A new study from the University of Florida urged the foodservice industry to step up safety efforts as it ranked the riskiest combinations of food and illness-causing pathogens.
The study, “Ranking the Risks: The 10 Pathogen-Food Combi¬nations with the Greatest Burden on Public Health,” was released Thursday by the school’s Emerging Pathogens Institute in Gainesville, Fla. It lists estimates of the number of illnesses and of the costs and overall public health toll of specific microbes in particular types of food, the school said.
Estimates released last year by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta showed that foodborne pathogens annually sicken about 48 million Americans, or about one in six, hospitalizing 128,000 and killing 3,000.
The UF report estimated that 14 foodborne pathogens annually cause $14.1 billion in treatment and other costs tied to illness as well as the loss of more than 61,000 QALYs, or quality adjusted life-years. QALYs are a tool used in medicine to measure the health-related quality of life associated with different health states, such as in recovery from a foodborne illness with long-lasting complications.
The report noted that just five of the 14 highlighted pathogens were responsible for more than 90 percent of the estimated economic and QALY losses associated with the group: Salmonella, Campylobacter, Listeria monocytogenes, Toxoplasma gondii and norovirus.
The top 10 food-and-pathogen combinations are responsible for more than $8 billion in costs of illness annually and nearly 37,000 lost QALYs, representing almost 60 percent of the impacts estimated across all 168 combinations, the report found.
Top 10 Pathogen-Food Combinations in Terms of Annual Disease Burden
(Source: University of Florida Emerging Pathogens Institute)
The report pointed out that government studies for numerous pathogens “consistently show higher risks for foods prepared outside the home.”
“Considerable burden of disease is caused by food handling and preparation problems in foodservice and retail settings,” the authors said.
“Complex food,” or multi-ingredient dishes, often prepared by restaurants, caterers, cafeterias and other foodservice establishments, are the third leading food group in terms of associated burden of disease, the study found.
The study analyzed illness outbreaks associated with complex food between 1998 and 2008 and found that 70 percent of Salmonella outbreaks and 80 percent of norovirus outbreaks resulted from meals made by professional kitchens.
“This suggests that there remains room for significant improvement in food safety in professional kitchens, both through private sector efforts to facilitate a culture of food safety, and through the strengthening of the critical efforts of state and local public health and regulatory agencies that oversee these establishments,” said authors Michael B. Batz, Sandra Hoffmann and J. Glenn Morris Jr.
Catherine Adams Hutt, a food safety and nutrition consultant to the National Restaurant Association, said studies suggesting higher risk from food prepared outside the home may not paint a fully accurate picture of how many foodborne illnesses are tied to foodservice and retail establishments.
Adams Hutt, a registered dietician with RdR Solutions Consulting of Aubrey, Texas, said consumers are less likely to report to authorities illnesses caused by food prepared in their homes or at a neighbor’s house than they are to call in sicknesses they believe are tied to restaurants.
What’s more, she said, such private party illnesses, which may have a variety of causes, are less likely to stand out in statistical screenings, which often use common traits among victims, such as pathogen type and visits to a specific restaurant, to identify and track foodborne outbreaks and their causes.
The UF study made several recommendations to improve food safety at foodservice establishments, including:
• Have government take action to improve retail and foodservice food safety, including fully funding state and local inspection activities.
• Increase the adoption by states of the most recent U.S. Food and Drug Administration “Model Food Code.”
• Increase the risk-basis of inspection criteria.
• Increase the education and training of food workers and government inspectors.
Some of the recommendations, such as moves to more fully fund foodservice-inspection activities, are likely to face challenges in the short term, as Congress and many state and local governments look to cut spending.
Additionally, numerous companies and trade groups from a variety of industries are warning such government bodies that too many additional fees or taxes could slow the economic recovery and put jobs at risk.
But some of the other recommendations in the report already have the support of the NRA and the National Council of Chain Restaurants.
