In the news

A pandemic of Salmonella enterica serotype Enteritidis emerged in the 1980s. A publication by Center for Food Safety, University of Georgia, Griffin, GA (Li, S., He, Y., Mann, D.A. et al. Global spread of Salmonella Enteritidis via centralized sourcing and international trade of poultry breeding stocks. Nat Commun 12, 5109 (2021)  describes how Salmonella Enteritidis rapidly swept through continents.  The research team hypothesizes that international trade of infected breeding stocks causes global spread of the pathogen. The team presents multifaceted evidence showing a high likelihood, global scale, and extended protraction of Salmonella Enteritidis dissemination via centralized sourcing and international trade of breeding stocks. The research suggests centralized origins were infected breeding stocks.  The findings shed light on a significant foodborne risk at a critical, highly agglomerated, and less transparent food chain section. Despite decades of significant progress on Salmonella control in poultry, the evidence provided calls for further investigation and potential intervention into the global spread of Salmonella from centralized origins at the pinnacle of poultry production. @ https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-021-25319-7#Sec1

The FDA announced that Buurma Farms Inc. (Willard, OH) recalled 320 boxes of its Plain Parsley after testing showed possible contamination with Shiga-toxin producing E.coli. The product being recalled is Buurma Plain (flat leaf) Parsley with a harvest date of August 30, 2021, from their Gregory, Michigan location. A random, routine regulatory sample collected on 9/7/21 at a customer’s distribution center by the Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development (MDARD) tested positive for non-O157 STEC (Shiga-toxin producing E. coli) and reported 9/13/21. No illnesses have been reported to date. The product was sold and shipped in 30 count cartons to retailers in Ohio and Michigan between 8/31/21 and 9/3/21. It was also sold in 60 count crates to wholesalers in Illinois, Pennsylvania, New York, and South Carolina between 9/2/21 and 9/4/21. @ https://www.fda.gov/safety/recalls-market-withdrawals-safety-alerts/buurma-farms-inc-recalls-plain-flat-parsley-due-possible-health-risks?utm_medium=email&utm_source=govdelivery

The Australian Competition & Consumer Commission (“ACCC”) reports that JB Nicholas and Son (Geeveston, Tasmania) recalls Premium Tasmanian Smoked Ham Meat products from the Australian marketplace due to suspected Listeria monocytogenes contamination.  The recalled product is Premium Tasmanian Smoked Ham Meat products, packaged in 250 gram vacuum bags with a use-by date code of 16OCT21. The products were marketed, distributed, and sold in the Australian states of Tasmania and Victoria.  The product has been available for sale at Hill Street Grocer Sandy Bay, Geeveston, Cygnet IGAs in TAS, and independent food retailers, including IGA in VIC. @ https://www.productsafety.gov.au/recalls/jb-nicholas-and-son-%E2%80%94-premium-tasmanian-smoked-ham-250g

FDA announces the 12 winners of the FDA New Era of Smarter Food Safety Low- or No-Cost Tech-Enabled Traceability Challenge. There were 90 submissions, with the winning teams representing the U.S., Canada, and New Zealand. There were 90 submissions received with teams from Australia, China, England, France, Germany, India, Ireland, Singapore, Spain, Switzerland, and Taiwan. A goal of the FDA’s initiative is to help achieve end-to-end. The primary goal of this challenge has been to encourage stakeholders, including technology providers, public health advocates, entrepreneurs, and innovators from all disciplines to develop traceability hardware, software, or data analytics platforms that are low-cost or no-cost to the end-user. @ https://precision.fda.gov/challenges/13/results?utm_medium=email&utm_source=govdelivery