. The dangerous foodborne bacterium is usually associated with hot dogs, deli meats and soft, Mexican-style cheeses.
Mahon said the 95 percent hospitalization rate from listeriosis, and its fatality rate of at least 16 percent, makes it a very dangerous illness for the populations it impacts the most. Those include pregnant women, newborn infants and the elderly or anyone with a compromised immune system.
CDC’s “wake up call” for Listeria came in 1985 with an outbreak in Los Angles County, CA caused by Mexican cheese that involved mostly pregnant Hispanic women, Mahon said. Before the epidemic was stemmed, there were 28 deaths and 20 stillbirths.
Mahon said four surveillance tools set up in the years that followed – FoodNet, PulseNet, Listeria Initiative, and the Food Disease Outbreak Surveillance System or FDOSS – have combined to improve the Listeria outlook.
Public health officials investigating an E. coli outbreak in the Canadian province of New Brunswick named Jungle Jim’s Eatery as the likely common link on Tuesday, according to CBC News.
The province’s health department confirmed 13 people infected with E. coli O157:H7, while another 11 suspected cases are likely linked to the same outbreak.
Read Full Article Here
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Cargill Animal Nutrition announced a voluntary recall of some regional poultry and calf feed, and some whole and cracked corn products because of high levels of aflatoxin. Aflatoxin is a mold that grows on grain that was stressed while it was growing. Exposure to high levels of aflatoxin can cause liver failure.
Read Full Article Here
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Articles of Interest
Preliminary FDA Inspection Report Cites Flaws at Diamond Pet Foods Plant
Diamond Pet Foods, the company behind a massive recall of dry dog food due to Salmonella contamination that has sickened at least 16 people, was not taking “all reasonable precautions” to ensure the safety of its product, according to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration inspection report.
The Form 483 report, posted by the FDA late Tuesday afternoon, was the result of a week-long inspection that began April 12 after an outbreak of human Salmonella Infantis infection was traced to contaminated pet food manufactured at the Diamond Pet Foods plant in Gaston, S.C.
The report states that Diamond was using cardboard and duct tape on some of its equipment and that there were damaged paddles on the conveyor. The inspectors also noted that some surfaces at the facility were encrusted with food residues.
FDA inspectors specifically listed these four observations:
Russia’s food safety chief Gennady Onishchenko raised doubts on Monday over the safety of vegetables imported from the Netherlands, which he said had been experimenting with mutations of the avian flu virus.
“The Netherlands is engaged in an activity banned by international conventions. It alters properties, in particular, the properties of bird flu viruses, increasing their virulence compared with natural strains,” he said.
“Being aware of this process, we believe we must understand why this is being done and how much this threatens Russia’s national security, Onishchenko said.
Onishchenko has repeatedly claimed the European Union has failed to identify the causes of a highly pathogenic E.coli intestinal virus that claimed several lives in Europe last summer and prompted Russia to restrict vegetable imports from the EU.
About 80 people gathered outside the Hennepin County courthouse in Minneapolis on May 14 to show their support for Alvin Schlangen, a farmer from Freeport, Minnesota who faces trial on six counts of food safety violations, some of which stem from delivering raw milk to members of a food club.
Laws governing the sale of raw, or unpasteurized, milk vary from state to state. In Minnesota, farmers can sell raw milk to customers, but “only if the transaction takes place on the farm and only if the sales occur occasionally,” said Mike Schommer, Communications Director for the Minnesota Department of Agriculture (MDA). Minnesota does not require farmers who sell raw milk directly to customers to have a permit and therefore does test raw milk sold in these situations for pathogens.
The charges against Schlangen, who is an organic egg farmer and does not produce raw milk on his farm, include one count of selling raw milk, another for distributing food without a food handler’s license and one count for failing to maintain temperature requirements. His trial, which was scheduled for 9 a.m. today was pushed back until tomorrow.
