Tag Archives: Food

Birmingham shop fined for selling moldy food and putting shoppers at risk

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We were close to Birmingham, U.K. when we visited the statue of my great-great-great grandfather, the Tipton Slasher, and his training facilities – a pub.

If you go to Birmingham, you may want to steer clear of Super Food Ltd in Albert Road, Stechford.

The Birmingham Mail reports that officers form Birmingham City Council’s environmental health visited the premises, run by Mohammed Younis, on four separate occasions between April and November 2009 and found 23 items of food for sale that had gone off, including meat patties, roast turkey breast, hot dogs, yoghurt, pre-packed sliced bacon and chicken and mutton ready-to-eat curries.

The meat patties were visibly moldy in their plastic packaging, and were eight days past their use by date, as were many of the other items.

Younis was charged under Food Labelling Regulations 1996 for “deliberately” selling food that had gone past its expiry date and he was fined £2,000 and told to pay £659 prosecution costs and £15 compensation in a hearing at Birmingham Magistrates’ Court.

The news comes after Bashir Ahmed, owner of Mushtaq’s Ltd in Stratford Road, Sparkhill, was last week fined £4,500 and banned from running a food business after mouse droppings were discovered in his store.

Norovirus suspected after 41 mourners at funeral get sick

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Getting sick and dying while eating food in a hospital sorta sucks. So does going to a funeral and picking up norovirus.

New Zealand health authorities are investigating an outbreak of suspected norovirus linked to food after more than 40 people fell ill following an April 28 funeral and reception for a leading Auckland musician.

A spokeswoman for the Auckland Regional Public Health Service said yesterday that it was notified on May 3 that some people who had attended the function had become sick with gastro-intestinal symptoms such as vomiting and diarrhea.

The public health service spokeswoman said the food supplied at the post-funeral function, which included sandwiches and deli items, was suspected to be the source of the infection.

The caterer, who did not wish to be named, said she supplied around three funerals a week.

She said food poisoning had not been established yet in the case of the funeral, and the woman who made the sandwiches that day has a certificate in food handling.

"Everything was bought fresh on the day."

Fresh does not mean safe.

Hospital food kills 3, sickens 40 in Louisiana

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It’s bad enough to be in the hospital; it’s worse when the food at the hospital is what kills.

Louisiana state officials say they suspect food poisoning as the cause behind the weekend deaths of three patients at Pineville’s Central State Hospital.

Forty patients at the behavioral health hospital showed signs of gastrointestinal stress beginning around 6:30 a.m. Friday with the three deaths a 43-year-old woman, 41-year-old man and 52-year-old man happening late Friday night or early Saturday morning.

Two patients remain hospitalized at Huey P. Long Medical Center in Pineville. A total of 11 patients and four staff members were treated there for possible food-poisoning symptoms.

Don’t poison mom with food on Mother’s Day, even if her cooking made you sick

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I’m convinced my mother tried to kill me through foodborne illness.

Not intentionally, of course.

But twice a year, on average while growing up, I’d spend a couple of days on the couch, passing liquid out of both ends, while mom comforted me with flat ginger ale, crushed ice (we even had one of those kitchen necessities — an ice crusher, in groovy pink, suitable for early 1970s suburbia) and soothing words like, "It’s just the flu honey, you’ll feel better soon."

As Lisa Simpson remarked upon hearing about the demise of her cat, Snowball, from her mother, "She lied, she lied."

The worst was when I was 10 or 11. I was playing AAA hockey in my hometown of Brantford Ont., and we were off to an out-of-town game. My parents (bless them) usually drove, but obligations meant I had to get a ride with a friend on the team. About half-way to the arena, I started feeling nauseous. I tried to ask the driving dad to pull over, but it came on so fast, I had to grab the closest item in the backseat, an empty lunchbox.

I filled it.

And more.

Today, New Zealand’s Food Safety Council is promoting its don’t-poison-mum-on-Mother’s Day advice, encouraging inexperienced cooks to ensure they are hygienic and clean if and when they try their hand in the kitchen on Sunday.

