Blue Bell Ice Cream Expands Recall Due to Listeria

Blue Bell is expanding their recall  to include  oz. institutional/food service ice cream cups- chocolate, strawberry and vanilla with tab lids because they have the potential to be contaminated with Listeria monocytogenes.  This comes after Blue Bell Ice Cream was identified as a source of contamination in a set of hospital related illnesses and deaths.



FDA Recall Notice

http://www.fda.gov/Safety/Recalls/ucm439533.htm
Blue Bell Ice Cream Recalls 3 oz. Institutional/Food Service Ice Cream Cups – Chocolate, Strawberry, Vanilla (Tab Lid) – Because of Possible Health Risk

Contact:
Consumer:
979-836-7977

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE — March 23, 2015 —Blue Bell Ice Cream of Brenham, Texas, is recalling three 3 oz. institutional/food service ice cream cups- chocolate, strawberry and vanilla with tab lids because they have the potential to be contaminated with Listeria monocytogenes, an organism which can cause serious and sometimes fatal infections in young children, frail or elderly people, and others with weakened immune systems. Although healthy individuals may suffer only short-term symptoms such as high fever, severe headache, stiffness, nausea, abdominal pain and diarrhea, Listeria infection can cause miscarriages and stillbirths among pregnant women.

On March 22, the Kansas Department of Health & Environment reported one positive test for Listeria monocytogenes on a chocolate institutional/food service cup recovered from a hospital in Wichita, Kan. This cup was produced in the Broken Arrow, Okla., plant on April 15, 2014. These cups are not sold thru retail outlets such as convenience stores and supermarkets.

The ice cream cups listed below were distributed in Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Nevada, New Mexico, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia and Wyoming via food service accounts.

Ice Cream Cup Chocolate (3 FL OZ) No UPC - SKU #453
Ice Cream Cup Strawberry (3 FL OZ) No UPC - SKU #452
Ice Cream Cup Vanilla (3 FL OZ) No UPC – SKU #451

There have been no reported illnesses to date.

This recall in no way includes Blue Bell Ice Cream half gallons, pints, quarts, 3 gallons or other 3 oz. cups.

Listeria Contamination in Bulk Organic Frozen Spinach Results in a Number of Recalls

A number of spinach products are being recalled due to the fact that bulk frozen spinach supplied by Coastal Green Vegetable Company LLC of Oxnard, CA, was found to have Listeria contamination.  This bulk spinach was repacked by Twin City Foods into smaller bags for grocery stores as well as by Superior Foods that packed for Target. Recalls were also made by Amy's Kitcehn Carmel Food Group, and La Terra Fina for products made using the suspect spinach as an ingredient.

Spinach is blanched before freezing.  Blanching, if done correctly, would eliminate the Listeria.  The issue is with post-blanching contamination.  Listeria is a known environmental bacterial pathogen that can become established in processing facilities.  If not controlled, it can contaminate the spinach after blanching in the freezing and packing steps.

While cooking by the consumer would eliminate the pathogen, spinach is often used in dips and other products such as spinach smoothies where there may be little or no heating.  There is an increasing trend of using spinach in these RTE applications.  This poses a problem for those facilities that are built for RTE level of processing.

There have been no reported illnesses.


FDA Recall Notice

http://www.fda.gov/Safety/Recalls/ucm439755.htm
Twin City Foods, Inc. Recalls Frozen Cadia Organic Cut Spinach, Meijer Organics Chopped Spinach, Wild Harvest Organic Cut Leaf Spinach, and Wegmans Organic Just Picked Spinach Because of Possible Health Risk

Contact:  Consumer:
(804) 385-3772

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE — March 24, 2015 — Twin City Foods, Inc. of Stanwood, Washington is recalling the following products because they have the potential to be contaminated with Listeria monocytogenes, an organism which can cause serious and sometimes fatal infections in young children, frail or elderly people, and others with weakened immune systems. Although healthy individuals may suffer only short-term symptoms such as high fever, severe headache, stiffness, nausea, abdominal pain and diarrhea, listeria infection can cause miscarriages and stillbirths among pregnant women.

