Issue #70 | Epic fails at the ice cream factory | Horsing around | Poll results (drumroll please) | Hallucinogenic Spinach |
Issue #70 | Epic fails at the ice cream factory | Horsing around | Poll results (drumroll please) | Hallucinogenic Spinach |
2023-01-09
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Survey results for live events (drumroll please)
Horsing around - a food fraud quick bite
Ice cream failures of an epic kind, again!
Hallucinogenic spinach update
News and Resources Roundup
Lunch at Dad’s - Silly ‘Food Crimes’ - Just for Fun
Food fraud news, incidents and updates (for paying subscribers)
Hi, Happy New Year!
Welcome to 2023 and to Issue 70 of The Rotten Apple. For those of you in countries that celebrate festive times in late Dec, I hope you had an enjoyable and relaxing time.
This week I’m delighted to share with you the results of the reader poll from Issue 68. Good things are coming in 2023 for readers of The Rotten Apple.
The big story this week is about pathogenic Listeria in ice cream in the USA. Nope, not Blue Bell this time, but another ice cream company. This one was operating WITHOUT A DOCUMENTED FOOD SAFETY PLAN. Brilliant. Read on for lessons learned, and links to guidance for Listeria control in food manufacturing.
Also this week, a quick update on the investigation into hallucinogenic ‘spinach’, plus a link to my column in Food Saftey Tech magazine about the latest developments in horsemeat fraud - yes it’s still happening. And - just for fun - a video in which bros taste ‘food crimes’ (and talk too much).
This week’s food safety news round-up has some weird and interesting items, like botulism-contaminated horse feed, a recall of human breast milk and a US company being sued over ‘forever chemicals’ in food packaging. Plenty of great (free) food safety resources too, as always, be sure to check it out.
Food fraud news and incident reports are below the paywall. You can get access to the food fraud section - and all the other benefits of a paid subscription - with a free 7-day trial by clicking the green button on the paywall.
Have a wonderful week,
Karen
P.S. If you know someone who would enjoy this newsletter, please tell them about it.
Cover image: Clark Douglas on Unsplash
Live Events Poll Results
In December I asked you about live events, trying to decide how - or if - to create live events and help us all connect, either online or in person.
The most popular answers were an almost-even split between people who would like informal ‘get-to-know-you’ online meet-ups and those who are interested in structured training sessions.
This poll confirmed my suspicions that food professionals are always on the lookout for free training 😊! In addition, I am really pleased that some of you are interested in talking and networking in an informal setting too.
So, drumroll please, The Rotten Apple will launch a series of online get-togethers and short training sessions this year. More info to follow.
🍏 Live events coming in 2023 🍏
No Horsing Around
It’s the food fraud that keeps surfacing: horsemeat fraud.
I wrote about it for Food Safety Tech magazine.
Read my Quick Bites horsemeat column in Food Safety Tech here
Deadly Ice Cream (Again)
Listeria in ice cream has been linked to more illnesses in the United States. Not again! Just a few months ago, the former CEO of Blue Bell Creameries faced a grand jury over his role in a deadly Listeria outbreak from Blue Bell ice cream in 2015.
Now another American company is in the headlines for a similar set of problems.
Reminder: Blue Bell sickened and killed people with its ice cream and had to pay fines and penalties of more than $19 million. State authorities found the pathogenic bacterium Listeria monocytogenes in the company’s products and notified the company, however, the company allegedly failed to immediately recall its products, or even to tell its customers about the problem. Blue Bell’s former CEO was accused of covering up the problem and discontinuing the company’s Listeria monitoring program.
🍏 Read more about Blue Bell and the fraud accusations in Issue #51 of The Rotten Apple 🍏
If you owned an ice cream company would you pay attention to the Blue Bell saga? Surely you would! Wouldn’t you want to avoid harming your consumers, damaging your brand or facing fines, shutdowns and criminal prosecution like Blue Bell did because of their Listeria problem? Surely you would work to ensure that your ice cream did not sicken and kill people and unborn babies?
Apparently, the owners of Big Olaf ice cream company did not pay attention to Blue Bell’s Listeria woes. It seems like they did not learn any lessons from the Blue Bell saga. They are making the same mistakes as Blue Bell did - or worse!
Last month, Big Olaf received a warning letter from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) after inspectors sound “insanitary [sic] conditions”, “filth”, “serious violations” and noted that the company had no operational food safety plan. No food safety plan: wow.
