Personal Injury Law

Lizard droppings may have poisoned Bangladesh students

Posted on July 05, 2009
Lizard droppings or similar contamination may have been the cause for scores of students falling ill after eating at a girls' hostel of Bagerhat Government PC College, civil surgeon Subhash Kumar Saha said on Sunday. Saha was making an inspection of the hostel's kitchen after 63 students, who had taken lunch there on Saturday, underwent treatment for food poisoning at Bagerhat Sadar Hospital...

Five kids sick with E. coli in Ohio county

Posted on July 04, 2009
The Cuyahoga County Board of Health confirms that three children have been exposed to the E. coli bacteria. Two more cases are under investigation. "Five cases is very unusual for us to have," says Terry Allan, the health commissioner in Cuyahoga County...

Cooking with Pooh

Posted on July 04, 2009
Last night while Doug was cooking dinner and we were feeding Sorenne some rice cereal and squash, I noticed we still had a tube of Pillsbury Cookie Dough in the refrigerator leftover from last week's cookie experiment. We decided to make some cookies and free up more space in the fridge...

No Reservations' Catherine Zeta-Jones gives good garnish; does she wash her hands?

Posted on July 04, 2009
Catherine Zeta-Jones gives good garnish. After working undercover for a week at a posh Manhattan restaurant in preparation for an upcoming role, the owner told People magazine that Zeta-Jones was, "a great garnisher. Drizzling oil and balsamic on plates - she does a nice job...

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Backyard bacteria and consumers: use a thermometer

Posted on July 03, 2009
I'm really proud of the folks who contribute to barfblog and bites.ksu.edu. This morning, I wrote all the contributors from yesterday and said, I'm really proud, or good job, or something like that. The mixture of food safety content and personal experience on barfblog...

Fresh Anaheim peppers pulled from Wegmans on Salmonella suspicion

Posted on July 03, 2009
Wegmans has removed fresh Anaheim peppers from its Produce departments due to the possibility of salmonella contamination.  The FDA is currently investigating the situation. If you still have Anaheim peppers, please throw them away.  Do not return them to the store...

Salmonella outbreak in Denmark

Posted on July 03, 2009
I have an affinity for the Danes. I spent five summers working with two Danish home builders in Ontario, who introduced me to 45% Danish Schnapps, pate and beet snacks, which Amy and I munched on our balcony yesterday, and when I go to meetings in Copenhagen, they offer beer at the 10:30 a...

Organic crap gets crappier

Posted on July 03, 2009
One of the reasons I don't buy organic – besides being on a professor's salary, which I have no complaints about but I'm certainly not going to waste it on organic – is that the so-called claims and rules are followed about as thoroughly as Peanut Corporation of America can pass an audit and end up having 4,000 products recalled because Salmonella makes people barf...

BBQ safely with Douglas Powell

Posted on July 03, 2009
Look, I'm goofy. Probably the Brantford, Ontario, water, cause hometown pal Wayne Gretzky sure looked goofy on The Young and the Restless in 1981. I don't want to be on video. But if that's what it takes to get the message out about how to safely grill burgers this holiday weekend, then why not...

Whole Foods porn

Posted on July 02, 2009
If you're a retailer as big as Whole Foods, how hard is it to provide accurate information? For their July 4 'perfect burgers' the food porn emporium says, 'Grill meat to desired doneness; about 4 to 6 minutes per side over a medium hot fire. Be careful not to overcook, which will dry out the meat...

New food safety infosheet -- Harvey's E. coli O157:H7 Outbreak Report Released

Posted on July 02, 2009
The newest food safety infosheet, a graphical one-page food safety-related story directed at food handlers is also now available at foodsafetyinfosheets.ksu.edu. Infosheets are created weekly and are posted in restaurants, retail stores, on farms and used in training throughout the world...

British Columbia: Stop pointing the finger at consumers

Posted on July 02, 2009
A recent spike in Salmonella cases in the Vancouver, B.C. area has lead the B.C. Centre for Disease Control to release the following, reports News1130: Over 56 cases of infection are being blamed on the same strain of Salmonella. While the BCCDC says they have not identified a common source associated with the infections, they advise that the two most important risk factors for Salmonella are the consumption of eggs and chicken...

Roadkill burgers banned in Newfoundland

Posted on July 02, 2009
"I've been involved in getting moose for over 30 years from wildlife, and I have never heard of anyone ever getting sick from eating a moose burger." So says Dave Barker, who works for the Knights of Columbus in Grand Falls-Windsor, Newfoundland...

Happy Canada Day Kiwis

Posted on July 01, 2009
July 1st is Canada Day, so being in New Zealand and feeling patriotic I decided to make butter tarts, a Canadian baked dessert (pictured right). While making the filling-- which consists of brown sugar, eggs and cream -- my flatmate had a spoonful of the unbaked filling...

Investigative journalists still required for food safety - even if newspapers disappear

Posted on July 01, 2009
Toronto city councillor Brian Ashton said yesterday, "I was stunned that the Toronto Star was able to – for the second time – expose a problem that the Board of Health seemed to be unaware of," referring to the newspaper's "Dirty Dining" series in 2000, which prompted public health to release restaurant inspection records...

