News and Resources Roundup
May 2023
29 May | Food Safety News and Free Resources1 |
🤮 🍪 Raw cookie dough outbreak – will we ever learn?! 🤮 🍪
Eighteen people who ate raw cookie dough from a single brand have become sick with Salmonellosis in the USA. The dough has not been recalled, but the brand owner has “temporarily” stopped selling it. The CDC is advising people not to eat raw cookie dough. Yup.
https://foodpoisoningbulletin.com/2023/papa-murphys-cookie-dough-salmonella-outbreak-sickens-18/
Cargill Soy Flour Recall Update
Cargill provided information to the Gluten Free Watchdog organisation about its millions of pounds of ‘recalled’ (or withdrawn) soy flour Prolia and Prosante ingredients, and said that “Information available to date indicates that the source of the gluten is inadvertent comingle from rye planted as cover crops.”
Compliance Guide for Traceability Rule (USA)
The US FDA has released a Compliance Guide for small food companies for traceability records.
You can get it here:
Global Fishing Industry Worried About Release of Radioactive Water in Japan
The food safety of fish might be at risk from the disposal of radioactive wastewater into the ocean by the Japanese government.
Mystery mushroom/sushi outbreak (USA)
Two people have died and fifty were sickened after eating at a restaurant in Montana. The restaurant is a sushi restaurant and food safety investigators have checked food from the site, including salmon and mushrooms, both of which were found to be free of pathogens and toxins (at least the ones they tested for). Investigators noted that the people who got sick ate menu items containing morel mushrooms, while other diners did not become sick. However the cause of the illnesses remains unknown.
https://foodpoisoningbulletin.com/2023/daves-sushi-outbreak-remains-unsolved-restaurant-reopens/
Brilliant Free Allergen Training Online and OnDemand
Food Standards Scotland has published a free online training course for allergen training.
Learn more and access the original allergen training and the new (advanced) allergen training courses/tools here:
Food Safety Culture Free Virtual Training 7th June
AIB is hosting a free virtual training session for food safety culture.
What is food safety culture? What makes a great company culture?
How do you ensure your team is not just going through the motions?
What are the most popular food safety culture models?
How can senior level management model a healthy food safety culture?
How do you set food safety culture goals and incentivize a strong food safety culture?
https://info.aibinternational.com/a-practical-look-at-food-safety-culture-webinar
Social compliance standards and audits (Australia) – Free Webinar 8th June
This webinar, hosted by Intertek SAI Global explains
- Social compliance in Australia
- Changes to the Modern Slavery Act
- Social compliance auditing, an overview
- Q and A
https://saiassurance.com.au/resources/news-resources/webinars/social_compliance_auditing/
22 May | Food Safety News and Free Resources |
⚠ Ethylene oxide residues still being detected in Europe ⚠
The preservative/treatment/pesticide ethylene oxide, which is banned in Europe, is still being detected in foods imported there. Last week it was detected in peppers from Pakistan, Cayenne pepper from Turkiye and a meal replacement dietetic food from Thailand.
https://webgate.ec.europa.eu/rasff-window/screen/notification/611967
https://webgate.ec.europa.eu/rasff-window/screen/notification/611784
https://webgate.ec.europa.eu/rasff-window/screen/notification/610816
🧪 🥩 Cultivated meat update 🧪 🥩
Cultivated meat is much worse for global warming than traditional beef, says new research.
📋 Top Ten Non-Conformances 📋
This information is shared with thanks to Sonia Andre. Premises and equipment failures outnumbered other non-conformance types for both major and minor non-conformances.
🦠 Controlling Listeria in Retail Environments – Guidance Booklet 🦠
This downloadable booklet from Penn State University has guidance on controlling Listeria in retail environments including potential sources of hazards and problem areas like drains.
https://extension.psu.edu/control-of-listeria-monocytogenes-in-retail-establishments
Social compliance standards and audits (Australia) – Free Webinar 8th June
This webinar, hosted by Intertek SAI Global explains
- Social compliance in Australia
- Changes to the Modern Slavery Act
- Social compliance auditing, an overview
- Q and A
https://saiassurance.com.au/resources/news-resources/webinars/social_compliance_auditing/
📌 Food Fraud News 📌
This week’s food fraud news includes
A warning about the proliferation of bogus kosher symbols on food packs;
Good results in a fish mislabelling survey in Brazil;
Tahini (sesame paste) made with ceramic powder;
Fraud in sweet and sour sauce.