The ice cream made by Big Olaf has been linked to Listeriosis - a serious illness caused by the pathogenic bacteria Listeria monocytogenes - in at least twenty-eight people. At least one person died and one miscarriage has been recorded.
The FDA said “Multiple pieces of equipment used to manufacture ready-to-eat (RTE) ice cream products were reported positive for Listeria monocytogenes by their contract laboratory, including (redacted). Additionally, four swabs of finished product ice cream buckets (redacted) were reported positive for Listeria monocytogenes.”
Florida government officials also tested the ice cream and found Listeria in sixteen of the seventeen flavours they sampled.
According to one source, the Listeria illnesses began in January 2021 but the company initially refused to stop selling the ice cream. A recall began in July 2022. That’s more than one-and-a-half years after the (alleged) first illness. July 2022 was also the time that the FDA inspected the facility - the inspection that resulted in the warning letter quoted.
The facility has not been shut down. The FDA warned in their December letter that they have not received any corrective actions from Big Olaf Creamery LLC nor any written response related to the creation or implementation of a compliant food safety plan. They gave Big Olaf more time to respond.
“To date, we have not received a written response from you describing the corrective actions you have taken or plan to take at your facility.” The FDA, five months after their inspections began.
Allergen and Salmonella controls? Nope!
As if the Listeria problems and poor sanitation at the facility were not bad enough, the FDA warning letter also mentions that the company did not have any formally implemented controls for Salmonella in the ready-to-eat peanuts and tree nuts the company purchases. Or an allergen control plan.
Yup, the company had no documented allergen control systems, despite selling ice cream flavours or inclusions that contain tree nuts, peanuts and wheat-containing cookie pieces 😲.
What can we learn from this?
Listeria-contaminated facilities, equipment and containers can result in contaminated food, and that can make people sick. And dead.
A food safety plan that includes preventive controls is critically important for the manufacture of food that can support the survival of Listeria (like ice cream). It is also a legal requirement in the United States.
Controlling and eliminating Listeria in food production facilities is not always easy, but it is important. Listeria guidance for food manufacturers has been published by many government food safety authorities from around the globe. Find links to selected guidance documents below:
Industry Clean-Up Guidance for When Listeria monocytogenes Has Been Found in Food (Australia)
Technical Guidance on Challenge Tests and Shelf Life Durability for Listeria (Europe)
Control measures for Listeria monocytogenes in ready-to-eat foods (Canada)
In short: 🍏 A US ice cream company has been cited for sanitary failings and has been linked to illnesses 🍏 Listeria monocytogenes was found in its products, facility and food-contact equipment 🍏 The company continues to operate and has been sent a warning letter by the US FDA 🍏 Listeria control systems are critical for ice cream manufacturing and guidance has been provided by many government food safety bodies 🍏
Sources:
Quick Update: Hallucinogenic Spinach
Hallucinogenic spinach was in the news in Australia last month, and I wrote about it in Issue 69. The spinach caused hospitalisations and was found to be contaminated with a weed. It was immediately recalled (take note, US FDA!) and investigated.
The weed has since been confirmed to be Datura stramonium, known in Australia as thornapple and elsewhere as jimsonweed. In Italy, consumers were sickened by mandrake leaves in a similar scenario last year. It’s still kind of strange to me… thornapple leaves have an angular shape and an unpleasant odour when crushed so one would imagine they would be identifiable as a contaminant to spinach harvesting or packing workers and consumers.
Lesson? If you are eating fresh spinach leaves and you taste a weird one, spit it out!
News and Resources
Click the link below for a carefully handcrafted selection of food safety news and resources from around the globe. It’s been expertly curated (by me! 😎) and is free from filler, fluff and promotional junk.
This week: Botulism-contaminated horse feed, a recall of human breast milk and a US company being sued over ‘forever chemicals’ in food packaging.
Last week’s news includes a roundup of new food safety laws from around the globe.
Lunch at Dad’s - a Food Crime (Just for Fun)
Watch two American bros talk too much and taste a ‘food crime’.
What you missed in the previous issue
· A 🦆 gift for you (quack quack…)
· GFSI versus IFS - the fight begins
· The Five Whys Technique, plus a helpful template - for paying subscribers
· Weirdest Food Safety Moments of 2022
· 53 Best Christmas Desserts (Just for Fun)
Below for paying subscribers: Food fraud news and incident reports, plus an 🎧 audio version 🎧 so you can catch up while on the go
📌 Food Fraud News 📌
The Brazilian Company at the centre of a major long-running meat fraud scandal has agreed to
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