FSnet June 23/08
SEATTLE: Raw milk: Should the state ban it? Or drink
it up?
BLOG:
Raw milk drinkers organize
PENNSYLVANIA: State, dairy disagree on raw milk
NORTH
CAROLINA: Salmonella outbreak linked to diner in
Marion
DNR
closes oyster harvest on GEROGIA coast
RUSSIA: 60 people have trichinellosis in Tomsk
SKOREAN clashes despite new deal on US beef
UK:
Consumers give their views on eating out
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SEATTLE: Raw milk: Should the state ban it? Or drink
it up?
23.jun.08
Seattle P-I
Andrew Schneider
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/368035_rawmilk23.html
http://barfblog.foodsafety.ksu.edu/2008/06/articles/raw-milk/raw-milk-should-the-state-ban-it-or-drink-it-up/index.html
Consumers almost always link arms with government
public health agencies banning the sale of food
believed to contain dangerous pathogens. But that
spirit appears to vaporize when the consumable is
raw milk.
From coast to coast, the controversy sizzles with
almost identical arguments. The infectious-disease
community insists that unpasteurized milk can
contain E. coli, campylobacter, brucella, listeria,
salmonella and other bugs that can cause disease and
sometimes death, and thus it should not be marketed.
On the other side of the barricades, some parents
and natural food activists who want to know where
their food comes from are adamant that
pasteurization -- cooking the milk to at least a
bug-killing 160 degrees -- lessens the nutritional
benefits of milk, and that the government is
assaulting personal rights when it decides what
parents can feed their children or eat themselves.
In 26 states, raw milk can't be legally sold. But in
the rest of country, including Washington state,
it's permitted, at least for the moment and to
varying degrees.
Jay Gordon, executive director of the Washington
State Dairy Association, was quoted as saying, "The
entire issue of raw milk is a mixture of
controversy, passion and emotion. Some believe that
pasteurized milk is a government conspiracy, like
fluoride in (drinking) water.”
Although the number of cases nationwide is low,
contaminated raw milk can contain a strain of E.
coli that sometimes causes hemolytic uremic
syndrome, a life-threatening complication that can
cause kidney failure and death.
It took a 2005 outbreak of E. coli in raw milk that
sickened 18 people in Washington and Oregon and put
two children on life support to get all the players
-- the dairy and raw milk communities, lawmakers,
the state agriculture and health departments --
together to try to figure out what to do, Gordon
said.
Last week, the owners of the dairy that sold the
tainted milk, Michael and Anita Puckett, pleaded
guilty in federal court in Seattle to the charge of
distributing adulterated food. They sold
unpasteurized milk to 45 families who had bought
shares of Sorrell, Daisy, Glory, Libby and Pepper,
the Woodland dairy's five cows.
Claudia Coles, food safety manager for the state
Department of Agriculture, agreed that something had
to done, that "in these outbreaks, it is almost
always the children that become the victims."
The state's options for trying to control the sale
of raw milk products were limited. In other states
where it was banned completely, a black market
flourished. So the question facing regulators is
whether public health is better protected by
regulating, testing, licensing and inspecting the
raw milk or just by banning it so it goes
underground with no oversight.
They agreed to license raw milk and require many of
the same testing and inspections and standards
required of commercial, pasteurized dairy
operations, Gordon said. They also added severe
penalties for breaking the rules.
"If they're selling milk -- bartering, trading,
sharing -- anything in commerce and they're not
licensed, they get a warning. If they state catches
them again, it's a stiff fine and jail time," Gordon
said.
The law also requires that all raw milk carry the
warning: "This product has not been pasteurized and
may contain harmful bacteria. Pregnant women,
children, the elderly and persons with lowered
resistance have the highest risk of harm from use of
this product."
Doug Powell says he's not surprised that government
health officials denounce the dangers of raw milk
then turn around and license the sale of the same
milk.
"In part, it's because of the almost evangelical way
people talk about raw milk and that America is
founded on consumer choice," said the associate
professor of food safety at Kansas State University.
