Tag Archives: Food-borne illness

Back To School, Food-borne illness, Infection prevention

How do you know if a surface has been properly cleaned?

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Quality control in surface disinfection has always been a challenge. Jim Mann, a Brevis associate, sent us a nifty device to check for surface cleaning. It is called MarX and Brevis is now marketing it as the GlitterBug MarX.This is a stamp device that leaves an invisible circle X mark on stamped surfaces that can be visualized with UV light. It will be simple for quality control personnel to check whether surfaces have been cleaned by shining a UV source, such as the very popular GlitterBug GlowBar LED, on stamped surfaces. In this SARS-CoV-2 pandemic world, knowing that surfaces have been cleaned is more important than ever. And will be in the future when the next pandemic after Covid 19 rears its ugly head, as surely it will.

For decades Brevis has been a world leader in the teaching of hand hygiene with its GlitterBug UV product line and instructional videos. The GlitterBug MarX product is a great addition to this popular family. The MarX device is very portable – and pocketable – at about 1.0 by 2.5 inches (2.5 x 6.3 cm). It is probably capable of at least a thousand stampings if kept covered between uses.

Surface cleaning detection kit with invisible stamper and UVA lamp

Surface cleaning matters even more than ever. Use the MarX to mark surfaces with an invisible mark then use the SpotShooter8 Lamp to see if those marks were properly cleaned off. Easy method to Trust but Verify.

If only the Marx Brothers (Groucho, Harpo, Chico and Zeppo) had known about this, vaudeville may have taken a different turn back in the early 1900s. There is a story, which I can’t verify, that explains why Harpo never talks. Seems that the brothers were on tour and in one particular town, their act was not well received. So as they were walking out of town to get to the train station, Harpo turned around and said something like, “I hope your town burns down.” The next day when they looked at the newspaper, what do they see but an item about how that town had been mostly destroyed by a large fire. Of course, they had nothing to do with starting the fire, but Harpo’s curse was so prescient that the other brothers prevailed on Harpo not to talk any more. And he never did in their acts including when they got into movies. The story may be apocryphal but I like it anyway. If it didn’t happen, it should have.

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Meanwhile, GlitterBug MarX has happened and is available now for your consideration and use. Check it out. You will be impressed with its simplicity and effectiveness.

Thank you,

Gordon Short, MD
Brevis Corporation

Food-borne illness, Trichinosis

A Pig from Jersey

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The last Saturday of June, 1957, having finished my internship, I left Lansing, MI, about midnight in my little VW with orders to report to CDC in Atlanta at 8:00 AM Monday to begin my two years of service in the US Public Health Service. I was to audit the course for the Epidemic Intelligence Service before reporting to the Technical Development Laboratory in Savannah, GA. The EIS course was founded and taught by Alexander Langmuir. Langmuir was a bigger than life, charismatic story teller who quickly made me feel that epidemiology was the most fascinating subject available to mere humans. There were maybe 40 or 50 of us taking the course and in front of our assigned seats there was a stack of reading material that looked generally pretty serious. But on the top of the stack there was a small paperback book with the title “Eleven Blue Men” by Berton Roueche. It looked strangely out of place and unserious and I put it aside for later.

I don’t remember when “later” arrived, but when it did, I was treated to a series of fascinating articles of which the Jersey pig was the first. It concerned a schlachtfest being held at the New York Labor Temple, a German-American meeting-and-banquet hall. A schlachtfest, for those of you uninitiated, is a pork feast. The pig in question was purchased by a butcher in Staten Island and the carcass was taken to the Labor Temple in Manhattan where it was converted into sausage among other things. One of the men involved in this escapade had eaten some of the raw sausage to check on the seasoning, and the rest is history. The man became very ill with fever (he later died) and the physician, a Dr Levy, came to the diagnosis when he discovered an elevated eosinophil count in his blood smear. It was then confirmed by a muscle biopsy which showed numerous Trichinella spiralis parasites.

Trichinosis is one of the many parasites one studies about in Microbiology, but I had never seen a case until some years ago when I was assisting in an outpatient laboratory here in Salt Lake City. I didn’t see the patient myself but I heard her story second-hand. This young lady had been on vacation in Hawaii and had been invited to a luau. The luau was the genuine thing apparently with a whole roast pig on a rotisserie above a fire. Everybody enjoyed the fresh roast pork. Except that the young lady in question arrived somewhat late to the proceedings and her portion of pork was from a more interior portion of the carcass that had not been adequately heated to kill the larvae.

Here the details are sketchy but she apparently had the usual GI symptoms followed by severe muscle pain. By this time she was back home in Salt Lake City and her doctor ordered the usual lab tests including a CBC. Thus the blood smear that showed more eosinophils than I had ever seen before. This was some time in the 1970s and I don’t remember the percentage of eosinophils
but I think it may have been around 30%, about 10 times normal. The smear was lit up with red lights like a Christmas tree. That number of eosinophils doesn’t define trichinosis but it certainly is highly suggestive.

Today trichinosis is very rare, but it is just the rare diseases we don’t think of that can rear their ugly heads and bite us in the rear. Tricky trichinosis. Maybe the ancient Hebrews knew something important. Whatever. May Trichinella spiralis rest in peace and bother us no more.

