Tag: Guest blog post

Guest Blog. Salmonella and Raw Meat: A European Tale

The following Guest Blog first appeared as Salmonella et viande crue, une histoire européenne on Le Blog d’Albert Amgar, a regular feature on ProcessAlimentaire.com, and is reproduced here in English (translation by Phyllis Entis) with the kind permission and cooperation of its author, Albert Amgar.


Salmonella and Raw Meat: A European Tale

 

A food poisoning incident has affected several dozen students at three colleges and a high school in and around Poitiers (see Salmonella, Steaks hachés et Tiac en France).

No information has been released as to the precise number of ill and/or hospitalized students. The only official communiqué from Vienne Préfecture gives neither data nor dates. In addition, this release only mentions two establishments. According to Agence France Presse, the students became ill between October 19th and 22nd, 2010.

“At first, we thought there were only 10-12 cases,” said Stéphane Jarlégand (Director of the Office of the Vienne Préfect), during a news conference. “On Tuesday, there were 52 cases, and today about 100.”

The first alarm was sounded by an emergency medicine practitioner in Poitiers, after eight people from the same school arrived at the university hospital’s emergency room, all with the same complaint. A regional health investigation team was activated in response to the alert.


By coincidence, this week’s issue of Eurosurveillance contained a report concerning the investigation into a foodborne Salmonella outbreak in the Netherlands that was linked to the consumption of raw meat products.

“Between October and December 2009, 23 cases of Salmonella Typhimurium (Dutch) phage type 132, each with an identical multiple-locus variable-number tandem-repeat analysis (MLVA) profile (02-20-08-11-212), were reported from across the Netherlands. A case–control study was conducted using the food-consumption component of responses to a routine population-based survey as a control group. The mean age of cases was 17 years (median: 10 years, range: 1–68). Sixteen cases were aged 16 years or under. Raw or undercooked beef products were identified as the probable source of infection. Consumers, in particular parents of young children, should be reminded of the potential danger of eating raw or undercooked meat.”

“This is the fourth food-borne outbreak in recent years linked to consumption of steak tartare and other raw beef products in the Netherlands [10-12]. In 2006 to 2008, despite intensive monitoring and control programmes, Salmonella was still found in-store in raw meats (such as steak tartare and ossenworst) intended for direct consumption [13]. Consumer awareness of the potential hazard of eating raw meat is central to good control. In particular, parents should be reminded that children are vulnerable to Salmonella infection and should not eat products containing raw or undercooked meat.”

The above caution was directed to parents, while the Vienne outbreak involves food service establishments. Even so, it’s worth remembering that this same point was made in the article “Why ‘just cook it’ won’t cut it.”

Clearly, for those who enjoy steak tartare – and I am one of them – Belgium’s AFSCA offers an excellent recipe on page 6 of its Bulletin de l’agence alimentaire fédérale (Bulletin no. 35, December 2009).

About Albert Amgar: Albert Amgar lives in Changé near Laval in Mayenne, France. He worked as young scientist at the Parasitology and Tropical Medicine Service of the Pitié Salpétrière Hospital and later spent 12 years in the pharmaceutical industry. In 1989, he became director of a new association of agro-food industrialists named ASEPT in Laval (France). He was the general manager of ASEPT until his retirement.

 

Supplementary Note

Agence France Presse reports that all of the illnesses were traced to a single production lot of imported beef. According to the European Union’s Rapid Alert System for Food and Feed, France has issued a notification that it has found Salmonella typhimurium in raw frozen beef burgers from Italy. The contaminated beef burgers were distributed to France, Andorra and Luxembourg. The name of the manufacturer, as is usually the case in these notifications, has not been released to the public.
– Phyllis Entis

Guest Blog: Eggs By The Millions

The following Guest Blog first appeared on Le Blog d’Albert Amgar, a regular feature on ProcessAlimentaire.com, and is reproduced here in English (translation by Phyllis Entis) with the kind permission and cooperation of its author, Albert Amgar.

Eggs By The Millions

(Des oeufs par millions)

One cannot but rejoice at the 17 million eggs that was were donated by a number of countries in support of the struggle against world hunger.

According to the September 13, 2010 issue of World Poultry,

“During the past 12 months, egg farmers from around the globe have donated more than 17 million eggs to international hunger relief charities working in Central America, the Caribbean, Asia, Africa and Europe.


October 8th is World Egg Day, while events are taking place around the globe celebrating the humble egg; its versatility and its many health benefits, millions of undernourished people around the world are receiving help thanks to the generous donations of egg farmers internationally.”

This is commendable, and we salute the participants in this initiative. But what should we think of the astronomical quantity of 500 million eggs that were recalled from the market in the United States because of Salmonella contamination – all due to unscrupulous producers who short-changed consumers by pinching pennies on food safety. And let’s not forget the roughly 1,519 outbreak victims, reported to CDC for the period ending August 31st.

