The FDA is currently investigating a multi-state outbreak of salmonella enteritidis linked to chicken eggs from as many as 13 separate brands.  An estimated 266 people in California alone have been infected by consuming the  contaminated eggs.  So far, no deaths have been reported.

A recall, which includes all 13 egg brands, involves eggs all originating from an Iowa company.  While the Wright County Egg of Galt, Iowa won’t confirm how many, experts have estimated up to 228 million eggs will be recalled from across the nation.  For additional information, read the FDA’s press release.

UPDATE (9/1/2010):  Since this recall was issued two weeks ago, the FDA egg recall has grown to include dozens of egg brands, all with similar plant numbers–typically beginning with a “P.”  The Egg Safety Center has put together a comprehensive list of all the egg products included in the recall.  If eggs you have purchased are included in the recall, don’t eat them.

Salmonella typhi is famous.  It’s killed millions since it first received attention in 430 BC when it swept through Athens and killed one third of the population–including their leader, Pericles.  More commonly known as “Typhoid Fever,” salmonella typhi is identified as a “serious public health problem” by the World Health Organization (WHO).  Anywhere from 16-33 million cases worldwide are reported annually.  People still die from this disease today–about 216,000 per year–most frequently in locations where food is not cleansed and handled properly.

Salmonella typhi presents with a number of symptoms including fever, heavy sweating, abdominal cramps, diarrhea, headache, cough, bloody noses, and rose-colored spots.  Lasting for as many as four weeks, typhoid fever can also seriously affect the lungs, spleen, liver, and brain.  As with most salmonella strains, infection generally comes from cross-contamination of contaminated foods to clean, ready-to-eat foods.  Poor sanitation and personal hygiene are also major factors.  In locations where salmonella typhi is prevalent, animals and insects are in regular contact with both feces and ready-to-eat foods, spreading bacteria from one to the other.  In the United States, salmonella typhi infections have been reduced due to education about the importance of hand washing after using the bathroom and covering the mouth and nose when coughing.  In addition to these personal hygiene measures, we are also fortunate to enjoy modern plumbing and chlorinated water that separate us from the bacteria our bodies produce.

Unlike most foodborne illnesses, certain persons infected with typhoid fever may not even know they’re sick.  In one famous case, a woman named Mary Mallon infected 53 people during her career as a cook–three of whom died.  Although she denied being infected with salmonella typhi until her death, the disease followed her from home to home, leaving a trail of suffering in her wake.  Typhoid Mary unwittingly infected the families for whom she worked by coughing, sneezing, not washing her hands, and then handling ready-to-eat foods and preparing beverages.  The legacy she left behind when she passed away from unrelated causes, was the critical importance of hand washing, vaccination, and cooking food thoroughly. Click here and here for some period posters about the ability to prevent this disease.

Finally, here is a list of famous victims of salmonella typhi:

• Abigail Adams–second First Lady of the United States
• Louisa May Alcott–author of Little Women
• Charles Darwin–naturalist, author of On the Origin of Species
• Mary Todd Lincoln–wife of Abraham Lincoln
• Wilbur Wright–one of the Wright Brothers
• Anne Frank–famous diary writer (Diary of Anne Frank)
• Pericles–famous orator and statesman in ancient Athens

Facts Source:  Wikipedia

The U.S. Center for Disease Control (CDC) has successfully identified the culprit in a recent multi-state outbreak of typhoid fever:  sapote fruit.  Called “mamey” fruit in the U.S., the grapefruit-size Sapote is grown commonly in Mexico and has a sweet, juicy pulp commonly used in ice creams and milkshakes.  The CDC became involved when local health departments in California and Nevada began reporting consumers infected with typhoid fever.  About 400 Americans become ill with typhoid fever annually, most while traveling in South America.  This scenario was strange because the infected persons had not been outside the United States when they contracted the disease.

CDC officials report that frozen sapote fruit pulp, used in milkshakes consumed by every person involved in the outbreak, was infected with Salmonella Typhi–more commonly known as typhoid fever.  The distributor, Goya Foods, Inc., has recalled its 14oz bags of Sapote (mamey) Fruit Pulp which were distributed in Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, New Mexico, Nevada, Oregon, Texas, Utah, and Washington.   Unfortunately (and curiously) additional information is not available on the distributor’s website.

This morning the USDA announced a major recall of approximately one million pounds of frozen ground beef patties that may be contaminated with E. coli.    The California-based company, Valley Meat Co.,  distributed the suspect beef patties to vendors in California, Texas, Arizona, and Oregon.  Thirty separate products are included in the recall.  For a complete list and additional information about the recall, read their press release:  Valley Meat Co.

ESPN’s “Outside the Lines” recently published their findings of a year’s worth of health department violations for all Major League football, hockey, baseball, and basketball stadiums in North America operating in 2009.  The comprehensive article entitled What’s Lurking in your Stadium Food? can be read in its entirety here.  The website contains an interactive map that divides all the stadiums by the percentage of concessions stands that received critical violations, from “No Violations” to “79-100%.”  The highest category (100%) means that every single concession stand in the stadium received a critical violation in 2009.

A “critical violation” as defined by health department officials, is a violation of safe food handling and storage procedures that could result in employee or consumer illness or injury.  However, as ESPN clarified, a critical violation can mean different things to different health departments.  “For example,” states the article, “some [health departments] consider mouse droppings a critical violation, while others classify them as a minor problem.”  Dexter King of the International Association of Assembly Managers explained that “different inspectors interpret different violations almost as a referee would look at it, ‘Should I call this a foul or not a foul?’”

