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Listeriosis outbreak heightens food scrutiny

CARLY WEEKS

From Thursday's Globe and Mail

Latest comment posted at 1:03 AM EST 15/09/08

Attention to food safety could lead to more recalls ...Read the full article

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  1. Richard Keefer from Omemee, writes: Add the microwave in the microbial risk/bad handling category.

    Most foods DON'T reach even temperatures in the microwave, and this is especially true of frozen ones. If the food is contaminated to begin with, the contamination in its cold spots will remain "alive" after zapping.

    Don't microwave at-risk items containing poultry or processed meat without a thermometer to test them afterwards. If the coldest temperature (usually at the bottom-center of the product) is below 80 C, zap it longer, being careful to avoid steam or hot boil-over. Older people and the immunocompromised should consider avoiding the microwave, unless they are confident of reaching pasteurization temperatures in these items.

    Why this worry, and what happened? Microwave oven design has remained static since the 1980s, when oven prices imploded and the manufacturing moved offshore. The industry was a slow starter, and middle-aged designers (many from radar/military backgrounds) simply retired. Food companies were at a loss to deal with technology outside their traditional base, and were anxious to avoid public knowledge of any risks associated with products that were, after all, profitable and timely. To avoid the cost of technologies that could reduce the risk, they opted to shift the problem to the consumer with dodges such as "heat until hot" directions. The listeria risk in microwaving was a research theme from the late-80s onwards (known to Heath Canada), but one sat on by the food companies.
  2. Radewulf Entistle from Canada writes: If you want to see an outside analysis of both CFIA and a number of specific Canadian processors. GO to the USDA site and download their audit of Canadian plants and practices from Apr. 2006. You will note this was before Stevie H. watered things down. They had issues with record keeping then. Search Maple Leaf.
  3. Pete Kauchak, Green Tory from Cascadia, Canada writes: Radewulf Entistle from Canada writes: If you want to see an outside analysis of both CFIA and a number of specific Canadian processors. GO to the USDA site and download their audit of Canadian plants and practices from Apr. 2006. You will note this was before Stevie H. watered things down. They had issues with record keeping then. Search Maple Leaf.

    Ya right.. now the union is complaining that they have to do more record keeping as opposed to little.
  4. Misery No one from Angus, Canada writes: Hard to know what to eat any more. How do people in third world countries survive all this. They don't have near the controls we have.

    Some look pretty healthy to me.
  5. Bert Russell Paradox, BC from Canada writes:
    Usually when you remove Liberal fat that solves contamination problems.
  6. Farm Boy from United Kingdom writes: Misery No one from Angus writes "How do people in third world countries survive all this?".

    Three reasons: 1. They have better immune systems, 2. They know by experience what is safe to eat and what isn't and 3. They don't consume things that come out of a factory.
  7. m d'ailleurs from Canada writes: Table Ronde has recalled cheese now as testing positive for listeria. Why , all of a sudden is it being found seemingly everywhere? Was it always present , but, nobody was looking for it?
  8. Hart Oldenburg from winnipeg, Canada writes: Hi Farm Boy from UK---- you missed the big one--- ingesting too much listeria by eating two much meat, cheese, veggies, fruit, good fat, doubling exposure.
    And one more thing, Fart Boy, no food paranoia in the third world.
  9. Richard Keefer from Omemee, writes: Quality, SAFETY, and Value were the historical watchwords of the food industry, but company-stripping suits didn't think the rules applied to them. After scrapping the guardrails of their acquisitions, they set about muzzling government scientists, who kept their heads down, probably thinking of cottages and pensions.

    Structurally, the industry is governed by the Rule of Threes, which means a product sells at retail for about three times its actual cost. Subtract the non-food inputs from 1/3 of the price, and there's not much left over. The percentage food cost of most prepared items falls below low-end fast foods, and ironically, that for high-end restaurants. For a producer to try squeezing up margins, to pay down the cost of takeovers, means a lot of things that are bad news for the consumer.

