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Health Law

Food Poison Blog

Surveillance and analysis on food poison news and outbreaks.
By Marler Clark

Post Frequency: 17.6/day

Last Entry: April 01, 2011 at 12:57:03

Study Reveals 63 Percent of Restaurant Workers Handle Food While Sick

Posted on October 05, 2010
Pop-quiz question: What is the easiest way to ensure a food service establishment ends up embroiled in a foodborne illness outbreak? Answer: Fail to implement a sick leave policy and allow food handlers to work while sick! Not a very surprising answer, right? Despite the well documented association between foodborne illness outbreaks and ill food handlers, it seems that many restaurant managers are willing to take the risk anyway...

Campylobacter implicated in Syracuse, New York outbreak

Posted on October 05, 2010
Cynthia B. Morrow, MD, MPH Commissioner of Health announced today that over the past several days the Onondaga County Health Department and the New York State Department of Health have been investigating laboratory confirmed cases of Campylobacter. At least 7 people in Central New York became ill with this infection after eating at Hinerwadel's on September 15, 2010...

17 Oklahoma Salmonella Paratyphi B variant Java Cases Linked to Cases in Nebraska and Iowa

Posted on October 04, 2010
The number of children with Salmonella Java illnesses in Mustang Public Schools has grown. As of last Thursday afternoon officials from the Oklahoma State Health Department told parents there were only 10 students exposed to the bacteria at four different elementary schools, but on Monday that number rose to 14...

What HUS can do: sad E. coli story from Missouri

Posted on October 03, 2010
Stephanie Backus of the Fulton Sun reported today on a young boy named Caleb Ward, who is currently, hopefully, recovering from a severe hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS) illness. He was infected by E. coli O157:H7. Just another reminder what this bug can do...

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Wedding Horror: 30 ill in Roseville, California

Posted on October 03, 2010
Reno's News 10 reported this morning on a rather strange foodpoisoning event at a wedding in Roseville, California. According to the story, 30 people fell severely ill with foodpoisoning symptoms, and 6 had to be hospitalized. In fact, it appears that the people became ill while actually in attendance at the Light of the Gospel Church in Roseville, and that the Roseville Fire Department was called to the scene to find the 30 victims suffering from severe symptoms...

A finer point on Roseville wedding outbreak

Posted on October 03, 2010
A couple of helpful comments on possible causes of the Roseville wedding outbreak. John Brooks from New Zealand: You are correct, Bill. Infective agents such as bacteria and viruses usually take some hours to have an effect - they need to multiply to levels that cause a response in the patient...

Oklahoma Salmonella outbreak grows; Iowa and Nebraska involved too?

Posted on October 02, 2010
NEWSOK reports this morning that the Oklahoma salmonella outbreak has risen to 15 identified cases in three counties. Two additional cases were identified Friday among elementary-age children in the Mustang School District in Canadian County, for a total of 12 cases there...

Do Third Party Audits Offer Protection to Consumers?

Posted on October 01, 2010
If you talk food safety, one of the common debates is the efficiency of government regulation compared to the efficiency of a more privatized system of compliance. What are consumers to do if neither one of them works? In the wake of Wright County Egg's Salmonella outbreak and recall, both forms of food safety compliance are under sharp criticism...

Mustang Oklahoma Salmonella Outbreak Stays Steady at Ten

Posted on October 01, 2010
A Salmonella outbreak has reportedly affected more than ten elementary-age children in Canadian County. State and school officials say they are aggressively searching for the root of the outbreak and are confident they will find the source by surveying parents and students who are sick and healthy...

Senator Reid files cloture on Food Safety Modernization Act

Posted on September 30, 2010
Thanks to Senator Reid for continuing to try to bring the Food Safety Modernization Act (S 510) to the Senate floor for a vote. Yesterday, he filed "cloture" on the bill. I confess to googling the term to get a better idea of the procedure that Reid's action will invoke...

Coburn's karma: Salmonella outbreak in Oklahoma

Posted on September 30, 2010
As if on cue, the lone human being standing in the way of the first meaningful change in food safety laws in decades, Senator Tom Coburn, will have a Salmonella outbreak to confront when he gets back home to Oklahoma during the legislative recess (the Senate's legislative session ended today)...

10 Foods With Highest Risk of Food Poisoning

Posted on September 30, 2010
A list was recently compiled of the 10 foods, under the regulation of the FDA, most often associated with food poisoning. The FDA does not have jurisdiction over poultry or beef, so those foods are excluded from possible exclusion. The list is based on data compiled over the past 20 years - 1990 to present...

Just a photo and a thought

Posted on September 29, 2010
I found this file photo while perusing the latest headlines on food safety. I'd like to report that it was taken today, signaling some top line action on food safety, even if just pressure brought to bear on members of congress, but it's not. It's from November 2009...

Action Imminent on non-O157 STECs?

Posted on September 28, 2010
The momentum seems to be bulding for action by the USDA-FSIS on strains of E. coli that produce shiga-toxins, which cause HUS, other than E. coli O157:H7, the most notorious strain of the bug. Last week, after a meeting with Bill Marler, John Munsell (a former meat packer), and Nancy Donley (who's son died of E...

The Importance of Keeping Bagged Leafy Greens Cold

Posted on September 25, 2010
A news study published in the Journal of Food Science is highlighting the food safety importance of keeping leafy greens, such as packaged lettuce salads, at temperatures below 41 degrees F. Commonly thought to be only a freshness issue, the research shows that cold temperature maintenance for leafy greens also significantly reduces the ability for dangerous pathogens, such as Shiga-toxin producing E...

