Campylobacter and Chicken Liver

Despite the advice from the Food Standards Agency that liver needs to be cooked thoroughly to prevent Campylobacter, On Saturday Kitchen (17/12/11), low and behold we were being told to cook liver pink when making pate in response to a viewer’s question on how to make her pate less inedible! I just hope none of my clients are watching – Don’t try this in your restaurant!!

The recent figures show that 90% of cases of Campylobacter from catering establishments come from consumption of chicken liver pate. There have been 443 this year and one hospitalisation.

Bob Martin, head of foodborne disease strategy at the FSA, said: “Unfortunately, levels of Campylobacter in most raw chicken are high so it’s really important that chefs cook livers thoroughly to kill any bacteria, even if recipes call for them to be seared and left pink in the middle.

“The only way of ensuring the pate or parfait will be safe to serve to your guests or customers is by cooking the livers the whole way through. Caterers should also follow good general hygiene practices when cooking and handling poultry livers, to avoid cross contamination with Campylobacter.”

So come on BBC – get your chefs up to speed with government advice!

And if anyone is thinking of serving up chicken liver parfait, all nice and pink to Granny on Christmas Day, do think again! Stick to the sherry and crisps instead.

Cheers, and have a good Christmas.

Global Hand Washing Day 15th October

Yesterday a producer from BBC Three Counties Radio came to the office having dismantled a presenter’s (Lorna’s) desk – the mission was me to swab it to see how dirty the keyboard, microphone pop shield (sponge thing on the end of a microphone) and headphones were. The producer then asked me to talk to the presenters at 7.20 am this morning to tell them the news! Using the systemSURE ATP monitoring device that we use for many restaurants, hotels and factories to test cleanliness of critical areas instantly, I got the results…. Lorna was horrified that the items from her desk were far from clean. The typical standard for a food surface would be less than 10 RLUs (light units) for a satisfactory results, and anything over 30 would be unacceptable. In a hotel room, then maybe 100 would be acceptable. But this is what we found:

Keyboard: 887

Headphones: 1606

Pop shield: 1817

 We gave the producer two Proclean swabs to see instantly whether they had dirty surfaces in their studio – unfortunately I had to get on a train at that point, so I don’t know what they found!

 Whilst this was a bit of fun, it highlighted that the items had become rather dirty. The serious part of this is that if any of the cells we recovered had been dangerous bacteria or viruses, they could be transmitted to the user. Therefore where such items are shared, then they should be cleaned from time to time to reduce the risk of infection, and also if someone is ill with a cough or cold, then more vigilant cleaning should take place to make sure that diseases are not spread around the work-place. Above all, hand washing is really important.

 What had prompted the BBC radio piece is the fact that tomorrow is Global Hand washing day, and to mark this researchers at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and Queen Mary, University of London had taken nearly 400 samples from mobile phones and hands in 12 British cities. They found 16% of phones and 16% of hands harboured E. coli (Escherichia coli), bacteria which inhabit the human intestines. The largest proportion of contaminated phones was in Birmingham (41%) while Londoners were caught with the highest proportion of E. coli present on hands (28%).

The clear message is that we all need to remember that hand-washing one of the most important measures of preventing infectious disease, and that we all have a responsibility to participate, particularly after using the toilet – it appears that many of those people in the survey had not bothered. Yuk!

Proclean and systemSURE products are available from Hygiene Audit Systems.

“A peck of dirt does no harm” – fact or fiction?

The Health Protection Agency today revealed that unwashed
leeks and potatoes may have been the cause of 250 scattered cases of E.coli O157 during 2010- 2011 which
hospitalised 74 people and killed one already sick person.

The message is simple: cooking kills E.coli, but make sure you wash your hands properly after handling
raw vegetables – not a quick swill under the tap, but with soap, warm water and
dry them properly afterwards preferably on a paper towel or hand towel – not a
tea towel! Also use anti-bacterial products to kill E.coli on potentially contaminated surfaces such as chopping boards
and sinks. This advice is sound for catering environments and in the home.

I am chairing the RSPH conference on E.coli on 16^th
November 2011 in London; my paper is on prevention of E.coli in the home environment. For more information go to: http://www.rsph.org.uk/en/courses-conferences-and-events/events/index.cfm

It raises the issue again of how to clean produce which is
to be eaten raw: produce wash for domestic and commercial use is available: http://shop.hygieneauditsystems.com/

So would I want to eat a peck of dirt? Not if it has E. coli on it – and how can you tell? It seems as though nearly every month another source of this potentially deadly organism is uncovered.

“Use-by”, “Best-before”, “Display until”, “Sell-by” – will new guidance end the confusion?

New Defra guidelines are asking food businesses to stop using ‘sell by’ or ‘display until’ dates on packaging  in an attempt to reduce the estimated 5.3m tonnes of avoidable food waste produced in the UK each year. ‘Sell by’ and ‘display until’ dates have no statutory footing and are used for stock control purposes.