On April 19, 2012 through April 24, 2012 the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) inspected Moon Fishery in India, the facility that produced the recalled Nakaochi Scrape raw tuna linked to the large Salmonella Bareilly and Salmonella Nchanga outbreak in the U.S. The same company issued a recall of raw Grade AA and AAA tuna strips, intended for sushi, last week.
As a result of that inspection, the FDA issued a warning letter to the company detailing the violations of the Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points (HACCP) plan that every food facility is required to develop and follow. Parts of the letter were redacted.
In the letter, the agency states that the facility’s HACCP plan doesn’t include the critical control points (CCP) necessary for the hazards identified for the products they produce.
Healthy food advocates took to Capitol Hill last week to show lawmakers and their staff that school food can be cooked from scratch, healthy and antibiotic-free — without spending a lot of money.
Six high school students from the Chicago Vocational Career Academy (CVCA), who competed in the Healthy Schools Campaign’s Cooking up Change, whipped up oven-“fried” chicken, raised without antibiotics, greens, cabbage, and sweet potato salad, a meal that cost around $1 per serving and meets school lunch nutritional guidelines.
Their food was served to those attending a policy briefing on the House side and was added to the Congressional cafeteria menu last Thursday.
[In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit, for research and/or educational purposes. This constitutes ‘FAIR USE’ of any such copyrighted material.]
The number of illnesses tied to a Salmonella outbreak in western North Carolina has risen from 29 to 37, health authorities reported Monday. Meanwhile, a Buncombe County tempeh maker recalled its products, apparently because it is one of several companies under investigation as a possible link to the outbreak.
The recall was initiated by Smiling Hara, which supplies frozen tempeh to local restaurants and stores, according to a news release from Blue Ridge Food Ventures, a shared-use commercial kitchen used by Smiling Hara. Tempeh is made from cooked and fermented soybeans.
“Immediately upon learning of the investigation, Blue Ridge Food Ventures temporarily halted our normal production schedule and began extensive environmental testing as a proactive, voluntary and precautionary measure,” the news release stated.
Blue Ridge Food Ventures said its facility is used by about 20 small, local food companies that rent time and industrial kitchen space to make their products. Each business has its own food production and safety plans, according to the Blue Ridge Food Ventures statement.
The bacteria – Salmonella Paratyphi B – seems to have infected those who live in or have recently visited Buncombe County, a region close to the Tennessee border that includes the city of Asheville. The local health department is collaborating with the North Carolina Department of Public Health, the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the U.S. Department of Agriculture to determine the source of the outbreak.
A Missouri Senate committee will hear and likely recommend approval of House Bill 1860, the so-called ag-gag bill the lower chamber already approved on a 124-29 vote.
If that happens, HB 1860 will get a final up or down vote on the floor of the Missouri Senate, possibly before the end of the week.
Sponsored by Rep. Casey Guernsey, who chairs the House Agribusiness Committee, HB 1860 started out as an obscure bill dealing with changes involving grain dealers and vocational education.
But then came amendments Guernsey apparently planned all along to add language making new criminal law. As it left the House, the bill would create two new “agricultural crimes” in Missouri. They are:
The Oregon farm whose raw milk is the suspected source of an E. coli outbreak that has sickened 19 has now been associated with two more food borne illness victims.
Health officials reported Monday that two adults who had consumed raw milk from Foundation Farm had contracted infections from two different pathogens – Campylobacter and Cryptosporidium.
It is not clear whether these illnesses came from the farm’s raw milk or from another source, says William Keene, Senior Epidemiologist at the Oregon Public Health Division. And without more than one illness, neither of these cases will be classified as part of an outbreak.
Salmonella Paratyphi B, the pathogen at the heart of an outbreak near Asheville. N.C. that has sickened at least 37 people, is a rare substrain of a common bacteria. So rare, in fact, that this is the first time the bacteria has caused a foodborne illness outbreak in North Carolina.
“There has never been one before,” said Mark Van Sciver, public information officer with the North Carolina Department of Health And Human Services.
