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

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 46: The mother of all messy epidemiology

During their podcasting foreplay Don and Ben discussed their breakfast choices, their love for guacamole (despite the risks associated with cilantro), and the challenge of separating work from private life.

The guys then got onto the recent IAFP annual meeting (abstracts are here), which clearly was a huge success. Ben was impressed by Michelle Danyluk’s deconstruction of the FSMA Fresh Produce rule to create a convincing story, which included recently published work from Don and Michelle. Ben then talked about the symposium on farmers' markets, and Erin Jobe’s talk about the realities of the Carrboro Farmer’s Market. Lastly, the guys talked about the round table discussion on “Bridging Gaps between Scientific Assessment of Risk and Public Perception” which was reported on Barfblog and Food Safety News. And of course, IAFP always includes Karaoke.

Moving on from IAFP, Don noted that he’s following John Gruber and Merlin Mann's advice and is podcasting for just one person, Chuck Haas. Turns out that Chuck also sent an email about an upcoming publication on the dose-response curve for Helicobacter pylori (see FST 45).

Ben then recalled the conversation about the Salmonella outbreak associated with the Holiday Inn and the article he wrote on barfblog. Ben wondered why employees wouldn’t tell management that they were sick but would tell the health department? Both Don and Ben concluded that it’s surely related to not getting paid while being off work.

The discussion then turned to the current Cyclospora messiness and disagreement between epidemiologists. While there is lots of bad advice out there, the most recent information indicates a link to prewashed salad mix to Taylor Farms de Mexico, though this information wasn’t available when ACSH reported that the “mystery was solved". The guys also noted Bill Marler’s interesting thoughts about disclosure as well as why naming a product too early can have consequences. The guys also re-iterating that washed fresh-cut salads don’t need additional washing.

To finish off, Ben wanted to talk about Jimmy John’s who are considering bringing back sprouts, with a warning sign. Don felt that this approach was nonsense and that the risks of eating still outweigh the risks of not eating. Instead Don wanted to know about Jimmy John’s food safety program, and whether it included buying from sprouters who get it, like Bob Sanderson’s at Jonathan Sprouts. Ben wasn’t against the label though he felt that it could be improved.

In the after dark the guys talked about Don’s video call with IFT, his appearance on SSKTN’s Show me your Mic (including the After Show me your Mic), preschool and the Food Safety Talk newsletter. 

Food Safety Talk 35: The Abuelas of Social Media

Don was excited about his new “Dan Benjamin approved” microphone and headphones and Ben was excited about Folding Text. After emailing with Marco, from the Neutral podcast, Don is planning on moving Food Safety Talk to Squarespace 6, which should allow them to get better download tracking information. Don and Ben also sent shout-outs to David Tharp (IAFP), Ian Jenson (Meat and Livestock Australia) and Renee Boyer’s Food Safety class.

The discussion then returned to the reusable bag discussion (see FST 34), which was prompted by Tomas Aragon who shared his memo about the “Clickety-Clack” paper. In the memo Thomas pointed out that Klick and Wright had used the ICD-10 codes, for which there were 140 deaths during 2000-2010. However, 111 of these were due to Enterocolitis due to Clostridium difficile, leaving only 29 related to other intestinal infectious diseases.

The guys took a quick pop culture detour to iTunes Match which had allowed Ben to rediscover Rancid. Don’s been listening to R. L. Burnside (not R. L. Stine), Bite Harder: The Music De Wolfe Studio Sampler, Vol. 2 and Holy F*ck.

On return to food safety they guys discussed an article on Farmers Markets and FSMA and in particular the quote from Kate Flannery. Ben disagreed with Kate’s implication that greenhouse farming was without risks. Don agreed that the risks were different rather than non-existent.

The guys then turned to the horse meat scandal in the UK, which is even reverberating through the popular culture twittersphere. Ben challenged Prof. Hugh Pennington’s comments that horse meat was safer than beef, as surely the denominator matters!

The discussion then turned to barbeque and roadkill. While you’ll find some vaguely disturbing erotic images you probably won’t find a road kill recipe on the Amazing Ribs website. Ben did discuss the safety of eating road kill in this barfblog article. Road kill is apparently making a resurgence with those who are struggling with food security (i.e. having enough food to eat). Don has worked with Debra Palmer Keenan to help people make better choices in relation to food safety when they have to compromise on the foods they buy.

Don had some more follow up from FST 34 in relation to washing coffee mugs. He found some silly advice in this Huffington Post article and he expressed his disgust with this Mamapedia article. This got Ben excited as his grad student, Ben, is working on how to engage people in food safety via social media. Ben’s research will focus on mommy blogs (but probably not Dani’s 2 Little Supeheroes blog or Portlandia's Parenting tips over the coming months.

The discussion then turned to Doug’s poop cruise article and that someone sold a bio poop bag on Ebay for $15. Another Barfblog article reported on the closure of Union University in Jackson, Tennessee, due to norovirus and Don contemplated the irony of this happening at North Carolina State University, the home of the NoroCORE project.

In the after dark the guys talked about beverages, iTunes Match and MobileMe, and Ben had some questions about establishing variances to food safety standards.

