CAN FROZEN FOOD BE CONTAMINATED?

Many people believe that freezing will kill any bacteria or viruses in food such as fruit or vegetables. Unfortunately, that is not true. Some nasty bugs that cause food poisoning survive freezing quite well.

The huge membership-only warehouse club, Costco, learned that lesson again last week. One of its suppliers - Oregon Freeze Dry, Inc. of Albany, Oregon had to recall almost 60,000 cases of Kirkland Signature Real Sliced Fruit, produced exclusively for Costco Wholesale Stores, after testing showed Salmonella bacteria could be present. The recalled product consists of 20 pouches of freeze-dried, supposedly healthy snacks in a pretty red and white box.

And of course this is not the only U.S. recall of frozen fruit or vegetables we have had over the years, that was caused by a bacterium – usually one of the Salmonella or Listeria monocytogenes. Even such unexpected frozen produce as chili peppers have had to be recalled.

Viruses can also survive freezing. In mid 2013, there was a recall of Scenic Fruit Company’s Frozen Organic Pomegranate Kernels and of Townsend Farms’ Frozen Organic Antioxidant Blend. Both contained pomegranate seeds imported from Turkey that were suspected of carrying a Hepatitis A virus. There was a resulting outbreak of hepatitis in seven U.S. states. Poor Costco also sold this Townsend Farms’ frozen product. The mix contained strawberries, raspberries, blueberries and cherries as well as the pomegranate seeds. Sounds great, doesn’t it?

This is not to say you should stop eating frozen fruit or vegetables. The chances of contamination are actually pretty slim - less than in fresh produce, and if you cook them thoroughly, you will be fine.

To your good health,

TSF

CALIFORNIA HARD HIT WITH CHICKEN RECALLS

The currently ongoing Foster Farms chicken recall is now in 20 states and Puerto Rico. But California has been hardest hit. Not just raw chicken, but also cooked chicken products have been recalled. And a lot of California residents are not feeling very well.

As of last Friday (and don't expect the CDC to update numbers over the weekend with most of its staff on furlough)there have been 317 confirmed illnesses linked to the bad chicken. Of these, fully 73% (230 very unhappy people) live in California. Do we eat more Foster Farms chicken here? I doubt it. It probably has something to do with the distribution of the Salmonella chicken. After all, the three Foster Farms plants that produced these lots of poultry are located in Central California - two of them in Fresno. A good proportion of the products obviously ended up for sale close to home.

On top of this, we have a recall of supposedly fully cooked and "ready to eat" chicken by a COSTCO store in South San Francisco. COSTCO has had to recall 9,000 of its rotisserie Foster Farms chickens and related Kirkland Farms products such as soup, chicken salad and leg quarters. These products were reportedly sold at Costco’s South San Francisco store between Sept. 11 and Sept. 23.

Wait a minute...It is now October 13. The products were recalled yesterday - October 12. Do you really keep your chicken for 2-4 weeks? Clearly this is another case of "recalling" what we have already eaten... A recorded message at the COSTCO warns customers to discard or return any leftovers of the Foster Farms chicken products and aplogizes "for the inconvenience this may have caused." Great. Thanks a lot.

While we are at it, the symptoms of this common type of food poisoning are usually diarrhea, abdominal cramps and fever. But you could also have a headache, muscle cramps, vomiting, chills and even blood in your stool. Usually you become ill within three days of eating the a contaminated product. People who are healthy and fit, would normally take longer to become ill than those who are elderly, young or not in good health.

So if you are worried that you may have eaten it two weeks ago, but are feeling fine, relax....

To your good health,
TSF

YES, YOU CAN EAT CHICKEN - BUT....

True, there is a large ongoing outbreak of Salmonella Heidelberg bacteria in U.S. chicken. The company involved is Foster Farms, which also sells under other labels. Contaminated poultry has now been found in the food supply of 20 states and Puerto Rico. Over 300 people have become ill, with the largest number in California, where the 3 Foster Farms plants are located that produced the lots that were contaminated.