Salmonella bacteria are the most frequently reported cause of foodborne disease in the Unites States causing 1.4 million illnesses and more than 400 deaths each year, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA).
The Salmonella family includes more than 2,300 substrains but just two of them- Salmonella Enteritidis and Salmonella Typhimurium account for half of all infections, according to the USDA. Between 1998 and 2009, there were 458 foodborne illness outbreaks caused by Salmonella Enteritidis, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). During that same period, just three outbreaks were caused by Salmonella Paratyphi B.
According to Lisa LaPlante, Communications and Marketing Manager of the Kent County Department of Health, the source of the April 15, 2012 food poisoning outbreak at the Kent County Jail has been discovered.
Laboratory tests have revealed that there was Clostridium perfringens, a spore-producing bacteria, in a rice and cheese product. The food was prepared, chilled, and then reheated and served to the inmates.
Kaytee Pet Products is recalling Kaytee Forti-Diet Pro Health Mouse, Rat, and Hamster food because of possible Salmonella contamination. No pet or human illnesses have been reported to date.
Diamond Pet Foods is expanding a voluntary recall to include Diamond Puppy Formula dry dog food. Salmonella was found in the product. No dog illnesses have been reported.
Human beings who handle the food may be exposed to the bacteria. Salmonella causes nausea, vomiting, bloody diarrhea, abdominal cramps. Long term effects of this illness include arthritis, urinary tract problems, hypertension, and heart disease. Some pets will only have decreased appetite, fever, and abdominal pain, but some dogs can be carriers of the bacteria with no symptoms.
The company requests that anyone who has fed these products to their animals with those symptoms take them to a veterinarian for tests.
KFC Ordered to Pay $8.3 Million to Australian Girl Paralyzed After Eating a Twister Wrap
Monika Samaan was seven when she suffered salmonella encephalopathy — a brain injury linked to food poisoning that also left her with a blood infection and septic shock.
April 27, 2012
Fast food giant Kentucky Fried Chicken has been ordered to pay Aus$8 million (US$8.3 million) to an Australian girl who suffered severe brain damage and was paralyzed after eating a Twister wrap.
Monika Samaan was seven when she suffered salmonella encephalopathy — a brain injury linked to food poisoning that also left her with a blood infection and septic shock — in October 2005.
Several other family members also fell ill and they claimed Samaan’s injuries, which include severe cognitive, motor and speech impairment and spastic quadriplegia, were caused by a chicken Twister wrap from a Sydney KFC outlet.
Food Safety News writer Ross Anderson recently toured fish farms and processing plants in southern Chile as a guest of Salmon of the Americas, a Chilean trade organization. This is the second of two reports.
Puerto Montt, Chile – In the Pacific Northwest, where I’ve lived and worked for 40 years, salmon is more than a commodity. It’s a regional icon and an article of faith, part of a regional doctrine that dictates: thou shalt eat wild salmon only, for farmed salmon is a blasphemy.
As a journalist with agnostic tendencies, I’ve never really subscribed to this belief. But I’ve always been a tad suspicious of farmed salmon. I suppose it has to do with vague recollections of something I read about the use of antibiotics, or to the label we frequently see on salmon packages: “color added.”
So when I jetted off to Chile a few weeks ago, it was with a twinge of skepticism.
Over the following five days, I saw a lot of fish. I walked the galvanized steel catwalks around floating net pens the size of three football fields and 100 feet deep – pens that contained millions of Atlantic salmon, shadowy missiles milling beneath the surface until the automatic feeders spring to action and the surface suddenly boils with bright, silvery, hungry salmon that reminded me of an Alaska spawning run.
I toured factories that resemble surgical wards, with scores of workers draped in white gowns, masks and rubber boots, stepping through disinfectant baths between rooms. I watched men and women trimming gorgeous, red fillets into meal-size portions for freezing, then for shipment to markets around the world. I listened to workers explain what they do, and what they’ve learned from the last few years, when an invading virus killed millions of fish, and almost killed the industry.
