Blame the consumer, flour edition: 38 sick with E. coli O121 linked to General Mills

Amy was cooking some gluten-free pie shit the other night and she asked me what the temp should be – we have conversations like that in our family – and I said I’m not too concerned about the interior fruit filling, but make sure the pastry exterior hits 165F.

sifting_flour-chris_marchantThat was because of past outbreaks.

And now this.

General Mills is recalling about 10 million pounds of flour after an E. coli outbreak associated with flour sickened 38 people in 20 states.

Mike Hughlett of the Star Tribune reports the Golden Valley-based packaged food giant on Tuesday announced the voluntary recall of some lots of its signature Gold Medal flour, along with flour sold under the Wondra and Signature Kitchens brands. Signature Kitchens is a store brand sold at several major U.S. grocery chains including Safeway, Albertson’s, Jewel, Vons and Acme.

The federal Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said Tuesday there have been 10 hospitalizations associated with the outbreak, but no deaths have been reported.

The CDC has not yet released names of states affected by the recall, but the Minnesota Department of Health confirmed that three of the 38 people sickened lived in the Twin Cities area. All three — two adults and a child — have since recovered, and none were hospitalized, said Doug Schultz, a health department spokesman.

State and federal health authorities have been investigating an outbreak of E. coli O121 from Dec. 21 to May 3, General Mills said in a statement. The Minnesota health department said the Minnesota cases occurred in January and March.

The Centers for Disease Control found that about half of the 38 sickened people reported making homemade food with flour before becoming ill. Some reported using a General Mills brand of flour. Some also might have consumed raw dough or batter.

General Mills said it has not found E. coli O121 in any of its products or at its flour facilities, nor has it received any illness reports directly from consumers. The flour involved in the recall was mostly produced at General Mills’ Kansas City plant.

But Liz Nordlie, president of General Mills Baking division, did say, Consumers are reminded to not consume any raw products made with flour. Flour is an ingredient that comes from milling wheat, something grown outdoors that carries with it risks of bacteria which are rendered harmless by baking, frying or boiling. Consumers are reminded to wash their hands, work surfaces, and utensils thoroughly after contact with raw dough products or flour, and to never eat raw dough or batter.

“As a leading provider of flour for 150 years, we felt it was important to not only recall the product and replace it for consumers if there was any doubt, but also to take this opportunity to remind our consumers how to safely handle flour.”

School caterers’ sushi slip-up in NZ

Staff who serve food at an Auckland private girls school are undergoing training after serving sushi to students a day after its use-by date.

St Cuthbert's CollegeA group of about 50 boarders at St Cuthbert’s College were served the packaged sushi, with an expiry date of Friday, for lunch on Saturday.

The error was discovered before any of the students ate the expired food, but a parent of one girl expressed concerns the students could have fallen ill right before their exams if they had eaten it.

College Principal Lynda Reid said the incident had been discussed with catering company Alliance.

When the error was spotted a different lunch was served.

“Alliance serves millions of meals each year across New Zealand and Australia and food safety is its highest priority,” the company said.

Subway sandwich artists need to become sanitarians

Subway is known for its made-to-order sandwiches and salads but one ingredient found in the kitchen by the state would never be ordered on any sandwich… rodent droppings

subway-sandwich-in-handABC Action News I-Team uncovered that last week, Subway at 696 S. Gulfview Blvd. in Clearwater Beach had to temporarily close after the state discovered over 40 rodent droppings underneath the storage rack, on top of boxes, underneath the sink, inside a bin, and near the soda syrup dispensers.

In addition, food safety issues written up in the inspection include potentially hazardous food thawed at room temperature with two tuna packages and two meat packages on the back prep table thawing, Subway’s manager lacking proof of a food manager certification, and employees failing to wash their hands before putting on gloves to work with food and failing to wash prior to heading to the front line to work.

More hand washing concerns include the hand wash sink not accessible for employees to use due to bread baking holders stored in the sink and no paper towels provided.

The state has warned this Clearwater Beach Subway before about high priority violations. In September, the state found no hot water in the facility for employees to wash their hands, no soap, no paper towels and a long list of potentially hazardous cold food held at greater than 41° Fahrenheit.

Inspectors found ham at 48°, lettuce at 47°, tomatoes at 51°, tuna at 44°, chicken at 44°, steak at 48°, pepper-jack cheese at 48°, turkey at 47°, meat trio at 45°, and cheddar cheese at 48°.

Inspectors also issued a stop sale on some of those items due to that temperature abuse.

Man in Ohio allegedly pooped on Kroger U-Scan machine

USA Today reports a Cincinnati man was jailed after he allegedly stripped naked in front of an employee at the Kroger store in Hyde Park and defecated on a U-Scan machine.

poop.kroger.may.16Colin Murphy, 23, was charged with public indecency and disorderly conduct for his actions, which took place on Sunday, according to police.

According to a court affidavit, Murphy smelled of alcohol, had slurred speech and staggered walk.

Murphy was scheduled for an arraignment Monday morning.

 

After decades of consultation, Health Canada to propose allowing irradiated ground beef to be sold

CTV News reports Health Canada will propose regulatory changes to Food and Drug Regulations next month that would allow the sale of irradiated ground beef in Canada.

consult_3A webpage on the department’s website states the proposed amendments would add fresh and frozen raw ground beef to a list of foods that are already permitted to undergo radiation treatment.

It says the purpose would be to would allow, but not require, the beef industry to use irradiation to “improve the safety of their products.”

Health Canada spokeswoman Maryse Durette says the proposed regulations for ground beef will be announced in June in the Canada Gazette and that a public consultation period will follow.

Industry groups in Canada have sought irradiation for over a decade as a way to prevent the spread of E. coli and other dangerous bacteria, but negative public reaction to it has slowed progress.