So what should be do about eating chicken? Is it safe to eat?

Yes, under certain conditions. But you need to be extra careful for two reasons. First, this is a particulary virulent type of Salmonella bacteria. Over 40% of those who catch it end up in hospital (about twice the usual rate). However, the actual percentages could be lower. I would assume that there is even more under-reporting of the related food poisoning illnesses than usual. After all, the food safety information and reporting systems are not functioning normally because of the forced furlough of thousands of staff at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Centers for Disease Control (CDC). Hospitals are more likely to have kept accurate records. Even then these numbers are rather frightening.

A second reason to take special precautions is because this bacterium is very resistant to antibiotics, which makes treatment more difficult.

However, having said this, if you are careful, your poultry lunch or dinner can be perfectly safe. Remember, when handling the raw chicken to do it in the sink, which you can wash down immediately afterwards. You may also want to wear disposable gloves, to be rolled off carefully and thrown straight into the garbage when you are finished touching the poultry. And avoid contaminating any surface or any other food item with the raw chicken. Finally, make sure the chicken is thoroughly cooked to an internal temperature of at least 165 degrees Fahrenheit.

As for eating chicken out, or buying chicken takeout or "ready-to-eat" chicken - I would avoid this for a while. You can't always rely on thorough cooking of such poultry. Remember the cooked chicken that was found to be contaminated at a COSTCO store yesterday - resulting in a recall by COSTCO of 40,000 pounds of cooked chicken!

To your good health,

TSF

IS IMPORTED FOOD THREATENING OUR HEALTH?

Well, so much for COSTCO making berries safer (see previous post). This past week it had a rather unpleasant recall of a supposedly very healthy frozen berry mix, sourced from Townsend Farms of Fairview, Oregon. At least 30 serious hepatitis A illnesses in Colorado, New Mexico, Nevada, Arizona and California have been linked to this Townsend Farms Organic Anti-Oxidant Blend. Yes...Here we go with another recall of an organic food.

But let's look closely at this product. It is a true example of our global food supply. Not only did it contain those supposedly contaminated pomegranate seeds from Turkey. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said that this berry mix also included products from Argentina and Chile.

Yes, it is indeed wonderful to be able to buy anything we want to eat. But on the downside, such global sourcing of food has also been know to introduce new, or new strains, of bacteria, parasites and viruses into the U.S. from other countries. In this case, the particular strain of hepatitis A is rarely seen in North America, but is found in the North Africa and Middle East regions. It could well be that some sick farm worker in Turkey handled the pomegranate seeds. And there we are.

By the way, The Safe Food Handbook: How to Make Smart Choices About Risky Food, has a section in the introduction which analyzes why our food is not becoming any safer, in spite of all the efforts made and the new technology available. One of the main reasons noted is that "more and more of our food is imported from overseas." Yes, the U.S. does have food safety standards and guidelines for overseas producers, distributors, and processors. But, as the book points out, they are often poorly enforced and easily circumvented, more so in some countries than others. So we pay a price.

As an informed consumer, it is up to you to decide if you want to take the risk.

To your good health,

TSF

ORANGE JUICE CHEMICALS IN COSTCO MUSHROOMS

Back in January this year, orange juice safety hit the news in the U.S. and some other countries as well. The issue was a chemical called carbendazim - a fungicide used to control plant diseases that had been used on orange trees in Brazil, where the frozen orange juice came from (see earlier posts).

Carbendazim is approved for use in some countries but not the U.S.. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) does not allow even low levels of carbendazim in U.S. food. Now this same unhealthy chemical - plus a couple of others (fluoranthene and pyrene) has been found in shittake mushrooms.

L.A. Link of Cerritos, California is recalling 6 0z plastic jars of Shiitake-Ya brand Gourmet Shiitake Slices with a “SELL BY date” of 04/16/2013. They were sold at COSTCO - that huge grocery store, in California, Oregon and Washington.

If you bought them, throw them out or take them back and get a refund. But if you ate them, don't panick - one meal containing low doses of these chemicals will not kill you.

To your good health,
TSF