Food Safety Talk 100: No buns in the bathroom

Added on April 29, 2016 by Don Schaffner.

In keeping with our current practive, here is a bulleted list of link to the topics we mentioned on the show:

Food Safety Talk 99: Are you familiar with the Haugh Unit?

Added on April 13, 2016 by Ben Chapman.

Don and Ben talk pickles, puppies, Lord Stanley and his cup, the Internet, eggs, coffee, deli slicers and cuisine from around the world. After Dark turns into taxes safety talk.

Below are some links to some of the things that they talked about:

Food Safety Talk 98: Klouty with a chance of meatballs

Added on April 11, 2016 by Don Schaffner.

This week Don and Ben open with the usual popular culture talk and then move into a discussion of Norovirus laden couches, Chipotle (again), and the safety of petting zoos. From there the discussion moves to lady balls, duck sliders, balls to the wall, and Blue Bell Ice Cream. The After Dark features more cowbell.

Below are some links to some of the things that they talked about:

Food Safety Talk 97: One Maritime province at a time

Added on March 31, 2016 by Ben Chapman.

Show notes so you can follow along at home:

Curling For Dummies Cheat Sheet - For Dummies

Baltimore woman injured by exploding toilet files lawsuit | Fox News

Fecal bacteriotherapy - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

How to Eat Avocado Seeds for Nutrition | LIVESTRONG.COM

Antioxidant activity and phenolic content of selected fruit seeds

FOUNTAINS OF WAYNE LYRICS - I-95

Food Safety Talk 11: Somewhere on I-95 — Food Safety Talk

Luis Ramirez on Twitter: “@bugcounter @benjaminchapman #workfromhomeflow https://t.co/3woMFwJPMX”

Victoria G. Martinez on Twitter: “Food Safety Talk is maybe (definitely) my favourite science outreach podcast. https://t.co/wYVzY1Aw03 @bugcounter https://t.co/3KqqHK4aur”

Most fast-food places do well with food safety

sam wood (@SamWoodIII) | Twitter

What You Need to Know About Listeria, the Biggest Foodborne Threat to Pregnancy

Makebelieve Help, Old Butchers, and Figuring Out Who You Are (For Now) | 43 Folders

Dishwasher Detergent Soak Cleans Dishes Overnight

Recalls, Market Withdrawals, & Safety Alerts > Bonduelle USA Recalls Frozen Corn Because Of Possible Health Risk

ADULTERATED FOOD (FDA)

Listeria Monocytogenes | American Frozen Food Institute (AFFI) Street food vendors in New Delhi get trained in food safety | barfblog

Agent-based model - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Luis Ramirez on Twitter: “@bugcounter we see wipes at grocery stores, thoughts on having hand wash stations at produce sections for general public?”

New Zealand - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

John Oliver can’t resist New Zealand MP Steven Joyce’s ‘dildogate’ – video | Film | The Guardian

Tomorrow Night (1998) - IMDb

LouisCK.net | Horace and Pete

R.E.M. - (Don’t Go Back To) Rockville - YouTube

R.E.M. Announce Green 25th Anniversary Reissue | News | Pitchfork

Food Safety Talk 96: Boom goes the dynamite

Added on March 29, 2016 by Don Schaffner.

The guys are on a roll. They are very happy that they are releasing new episodes consistently. The show opens with a discussion of topics like Boom, Boom Goes the Dynamite, Dyn-o-mite, Beastie Boys, William Shatner, Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, The Avett Brothers, The Sadies, and The Best of Little Feat.

They quickly transition with the Maytag Raw Milk Blue Cheese recall by Whole Foods. Ben says that there is a no way for customers to tell if milk was pasteurized; they must read the label, and he notes the absence of the word pasteurized makes the difference, not the presence of the word raw. The discussion moves to the literature and a research paper on the survival of E. coli O157:H7 in Gouda and Cheddar aged for 60 days. Don emphasizes that the rate of pathogen decrease and not the days of survival which is important. Ben asked Don if it is safe to consume raw milk. “It depends, and it is complicated” he replies. The conversation turns to an article by David Gumpert “Is OPDC Bumping Scalability Limits, to Detriment of Raw Milk Nationally”. The guys note that exposure is less when a business is small. Don goes off a tangent, mentioning two articles about the brain and self-government. Ben responds to Don by recommending another on risk communication, which suggest that it is hard to change people beliefs.

