In the news

The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) announced that Tip Top Poultry, Inc., from Rockmart, GA recalled ~ 135,810 pounds of fully cooked poultry products that may be contaminated with Listeria monocytogenes. The products subject to recall bear establishment number “P-17453” inside the USDA mark of inspection or on the case. These items were shipped to hotels, restaurants, and institutions nationwide. The problem was discovered on August 17, 2019, when the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) notified FSIS that a sample of product produced by Tip Top Poultry, Inc. confirmed positive for the presence of Listeria monocytogenes. Canadian public health and food safety partners, including the Public Health Agency of Canada and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, have been investigating an outbreak of Listeria monocytogenes. A ready-to-eat diced chicken product collected as part of this investigation tested positive for Listeria monocytogenes. @ https://www.fsis.usda.gov/wps/portal/fsis/topics/recalls-and-public-health-alerts/recall-case-archive/archive/2019/recall-085-2019-release

A study from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) concludes that individuals should not wash or rinse raw poultry in their kitchens. The study shows that rinsing and washing raw poultry causes bacteria to spread easily to other surfaces and food. Of the participants who washed their raw poultry, 60% had bacteria in their sink after washing or rinsing the poultry. 14% still had bacteria in their sinks after they attempted to clean the sink. 26% of participants that washed raw poultry transferred bacteria from that raw poultry to their ready to eat salad lettuce. Therefore, they recommend preparing ready to eat foods such as salads first, cook the meat so that food pathogens will be destroyed, and most of all, keep washing the hands. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that millions of Americans are sickened with foodborne illnesses each year, resulting in roughly 128,000 hospitalizations and 3,000 deaths. @ https://www.usda.gov/media/press-releases/2019/08/20/washing-raw-poultry-our-science-your-choice

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) announced that Rosemount Sales and Marketing (Ottawa based) is recalling Rosemount brand cooked diced chicken meat from the marketplace due to possible Listeria monocytogenes contamination. The products are Rosemount Cooked diced chicken meat 13 mm–in 4.54 kg packages. This recall was triggered by findings by the CFIA during its investigation into a foodborne illness outbreak. The recalled products were sold in British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario, Quebec, and Nova Scotia and may have been distributed to other provinces and territories.  @ http://inspection.gc.ca/about-the-cfia/newsroom/food-recall-warnings/complete-listing/2019-08-18/eng/1566177360394/1566177366791

Disinfection with mercury-vapor UV lamps (light emission at 254nm) is a common practice in the food industry because it is effective in killing bacteria and viruses by destroying their genetic material. Due to toxic heavy metals in these lamps, researchers at Fraunhofer Institute of Optics in Germany are investigating the use of UV LED as a greener alternative. UV light with a wavelength of 265nmwas studied as an alternative. Additional disadvantages of the conventional UV lamps are their long warm-up phases, their short service lives, and the fact that they cannot be deployed flexibly due to their bulky design. UV LEDs do not require any warm-up phase – they reach full power instantly; they offer high mechanical stability, are non-toxic and will operate at low voltage. The researchers are now able to operate the UV LEDs directly in water without the need for a tube to encase them. Thus they eliminate reflections to increase the performance yield of the radiation sources. They also developed a special module that can disinfect the insides of beer caps. @ https://optics.org/news/10/8/21