"Those wanting the perfect day for Mum may be creating kitchen treats without much experience so it’s important for them to carry out the food safety basics."

Happy Mother’s Day to my mum. And to the mum I live with, we’re going with smoked young goose on the grill, stuffed with apple and citrus, served with champagne and chocolate.

Top-8 countries for barfing while on vacation

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It’s a fact of the traveller’s life that you’re going to get sick while you’re on the road.

So writes Ben Abraham in the Sydney Morning Herald’s travel blog, which follows below.

Peru?
There’s some great food in Peru – ceviche is like God’s gift to tongues. But uncooked fish isn’t always the best thing for travellers, and there’s some other stuff there that can make you violently ill. And it’s not what you’d expect. I ate a guinea pig and was fine. I ate a hamburger and spent four days lying in a hotel room sweating like Renton’s cold turkey scene in Trainspotting.

Vietnam?
The first sign is the butcher on the side of the road with his wares laid out in bamboo baskets. Refrigeration’s not big here. Then there are all the weird and wonderful things that are just eaten as a matter of course. Washed down with home-brewed street beer.

Uganda?
It may not be typical, but the sickest I’ve ever been was in Uganda, and I assume it was something I ate, so that’s what I associate the place with. For the record, the toilet blocks of a Kampala campsite aren’t the best place in the world to spend your much-anticipated holiday.

Nepal
I’ve never actually been to Nepal, but I’m yet to meet anyone who hasn’t come back from there without a horror story. My friends Russ and Rox had an unfortunate case of dual food poisoning in Kathmandu, and found that nothing brings a couple closer together than having to stand outside the bathroom waiting for your partner to finish vomiting so you can go in and have your turn.

Italy?
Not food poisoning, as such. I just ate so much I felt sick. Every night.

Bangladesh
I love street food, and never had a bad experience in India, so when I visited Bangladesh, I was keen for some more of that action. That is, until the girl I was staying with put me off slightly. "See the open drains running next to them on the street," she said, pointing near the vendors’ carts. "Where do you think they get their cooking water from? Don’t. Eat. The street food." Plus, giardia is rife.

China?
You can travel relatively safely in China. You can order food you recognise, or just spend your time solely at that bastion of communist ideals, KFC. Or, you can take a chance, and give everything a shot. Most of it will be delicious. But I defy anyone to plow through an entire Sichuan meal without it doing some atomic damage to their insides.

Thailand?
There’s a problem with Thai food: it all tastes so good. Meaning, you want to try everything. Every bizarre morsel you find in street stalls and markets and restaurants looks like it has to be eaten. The end result will be a few hours riding the porcelain, but it’s usually worth it.

Diarrhea strikes wedding guests in Vietnam

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Amy’s brother got married in Vietnam. I don’t think there were any food issues, but diarrhea at a wedding doesn’t sound good, what with the white dresses and all.

Unfortunately for guests at a wedding feast in Bac Ly commune in Ly Nhan District, 47 of them developed acute diarrhea. Health workers are trying to monitor an additional 63 guests, while determining if the source was food.
 

Walmart and Sam’s Club to require enhanced beef safety measures

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An ermerging trend in several mainstream media stories of the past year is that some of the biggest food suppliers – Costco, Wal-Mart, McDonald’s, Burger King – have the best food safety requirements. Quality is a different issue and largely based on personal preference and lifestyle choices. Cool. But there are some microbiological basics that food safety types have to pay attention too.

Frank ‘food safety culture’ Yiannas, vp for food safety at Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. said today the company will implement additional beef safety measures designed to further protect customers against foodborne illnesses.

The new process controls standards and goals are additions to a food safety program that already requires ground beef suppliers to test for E.coli O157:H7 and achieve prevention-based certification against one of the Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI) internationally recognized standards.

Yiannas said,

“In light of recent beef recalls, we determined it was prudent to require an additional layer of protection for our customers.”

