Filtering by Tag: iPad

Food Safety Talk 16: Gun with a Bang Flag

Added on by Don Schaffner.

The show starts with a discussion of Canadian culture, including hockey, the Canadian national anthem, and the Tragically Hip, and then in quick succession, BLN, Rush, Neil Young, The Band, and Tim Horton's Coffee. 

No self-respecting podcast would neglect the preliminary requisite discussion of Skype, the resolutionary New iPad, favorite apps like Omnifocus, or favorite games like W.E.L.D.E.R.

A brief discussion of the merits of Multitasking during teleconferences occurs before the guys briefly revisit pink slime and then launch into their main topic on home canning food safety.

Home canning of green beans always should use a USDA approved recipe. And remember: there are no safe options for canning Vegetables in a boiling water canner! Why do some people not get sick when foods are improperly canned? Well, it comes down to probability, and like Barbie sort of said "probability is hard." And when your number comes up, it's not just a sign that says bang, in fact it's quite serious.

While it is true that heat does denature bot toxin, that is probably not a good food safety management strategy. A good quality management strategy for home or commercially canned foods is first in, first out stock rotation. The bottom line? When in comes to C. botulinum, don't play too close to the edge.

From the discussion of canned foods, Don moves on to discuss his recent trip to Thailand, funded in part, thanks in part to Mark Robson. He goes on to comment on the safety of street food, and his ideas for research. Because after all, how will he know what he thinks until he sees what he says? The safety of street food is a popular topic in the Journal of Food Protection, although our pal Linda Harris has yet to publish on the safety of roasted chestnuts.

The guys briefly remark that they are glad the FSPCA website is finally live. Too bad they didn't use squarespace.

When Ben mention's his opus, Don first think's he is talking about a penguin. Ben clarifies that he isn't talking about a musical work, or other excellent works by Richard Dreyfuss, but instead is talking about the Ottawa Lunch Lady and some of their recent problems.

In the after dark, Don tells Ben again how much he liked Ben's comment on too many cooks in the kitchen.

Gun With a Bang Flag

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