In the news

The E. coli outbreak that started a couple of weeks ago when the health department in New Jersey discovered a cluster of sick people carrying a single strain of O157:H7. This outbreak sickened 98 people in 22 states and was caused by romaine lettuce. But tracking down the contaminated lettuce has proved challenging. Investigators finally traced those heads to a Yuma business called Harrison Farms. In the US tracking produce to their source is challenging. Until better traceability is achieved more people fall ill and massive amounts of food get thrown away. As a result, vast amounts of romaine lettuce are being dumped. Retailers such as Costco and Kroger are removing lettuce and prepared salads from their produce sections, as do ready-to-eat producers. To improve food safety, a stronger chain of data is needed. @ https://www.wired.com/story/the-fix-for-e-coli-outbreaks-could-be-the-blockchain/

An article by Calle et.al was published in Food Protection Trends (vol 38, p178-185) assessed the effects of Immunomagnetic separation (IMS) beads in the detection of STEC O157 and non-O157. Most serogroups (O157, O103, O26, O145, O45, and O121) required 3.0 log CFU/ml for accurate detection. However, E. coli O111, IMS required at least 5.0 log CFU/ml of the microorganism to be present in the sample. The data suggest that anti-O111 beads do not capture the target cells as efficiently as the other O groups. Ground beef samples inoculated STEC O157 showed a detection limit of 2.0 log CFU/ ml. Their research also showed that reducing the IMS bead volume by 50% did not impact the recovery. @ http://www.foodprotection.org/files/food-protection-trends/may-jun-18-calle.pdf

As of April 25, 2018, 84 people infected with the outbreak strain of E. coli O157:H7 have been reported from 19 states (Alaska 5, Arizona 5, California 13, Colorado 2, Connecticut 2, Georgia 1, Idaho 10, Illinois 1, Louisiana 1, Michigan 2, Missouri 1, Montana 7, New Jersey 7, New York 2, Ohio 3, Pennsylvania 18, South Dakota 1, Virginia 1, Washington 2). Forty-two ill people have been hospitalized, including nine people who developed hemolytic uremic syndrome. The information available to date points to romaine lettuce grown in Yuma Arizona, contaminated with E. coli O157:H7. No common grower, supplier, distributor or brand of romaine lettuce was identified as the source. @ https://www.cdc.gov/ecoli/2018/o157h7-04-18/index.html

Enhancements in organism recovery would assist in implementing Pathogen Environmental monitoring FSMA requirements. A sonicating swab device was demonstrated to remove biofilm from stainless steel more efficiently than a standard cotton swab. The performance of the sonicating swab was compared to that of the standard cotton swab for the recovery of Listeria monocytogenes from inoculated surfaces (plastic cutting board, wood cutting board, vinyl floor tile, and quarry clay floor tile). The sonicating swab captured significantly (P ≤ 0.05) more L. monocytogenes than the cotton swab. This study expands upon the capabilities of the sonicating swab technology to recover cells from multiple surface types with increased performance over traditional swabbing methods as a tool to further assist in the prevention of foodborne illness outbreaks. @ http://aem.asm.org/content/84/9/e00208-18.abstract