Tag Archives: Meat

It’s OK; ‘koala meat’ was actually bamboo rat, restaurant claims

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A restaurant in southern China that found itself at the center of outrage for selling "koala meat" claims it was in fact selling a type of rat that bears a resemblance to the drowsy marsupial.

An Australian tourist visiting a restaurant in Guangzhou’s Panyu district told a radio station 3AW that diners were able to select a live koala from a cage and could choose whether they wanted it "braised" or "stewed."

Distressed by the scene, the traveller snapped a photo of what appeared to be the iconic animal, bent forward and facing downward in a cage, with only a carrot given as food.

But the general manager of the restaurant denied that the animal was a koala, the Xinhua news agency reported.

"The Australian tourist was actually the victim of a false alarm, as the restaurant never sells koala," the manager said.

Another manager at the restaurant clarified that the animal was a bamboo rat.

The Chinese bamboo rat is found in southern parts of the country and is commonly sold in food markets.

The cured meat facial

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At one restaurant in Italy, pork and relaxation are one and the same—and you can even experience a mortadella facial.

The Atlantic reports the treatment consisted of deep breathing, eating, and drinking. Participants were served a plate of choice salumi—sliced prosciutto, culatello, salami, and Tuscan head cheese from Simone Fracassi. Then we were given large cloth napkins, to be placed over one’s head and the plate, deeply inhaling the porky perfumes, stimulating salivary glands and appetite. Remove napkin, taste salumi, and drink sparkling wine—Champagne, Italian sparklers, or Lambrusco. Then head for dinner. I felt renewed.

Main image: La Madia Travelfood/Gourmadia S.r.l.

Magic glove syndrome

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Gonzalo already blogged about the last episode of the Real Housewives of New Jersey in which the ladies were preparing for Thanksgiving. I, however, am a bit behind on my television viewing and just got to the episode today on the DVR.

Caroline’s family went to visit their daughter Lauren’s boyfriend’s family at their Italian food store, Little Italy Deli. One of the men behind the counter handed Caroline a bowl of soup with a gloved hand, and then Marco (or Vito Jr’s brother) struck this pose (right, exactly as pictured). What’s the point of wearing sanitary gloves if you’re going to rub them on your unprotected hand? Apparently there is some cultural confusion about whom the gloves protect, the food handler or the client. In food safety language this is referred to as magic glove syndrome.

Next on the show, they got Lauren behind the meat slicer. She had her left hand gloved and her right hand unprotected. Presumably she was using her left hand only to touch the meat. When she was corrected about slicer use, however, she touched the meat with an ungloved finger. 

Magic glove syndrome

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Gonzalo already blogged about the last episode of the Real Housewives of New Jersey in which the ladies were preparing for Thanksgiving. I, however, am a bit behind on my television viewing and just got to the episode today on the DVR.

Caroline’s family went to visit their daughter Lauren’s boyfriend’s family at their Italian food store, Little Italy Deli. One of the men behind the counter handed Caroline a bowl of soup with a gloved hand, and then Marco (or Vito Jr’s brother) struck this pose (right, exactly as pictured). What’s the point of wearing sanitary gloves if you’re going to rub them on your unprotected hand? Apparently there is some cultural confusion about whom the gloves protect, the food handler or the client. In food safety language this is referred to as magic glove syndrome.

Next on the show, they got Lauren behind the meat slicer. She had her left hand gloved and her right hand unprotected. Presumably she was using her left hand only to touch the meat. When she was corrected about slicer use, however, she touched the meat with an ungloved finger. 

Specialty meat not safer

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The number one health concern with meat is making sure it’s cooked enough to kill dangerous bacteria, which is something both conventionally and organically produced meats have.

So says Dr. Dana Hanson, a meat specialist in North Carolina State University’s Food Science Department in a piece for WRAL (see below).

“The end result is a healthy food product in either scenario. To say that one is better or more healthy than the other is, quite frankly, a stretch.”

There are also debates about animal treatment, environmental concerns and how antibiotics may impact bacteria strains. But those debates are separate from the nutrition and safety of the meat we ultimately eat.

Those comments were markedly different than those from producers of specialty meats

Ritchie Roberts of Double R Cattle Services Farm near Hillsborough said,

“I know that my beef is all grass-fed and handled correctly and is super good and nutritious for you ’cause I know what goes into it. and I have control of that. It boils down to that sense of being able to support maybe a local industry and that’s really where the benefits of organic come in.”

Draft owner Dean Ogan says, “The most important thing for us is to know where it came from, know who produced it, know the process.”

All worthy objectives — that have nothing to do with safety.
 

’We never had a positive result, so we assumed our meat would always be bacteria-free’

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One of the dumbest food safety quotes ever, but characteristic of food safety failures.

Or any failure within an organization.

Those who study engineering failures – like the BP oil well in the Gulf, the space shuttle Challenger, Bhopal – say the same thing: human behavior can mess things up.

In most cases, an attitude prevails that is, “things didn’t go bad yesterday, so the chances are things won’t go bad today.”

And those in charge begin to ignore the safety systems.

Listeria counts go up in a processing plant, no worries, we’ll get to it tomorrow.