The new program requires Walmart and Sam’s Club beef suppliers to implement controls that would significantly reduce potential contamination levels and validate that the measures they’ve implemented are effective through specialized testing.

Suppliers who do not operate slaughter houses must be in compliance with the new standard by June 2011. For beef slaughterhouse suppliers, there is a two-step approach with the first step to be completed by June 2011 and the second by June 2012.

Walmart and Sam’s Club will work closely with beef suppliers to ensure that the new requirement is implemented without additional cost to customers.
 

Burger King employee thinks management doesn’t check Facebook

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I try to tell my four daughters – five counting Sorenne but at 15-months-old she’s not on Facebook yet — don’t put everything on Facebook, someone may actually read it.

They ignore me, which is the bane of every parent, but I can at least blog about it and then be able to say, it’s all fun and games until someone reads your Facebook page.

A Burger King employee in the Detroit metro area likely regrets making his Facebook messages public after recently warning everyone to stay away from the store he works at because "we spit in your food for sh*ts and giggles."

"I’m guessing it’s cause he was really stressed out, having a bad day at work," said Nick Klingensmith, who works alongside his 21-year-old brother at Burger King.

He said his brother was just joking.

"I think he’s more scared, he’s worried about what’s going to happen to him, he don’t wanna lose his job," Klingensmith said.

Customer Carolyn Stevens said,

"Even if he’s joking around if I’m eating something that someone spit in, even if they’re joking, I don’t want to take that chance."

Food fraud growing in America

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I went on a date with my wife last week.

Not like that new movie, Date Night, which looks horrible, but at 1 p.m., when we have a babysitter. Anything later than that is too tiring to contemplate.

Being in Kansas, I ordered the mussels from Prince Edward Island (that’s in Canada) and the featured white wine from Australia, which, to our ultimate surprise, cost $15 a glass. The extent to which restaurants will go to rip people off, especially in a crappy economy, apparently knows no bounds. I take responsibility, but won’t be going back.

I’m also not alone.

The Washington Post reported yesterday that the expensive "sheep’s milk" cheese in a Manhattan market was really made from cow’s milk. And a jar of "Sturgeon caviar" was, in fact, Mississippi paddlefish.

Some honey makers dilute their honey with sugar beets or corn syrup, their competitors say, but still market it as 100 percent pure at a premium price.

And last year, a Fairfax man was convicted of selling 10 million pounds of cheap, frozen catfish fillets from Vietnam as much more expensive grouper, red snapper and flounder. The fish was bought by national chain retailers, wholesalers and food service companies, and ended up on dinner plates across the country.

"Food fraud" has been documented in fruit juice, olive oil, spices, vinegar, wine, spirits and maple syrup, and appears to pose a significant problem in the seafood industry. Victims range from the shopper at the local supermarket to multimillion companies, including E&J Gallo and Heinz USA.

Such deception has been happening since Roman times, but it is getting new attention as more products are imported and a tight economy heightens competition. And the U.S. food industry says federal regulators are not doing enough to combat it.

‘My mother died, so we’re roasting a pig; drop by’

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That’s the way to celebrate a life.

The mother was the matriarch of the Weisbender family, 96-year-old Violet, who died March 21, 2010.

She had nine kids, many who stayed in Manhattan (Kansas). Amy and I have become friendly with a few of those kids as they improved our house, informed us on local politics and hosted the annual Labor Day fish fry where Violet was a fixture and we got introduced to the extended family of, according to latest estimates, 96.

Amy and Sorenne and I paid our respects down at the Veterans’ Club earlier this evening, dining on pulled pork and beans provided by the Cox Brothers and maintained at a proper temperature.

Good food, friends, lots of kids.

Son Russell gave us the blanket that Sorenne is now permanently bonded with. Son Tim, who provided the quote in the headline, also made our day yesterday, by dropping off this handmade sign which now graces our house in Manhattan (Kansas). Notre maisonette en ville — our cottage in the city.

Thank you.