Catfish and USDA Regulations - The Issue of Unintended Consequences and The One Food Agency Solution

In a New York Times article, a case study of how unintended consequences of a regulatory change has challenged the catfish industry.  The catfish industry wanted protection against imports, and so asked to be regulated as part of the USDA inspection.  It is however, not working out as intended.

Looking at the proposals being made to transition food safety oversight to one agency, it is not the things considered that will be a challenge, but all of the unintended consequences that follow.

NY Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/21/us/catfish-farmers-seeking-regulation-to-fight-foreign-competition-face-higher-bills.html?_r=1
Catfish Farmers, Seeking Regulation to Fight Foreign Competition, Face Higher Bills

By RON NIXONMARCH 20, 2015

WASHINGTON — In 2008, faced with increased competition from Vietnam and China, catfish producers in the United States did the unthinkable: They asked for more regulation of their industry.

Congress concurred and agreed to move the inspection of foreign and domestically produced catfish from the Food and Drug Administration to a more rigorous program at the Agriculture Department. The process, however, has dragged on for nearly seven years.

Now, as the Obama administration prepares to finalize the inspection regulations, domestic catfish farmers may have received more than they bargained for, experts say.

More rigorous inspections could cost an already beleaguered industry millions of dollars to comply with the new regulations, potentially driving more catfish farmers out of the business and costing hundreds of jobs in the rural South, said John Sackton, a seafood industry analyst.

Listeria in Stone Fruit May Have Resulted in Illnesses in US

In July of 2014, a California packing house recalled stone fruit due to Listeria that was discovered through testing.   There were no illnesses reported at the time.

CDC took the PFGE patterns from the Listeria isolated at the peach facility and matched against human cases of Listeria infection across the country.  Two cases, one in Minnesota and one in Massachusetts had matching patters and had  eaten fruit that may have come from the company.
If the connection is truly there, this would be the first cases of listeriosis from stone fruit.

But what about the scenario here?  Basically FDA (or USDA) isolates Listeria from a product followed by the CDC running the isolate's DNA patter through their database to match that bacteria’s DNA pattern with any cases of illness that have occurred across the country . Then in those cases where there is a DNA match, they happen to find that person ate (or may have ate) that product at some point, then that food would be implicated. But was it really the food that resulted in the illness?  Or is it circumstantial evidence?  Could that person have eaten another item that contained that specific strain of Listeria?


CDC MMWR
http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm6410a6.htm?s_cid=mm6410a6_e
Notes from the Field: Listeriosis Associated with Stone Fruit — United States, 2014
Weekly
March 20, 2015 / 64(10);282-283
Brendan R. Jackson, MD1, Monique Salter, MPH2, Cheryl Tarr, PhD1, Amanda Conrad, MPH1,3, Emily Harvey4, Lisa Steinbock5, Amy Saupe, MPH6, Alida Sorenson, MPH7, Lee Katz, PhD1, Steven Stroika1, Kelly A. Jackson, MPH1, Heather Carleton, PhD1, Zuzana Kucerova, MD, PhD1, David Melka2, Errol Strain, PhD2, Mickey Parish, PhD2, Rajal K. Mody, MD1 (Author affiliations at end of text)

On July 19, 2014, a packing company in California (company A) voluntarily recalled certain lots of stone fruits, including whole peaches, nectarines, plums, and pluots, because of concern about contamination with Listeria monocytogenes based on internal company testing (1). On July 31, the recall was expanded to cover all fruit packed at their facility during June 1–July 17 (2). After the initial recall, clinicians, state and local health departments, CDC, and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) received many inquiries about listeriosis from concerned consumers, many of whom had received automated telephone calls informing them that they had purchased recalled fruit. During July 19–31, the CDC Listeria website received >500,000 page views, more than seven times the views received during the previous 52 weeks. However, no molecular information from L. monocytogenes isolates was available to assess whether human illnesses might be linked to these products.

Trader Joe's Recalls Walnut Pieces Due To Salmonella

Trader Joe's is recalling walnut pieces due to the potential to be contaminated by Salmonella.  The contamination was found through routine testing by a laboratory contracted by FDA.  To date, no illnesses have been reported.