    For the microwave, the producers skimped on both Quality and Safety. If the product is tough on the outside and cold in the middle, the middle is unsafe when there's contamination. Kids and old people have trouble chewing through the outside, but generally, table-presented Quality sucks. So if Quality means no thanks, Safety means give it someone you don't like, and Value means stretching the Rule of Threes, the suits who saw stripping opportunities in stodgy old Q-S-V companies have gone a long way to wreck the industry that pays their bonuses, and make fools out of the people who financed their sprees.
  10. D Chiu from Victoria, Canada writes: I feel , given time, the proper auhtoriities and producers will solve the problems facing us, just like they did with the toy problems a while back.
  11. Michele K from Ottawa, Canada writes: But you figure that in the meantime, it's OK that a bunch of people die first, D Chiu, before the proper authorities are spurred into action? I don't think that's responsible, or accountable, for that matter - that's bass ackwards and completely irresponsible, in fact.

    Regulate and inspect first (via persons NOT in a position conflicted by other interests) to prevent death and disease in the first place. I mean, don't you agree that my right to life and a reasonable level of security is just a little more important than some outfit's right to make a profit by selling me unsafe crap?
  12. Philip McRae from Vancouver, Canada writes: Michele K, people can't sell what you wont buy. That's regulation. If you had any sense of self preservation you wouldn't be consuming manufactured foodstuffs in the first place. Regulation has never defeated a outbreak and people getting ill or dying can not be eliminated by regulation in the face of an outbreak. The larger question is what prompted this outbreak of bacteria to become so pervasive in such a short period of time. The blame game is pointless and ultimately futile. Knowledge on issue will do much more for all concerned.
  13. gordon davies from Victoria B.C., Canada writes: Its sickening , the two parties who have been in power , beating on each other for the blame , while taking backer bucks from the mega-buck musty meat crowd.
  14. Justin Payne from Richmond BC, Canada writes: Buy locally grown and produced food of all varieties and prepare it yourself. Albeit, it's no guarantee of food safety, but I’d say you have a better chance at buying clean food in the first place if you buy it locally. A local purveyor is more likely to be accountable for their food products and less likely to poison you, as apposed to a CEO occupying a comfy chair in an uptown office tower and likely, hasn’t eaten any of their own processed foods. Think of it this way…could you see a CEO earning 500K per, quaffing liverwurst when he/she can effortlessly afford foie gras.
  15. Erik D. from Canada writes: To Farm Boy from United Kingdom writes: "Misery No one from Angus writes "How do people in third world countries survive all this?".

    Three reasons: 1. They have better immune systems, 2. They know by experience what is safe to eat and what isn't and 3. They don't consume things that come out of a factory."

    Actually, there is a Reason 0. Some don't have 1, most of those can't afford 2, so they die, but it is so common and it is the poor who dying usually, its not news worthy even in those countries, let alone ours.
  16. Richard Keefer from Omemee, writes: Yesterday's Toronto Star story on the Meals on Wheels/Private Recipes listeria recall of frozen food should bring home some of the issues of risky handling practices. Contamination that was not the consumer's fault, but that can pass through cold spots of microwaved meals.

    Meals on Wheels is a wonderful program for the elderly and longer-term ill, which allows people to stay home and remain active, instead of being institutionalized. The catch is in the vulnerability of the elderly and immunocomprised. It could be suggested that manufacturing safeguards and client instructions need to be at a higher standard than for regular foods.

    Do we next start to worry about the institutional supply chain, particularly in hospitals and nursing homes? Listeria is particularly dangerous, but it is also a bellwether.
  17. Mrs. Whiggins from Canada writes: Why hide this important file under Life? Is it important to lives of Canadians? Apparently so since 16 Canadians have died living a life that includes sandwiches of meat products.

    Where's Canada's Health Ministry on this issue? Anyone know?
    .

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