Filtering by Tag: HACCP

Food Safety Talk 36: Better Collaboration Without Pants

Added on by Ben Chapman.

After some initial expected Skype problems the guys talked about a range of topics including their favorite beers, Apple phobias, The Wire, about (not) working from home and Telecommuting policies, writing papers using DragonDictate, Don’s Squarespace 6 trial and Ben’s The Newsroom sharing system.

The guys then critiqued some obfuscated food safety messages about Listeria put out by the Partnership for Food Safety Education. The discussion then turned to the horse meat scandal and that audits are a tool rather than the tool. This reminded Don of the Chinese melamine incident and labeling fraud.

The guys then took a short podcasting detour to Scott Simpson’s Your Monkey Called article for The Magazine entitled You’re boring. It made them think about the stories they are trying to tell in podcast episodes, blog articles or presentations.

This reminded Ben of the story of Ashley’s  lack of emotion to a Norovirus outbreak on UNC campus, but we don’t know how she would react to Carolyn Dunn’s story on Food Myths and Memes of no baby carrots. This turned into a chat about kale, Brussels sprouts, beets, asparagus and bodily functions.

Ben then shared his surprise of reading about accelerated aging canned food, which prompted Don to think about a couple of early food science books – Ted Labuza’s “Shelf-Life Dating of Foods” and Harold McGee’s “Curious Cook.” Though Don wasn’t too keen on the idea of aging canned food.

The guys then wondered about how a Michigan firm could be operating without a HACCP plan and the subsequent recall. Don then got grumpy about Candy eggs that have all been cleared of Salmonella. Then Ben got on his favorite soap box about the lack of information that is being provided.

In the after dark the guys talked about Mobee Magic Charger, HyperJuice 2 external batteries, Don’s ski hat and Ben's toque ,and Ben’s fantasy baseball.​

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Food Safety Talk 14: Laws, sausages and scientific papers

Added on by Don Schaffner.

In this episode the dudes (now known in some small circles as Dr. Micro and Pathogen Boy) take on new-ish legislation on food safety preventative controls, the virtues of evening podcast recording and chia pets.

The show opens with a gong noise. Ben thinks it might be Don's computer warning him of the impending iPad 3. Don learns later that it was his Rutgers webmail running in the background.

It's an evening recording, so the guys are enjoying cold beverages. Ben is drinking Bud Light for some unknown reason, while Don is drinking Mike Solberg's Seagram's Seven, mixed with soda stream seltzer, the seltzer of choice for discerning podcasters everywhere). The guys do point out, however that they don't drink in the office, unlike the Oxford Professors on Inspector Morse, although they both agree that Roger Cook's set up in New Zealand sounds pretty sweet.

This weeks follow up includes Ben's visit to the Dubai Food Safety Conference, more on toilet paper, and Ben's selection of his favorite episode for Merlin. The guys go retro with a discussion of chia pets and sea monkeys, before Ben mentions that their favorite Internet celebrity may be moonlighting as a food safety writer. This barf blog post prompted Batz to make a ghost busters reference on twitter, which prompted a visit from the stay puft marshmallow man. Don mentions his own connection with another Internet celebrity this week, before rounding out the followup with a discussion of his colonoscopy doctor, who really does look like Dougie Howser.

Don wants to talk about FSMA, in preparation for his upcoming talk at the University of Georgia Center for Food Safety, specifically Section 103 on Preventive Controls, in part so he can plug the Food Safety Preventive Controls Alliance. The Preventive Controls seem to look a lot like HACCP, and Don goes on to opine on:

Ben wraps up the episode with a discussion of some training that he has planned for his agents where he will lead an in-depth discussion on a variety of scientific publications. Don suggests the recent paper on raw milk epidemiology by the CDC, and Ben notes that he might also include a paper by Brian Nummer, Don and others (but not Linda Harris), and the New England Journal of Medicine article on Salmonella Saintpaul.

Laws, Sausages and Scientific Papers

Food Safety Talk 12: Dueling Experts

Added on by Don Schaffner.

Ben has McDonalds for lunch, which starts the guys talking about the golden arches, food safety and comfort foods, with brief digressions into banjo music, which is a Deliverance reference. Apparently they have rednecks in Canada too.

From there the guys talk about Don's Extension Stakeholder Review and the trials and tribulations of a life in academe. Food Safety Talk is not a productivity podcast, despite the fact that the guys talked about Getting Things Done by David Allen, and a survey on how people fall off the GTD wagon. Don also mentions The Checklist Manifesto by Atul Gawande that he is listening to as an Audible audiobook.

Ben brings the discussion back to food safety by talking about his food safety infosheets and building a Food safety culture as per Yiannis, Griffiths, Ben and Doug). Ben also brings up Malcolm Gladwell. Don holds his tongue and doesn't mention what others have said about Mr. Gladwell.

Don starts the food safety talk in earnest with a mention of the outbreak linked to Your Family Cow, with an aside to Abbott and Costello. Don also mentions his talk on sampling raw milk for pathogens and the early history of HACCP. This evolves into a discussion of sampling and the uncertainties of epidemiology, and the dangers of possibly getting it wrong.

Ben notes that he thinks that Edwin Shank from Your Family Cow guy, does get some aspects of his message correct, noting that Mr. Shank said:

... we are concerned. We do not take even a suspicion of food-borne illness lightly. We took action accordingly.

After a quick digression on Ben's microbe ornaments (not actual size), Ben moves the discussion to labeling, including meat and the USDA cook to a safe internal temperature label, unpasteurized juice labeling, Pillsbury's polite message, and more terse advice from Betty Crocker, regarding Bisquick. Don chimes in with concerns about the profusion of food allergy labels.

The guys get sidetracked into a discussion of dough and flour related food safety including the E. coli outbreak linked to refrigerated cookie dough, the Aunt Jemima Salmonella in flour mix recall, and the Listeria in Eggo frozen waffle recall.

Ben brings things back to consumers and labeling by mentioning research by Kansas State scientists on consumer preparation of frozen, uncooked, breaded chicken products. Not to be outdone, Don mentions research from his lab on the risk of salmonellosis associated with consumption of raw, frozen chicken products cooked in low-wattage microwave ovens.

Food labels seem to be getting longer and more complicated, but even with increased complexity, managing risks of things like hydrolyzed vegetable protein recall may be problematic give the different ways people eat Ramen Noodles, for example. Clearly the safety of microwaved foods is complicated, as microwaved containers also pose non-microbial risks, like tipping over and burning you.

Finally, no discussion of labeling snafu's would be complete without a mention of those kosher "broiled" chicken livers, which made a bunch or people sick, including one reported case in Minnesota. Why do more people seem to get in Minnesota? Here is a hint, it has a lot to do with the Minnesota's commitment to public health including efforts like Team Diarrhea.

Ben concludes by noting that he is a fan of Canadian Marshall McLuhan, even if he gets the quote wrong.

The guys wrap up with a discussion of ideas that they will put in the parking lot for future shows:

Dueling Experts