FDA Recall Notice
http://www.fda.gov/Safety/Recalls/ucm438472.htm
Trader Joe’s Recalls Raw Walnuts Because of Possible Health Risk

Contact: Consumer: (626) 599-3817
Media: (626) 599-2843

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE — March 17, 2015 — Monrovia, CA — Trader Joe’s Company is recalling Raw Walnuts because these products have the potential to be contaminated with Salmonella, an organism which can cause serious and sometimes fatal infections in young children, frail or elderly people, and others with weakened immune systems. Healthy persons infected with Salmonella often experience fever, diarrhea (which may be bloody), nausea, vomiting and abdominal pain. In rare circumstances, infection with Salmonella can result in the organism getting into the bloodstream and producing more severe illnesses such as arterial infections (i.e., infected aneurysms), endocarditis and arthritis.

The recalled Trader Joe’s Raw Walnuts were distributed to Trader Joe’s stores nationwide.

Kraft Recalls Mac&Cheese Due to Complaints about Metal Pieces

Kraft Foods is recalling Mac and Cheese product after receiving 8 complaints about metal. Approximately 242,000 cases (approx. 6.5 million boxes) are being recalled.

From the report, the product was produced on one manufacturing line over the period of approximately one month.  One would expect that the company would have a metal detector in place at the end of the line / after filling and sealing of the box.

It is good that the consumer complaint system was able to identify this, but the bad thing is that it was not caught through the preventive maintenance or quality program.


The News Gazette
 http://www.news-gazette.com/news/local/2015-03-18/updated-recalled-mac-cheese-was-made-champaign-plant.html
Updated: Recalled mac & cheese was made at Champaign plant

Wed, 03/18/2015 - 5:05pm | Don Dodson

CHAMPAIGN — Kraft Foods is trying to determine how small pieces of metal got into some boxes of original-flavor Kraft Macaroni & Cheese at the Champaign plant where it's made.

"We believe a piece of stainless steel got wedged in a metal piece of equipment, which may have generated friction that resulted in small pieces of metal potentially falling into the product," Kraft spokeswoman Joyce Hodel said.

On Tuesday, Kraft voluntarily recalled about 6.5 million boxes of the product after receiving eight reports of consumers finding metal in the boxes. No injuries were reported.

A Kansas Meals-on-Wheels Operation Involved in Norovirus Outbreak.

A report concluded that a Meals-on-Wheels operation in Kansas was responsible for at least 61 illnesses, although the exact source was not identified.

So someone working for the operation, whether a food preparation person or a delivery person, or even an upstream provider, had to have the illness or had been exposed to someone with the virus.

The clientele served by Meals-on-Wheels would be classified as high risk, so procedures must be in place to prevent employees or volunteers from working when sick, or have exposed to someone who is sick.

Chanute.com
http://www.chanute.com/news/article_86b43810-cdc3-11e4-a460-7f7fd0d80954.html?mode=jqm
Investigative report released in January norovirus outbreakPosted 14 hours ago

JOSHUA VAIL
Tribune reporter

The Kansas Department of Health and Environment Division of Public Health has released its investigative report on the January norovirus outbreak associated with Meals on Wheels.

The investigation concluded that the most likely source of the infection was the Meals on Wheels kitchen in Chanute, but enough data to pinpoint a more specific source could not be obtained.

Blue Bell Ice Cream Linked to 3 Deaths of Hospitalized Patients

Blue Bell ice cream is being linked to 3 deaths and 2 other illnesses that occurred in one Kansas hospital and over the course of one year.  The patients were not hopitalized for Listeria but came into contact it while there at the hospital.  All were older patients.  While the patients were infected with one of four strains, 3 of the strains have been found in product samples by South Carolina Dept of Health during routine testing.  After investigating the facility, Texas Department of Health collected samples from the manufacturing facility and found the organisms in the same products.

A later news report stated that officials said that Listeria may be a factor and that four of the five ate milkshakes made with the ice cream. Interesting.