At each stop, I asked questions about our perceptions of farmed salmon, about antibiotics and Omega 3 fatty acids and food coloring.
Industry leaders, of course, assure us that all is well. So in recent days, I’ve consulted with several independent experts, including Dr. Mike Rust, aquaculture researcher at the Northwest Fisheries Science Center in Seattle; Dr. John Forster, a marine biologist and aquaculture expert based in Port Angeles, WA; and Gary Marty, a fisheries expert with the Canadian Agriculture Ministry and a professor at the University of California. Here’s what I’ve learned.
The Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) is appropriately handling industry appeals of its humane handling enforcement actions, according to a recent report by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Office of Inspector General (OIG).
The audit — which was requested by the Office of Food Safety to “ensure that FSIS was appropriately enforcing federal humane handling laws” — was positive across the board and made no formal recommendations for the agency. The review was part of a multi-pronged reaction to a 2010 Government Accountability Office report that found enforcement of humane handling laws was inconsistent.
“The OIG determination shows that FSIS’ enforcement of humane handling regulations, as well as its appeals process, is fair and consistent,” Under Secretary for Food Safety Elisabeth Hagen said in a USDA release on Monday. “As OIG noted, FSIS has taken many steps to improve its inspectors’ understanding of humane handling requirements and the tools they have to ensure the humane handling of livestock.”
***Here I have taken the liberty of including a response that was given to the report above. I found it so compelling and resonant with my own misgivings about the supposed enforcement of these rules. Had they been enforced properly from the get go much of the cruelty and the inhumane treatment that is reported often would not be occurring.
susan Rudnicki
05/01/2012
9:40AM
Frankly, having experience with other OIG reports monitoring the very agencies they are “investigating” I find the conclusions of this “report” unhelpful, ridiculously limited, and missing the point. I bet no one will read the actual document, but I did and pulled out a few of the most egregious assertions.
“Fieldwork was performed at the FSIS headquarters office in Washington, D.C., and FSIS district offices in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The selection of district offices was based on the number of appealed humane handling noncompliance records and the number of appeals that were granted. We did not perform any reviews at slaughter establishments for this audit.” WOW–THIS MAKES EVERY CONFIDENCE THAT ANALYZING DATA IN A OFFICE, FROM THE QUESTIONABLE SOURCES RECORDING THE DATA, IS LIKELY TO TURN UP INHUMANE CONDUCT, EH?
Although FSIS guidance states that the public health veterinarian, inspector in charge, front line supervisor, and district manager should attempt to respond to appeals within 2 weeks, we found the average time for the FSIS officials listed above to respond to an appeal was 28 days (4 weeks). We identified 9 instances where FSIS took 100 or more days to respond to an appealed humane handling violation, with the longest time being 302 days. We determined that, for 61 of the 138 (44 percent) appeals, FSIS took more than 2 weeks to respond, and 46 of the 138 (33 percent) took more than 3 weeks. SO, SKINNING/DECAPITATING OF LIVE CALVES, AS REPORTED BY THE WHISTLE BLOWER AT THE BELTWAY PLANT (FOR EXAMPLE) WOULD BE GETTING A QUICK RESPONSE, USING THIS RUBRIC?? MY GUESS IS A LOT OF DOWNERS AND OTHER INHUMANE ISSUES WOULD KEEP HAPPENING TILL THE AUTHORITIES “GET ‘ROUND TO IT.