Both of those Washington-based groups support broader adoption of the FDA’s Model Food Code by states and local jurisdictions, for example. The NRA and NCCR also have expressed support for including in future editions of the Food Code a requirement that individual restaurants employ certified food protection managers.
Adams Hutt said the NRA favors increased state and local adoption of provisions in the FDA’s Model Food Code because “they are the best science and best practices that we are aware of.” She added that the “Food Code represents a consistent message to foodservice operators” who can find it confusing when given different guidelines by different state and local health authorities.
The NRA applauded the release of the University of Florida report, Adams Hutt said, as “it is always helpful and important to call out for consumers the risks regarding food safety” and remind all food preparers “of the importance of hand washing and proper temperature controls.”
The authors of the report said tying estimated economic and quality of life costs to specific pathogen-food combinations will allow regu¬lators “to target scarce public dollars toward the biggest food safety problems and find solutions to protect consumers.”
“I think one of the most difficult issues in food safety is trying to quantify the costs; for the most part settlements are confidential, business losses are not reported and medical costs are not consistent enough,” said attorney Bill Marler of Seattle’s Marler Clark law firm, which represents consumers in foodborne illness lawsuits against manufacturers, restaurants and other businesses.
He added: “This report seems to get close to quantifying the problem enough to use as a basis for making policy and investment decisions.”
The full report may be downloaded here: http://www.epi.ufl.edu/?q=RankingTheRisks
Contact Alan J. Liddle at alan.liddle@penton.com.
| Event |
ServSafe Alcohol™ Training
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| When |
Friday, April 29, 2011
12:00pm
- Click on class for more information & register - All Ages |
| Where |
Anderson, SC – HRBAudit Training Center (map)
Anderson, SC
|
| Other Info |
 Responsible alcohol service is an issue that touches your business, your customers and your community. That’s why the National Restaurant Association Educational Foundation (NRAEF) developed the ServSafe Alcohol™ Program to raise the bar in responsible alcohol service training and certification.
ServSafe Alcohol™ is today’s real-world training solution, with practical knowledge and best-in-class resources that help to prepare and protect every operation every day. Class Size – 10 person minimum, 35 people maximum Employee Book & Test – $55.00 per person
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U.S. Marshals, at the request of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, this week seized seafood products because a Wisconsin company did not have a Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point (HACCP) plan in place. The complaint filed in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Wisconsin was in regard to breaded seafood repacked by Fellerson, Inc., a firm that does business as K&S Wholesale Meats, for Soderholm Wholesale Foods, both of Sun Prairie.
According to the FDA news release, K&S Wholesale Meats allegedly repacked breaded seafood, including shrimp, haddock fillets, pollock fillets, and ocean perch fillets, under Soderholm’s “Seaside” label without having the required hazard reduction plan.
A HACCP, in the FDA’s description, is “a science-based system of preventive controls for food safety that commercial seafood processors develop to identify potential food safety hazards and steps to keep them from occurring.” The FDA said the government’s Seafood HACCP program was designed to “increase the margin of safety for U.S. consumers and to reduce those illnesses that do occur to the lowest possible levels.”
Not having a written plan is a violation of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act, and seafood processed without one can be considered adulterated, under the law.
“K&S Wholesale Meats has repeatedly ignored FDA warnings to conduct a hazard analysis and implement a written HACCP plan, in order to prevent adulteration of their breaded seafood,” Dara Corrigan, the FDA’s associate commissioner for regulatory affairs, said in the statement. “By taking this action, the FDA is demonstrating its commitment to protecting the public health from the dangers of adulterated food products.”
FDA said it issued a warning letter to K&S Wholesale Meats on Jan. 13, 2010, for not having a HACCP plan in place for its breaded seafood products. The company responded to the warning letter promising corrections, FDA said, but subsequent inspections in September 2010 and March 2011 revealed that the firm continued to repackage breaded fish without a written plan.
Chinese authorities seized more than 26 tons of melamin-tainted milk powder from an ice cream maker in what has become an ongoing, years-long food safety scandal.