So a few things to note.
1) To date, this is the only setting that had an outbreak.  Why one hospital?
2) Was product handled by the hospital?  It would appear so that milkshakes were made from the ice cream.

So while it is yet to be determined, if you had to guess, could it be that indeed the Listeria was present in the ice cream, but the fact that milkshakes were served, could indicate that though handling and preparation, the organism was able to grow to a higher level within the milkshake during preparation and handling.  Could it be that the patients left the milkshake warm up before eating, or ate it over the period of a day.  So this served as amplification step?  Perhaps this is why we didn't see any cases associated with frozen treats?  You are not going to eat them after they melted.  Of course this is all hard to tell based upon the limited information provided in the news reports.

KRQE News 13
http://krqe.com/ap/officials-listeriosis-not-cause-of-3-deaths-may-be-factor-2/
Officials: Listeriosis not cause of 3 deaths, may be factor
By HEATHER HOLLINGSWORTH and JUAN A. LOZANO, The Associated Press Published: March 14, 2015, 5:19 pm Updated: March 14, 2015, 5:19 pm

KANSAS CITY, Missouri (AP) — A foodborne illness linked to some ice cream products might have been a contributing factor in the deaths of three hospital patients in Kansas, health officials said Saturday.

But listeriosis didn’t cause the deaths, according to Kansas Department of Health and Environment spokeswoman Sara Belfry.

Officials have not released the names of the five patients at Via Christi St. Francis hospital in Wichita, Kansas, who developed listeriosis in after eating products from one production line at the Blue Bell creamery in Brenham, Texas.

But the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said the five individuals were older adults and three of them are women. The CDC did not specify the gender of those patients who died.

Reusable Plastic Containers - Best Practices Guide

 The Reusable Packaging Association (RPA) released a best practices guide for safe use of reusable plastic containers (RPCs).   Reusable containers have become a integral part of the food supply chain, and like other tools/equipment used in the food chain, they can impact food safety.   It is silly to argue this even if there haven't been any outbreaks of illness that have pinpointed the returnable containers as responsible.  Studies have shown that contamination can be carried by the containers, and thus, it can serve as a source of contamination.

So expanding a little on a few keys from this guideline:

• Risk analysis - as part of a HACCP or HARPC analysis, what impact would contamination on the containers have.  Is the food carried in the containers destined for the processing line or is it RTE.  But even if the item is to be processed, contamination by spoilage organisms also needs to be considered.
• Clean - With food items where there is higher risk, whether that be pathogens or spoilage organisms, cleaning is probably necessary.   And this is where there may be an issue....cleaning is not easy.  Equipment that automatically cleans may be expensive, and doing it manually can be a challenge.  But the basics of cleaning for food contact surfaces still apply - remove the solids, clean with an appropriate cleaner, rinse, sanitize, air dry.
• Cover - Once cleaned, that surface can be contaminated if not protected, during both storage and shipping.  Storing in a covered storage area or shipping in a closed trailer to prevent those aerial poop bombers (birds) may be necessary.  Wrapping in plastic may also be necessary.
• Verify - Is cleaning and protective measures for shipping and storage adequate.  Visual observation is important, but microbiological testing can  tell if the sanitation process really works.  Swab testing for APCs may be enough, but sponge sampling for pathogens may also be needed.
• Usage - traceability is important, so follow the accepted practice for labeling the RPCs.

If using RPCs, it needs to be included in your food safety plan.  This guide will give you some...guidance for writing SOPs.


Reusable Packaging Association
http://reusables.org/4613/general/rpa-guidelines-and-best-practices-for-the-safe-use-of-returnable-containers-in-food-supply-chains
RPA Guidelines and Best Practices for the Safe Use of Returnable Containers in Food Supply Chains

The RPA Guidelines and Best Practices for the Safe Use of Returnable Containers in Food Supply Chains was created by the Reusable Packaging Association (RPA) to collectively insure a safe and wholesome food supply chain by users and suppliers of reusable containers. To learn more read RPA Best Practices Guide_FINAL and RPA Guidelines_ FAQs_FINAL