Tag Archives: Infosheet

Food handlers linked to outbreaks of Salmonella — New food safety infosheet

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A couple of what appears to be staff-related Salmonella outbreaks have occurred in the past month in Princeton, New Jersey and Norwalk, Ohio.  Reports of both outbreaks suggest that poor hygiene amongst staff led to over 100 total cases.  No food source has been identified in the Ohio outbreak, but it is suggested that shredded cheese was prepared by a food handler who was shedding Salmonella.

These outbreaks are also the stories we have concentrated on in today’s iFSN food safety infosheet.  Click here to download the infosheet.

Princeton Salmonella outbreak reaches 28 confirmed cases

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The Princeton Packet reported yesterday that a Salmonella outbreak that began in late April has hit at least 28 people, with over 70 more reporting illnesses. 

A school official said that the latest date of onset of symptoms for the confirmed cases is May 2, which was before Princeton took its intervention measures to close the Mexican and salad food stations and remove some food foods at its largest dining facility on campus — the Frist Campus Center.

This outbreak was the inspiration for this week’s infosheet, which can be downloaded here.

Infosheet: E. coli O157:H7 outbreak in Nebraska linked to Roast Beef Dinner

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This week’s iFSN infosheet is focused on community dinners, inspired by a roast beef dinner gone wrong in Nebraska.

Infosheet highlights:

State health officials are continuing to investigate an E. coli O157:H7 outbreak in Sarpy County that sickened 14 people — including a 7-year-old — and sent  four people to the hospital.
What you need to worry about in a kitchen when preparing a large dinner:
-Temperature control
-Cross-contamination
-Personal Hygiene
E.coli O157:H7 is usually found in human and animal poop. Keep the poop out of the food you serve.

Click here to download the sheet.

New International Food Safety Network Infosheet — Brazillian soccer club hit with hepatitis A

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Capitalizing on the massive popularity of soccer, we decided to throw together an infosheet on the reported hepatitis A illnesses linked to a Brazilian club team.  As Doug posted last night, health authorities are linking the outbreak to shared water bottles (they must have been contaminated with some nasty poop).

You can download the infosheet here.

Community dinner outbreaks and temporary events

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This week’s infosheet focuses on a two recent outbreaks at community dinners and highlights some of the problems that can be associated with these events and how to control them.  For more information on community events check out a post from last week. You can use these infosheets as a training supplement or post them above handwashing sinks, by the schedule or other high traffic areas in a food production area.

Infosheet highlights:

Roping Roundup" in Arizona and "Beast Feast" in Alabama linked to over 100 cases of foodborne illness
Community dinners can provide great fun and food experiences but because they may be at temporary sites, food
preparation, storage and transport can be problematic.
What you need to worry about in a kitchen at a group dinner:
-Temperature control
-Cross-contamination
-Personal Hygiene

Download the infosheet here.

Turtles might be cute, but they can also be a nasty pet.

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I’m not talking about the smell, the potential for nasty bites or the general boring-ness of the pet — they have also been linked to over 100 cases of Salmonella in the past 8 months.  We use the turtle outbreaks as a focus for this week’s infosheet, as a reminder to food handlers about the potential for pets to pass on pathogens.

Click here to download the infosheet.

The story was so good, we made it into an infosheet

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Last week a few subscribers emailed us a story about inappropriate acts in a St. John’s, NFLD Dairy Queen.   Seems that while managers weren’t around staff were mooning, grabbing their body parts and then going back to food handling without washing up.  Sounded like a perfect infosheet to us, so here it is.

If you have any stories that you think need infosheet attention, please send them on to bchapman@uoguelph.ca.

Today’s ifsn infosheet: ground beef products linked to outbreak

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Today’s infosheet focuses on an outbreak of E. coli O157 linked to ground beef and ground beef products served at restaurants in the US.   We use the outbreak and recall to highlight the importance of handling ground beef and patties properly in kitchens, including proper cooking, keeping foods separate, using clean equipment and handwashing.  You can download the infosheet here.

Be appropriate in the kitchen

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This week’s food safety infosheet is all about being appropriate in the kitchen, especially when it comes to food safety.  We used a couple of stories for this sheet: one from Texas about a post-complaint inspection where and inspector saw some inappropriate scratching by the staff, and another about a Salmonella outbreak in Pennsylvania.  You can download the sheet here.

We hear that some companies build their food safety training around the infosheets, and we are in the midst of evaluating their impact on changing practices with food handlers.  As we wrote last week, (and today’s sheet is a good example) through iFSN‘s infosheets, we try to put a compelling spin on food safety information, attempting to draw in even the laziest, creepiest and stonedest of food handlers.