New York Times' Bitman promotes unsafe practice

Posted on July 01, 2009
In the June 26 Minimalist column and accompanying video about herb and garlic flavored oils barfblog favorite Mark Bitman suggests a frugal trick to add flavor to a meal. And possibly a frugal method to create a serious foodborne toxin. The pathogen of concern, Clostridium botulinum, could exist as spores on the suggested ingredients...

New Canadian organic logo is pornographic?

Posted on July 01, 2009
Raise a butter tart and Molson Export – or Labatt Crystal if you're into the skid stuff – it's Canada Day, the celebration of the July 1, 1867 enactment of the British North America Act, which united Canada as a single country of four provinces...

Mice Found Twice at the Movies

Posted on July 01, 2009
I'm a self-proclaimed germ-a-phobe not from a previous experience with foodborne illness, but more from reading and writing for Barfblog.  Also, Microbiology lab in undergrad taught me that germs are everywhere.  It's enough to make someone like me crazy! I've become excessively paranoid about how I prepare my own food at home, and how others prepare food for me...

Watch where you're sticking it in

Posted on July 01, 2009
I've loved Chicken with Broccoli and Cheese (of various brands) since childhood. These prepared-but-raw entrees mostly fell by the wayside when I started cooking like a grown-up. But just last week, the crunchy broccoli with melted cheese hidden inside tasty breaded chicken thingies called out to me and my inner child, and a box of them was soon in my home freezer...

The Little Couple sanitizes their hands

Posted on July 01, 2009
On last night's episode of the Little Couple, Tuesday nights on TLC, Dr. Jennifer Arnold and her husband, Bill Klein, showed the world clips of their every day lives: honey-do lists, visiting another little person, and giving speeches. The most interesting moments, in my opinion, were the hand hygiene opportunities...

N.Y. Times sucks at food safety: stick a piece of metal in a burger and lick it, rather than a thermometer, to tell if it's done?

Posted on July 01, 2009
In the continuing saga of bad food safety advice in the N.Y. Times – and the elevation of food pornography over food safety – the Times today ran a piece about the perfect burger. In interviews with dozens of so-called chefs around the U...

Bittman article updated: now includes safety information

Posted on July 01, 2009
Maybe it was barfblog influenced, maybe not. My previous post on Mark Bittman's garlic and other stuff in oil was a letter to the editor I submitted to the New York Times on Friday night. As the Times likes to have exclusive first printing right I held off on posting the letter until last night (since I hadn't heard whether it was going to be printed)...

K-State food safety types contribute to new book on causes, solutions to produce contamination

Posted on June 30, 2009
Anyone can bitch. My colleagues and I try to provide solutions. So Ben, Casey and I jumped at the chance to write the concluding chapter  for a new book, "The Produce Contamination Problem: Causes and Solutions," slated for release July 15 from Academic Press...

FDA chief focuses on produce safety

Posted on June 30, 2009
Dr. Margaret Hamburg, the new chief of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, said a couple of weeks ago she was going to focus on preventing contamination of fresh fruit and vegetables. That's good, because this year has brought a new crop of unrealistic expectations about the microbial safety of fresh produce, created primarily by the largest producer of fresh produce, California...

NPSA fights back

Posted on June 30, 2009
The National Patient Safety Agency is fighting back media accusations. They're not literally fighting, like my favorite mother of eight, Kate, and her soon to be ex-husband, Jon. The NPSA is fighting accusations saying they have endorsed the complete removal of alcohol based hand sanitizer from all clinical areas (see barfblog post: Drunk on Sanitation)...

How to greenwash food packaging; market food safety instead

Posted on June 30, 2009
Eat Me Daily is fast becoming one of my go-to sites. They write today: This illustration by Lunchbreath is basically a checklist for corporate greenwashing: Earth tones, sans serif type, unbleached paper, and emotional messaging are essential components of the deceptive marketing techniques employed by corporations that rebrand their products...

Source food from safe sources - the missing component in food safety communications

Posted on June 30, 2009
Tomorrow is Canada Day, the celebration of the July 1, 1867 enactment of the British North America Act, which united Canada as a single country of four provinces. Saturday is Independence Day in the U.S., commonly known as the Fourth of July, a federal holiday commemorating the adoption of the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776, declaring independence from the Kingdom of Great Britain...

Drunk on sanitation

Posted on June 30, 2009
At Dorset County Hospital, in the UK, alcohol based hand sanitizing gel is now banned at hospital entrances. The hospital's Infection Prevention and Control Committee previously placed sanitizing gel at hospital entrances to promote hospital visitor hand hygiene...

Waste not, want not: food safety, discarding food, and tough times

Posted on June 29, 2009
Whenever I think of leftover pizza, I recall my teenage years listening to Rolling Stones on vinyl at George's apartment, I wonder whatever happened to that stray puppy one of the visitors brought home until the fleas were discovered, and I wonder how long the pizza would be good...

Possible poop remnants and Nestle's raw cookie dough

Posted on June 29, 2009
During the evening of Thursday, June 18, the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment urged Coloradans not to eat raw Nestle Toll House cookie dough because of possible contamination with E. coli O157:H7. The next morning, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration warned consumers not to eat any varieties of prepackaged Nestle Toll House refrigerated cookie dough due to the risk of contamination with E...

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