"The numbers of illnesses from outbreaks caused by
unpasteurized milk are not that high. You could very
easily make the cases that 'Wow, maybe tomatoes
should be regulated a whole lot more than we do now
because the numbers of cases of salmonella saintpaul
are up to 550 now,' " said Powell, who is also
scientific director for the International Food
Safety Network.
Powell is correct -- the Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention reports that from 1998 to last year,
there were only 39 outbreaks in which raw milk or
cheese made from it were implicated. About 830
people were sickened, 66 hospitalized and one died.
"I don't care if people drink raw milk. What I'm
particularly concerned about is them then imposing
their choice on their kids, because they're the ones
who get sick.
"People have the right to sell a product, but if it
makes people sick, they have a right to sue."
Seattle food safety lawyer Bill Marler is up to his
neck in many of those lawsuits. He grew up drinking
raw milk on the farm "because that's what my dad
wanted us to do," he said. He has tried injury suits
stemming from most of Washington's raw milk
outbreaks and is now handling similar cases in
California and Missouri.
"The entire raw milk debate is so emotionally
charged that there's no common ground at all,"
Marler said. "The reality is if you poison a little
child by selling a product that could easily be
pasteurized, you're going to have to deal with the
legal issues surrounding that," he said.
So why do major groceries like Whole Foods and PCC
Markets take the risk to sell it?
The customer demand for it is "overwhelming and
growing dramatically," said Trudy Bialic PCC's
public affairs director.
PCC sold raw milk in the 1990s, stopped, began again
a few years ago, stopped and is now about to start
selling it again, she said, adding that the key is
the "careful selection of the right dairy, one that
is meticulous in its cleanliness and using the
safest practices."
BLOG:
Raw milk drinkers organize
21.jun.08
Fresnobee News Blog
EJ Schultz
http://www.fresnobeehive.com/news/2008/06/raw_milk_drinkers_organize.html
They call themselves Crema, for California Real Milk
Association. It's a brand new consumer group touting
the benefits of raw milk. Their leader is Christine
Chessen. Chessen, who grew up in Fresno and now
lives in San Francisco, started feeding her three
kids raw milk about a year ago and says they made it
through last winter without getting sick. Such
testimonials are common among raw-milk drinkers --
and evident in the Internet video below that Chessen
helped produce.
PENNSYLVANIA: State, dairy disagree on raw milk
22.jun.08
York Daily Record
Jeff Frantz
http://ydr.inyork.com/ci_9661542
On June 12, Glendora Stump, a co-owner of Stump
Acres Dairy sold raw milk to an unidentified
Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture employee.
Second, Stump Acres did not have a permit to sell
raw milk and has not had one since 2007.
Department spokesman Chris Ryder was cited as saying
the department employee stopped at Stump Dairy after
seeing a large sign on Arnold Road saying the dairy
sold raw milk. The employee knew the North Codorus
Township dairy did not have a permit, Ryder said, so
he stopped and asked to buy raw milk, which Glendora
Stump sold him.
That raw milk later tested positive for harmful
bacteria.
Glendora Stump said the sign on Arnold Road is
outdated, a relic from the 40 years when the farm
derived most of its income from raw milk. Since its
permit was revoked in 2007, she said, the dairy has
given raw milk to family members and close friends.
She said the gallon of milk she sold to the employee
was the only the dairy has sold in the last year,
and she's not sure why she sold it, stating, "I
guess I was in a good mood. If he wanted a gallon of
milk, I guess I'll just sell it to him."
The state has been trying to shut the dairy down
since Feb. 7, 2007, when it first revoked the
permit, Stump said. The close surveillance on the
dairy is part of a statewide effort to curtail
raw-milk production, Stump said.
She suspects Stump Acres is a target because of its
size and because her family's activity in the
state's raw milk association.
Had the employee just asked for the milk so it could
be tested earlier in the month, Stump said, she just
would have given it to him. The fact that he didn't
identify himself when asking to buy it was
entrapment.
The state disagrees.
"The employee saw the sign that said they were
selling raw milk and he knew they didn't have a
permit, so he stopped in and bought it," Ryder said.
"I'm not an attorney, but in my understanding, that
is a far cry from entrapment."
The citation for selling raw milk without a permit
carries a maximum fine of $300, Ryder said. If the
dairy continued selling raw milk after the
injunction against it, it could be held in contempt
of court.