Gordon Short, MD
Brevis Corporation


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E. coli, Food-borne illness, Hand Hygiene, Handwashing Saves Lives, Infection prevention

Prevention always starts with good hand hygiene

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Searching for the cause of an E Coli outbreak can send investigators in many different directions. This is a reminder that good hand hygiene practices and proper food preparation are of utmost importance. E Coli can be found in contaminated soil or water but it can also be spread through infected people. Germs that make us sick are everywhere and while we cannot always control where or how our food is grown we can control how we prepare it and make sure our hands are clean when doing so. Check out these links to the latest news on the Romain lettuce E Coli outbreak and the CDC which both reference person-to-person contact and the importance of hand washing.

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Food-borne illness

Tips for a Clean and Healthy Thanksgiving

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This week families and friends will gather to give thanks, make memories, and share delicious meals. Whether you’re hosting or traveling, you can take precautions to help protect your loved ones from sharing any sickness during your visits.

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Safely handle the turkey Frozen turkeys should be thawed in cold water (changed every 30 minutes), never on a countertop. Cooking your turkey should be done in an oven set to at least 325° F, and cooking time will vary depending on the weight of the bird. The turkey is done when it has reached an internal temperature of 165° F (use a digital thermometer, and check the turkey’s thickest areas of the breast, thigh, and wing joint).  

Keep all kitchen areas clean Wash utensils, food prep areas, and, yes, HANDS. Hot water and soap will get rid of illness-causing bacteria. It’s especially important to ALWAYS wash your hands and all equipment before and after working with raw meat, poultry, or seafood so you don’t spread bacteria that live in these uncooked foods.

Don’t ignore the leftovers Separate cooked foods into small containers, and refrigerate or freeze immediately. In smaller portions, they’ll be preserved faster and more evenly, and later they’ll be easier to reheat as needed.

Food handling errors and inadequate cooking are the most common problems leading to poultry-associated foodborne disease outbreaks in the U.S. Properly handling food and keeping up with cleaning up will help keep those illnesses at bay.

Pass the turkey, not the germs. Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours!

Sources:

http://www.cleaninginstitute.org/clean_living/thanksgiving_tips.aspx

http://www.cdc.gov/features/turkeytime/

http://www.cdc.gov/foodsafety/groups/consumers.html

Food-borne illness

What’s for dinner? You’re twice as likely to get sick eating at a restaurant.

Food-borne illness in restaurants

Cook at home or go out for dinner? Hungry Americans contemplate their options millions of times a day and going out for dinner wins out frequently. If you’re eating at restaurants, though, you’re twice as likely to get a food-borne illness. In fact, sit at a table with five friends or family members and you can expect that one of you will get sick.

It seems almost nonsensical (not to mention gross) that delicious, healthy foods—especially “real” foods, with all its life-sustaining and delicious qualities—can be tainted with deadly bacteria. Yet there are a whopping 250 different microbes or toxins that can cause foodborne illness (although 90 percent of the known outbreaks are caused by just seven microbes, including Salmonella and E. coli.) This year in the U.S. alone, 48 million people will get sick from contaminated food and roughly 3,000 Americans will die because of a pathogen in something they ate.

If you’re thinking about jumping into some cooking courses and staying “in” to eat for the rest of your mortal life, though, that’s not the solution. Although the issues restaurants face during food preparation are vastly different from a home cook’s, eating at home is a danger, too. A recent survey from the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) that says you’re chances of getting sick are doubled at restaurants probably doesn’t have all of the data (we’re pretty sure most people don’t report their mother or grandmother for giving them home-cooked illnesses), so don’t panic. Just keep a few key things in mind.

The National Restaurant Association depends on safe ingredients and the industry has trained more than 5.6 million food service workers in the safe handling and serving of food. That’s very. Very good. A few specific food items bear a large burden for food-borne illnesses, too, so be wary. Raw milk, for instance was linked to 104 outbreaks last year. And while your mouth is watering over the menu at your favorite diner, consider these tips (as strange as they may seem):

1. Stick to ordering the “popular” dishes on the menu. The turnover of these menu items is higher, so it’s far less likely that the food has been lying around in a fridge for a while.

2. If the Monday special is the catch of the day, don’t order it! In fact, NEVER order fish on a Monday. Chances are the chef bought it for their busy Saurday ight, but didn’t sell it, so it’s on been sitting in the fridge since then.

3. Ask to see the kitchen. If you think that’s overstepping your bounds, you’re dead wrong. Do you buy shoes without trying them on? The kitchen where your food is prepared is no different. It’s all part of the package you’re paying for and you don’t want to pay by getting sick!

4. Beware of menu specials. Ideally, they’re created with amazing produce or some farm-raised beef the chef has had his eye on. Unfortunately, specials also often the way restaurants move old stock. They dress it up, give it a new name, and voila—potential food-borne bacteria.

5. Put your nose down into that plate of food and really breathe in. Does it smell aromatic? Then dig in. If it doesn’t smell the way food should, send it back!

When you eat at home, make certain the food you’re buying, preparing, and cooking is safe, too. How? The nonprofit food safety watchgroup (the “food police”) has also published the definitive consumer’s guide to avoiding foodborne illness. Written by Sarah Klein, the senior food safety attorney for CSPI, From Supermarket to Leftovers: A Consumer’s Guide to Buying, Preparing, Cooking and Storing Food Safely offers tips for avoiding disease-causing microbes that can make you acutely ill.

Beware the Daily Catch