From there the podcast digresses into Wordy Rappinghood and Kanye West Facts before turning to the boiling of water as affected by atmospheric pressure, and altitude in response to a question from Linda Harris. The show ends with a discussion of GFSI audits and poor food safety culture.

Food Safety Talk 95: What’s the right number of logs?

Added on March 16, 2016 by Ben Chapman.

Show notes so you can follow along at home:

Food Safety Talk 94: Bagpiping hot

Added on March 13, 2016 by Don Schaffner.

In keeping with our sometimes new minimalist format, the show notes for episode 94 are brought to you via a markdown bulleted list.

Food Safety Talk 93: Does your dog poop outside?

Added on March 6, 2016 by Ben Chapman.

Show notes so you can follow along at home:

International Association for Food Protection

Reconcilable Differences #16: Ancient Bird - Relay FM

Tom Jones (@mmbagelz) | Twitter

Conference for Food Protection

Chipotle may be safer than ever. Seriously!

Health department inspection criteria more likely to be associated with outbreak restaurants in Minnesota. - PubMed - NCBI

Chipotle will close Feb. 8 for company wide meeting on food safety | OregonLive.com

Chipotle Sabotaged by GMO Activists? : snopes.com

‎www.cdc.gov/phlp/docs/forensic_epidemiology/Additional%20Materials/Articles/Torok%20et%20al.pdf

Winter’s the Time for Norovirus | North Carolina Health News

Farmers Markets and Food-Borne Illness - The New York Times

‎marcfbellemare.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/BellemareKingNguyenFarmersMarketsJuly2015.pdf

farmers markets microbiology - Google Scholar

Air driers suck; just ask local graffiti artists | barfblog

Evaluation of bacterial contaminants found on unused paper towels and possible postcontamination after handwashing: A pilot study - American Journal of Infection Control

Food Dehydrator

R.E.M. - What’s The Frequency, Kenneth? (Official Video) - YouTube

Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Lemmy | Documentary Film - Cosmos Documentaries | Watch Documentary Films Online

Motörhead - Ace Of Spades - YouTube

MC5 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

R.E.M. LYRICS - It’s The End Of The World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine)

Food Safety Talk 92: So we can't use that rice?

Added on March 4, 2016 by Don Schaffner.

Ben begins the podcast by praising Everything Zen. He then recounted an incident where he dropped the iPhone in the toilet and discovered that it was not waterproof. The conversation continues with talk about family vacations, The Wire, Making a Murderer, Jessica Jones, The Affair, Death in Paradise, and Star Wars. The guys reminisce about Food Safety Talk 85, (I am the Jerky Police) as Ben talks about a Beef Jerky outlet near his house.

The guys talk about Chipotle (again) and FDA’s report that two Chipotle outbreaks were linked to two different strains of E. coli O26. Don predicts at least one more Chipotle-related outbreak in 2016, while Ben predicts zero. The guys weigh in on claims that Chipotle was a victim of cooperate sabotage in retaliation for their anti-GMO menu. The guys also offer their thoughts on Chipotle’s decision to fire Norovirus infected employees and managers. Ben thinks that both the Chipotle outbreak and the recent Blue Bell incident are learning opportunities on what not to do.

The discussion turns to a recent paper by Larry Beuchat on the survival of Salmonella in cookies and cracker sandwiches, as well as an older paper by Scheinberg and others on the pathogens in poultry in farmers markets.

They conclude with a discussion on science communication.

Food Safety Talk 91: Chipotle: The musical

Added on March 3, 2016 by Ben Chapman.

Show notes so you can follow along at home:

Prisencolinensinainciusol (with lyrics) - YouTube

Watch Nespresso From Saturday Night Live - NBC.com

Glengarry Glen Christmas | Saturday Night Live - Yahoo Screen

Episodes - Here’s The Thing

Prisencolinensinainciusol - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Adriano Celetano - Prisencolinensinainciusol - YouTube

Food Safety Talk 9: Two monitors and a microphone — Food Safety Talk Paul’s Boutique - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Conversations with the Dead: The Grateful Dead Interview Book - David Gans - Google Books

RTP180° - Food 2.0 - YouTube

Star Wars: The Force Awakens Official Site

Chipotle makes a lot of promises | barfblog

Randy Wagstaff - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Meal Service Requirements

The Big Waste : Food Network Specials : Food Network

Food Safety Talk 90: What if it's a service dragon?