The sample purchased by the employee tested positive
for Listeria Monocytogenes in preliminary tests.
Final test results will be available Monday.
Listeria Monocytogenes is one of the four main
pathogens the department tests for in raw milk. It
can cause flulike symptoms, confusion, loss of
balance and convulsions.
The bacteria can also cause miscarriages and
stillbirths in pregnant women, Ryder said.
Glendora Stump said the department's test for
pathogens is overly sensitive, and a dairy can fail
for levels that are not harmful. The dairy is
independently tested the first and third Tuesday of
every month, Stump said, and they have not tested
positive.
"How come we don't get sick?" Stump said. "We drink
milk from every container."
NORTH
CAROLINA: Salmonella outbreak linked to diner in
Marion
23.jun.08
Joel Burgess
Asheville Citizen-Times
http://www.citizen-times.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2008806230301
http://barfblog.foodsafety.ksu.edu/2008/06/articles/food-safety-communication/tips-for-buying-fresh-produce-ask-hope-pray/index.html
MARION -- Buck Wilson, Rutherford-Polk-McDowell
District Health Department director, was cited as
saying on Sunday that five people who got sick from
the bacteria salmonella this month ate at the same
McDowell County restaurant, O'Dear's Country Diner
on U.S. 221 in Marion, North Carolina.
Officials are still investigating what was behind
the local outbreak, but they said it wasn't from
people eating tainted tomatoes at the diner, which
is owned by Lois O'Dear.
"It's not tomatoes in her restaurant. She got her
tomatoes from suppliers who got tomatoes from a safe
zone that was marked by the (U.S. Department of
Agriculture)," Wilson said.
O'Dear voluntarily closed the diner Thursday, the
director said. She cleaned it Saturday under the
supervision of health department specialists,
throwing out foods that could have carried the
bacteria. She planned to reopen this morning with
health officials' blessing.
"She has the cleanest restaurant in town," Wilson
said.
Marion restaurant owner Bob Gaddy said he had not
heard about the salmonella problems. He and his
brother, Mack, have run Harvest Drive-In for 35
years. Like O'Dear, Gaddy makes a point of buying
tomatoes and produce from somewhere he thinks is
safe, but said it's tough to know.
"You ask. But you also hope and pray," he said.
DNR
closes oyster harvest on GEROGIA coast
22.jun.08
Associated Press
http://www.macon.com/220/story/385291.html
BRUNSWICK, Ga. -- Oyster harvesting on Georgia's
coast is off limits for three months to protect
people eating the shellfish from bacteria sometimes
found in warm summer waters.
The state Department of Natural Resources says the
ban on commercial and recreational harvesting
started Friday and continues until October.
Dominic Guadagnoli, the DNR's shellfish program
manager, says Vibrio parahaemolyticus (Vp) bacteria
is found in filter-feeding shellfish when estuarine
water temperatures exceed 81 degrees.
RUSSIA: 60 people have trichinellosis in Tomsk
17.jun.08
Medportal
Medportal
http://www.medportal.ru/mednovosti/news/2008/06/17/trichinosis/
60 people have trichinellosis in Tomsk (Molodejniy
Kargasokskiy district) after eating meat from a
_Trichinella_-infected bear. It is the 1st time a
mass outbreak of trichinellosis has been registered
in Tomsk. The bear was illegally shot and
slaughtered without proper veterinary inspection. A
veterinarian and a local police officer are among
the infected people.
SKOREAN clashes despite new deal on US beef
21.jun.08
AFP
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5hGz4cvugK-kXIAO1YNQgeodg8qTA
SEOUL -- Police and protesters clashed at an anti-US
beef rally here Sunday as Seoul's announcement on
extra health safeguards failed to immediately calm
South Koreans' fears over mad cow disease.
The violence erupted as thousands of people who had
held a candle-lit vigil overnight tried to break
through lines of police buses which prevented them
from marching on downtown Seoul.
Hundreds of angry demonstrators pulled one police
bus away from the barricade, smashed its windows and
let down tyres on other security vehicles.
Riot police on the bus were briefly detained by
rioters as fights broke out and police discharged
hand-held fire extinguishers at violent protesters
wielding flag poles.