News out of Japan on food safety outbreaks is often difficult to come by because of a prevailing culture of patriotism. But some gems do leak out.

Daily Yomiuri Online reported yesterday the operator of a yakiniku barbecue restaurant chain linked to four deaths and 70 illnesses from E. coli O111 in raw beef admitted it had not tested raw meat served at its outlets for bacteria, as required by the health ministry, since 2009.

Yasuhiro Kanzaka, president of Foods Forus Co., which runs the Yakiniku-zakaya Ebisu chain, said during a press conference Monday at the firm’s headquarters in Kanazawa, "We’re not strict enough [about food safety]."

The company said it had not conducted such tests at any of its outlets since July 2009. "We’d never had a positive result [from a bacteria test], not once. So we assumed our meat would always be bacteria-free," Kanzaka said.

Kanzaka said no restaurant would be able to satisfy the ministry’s current standard for uncooked beef.

"The government should make it actually illegal to serve raw meat that doesn’t meet the standards as yukhoe or in other dishes," he said.

I have no idea what the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry testing requirements are for restaurants serving raw meat, but I do know restaurants can’t test their way to safe food.

This is how four people die and 70 are sickened by E. coli O111.
 

Third person dies from E. coli O111 in Japan

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Serving raw meat remains a bad idea as a woman in Japan died Wednesday of food poisoning linked to a raw meat dish at a restaurant chain in central Japan.

The woman had eaten yukhoe, similar to tartare, at the same restaurant in Tonami, Toyama prefecture, where a 6-year-old boy had fallen ill and died Friday after eating the same dish, Jiji Press reported. The restaurant is run by Foods Forus Co, based in nearby Kanazawa.

Another boy died a week ago in Fukui prefecture after eating the same dish at another of the company’s restaurants. Both boys were infected with E coli O111 strain.

Jiji reported Tuesday that 56 other people were confirmed to be suffering from food poisoning after eating the same dish at four of the company’s restaurants.

The company said at a news conference that it had failed for the last two years to conduct hygiene inspections of raw meat supplied for the dish by a Tokyo-based wholesaler.
 

US proposes mandatory test-and-hold for meat

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The Obama administration will, according to the Wall Street Journal, unveil a proposal Tuesday to force companies to delay sending beef, pork and poultry to grocery stores while government inspectors complete tests.

The USDA, in a statement slated to be released Tuesday, said it "inspects billions of pounds of meat, poultry and processed egg products annually" and it believes that "44 of the most serious recalls between 2007 and 2009 could have been prevented" if the proposed "test and hold" rule it is unveiling Tuesday had been in place.

"We believe this will result in fewer products with dangerous pathogens reaching store shelves and dinner tables," said Elisabeth Hagen, USDA undersecretary for food safety.

Many large meat packers including Cargill Inc. and Tyson Foods Inc. already hold back product while Agriculture Department inspectors perform tests for dangerous bacteria.

"While we don’t typically favor more government regulation, we believe it makes sense in this case to mandate ‘test and hold’ for the whole industry," said Gary Mickelson, a spokesman for Tyson Foods.

The tests usually take between 24 to 48 hours to conduct, but many companies won’t wait, sometimes resulting in recalls and serious illnesses.

"For Cargill, test and hold is a verification of our food safety interventions and processes," said Angie Siemens, vice president of technical services for Cargill Meat Solutions in Wichita, Kan.

The American Meat Institute, which represents most of the packing and processing industry in the U.S., said it strongly supports it.
 

14 confirmed ill in E. coli O157:H7 Lebanon bologna outbreak

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The U.S. Centers for Disease Control reported last night that 14 persons infected with the outbreak strain of E. coli serotype O157:H7 have been reported from Maryland (3 cases), New Jersey (2 cases), North Carolina (1 case), Ohio (2 cases) and Pennsylvania (6 cases).

Reported dates of illness onset range from January 10, 2011 to February 15, 2011. Ill persons range in age from 1 to 70 years, with a median age of 13.5 years.

Seventy-nine percent are male. Among 13 ill persons for whom information is known, 3 or 23%, reported being hospitalized, and none have reported hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS), a type of kidney failure that is associated with E. coli O157:H7 infections. No deaths have been reported.

Collaborative investigative efforts of local, state, federal public health and regulatory agencies have associated this outbreak with eating Lebanon bologna. Lebanon bologna is a fermented, semi-dry sausage. This beef product has an appearance similar to salami. In an epidemiologic study conducted during March 15-18, a total of 13 ill persons answered questions about foods consumed during the days before becoming ill, and investigators compared their responses to those of 21 persons of similar age previously reported to state health departments with other illnesses ("controls"). Ill persons (69%) were significantly more likely than controls (0%) to report eating Lebanon bologna. Additionally, four ill persons have been identified who purchased Seltzer Brand Lebanon bologna at four different grocery store locations in three states before becoming ill.

Palmyra Bologna Company, of Palmyra, PA, is recalling approximately 23,000 pounds of Lebanon bologna products that may be contaminated with E. coli 0157:H7. Consumers are advised to review the USDA’s FSIS Recall Press Release for a list of recalled products and images of the product.