But there is still a lot of confusion about what the “use-by” or “best-before” actually means and I was asked to explain this on BBC Breakfast TV on 15^th September.

“Best-before” relates to quality – so it gives an indication of how long the food will be at its best quality.   The manufacturer of a product with a best before date will not guarantee the products safety or quality after the best before date.  It is not an offence to sell food after the expiry of the “best-before” date, however it is not good practice as the quality may have been affected and in some cases the safety.  With some products including fresh produce, you can use your common sense to decide whether to use it or not (trimming bruised apples, and keeping tomatoes after the “best-before” date has expired if they still look fine). Confusingly eggs have a “best before” date but this DOES need to be adhered to.

“Use-by” dates are an indication of how long the food should be safe to eat if stored under the conditions the manufacturer recommends – for example under 5^oC.  Of course if a fridge operates at a higher temperature, then the food may not last as long.  It is an offence to sell foods after the expiry of the “use-by” date, even if it is later proved that it was not dangerous.  It is important NOT to rely on organoleptic assessment of foods with “use-by” dates because many of them have been processed, and the normal indicator organisms of spoilage may have been killed; this means that pathogens such as Staphylococcus aureus can grow, leaving harmful toxins on foods such as cooked meats, with no tell-tale signs at all. So don’t take risks with “use-by” dates – let’s face it, if you could tell whether a food would give you food poisoning by looking at it, there wouldn’t be any food poisoning would there?!

How safe is your lunchbox?

I am excited to be working with the team at Innovate Services on a project to analyse the food health and safety of student’s lunch boxes.  

The Innovate ‘Lunch Box Amnesty’ project has invited a number of schools from across the UK to participate and involves myself and food nutritionist Robert Hobson hosting a lesson with students to discuss the life of a lunchbox.

We attended our first session at a high school in Worthing last week and the participation from the 30 year seven and eight students was excellent.  The interactive event quizzed the students on food nutrition and health, and afterwards samples were taken from their lunchboxes and sent to the lab for analysis.

We will be releasing the findings during the start of the Autumn term and look forwarding finding out just how safe our kids lunch boxes really are!

 www.innovate-services.com

Food Standards Agency revises guidance on Sprouting Seeds

Following the recent outbreaks of E. coli O104: H4 in Germany and France the Food Standards Agency has revised its guidance on the consumption of sprouted seeds, such as beansprouts (mung beans), alfalfa and fenugreek. 

As a precaution, the Agency is advising that sprouted seeds should only be eaten if they have been cooked thoroughly until steaming hot throughout; they should not be eaten raw.

Before cooking you should also:-

• keep sprouting seeds refrigerated
• avoid sprouts that have turned brown or have a strange odour
• rinse raw sprouts thoroughly
• follow any instructions on the packaging and use the beansprouts by the ‘use by’ dates

After handling sprouted seeds you should:-

• clean equipment which has been used for sprouting seeds thoroughly after use with hot soapy water
• wash your hands thoroughly

The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) has published its report into the source of the outbreaks which concludes that a batch of fenugreek seeds, originally supplied from a company in Egypt to a German company is the most likely link between the two outbreaks.

Sprouting seeds have also been reported to be implicated in over 40 outbreaks of Salmonella and E. coli over recent years and contaminated beansprouts were the cause of a UK outbreak of Salmonella Bareilly in 2010 that resulted in 241 confirmed cases. 

For more information on E. coli and beansprouts please visit the news pages on our website at www.hygieneauditsystems.com

 

Summer Health: E. coli, salmonella, campylobacter…don’t let them spoil your festival fun this year.

This week the Metro featured an article highlighting potential health risks associated with the festival season.  They asked me for my professional input, which I was more than happy to provide in order to raise awareness of the risks.

To read the article click on this link and go to page 18/19:

http://e-edition.metro.co.uk/2011/05/09/

As I have been called on as an expert witness in cases involving E. coli outbreaks it is a subject that I feel very strongly about.

In my capacity as Food Safety Advisor to the RSPH I have been asked to chair their E. coli conference on 16th November   2011.

Expert speakers will be reviewing case studies from farms, beaches, pop festivals, petting zoos, kitchens and hotels and asking ‘Why does E. coli appear in so many different locations?’

Significant discounts available for EHOs for more details contact Claire crobins@rsph.org.uk

Save the date!

Is a bit of dirt good for you?

Is a bit of dirt good for you? Are we too clean? Are we creating sterile environments which make us less resistant to fighting off infections?

All these questions keep coming up – but what truth is there in them? First, I’d say that no-one is telling anyone to create a sterile environment, and to disinfect every surface we can see. Moderation in all things is important, and with cleaning, the message is to ensure that the surfaces that really matter are cleaned to high standards, which would mean to disinfect  them, and other things just need to be visibly clean.

