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

Botulism is a rare but serious paralytic illness caused by a nerve toxin that is produced by the bacterium Clostridium botulinum. Clostridium botulinum is the name of a group of bacteria commonly found in soil. It is an anaerobic, gram-positive, spore-forming rod that produces a potent neurotoxin. These rod-shaped organisms grow best in low oxygen conditions. The bacteria form spores which allow them to survive in a dormant state until exposed to conditions that can support their growth. The organism and its spores are widely distributed in nature. They occur in both cultivated and forest soils, bottom sediments of streams, lakes, and coastal waters, and in the intestinal tracts of fish and mammals, and in the gills and viscera of crabs and other shellfish. There are seven types of botulism toxin designated by the letters A through G; only types A, B, E and F cause illness in humans.

Wisconsin public health officials are investigating an apparent foodborne illness outbreak among attendees of a Beaver Dam-area wedding reception.  The wedding and reception took place on June 16th, and guests began exhibiting symptoms of food poisoning, including fever, diarrhea, vomiting, and body aches shortly thereafter.  Dodge County and the Wisconsin Health Department are looking into the cause of the outbreak, according to the Beaver Dam Daily Citizen.

The first call following the wedding came from the Columbus Community Hospital after someone came to the hospital showing signs of gastrointestinal distress, Langfeldt said. The patient had just attended a wedding.

"After we started to get more calls, we contacted the department for the state restaurant inspections for Dodge County," [Jody] Langfeldt said.

The Wisconsin Department of Health and Family Services Southern regional office in Madison is still working closely with the county, Langfeldt said.

So far, Langfeldt said her department has interviewed almost 100 guests.

Several bacteria and viruses cause symptoms similar to those experienced by guests at the wedding reception.  For more information about common causes of food poisoning, visit www.foodborneillness.com. 

Gills Onions recalled bags of onions distributed to Trader Joe's stores in Arizona, California, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, and Washington after the Washington Department of Agriculture found Listeria monocytogenes in a package of the onions.  The onions are marked as Gills Onions Brand or Sysco Natural Brand bags have a best-if-used by date of June 16.  An identifying tag found on the back of the bag reads "Lot # 2017-R". 

In a press release on its Web site, Gills Onions stated:

The identified lot 2017-R is no longer in production at Gills Onions. As a precautionary measure, both retail and food service diced packs are being recalled. The retail product was labeled with the Trader Joe’s brand name and was distributed to stores in Arizona, California, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon and Washington. The Trader Joe’s brand diced onions were packaged in a 10 oz. bag with the Lot 2017-R and a best if used by date of 06/16/07. The lot information for the 10 oz diced retail product can be found printed directly on the back of the package. The foodservice packages were packed in 4/5 lb cartons and labeled under the Gills Onions Brand and the Sysco Natural Brand, both with the Lot 2017-R and the best-if-used by date of 06/16/07 printed directly on the front of the 5 lb bag as well as on the outside carton label. Consumers and Retailers that have this recalled product should either destroy or return to place of purchase.

The June 2007 QSR Magazine features an article on trying to ensure food safety when serving fresh produce at quick-serve restaurants.  The article's author interviewed different players in the food industry, asking their thoughts about how to prevent foodborne illness outbreaks.  Weighing in were representatives from the National Restaurant Association, the Hospitality Institute of Technology and Management, Rutgers University, and other organizations with a stake in the food industry and food safety. 

Director of Science and Regulatory Relations for the National Restaurant Association Educational Foundation (NRAEF), Kristie Grzywinski, says areas like sanitation, supply-chain practices, and holding temperatures are all areas where contaminations are easily introduced. “Really a lot of it is just making sure you have good practices in your establishments,” she says.

Dr. Peter Snyder, Hospitality Institute of Technology & Management president, says one of those good practices is trusting your instincts when picking suppliers, especially for produce.

“If he’s stupid enough to come in a filthy truck that means there’s bad management,” he says. And that could mean trouble or even a potential outbreak for restaurants having their food supplied by the company. Most importantly, Snyder says only buy from suppliers who get their products from approved sources. He says going to the site to see the operation makes this decision easier. Also, he suggests scheduling food deliveries for off-peak hours so that there is ample time to inspect the food and packaging for problems and potential hazards.

Some of the people interviewed in the article argued for more federal oversight and regulations of the food industry, as a way to increase food safety and prevent foodborne illness. Fred Gordon, an attorney who represents food industry companies who face claims of foodborne illness in claims against their suppliers, was interviewd for the article:

Gordon admits that responsibility lies on everyone in the supply chain to maintain the safety of the food but says just because the spotlight falls on the restaurants, farms should not ignore the important role they play in creating a safe product from the start..

“It’s, in my opinion, solely driven by economics,” he says. “We have plenty of laws already on the books that if there were sufficient resources to actually police the entities, we’d be great.”

The Lexington Herald-Leader reported that a hepatitis A outbreak is ongoing.  The Lexington-Fayette County Health Department is working to trace the source of the outbreak, and has discovered that a food worker was one of three people diagnosed with hepatitis A.

The food worker is among three confirmed cases of hepatitis A that the health department reported yesterday. A fourth likely case is being investigated. Kevin Hall, the health department's spokesman, said the four cases occurred in two households and that the infected people know one another.

"There was interaction between the households," Hall said.

At this point, health department investigators think the food service worker had a low likelihood of spreading the disease. The person was not at work when he or she was most infectious and did not work at the restaurant for long.

Hepatitis A is a communicable (or contagious) disease that spreads from person to person. It is transmitted by the “fecal – oral route.” This does not mean, or course, that Hepatitis A transmission requires that fecal material from an infectious individual must come in contact directly with the mouth of a susceptible individual. It is almost always true that the virus infects a susceptible individual when he or she ingests it, but it gets to the mouth by an indirect route.

Food contaminated with the virus is the most common vehicle transmitting Hepatitis A. The food preparer or cook is the individual most often contaminating the food. He or she is generally not ill: the peak time of infectivity (i.e., when the most virus is present in the stool of an infectious individual) is during the 2 weeks before illness begins. Hepatitis A is spread almost exclusively through fecal-oral contact, generally from person-to-person, or via contaminated food or water. Outbreaks associated with food have been increasingly implicated as a significant source of Hepatitis A infection. Such “outbreaks are usually associated with contamination of food during preparation by an HAV-infected food handler.”2 Indeed, “[v]iral gastroenteritis was reported as the most common food-borne illness in Minnesota from 1984 to 1991, predominantly associated with poor personal hygiene of infected food handlers.”