M. Amgar finishes by referring his readers to the eFoodAlert Consolidated List of Recalled Eggs, and to Doug Powell’s barfblog article, Marketing microbial food safety at retail is the only way to provide consumer choice and hold producers accountable.

About Albert Amgar: Albert Amgar lives in Changé near Laval in Mayenne, France. He worked as young scientist at the Parasitology and Tropical Medicine Service of the Pitié Salpétrière Hospital and later spent 12 years in the pharmaceutical industry. In 1989, he became director of a new association of agro-food industrialists named ASEPT in Laval (France). He was the general manager of ASEPT until his retirement.

There are many conscientious, reputable and caring people in the food industry, as demonstrated by the generosity of the egg farmers reported by World Poultry. There also are a few rotten eggs. Unfortunately, the smell produced by those rotten eggs overwhelms the senses and sends a negative message about the safety of the US food supply to consumers in the United States and around the world.

The House of Representative’s SubCommittee on Oversight and Investigations has scheduled a hearing into the Salmonella Outbreak and Egg Recall for 11:00 am on September 21st.


Guest Blog: Why Walmart Has It Right

The following Guest Blog first appeared on Safety Zone, a regular blog feature on the Meatingplace.com site, and is reproduced here with the kind permission of its author, Dr. James Marsden.

Why Walmart Has It Right

I should start by saying that I do not work for Walmart as a consultant, advisor or in any other way. It is not my place to defend the company or its policies. However, I believe that last week Walmart took a courageous position to improve food safety for its customers – one that will eventually improve food safety for all consumers.

What they are requiring

The action taken by Walmart was to require that its beef suppliers meet performance standards designed to reduce the risk of pathogen contamination. Specifically, Walmart will require its beef slaughter suppliers to implement an approved intervention or a combination of interventions between post-hide removal and final trim production that will consistently produce, at a minimum, an initial cumulative 3-log reduction of enteric pathogens by June 2011. Thereafter, they are requesting a further reduction goal to achieve a total cumulative 5-log reduction between post-hide removal and final trim production by June 2012. All intervention steps must be scientifically validated. In addition, interventions must not require a label declaration or have a negative effect on product quality and shelf life and must be accepted by consumers. For ground beef suppliers that are not vertically integrated and do not have slaughter house control, Walmart will require an approved intervention or a combination of interventions that will consistently produce, at a minimum, a 2-log reduction of enteric pathogens on raw trim used for grinding. Again, the intervention process or intervention steps must be scientifically validated. Processing suppliers must be in compliance with this new process control standard by June 2011.

Why I agree

The move was supported by at least one major meatpacker – Tyson Fresh Meat Co., as well as consumer groups and academicians, including myself. News reports about the Beef Safety initiative, including those posted on Meatingplace elicited comments that expressed skepticism and doubt about Walmart’s motives and the need for new requirements. Here are my thoughts on the subject:

  1. The performance standards are designed to assure that all beef slaughter plants and processing plants utilize effective, validated interventions. Most of Walmart’s suppliers and most plants in the U.S. already have these interventions in place. I agree with Jim Dickson at Iowa State University who believes that the initiative is more about proving efficacy than it is about implementing new interventions. (See: Meatingplace story on this.)
  2. Before making the decision to implement the new performance standards, Walmart determined that suppliers that already have the required interventions in place are price competitive.
  3. Unfortunately, there are still beef slaughter plants and processors that either have not implemented effective interventions, or do not have supporting documentation to show that they are effective. Walmart is allowing more than a year for these companies to implement effective, validated interventions.
  4. In the manufacture of ground beef, product from multiple processors is often co-mingled. As a result, there may be an increased risk of contamination when beef from plants with inadequate interventions is utilized.
  5. Retailers like Walmart have no way of knowing if the beef they purchase for their customers was processed using effective interventions or not. When foodborne illness cases and recalls occur, they are still held accountable. In order to reduce the risk of these occurrences, retailers have the right to insist that their suppliers use the most effective interventions available and scientifically document their effectiveness in controlling pathogens like E. coli O157:H7 and Salmonella.
  6. It is worth noting that Walmart’s requirement for scientific validation of interventions is consistent with the in-plant validation requirements that were recently proposed by USDA-FSIS.

The bottom line is that it is time for all beef slaughter and processing plants to implement food safety systems for controlling E. coli O157:H7 and Salmonella. Most have already done so and as a result, beef products are safer now than at any time in history. If effective systems were universally applied, the incidence of pathogen contamination and foodborne disease cases and outbreaks associated with beef products could be further reduced. These are the real objectives of the Walmart Beef Safety initiative. Walmart deserves a lot of credit for taking a position that is long overdue.

About Jim Marsden: Dr. James L. Marsden is Regent’s Distinguished Professor of Food Safety and Security at Kansas State University, and the senior science advisor for the North American Meat Processors Association. He is the past president of the American Meat Institute Foundation in Washington, DC and a graduate of Oklahoma State University.