Posts from the "Microbial Contamination" category
US: New study will focus on food safety in stone fruit packinghouses
Growing Produce:Made possible by a $100,000 grant from the Center for Produce Safety, Dr. Steven Pao, department chair, and Dr. Erin Dormedy will oversee a one-year study to evaluate and improve sanitizing treatments in stone fruit packinghouses. The study will begin this month and will be conducted in partnership with the California Fresh Fruit Association and area stone fruit producers.
Read Article →US: CDC investigating deadly Listeriosis outbreak linked to various Dole salads
Food Safety News: One person has died and 12 have been hospitalized in a Listeriosis outbreak linked to Dole packaged salads. Officials from [US] CDC announced today they have been investigating the six-state outbreak since September 2015.
“Epidemiologic and laboratory evidence available to date indicate that packaged salads produced at the Dole processing facility in Springfield, Ohio, and sold under various brand names are the likely source of this outbreakâ€
Read Article →AU: Do we really have to wash fruit and vegetables?
The Conversation: There is a growing demand for fruit and vegetables across the Western world, thanks to increased awareness of their nutritional and health benefits. But we’ve always been taught they might not be safe to eat straight out of the supermarket, and they have to be washed first. Is this the case? And what might happen if we don’t?
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US: Bacteriophages: an old antibiotic alternative becomes new again
Food Safety News: The increasing global attention to the threat of antibiotic resistance has spurred research and development of antimicrobial alternatives. Once such alternative is bacteriophages.
Bacteriophages are viruses that infect and kill bacteria. There are thousands of different types and they are so abundant in the environment – an estimated 1030 live on the planet – that “we eat thousands of phages a day,†says Manan Sharma, a research microbiologist with USDA’s Agricultural Research Service.
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US: Trials aim to shed light on wash-water disinfectants for mangoes
Center for Produce Safety: Several studies have been published that examine the interactions among water, disinfectants, organic matter and pathogens with various types of produce in packinghouse wash water. But there’s little, if any, published literature that examines those same interactions in a mango packing facility, said Mary Anne Amalaradjou, DVM, PhD, and an assistant professor of animal science at the University of Connecticut in Storrs.
And that’s what drove her to the project titled, “Impact of wash water disinfectants on Salmonella enterica transfer and survival in mango packing facility water tank operations.”
Read Article →AU: Should I throw away food once a fly has landed on it?
The Conversation:Â It only takes a single fly to alight on your picnic lunch to make you uneasy about what germs may have landed with it. But what harm can come from a fly landing on your food? Should you throw it away?
There are hundreds of different fly species in Australia. Many of these flies pose a health risk but none hang about our homes more than the house fly.
Read Article →AU: New food safety summer TV campaign launched
Food Safety Information Council: A new TV community service announcement was launched today for the start of the Food Safety Information Council’s summer entertaining campaign.
‘Summer and the holiday period are a great time to get together to entertain family and friends but it is also a time that the risk of food poisoning increases with warmer temperatures,’ Council Chair Rachelle Williams said.
Read Article →US: Local and organic food has extra safety risks. Just ask Chipotle.
Vox.com: Chipotle likes to emphasize the quality of its food, a goal summed up in the company’s slogan, “Food with integrity.” So it might seem paradoxical that Chipotle, of all companies, has gotten hit by a string of food safety problems.
Read Article →UK: Genomics helps detect Salmonella outbreaks
Food Safety Watch:Â Public Health England (PHE) has released information about how it uses the developing science of genomics to identify and characterise Salmonella isolates and detect related clusters of illness that could signify foodborne outbreaks.
Read Article →US: Experts mixed on Chipotle’s plans to test produce
Nation’s Restaurant News: Will screening help restaurant chains avoid foodborne illness outbreaks?
Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc.’s plans to do more high-resolution testing of all fresh produce for potential pathogens may be industry leading, but food safety experts are mixed about the effectiveness of such screening efforts for the prevention of foodborne illness.
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