Food Poison Journal - Food poisoning outbreaks and litigation: surveillance and analysis

A recent study that was published in the November issue of the Journal of Food Protection shows that the presence of a Certified Kitchen Manager in a restaurant was significantly associated with better food safety.

From a press release:

The findings 'suggest that the presence of a CKM reduces the risk for an outbreak and was the major distinguishing factor between the outbreak and nonoutbreak restaurants,' the report says. In particular, CKMs seemed to be associated with a lower risk of outbreaks linked to norovirus and Clostridium perfringens, two of the three most common outbreak pathogens. Also, bare-hand contact with food was less likely to be a factor in outbreaks in restaurants that had CKMs.

Most restaurants, regardless of outbreak history, relied on on-the-job food safety training for workers, the authors found. They surmised that CKMs probably improved the quality of this training, leading to less bare-hand contact with ready-to-eat foods and better control of food temperatures."

The study is available here for a $30 fee.

Commentary from the Food Safety Network, Douglas Powell

If Canadian cattle or chickens get sick, the public is told all about it. If Canadian people get sick, not so much.

The silence surrounding salmonella in Hershey's chocolate made in Smiths Falls, Ont., this month is just another episode in the arrogant and dysfunctional father-knows-best approach to providing health advice practiced by various Canadian authorities. Dr. Phil would say the relationship between officials at the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) and the Canadian public is like a couple headed for divorce: they don't speak unless forced to, and when asked, it's denial, deceit and deception.

The American-based Hershey Co. finally relented to media pressure and identified the mystery ingredient thought to contain salmonella (soy lecithin). At one point, a spokesthingy for CFIA said that since the contamination had been contained, and the tainted products recalled, there was no longer a public safety interest in divulging the source of the salmonella.

Poop happens -- literally on the product, and metaphorically out of the mouths of bureaucrats.

Go ahead and order that rare steak, just don't say your menu didn't warn you.

As the now-familiar small print warns, consuming raw or undercooked meat increases the risk of contracting food-borne illness.

While the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates the food supply in the United States is one of the safest in the world, food-borne diseases nonetheless are responsible for 76 million Americans getting sick, more than 300,000 hospitalizations, and 5,000 deaths each year.

Professional kitchens work hard to balance flavor and food safety.

"Generally speaking, good food safety practices mean good quality," said Marion Turow, who teaches food safety at the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, N.Y., considered the premier culinary college in the United States. "By not holding something on a steam table for six hours, you're going to have better quality food and better safety."

The state of Delaware, however, does not require restaurant operators or workers to pass the ServSafe test or otherwise be certified in safe food-handling practices, Delaware Online reports.

Knoxville News Sentinel reports that more than 50,000 people got sick or died from something they ate in a hidden epidemic that went undiagnosed by the nation's public health departments over a five-year period.

Americans play a sort of food-poisoning Russian roulette depending on where they live, an investigation by Scripps Howard News Service found. Slovenly restaurants, disease-infested food-processing plants and other sources of infectious illness go undetected all over the country, but much more frequently in some states than others.

Mirab USA, Inc., a Taylor, Mich., establishment, is voluntarily recalling approximately 23,200 pounds of beef jerky products that may contain the animal drug Doramectin, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service announced today. The long list of recalled products is available on the FSIS website