Of the 138 appeals of humane handling noncompliance records, 8 were granted because the FSIS inspector’s description of the noncompliance was unclear or inadequate and the FSIS personnel at the next level of appeal could not determine if the situation was actually a humane handling violation. For example, one supervisor reviewing an appeal wrote that he granted the appeal “due to an inadequate description of the noncompliance within Block 10 of the NR [noncompliance record]. The noncompliance was not apparent with the description provided.” Block 10 is the space within the noncompliance record form used to describe the noncompliance observed by FSIS personnel. SO, A SPACE ON A REPORT PAPER IS UTILIZED FOR RECORDING THE NATURE OF CRUELTY, BUT THE OBSERVER IS SO LANGUAGE CHALLENGED, THEY CAN NOT PUT IT INTO WORDS? MAYBE WE NEED SOME PHOTOS TO REFER TO WITH THE OBSERVERS PAPERS—“CAN YOU MATCH THIS HORROR?” “IF IT LOOKS LIKE THIS, IT IS INHUMANE”
For example, one of the five appeals describes how an FSIS inspector observed animal handlers chasing animals into the kill alley by shouting and whistling. According to Federal regulations, livestock must be driven to slaughter at a normal walking pace and with a minimum of excitement and discomfort to the animals.10 After the inspector issued a noncompliance record, the establishment appealed, and the appeal was granted by the inspector in charge. The inspector in charge did not question the validity of the events described in the noncompliance record but did acknowledge that, after discussions with the plant’s management and the subsequent actions taken by the establishment, the animal handlers’ performance was much improved. In other words, the appeal appears to have been granted based solely on corrective actions; namely, the subsequent improvement of animal movement by establishment personnel. CONSIDERING THE HORRIFIC ALLEGATIONS OF SKINNING ALIVE WEEK OLD CALVES, HOTSHOTTING DAIRY COWS UNABLE TO WALK, ETC. THIS WAS THE EXAMPLE THEY CHOOSE TO DOCUMENT? LET US SANITIZE THE ISSUES, PLEASE This report is a travesty of self-serving reporting
Last month’s case of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), popularly known as “mad cow disease” raised the spectre of that illness in the United States.
There is evidence that there are two types of BSE: typical and atypical. The typical strain is contracted when the animals are given food made from contaminated cows. A ban on this practice, known as “mammalian-to-ruminant feed ban” was instituted in 1997 in the U.S. and Canada. The ban was enhanced in 2007 to include “specified risk materials from all animal feeds, pet foods, and fertilizers.”
The atypical BSE may be a different strain of the prion. Scientists say that these cases are most likely spontaneous mutations, although it may be transmitted through food or the environment.
There have been four cases of BSE in cattle in the United States: one in 2003 in Washington State, the second in Texas in 2005, the third in Alabama in 2006, and the California dairy cow in April 2012.
In the first case, that cow had typical BSE. It was imported into the country from Canada where it was born, before the Canadian feed ban was established. The second two cases were atypical BSE, which occur as spontaneous mutations and are not related to consuming contaminated feed. Scientists say that the fourth case was also a spontaneous mutation.
Food Poisoning Bulletin asked Dr. Alfredo DiCostanzo, Professor of Animal Science at the University of Minnesota, about this case.
He said, “the cases found in 2004, 2006, and this most recent case were not related in any way to feeding animal byproducts to cattle. BSE in these cases was the result of a spontaneous prion protein mutation. Therefore, dietary ingredients can effectively be ruled out as the source of the disease in these cases.”
[In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit, for research and/or educational purposes. This constitutes ‘FAIR USE’ of any such copyrighted material.]
Nineteen people in Oregon are ill with E. coli in an outbreak traced to raw milk from Foundation Farm near Wilsonville — up one from the 18 cases reported Thursday — according to a April 20 news release from the Public Health Division of the state’s Health Authority.
Of the 19 people, 11 have culture-confirmed E. coli O157 infections. Fifteen of the 19 cases are children 19 or younger. Four of the children have been hospitalized with kidney failure. On April 19, a Portland hospital confirmed that one of the hospitalized children — a 13-year-old girl — was in critical condition.
Nineteen more cases of Salmonella Bareilly infection have been confirmed in the multistate outbreak linked to sushi tuna. At least 160 people in 20 states and the District of Columbia have been sickened, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported Friday.