Become a paid subscriber to access The Rotten Apple’s food fraud news.
15th May | Food Safety News and Free Resources |
💥 🤔 Mistakes in a lab cause an expensive and unnecessary recall 🤔💥
Whole genome sequencing of the pathogenic E. coli from recalled salad greens revealed it was identical to the lab’s own control sample. This means that the initial E. coli detection – which initiated the recall - was almost certainly caused by contamination within the lab.
🐗 Trichinellosis outbreak - Spain 🐗
16 people who ate chorizo made from wild boar meat that contained Trichinella larvae were sickened in Spain.
https://www.foodsafetynews.com/2023/05/trichinella-outbreak-sickens-16-in-spain/
🍹 “Elevated” levels of heavy metals in juices and plant-based milks – USA 🍹
Sixty non-alcoholic beverages purchased from retail outlets were tested for 25 elements including nickel, cadmium, lead, arsenic and zinc. Some contained quantities above drinking water standards and forty percent of samples had more aluminium than recommended by the standards.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0889157523001047
⚠ Unusual recall 1: Bacillus cereus in chilli powder ⚠
Chilli powder has been recalled in Canada because of “Bacillus cereus concerns.”.
⚠🌿 Big recall: Listeria in bean sprouts - USA 🌿⚠
Mung bean sprouts and soybean sprouts potentially contaminated with Listeria monocytogenes have been recalled in the USA. The recall covers all sprouts in all pack sizes and all batches from two brands which have been distributed across five states.
⚠Unusual (huge) recall: Allergen in “millions of pounds” of soy flour – Global ⚠
Cargill’s soy flour has been recalled from markets globally, including North America, Central America and the United Kingdom after the company admitted that it may contain gluten above 20 ppm, despite being marketed with gluten-free claims. The action is being reported as a recall but might more properly be called a withdrawal since the products do not appear to be sold to consumers, but rather used as ingredients by food manufacturers.
https://www.glutenfreewatchdog.org/news/product-recall-millions-of-pounds-of-cargill-soy-flour-have-been-recalled-because-of-gluten/ and https://www.accessdata.fda.gov/scripts/ires/?Event=92013
🍖 Meat products guidance: fermented, salt-cured, dried meats – comments invited 🍖
The USDA has published new guidance for meat products that are made with fermentation, drying and curing technologies, and is seeking comments on the guidance. Learn more at the link below:
🐷 Gene-edited pig meat approved for eating – USA 🐷
The US FDA has approved certain breeding pig sires as suitable for eating after reviewing two years of safety data. The pigs’ genes are altered using CRISPR technology to make them infertile so they can be implanted with the stem cells of another male pig for breeding.
https://www.spokesman.com/stories/2023/may/01/wsu-first-university-to-produce-gene-edited-meat-f/
Food Expert Input on Food Industry Topics - Europe
Your help is needed. ILSI Europe is seeking input in a multi-stakeholder survey to discover which food industry topics are most relevant to the sector.
🍬 Accidental poisonings from edible cannabis products – Canada 🍬
Children are ending up in hospital after accidentally consuming illegal edible cannabis products that look like regular candies and snacks.
