IS TRUMP'S RESTAURANT ENCOURAGING FOOD POISONING?

Not good news for Trump’s “Winter White House.” Mar-a-Lago’s restaurant didn’t do well on the latest inspection on January 26. Inspectors found 13 health and sanitation code violations.

Is this a case of paying $200,000 membership fee for a nasty case of food poisoning? Maybe even worse if the victim is a visiting head of state being wined and dined there. Talk of embarrassing!

All U.S. restaurants are inspected on a regular basis by inspectors from local public health departments. There is some variation between how often they do it and what they look for, but usually it covers things like cleanliness of the kitchen area and food handling, cooking and storage procedures. They also try to make sure that food is not cross-contaminated or contaminated by employees or by cockroaches, flies or rodents running around. I checked out the actual list for Florida. It has fully 50 “high priority” categories on it, meaning that failure on any one of these could pose a risk of food poisoning for diners.

At Mar-a-Lago raw meat (chicken, duck, beef and ham) were stored at temperatures that were far too high for safety. What, they are now trying to save on their electricity bills? Or, was it because their refrigerators were not operating properly and needed repairs?

Also, it seems that the restaurant's fish that was to be served either raw or undercooked had not undergone proper inspection for parasites. If you have been reading the news or this blog about the recent unpleasant experience of two California newlyweds with rat lungworm disease (which they probably caught from food in Hawaii) you will know that parasites can be very nasty indeed.

Even some of the lesser violations at Mar-a-Lago (such as inadequate hand-washing facilities for employees) have been found to often lead to food poisoning. It seems that not only do they have paying for refrigerator repairs and for replacing rusting shelves, but also can’t afford to heat the water!

Maybe Trump should take a break from playing golf and go back to checking the kitchen himself. Apparently, when he used to do so in the past, Florida’s “Sanitation and Safety Specialists” (that is their proper name) cited Mar-a-Lago with far fewer violations. Or should he sent Ivanka down there? She seems to get things done.

TSF

FDA FLEXES ITS MUSCLES - AGAIN

Well, it looks more and more as though the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has been listening to all those critics who say it needs to stop acting like a wimp bureacracy. Now it is flexing its "food safety" muscles. A month or so ago (see earlier blog, it clamped down hard on a renegade alfalfa grower who had been refusing to clean up its alfalfa production practices for years. Then it was the turn of a rat-infested chili warehouse in New Mexico, that the FDA finally closed down - again, after it had repeatedly thumbed its nose at the government regulators (I have a feeling I am getting my metaphors in a mess here..).

Today, it was announced that the FDA had filed an injunction against a juice manufacturer in Jamaica, New York, which had been refusing to do as it was told for at least 14 months. It had been selling its products to food service establishments primarily in New York, Connecticut, and Pennsylvania.

The company, bearing the wonderful name of "Mystical One LLC" or "Mystical One Juice LLC" manufactured Fresh Carrot Juice, Magnum Food Drink, Pineapple Ginger Drink, Sorrel & Ginger Drink, Sea Moss, and Peanut Punch - which were anything but clean. In fact, they could be downright deadly (as in "lethal" to anyone who drinks it) because of risks of Clostridium botulinum bacteria that can germinate in the carrot juice. The infractions cited by the FDA include failure by Mystic One to:

• adequately heat low-acid vegetable juices to destroy or prevent growth of dangerous microorganisms;
• properly clean food-contact surfaces; and
• maintain and monitor sanitation conditions at the manufacturing facility to prevent sources of possible food and water contamination.

Naughty, naughty....

The official statement said: "Mystical One failed to adhere to food safety guidelines and we have stopped their operation."
Congratulations FDA!

TSF

Who's Right About the Salmonella?

We have had another one of those incidents. FDA's laboratories have turned up dangerous bacteria in a food product, and the responsible food company says that its own testing didn't find any. It happens all the time - peanut butter, spices, lettuce, ground beef...Who is right? Of course, we tend to believe the government (sometimes, that is) and we tend to distrust the profit-focused public-health neglecting food industry. But they could both be right.

In the case in May, 2010, the suspect product was bagged spinach, distributed by Organicgirl, based in Salinas, California. Organicgirl (slogan - "good clean greens") is a USDA certified organic company with a devoted customer base (just read the facebook raves). It not only has "mother earth" in charge, but even uses 100% recycled plastic. "Most" of the greens it sells come from California and Arizona (where do the rest come from? Mexico?) and it tries to minimize food miles (all the way to Alabama). It also triple washes everything (maybe even quadruple washing, if you count that extra spraying).