Added on February 25, 2016 by Don Schaffner.

The guys begin the show by recommending two albums by Willie Nelson: Yesterday’s Wine and Half Nelson. The conversation moves quickly to the E. coli O157: H7 outbreak related to the chicken salad distributed by Costco. The celery and onion mix, provided by Taylor Farms, was the ingredient contaminated with the pathogen. The scope of the recall was large because it affected so many large retailers. Ben contrasted this recall with the Salmonella outbreak linked to Hershey chocolate in 2006. In that particular case, the supplier of soy lecithin was not revealed by the Canadian Food Inspection agency.

From there the talk turns to an FDA warning letter to Gold State Nut which cites the company president for handling nuts after touching his bearded dragon. A Salmonella outbreak in 2014 was linked to bearded dragons and resulting 166 illnesses.

The show switches gears when Don shares a hypothetical food safety regulatory scenario with Ben and asks how it would be regulated in North Carolina and New Jersey. Ben notes it would be regulated via a clarification memo. This leads to a discussion of home rule. Ben mentions outbreaks in Alabama and Maryland, linked to similar events. The podcast ends with talking about the movies Legal Eagles and Star Wars.

Ben and Don conclude by encouraging the listeners to rate Food Safety Talk in iTunes.

Food Safety Talk 89: On a scale from 1 to 11

Added on February 24, 2016 by Ben Chapman.

Show notes and links so you can follow along at home:

Food Safety Talk 88: Canadian Halloween

Added on February 18, 2016 by Don Schaffner.

The podcast begins with Ben complaining about the clutter in his office, and Don about his downgraded airline membership status (unlike Ben who became a gold member in Delta airline after his trip to Dubai for the International Food Safety Conference).

The show starts with a listener question about the shelf life of candy, which is shelf stable from a microbiological perspective because of a low water activity. Don and Ben go on to bond over their love of Brigadeiro from Brazil.

The talk moves to a recent WHO report on processed meats, cancer and the guys discuss poor risk communication from the WHO.

Ben brings up a recent MMWR article about an E. coli O157:H7 outbreak that was linked to a farming educational event. This prompts Don to talk about the NY Sheep and Wool festival where he did not find any hand washing stations.

Don spoke about his talk at the Produce Marketing Association in Atlanta, GA and his trip to Wegmans where he noticed the caramel coated apples were refrigerated and maintained at 40 °F. This was likely due to the 2014 multistate listeriosis outbreaks linked to the consumption of caramel apples. Ben shares that Kroger simply chose to not carry caramel apples which some called a bad knee-jerk reaction to good research.

The final topic of the show was Chipotle’s decision to close 43 restaurants in the midst of an E. coli outbreak, although some restaurants have been less than clear about the reason they closed.

The podcast ends with reading listener mail.

Food Safety Talk 87: A blue ribbon and $10 competition

Added on February 15, 2016 by Ben Chapman.

Show notes and links so you can follow along at home:

Food Safety Talk 86: Low viscosity vomit

Added on January 19, 2016 by Don Schaffner.

In an effort to get caught up and get some shows out, we have elected to post today's show notes in a more old school style.

Food Safety Talk 85: I'm the jerky police

Added on December 18, 2015 by Ben Chapman.

Ben and Don host a special guest, Dan Benjamin, podcasting pioneer and founder of 5by5, the inspiration for Food Safety Talk. After sharing what they were eating (because that makes for a good podcast) and Ben and Don tell the Food Safety Talk origin story about Episode Zero as part of the IAFP 100 year anniversary StoryCorps project. The guys talk with Dan about the podcast content niche, who the community of listeners are (both inside and outside the food safety world).

The conversation moves into how Don is food safety expert to the podcasting stars and the guys talk about some of the risk assessment questions Dan and Haddie text Don that usually start with ‘Can she eat this?'