However, this outbreak is probably much larger, and many more illnesses likely occurred than those confirmed through lab analysis of stool specimens. For every case of salmonellosis reported, the CDC estimates 38.6 go unreported. That would translate to about 6,176 people ill from eating tainted tuna.
The implicated frozen raw yellowfin tuna product – known as “tuna scrape” because it is back meat scraped from tuna bones – was imported from India and has been recalled by the California-based distributor, Moon Marine USA. The Nakaochi Scrape resembles ground tuna and is used to make sashimi, ceviche and sushi, particularly “spicy tuna” sushi.
Illnesses in the ongoing E. coli O157:H7 outbreak in central Missouri rose to 15 on Friday, while information on the individual infections suggests they may come from multiple sources.
Of the 15 cases, seven individuals have reported that they consumed raw milk products from a single dairy in Howard County. As a result, the dairy has been under investigation and has halted sales of its raw milk products.
The E. coli infections in six of those seven raw milk drinkers have shown to match by their identifiable genetic pattern known as a pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE). The infection of the seventh raw milk drinker — the newest addition to the total number ill — has a different PFGE pattern, though one that is very similar to the other six, according to epidemiologist Sarah Rainey at Missouri’s Columbia-Boone County Health Department.
The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) is recalling fesikh, a salted and cured fish product because it may be contaminated with Clostridium botulinum. This dangerous bacteria can cause botulism, which can be life-threatening.
Fesikh is left out to rot, or putrefy, and is then salted and pickled for several months. It’s served during the celebration of spring in Egypt called Sham el-Nessim. Some people die every year of botulism poisoning after eating this product.
The whole fish was sold in clear vacuum-packaged bags of different counts and weights. There was no code or date information. The fish was sold from Lotus Catering and Fine Food at 1960 Lawrence Avenue East in Toronto, Ontario, on or before April 17, 2012.
Albie’s Foods of Gaylord, MI is recalling approximately 311 pounds of pizza calzone due to possible contamination with Listeria monocytogenes, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) announced late Friday.
The problem was discovered during routine FSIS testing.
FSIS and the company say they have received no reports of illnesses associated with the calzone.
The fully cooked, ready-to-eat, calzone products were produced on April 10, 2012, and shipped to institutions in Indiana and Michigan.
Old Style Sausage of Denver, CO is recalling approximately 3,000 pounds of bratwurst distributed to restaurants in Colorado because the sausage contains egg, an allergen not declared on the package label.
The problem was discovered during a routine food safety assessment and may have occurred as a result of a change in ingredient formulation, according to the recall alert.
FSIS and the company said they have not received reports of adverse reactions.
[In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit, for research and/or educational purposes. This constitutes ‘FAIR USE’ of any such copyrighted material.]
An outbreak of E. coli O157:H7 linked to raw milk has sickened 13 Missouri residents and led to the hospitalization of two children. The Missouri Department of Health confirmed Saturday that the number of outbreak victims has expanded from the 5 victims previously reported, with cases now in Boone, Camden, Clark, Cooper, Howard, Jackson and Randolph counties. One of the two children hospitalized with HUS – a severe complication of an E. coli infection that leads to kidney failure – remains in the hospital, according to St. Louis Today.
The months-long search for the origin of the multi-state Salmonella outbreak ended yesterday with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) announcement that frozen, raw, yellowfin tuna product from Moon Marine USA Corporation of Cupertino, Calif. is the source of the outbreak.
State and federal investigators have been working since January to identify the source of the Salmonella Bareilly outbreak that has sickened at least 116 people in 20 states and the District of Columbia. Food Poisoning Bulletin (FPB) asked Michael Batz, Head of Food Safety Programs at the University of Florida Emerging Pathogens Institute, if he was surprised at how long the investigation into the source of the outbreak took.
Millions Against Monsanto: The Food Fight of Our Lives
Finally, public opinion around the biotech industry’s contamination of our food supply and destruction of our environment has reached the tipping point. We’re fighting back.
