October 2005

By ALEX CUKAN
October 20, 2005
More than 10 percent of all food-poisoning incidents in the United States occur in schools — a danger because food-borne illness in children, as in the elderly, can be deadly.
In the late 1990s the federal government formed a special committee on the safety of food in schools, involving school nurses to serve a larger role in preventing and monitoring symptoms of food poisoning, said Elaine Brainerd, director of the Food-Safe Schools project for the American Nurses Foundation.
“In Rhode Island, about 10 years ago, a central kitchen had been preparing school lunches that were later transported to the local schools,” Brainerd told UPI’s Caregiving. “One day, they baked hams for the next day and one employee who apparently had a cold stayed late to peel the skins off the hams once they were cool enough to handle.”Continue Reading Caregiving: School food illness

10/17/2005
PNAS Online Early Edition
Scientists have traced the origins of Campylobacter jejuni, a food-borne microbe responsible for the majority of bacterial gastroenteritis cases worldwide.
Article #03252: “Comparative phylogenomics of the food-borne pathogen Campylobacter jejuni reveals genetic markers predictive of infection source” by Olivia L. Champion, Michael W. Gaunt, Ozan Gundogdu, Abdi Elmi, Adam A.

Baytril, an antibiotic drug used for treating respiratory illnesses in chickens, is the first veterinary drug to be recalled from the market by the FDA. The government organization pulled the drug from the market in late July 2005, because of concerns over the emergence of antibiotic resistant campylobacter outbreaks in humans.
Campylobacter is one of

9/28/2005
BBC News
Kentucky Fried Chicken on Belfast’s upper Newtownards Road has, according to this story, been fined £12,000 for selling undercooked food.
Its owners, Herbel Restaurants, were taken to court by the city council after a complaint by a customer. The court heard Herbal Restaurants has been prosecuted seven times in six years, with fines totalling £32,000. The council was quoted as saying, “The complaint was taken very seriously by the council as raw chicken is regularly contaminated with food poisoning bacteria.”
A Belfast council spokesman was quoted as saying, “This type of food poisoning causes diarrhoea, fever, abdominal pain which can mimic acute appendicitis, and can last for up to a week.Continue Reading KFC fined for undercooked chicken

08 October 2005
By KAMALA HAYMAN
A Fear Factor-style contest that left two students suffering food poisoning after eating raw liver was held at Cashmere High School, it emerged yesterday.
On Thursday, Cashmere principal Dave Turnbull said he knew nothing about such a contest and condemned it as “utterly gross and appalling”.
However, Turnbull phoned The Press yesterday to apologise and explain the two victims of campylobacter food poisoning were Cashmere students.Continue Reading School admits offal eating

10/7/2005- The urgent recall of certain pre-packaged Dole salad products has called into question the safety of a popular convenience product.
The warning, which follows a potential outbreak of E. coli O157:H7 in Minnesota, could significantly dent consumer confidence in a highly lucrative sector of the convenience food market.
Pre-washed salads, which can be eaten without further washing according to the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), encapsulate in many ways what modern consumers want; convenience, nutrition and safety. Unsurprisingly, sales topped $2.3 billion last year, according to market analyst ACNielsen.Continue Reading Salad E. coli recall threatens lucrative market

07 October 2005
By KAMALA HAYMAN
School pupils eating raw offal in Fear Factor-style contests are contributing to soaring rates of food poisoning in Christchurch.
More than 80 cases of campylobacter — a disease causing severe abdominal pain and diarrhoea — have been reported to health authorities in the past week, and 226 cases in the past month. This is double the monthly average for Canterbury.
The disease is most commonly associated with undercooked chicken but can also be contracted from beef and close contact with animals.Continue Reading School contests give children food poisoning