It’s been three years since the infamous melamine scandal splashed international headlines–300,000 were sickened and 6 infants died after unknowingly consuming the chemical via adulterated dairy products. The incident sparked a country-wide food safety crackdown that has brought even more melamine-tainted dairy to light.
In January, China detained 96 people for allegedly producing and selling melamine dairy products after a raid turned up over two thousand tons of illegal product.
Chinese authorities have seized over 25,000 tons of melamine dairy since the high-profile scandal grabbed international headlines in 2008.
Melamine is an industrial chemical that can be used for artificially boosting protein content in dairy quality tests. The chemical is usually used to manufacture plastic and when ingested can cause kidney failure and kidney stones.
If you are trying to get a bill passed, having it “left pending in committee” after a big public hearing cannot be good thing.
That’s exactly where House Bill 75 finds itself in the Texas Legislature. The bill to legalize direct sales of raw milk got a big hearing on April 20, but did not get out of the House Public Health Committee.
Rep. Dan Flynn (no relation) could not have been more excited about the public hearing had his political hero Karl Rove agreed to have another picture taken with him. (The first photo is prominently displayed on Flynn’s Texas House website.)
Here what the Van, Texas Republican said happened at the public hearing on his raw milk bill:
“State Representative Dan Flynn (Van) received an ovation after a very long evening of testimony that went almost to midnight. The committee hearing saw approximately 100 witnesses (speak out in favor of) the Raw Milk Bill (HB 75); against little opposition from entrenched special interests and over regulating bureaucrats.”
Representative Flynn stated … “That this bill does not legalize raw milk because raw milk is already legal. It has been legal in Texas for decades.
HB 75 is a very simple bill that only removes the restriction that raw milk must be sold on the farm, and allows licensed producers to sell directly to consumers at locations such as county fairs and farmers markets.
“The bill benefits ‘mom and pop’ small businesses who comply with the law by removing unnecessary barriers that are entirely economic, with no health or safety benefits. Early negotiation clarified that limitations on place of sale do not include supermarkets and adds a reasonable labeling requirement.
“This is an important piece of legislation as it allows a mechanism to provide an improvement in safety and promotion of commerce and potentially increases jobs and income for the Citizens of Texas.
“Despite the extensive safety regulations, sales of raw milk have been limited by agency regulation to ‘the point of production, i.e. at the farm.’
Much testimony was received by the committee on safety and the vast majority expressed the safety of raw milk from Grade A Dairies and when pressed for data the opposition had little if any offering only that there had been 2 cases involving raw milk in 20 years.
Testimony was also offered that the Department of State Health Services (DSHS) and Centers for Disease Control’s (CDC) own data suggested more problems with strawberries, macaroni salad and oysters. Most likely this is because currently, producers go through an extensive process to receive a ‘Grade A Raw for Retail’ license, which permits them to sell raw milk directly to consumers.
“The Department of State Health Services’ regulations govern testing for animal diseases, the structure of the milk barn, sanitation measures at every step, and regular testing of the milk. The regulatory standards for raw milk meet or exceed the state’s regulatory standards for pasteurized milk. When and if there is a problem, the DSHS has proven that they can handle it quickly and appropriately based upon Texas law.”
Right now, Texas DSHS is handling the case of Mary Chiles, a customer of Lavon Farms in Plano Texas whose sickness from consuming its raw milk has brought an order against Lavon’s further distribution of raw milk products pending test results.
Chiles’s illness and a number of other recent raw milk illnesses have prompted the Texas Medical Association and the Dallas County Health Department to speak out about the pending legislation.
“We’re going to go with the CDC recommendations that individuals not partake of this milk,” said Zachary Thompson, the director of the Dallas County Health Department.
Although Rep. Flynn is excited about the bill’s prospects, the Public Health Committee considered an alternative to his bill, but has not yet opted to send any legislative vehicle forward to the floor of the Texas House.
Flynn has another month to work on getting his bill out of the Public Health Committee and onto the floor.