FAO reports on the links between pesticide residues, veterinary residues and microplastics on human health (via the gut microbiome)
Three new documents have been released by the Food and Agriculture Organization. The reports are literature reviews which aim to assess scientific evidence about the impacts of pesticide residues veterinary drugs and microplastics on the human gut microbiome and their impacts on human health.
https://www.fao.org/food-safety/news/news-details/en/c/1638888/
Controlling Listeria in Meat and Poultry Plans – Guidance with Good Pictures
This article from Penn State University has guidance on controlling Listeria, and includes pictures of production areas that can be harbourages for Listeria biofilms.
https://extension.psu.edu/control-of-listeria-monocytogenes-in-meat-and-poultry
🔍 Food Safety Intelligence Sharing - Free online summit, 9th June 🔍
This free online event hosted by Agroknow will address the following topics:
Creating Food Safety Intelligence Networks around Privacy-Preserving Technologies;
Fiin: A Success Story for Secure Food Data Sharing Networks;
Exploring the Technical Foundations of Federated AI Learning;
Unlocking the Potential of Private Data for Enhanced Food Safety: Current Landscape, Opportunities and Requirements;
Navigating Legal Challenges in Private Data Exchange for Food Companies: Understanding Liabilities and Solutions.
https://efraproject.eu/1st-international-summit-on-privacy-preserving-ai-for-food-risk-intelligence/
8th May | Food Safety News and Free Resources |
💥Sesame seeds controversy after allergy law change - USA💥
Food companies in the USA are reportedly adding sesame flour to their foods because they say it is too hard to meet the requirements of new allergen laws. Suppliers of some food ingredients and products say it is almost impossible to keep sesame residues out of their foods, as is required by allergen management rules. Because they cannot be sure that their products are free of sesame they choose instead to deliberately add sesame and then list sesame as an ingredient.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/wellness/2023/04/11/sesame-allergy-law-consequences/
🤮🍓 Hep A in frozen berries (again!) – big fines – Taiwan 🍓🤮
A retailer in Taiwan has been fined US$244,000 after selling more than 17,000 kg of frozen berries to consumers that were later found to be contaminated with hepatitis A. The berries originated in Chile. The same brand of berries (shockingly!) were recalled in the USA a month prior after being linked to illnesses (source) – Taiwan 05/05/2023
https://www.taiwannews.com.tw/en/news/4883158
⚠ Sneaky drugs in weight loss supplements - recall (USA) ⚠
Energy and weight loss supplements have been recalled in the USA after they were found to contain unauthorised an undeclared pharmaceutical ingredients hordenine and/or octodrine/DMHA (1,5-Dimethylhexylamine). 28/04/2023
https://foodpoisoningbulletin.com/2023/truvision-health-supplements-recalled-for-adulteration/
Allergens in food service – new research
A new study found that when food service staff asked consumers about allergies proactively before/during ordering, there were better outcomes in terms of consumer confidence and satisfaction.
https://www.food.gov.uk/research/proactively-asking-about-allergens-full-report
🥛🤔 Farmers allowed to sell raw milk (USA) 🤔🥛
The state of North Dakota has allowed farmers to sell raw milk directly to consumers.
🦠 Raw Flour Outbreak – this time Salmonella (USA) 🦠
An outbreak that sickened at least 12 and caused 3 hospitalisations has been linked to Salmonella Infantis in raw flour. A recall has been initiated.
https://www.foodsafetynews.com/2023/04/general-mills-recalls-flour-after-testing-finds-salmonella/
📌 Food Fraud News 📌
This week’s food fraud news includes
Chinese tea, lobsters and mangoes
potential emerging risks from strange new trading patterns in palm oil;
gum arabic warning.
Become a paid subscriber to access The Rotten Apple’s food fraud news.
1st May | Food Safety News and Free Resources2 |
⚠ 🐻 Trichinellosis from bear meatballs (Canada) 🐻 ⚠
A man who killed a black bear (Ursus americanus) and prepared meatballs with its frozen meat became ill with acute trichinellosis a week after eating them. Some were slightly undercooked. He got abdominal pain, muscle pain, pink-tinged urine, fever and chills. Investigators observed Trichinella larvae in samples of the leftover frozen meat.
https://journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/jcm.00620-22
💥 Needles in food - USA 💥
Food at a grocery store was allegedly contaminated with sewing needles and an ex-employee has been charged.
https://www.pennlive.com/news/2023/04/employee-put-needles-in-food-at-pa-giant-store-police.html
(Recall) Beef patties contaminated with white neoprene – USA
2,122 pounds of raw ground beef patties have been recalled after multiple complaints were received that the products contained “rubber=like” material.