The discussion goes into kids getting sick, spurred by Dan’s children coming home with gastro illnesses. Don and Ben each have stories about taking care of vomiting children. The guys talk about Immunity, resistance and probabilities of feces being positive, transfer and introduction into the body. Don describes how risk modeling calculations work taking all the factors into account. Dan tells an analogous story about immunity and his grandfather’s metallurgy job. The guys use a hypothetical situation of a child projectile vomiting into someones mouth to help explain acquired immunity and vaccinations. Dan’s child illness discussion pushes the guys into CDC’s Infection control guidelines and restaurant food handlers and glove use. Dan tells a detailed story of his son’s vomiting event which includes norovirus, rotavirus, oatmeal, sink disposal, aerosolization, infection control, clean-up and incubation. A norovirus outbreak at Chipotle becomes a topic and the guys talk about brand impacts of an outbreak.

The hygiene hypothesis makes an appearance as does brain eating amoebas.

Dan describes Ben as the jerky police which goes back to an interview Ben did on 5by5 where they talked about risks associated with drying beef without heat treating. Dan gives hints on his super special recipe. The guys talk dehydrating manufacturers instructions (which may or may not be validated), water activity, Shigatoxin-producing E. coil and marinades. Don and Ben come up with a plan for a jerky how-to podcast and website fusing some of the validation studies (including one from our friends Harrison and Harrison).

Food Safety Talk 84: All the Great Journals

Added on December 6, 2015 by Don Schaffner.

The podcast starts (as it often does) with a discussion of music, and today it’s jazz and rap. From there it moves to podcasts, then back to music, specifically the Violent Femmes concert Ben attended with his family. The transition to Food Science talk begins with a discussion of improvisation during public presentations, and the Merlin Mann © style of presentation.

The conversation switches to salt rising bread made via the action of lactic acid bacteria and Clostridium perfringens and peer-reviewed research on the same. From there the discussion moves to Apple Watch, Pandora, Spotify, Focus at Will (a streaming service purported to aid concentration), Ben’s new MacBook, and a rapper that recorded an entire album in an Apple store.

Finally, the conversation returns to food safety and the Stella & Chewy pet food Listeria monocytogenes recall in particular, and the microbial risks posed by pet food in general as evidenced by the peer-reviewed literature. The pet food topic prompts a discussion of the One Health Approach, and the importance of collaboration to solve food safety issues for humans and animals.

The show ends with a pop culture recommendation of The Hobbit for Haitian graduate students or anyone else interested in second breakfast.

Food Safety Talk 83: Many peoples' thermometers

Added on December 3, 2015 by Ben Chapman.

Food Safety Talk, a bi-weekly podcast for food safety nerds, by food safety nerds. The podcast is hosted by Ben Chapman and barfblog contributor Don Schaffner, Extension Specialist in Food Science and Professor at Rutgers University. Every two weeks or so, Ben and Don get together virtually and talk for about an hour. They talk about what’s on their minds or in the news regarding food safety, and popular culture. They strive to be relevant, funny and informative — sometimes they succeed. You can download the audio recordings right from the website, or subscribe using iTunes.

After establishing that Joni Mitchell is not dead and Nova Scotia is New Scotland the guys jump into food safety of microgreens. There is a wide range of microgreens available. One microgreen company Fresh Origins describes over 400 different types of greens products and has a cursory mention food safety on their website. The guys attempt to clarify the confusing world of sprouts, microgreens, and hydroponic techniques. There is a difference between sprouts and microgreens; Sprouts are sprouted seeds whereas microgreens are often sprouted once and then harvested repeatedly. There are also many different hydroponic designs where plants are rooted in a non-soil substrate and fed by circulated nutrient containing water. Hydroponic production can be done safely but does not guarantee safe food. A lot of circulating nutrient rich water allows bacteria to grow and move around. As with sprouts, the seeds used for microgreens combined with the growing conditions, does create risk of pathogen growth as described in this paper (STEC survival in microgreens).

The guys talk Listeria in produce and the challenges of risk assessments. Don is going to a Produce Safety policy conference where he will give a talk on assessing public health risk for product associated Listeria monocytogenes exposure. A 2003 risk assessment ranked Listeria in produce as low risk however produce recently affected by listeria are caramel apples, cantaloupe, and stone fruit and this shows that risk assessments can become outdated. New information is always becoming available, for example, Listeria growth on the outside of cantaloupe at room temperature. The data is also getting more applicable as researchers now appreciate the importance of using relevant strains.