Food Safety Talk 29: In a tin can insulated with towels

The guys jumped right into the deep end and discussed the risks, or perceived risks, associated with salad bars and whether irrigation water or someone sneezing over the salad would pose a bigger risk. The guys also chatted about Don’s recent apparent food poisoning, new listeners to the podcast and Ben’s musical taste. Ben also admitted to being hooked on The Wire.

The discussion then turned to a barfblog article about research articles by Petran et al. on restaurant inspection, entitled “Health department inspection criteria more likely to be associated with outbreak restaurants in Minnesota” and “Using a theoretical predictive tool for the analysis of recent health department inspections at outbreak restaurants and relation of this information to foodborne illness likelihood”. While restaurant inspection per se may not improve public health, Petran et al. investigated whether the answers to specific inspection questions would help predict whether a given restaurant is at increased risk of a foodborne illness outbreak.  The guys specifically discussed Table 4 of the first article, available here, which looked at the risk of norovirus, Salmonella or Clostridium perfringens outbreaks as related to different inspection questions.

Ben and Don then turned their attention to the recent Multistate Outbreak of Salmonella Bredeney Infections Linked to Peanut Butter Manufactured By Sunland. This isn’t the first time that Salmonella and peanut butter caused trouble – previous examples include this this 2006/7 outbreak and this 2008/9 outbreak.  As a result of the Sunland Outbreak, IAFP will be running a webinar on Best Practices in Peanut Butter and Peanut Production. Don noted the challenge wasn’t a lack of knowledge of how to control Salmonella in peanuts, but getting the information to those who most need it.  Ben was particularly critical of companies who have testing schemes on which their food safety programs are built, but which continue to ship product despite detecting 9 different Salmonella strains. Ben also noted that denying test results is counterproductive when the epidemiological evidence is pointing at your product. A better communications approach was discussed in Food Safety Talk 25 in relation to the Salmonella outbreak linked with cantaloupe.

Don shared about his recent food poisoning in Hawaii, and noted that while foodborne outbreak investigations in Hawaii might be good, publicizing anything related to outbreaks wasn’t good for tourism. This reminded Ben of the heightened requirements for vendors at farmers markets in Hawaii. Don mentioned his dinner with Linda Harris, and her comment that the all of Hawaii fell under the Tester Amendment of the FSMA Act.

This brought to guys to an article that Don had recently reviewed, which had made him query who does the work of cooperative extension in Canada. Ben provided a bit of history and his understanding of the current situation. Ben believed that it fell mainly to the regulatory authorities, for example Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph Public Health. Don was worried that this was likely to result in important research findings not being developed into useful extension programs, especially with the influx of Canadian food safety extension specialists invading the US.

In the After Dark, Don talked a bit more about his trip to Hawaii and how he got so angry on his first night. The guys talked about their Thanksgiving plans and they finished where they started: Chick-fil-A.

Food Safety Talk 29: In a tin can insulated with towels

Food Safety Talk 13: I Don't Want Other People's Poo in My Poo Hole

In this episode Don and Ben talk Valentine's day happenings; chocolate and then being famous on the Internet. The guys eventually get to food safety stuff and chat about raw milk risks, inactivation of Salmonella in peanut butter and the risk of someones dirty hands ending up on their toilet paper.

• W00t deal, a deal a day where Don and Kristin scored some Valentine's day salted caramels.
• Don gets his greeting cards at CVS, Ben wonders if they stock these.
• The hip Raleigh restaurant that Ben and Dani went to a couple of years ago for Valentine's Day.
• Wine and Design - Dani's gift was to go out without Ben with a bunch of her friends. And then they ate Subway.
• American Frozen Food Institute annual meeting, where Don went to hang out after Valentine's Day.
• Ben tries to connect chocolate and Valentine's Day and food safety - here is an example.
• What someone who is surprised might look like.
• I love charts tumblr.
• Don's tumblr.
• The iPhone 5 that cures the flu and makes broccoli taste like chocolate, and made Don famous on the inter webs.
• Don seeks clarification on whether the required metric is blogs or blog posts? (or a blogg?) for his annual survey of program methods
• Batz's Double Face Palm post.
• What a denominator might look like.
• FDA's cold-smoked fish hazards. There's contamination, not many people eat it, total risk is probably pretty low.
• There was an outbreak of Salmonella linked to this company in 2009. Tragically these things happened and then this.
• Some of the work on the inactivation of Salmonella in peanut butter.
• What 1.5 million servings of chocolate might look like.
• Don talks about Salmonella in dry spots (not Arizona, but products like hydrolyzed vegetable protein and almonds).
• Walmart quietly dropped sprouts from sale.
• FDA's sprout guidance document highlights the importance of testing spent irrigation water.
• Bob Sanderson, whom Don would eat sprouts from if he liked them.
• Galen Weston who thinks farmers markets might kill people soon.
• Ben wants to buy food from vendors who think they might kill someone.
• What Ben is really talking about -- food safety culture.
• One guy who doesn't worry about making waves or causing a stir.
• Don's famous internet friend. Not this one.
• Merlin put Don on the spot on what his favorite Food Safety Talk episode is. Don picks this one. Ben likes this one.
• Quit touching my toilet paper.
• How Ben would mitigate this risk.
• What Don is worried about at farmers markets.

I Don't Want Other People's Poo in My Poo Hole