But on May 27 Organicgirl had to admit that just possibly, one of its products was contaminated by Salmonella bacteria - lovely bagged baby spinach. The spinach had been distributed to California, Oregon, Arizona, Wisconsin, North Carolina and Alabama. The Best-if-used-by date was May 22 (a full week earlier). The company statement read: "organicgirl raw product testing records for the relevant time period did not show the presence of any pathogens." But the FDA's did, so it had to recall some 336 cases of expired (very likely to now be consumed) spinach.
So what happened? My guess is the following - and I am only guessing. Very small numbers of Salmonella bacteria were present when the company first did its testing, so the tests turned up negative. But, over the next few days - maybe even weeks, while on the road and in the store, the bacteria multiplied. Maybe just 3 or 4 Salmonella in a bag had become 3,000 or 4,000 or more. By the time the FDA sample was taken (apparently from a store), there were large enough numbers of Salmonella bacteria present to be show up in the tests. The chances are that my theory is right.

The lesson for us consumers - the fresher, the better. If the bacteria are below the numbers needed for an infective dose - maybe 1,000 to 10,000 of them, we may not get sick. Check the dates.

Bon appetit!
TSF

NUTS TO YOU

Keeping up with frightening food events in our food supply is getting quite exhausting. One of the most annoying aspects is that just as you think you can forget about one of the outbreaks, you realize it is still out there. And contaminated products might still be out there too, waiting for us, innocent consumers, to pounce on them.

Take peanuts. The PCA incident that blanketed our country (and a few others) with salmonella-contaminated peanuts and peanut products should be well over by now. The plants have been shut down. More than 2,100 products in 17 categories have been voluntarily recalled by more than 200 companies, since January, 2009 (probably more, as the FDA information is at least a week or two out of date). Hundreds of people have become ill and some have died. But guess what, it's not over.

There have been more peanut product recalls in the last few days, including one yesterday. More or less ditto for pistachios. The most recent pistachio one - just four days ago. No wonder I could not get any at Trader Joe's on Wednesday when I wanted to make my usual favorite of herb cornish hen, stuffed with raisins and pistachios (I settled for pine nuts instead).

But back to peanuts. Yesterday's recall really illustrates the oddity of our so-called food safety system. Nuts for You of Preston ID is recalling Roasted and Salted Peanuts manufactured with peanuts bought from PCA. The product was distributed between March 15, 2008 and Jan 15, 2009.The sell-by date on the plastic bag of 'Nuts for You' was Feb 18, 2009 (more than four months ago) . Presumably the nuts were purchased sometime in 2007 from PCA's Texas plant to make these cute bags of salted peanuts sold at gift stores.

So here we are on June 25, asking consumers to send back products made of antique nuts (maybe two years old) that are well and truly expired and, are very likely to have also been well and truly eaten. The really bad news is that this type of pattern is not unusual.

Nuts to you, FDA. How are we supposed to escape bad food in America?

bon appetit!

TSF

SORRY FOR THE PEANUT BUTTER

So people are avoiding peanut butter in jars, even though there is no evidence to show it is contaminated. (It was just the bulk peanut butter sold to institutions, and the paste used by various manufacturers originating in the Blakely, Georgia plant that was believed to be contaminated with Salmonella bacteria). But peanut butter manufacturers are losing consumer confidence, and a lot of money. No surprise. I hate to admit this, but at the beginning I was avoiding peanut butter too - just in case. The trouble with a lot of these complicated outbreaks is that the story keeps changing on a daily basis. So what do you do? You play it safe and avoid anything even remotely connected.

A few days ago my 96 year-old neighbor invited us over for some 'moving pictures.' Actually, I hadn't the faintest idea what he meant. I was hoping it was some old pictures of the neighborhood before it became...you know...kind of up-market and cheesy. Anyway, I felt I had to take something over to eat. With only an hour's notice, what could I do? The cupboard was bare. All I had was that half-jar of peanut butter in the frig, some raisins, a can of sweet condensed milk, corn flakes....Eureka! Those peanut butter cookies that my friend Elizabeth taught me to make (before she died...so sad). But what if the people there didn't want to eat anything with peanut butter?

Oh well, I had no choice. Actually it worked out rather well. Except for the fact that the 'moving pictures' turned out to be videos of the most recent performance by his piano students. Too dreadful, but fun in a way. It was like moving back to a by-gone age.

What really annoyed me is that he did not serve the cookies I brought. But I was told afterwards that they were delicious, and everyone in his adoptive (Vietnamese) family loved them. And, as far as I know, no-one became ill. Certainly not my neighbor as he is out there every morning at 7am walking Cinnamon, the dog, and driving the kids to school in his truck. It would take more than a little Salmonella to do him in. It must be all those pomegranates and walnuts he ate when he had the ranch - up until a year ago.

Here is the recipe, with credits to Elizabeth Thomas, a wonderful person, a great foodie and the best dessert-maker I have ever known. May she cook with the angels.

1 can sweetened condensed milk,
40z. cornflakes (4 cups)
4 oz. golden raisins (1 cup)
1/2 cup peanut butter (chunky or smooth)

Cream together the peanut butter and condensed milk. Stir in the raisins. Gently mix in the cornflakes. Place the mix in mounds on a cookie sheet, covered with a non-stick flexible baking sheet or on kitchen parchment.