Ben and Don discuss consumer recommendations lagging behind food safety science. For example the California Cantaloupe Advisory Board a ‘sliced melon should be stored in the refrigerator until it is ready to be eaten’ while data support a recommendation more similar to deli meats. Something like: if you don’t know your refrigerator’s temperature, eat deli meats and sliced cantaloupe within 2 days; if you know it holds food below 41F, you have 4 days.

Ben and Don talked about visiting Austin and the 5by5 studios. And if you are in Texas try to eat at Torchy’s tacos.

The guys talk about food retail and Ben gets on a rant about how when people talk about food safety culture they don’t quite get it. Ben describes a frustrating situation he encountered at a food safety meeting: food safety nerds reporting that decision makers respond to perceived risks more strongly than public health risks. Like one retailer spending more resources on hairnets than norovirus control because hair is what their CEO perceives as an issue.

Food Safety Talk 82: Late Breaking Golf

Added on October 12, 2015 by Don Schaffner.

Ben and Don start the show by talking about the movie The Parent Trap. Don recommends the original version with Haley Mills instead of the remake with Lindsey Lohan. Ben shares that he often enjoys Amazon.com humorous reviews, like those found here. Ben and Don then reminisce about their recent visit to the Army and Navy club in Washington, DC for a meeting of the Food Safety Preventive Controls Alliance. The guys are looking forward to seeing each other again at the annual IAFP 2015 meeting in Portland Oregon*. Don shares that he has been listening to podcast called “The Dalrymple Report” featuring Canadian guitarist and Apple nerd Jim Dalrymple. Ben may listen on his next run.

After 30 min catching up, Ben and Don officially begin the podcast talking about an outbreak of salmonellosis linked to tuna fish where at least 53 people got ill. Don strongly recommends that infants and the elderly not eat sushi. While browsing the Internet for more information, Don concludes that FDA has a better site index compared to the CDC. Then the conversation continues with hand washing. An anonymous colleague contacted Don and Ben regarding the accessibility of hand sink and soaps for food handlers. Results showed an increase in violations of this time over time. The guys then talk about the Food Code in both North Carolina and the New Jersey.

Don introduces the Blue Bell ice cream outbreak into the discussion. He references a blog post from The Acheson Group about FDA 483 inspection reports. Ben mentions that because of the outbreak, Blue Bell laid off 37% of their employees. The podcast ends with a (belated) invitation to listeners to attend IAFP, in Portland, Oregon.

* Ok, so we are really behind. We know.

Food Safety Talk 81: Food safety matters every week

Added on October 7, 2015 by Ben Chapman.

After a brief discussion about Quadrophenia, the guys thankfully decide to not sing this episode.

Ben mentions that the last video store in the Raleigh area is closing. This led to some discussion about the job security of academic careers where Don stated, ‘prediction is very difficult especially about the future.’

Spurred by Ben’s short visit to Baltimore, the guys then discuss how awesome The Wire is. Don mentions a perspective by David Simon, the Wire’s creator, on the real life situation in Baltimore. Ben was recently in Baltimore for the Food Safety Summit. A nod goes out to Brian Saunders for doing a good job of boots on the ground coverage of what’s going on in Baltimore during the Food Safety Summit.

Don recommends Acorn TV for anyone interested in British TV. This subscription service has British programming not typically shown on US TV. At the Acorn website Ben spotted Time Team an archeology reality series that he thinks his kids would love.

This week Ben talks about media interviews and a focus on multiple food safety stories all hitting at the same time. He talked a cutting boards post on barfblog that garnered some attention. He also fielded inquires regarding the Blue Bell Listeria outbreak . Ben noted that Blue Bell announced they are recalling all the ice cream.

A tragic botulism outbreak linked to a church potluck in Ohio was also a topic in multiple media outlets. The potluck outbreak was linked to home-canned potatoes but the coverage prompted a side conversation about bot and foil-wrapped baked potatoes.

Looking ahead to future food outbreaks Ben mentions that a bill was introduced in North Carolina to legalize raw milk. This bill would allow consumers to legally acquire raw milk via a cow share mechanism. In this article Ben is quoted challenging an inappropriate comparison of raw milk outbreak data by the bill’s sponsor.

In After Dark Don shames Ben for not listening to Roderick on the Line. Again.

- 30 -