Tag Archives: Food

Hot trucks carrying perishable food getting worse

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So much for the cold-chain.

13 Investigates – the voice of Indiana – found beef, pork, chicken, eggs, milk, and produce being transported in hot trucks that do not have proper refrigeration.

"If it’s happening here in Indiana," it’s happening in Texas and North Carolina and California," said Capt. Wayne Andrews, who oversees Indiana State Police’s Motor Carrier Enforcement Division. "This is not just an Indiana problem and we need to do more to address it."

"It’s just not working properly and it had approximately a 94.7 degree reading at the time of the traffic stop," explained ISP Trooper Ashley Hart, standing next to a hot truck she pulled over along Interstate 65 near Lafayette. The truck was carrying raw meat, eggs and produce from a warehouse in Chicago to restaurants in Indianapolis.

"It’s absolutely disgusting," she added.

13 Investigates first exposed the problem in July as state police partnered with local health departments to keep spoiled food from hot trucks off Hoosier dinner plates. Since then, the danger has not gone away.

"The problem is growing," said Andrews, whose motor carrier inspectors have found more hot trucks than they ever expected.

Last week, on a 92-degree day, state police stopped a food truck heading northbound on Interstate 69 near Muncie. The truck’s refrigeration unit was broken and inside, eggs, pork, shrimp, and fish were found to be 66 degrees. Food safety inspectors from the Delaware County Health Department say that is both dangerous and illegal.

Indiana’s effort to crack down on hot trucks is about to get some national exposure. After seeing WTHR’s investigation, NBC’s TODAY Show has decided to highlight this problem as a national issue. TODAY sent a crew to Indiana last week and will feature a special report on hot trucks September 22 — this Thursday morning. You can see the report on Channel 13.

Jetstar passengers offered vouchers after man ‘chokes to death on in-flight meal’

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 Choking on food is a well-recognized, if underdocumented, hazard.

And although daughter Courtlynn had her Los Angeles wait time extended from a scheduled five hours to 12 hours, she didn’t have to endure a dead body.

Jetstar passengers were offered a $100 travel voucher after a man died on a flight from Singapore to Auckland, N.Z. last week.

Hamilton city councillor Ewan Wilson, a former pilot and Kiwi Air founder, said he watched in horror as Robert Rippingale’s body was carried away and put in a crew restarea for the remainder of the long-haul flight.

What caused his death is now the subject of a coronial inquest, but reports have said Rippingale choked to death on a meal.

His girlfriend, Vanessa Preechakul, 27, told the New Zealand Herald how she sat next to his body for the duration of the flight.

A doctor on board pronounced Mr Rippingale dead 90 minutes after take-off.
"One minute we were sitting next to each other kissing, holding hands and the next minute he was choking," Ms Preechakul said at his funeral, yesterday.

Food trial goes wrong at hospital; 10 sick

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An investigation is under way at a U.K. hospital after 10 staff who took part in a food trial were struck down with illness.

Eight of the catering team at Raigmore Hospital in Inverness received treatment in the accident and emergency department.

The workers were testing a new food product aimed at patients with swallowing difficulties, such as stroke victims and dementia sufferers.

Symptoms ranged from temporary loss of vision to facial inflammation. None of the staff was detained in hospital and all are now back at work. No patients were affected and the kitchens were not shut down. It is believed that the illness was not food-related, a spokeswoman for NHS Highland said. The food packaging is the suspected source of the illnesses.

A source, who wished to remain anonymous, said: "Some had lost their vision because their eyes were so swollen, they couldn’t open them. It must have been frightening."

"I am surprised the kitchen was not closed down for a while to find out what was going on," the source added.

Raigmore has 577 beds and employs around 3,200 staff. The catering department has 60 staff who provide 2,500 meals a day to patients, staff and visitors.

Rat poop everywhere on Delta jet

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Rat poop may be the immediate health risk, but gnawing on wires is even more dangerous.

We found this out the expensive way a couple of times in Kansas, when rats, seeking warmth, entered the car’s engine and decided to go for a chomp.

It’s happened twice.

Bloomberg reports that rodent droppings “too numerous to count” were found by U.S. health inspectors near a Delta Air Lines Inc. (DAL) jet’s galley where food and drink are stored.

The excrement and mammalian urine turned up in inspections at a Delta hangar in Atlanta, the Food and Drug Administration said in an April 13 letter to the airline.

