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n an attempt to stay relevant to the online community, I’m going to be joining barfblog friend Don Schaffner (below, exactly as shown) on The Conversation today. The show airs live at 1pm EDT at http://5by5.tv/conversation.
I’ve been assured that the program will be archived for future viewing.
I don’t know what Folklorama is in Winnipeg (that’s in Canada) but food served at the Russian pavilion is the suspected source of an E. coli outbreak that has sickened 16 including one confirmed case at emergency 
rooms between Aug. 1 and Aug. 16.
The Winnipeg Free Press reports the parents of a two-year-old boy who suffered kidney failure want tougher food-handling rules imposed on the fair.
The boy’s mother said tests confirmed the boy had verotoxigenic E. coli and was in acute renal failure. The tot spent two nights in the pediatric intensive care unit and now has a central dialysis line in his neck and hip.
Executive director Ron Gauthier said nothing like this has ever happened before in Folklorama’s 41 years and he doesn’t know what potential changes the festival could make until the review is complete.
People who ate a Quiznos at 30 East Broadway (300 South) in Salt Lake City on August 6 or 7 may have been exposed to Hepatitis A via an infected food worker and should receive an injection of immune globulin 
(IG) or hepatitis A vaccine as soon as possible.
Those individuals may receive a vaccination at
Salt Lake Valley Health Department (SLVHD) City Clinic,
621 South 200 East, on:
* August 19 until 5 p.m.
* August 20 from 8:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m.
* August 21 from 8 a.m. to 12 p.m.
People who ate at Quiznos at 30 East Broadway (300 South) in Salt Lake City between July 27 and August 5 may also have been exposed but would not benefit from immunizations because immunizations must be given within 14 days of exposure. These people should watch for signs of hepatitis A and contact their health care provider if they develop illness.
We’ve seen a lot of toilets along the highways and byways while making the 19-hour drive from Arkansas to Anna Maria Island, Florida, including a 
couple of special ones in the middle of the night on Alabama back roads (it was a shortcut).
I told the woman encased in her plastic booth at a Shell station off I-75 in northern Florida that the men’s room was out of paper towel: she sneered.
But the best sign came from the toilets at the Southbank splash park and playground in Brisbane, Australia, where people apparently have a unique approach to using the facilities.
Celebrities are a terrible source of information about all things food, and worse when it comes to food safety.
DNAinfo reports the New York City Department of Health closed down taco hot spot La Esquina after a Monday restaurant inspection, marking the celeb-frequented eatery’s second shutdown since May.
La Esquina’s "critical" violations included inadequate refrigeration and holding large amounts of food above maximum temperatures.
In total, the restaurant racked up 64 violation points — well above the 28 necessary to earn a "C" letter grade under the department’s new system.
DNAinfo says that La Esquina’s “secret” underground passageway and cellar level restaurant have helped it earn big name fans including George Clooney, Kate Hudson and Julia Roberts.
But “combustible ceilings and inadequate egress” in those same area’s provoked the Department of Building’s spring shutdown.
The CFIA announced yesterday that Le Belle de Jersey cheese may be contaminated with Listeria.jpg)
monocytogenes. They claim that no illnesses have been reported, but we’ve all heard that one before.
The news release doesn’t include specific information regarding the affected product, like weight, lot number or locations where it was sold; information needed to avoid the tainted product.
Another product, also recalled yesterday, President’s Choice®.jpg)
Decadent Chocolate Chunk Cookies had a very different news release. The company responsible included all the necessary information to identify and avoid the product, which is not tainted with Listeria but contains metal pieces.
The reasons for recalling the products might be different but they both pose a threat to consumer’s health. So why the difference in disclosure of information between these recalls?
The CFIA should require specific information regarding recalled products so that there is no expanded health hazard alert informing how many people have gotten sick since the last health hazard alert release.
An egg-linked outbreak of Salmonella Enteriditis in the U.S. is blowing up. 
An estimated 228 million eggs recalled, 260+ illnesses in California, another 7 confirmed illnesses in Minnesota and Pulsenet lighting up with four times the expected number of cases with this particular genetic fingerprint. Click here to download the newest food safety infosheet directed at food service food handlers that focuses on the outbreak and recall.
Before I moved to North Carolina I didn’t know a whole lot of the specifics around home food preservation. I had never pickled, canned, or done anything preserve-y. My parents use to have a pickling party around Labour Day every year (the ‘u’ is in there because I lived in Canada then) but I never really got into it. 
In the past two years I’ve become a lot more involved with preservation stuff as the close to 100 extension agents across the state to whom I provide technical food safety support spend a pretty good chunk of their time teaching and answering questions about pickling, pressure canning and the likes.
I jumped into pickling last year and pressure canning this year so beyond the science aspect I have an idea of the practices – what’s tough and what might go wrong. Preservation is a bit like baking where recipes, ratios and processing times are important to create a final product that’s not going to paralyze or kill someone. Follow the rules and everything should be okay.
AP reports that something went wrong in the Chicago area and now a few folks are suffering from salmonellosis:
Salmonella isn’t typically associated with fermented or acidified cucumbers (the heat processing of the product should kill it and the pH is too low for growth of other pathogens). AP reports that the illnesses have been linked to pickles that were sold to customers in plastic bags. This outbreak looks like the result of a post-pickling issue; possibly dirty hands or equipment used to transfer the pickles to bags.After waking up in Brisbane Australia, we are now settled in Van Buren, Arkansas, just across the Oklahoma border after 30 hours of travel, on our way to a beach house in 
Florida.
It’s good to have free wireless Internet, 100 television channels and an all-you-can eat each inclusive breakfast in a suite with a king-sized bed for $83.
Life’s a beach (that’s Sorenne, left, at Surfer’s Paradise on Australia’s Gold Coast).
I especially missed my favorite Comedy Central programs while overseas, so settled down to a new episode of the Colbert Report, only to find J. Patrick Boyle, president of the American Meat Institute, going mano-a-mano with Stephen Colbert and trying to answer the question, how does poop get into hamburger?
I’ll post the video as soon as it’s up at http://www.colbertnation.com/home.
| The Colbert Report | Mon – Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c | |||
| Better Know a Lobby – American Meat Institute | ||||
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The Aussies have a way with words, as the Herald Sun proclaims this morning that Miss Universe 2004 and “glamazon Jennifer Hawkins has revealed a bout of food poisoning was the cause of her extra-skinny appearance at the Myer Summer Collection launch this 
month.”
Hawkins has told New Idea magazine she dropped weight quickly after falling ill while on holidays with her boyfriend, Jake Wall, adding,
"I had a severe case of food poisoning while I was in Europe recently and it took its toll on me. I knew I was smaller than usual, but there was nothing I could do. I ate lots of healthy food before the parade and my mum even came to Sydney to cook Jake and me a yummy meal. I do maintain a healthy lifestyle and love to exercise and eat well, but things like getting sick happen. I am only human."