January 2006

The Anchorage Daily News reports that cardboard box was rushed to Anchorage’s new Environmental Health Laboratory on Thursday. It’s urgent cargo: nine geoducks.
Divers on Wednesday had plunged 40 feet down near Sitka to harvest the giant clams with bulging brown bodies. They packaged the mollusks, refrigerated them and shipped them by air to Anchorage. Here, a team of lab technicians went to work to determine if they were contaminated by the toxin that causes paralytic shellfish poisoning in humans. People who eat tainted shellfish can develop dizziness, numbness, breathing problems, nausea and vomiting.Continue Reading Lab helps ensure safety of food supply

Jane Zhang of the Wall Street Journal reports that More Americans are eating their vegetables. But the healthy trend comes with a risk: Illnesses traced to fresh produce are on the rise.
Fruit and vegetables are now responsible for more large-scale outbreaks of food-borne illnesses than meat, poultry or eggs. Overall, produce accounts for 12 percent of food-borne illnesses and 6 percent of the outbreaks, up from 1 percent of the illnesses and 0.7 percent of outbreaks in the 1970s, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.Continue Reading Unwashed produce can make you sick

Macleans reports that contrary to popular belief, vegetables and fruit — not chicken and eggs — are the top causes of large salmonella outbreaks, according to a U.S. study. And produce-related outbreaks tend to be larger than poultry-related outbreaks and sicken more people.
The analysis by the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) in Washington, D.C., showed that contaminated tomatoes, sprouts and other produce made 28,315 Americans sick during 554 outbreaks from 1990 to 2003. On the other hand, chicken made 14,729 people sick in 476 outbreaks and eggs were responsible for 10,847 illnesses from 329 outbreaks.Continue Reading Veggies and fruit are top food poisoning culprits

According to the New Mexico Environment Department, since 2002, reported cases of Salmonella in New Mexico have decreased from 338 cases to 288 cases through 2004, the most recent year for which data is available. That decrease represents a drop in the incidence of Salmonella of about 14.8 percent to 15.1 cases per 100,000 people. The New Mexico Environment Department (NMED), which regulates the food service industry, has been working to increase awareness of food-borne illnesses by emphasizing regulatory public health issues during inspections, providing free food handling and preparation training classes throughout the state, working in conjunction with the Department of Health to assist investigating food-borne illness outbreaks.
Nationwide, there are an estimated six million to 33 million illnesses and as many as 9,000 deaths every year due to food-borne diseases.Continue Reading Environment Department strives to reduce food-borne illnesses

Per an FDA Media Release the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is seeking a permanent injunction against Pacific Shellfish, Inc., a seafood processor located at 5040 Cass Street in San Diego California, and Judd J. Brown, its President. An injunction is a court order to stop a firm from manufacturing, distributing, processing, or shipping a product. The government’s complaint, filed on January 24, 2006 by the U.S. Department of Justice in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California, charges the defendants with violating the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act by permitting ready-to-eat fish held and processed in Pacific Shellfish’s facility to become contaminated.
Continue Reading Food and Drug Administration seeks injunction against Pacific Shellfish, Inc.

Shanna Shipman of the Pekin Times reports that local parents and students can breathe – and eat – easier, following assurance from Aramark Food Service that the tortilla shells suspected to have caused illness among District 150 students are not used in other local schools.
Joyce Phillips of Aramark Food Services at Pekin Community High School was on hand at Monday’s District 303 Board meeting to assure the board that recent concerns regarding food safety in Peoria are not directly relevant to Aramark services in Pekin.
An inquiry was made at the meeting by board member Jim Mangan in light of three recent incidents in Peoria and Mason counties resulting in large numbers of local school children becoming ill at school.Continue Reading Local school districts free of suspected food poisoning product

The Canadian Press reports that federal agriculture inspectors are looking into the possibility of another case of mad cow disease, a spokesman for the Canadian Food Inspection Agency said Sunday.
“We have an ongoing testing program for BSE and that means from time to time we undertake confirmatory tests when we come up with a suspicious sample,” said Mark Van Dusen.
“We are undergoing such testing on a suspicious sample.”
Mr. Van Dusen said the animal must go to a Winnipeg lab for final tests. Inspectors should know within 48 hours if they have another case of bovine spongiform encephalopathy on their hands.Continue Reading Ottawa looks into possible mad cow case

CBC.CA News reports that federal inspectors are testing an animal that is suspected of having mad cow disease, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency says.
Mark Van Dusen, a spokesperson for the federal agency, told the Canadian Press on Sunday that inspectors should know within two days whether they’ve discovered the country’s fourth case of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE).
The animal was to undergo testing at a lab in Winnipeg.
“We have an ongoing testing program for BSE and that means from time to time we undertake confirmatory tests when we come up with a suspicious sample,” Van Dusen told the news agency.Continue Reading Inspectors test possible BSE case

David Smith of Journal and Courier reports that food-borne illness comes from consuming food or beverages that have been contaminated with a pathogen, such as a virus, a bacterium or a parasite.
Careful food preparation at the correct temperatures can kill microorganisms or prevent those that survive from multiplying and making the consumer ill.
Richard Linton, a Purdue University professor of food safety who has written two textbooks on the subject, said two crucial temperatures are 41 degrees and 135 degrees Fahrenheit.
“Within that range, dangerous bacteria can grow,” he said.Continue Reading Learning the ABCs of food safety

GI Smith of the Zanesville Times Recorder says when it came time to replace some of his farming equipment two years ago, local grower Mike Siegrist decided to buy something that would ensure his produce reflected his high standard of quality and the agriculture industry’s growing concern with food safety.
The equipment included a washing mechanism that would help clean harvested produce before it was sold at Siegrist Farm Market, which he co-owns and manages.
“We wash all our produce on our grater/washer before it’s sold,” he said.
He farms a 35-acre fruit orchard north of Dresden. The market is open from mid-June through November.Continue Reading Local growers handle their own produce safety