Senator Coburn feels heat, looks to regain political footing on food safety by telling USDA and FDA to get along

Posted on September 25, 2010
Senator Coburn is wrong. The Senate needs to pass meaningful food safety legislation immediately, not keep it on the backburner through the lame duck session so that it can start from scratch again next term. He has raised legitimate questions of cost, but even his estimated costs of implementing S 510 (Food Safety Modernization Act) pale in comparison to the cost of not passing the legislation...

Cutting Corners for Food Safety

Posted on September 25, 2010
Senator Coburn's Ensuring Greater Food Safety Act, introduced yesterday, asks the USDA and FDA to do a better job and communicate more. Laudable goals, but that's about it for substance, excluding the requirement that the Government Accountability Office referee the hoped-for improved relationship between the two regulatory bodies...

DeCoster's Farms Had Salmonella Trouble in Maine, Too

Posted on September 24, 2010
Evidence continues to surface that the Salmonella problems at Wright County Egg's facility in Iowa were not isolated incidents. Today, there is a report on the recurring presence of Salmonella enteritidis on egg farms in Maine owned by Mr...

More on DeCoster's history with Salmonella enteritidis

Posted on September 22, 2010
Jack DeCoster has a lot of problems right now. Literally, right now, as he is in front of the Energy and Commcerce Subcommittee on investigations. I wish I could be there to hear his side of the story, but no matter how eloquent his apology and/or explanation, it will be difficult to revive an image (both his own and his company's, Wright County Egg) with all the sordid information that has come to light since the outbreak and recall broke in August...

10 Questions for Jack DeCoster at Wednesday's Egg Hearing

Posted on September 21, 2010
We are suing Jack DeCoster's company, Wright County Egg, in multiple lawsuits in Federal Court in Iowa. We represent between 30 and 40 other families whose members may have been infected in the outbreak. We have also been granted access to personally inspect Wright County Egg's facilities after the Committee on Energy and Commerce hearings on Wednesday...

Egg outbreak as referendum on national food safety: lots of holes to plug

Posted on September 21, 2010
Bart Stupak and Henry Waxman certainly set a tone with their letter to Eggman Jack "Austin" DeCoster on September 14, 2010, "inviting" him to testify at the Committee on Energy and Commerce (subcommitte called "Oversight and Investigations") hearing on Wednesday...

CDC timeline helpful for senators preparing egg hearings

Posted on September 21, 2010
While we all wait to see whether Jack DeCoster exercises his 5th Amendment right against self-incrimination, certain senators on the Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations who need to be preparing for the Egg Outbreak hearing may find the CDC's detailed timeline, released today (to my knowledge) extremely helpful in framing the many questions that must be raised, if not answered...

Ground beef recall due to salmonella contamination

Posted on September 21, 2010
New York State Agriculture Commissioner Patrick Hooker today alerted consumers that Hamilton Corner Meat Market Inc., located at 1 Hamilton Place, New York, New York 10031, is recalling all packages of 'ground beef' sold from bulk on September 7, 2010, due to the presence of Salmonella...

CDC - Over 1,600 Sickened with Salmonella Linked to Eggs

Posted on September 20, 2010
In July 2010, CDC identified a nationwide sustained increase in the number of Salmonella Enteritidis isolates with PFGE pattern JEGX01.0004 uploaded to PulseNet, the national subtyping network made up of state and local public health laboratories and federal food regulatory laboratories that performs molecular surveillance of foodborne infections...

The cost of belated action on food safety

Posted on September 19, 2010
The looming death of S. 510--a bill to modernize our decades old food safety system--is either economically or politically driven, likely a combination of both. The bill is a measure that should enjoy bipartisan support, but legitimate questions about the measure's funding have been raised, most notably by Tom Coburn, MD, republican senator from Oklahoma...

S. 510, "The Linda Rivera Act:" The Loss of A Unique Opportunity to Improve Food Safety, Says Bill Marler

Posted on September 17, 2010
The Food Safety Modernization Act Appears Dead in the Senate, Future Uncertain Reports from Washington, D.C. indicate that the Food Safety Modernization Act (S. 510) will not come up for a vote in the Senate this session, rendering it effectively dead...

The feed or not the feed

Posted on September 16, 2010
Recent reports on the Wright County egg outbreak investigation seem to have put the final nail in the coffin on the early suggestion that the source of the contamination was from outside of Wright County's facility. The Wall Street Journal today reported that: The [FDA][,] [after early tests showed that Wright County's chicken feed was positive for salmonella] collected and tested samples from companies that shipped feed ingredients to Wright County Egg, which had its own mill that produced finished feed for its chickens...

This should scare you

Posted on September 14, 2010
Today, The Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) released the results of a survey of 1,710 federal food safety workers aimed at gauging their independence from business interests, and even interference from officials within their own agencies. In the wake of Wright County Egg's salmonella outbreak, the FDA and USDA have been criticized for perceived failures in food safety oversight (despite failures in this outbreak, Wright County Egg deserves all the blame), but the present survey was completed before anybody knew about the Wright County Egg outbreak, which makes it even more concerning...

Wright County Egg Knew of Salmonella Problem

Posted on September 14, 2010
An astounding report today from the Wall Street Journal reveals that Wright County Egg, responsible for at least 1,500 Salmonella illnesses nationwide and the recall of approximately 380 million eggs, was aware of repeated positive tests for Salmonella at its facility well before the recall was announced...

Wright County Egg's Tale of Woe: a timeline

Posted on September 14, 2010
August 13, 2010: Wright County Egg initiates a voluntary recall of millions of eggs due to implication in a major national Salmonella enteritidis outbreak that had already caused over one thousand confirmed illnesses. The CDC indicated that these additional illnesses represented an approximate four-fold increase in the number of Salmonella enteritidis illnesses as compared to the same period last year...

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