Delta’s response to the agency didn’t include steps to prevent a recurrence, which is “likely” unless such measures are taken, the FDA said.

The FDA said the inspections took place from Jan. 26 through Feb. 2. Rodent excrement was discovered above the right and left forward galleys and mammalian urine was detected in six areas on ceiling panels over a galley, according to the FDA.

Chad Artimovich, president of Atlanta Wildlife Solutions LLC, a pest-control company, said,

“Once it gets in there and gets established, there’s no reason to leave. The real concern is if a rat started chewing on wires. Almost every house I go into where there are rats, they’ve chewed on wood and wiring and ornaments. Their teeth are harder than iron and they have to keep them gnawed down.”
 

Dirty dining: hidden cameras roll as waiter drops food on the floor and serves it; would you say anything?

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ABC News set out to find what bystanders would do if they witnessed a waiter drop food on the floor and serve it to unsuspecting patrons. We set up hidden cameras at Holsten’s Confectionary in Bloomfield, N.J. — a popular, well-regarded restaurant that would, of course, never tolerate such behavior from its own staff — and hired actors to play a clumsy waiter and a hungry couple, out with a hankering for grilled cheese sandwiches. We found people were quick to warn our couple when they saw the disservice. But would anyone alert our couple if they became obnoxious and impolite?

What They Said:
"He picked up the pickles and everything and pit it back on the plate…just dropped it on the floor and brought it over." ?
— a shocked Holsten’s customer after witnessing our actor server’s spill
"I should have called him on it, but I didn’t."?
— a sympathetic customer who was a former waitress
"Why don’t you get our food. You’re incompetent…I don’t care if you’re sorry, I just want our food."?
— our "What Would You Do?" offensive couple
"He deserved to eat the food that fell on the floor."
— a customer that kept quiet about the tainted food
"Let him eat the dirty food. He was being a dirty man."
— Holsten’s patron reacting to our rude actors

Who goes to a restaurant for a grilled cheese sandwich?
 

One in four 2010 food complaints in Ireland related to food premises

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Food contaminated with teeth, zips and washers were among the 10,898 queries and complaints received by the folks that run the food batphone in Ireland in 2010.

The Food Safety Authority of Ireland reports that one in four of all calls related to consumers reporting issues concerning food and food establishments. Representing an increase of over 7% on 2009, these 2,126 (1,981 in 2009) complaints ranged from reports of unfit food, low hygiene standards, inaccurate labelling information and suspected food poisoning.

The 2,126 complaints lodged by consumers were:

• 914 complaints on unfit food
• 433 complaints on suspect food poisoning
• 402 complaints on hygiene standards
• 156 complaints on incorrect information on food labeling
• 25 complaints on incorrect advertising of food products
• 196 other.

The FSAI confirms that contamination with foreign objects was frequently reported by consumers. In 2010, these reports included food contaminated with live and dead insects; a tooth; a needle; safety pins; stones; and a cotton bud.

5-second rule should be 0-second rule

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A couple of my Canadian kids were visiting last week during their university spring break. They’re both in biology, so the fruit don’t fall far from the … nevermind.

We were at Target – always a popular outing because Target stores are only now becoming established in Canada – and got some M&M’s for Sorenne. She dropped one on the floor and then picked it up and ate it.

I shrugged.

This was terrible food safety behavior on my part but I can’t babysit all the time.

And from my perspective, the risk was low.

The N.Y. Times quotes Dr. Roy M. Gulick, chief of the division of infectious diseases at Weill Cornell Medical College, as saying,

“The five-second rule probably should become the zero-second rule. Eating dropped food poses a risk for ingestion of bacteria and subsequent gastrointestinal disease, and the time the food sits on the floor does not change the risk.”

In general, if there are bacteria on the floor, they will cling to the food nearly immediately on contact, Dr. Gulick said. Factors that influence the risk and the rate of bacterial transfer include the type of floor; the type of food; the type of bacteria; and how long the bacteria have been on the floor.

In a study published in 2006 in The Journal of Applied Microbiology, Clemson University researchers tested salmonella placed on wood, tile or carpet, and dropped bologna on the surfaces for 5, 30 or 60 seconds. With both wood and tile, more than 99 percent of the bacteria were transferred nearly immediately, and there was no difference by the time of contact. Carpet transferred a smaller number of bacteria, again with no difference by contact time. The amount transferred decreased over hours, but there were still thousands of the bacteria per square centimeter on the surfaces after 24 hours, and hundreds survived on the surfaces for as long as four weeks. As few as 10 salmonella bacteria can cause gastroenteritis.
 