Photo Credit: Shutterstock/Zvonimir Atletic
“If you put a label on genetically engineered food you might as well put a skull and crossbones on it.” — Norman Braksick, president of Asgrow Seed Co., a subsidiary of Monsanto, quoted in the Kansas City Star, March 7, 1994
“Monsanto should not have to vouchsafe the safety of biotech food. Our interest is in selling as much of it as possible. Assuring its safety is the FDA’s job.” — Phil Angell, Monsanto’s director of corporate communications, quoted in the New York Times, October 25, 1998
For nearly two decades, Monsanto and corporate agribusiness have exercised near-dictatorial control over American agriculture, aided and abetted by indentured politicians and regulatory agencies, supermarket chains, giant food processors, and the so-called “natural” products industry.
Finally, public opinion around the biotech industry’s contamination of our food supply and destruction of our environment has reached the tipping point. We’re fighting back.
Just One of Monsanto’s Crimes, or Why We Can’t Trust the EPA
By Alexis Baden-Mayer
2,4-D and the dioxin pollution it creates are too dangerous to allow, period, but in the hands of bad actors like Monsanto and Dow Chemical the dangers increase exponentially. What’s the Environmental Protection Agency doing? Helping cover-up the chemical companies’ crimes!
In February, Monsanto agreed to pay up to $93 million in a class-action lawsuit brought by the residents of Nitro, West Virginia, for dioxin exposure from accidents and pollution at an herbicide plant that operated in their town from 1929 to 2004.
That may seem like justice, but it is actually the result of Monsanto’s extraordinary efforts to hide the truth, evade criminal prosecution and avoid legal responsibility.
A brief criminal fraud investigation conducted (and quickly aborted) by the EPA revealed that Monsanto used a disaster at their Nitro, WV, plant to manufacture “evidence” that dioxin exposure produced a skin condition called chloracne, but was not responsible for neurological health effects or cancers such as Non-Hodgkins lymphoma.
These conclusions were repeatedly utilized by EPA and the Veterans Administration to deny help to citizens exposed to dioxin, if these persons did not exhibit chloracne.
The EPA knew the truth about Monsanto’s dioxin crimes, but it decided to hide it. Why? It would have affected us all. EPA’s brief criminal investigation of Monsanto included evidence that Monsanto knowingly contaminated Lysol with dioxin, even as the product was being marketed for cleaning babies’ toys.
Here are the details of this jaw-dropping and heart-breaking case of corporate criminality and EPA collusion.
Dole Fresh Vegetables is voluntarily recalling 756 cases of its DOLE Seven Lettuces salad because the product may be contaminated with Salmonella.
The salad was recalled Saturday after testing by New York State health officials revealed Salmonella bacteria in a sample of the product, according to Market Watch.
On Friday, the Oregon Public Health Division, Department of Agriculture and several local Oregon health departments announced that they were investigating an outbreak of Escherichia coli O157:H7 (E. coli) infections that at the time had left three Portland-area children hospitalized, two with hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS), a complication of E. coli infection that can lead to kidney failure. All of these children drank raw milk from the same small farm: Foundation Farm in Clackamas County. The farm has voluntarily ceased its milk distribution to customers in Clackamas, Multnomah, and Washington counties. As many as 11 may be sickened.
According to news reports over the last week, Missouri state health officials have confirmed E. coli cases in Boone, Cooper, Howard, Camden and Jackson counties. Health officials say a 2-year-old girl and a 17-month-old child developed HUS, and while not all 13 E. coli cases have been clearly attributed to raw milk consumption, investigators say raw dairy products are a “possible” factor in some of the cases.
I’ve been asked lots of questions about raw milk consumption, E. coli outbreaks, and other topics in the nearly 20 years I’ve been litigating E. coli cases. Here are some of my favorite questions and answers about raw milk:
I think, too, that there’s an inherent distrust of government, so when the government or big agriculture tells people not to feed their kids raw milk–a natural food–it’s easy for people to ignore that advice. Especially when they can afford it.
