A co-franchisee of a popular large fast food restaurant chain was caught on video mixing sauces with his bare hands and serving food off the floor in Red Deer, Alberta, Canada. The company headquarters made a statement and called the "improper food handling behaviour ... unacceptable and (that it) in no way, represents our commitment to safe food handling". Click to see the link to the full video.
Patrick Quade, Iwaspoisoned founder, presented at the National Environmental Health Association's Annual Education Conference in Michigan on July 13th, 2017. The NEHA provides training and resources for over 5,000 professionals in the field of environmental health. The annual conference is the nexus for environmental health training, education, networking, and advancement. It is the event environmental health professionals attend to acquire practical and real-world information and expertise.
Business Insider Reports "Customers reported symptoms such as vomiting, diarrhea, severe stomach pain, dehydration, and nausea to the website , which first alerted Business Insider to the issues at the Sterling restaurant. One person reported two hospitalizations as a result of the illnesses."
We are pleased to share an article we co-authored, about food borne illness surveillance & Iwaspoisoned.com. It was recently published in the peer reviewed science journal "JMIR Journal of Public Health and Surveillance" linkk here
A BBC investigation found fecal bacteria in iced drinks from Starbucks and 2 other chains: The BBC's consumer-affairs "Watchdog" program found that samples of iced drinks from Starbucks and two other UK chains — Costa Coffee and Caffe Nero — contained "varying levels of the bacteria."
Another example of funding and staffing challenges for public health, making it a challenge to meet the standards they set for themselves. Oregon’s new plan for food safety acknowledges that "there will always be a backlog": Inspection procedures and penalties are inconsistent, auditors said. And the state has no system to ensure food operators are licensed […] “The findings weren’t really a surprise to us,” Stephanie Page, food safety director for the Oregon Department of Agriculture told the state Board of Agriculture at its meeting […] [The new plan] calls for the program to accept that there will always be a backlog of inspections, but establish an acceptable goal. In December 2014, the Statesman Journal reported on the Food Safety Program’s . showed that 55 percent of retail food establishments had not had an inspection in the past year, and 5 percent had not had an inspection for three years or more.
Some pathogens take days or weeks to produce symptoms, but the reaction to food poisoning can be almost immediate, as in the Pennsylvania restaurant closed in March after children were served lye-laced apple juice. Some violations [found at the restaurant] included: While inspecting the storage area, three opened bottles of crystal lye were found. One bottle was extremely dirty. A cracked, black tote was found beneath the cooling unit filled with condensate, dripping into a tote of raw chicken in the walk-in cooler. The inspector found a bottle lye in crystal form stored beneath the sushi buffet table.
More support for crowdsourced reporting as a community service, as reports on the linked to a Jimmy John’s in Weston, Wisconsin. Norovirus has been confirmed as the culprit in the health department’s investigation. IWasPoisoned.com collected data on 19 total illnesses relating to the outbreak. "Iwaspoisoned.com, the crowdsourcing site for safer dining, was correct in finding norovirus was making people sick after they ate at the Weston Jimmy John’s near Wausau, WI. The Marathon County Health Department reports a norovirus outbreak was responsible for making about 100 people [ill] since April 7…The Wisconsin outbreak was identified by iwaspoisoned.com, a crowdsourcing site that is now delivering surveillance into public health in 46 states in the United States.”
Food Safety News commented on the usefulness of the IWasPoisoned platform after a Jimmy John’s franchise in Weston, Wisconsin came under investigation by the Marathon County Health Department. IWasPoisoned noted an increase in reports connected to the franchise in what was most likely a norovirus outbreak. Eight reports totalling 19 total illnesses were recorded on IWasPoisoned.com. The investigation into the cause of the outbreak is ongoing.
We had the opportunity to speak at the Missouri Milk, Food, and Environmental Health Association Annual Conference this week. We want to send a huge thanks to MMFEHA for their hospitality, and for the great work they do. We are so grateful to have been a part of it!
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