The CDC reports: Shigellosis is a nationally notifiable diarrheal illness caused by gram-negative bacteria. Shigella infection is spread through fecal-oral transmission and sexual contact. Although most infections are self-limited, antibiotics are indicated for severe illness or to reduce transmission in settings with high risk for spread. Since 2015, a growing proportion of cases has been caused by […]
Instead of looking out my window today, I spent much of it reviewing the Final Veggie Booty Salmonella Report by the New York Department of Health and all the attached documents. One thing caught my attention – the number of Salmonella strains found in this outbreak. Strains included: Salmonella Wandsworth, Salmonella Typhimurium, Salmonella Mbandaka, Salmonella […]
Minnesota State officials say consumers should avoid consuming smoked pork and beef bratwurst made by J&B Meats, of Barnesville, because it may be contaminated with Listeria bacteria. The Minnesota Department of Agriculture says there are no reports of illnesses from the product. The contamination was found through routine testing. J&B Meats sold the bratwurst at […]
USDA officials extended a ban on use of meat from a Chino slaughterhouse shut down last week for mistreating cattle. It also said the Westland plant had been cited in 2005 for using electric prods on animals. This was the same year that Westland Meat Company was awarded “The Supplier of the Year for 2004-2005 […]
Newsday reports that the Erie County Health Department scheduled free vaccination clinics Saturday and Sunday after a produce handler at a suburban Buffalo grocery store was diagnosed with Hepatitis A. The clinics are for those who bought unsealed produce at Wegmans on Sheridan Drive in Williamsville since January 7 and who have eaten it raw […]
Health officials again announced that last month’s recall of canned beans in 6 to 7 pound institutional-sized cans over botulism concerns has been expanded to include a variety of other vegetables in similar-sized cans. The expanded recall includes asparagus, peas and other vegetables canned by the Michigan-based New Era Canning Company. The vegetables are sold […]
According to Bioniche and press reports, the USDA has agreed to grant a conditional license to Bioniche for its E. coli O157:H7 Cattle Vaccine. Is this the “silver bullet” to solve the recent uptick in E. coli recalls and human illnesses? I have had the opportunity to meet with Bioniche scientists and executives over the […]
The Associated Press reports that the families of two children sickened by the E. coli bacteria are suing a Fresno dairy. The lawsuits filed Thursday in Fresno County Superior Court accuse Organic Pastures Dairy Co. of shipping raw milk tainted with the bacteria to stores in September 2006. That’s when at least five children fell […]
The Honolulu Star-Bulletin reported again on the ongoing story last week of about 33 illness of Salmonella Paratyphi B tied to the consumption of yellow fin Tuna Ahi. Now Choyce Products announced that it has voluntarily recalled 11,000 pounds of previously frozen yellow fin tuna that tested positive for salmonella. About 5,000 pounds of the […]
"Seminar in Seattle" – Registration Below. Few subjects draw more immediate attention or concern than the safety of the food we eat. Recent years have included a plethora of food warnings and recalls, raising new questions about the quality and integrity of our existing system for assuring food safety. Seattle was the epicenter of the […]
Enterobacter sakazakii is a gram-negative rod-shaped bacterium within the family Enterobacteriaceae. The organism was called "yellow-pigmented Enterobacter cloacae" until 1980 when it was renamed Enterobacter sakazakii. The majority of cases of infection reported in the peer-reviewed literature have described neonates with sepsis, meningitis, or necrotizing enterocolitis as a consequence of the infection. (1) E. sakazakii […]
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — A girl fell into a 40-day coma after eating a bad Jack in the Box hamburger. Fifteen years later, she is still suffering ill effects. That doesn’t bode well for a toddler who spent six weeks in the hospital in 2006 after eating E. coli-tainted spinach from California. But both have […]
The recent YouTube video is certainly shocking, but nothing new – we have simply not been paying attention. Schools are scrambling to pull downer meat off the menu because cows are being abused, and even Agricultural Secretary Ed Schafers issues a statement on downer cow brutality: "I am deeply concerned about the allegations made regarding […]
Lauran Neergaard of the AP again breaks another disturbing story about the dangers of our food supply. She reports this evening that Investigators are preparing to test pig brains as they struggle to tell what is causing a mysterious nerve illness affecting pork plant workers in Minnesota and Indiana. The CDC and Minnesota Department of […]
The Associated Press reported that hamburger chains Jack-In-the-Box and In-N-Out, as well more than 150 school districts around the nation, have banned meat from a Chino, California slaughterhouse after a video showed workers brutalizing sick and crippled cows. School districts in at least 11 states have stopped using ground beef from Hallmark Meat Packing Co. […]
In 1998 when I started Marler Clark, Al Gore had only recently invented the internet (only kidding). Search Engines were new and Google was probably being run out of someone’s basement. Because I was in the middle of many of the earliest food poisoning battles, like Jack in the Box and Odwalla, I had a […]