Bake at 350 degrees for 13-15 minutes until golden brown and almost set (make sure they don'tq burn underneath). Remove from sheet and set to cool after about one minute. When cool, store in air-tight container. They will keep about a week.

That's it! Easy breezie. About twenty minutes from beginning to end. The kind of instant killer-cookie we love. Number of calories? Don't ask me. I don't want to think about it. Safe? Absolutely!

TSF

PEANUT REDUX

As I expected, this peanut related contamination of our food supply is growing and growing, expanding every way: more confirmed cases of illness, more deaths, a wider time frame for risky foods, and many, many more possible suspect products. Yesterday there were some 32 new alerts in my mailbox. It's Sunday today, but I bet there will be another bunch today. It's no longer just peanut paste and bulk shipments of peanut butter to institutions, but also peanuts themselves and wonderful things like trail mixes.

Now that it has got to the peanuts, I am beginning to wonder if the source of the contamination (or, sources) is not limited to the Peanut Corporation of America facilities. I would not be the least surprised if it also pops up elsewhere. Maybe even at the peanut grower level. Jimmy Carter - are you involved?

As for recalling hundreds of peanut products going all the way back to January 1, 2007 - let's face it, that is a bit unrealistic. I bet we have already eaten most of it.

Just to be safe I am throwing out any item I have bought that contains peanuts. What is considered safe today, will probably be unsafe tomorrow. By the way, I found that my favorite pecan oatmeal bars also contain peanut paste. So much for the label.

I wonder if they have peanut futures on the commodities exchange? Maybe it isn't too late to sell some calls or buy some puts, so I could make some money for a change.

Bon appetit!
TSF

PASS ON THE PEANUT

Peanut butter is clogging my mailbox, if not my arteries. Today there are nine new recall notices from the Food and Drug Administration of products containing peanut butter paste which might be contaminated with Salmonella typhimurium bacteria. Yesterday there were six new recalls, and the day before, four. .....I am losing count, but I believe that by now some 125 - 130 products have been recalled because of this outbreak. Some of these foods were distributed nationwide, and are particularly popular with children, as well as some of my neighbors and friends - foods such as peanut butter cookies, ice cream, candy, crackers and more. There have been close to 500 confirmed cases of illness so far in 43 states, and some 7 suspected deaths. Multiply that by ten and you are likely to be closer to the real numbers, since only a small percentage of this type of illness gets reported.

How did this happen? It is believed that the contamination occurred at the Peanut Butter Corporation's Blakey, Ga. plant (now closed). At least, a very similar strain of this bacteria was found in a crack in the floor, near where the pallets were stored. Mind you, that still doesn't explain how it got into the vats. What, the roasted peanuts, peanut butter or paste landed on the floor and were then scooped up and put back into the containers? My guess is that this is not the end of the story. There will probably be more twists and turns, as usual. Stay tuned... We are on the case.

I have given up my favorite peanut-butter oatmeal bars, and am avoiding chocolates with peanut butter (sigh...), just in case. At least it is good for that belly bulge that arrived during the holidays. At the rate things are going, what is not on the recall list today, will probably be there tomorrow. I am just glad that I am not in some nursing home, hospital, university or school with food service that received the large tubs of contaminated peanut butter. Several people in long-term care facilities have become ill, and of course, any additional illness is worse for them than for those of us that are healthy.

The nonprofit National Peanut Board says Americans eat 700 million pounds of this yummy stuff every year. Apparently millions of pounds have been recalled. If peanut butter follows the route of the nationwide spinach outbreak in 2006 or the 2007 tomato scare (no, not tomato but Jalapeno and Serrano pepper) , we are going to be eating a lot less of it in the future - at least for a few years. Poor Peanut Corporation of America. Plus the others that produce it. This little bacteria is going to cost them.

The list of suspect products is too long to reproduce. The growing list of recalls is on: http://www.fda.gov/oc/opacom/hottopics/salmonellatyph.html. This list has now expanded to include some pet treats as well - not so dangerous for Fido, but could be if a child handles the treat and then does not wash his or her hands afterwards before eating. Most likely not all the recalled products are contaminated, but all the small producers did use peanut butter or paste from the suspect factory in making them.

But there is a bright side - at least until we know otherwise. Apparently some peanut butter/paste products are safe for us to eat. Here are some of the companies that are swearing they don't use any peanut paste or butter from the Blakey plant in making their goodies, and, unless we find out otherwise, it is perfectly safe to eat them.

• See's Candies of California, Hershey, Rees's and Russell Stover Candies.
• Kraft products such as Nabisco and Planter brands.
• Quaker Oats granola bars or snacks.
• Products of Sport protein bar company PowerBar, a division of Nestle.
• Energy Bars made by Bonk Beaker of California.
• Tiger's Milk nutrition bars made by Schiff Nutrition of Salt Lake City, Utah.

Keep eating...

TSF