In the news

The slowness of recall of the I.M. Healthy SoyNut Butter is characteristic of the weaknesses in the nation’s food-safety system. Two months elapsed between the first person sickened by SoyNut Butter on Jan. 4 and the recall orders that began on March 3 and expanded three more times by March 10. The contamination was pinpointed on Feb. 22. The nine-day lag time in persuading the manufacturer to recall the tainted products was a significant improvement over previous lag times — which were as high as 165 days in one case, according to the inspector general. However, victims maintain that the FDA should have ordered a recall on its authority, given that a few days or even hours can make a difference in a deadly outbreak. The contaminated products remained available for months. Peter Ebb, a 59-year-old Boston attorney, has eaten the product before being notified of the recall. Six days later, Ebb was hospitalized and developed a deadly type of kidney failure. Now, he’s joining with 18 other victims to file claims against the companies responsible and call attention to the inadequacy of the nation’s recall system. “If I had heard about the problem even one week earlier and stopped then, I might have been able to avoid the disease completely, and life today would be very different,” Ebb said. @ https://www.politico.com/story/2018/07/04/fda-food-recall-failures-victims-679636

A session at the United Fresh Produce Association’s annual expo and conference, asked: Should produce processors test food contact surfaces for Listeria? Panelists said that the Food and Drug Administration’s draft guidance about testing food contact surfaces are not clear about where the guidance stops and where regulation begins. Brian Zomorodi, vice president of quality and food safety at Apio, Guadalupe, Calif. Said: “I think the requirement of zone one (food contact surfaces) testing is controversial because we can’t do anything with the product to makes sure there is nothing there. There is no kill step.” Those who choose not to test zone one must be able to make the case to FDA why they don’t. Only a few attendees said that they were testing zone 1 for Listeria. While Listeria occurs naturally in the agricultural environment, the goal is to prevent it from becoming established. A positive find could result in an expensive shutdown of the facility or the likelihood of recalls or disposal of the product. Attendees suggested testing for listeria before operations begin, testing while water but not produce is moving through the line or testing after a production break.@ https://www.thepacker.com/article/listeria-testing-approach-debated-united-fresh

Frozen corn and possibly other frozen vegetables are the likely source of an outbreak of Listeria monocytogenes in Europe. The outbreak was confirmed by whole-genome sequencing (WGS) and appears to be ongoing in five EU Member States (Austria, Denmark, Finland, Sweden and the United Kingdom) since 2015. As of 15 June 2018, 47 cases have been reported, and nine patients have died due to or with the infection (case fatality rate of 19%). WGS analysis of 29 non-human L. monocytogenes isolates found them to be closely related to the multi-country human cluster of L. monocytogenes serogroup IVb, multi-locus sequence type 6 (ST6). The available information confirms the contamination at the Hungarian plant. The outbreak has been affecting Austria, Denmark, Finland, Sweden, and the United Kingdom since 2015. The products produced by the affected plant have been banned from the market. @ https://www.efsa.europa.eu/en/supporting/pub/en-1448

A survey among the EU/EFTA laboratory Networks for Salmonella, Listeria monocytogenes, Escherichia coli (VTEC), Campylobacter, Coagulase Positive Staphylococci, Antimicrobial Resistance and bacteriological and viral contaminants of bivalve mollusks was conducted. By the end of 2016, WGS was in use in reporting laboratories from 17 out of 30 EU/EFTA countries. The main reason for not implementing WGS was the lack of capacity (budget and expertise). WGS was mainly used for outbreak investigations, followed by surveillance, and mostly for L. monocytogenes, E. coli and Salmonella analysis. WGS was used only to type subsets of isolates, and normally, in parallel to other molecular techniques (PFGE and MLVA). The intention to switch to only WGS for typing was indicated by some laboratories. This report provides a first picture of the state of the art in relation to the use of WGS in European food safety laboratories at the end of 2016. A new questionnaire to tackle the state of the art in 2018 has been recently launched @ https://efsa.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.2903/sp.efsa.2018.EN-1432