August 2010

I have the privilege to speak before the Annual Meeting of PulseNet in Chicago in a few weeks. As some may know, PulseNet is a national network of public health and food regulatory agency laboratories coordinated by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The network consists of: state health departments, local health departments…

dog_food_bowl.jpgReporting in the September issue of Pediatrics, researchers led by Dr. Casey Barton Behravesh of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention say that contact with pets and contact with the pet’s environment — their bed and where they eat and sleep, for example — can result in human infections. The authors of the…

After nearly 3,000 blog post and over 2,500,000 visitors (most since the Fall of 2006), I decided a redesign of the blog was in order. Although we are still working out a few “bugs,” the look you see here is the near final product. Hopefully, you will find the resources helpful and the commentary, well, at least tolerable.

Which brings me to why do I spend so much time on this blog, Food Safety News and all the other “bug” blogs. I think I summed it up best in Testimony I gave in 2008 before the House Energy and Commerce Committee:

House.jpgSince 1993, I have had the privilege to represent thousands of Americans – some your constituents. In 2002, during the middle of yet another E. coli outbreak, during the middle of another visit to an ICU to watch a new client struggle for life attached to more tubes than you can imagine, I penned an Op-ed for the Denver Post. Here is part of it:

This summer, scores of Americans, most of them small children or senior citizens, have already or will become deathly ill after eating ground beef boldly labeled “USDA approved.” The now infamous outbreak started with a few sick kids in Colorado and quickly spread coast-to-coast, eventually triggering the recall of 19 million pounds of ground beef tainted with E. coli O157:H7.

Because their parents trusted our government’s food inspections, several kids suffered kidney failure and spent days or weeks hooked up to kidney dialysis machines. For some, the long-term prognosis is grim, with the risk of further kidney failure, dialysis, transplants or worse…. Most of those kids’ parents have hired me to help them get compensation for hundreds of thousands in medical costs and the risks of future kidney failure. This may prompt some readers to consider me a blood-sucking ambulance chaser that exploits other people’s personal tragedies.

If that is the case, here is my plea: Put me out of business. Please.

For this trial lawyer, E. coli has been a far too successful practice – and a heart-breaking one. I am tired of visiting with horribly sick kids who did not have to be sick in the first place. I am outraged with a food industry that allows E. coli and other poisons to reach consumers, and a President, Congress and federal regulatory system that do nothing about it. Stop making kids sick – and I will happily move on.Continue Reading Marler Blog re-launch is a good time to think about why the hell I do it

botulism.jpgBotulism is a rare, life-threatening paralytic illness caused by neurotoxins produced by an anaerobic, gram-positive, spore-forming bacterium, Clostridium botulinum. Unlike Clostridium perfringens, which requires the ingestion of large numbers of viable cells to cause symptoms, the symptoms of botulism are caused by the ingestion of highly toxic, soluble exotoxins produced by C. botulinum while growing in foods.

Overview

These rod-shaped bacteria grow best under anaerobic (or, low oxygen), low-salt, and low-acid conditions. Bacterial growth is inhibited by refrigeration below 4° C., heating above 121° C, and high water-activity or acidity. And although the toxin is destroyed by heating to 85° C. for at least five minutes, the spores formed by the bacteria are not inactivated unless the food is heated under high pressure to 121° C. for at least twenty minutes.

The incidence of foodborne botulism is extremely low. Nonetheless, the extreme danger posed by the bacteria has required that “intensive surveillance is maintained for botulism cases in the United States, and every case is treated as a public health emergency.” This danger includes a mortality rate of up to 65% when victims are not treated immediately and properly. Most of the botulism events that are reported annually in the United States are associated with home-canned foods that have not been safely processed. Very occasionally, however, commercially- processed foods are implicated as the source of a botulism events, including sausages, beef stew, canned vegetables, and seafood products.Continue Reading Botulism

Yesterday morning I had the opportunity to speak at the National Meat Association annual “meating.”  For the most part my speech was positive.  From a spike in outbreaks, illnesses and recalls in 2007, the numbers have dropped – well, until this morning when 1,000,000 pounds of meat were recalled due to illnesses in California.  Before this mornings recalls, here were the numbers:

Continue Reading 12 E. coli Recalls Totalling 1,786,859 Pounds of Meat in 2010

Valley Meat Company, a Modesto, Calif. establishment, is recalling approximately one million pounds of frozen ground beef patties and bulk ground beef products that may be contaminated with E. coli O157:H7, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) announced this morning.

The products subject to recall bear the establishment number “EST. 8268” inside the USDA mark of inspection as well as a production code of 25709 through 01210. These products were produced between the dates of Oct. 2, 2009 through Jan. 12, 2010 and were distributed to retail outlets and institutional foodservice providers in California, Texas, Oregon, Arizona and internationally.

FSIS became aware of the problem on July 15 when the agency was notified by the California Department of Public Health (CDPH) of a small E. coli O157:H7 cluster of illnesses with a rare strain as determined by PFGE subtyping. A total of six patients with illness onset dates between April 8 and June 18, 2010 were reported at that time. After further review, CDPH added another patient from February to the case count, bringing the count to seven. FSIS is continuing to work with the CDPH and the company on the investigation. Anyone with signs or symptoms of foodborne illness should contact a health care provider.

The following products are subject to recall:Continue Reading E. coli Recall of 1,000,000 pounds of meat from Valley Meat Company

Yesterday afternoon I asked, “Will the CDC name Taco Bell as the “Mexican-style fast food restaurant chain” associated with some Salmonella Hartford and Baildon illnesses?”  I asked that because we have been tracking several of the cases over the last several weeks.  However, one confirmed case became ill only two weeks ago.

And, today we…