Schools may have served 300,000 pounds of recalled food

http://www.foodsafetynews.com/2013/04/schools-may-have-served-300000-pounds-of-food-recalled-for-e-coli-o121/#.UWYIYJMXnz4

Over 300,000 pounds of recalled food have been served to students in schools containing the bacteria E. Coli O121 from the New York based company “Farm Fresh”, and yes, cases have shown up in New York as a result. No deaths have been confirmed, however two cases of Hemolytic-uremic syndrome (HUS) have resulted from the 27 cases of infection, one third of which required hospitalization. 81 percent of cases have been in those under 21, so most of it has come from school foods. HUS is also a rather nasty disease, a kidney infection that carries a 5-10% mortality rate and is predominant in children. Symptons can show up unpredictably and with wide variety, treatment is controversial yet sometimes unecessary as the disease can spontaneously resolve itself. Dialysis is used as required, but typically simple observation for the duration of the infection is enough.

E. Coli O121 is a Shiga toxin producing strain of E. Coli (STEC) which is part of the STEC serogroups, with E O157 being the most common in the US. Non-O157 serogroups (E O121 being one of those) are less frequently tested for and as a result less identified, however, this particular strain (E O121) is still particularly dangerous in regards to E. Coli due to the aforementioned chance of causing of HUS as well as much more common symptons such as bloody diarrheah, it's particulary unpleasant as far as E. Coli goes.

As far as the recalled food goes, watch out for any “Farm Fresh” products with the sell by date of January 1, 2013 to September 29, 2014.

-Lukas Louwagie

Hawaii Detects E. coli Outbreak on Oahu

State health officials reported that at least nine people on the Hawaiian island of Oahu have been sickened by E.Coli O157:H7.

The people who were victims of this outbreak inlude six children and 3 adults and four of the victims, one adult and three children have been hospitalized.

Published by: John Ayala

http://www.foodsafetynews.com/2013/03/hawaii-reports-e-coli-outbreak-on-oahu/#.UWdDN1fGCg4

Roast Beef Recalled for Listeria Risk

Over 20,000 pounds of roast beef is being recalled from a Louisiana based firm because they might be contaminated with Listeria monocytogenes.

 The USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service announced that.The meat was recalled when a sample collected had tested positive for Listeria monocytogenes on April 5.

 Published by: John Ayala

http://www.foodsafetynews.com/2013/04/roast-beef-recalled-for-listeria-risk/#.UWc9MVfGCg4

Mexican Restaurant in Oklahoma Was a Source of Salmonella Outbreak

         A Mexican restaurant in Grady Country, Oklahoma has been recently proven to be the source of a Salmonella outbreak that sickened six people over the course of two months. Salmonella is a bacterium that occurs mainly in the intestine, which causes food poisoning. Temazcal, which is the name of the Mexican restaurant, has been announced by the Department of Health on Friday, March 8, to be the origin of the Salmonella Enteriditis that caused the outbreak.
         All of the six victims of the Salmonella outbreak revealed matching strains of the bacteria in their DNA testing. The restaurant closed four days before the announcements due to health inspectors confirming that the restaurants walk-in-cooler was not functioning properly. The restaurant is now working on these problems to be fixed so that they can reopen again.

-Contributed by Kevin Riveros

http://www.foodsafetynews.com/2013/03/oklahoma-mexican-restaurant-was-source-of-salmonella-outbreak/#.UT6WKI5ihUE

Danger on Europe's Dinner Plate

                           

           The recent discovery of horse meat being labeled as beef in Europe has caused a huge alert for the European Union. Not only are people now concerned about what is being labeled correctly, but what is actually safe to eat?

           The European Union has a very strict policy on what products should be allowed into its home market. Horse meat from the United States is one product that is not allowed to be imported into the E.U. The reasons as to why they don't allow horse meat imported from the United States is because of different types treatments the U.S. uses on its products. For example the E.U. authorities banned American pork from being imported into its market because American producers treat the animals with ractopamine, a drug used as a feed additive to promote leanness in animals for their meat. The E.U. forbidden's the use of certain drugs on animals for human consumption, therefore it is dangerous for the people consuming these products, not knowing what is used to harvest these animals. Another example is American chicken because carcasses are bathed in chlorine.
            Despite all the important policies and food safety regulations the E.U. has, more than hundreds of thousand of animals are imported into the E.U. from American products. The majority of the horses being shipped to the E.U. comes from Canada and Mexico but the horse come straight from the United States making its way throughout various European countries.
            It is highly acknowledge that there is a high level of fraud involved with these products being shipped into the E.U. without being properly labeled. The E.U. authorities are currently investigating the situation more.

-Contributed by Kevin Riveros



http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/12/opinion/global/questions-for-the-global-horse-meat-industry.html?ref=foodsafety&_r=0

Horse Meat in Ikea Meatballs

Ikea recently recalled its Swedish meatballs in Europe after detecting horse meat. European Union officials claim that their oversight was not aimed at preserving the reputation of any food product. After testing, the results found that food adulteration is even more common than it is believed and detected massive fraud among E.U. food industries. The detection of horse meat in Ireland questioned the maintaining and testing within its slaughterhouses. Even the best food makers in Europe in the highest quality super market chains have found cases of adulteration. As far as Ikea and its massive consumption of meatballs, their testing did not find horse meat in their products before Czech authorities did, which means that they did not intentionally sell contaminated products.

Published by: Ramona Petrova

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/26/world/europe/ikea-recalls-its-meatballs-horse-meat-is-detected.html?ref=foodsafety

Is Meat Safe At All?

 Many deadly pathogens are present in most meat products and the federal government is looking for new ways to make meat safer. To prevent contamination from E.coli, a South Dakota official suggested injecting meat with ammonia. Today it is a mainstay in beef products as it was proven to kill E.coli and salmonella. Fast food outlets, grocery stores as well as schools buy and consume these products. Other records obtained from schools challenge the claims made by the USDA of its effectiveness after two 27,000 pound patches of ground meat was found to be contaminated in a school cafeteria. In response to this, the agricultural department revoked the Beef Products exemption from routine testing and traced the contamination back to the hamburgers making it apparent that it was not really pathogen free.

Published by: Ramona Petrova

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/31/us/31meat.html?ref=foodsafety&_r=0