🏝️ Food testing lab capacity in Pacific Island countries - a report 🏝️
The World Health Organization (WHO) has reported that many countries in the Pacific/Oceania do not have food testing facilities. American Samoa, Cook Islands, Kiribati, the Marshall Islands, Nauru, Niue, Tonga, Tuvalu, or Wallis and Futuna have no capabilities, while Fiji, Fiji, French Polynesia, New Caledonia, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, and the Solomon Islands do have lab capacity and can test for biological and chemical hazards. Some countries send samples to Hawaii or the US, some to Korea and the Philippines.
Only one lab in the Pacific Islands has the ability to detect a marine toxin (ciguatoxin). Other marine toxins such as domoic acid or lipophilic shellfish toxins, cannot be tested for in this region.
https://www.foodsafetynews.com/2023/04/who-guide-supports-limited-food-testing-in-the-pacific/
Foodborne illness rates in different countries compared
The US CDC says one in six people gets ill from food each year, but the UK government estimates only one in twenty-eight people get sick every year. That’s a big difference.
A new study has compared the rates from the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, and Australia and concluded that differences in reported rates of illness can be attributed to differences in how the numbers are estimated rather than real differences in the numbers of illnesses.
https://bmjopengastro.bmj.com/content/10/1/e001009
Micro nerds! 🦠 Listeria sensu stricto and sensu lato 🦠 classifications (webinar), 8th May 2023
A free webinar hosted by the International Association of Food Protection will cover the following topics
-Review why genomics data supports a re-organization of Listeria and that only the Listeria sensu stricto species should be classified as a Listeria
-Clarify the expectations for detecting all Listeria spp. using the currently available rapid detection and identification methods.
-Understand the FDA's perspective on detecting new Listeria species
Pesticides residues in Food (Europe) report
A report has been published for a Europe-wide survey of almost 88,000 food samples collected in 2021. There were fewer samples that exceeded residue limits in 2021, at 3.9 percent compared to 2020, at 5.1 percent. That is, the results are better than for 2020.
https://efsa.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.2903/j.efsa.2023.7939
Romanian food laws: not in compliance with EU rules for national food laws
Food safety laws in Romania do not meet the requirements of the European Union and the EU Commission is now increasing pressure to encourage Romania to comply.
https://www.foodsafetynews.com/2023/04/eu-escalates-enforcement-action-against-romania/
Food Safety Culture: Free Webinar - Missing Links in developing a food safety culture in the food companies, 5th May
This free webinar, hosted by IFSQN will discuss how developing a Food Safety Culture has always been a requirement for Food Companies, and it is now also a compliance requirement for those implementing standards such as BRCGS, FSSC 22000, SQF, Global GAP, and IFS. In a recent move, the EU has adopted commission regulation (EU) 2021/382, which mandates that food business operators establish, maintain, and provide evidence of an appropriate food safety culture.
Register here:
https://event.webinarjam.com/register/316/xnk8ls42
Food Analysis: Free Webinar - Simplifying the complexity of food analysis, 10th May
New Food is hosting a free webinar that will provide valuable insights into the benefits of Elemental analysis.
Topics include:
How modern ICP-MS technology can simplify your workflow by removing complexity from analysis
Learn how software tools can help your instrument meet performance specifications every day
Learn how to increase your sample throughput by up to 25 percent while reducing analysis costs and reducing turnaround time.
Register here:
https://www.newfoodmagazine.com/webinar/190842/simplifying-the-complexity-of-food-analysis/
📌 Food Fraud News 📌
This week’s food fraud news includes
changes to food fraud clauses in FSSC 22000;
emerging risks due to new anti-deforestation rules for some food commodities;
fraud in mineral water, mangoes and palm oil.
Become a paid subscriber to access The Rotten Apple’s food fraud news.
