CALIFORNIA GROUND BEEF RECALLED

Let's hope you haven't been eating undercooked hamburgers or chili or meat tacos at a California or Nevada restaurant lately. The restaurant just may have received some E. coli O157:H7-contaminated ground beef products from Commercial Meat Company of Los Angeles, California.

The USDA/FSIS announced today that their testing had turned up this dangerous bacteria in the eat. Nearly 400,000 of ground beef products are being recalled by the company. They were supposed to hold the beef until the test results came in, and now they are paying the price for rushing. Just about all of it went in bulk cases to California and Nevada restaurants - as far as we know, that is.

By the way, the recalled burger meat, taco filling and chili products subject were produced between Sept. 7, 2011 and Oct. 6, 2011, which means..yes, that probably most of it has already been eaten. Notifications are being sent out anyway.

If the meat was cooked to 160° F that should have killed any of the harmful bacteria. But I really wonder how many restaurants use food thermometers to measure the internal temperature of your burger or taco filling.

Eating home is safer.

To your good health,
TSF

SALMONELLA IN CANADIAN DUCK

And now it's smoked duck - delicious smoked, ready-to-eat, imported duck. Two U.S. importers have issued recalls because the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Food Safety and Inspection Service (USDA/FSIS) - which is charged with keeping such meat products safe - found Salmonella bacteria in a test sample. They both got the duck product from Canada.

If you've read The Safe Food Handbook: How to Make Smart Choices about Risky Food, you'll know that these products comply with two of the four high-risk criteria - "remote" (imported, travelling many miles) and "ready" (ready-to-eat, RTE, foods are more risky).

The recalling U.S. companies are: Sid Wainer & Son, Inc., of New Bedford, Mass. and Palmex, Inc., of Champlain, N.Y. They got it from a Canadian company named Charcuterie Parisienne (a private company, based in Montreal).

The product being recalled is "Magret de Canard Fume Seche - Dried Smoked Duck Breast, Produit du Canada/Product of Canada." I don't know yet whether any of this product was distributed in Canada itself by the original company, or, by one of the importers (oddly enough, sometimes food does a U-turn and goes right back across the border to where it came from - I discussed this in an earlier post).

The U.S. imports a lot of food from Canada (and visa versa). Comparatively speaking, it is fairly safe. But recalls do happen. This is certainly not the first instance. There have been several for deli meat or poultry over the years.

These duck products were sold for institutional use, meaning that they went to places such as restaurants, hotels, retailers and so on. The first company distributed them in in Connecticut, Illinois, Massachusetts, New York and Pennsylvania. The second one sent them for on-distribution to sites in California and to the Dominican Republic (notice again, how the food we eat travels around these days). Who knows where it ended up.

We are not talking about huge quantities here (some 350 lbs so far, but there may be more). People just don't eat that much duck, particularly in this economy, since it is usually pretty expensive. But you may want to think twice before ordering an "away from home" smoked duck salad, or something similar, in the next few weeks, no matter how good it sounds.

To your good health,
TSF

RESTAURANT FOOD MAY BE INVOLVED IN E.COLI OUTBREAK

There is now some speculation that the huge outbreak of super-toxic E.coli in Europe may not have originated at the farm level after all. And, it may not be linked to imported produce - such as cucumbers. In fact, the outbreak could have been "home-grown" in Northern Germany itself, maybe originating at the Hamburg Port Festival. The beautiful festival took place at the beginning of May. That timing sounds just about right. It was attended by about 1.5 million people - both tourists and locals.

The possibility is being investigated. Certainly at least some of the victims attended the event. And reportedly several of them ate at a popular local restaurant called the Kartoffel-Keller - "The Potato Cellar" in English. It is a charming Hamburg restaurant with outdoor tables and vines - straight out of a tourist brochure. The photo is of one of their potato pies. The owner is clearly upset, to put it mildly.

I assume that we'll find out in the next few days whether all of the victims ate there (except for those who caught it second-hand from other people). They are no doubt being questioned right now. But it's possible. And it may not have been the restaurant's fault. If you look at my post of earlier today on E.coli 0157:H7 recalls of the past few months in the U.S., you will see that at least two of the contaminated meat recalls were of ground meat distributed to restaurants only. That is, the distributor sent the restaurant contaminated food. As I say in The Safe Food Handbook, restaurant food tends to be less safe.

Was the source even salad? Or was it potatoes? Or meat? Or, sprouts?

To your good health!
TSF