Dozens of people were injured, according to police
and witnesses. A Seoul police spokesman told AFP
that 12 protesters were arrested, including a
31-year-old man for attempted arson.
Police said 10,000 people took part in the vigil,
though protest organisers put the estimate at
60,000.
UK:
Consumers give their views on eating out
22.jun.08
Food Standards Agency
http://www.food.gov.uk/news/newsarchive/2008/jun/eatout
The Food Standards Agency has today published a
survey of more than 2,000 people across the UK that
provides a snapshot of what consumers want when they
eat out. The questions will help the Agency to
develop more in-depth research to inform future
activity in this area and were posed as part of an
omnibus survey.
The findings show that 85% of people agreed with the
statement that restaurants, pubs and cafes have a
responsibility to make it clear what is in the food
they serve. In addition, when asked where
respondents would expect to see nutritional
information for it to be most useful, 81% of people
said they would like to see it at the point when
they order food, such as on the menu in a
restaurant, or visible when they are buying a
sandwich or a muffin in a coffee shop or cafe. In
contrast, only 2% of respondents said they would
find it useful on company websites.
We know there is variation around whether people
want the food they eat out to be changed and whether
they want information about what is in it at all.
When given various options, overall 63% of people
said they would like information about what is in
their food when they eat out – 41% wanted
information and food to be made healthier by
catering establishments, while 22% wanted food to
remain the same but wanted nutrition information
about it.
‘Mums are the gatekeepers when it comes to
choosing food for their family and the information
that's available when eating out should be the same
as in the retail environment’
FSA Chief Executive Tim Smith said: 'When we buy
food from a retail outlet, it’s very clear from
the packet what’s in the food and we then have
control how much salt and fat we add at home. When
we eat out, we are asked to suspend any interest in
nutritional content of food as the information isn't
universally available.
'We know that some companies are already doing a
really good job and they are getting behind us with
this work. Some of this work isn't as visible and we
know companies are starting from different points
and we're actively working with different parts of
the industry to achieve more progress. There is no
reason why I shouldn’t see the same information,
perhaps presented in a different way, when I eat out
of home than when I shop for food in a supermarket.
'Mums are the gatekeepers when it comes to choosing
food for their family and the information that's
available when eating out should be the same as in
the retail environment, when choice is governed by
range, price and good nutritional information. When
she goes to a restaurant, she wants the same quality
of information to help steer choices for her kids.
Having that choice gives parents reassurance that
they're managing, in an appropriate way, the food
their children eat.'
The Agency's approach
The Agency is working to encourage as many catering
companies as possible to provide healthier meals. We
are in discussion with a range of quick service and
family dining restaurants, cafes, sandwich shops and
pub chains so that this part of the industry
participates in the Agency's salt and saturated fat
activity. We recognise the diversity in the catering
sector means that a one-size-fits-all approach is
not appropriate and are developing a practical
approach that is suitable for a variety of
businesses. We are encouraging companies to make
commitments to improvements in these areas:
* procurement
* kitchen practice
* menu planning
* consumer information
We also plan to work with businesses in the sector
and other stakeholders to develop recommendations on
provision of nutrition information. These
recommendations will be based on consumer research
and may be different to multiple traffic light and
Guideline Daily Amount approaches that have worked
well in the retail environment.
FSnet is produced
by the International Food Safety Network at Kansas
State University, and is supported at the Gold Fork
level by: Marler Clark.
FSnet is supported at the Sterling Fork level by:
Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Ontario Cattlemen's
Association, Food and Rural Affairs, New Zealand
Food Safety Authority.
FSnet is supported at the Silver-plate Fork level
by: The National Restaurant Association, Sholl
Group/Green Giant Fresh, Feedlot Health Management
Services, McDonald's, Syngenta Crop Protection
Canada.
The Food Safety Network presents a unique
opportunity to bring together all those associated
with agriculture and food, to enhance the safety of
the food supply. To provide financial support to the
Food Safety Network, please visit http://www.foodsafety.ksu.edu/en/donations.php.
For information on collaboration or fee-for-service
opportunities, please contact Dr. Doug Powell:
dpowell@ksu.edu
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