We recommend reading the full article, but if you don’t have time, here are some highlights:

• 107 stadiums were investigated for this article.  Of those, 28% had received critical violation at more than half their concession stands.
• 11 stadiums received zero critical violations.
• 8 stadiums received critical violations at all of their concessions stands.  7 of those stadiums are located in Florida.
• California stadiums scored well, with the percentage of critical violations in the 1-25% range.
• Specific complaints and violations included chemicals stored too close to food, “slime” in frozen drink machines, food residue in coolers, insects mixed into frozen drinks, under-cooked meat, employees touching ready-to-eat food with bare hands, insufficient hand washing, time/temperature abuse, cross-contamination, and rodent infestations.
• Food establishment inspections are all carried out in different ways.  In some locations, inspections come from the state level (Florida) and others come from the city or county level (California).  Some inspectors drop in unannounced in the middle of a game (Kansas City, Missouri) and others schedule inspections days in advance (Chicago, Illinois).  Each of these factors can affect the establishment’s scores and violation numbers.

Source:  ESPN “Outside the Lines”

Photo Source:  Artichoke Heart

As an adult working the food safety industry, it horrifies me to think of how many food items my childhood self dropped on the floor and promptly picked up and put into my mouth.  I believed in the “5-Second Rule” like it was the 11th commandment.  In my young mind, it made perfect sense that the quicker I retrieved the tasty treat I had dropped, the greater were my chances of it arriving to my mouth “germ free.”  As I grew older I amended the rule:  “Does not apply if:  sticky, gooey, cheesy, or dropped in a public place/floor of car . . . “  That having been said, I admit that anything that qualifies as having a “candy shell” will probably still make it to my mouth after hitting the floor.  You would think I’d have a stronger immune system.

The July 2010 edition of National Geographic profiles the recent findings of Paul Dawson, Ph.D. and his graduate students (complete findings published in the Journal of Applied Microbiology).  He states, “The five-second-rule is a popular belief that if you drop food on the floor and pick it up within five seconds, it won’t be too germ laden to eat. It’s not true and we’ve proven it, it’s well, bologna.”  His study shows that foodborne illnesses like Salmonella can survive on a dry surface for up to four weeks and transfer immediately to food items upon contact.  In fact, the research was so conclusive that National Geographic has coined the new phrase “the Zero-Second Rule.”  That’s how much time, they state, your food has on the floor before it’s contaminated.  Bummer.

Sources:  National Geographic, Clemson University, Delish.com

Photo Credit:  Rebecca Hale, National Geographic Staff

Wal-Mart stores have pulled packages of Great Value brand chicken nuggets off their freezer shelves after receiving multiple complaints about bits of blue plastic buried in the nuggets.  Purdue Farms Inc., who produces the nuggets for Wal-Mart’s Great Value retail line, is responsible for the recall, which includes more than 90,000 lbs of chicken nuggets.  The USDA has named the contaminated product as the 1 pound 13 ounce bag of “Great Value Fully Cooked Chicken Nuggets.”  The recall of this product is nationwide and currently underway.  For the time being, you may want to stick to nuggets of the “Mc” variety.

Source:  CBSNEWS

The Center for Disease Control released some incredible findings this month–and since then the sun has shown a little less brightly for salsa and guacamole lovers (your humble author not excluded).  According to the CDC, fresh salsas and guacamole are the causes of 1 in 25 foodborne illness outbreaks in restaurants and delis across the United States.  Specifically, of the 136 salsa/guacamole cases reported of foodborne illness outbreaks during a 10 year period, 36 were linked directly to guacamole, 95 to salsa, and the rest to both.  CDC representative, Robert Tauxe, specifically noted that all the cases involved freshly-prepared guacamole and salsas–not commercially packaged products.

Norovirus, which moms tend to call “the 24-hour flu” or “stomach flu,” thrives in environments where cut and porous vegetables (such as avocados, cilantro, peppers, and tomatoes) are left uncovered and poorly refrigerated.  In fact, Tauxe reported that the most common pathogens associated with these outbreaks were norovirus, salmonella, and E.coli, which all cause stomach pain, vomiting and diarrhea in various degrees of intensity.

This study, which began in 2008, was originally prompted by an outbreak in St. Paul, MN in which 1,400 people were sickened by contaminated Serrano and jalapeño peppers used in freshly-prepared salsa.   Researchers examined reported restaurant and deli outbreaks from 1998 to 2008 and found that salsa and guacamole contributed to 3.9% of cases–a +200% jump from the previous decade.  Investigators are unsure what specific ingredients are leading to the contamination, but report that due to the varying recipes of salsa and guacamole, it is unwise to depend on the acidity of lemon or lime juice to fight off the growth of foodborne illness.

Micheal Doyle of the University of Georgia’s Center for Food Safety put it best when he said, “Refrigeration is the key to safe salsa.”  We’ll assume he meant guacamole too.

Image Source:  La Fonda Restaurant

Source:  USA Today

We’ve gotten a kick out of the recent article by Delish.com about fast food you can only get outside of the United States.  Check out the source below to find out what Domino’s Pizza prepares in France, what McDonald’s is serving in Japan, and what Taco Bell is dishing up in India.

Source:  Delish.com

Conditions in the Gulf of Mexico do not look promising as locals and officials  stare down the barrel of a potentially devastating hurricane season.  More than ever, the Gulf needs support.  So we were excited when we discovered Baking for Good™–the online bake sale that donates 15% of every purchase to a worthy cause.

Baking for Good™ began in 2009 as a company committed to high-quality baked goods, and spreading good will one chocolate chip at a time.  Each order is beautifully packaged and shipped in two days or less to most locations.  So stop by Baking for Good, pick up a brownie basket, and do your good deed for the day.