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

On Monday, a Canadian biopharmaceutical company, Bioniche Life Sciences, Inc., announced it has received full licensing approval from the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA)—an analogue to the USDA—for the world’s first cattle vaccine designed to reduce the shedding of E. coli O157:H7 in cattle feces.

The vaccine works by preventing the E. coli O157:H7 bacteria from attaching to the intestines of the cattle. This, in turn, reduces reproduction of the bacteria within the intestines and leads to a reduced quantity of bacteria released through the cattle’s feces into the environment. It is this release of bacteria that ultimately leads to human infections of E. coli O157:H7 through food and water contamination. 

This vaccine may also help reduce the risk of E. coli O157:H7 infections through contact with farm animals at petting zoos and agricultural exhibitions, and with E. coli O157:H7-contaminated water runoff flowing into fresh produce fields (see Dole and Natural Selections spinach outbreak, or the more recent Aunt Mid's lettuce outbreak.

Bioniche is currently working to meet the USDA’s requirements for a conditional license to bring the vaccine to the US.  The USDA informed Bioniche this past February that the latest data “meets the ‘expectation of efficacy’ standard” and is eligible for a conditional license, provided that Bioniche develops a plan “that would collect sufficient data to move the product to full licensure.”

The vaccine sounds like a great step towards potentially reducing the thousands of kids and elderly folks (the two most affected demographics) who become infected by E. coli O157:H7 each year. I cannot help but wonder, however, what effect this vaccine will have on current slaughter practices. With regard to meat contamination, the real problem is not solely with cattle that shed a bacteria naturally existing within their intestinal tracts, but rather with the high-speed slaughtering operations (over 300 cattle slaughtered per hour is not uncommon) that take inadequate precautions to ensure feces is not sprayed onto raw meat during the mind-bogglingly fast slaughter line. Despite beef industry claims to the contrary, it IS very possible to produce feces-free (and therefore E. coli-free) beef. So even with this very important vaccine coming to the market, my hope is for beef slaughter operations to slow down, and to continue improving and testing the adequacy of their Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point (HACCP) plans so that fecal contamination of meat does not occur in the first place. I don’t know about you, but I’d prefer my meat both feces AND E. coli O157:H7 free.

What if I told you the above images were recently released by the US government to confirm that, in fact, UFOs do exist? Would you be shocked? Well, sorry to disappoint but they are not UFOs. What they actually are, however, is just as shocking.

The above images are thermal shots of the same product being cooked in six different microwave ovens with hugely varying (and inconsistent) uniformity of heating. While this may not be a problem for Aunt Betty using her microwave to boil water for afternoon tea, it is a potentially life-threatening problem for the many individuals who purchase prepared, but not ready-to-eat foods.

For example, only last week the Minnesota Department of Health linked fourteen cases of salmonellosis to raw frozen chicken entrees. The products include breaded and pre-browned Chicken Kiev and Chicken Cordon Bleu made by Milford Valley Farms. The affected Chicken Cordon Blue products have code dates of C8121, C126 and C8133 printed on the side of the package. The implicated Chicken Kiev carries the date code C149. For Minnesota, this is the sixth outbreak of salmonella linked to similar products since 1998.

All of this, of course, begs the question—what responsibility does a food manufacturer like Milford Valley Farms have to their consumers regarding effective cooking directions and warning labels?

How about: “WARNING! This product is not cooked and is not ready-to-eat. Failure to adhere with exact precision to the cooking instructions, including the use of a 1000 watt microwave and cooking the product for the exact cooking time specified followed by the stated resting period, may cause vomiting, profuse diarrhea, dehydration, kidney failure, or death."  Mmm…sounds delicious. Now, who’s hungry for pot pie?

Over at the Kalamazoo Gazette, the AP's Josh Funk has written a great piece on this issue, Undercooking a constant danger with microwave.  Especially useful is the "test your microwave" section where instructions are given to determine your microwave's true wattage (especially important considering that microwaves lose power over time). 

In the end, the convenience of a quicky dinner from a microwaved entree sounds like more work, and risk, than it's worth.  My tip?  Use an oven.  The classic kind.

For more commentary, see Dr. Doug Powell’s Barfblog site, including one of my personal favorite postings, Cooking the Poop Out of Pot Pies.
 

Bryan Salvage at Meat & Poultry, the business journal for meat and poultry processors, today reports on the demise of the Food Animal Residue Avoidance Databank.

It was used by veterinarians, livestock producers and state and federal regulatory and extension specialists to ensure that drug, environmental and pesticide contaminants do not end up in meat, milk, and eggs. (Do you mean like MELAMINE?)

The Avoidance Databank began shutting down on Oct. 1st after it failed to get an infusion of cash and long-term funding from Congress. It needed about $2.5 million per year.

The American Veterinary Medical Association worked with Congress, through lobbying and grassroots efforts, to have language authorizing the Avoidance Databank at $2.5 million inserted in this year's Farm Bill. The USDA, however, never incorporated the funding in its budget, and Congress has provided neither emergency funding nor appropriations, Meat & Poultry reported.

"It's disheartening -- even tragic -- that a program that costs so little yet does so much to keep our food supply safe is not being funded," said Dr. Mark Lutschaunig, the Vet's government relations director. "We're talking about a cost of less than a penny per American to help keep meat, eggs and dairy products free of drugs and pesticides."

Even a supportive website could not offset the indifference or opposition by both the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and USDA's Food Safety & Inspection Service.

 
To the Members of the California State Senate:
 
I am returning Senate Bill 201 without my signature.
 
This bill weakens food safety standards in California, something I cannot support.
 
Last year I signed AB 1735, which passed the Legislature unanimously and put into law food safety standards for raw milk.  Those standards are now in question by the
proponents of this bill.  Looking past the lobbying techniques, public relations campaign, and legal maneuvering in the courts, one conclusion is inescapably clear:  the standard in
place has kept harmful products off the shelves and California’s raw milk dairies have been operating successfully under it for the entirety of 2008.
 
Based on fears with no basis in fact, the proponents of SB 201 seek to replace
California’s unambiguous food safety standards for raw milk.  Instead they have created a
convoluted and undefined regulatory process with no enforcement authority or clear
standards to protect public health.
 
For these reasons, I cannot support this measure.
 
Sincerely,
 
 
 
Arnold Schwarzenegger