 As a busy mum, I don’t have the time or inclination to create a sterile home environment – and that’s just not possible anyway. What I do concentrate on though is making sure that after handling raw meat and poultry I am particularly careful to wash my hands thoroughly and to disinfect the surfaces and utensils – this takes minutes, but could prevent no end of suffering. If you have had food poisoning, you will know what I mean. Equally, if you take your kids to the farm, you don’t want them to be at risk of E.coli, so hand washing and taking care is essential – particularly before having a picnic or meal in the café. So the message is, let kids get mucky, but before they eat, make them wash their hands – the old values need to come back.

 Studies in the home that we have carried out have been enlightening – I can’t see much evidence of sterile homes at all! Kitchen cloths, fridges, taps etc all have been found to harbour bacteria, and some of them potentially hazardous, so I can’t buy in to the theory that we are all too clean!

 So some dirt may be ok for you, but don’t eat E.coli O157, Campylobacter or Salmonella, and leave out the Listeria too! Simple measures with the knowledge of how these bacteria can enter the home or kitchen, and controlling them through proper storage, cooking and cleaning takes very little time up, costs little, and can save you and your family or customers no end of trouble, for many of these illnesses result in not just a bit of diarrhoea and vomiting but can have long lasting ill-effects such as reactive arthritis, kidney failure and even death. After all, you wouldn’t want to be responsible for that would you? A bit of disinfection and cleaning is a small price to pay and when it comes to removing those pathogens, you can’t be too clean.

Dettol’s Mission for Health

Yesterday I was involved in a number of Radio interviews about Dettol’s Mission for health with Dr Dawn Harper (Channel 4’s Embarrassing Bodies). The Mission for Health is a set of initiatives promoting healthy environments through Dettol’s new mums programme, running healthy habits lessons in schools and also working with Save the Children to help children in need in the UK and abroad.  As a mum of three children, I have always been interested in making sure that they are protected from getting food poisoning and to teach them about the importance of handwashing. I have also been roped in at their schools to go and teach the children about hygiene in the home, using my famous “magic dust” which only shows up under ultra violet light. In the classroom, we show how bacteria can spread from hand to hand, and via cloths onto surfaces, and talk about how to wash hands properly. It’s such simple public health measure that can make all the difference.

 It’s amazing that whilst 72% of a group surveyed said they would spring clean their house, many did not actually do any cleaning on a daily basis! The importance of cleaning in the kitchen is that it is done on a when needed basis, for example, after preparing raw meat and poultry, rather than saving up all the cleaning up to do once a year! E.coli and Campylobacter can survive for long periods of time on kitchen surfaces, so it’s important to clean as you go to make sure that you don’t spread these bacteria from a dirty surface or hands onto ready-to-eat foods.

Here’s a clip of me on my Mission for Health : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PZ7pISjR1hk

Guidance on avoiding cross-contamination with E. coli O157

Yesterday, the FSA issued guidance to clarify the steps that food businesses need to take in order to control the risk of contamination from E. coli O157. This applies to all food businesses except for primary producers (i.e. Farmers and Growers). This can be found on the link below:

http://www.food.gov.uk/multimedia/pdfs/publication/ecoliguide0211.pdf

There is also a fact sheet:

http://www.food.gov.uk/multimedia/pdfs/publication/ecolifactsheet0211.pdf

 The Guidance has legal status in that it describes how food businesses must comply with legal requirements relevant to control of cross-contamination, including the HACCP requirement  (Article 5) of EC 852/2004 and several parts of the detailed Annex of the legislation (Chapter I, II, Viii, X and XII). There are also some recommendations for businesses in the document which are not legal requirements.

 Most of the information is common sense and hopefully controls will already be in place in businesses, but there may be some instances where change is required, and where additional equipment is required to reduce the risk of cross-contamination and to comply with the legislation.

In particular the key areas identified are:

• Separation of equipment (raw and ready-to-eat) – it is stated in the guidance that complex equipment such as vacuum packers, slicers and mincing machines should never be used for both raw foods and ready-to-eat foods. This could have an immediate impact on businesses using such expensive items of equipment.
• Separation of staff handling raw and ready-to-eat foods – if staff have to do both, they must ensure that they have separate aprons, cleaning materials, even pens for jobs involving raw meat preparation.
• Effective cleaning and disinfection – prescribed standards for sanitizers which must meet BS EN 1276:1997 or BS EN 13697:2001 but they must be applied to visibly clean surfaces, in the correct dilution and left on for the necessary contact time.
• Personal hygiene measures and handwashing –this means you need to check that your basins are properly stocked (anti-bacterial handwash is recommended, but not mandatory). There must be a procedure to make sure that hands are not re-contaminated after washing by contact with dirty taps – this could be another capital expenditure if foot or elbow operated or infra-red taps are to be installed.

EHOs have been told they must intervene “in circumstances where it is identified that critical cross-contamination controls are inadequate”. So it is very important that businesses read the guidance and carry out an internal check to make sure that they are complying.

For more information and help on compliance, please telephone us on 01727 866779