Aussie hotel staff fed up with Valentine’s stains

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Valentine’s Day is a time for love, but Melbourne hotel workers say they are fed up with cleaning rooms covered in fruits, chocolates and other things.

"For us, Valentine’s Day means flower petals scattered all over the floors, spilt champagne everywhere and some very questionable stains all over the beds, but no extra time to clean," said one Hilton Hotel room attendant.

"We see exotic fruits and chocolates ground into the carpets, bubble bath all over the bathroom and massage oils all over the bed. And don’t even ask me about the whipped cream.”

The Liquor, Hospitality and Miscellaneous Union (LHMU) has planned a protest outside the Hilton South Wharf Hotel in Melbourne, where they will be handing out cleaning wipes and asking for a hand.

The union said cleaners get as little as 15 minutes to tidy a room, a job staff say requires about 45 minutes to do properly.

Melbourne was in the grip of a hygiene crisis because of the insufficient cleaning time, which was putting guests’ health at risk, the LHMU said.

Hilton South Wharf general manager Michael Bourne said the LHMU had been making allegations concerning the hotel for quite a while, but had refused to discuss the claims.

Language a ‘risk factor’ for listeria in Australia

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Focusing on the language needs of expectant mothers and enhancing food safety in hospitals could reduce cases of foodborne illness caused by listeria.

Australian researchers report in the current Epidemiology and Infection that of 136 cases of listeriosis in Australia between Nov. 2001 and Dec. 2004, 40 per cent of cases with prior hospitalization were exposed to high-risk foods during hospitalization; consumption of camembert cheese was an additional risk factor.

Of the 19 perinatal cases — defined as illness in a pregnant woman, fetal loss, or illness in a baby aged less than 3 months with isolation of L. monocytogenes from at least one of the maternofetal pair — living in a household where a language other than English (LOTE) was spoken was the primary risk factor associated with listeriosis.

The numbers are small, but the researchers have identified a persistent problem – providing information is nice, but what if the target can’t read or understand (in this case) English?

“The Food Standards Australia and New Zealand (FSANZ) website only provides a brochure on listeriosis and food in English. Languages used in State and Territory brochures vary widely with some only including English while others provide up to 14 languages other than English.

“This study identified that listeriosis prevention messages need to be disseminated in multiple languages and primary-care practitioners should ensure that patients from households speaking a LOTE receive counselling on listeriosis prevention.”

Which sounds nice, but since hospitals are serving high-risk foods to others at risk, maybe the medical community is a limited source of information. And just because a brochure is in another language doesn’t mean anyone will read it or act upon the information. That requires far more rigorous evaluation in terms of information needs, delivery, messages and accuracy. The morons at Toronto Sick Kids hospital told moms-to-be that cold-cuts and raw fish were OK (they’re not).

As the authors conclude,

“The effectiveness of the implementation of the new food safety programs for food service to vulnerable persons should be carefully evaluated to ensure optimal protection of this group.”

A national case-control study of risk factors for listeriosis in Australia
30.apr.10
Epidemiology and Infection (2011), 139: 437-445
C.B. Dalton, T.D. Merritt, L.E. Unicomb, M.D. Kirk, R.J. Stafford, K. Lalor and the OzFoodNet Working Group
http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayAbstract?fromPage=online&aid=8013904
Abstract
Listeriosis is a foodborne disease associated with significant mortality. This study attempts to identify risk factors for sporadic listeriosis in Australia. Information on underlying illnesses was obtained from cases’ treating doctors and other risk factors were elicited from the patient or a surrogate. We attempted to recruit two controls per case matched on age and primary underlying immune condition. Between November 2001 and December 2004 we recruited 136 cases and 97 controls. Of perinatal cases, living in a household where a language other than English was spoken was the main risk factor associated with listeriosis (OR 11·3, 95% CI 1·5–undefined). Of non-perinatal cases we identified the following risk factors for listeriosis: prior hospitalization (OR 4·3, 95% CI 1·0–18·3), use of gastric acid inhibitors (OR 9·4, 95% CI 2·4–37·4), and consumption of camembert (OR 4·7, 95% CI 1·1–20·6). Forty percent of cases with prior hospitalization were exposed to high-risk foods during hospitalization.