[In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit, for research and/or educational purposes. This constitutes ‘FAIR USE’ of any such copyrighted material.]
An outbreak of illnesses caused by Salmonella Bareilly poisoning, possibly linked but not confirmed to be associated with sushi, had sickened 90 people in 19 states and the District of Columbia as of Monday, according to sources within the U.S….
Raw Milk and Cheese Recalled from Pennsylvania Dairy
By James Andrews
The Pennsylvania State Departments of Agriculture and Health on Monday announced the recall of raw milk and raw milk cheese from Jersey Hollow Farm in Kutztown, Pennsylvania after an independent lab confirmed products from the dairy tested positive for Salmonella.The…
Final Report on Jimmy John’s E. coli Outbreak: 29 Ill in 11 States
By Gretchen Goetz
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has issued a final report on the multistate outbreak of E. coli infection linked to sprouts in Jimmy John’s sandwiches. Between late December 2011 and early March of 2012, 29 individuals were infected…
Allergen Alert: Soy, Milk in Beef-Stuffed Potatoes
By News Desk
Al Baghdadi Food of Hazel Park, MI is recalling approximately 5,400 pounds of a stuffed potato product with beef filling because of misbranding and undeclared allergens. The product contains soy and milk, allergens not declared on the label, the USDA’s…
[In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit, for research and/or educational purposes. This constitutes ‘FAIR USE’ of any such copyrighted material.]
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Raw clover sprouts on Jimmy John’s and other fast food sandwiches are the likely source of an 
Massachusetts health officials are warning that oysters harvested from Cape Cod Bay may be contaminated with 
The Right-to-Know campaign has obtained more than enough signatures on its GMO labeling petition to appear on the California ballot this fall. The petition will require GMO labeling on foods in California.
The E. coli 0157:H7 outbreak linked to raw milk 
An 
For Melissa Lee, it began when her nine-month-old baby Ruby contracted antibiotic-resistant Salmonella Heidelberg from meatballs made with ground turkey. It was the first time Ruby had tried turkey. “The first and the last,” said Lee.
Cargill Animal Nutrition announced a voluntary recall of some regional poultry and calf feed, and some whole and cracked corn products because of high levels of aflatoxin. Aflatoxin is a mold that grows on grain that was stressed while it was growing. Exposure to high levels of aflatoxin can cause liver failure.
About 80 people gathered outside the Hennepin County courthouse in Minneapolis on May 14 to show their support for Alvin Schlangen, a farmer from Freeport, Minnesota who faces trial on 
On April 19, 2012 through April 24, 2012 the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) inspected Moon Fishery in India, the facility that produced the 
Six high school students from the Chicago Vocational Career Academy (CVCA), who competed in the Healthy Schools Campaign’s Cooking up Change, whipped up oven-“fried” chicken, raised without antibiotics, greens, cabbage, and sweet potato salad, a meal that cost around $1 per serving and meets school lunch nutritional guidelines.
Salmonella bacteria are the most frequently reported cause of foodborne disease in the Unites States causing 1.4 million illnesses and more than 400 deaths each year, according to the 
According to Lisa LaPlante, Communications and Marketing Manager of the Kent County Department of Health, the source of the April 15, 2012 food poisoning outbreak at the 
Diamond Pet Foods is expanding a 
The audit — which was requested by the Office of Food Safety to “ensure that FSIS was appropriately enforcing federal humane handling laws” — was positive across the board and made no formal recommendations for the agency. The review was part of a multi-pronged reaction to a 2010 Government Accountability Office report 
Last month’s case of 
The Missouri Department of Health confirmed Saturday that the number of outbreak victims has expanded from the 5 victims previously reported, with cases now in Boone, Camden, Clark, Cooper, Howard, Jackson and Randolph counties. One of the two children hospitalized with 
The months-long search for the origin of the multi-state 
Family Survival Protocol - Microcosm News 