Bill Marler
MAY 12, 2021
9 sick in Snohomish and King counties. All under the age of 15, except one woman in her 20’s. Question: what food items are consumed by kids as young as 1 and someone in their 20’s? The Snohomish Health District announced Tuesday evening that it has identified two cases of Shiga toxin-producing E. coli (STEC) in Snohomish County residents.
Modern Restaurant Management
JULY 29, 2021
Running a restaurant today is a challenging undertaking. Some challenges, like crowded and highly competitive markets and shifting consumer demands, have always been relevant to restaurant owners. Now, as restaurants embrace new technologies, there’s another threat to consider: cybercrime. Cybercriminals are a growing threat to virtually every industry.
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Bill Marler
AUGUST 27, 2021
Jackson County Public Health is investigating an unusually high number of Shiga toxin- producing Escherichia coli (STEC) cases. Since August 1, 2021, 14 cases have been reported to Jackson County, and 10 (71%) of these cases have been hospitalized. Urgent Flash Report_Shiga-toxigenic Escherichia coli_8.22.21. .
Bill Marler
MARCH 15, 2021
Pre-COVID, I spent at least 5-6 days of any month somewhere in the world preaching the gospel of “why it is a bad idea to Poison your customer.” There are the business reasons – you will likely see a downturn in sales of your leafy green, and I will sue you for millions of dollars on behalf of kids like the below. There is also the moral reason – either of these kids could be your son or daughter or a grandson or grandaughter.
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Bill Marler
JANUARY 24, 2021
Rest in Peace Larry King. I wrote in my blog that in March 2009 I finally made it to the Blakely, Georgia Peanut Corporation of America plant. Despite being scrubbed a bit in the last few months after the announcement of the outbreak, we still found mice and cockroaches in the plant with several spots where the roof had been clearly leaking. Really little question that any company purchasing product from this plant should have been on notice of the risks had they ever taken the time for a quic
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Bill Marler
JUNE 24, 2021
It was only a matter of time – as commercial marijuana becomes a thing that we would see recalls due to bacterial contamination. We should expect to see the sam in other, especially edible, marijuana products. Multiple Arizona marijuana establishments and dispensaries are initiating a voluntary recall of specific marijuana products due to possible contamination with Salmonella or Aspergillus.
Bill Marler
SEPTEMBER 14, 2021
To protect Canadians from possible health risks, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) is implementing temporary import conditions for romaine lettuce from the Salinas Valley ( Santa Cruz , Santa Clara , San Benito , and Monterey ) in California for the 2021 growing season. Between September 30 and December 31, 2021, importers of romaine lettuce and products containing romaine lettuce from the U.S. are required to provide proof that the product does not originate from counties in Ca
Bill Marler
JUNE 7, 2021
According to the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), with an estimated 600 million cases of foodborne illnesses annually, unsafe food is a threat to human health and economies, disproportionally affecting vulnerable and marginalized people, especially women and children, populations affected by conflict, and migrants.
Bill Marler
NOVEMBER 2, 2021
I will spare you the list of hepatitis A cases that I have been involved with since 1998 when I represented 30 people exposed in a Seattle, Washington Subway restaurant, including one child who suffered acute liver failure requiring an emergency liver transplant. There have been dozens in the last 23 years, many with tragic consequences. Yet, here we are once again.
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Bill Marler
NOVEMBER 18, 2021
In 2011 I wrote: Last week the USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) announced a recall of ground turkey products due to “possible” Salmonella contamination. According to the press release, “Cargill Meat Solutions Corporation, a Springdale, Ark. establishment, is recalling approximately 36 million pounds of ground turkey products that may be contaminated with a multi-drug resistant strain of Salmonella Heidelberg.”.
Bill Marler
NOVEMBER 9, 2021
This afternoon, the Roanoke City and Alleghany Health Districts (RCAHD) announced that RCAHD has identified a total of 50 confirmed primary cases and 2 secondary cases. There have been at least 31 hospitalizations and unfortunately 3 deaths. RCAHD stresses that hepatitis A is a preventable disease. RCAHD urges everyone to consistently practice good hand washing and to consider getting vaccinated, especially if they fall into a high-risk population.
Bill Marler
MAY 4, 2021
A few days ago, “Down Under” a.k.a. Australia, my friend, food safety guru, and for some strange reason, eater of raw shellfish, Dr. Julian Cox, was speaking about the risk of pregnant women consuming unpasteurized juice or cider and tahini or hummus. The risk to the mother and the baby is Listeria , which can spread from the human digestive tract to the placenta causing miscarriage or birth defects.
Bill Marler
NOVEMBER 29, 2021
Some, I am sure are a bit tired of my ranting about the FSIS doing its job and deeming Salmonella that causes human illness an adulterant in meat. Fact, after E. coli O157:H7 was deemed an adulterant in ground beef in 1994, it took about a decade for E. coli illness cases to drop. During that time, we saw the same drop in clients seeking our help. Go figure, the FSIS and the beef industry heeded my call.
