Posts from the "Topics" category
CA: Phage-based bioactive paper a safe Breakthrough for detecting bacterial pathogens in food
Global Food Safety Resource: Bacteriophages (phages) have been deployed as a promising technology to control the growth of various foodborne bacteria since their discovery early in the 20th Century. Lytic phages are viruses—mostly from 20 to 200 nanometres in diameter—that can infect and replicate within bacteria in a strain-specific manner. When a key number of phages accumulate in the cell, they will lyse (dissolve) the bacterial cells. The key to their specificity are the proteins in their tail fibres which recognize receptors on the surfaces of bacterial cell walls.
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NZ: Listeria scare: Spinach recalled following positive test
TVNZ: The Ministry For Primary Industries (MPI) and Cambridge-based produce company Southern Fresh have recalled the batch of spinach following confirmation it tested positive for listeria monocytogenes."As a further precaution, Southern Fresh have made the decision to place all washed salad products in the marketplace on hold until testing confirms that it is 100 per cent safe to eat.
Read Article →AU: Olives painted with copper sulphate top largest-ever Interpol-Europol list of fake food
The Age: Italian olives painted with copper sulphate solution, Sudanese sugar tainted with fertiliser, and hundreds of thousands of litres of bogus alcoholic drinks top Interpol’s annual tally of toxic and counterfeit food seized by police agencies across the world. The haul of bogus diet supplements, adulterated honey and formalin-drenched chicken guts makes for stomach-churning reading.
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AU: How salad vegetable surfaces harbour pathogens — and it’s not how you expect
foodprocessing.com.au: Researchers at the University of Illinois College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences (ACES) decided to look at how viruses could stick to the surface of 24 common salad vegetables. They expected to establish that the small virus particles could ‘hide’ in the rough structures of the cuticle, the waxy layer that protects the plant against diseases and reduces water loss.
Read Article →AU: Detailed labelling helps food safety, says Fortescue’s Forrest
The Australian: Fortescue Metals chairman ÂAndrew Forrest has called for improved labelling of world food products, particularly those sold to China, to encourage more production of safe food. Speaking at a panel on agriculture at the Boao Forum for Asia on China’s Hainan Island yesterday, Mr Forrest said Chinese leaders were deeply concerned at the quality of the products that were going into their drugs and food.
Read Article →US: Deliberate act cannot be ruled out for Germany’s 2011 outbreak
Food Safety News:Â Yes, the German E. coli O104:H4 was a pathogen of a high virulence that suddenly emerged, and that might point to an unnatural phenomenon. But might it have been a deliberate act? Or some kind of accident? To be sure, the 2011 outbreak centered on Northern Germany was large, severe, and deadly. Out of the 2,987 confirmed cases not involving hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS), 18 died. And out of 855 HUS cases, 35 died.
Read Article →US: Multistate Outbreak of Salmonella Poona Infections Linked to Imported Cucumbers (Final Update)
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: This outbreak appears to be over.
CDC, multiple states, and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) investigated a multistate outbreak of Salmonella Poona infections.
A total of 907 people infected with the outbreak strains of Salmonella Poona were reported from 40 states.
A total of 204 ill people were hospitalized, and six deaths were reported from Arizona (1), California (3), Oklahoma (1), and Texas (1). Salmonella infection was not considered to be a contributing factor in two of the three deaths in California.
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SA: Microbiological food safety status of commercially produced tomatoes from production to marketing
Journal of Food Protection: Tomatoes have been implicated in various microbial disease outbreaks and are considered a potential vehicle for foodborne pathogens. Traceback studies mostly implicate contamination during production and/or processing. The microbiological quality of commercially produced tomatoes was thus investigated from the farm to market, focusing on the impact of contaminated irrigation and washing water, facility sanitation, and personal hygiene. A total of 905 samples were collected from three largescale commercial farms from 2012 through 2014.
Read Article →US: Which food is most likely to give you Salmonella?
The Daily Meal: Salmonella poisoning, or salmonellosis, is an illness inspired by the consumption of one of over 2,000 foodborne salmonella strains. “Salmonella infection usually occurs when a person eats food contaminated with the feces of animals or humans carrying the bacteria,†says Foodborne Illness.
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US: Research shows feedlot link to E. coli O157:H7 on leafy greens
Food Safety News: Current guidelines for the minimum distance between cattle feed lots and fresh produce growing fields are likely inadequate to ensure leafy greens are not contaminated with E. coli from dust and manure. “Additional research is needed to determine safe set-back distances between cattle feedlots and crop production that will reduce fresh produce contamination,†according to scientists who conducted a two-year study.
A two-year study at the U.S. Meat Animal Research Center showed leafy greens planted well past the recommended minimum safety distance from a cattle feedlot were contaminated with E. coli from the dust and manure.
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