Health Canada earlier proposed to permit the sale of irradiated ground beef in 2002, but according to the web page it was never finalized “due to mostly negative stakeholder reaction.”

“I think public perception has changed,” says Mark Klassen, director of technical services with the Canadian Cattlemen’s Association, based in Alberta.

The cattlemen’s association first launched an application to use irradiation for ground beef in 1998. Its updated application in 2013 to irradiate all kinds of beef followed a tainted beef recall at what was then the XL Foods plant in southern Alberta.

Bruce Cran of the Consumers Association of Canada, which has been lobbying for irradiation, is pleased with Health Canada’s decision to move forward on ground beef. But he says chicken and salad vegetables should be irradiated, too.

“The science has been in on this one for decades that it does no harm,” says Cran, who adds the risk of foodborne illnesses is high without it.

“They’re going to have a catastrophe if they don’t do something, in my opinion.”

There are no stupid questions only stupid people – UK edition

A new Reddit thread started by user MrTalkingDuck asks, “What is the dumbest 100% serious thing someone has said to you?”

South.Park_Mr.GarrisonMiddle_sized_Richard wrote: “I was once told that drug dogs at airports etc. were addicted to the drug they were looking for.

“So each airport has a heroin dog, cocaine dog and so on. This person was a university graduate.”

Aim_snap_fail added: “I used to work in a kitchen, and one of the pot washers was cleaning a slicer and not exactly being careful.

“I told him the correct way to do it, so he didn’t chance cutting any of his fingers.

“With a straight face and complete seriousness he told me he didn’t care if he cut his finger off… It would just grow back. Like a starfish.”

Redditor Yer_F*****_Now_Bud recalled: “I’ve been a cook for 15 years. One time a server asked me to rush a chicken breast she forgot to ring in.

“I said, ‘OK, it will be a few minutes, it’s still a bit raw.’ ‘Just give it to me, it’s fine,’ she says.

“I tell her I don’t feel like giving anyone salmonella poisoning today and she will have to wait.

“Her jaw drops and her face turns red. She rather belligerently shouts just give it to her because she’s losing tip money, then adds, ‘Besides, people don’t get salmonella from chicken, they get it from salmon. You’re a cook, you should know that by now.’”

Referring to famous physicist Stephen Hawking, who has motor neurone disease and relies on a speech-generating device to talk, MyUglyKitty divulged: “Stephen Hawking is British? But he doesn’t have an accent.” ~ me, unfortunately.”

Has that mango been irradiated or you just happy to see me

A trans-Tasman review into the necessity of labelling food treated with ionizing radiation has drawn a mixed response from industry groups, consumers and activists.

Radura.mangoWhile most industry groups and corporations that produced submissions to Food Standards Australia New Zealand were supportive of removing the labelling, all but one of the private citizen submissions were against the idea.

The body will not propose a removal of the current labelling requirements at this stage, but asked respondents whether they thought the countries’ approach to signaling irradiated food was effective or necessary at present.

Irradiation, which is used as both a pest control method and way of extending food’s shelf life, is a rare practice in the two countries, used mainly as a final quarantine measure to prevent the spread of fruit flies.

Some mangoes are treated using irradiation.

Five FSANZ studies over the last 15 years and numerous World Health Organisation reports have found the irradiation process is safe, but food manufacturers are required to add a label informing consumers food has been processed in this way.

The wording of the labelling is not proscribed, though manufacturers can add an optional Radura symbol, the internationally recognised identifier of irradiated food.

Sneaky: Campy in UK chickens declines, but is an artifact

The UK Food Standards Agency says the latest data show 9.3% of chickens tested positive for the highest level of contamination in this quarter, down from 21.8% for the three months from December 2014 to February 2015*.

chickenCampylobacter was present on 50% of chicken samples, down from 71% in the equivalent quarter of the previous year. We tested 1,009 samples of fresh whole chilled UK-produced chickens and packaging this quarter.

Steve Wearne, Director of Policy at the FSA, said, “One of the reasons the survey results are lower this quarter is because of the decision taken by a number of retailers and their suppliers to remove neck skin from the bird before it goes on sale. This is good news for the consumer because the neck skin is the most contaminated part of the chicken. However it is also the part of the bird that we have been testing in our survey and this means that comparisons with previous results are not as reliable as we would like.

Therefore, this quarter, we are giving an overall figure for the amount of campylobacter on chicken and not breaking the figures down by retailer as we normally do. We have also stopped this survey and will begin a new one in the summer, with a different method of testing campylobacter levels on chicken. sFirst results from this survey, which will rank retailers, are due in January 2017.”

Alex Neil , director of policy and campaigns at Which?, said: “Despite the work by the regulator and the industry to reduce campylobacter in chickens, levels remain too high and it still poses a significant risk to the public.

“We want to see much greater transparency from the supermarkets on their own testing and the action they are taking to keep their customers safe from this bug.”

 

68 sick: 3.1 million ‘Sippee’ cups recalled due to mold

Sippy cups, those seemingly indestructible vessels that toddlers use to quench their thirst have a problem: mold can accumulate.

Tommee Tippee Sippee cupsI used to clean ours with toothpics or thin metal skewers, but that was after hundreds of uses.

Mayborn USA is recalling more than 3 million of their spill-proof Tommee Tippee Sippee cups. The recall affects five types of cups: First Sips Transition cup, Trainer Sippee cup, Sippee cup (including Cute Quips), Sportee bottle and Insulated Swiggle/Sippee tumblers.

All of them have a removable valve, which the Consumer Product Safety Commission says can develop mold if not cleaned well. The agency said 68 kids have gotten sick.

Their symptoms include vomiting and diarrhea, consistent with drinking from a cup containing mold.