Bill Marler
DECEMBER 23, 2021
Congress passed the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act in 1938 in reaction to growing public safety demands. The primary goal of the Act was to protect the health and safety of the public by preventing deleterious, adulterated or misbranded articles from entering interstate commerce. Under section 402(a)(4) of the Act, a food product is deemed “adulterated” if the food was “prepared, packed, or held under insanitary conditions whereby it may have become contaminated with filth, or whereby it
Bill Marler
DECEMBER 1, 2021
Volume 28, Number 1—January 2022 Dispatch Salmonella Serotypes Associated with Illnesses after Thanksgiving Holiday, United States, 1998–2018. Here is the CDC’s conclusion: Salmonella Reading was the serotype most strongly associated with illness during the Thanksgiving holiday. Given the dramatic increase in turkey consumption around Thanksgiving, one might expect that serotypes we identified are primarily associated with turkey consumption, and indeed, Reading caused a multistate outbreak with
Bill Marler
NOVEMBER 10, 2021
The National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) shows: Seafood. 168 Isolates (155 clinical, 13 “seafood manufacturer”). Distance between selected isolates: minimum = 0 SNPs, maximum = 4 SNPs, average = 1 SNPs. Target creation date range: 2020-07-07 to 2021-11-08. seafood 11_10_2021 – Full Tree. Onions. 872 isolates (871 clinical, 1 “mixed produce”).
Bill Marler
MAY 3, 2021
I was managing the barbecue last night cooking chicken breasts. Of course, before they hit the grill, I had carefully removed them from the plastic-covered tray from the store, and placed them into a triple-strength plastic bag to marinate a bit. I washed my hands and counters along the way and dried all with paper towels. I checked the grill temperature (over 400 °F (204.4 °C), and after carefully removing the chicken with tongs (which I washed before reusing them), I watched them sizzle and wa
Bill Marler
JUNE 6, 2021
On Monday I start out with Unilever for World Food Safety Day: [link]. On Tuesday with Highfield in the UK: [link]. And, then on Wednesday with the South Africa Food Safety Conference [link].
Bill Marler
MARCH 28, 2021
This weekend I continued to work on the Parker and Jarboe E. coli cases – both linked to the consumption of tainted romaine lettuce that was caused by E. coli O157:H7 contaminated cattle feces in the environment. I was also considering what our next move – short of litigation – might be on the quest to rid Salmonella from beef and chicken. In researching both issues, I came across – again – a 2017 report by the Pew Charitable Trust entitled “Food Safety from Farm to Fork.” – certainly a common
Bill Marler
MAY 20, 2021
Last night Food Safety News reported that the Arizona Department of Health was reporting a “secondary E. coli case,” linked to Pure Eire Dairy that has thus far sickened over a dozen – mainly children – some with acute kidney failure. “We have a case of E. coli O157 in a 2-year-old girl that matches by whole genome sequencing the cluster of cases in Washington linked to Pure Eire yogurt.
Bill Marler
JULY 29, 2021
Over the last several weeks I have been monitoring the FDA and CDC as both of our premier public health entities tried to track down the likely vector sickening people across several states with E. coli O121. Earlier today, they both announce the vector – cake mix from a yet unknown manufacturer – as the cause of the outbreak. Despite the announcement as of several hours, not one national, or for that matter, more local, media outlet has publicized the outbreak and warned consumers about the r
Bill Marler
SEPTEMBER 22, 2021
In the next version of my life I want to be a CDC EIS officer chasing foodborne diseases in the footsteps of many of my heroes in the past and in the present who I have gotten to know since the Jack-in-the-Box E. coli Outbreak of 1993. Being an Epi-wannabe, I do tend to look forward to my Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Reports and articles in Emerging Infectious Diseases.
Bill Marler
MARCH 5, 2021
The FDA has posted lists of retailers that may have received queso fresco cheeses that are linked to a deadly outbreak of Listeria monocytogenes infections. The lists may not include all retailers that received the cheeses but are current as of today. Investigators with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration who are working with state agencies are reporting that the cheeses made by El Abuelito Cheese Inc. in Paterson, NJ, have been distributed in at least 25 states.
Modern Restaurant Management
OCTOBER 13, 2021
With profit margins ranging on average from three to nine percent , restaurants are continually looking to keep costs down. How do restaurant operators find efficiencies to minimize costs without degrading quality or service? The industry has since entered recovery mode , but returning to pre-pandemic levels won’t be easy. Consumers have shown interest in returning to restaurants, but it’s a slow march, not a cavalcade.
Modern Restaurant Management
NOVEMBER 8, 2021
The rise in popularity of contactless payments can mean leaner operations, happier staff, and – most importantly – happier customers. Contactless ordering and pay-at-the-table systems had already started gaining a slow-but-steady foothold over the past three years. Then the COVID-19 pandemic happened. That, in turn, forced the acceleration of adoption of contactless ordering and payment options from both the consumer and the restaurant sides of the business.
Modern Restaurant Management
DECEMBER 22, 2021
With the new year just around the corner, many restaurants are deciding how they can enhance their operations going forward. While there is plenty of technology out there to optimize your establishment, one food service trend is becoming a mainstay: Internet of Things. Internet of Things, or IoT for short, lets one digital device communicate with multiple devices over an internet connection without human intervention.
Bill Marler
DECEMBER 11, 2021
This review is part of FDA’s “New Era of Smarter Food Safety: FDA’s Foodborne Outbreak Response Improvement Plan” that also requires a hard look and the support by those concerned about improving the safety of our food and driving the numbers of ill consumers down. Thanks to the deep dive by Craig Hedberg. Here is the Full Report: NewEra-OutbreakResponseIndependentReview-102621.
Modern Restaurant Management
SEPTEMBER 1, 2021
After the rollercoaster of the last year and a half, the restaurant industry is moving forward with making upgrades they put off because of the disruption COVID-19 created. The trends the industry had in 2019 toward improved tech stacks, better reporting, and streamlined operations can’t wait any longer, and restaurants are finding the budget to put toward technology again.
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